Chapter 61

A trace of astonishment crossed Qin Qingzhuo’s face, almost unsure how to react.

Before this moment, he had never imagined that the person Jiang Ji was talking about was actually himself.

Memories surged forth like bubbles rising to the surface of a shaken bottle of soda, the long-forgotten summer night from ten years ago, now emerging with faint, fragmented bursts.

Ten years ago, in Runcheng, with that guitar and that boy… It was a memory too distant.

At the age of nineteen, Qin Qingzhuo had not yet officially debuted. He had only released a few original songs on his music page, attracting a small group of fans, but fame was still far away.

Majoring in cello was quite dull; every day was either practicing or studying various classical music genres and music theory. So during his freshman year, he lived a simple and ascetic life.

As the final exams approached, the pressure from his major professors intensified, and Qin Qingzhuo’s rebellious thoughts grew stronger.

So when the invitation to the Runcheng Music Festival came, he didn’t even look at his schedule. Without thinking, he agreed to the invitation. If he didn’t go out and have some fun to let off steam, he felt he would go crazy.

His good friend, Duan Chong, was studying arts management at the time. During that period, he suddenly became obsessed with the hairdressing business, eagerly dyeing his hair in various extravagant colors. From a distance, he looked like a colorful rooster. Fortunately, he had a decent appearance, and up close, he could barely pass for a handsome rooster.

When he learned that Qin Qingzhuo was going to perform at the music festival, he insisted on using all his skills to give Qin Qingzhuo a suitable hair color for the performance. Despite Qin Qingzhuo’s several attempts to decline, he finally had to give in. Unexpectedly, Uncle Qiao’s performance that time exceeded expectations. After a series of bizarre coloring operations, he actually dyed Qin Qingzhuo’s hair into a quite beautiful gray-blue color, which was a peak achievement for Uncle Qiao’s hairdressing career—As for it fading into green after a wash, that’s another story.

Although this gray-blue color was quite beautiful, it was still a bit striking. Qin Qingzhuo wore a baseball cap before setting out.

Runcheng was not too far from Yancheng. It took four hours by high-speed train. After getting off the train, there was still some time before the performance started. Qin Qingzhuo rented a convertible sports car and drove around the old city area nearby.

Passing by a music store, he caught a glimpse of a guitar displayed in the window, red and quite beautiful. So he parked the car, got out, and walked into the shop.

At the entrance, a boy was squatting there, lightly strumming an old guitar leaning against the door. Although it wasn’t a complete song, it played a very light rhythm.

This scene made Qin Qingzhuo feel a bit cute, so he couldn’t help but take a few more glances when he walked in.

The salesperson warmly greeted him and asked what kind of guitar he needed.

“Just looking at guitars,” Qin Qingzhuo said, stepping into the shop.

Actually, Qin Qingzhuo didn’t lack guitars. If he liked the guitars at Uncle Qiao’s place, he could take them with just a word, and Tang Shu was a famous guitar maker. No matter what kind of guitar he wanted, as long as he made a request, Tang Shu could make it for him.

This time in Runcheng, he brought a guitar from Uncle Qiao, brand new, personally made by Tang Shu.

Walking into the store, Qin Qingzhuo looked at the guitar. Although the craftsmanship was not as fine as the guitars made by Tang Shu, the design was quite unique, and he liked the red glaze. The salesperson took it down for him to try the sound, and although the tone was not stunning, it was still acceptable.

This guitar was priced at thirty thousand yuan, definitely taking advantage of the buyer.

But unable to resist his fondness for it, Qin Qingzhuo wasn’t good at bargaining, so he willingly became the sucker.

As he walked to the counter, about to take out his card to pay, there suddenly came a loud shout from the door, “Who f*ckin let you touch this guitar?!”

He turned back at the sound, at the entrance of the music store, the boy who had been squatting there playing the guitar was kicked down a few steps, and the one who kicked him was a burly man, standing on the steps above, looking down at him.

Perhaps because he fell too hard, the boy who looked to be only eight or nine years old was still propped up on the ground, his brows tightly furrowed as if enduring pain, and he couldn’t stand up for quite a while.

However, the man refused to give up. He walked down the steps and kicked the boy several times heavily, saying, “How many times have I f*ckin told you, don’t touch my guitar! My business has been bad lately all because of your bad luck!”

The salesperson glanced towards the door, frowned, and muttered, “What’s he up to again,” seeming accustomed to such scenes.

However, Qin Qingzhuo couldn’t just stand by. He said, “Wait here,” put away his wallet, and quickly walked out of the music store.

Walking down a few steps, he bent down to help the boy up, frowned and looked at the man, “What’s going on?”

“What’s going on? This f*ckin kid is a thief,” the man said disgustingly, “Always thinking about how to steal my guitar, can’t keep his hands off it, itching to touch it every day! A rotten apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!”

“Is that guitar?” Qin Qingzhuo glanced at the old guitar leaning against the door, then looked at the man in front of him, “Are you the owner of this music store?”

“What’s it to you?” the man looked at him, “Do you know this brat?”

Qin Qingzhuo ignored his question, “That guitar of yours, when I first came in, I thought it was just a worthless old guitar.”

“What do you mean?” The man’s expression turned sour, but considering Qin Qingzhuo was a customer who had just come out of the store, his tone was still relatively calm, “If you don’t know him, don’t meddle in this matter. You don’t understand the situation. His father is not a good person, swindled a large sum of money from others, now who knows where he’s hiding, the house has been sealed by the court, if I don’t educate this brat well, he’ll grow up just like his father, a jailbird.”

“Just touching your old guitar once, how does that relate to going to jail?” Qin Qingzhuo felt angry. He stood straight, his brows furrowing even tighter, and his tone became even more rude, “Taking it out on a kid, still talking about righteousness and morality, you scum will end up in jail sooner or later.”

“You…” The man clenched his fists, seeming to want to punch Qin Qingzhuo, but in the end, he didn’t dare to do anything—Qin Qingzhuo was over 1.8 meters tall, with a flamboyant hair color, and at the moment, his face was stern and cold, looking not easy to mess with.

More importantly, the red sports car he drove was quite expensive, making it impossible to judge his background.

So the man could only glare at him, but dared not throw a punch.

“Useless person who bullies the weak and fears the strong,” Qin Qingzhuo cursed, then bent down to take the boy’s hand and said gently, “Let’s go.”

The salesperson in the store followed quickly to the door, “Sir, about this guitar…”

“Don’t need it,” Qin Qingzhuo’s tone was not good, “I won’t buy a guitar from a scumbag.”

Leading the boy to the side of the car, Qin Qingzhuo squatted down to check the wounds on his body.

There were no visible injuries on his face, fair and clean, with well-defined features. He was a very handsome boy, and he looked like a pampered young master, standing straight with a hint of pride even after being beaten up. He had nothing to do with the “jailbird” described by the man just now.

Qin Qingzhuo gently turned the boy’s thin elbow over to look. Apart from the large bloodstain just scraped out, there were many old scabbed wounds. What exactly had this boy been through?

“Does it hurt?” Qin Qingzhuo asked softly.

The boy didn’t look at him from start to finish, his eyes fixed on the ground, shaking his head, and exerting a little force to pull his arm out of Qin Qingzhuo’s hand, refusing his kindness.

Qin Qingzhuo noticed that his knees were also injured, the pants were worn out by the concrete road surface, blood seeping through the fabric, making Qin Qingzhuo unwilling to look closely.

“Do you play the guitar?” Qin Qingzhuo asked him gently again.

“No,” the boy said without much tone, sounding a bit indifferent.

“Do you like the guitar then?”

“No.”

“Then… why did you touch that guitar?”

“I can’t help it.”

Qin Qingzhuo felt quite uncomfortable. When he first entered the music store, he noticed the boy’s careful movements when plucking the strings, as if he was afraid of damaging it. However, it was just an old guitar scrapped by the store. Judging from the few notes he plucked, that guitar was already severely out of tune.

Apart from this boy, probably no one would treat that old guitar so carefully and cherished.

He suddenly wanted to buy a guitar for this boy, but the attitude of the store owner made him unwilling to step into the store again, let alone give him business for free.

He could take him to another music store, but he didn’t have much time. He originally planned to buy this guitar and rush to the music festival. If he delayed too long, it might affect the performance.

After thinking about it, he could only say, “Let me take you to a clinic to bandage your wounds.”

Unexpectedly, the boy shook his head politely and distantly said, “Thank you, it’s not necessary.”

After saying that, he took a step back, “I have to go.”

Qin Qingzhuo raised his hand to stop him, but the boy had already turned around and ran away.

He ran very fast, and in a few seconds, he ran far away. It was estimated that because his knees were injured, when he reached the end of the alley, he stumbled for a moment, turned his head, and looked at Qin Qingzhuo.

Qin Qingzhuo stood up straight, looking at him from afar. The boy didn’t say anything and turned his face away the next second, turning into the alley.

Qin Qingzhuo sighed and didn’t chase after him—chasing probably wouldn’t help; this boy seemed quite stubborn.

The performance that night was very successful. Qin Qingzhuo sang three songs on stage and enjoyed himself.

He liked the feeling of singing on stage, perhaps it was more than just liking, it was infatuation.

He was infatuated with the emotions and atmosphere created by voices and instruments together, as if through music, he could temporarily pull everyone into a safe and closed space.

What surprised him was that before he set off, he casually mentioned the performance on his music page, and unexpectedly, many people came to see this performance in Run City especially for him.

After coming down from the stage, a band came to him for a drink. If it were in the past, Qin Qingzhuo would have definitely agreed, but tonight he declined.

The boy he met in the evening kept appearing in his mind, making him feel a bit uncomfortable.

A boy who treated an old guitar so carefully, how could he be kicked out so rudely by someone… Was he okay? Would he dislike guitars in the future? Was he often bullied like this?

A series of questions lingered in Qin Qingzhuo’s mind, and he made a decision—he wanted to go back and find that boy, to give him a guitar.

Driving away from the music festival, he looked for several music stores along the way, but it was too late, and most of the stores had already closed.

Finally encountering a store that was still open, he went in and looked around, but couldn’t find a guitar that caught his eye.

He drove around the area near the music store until evening, but still couldn’t find a suitable guitar.

Thinking he might as well give up, even if he bought one, he might not encounter that boy again. After all, after what happened in the afternoon, that boy probably wouldn’t wander near the music store again, and he didn’t know where he lived.

Unexpectedly, after turning a few corners, he saw the boy sitting on the stone steps, staring blankly at something.

It was really a coincidence. For a moment, Qin Qingzhuo felt both surprised and delighted.

This place looked like an abandoned, soon-to-be-demolished old street, with not a single street lamp.

He drove a little further and stopped in front of the boy.

After parking the car, he got out and picked up the guitar placed in the passenger seat.

—Just give him this guitar.

Although he himself had hardly played this guitar a few times, he felt a little reluctant to give it away. After all, he really liked the tone of this guitar, which was clearer than most guitars.

However, he had countless guitars at home, and he was fickle. He liked one today and another tomorrow. Instead of leaving it to compete with other guitars, it was better to give it to someone who could cherish it.

Approaching the boy with the guitar in hand, Qin Qingzhuo climbed the steps and sat down beside him. “It’s so late, why are you still outside?”

The boy pursed his lips and didn’t speak, his mouth slightly downturned, showing a bit of stubbornness.

Since he didn’t speak, Qin Qingzhuo didn’t intend to press for an answer. Just as he was about to bring up something else, the boy spoke up, “I’m waiting for my mom to get off work. It’s not safe here.”

“So you’re protecting your mom?” Qin Qingzhuo chuckled.

The boy murmured a “Mmh” and then turned to look at him. “Why did you come back?”

“Came back to find you,” Qin Qingzhuo took the guitar and handed it to him, “This guitar is for you.”

A hint of surprise flashed across the boy’s face, but quickly, he shook his head, “I don’t want it.”

“Don’t you want to take a look? It’s much nicer than the one you touched this afternoon. It’s black and very cool,” Qin Qingzhuo opened the guitar case and took out the guitar, “Isn’t it?”

The boy looked at the guitar for a while before nodding.

“The sound is also better,” Qin Qingzhuo smiled, “Come on, give it a try?”

The boy shook his head again.

Thinking of what he had witnessed in the evening, Qin Qingzhuo reached out and took his hand, holding his fingertips and plucking the strings a few times, “Is it nice?”

After a moment of silence, the boy murmured a low “Mmh.”

“I noticed your fingers are quite long, very suitable for playing the guitar,” Qin Qingzhuo recalled the brief rhythm he played at the door. “Have you learned before?”

“No,” the boy said softly after a pause. “My dad promised me that after my birthday this year, he would let me learn the guitar…”

There was a hint of sadness in his tone. Qin Qingzhuo remembered the words the store owner said about his dad, and he raised his hand, patting the boy’s hair. “It’s okay, brother will teach you how to play a melody with this guitar. It’s very simple, I’ll teach you everything.”

The boy pursed his lips and remained silent.

Qin Qingzhuo picked up the guitar. “Let me play it for you first, and if you like it, we’ll learn. If not, we won’t, okay?”

After saying that, he lowered his head and gently plucked the guitar strings.

A light and lively melody flowed out, illuminating the seemingly endless dark night for a moment.

Sitting beside him, Jiang Ji felt his mood improve slightly. With Jiang Keyuan missing for half a year, he had almost forgotten what it felt like to relax.

He turned to look at the big brother sitting beside him. He hadn’t really looked at him properly since evening—over the past six months, he had been deliberately avoiding the gaze of others because he hated the pitying looks, whether they were well-intentioned or malicious, he didn’t like them at all.

But this person… seemed a bit different, Jiang Ji thought.

Although he wore a baseball cap that shadowed most of his face, Jiang Ji couldn’t see his features clearly.

When the guitar stopped playing, those eyes looked over, forming a beautiful curve. “Did you like it?”

Jiang Ji softly murmured a “Mmh.”

“Then I’ll teach you how to play, okay?”

Although he usually resisted accepting others’ kindness, this time, Jiang Ji nodded as if he were compelled by some unseen force. “Okay.”