“Why are you staring blankly while eating?”

Zhao Wu picked up a piece of beef and put it in Sheng Xia’s bowl, “Look at what kind of state you’ve turned yourself into during your vacation? Riding a bike to the seaside without sunscreen? And you got a fever? Even if you have a fever, you didn’t tell Mom…”

“Men don’t need sunscreen.” Sheng Xia pushed the beef to the side and said absentmindedly, “I told you it’s not a serious fever, taking some medicine will be fine.”

“Hurry up and eat, after eating, I’ll take you to the hospital.” Zhao Wu frowned, “Don’t go out this afternoon, I’ll take you to have dinner at Uncle’s house, we’ll have to rely on him in the future when you go to school.”

“I made an appointment with… a classmate this afternoon,” Sheng Xia lied without changing his expression, “Let’s go another day, the results won’t be out until tomorrow, right? My classmate is going to take an exam, I’ll accompany him to practice the piano.”

“Is your classmate’s matter more important or your own matter?” Sheng Xia’s mind was full of where Shi Ye had gone, completely unaware of Zhao Wu’s strange emotions. He answered foolishly, “Mom, when you came back this morning, did you really not see a tall guy carrying a guitar?”

Zhao Wu looked at Sheng Xia sternly for a moment before saying, “Eat!”

Sheng Xia sighed, “I’m not eating anymore.”

He put down the bowl, intending to slip away directly, but then he saw two opened pomegranates in the fruit plate next to him. They should have been brought back by Zhao Wu from outside, looking fresh, with the pomegranate seeds inside all blood-red, as beautiful as gemstones.

He picked up a big one and held it in his hand before saying to Zhao Wu, “I’m going to find my classmate.”

Zhao Wu endured for a while before she couldn’t hold back her anger. She felt that she also needed to calm down, so she could only watch Sheng Xia take some fever-reducing medicine and ask him to come back early.

Sheng Xia spent a whole day looking for Shi Ye in the ancient city with a pomegranate in his hand.

He asked Xie Hong for Shi Ye’s phone number, but couldn’t get through. He knew of a few guesthouses in the ancient city, so he went to each one.

When he woke up in the morning, he felt a little confused, as if he had dreamt. Upon careful consideration, he felt that the experiences of these few days were like a dream. After waking up from the dream, Shi Ye was gone, leaving nothing behind.

Did he leave?

He didn’t know why he wanted to find him, if he could find him, and what he would say when he found him. The noon sunlight was dim, and after taking the medicine, he felt particularly sleepy, so he only searched a few places before feeling tired.

He found a shady place and sat down with his legs crossed, taking out his notebook from his bag.

It had gotten wet from the rain that day, the paper was all wrinkled, and the writing was almost illegible. Flipping to the page he had written on the bus that day, it was a song that wasn’t finished, and he hadn’t even thought of a name for it.

Sheng Xia looked at the sunlight, thought for a moment, and inexplicably wrote the word “Dizzy” at the beginning.

After writing it, he felt even dizzier. Leaning against the wall, he suddenly felt a little aggrieved. He didn’t know what he had done wrong to make Shi Ye unhappy, maybe something else had happened… but Shi Ye just left without a word.

He was immersed in his thoughts, melodies and notes jumping in his mind, and he began to record what he was thinking. The more he wrote, the faster he wrote, the more uncomfortable he felt. Halfway through, he suddenly got stuck, because the notes on the notebook couldn’t be connected anymore, and he had actually written “Beijing” where he should have written “C major.”

He stared at the word “Beijing” he had written, feeling like his soul had left his body.

And then the next moment, a figure suddenly appeared in front of him.

At first, Sheng Xia didn’t notice at all. He was still staring blankly at his notebook. The person waiting got impatient and reached out to flick his ear, snapping him out of his daze.

In front of him, Shi Ye wore a mask, frowning as he looked at him.

Sheng Xia was startled and quickly closed his notebook. “Teacher Shi Ye!”

Shi Ye silently looked at Sheng Xia for a moment before speaking in a calm tone. “I want to ask for directions. Do you know where there’s a music store in the ancient city?”

Sheng Xia was taken aback.

After a moment of hesitation, he picked up his belongings and said, “Yes, I’ll take you there, Teacher Shi Ye.”

Shi Ye stared at Sheng Xia intently, unmoving, and asked, “Were you looking for me earlier?”

Sheng Xia nodded. “Yes.”

“What for?”

Sheng Xia hesitated for a moment, then noticed the pomegranate in his hand and said, “…I wanted to give you a pomegranate.”

“Why give me a pomegranate?”

“Just wanted to.” Sheng Xia paused. “I don’t know.”

Shi Ye continued to stare at Sheng Xia, then asked nervously again, “What were you looking for me for?”

Sheng Xia was taken aback. He couldn’t see Shi Ye’s expression under the mask.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know anything, yet you were looking for me.” Shi Ye’s tone remained calm. “I’m not from here, I can leave anytime. Today, tomorrow, right now. I’m not anyone to you, so what’s the point of looking for me? If I hadn’t coincidentally run into you, would you still be looking for me? Today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow?”

Sheng Xia hesitated before saying, “Yes, I would.”

“And if you couldn’t find me?”

“…Still look.”

“Stupid.” Shi Ye sneered.

Shi Ye had initially reached out to touch Sheng Xia’s head, but just before making contact, he withdrew his hand, changed direction, and took the pomegranate from Sheng Xia’s hand.

“Lead the way.” Shi Ye broke open the pomegranate and handed it back to Sheng Xia to hold and eat. “Find a music shop.”

Shi Ye thought to himself, I’m really an idiot. How did I get so caught up in this? He retrieved his phone to refund his ticket while pondering.

As Sheng Xia ate the pomegranate, he cautiously asked, “Teacher Shi Ye, why did you leave?”

Shi Ye kept his eyes on his phone and asked in return, “Did you sleep well last night?”

Sheng Xia thought for a moment, then nodded and shook his head. “It was okay and not okay. I felt hot all night, but then I felt cold in the early morning. But I remember I had a dream.”

“What kind of dream?”

“I don’t remember the details, but I remember dreaming about meteors.” Sheng Xia peeled the pomegranate. “It was like something exploding all the time, sparkling. Teacher Shi Ye, have some pomegranate.”

He offered his hand, filled with peeled pomegranate seeds, which looked beautiful in the sunlight.

Shi Ye took the red fruit. Then he realized his phone was out of credit, so he asked Sheng Xia to lend him his phone to top up, which he would repay later.

With both of Sheng Xia’s hands occupied, he allowed Shi Ye to reach into his pocket and retrieve it, mentioning that the unlock code was 111111.

Shi Ye unlocked the phone and found Sheng Xia’s browser still open, with the search query reading: ‘Does smoking stunt growth?’

Sheng Xia was still struggling to peel the pomegranate. When he handed some seeds to Shi Ye, he noticed Shi Ye looking at him strangely. It was then that he looked at his own phone and saw the page. His ear turned red again.

Shi Ye said seriously, “Smoking really does stunt growth.”

“…But Baidu says it doesn’t.” Sheng Xia retorted.

Shi Ye felt his mood suddenly improve. He pretended to be angry. “Baidu lies. I don’t lie. Don’t you trust me? Are you still going to trust Baidu?”

“…No.” Sheng Xia changed the subject. “Teacher Shi Ye, have some pomegranate.”

Shi Ye took it, feeling slightly better. He decided to temporarily forget about his own frustrations.

After topping up the phone, Shi Ye refunded his morning ticket. He had originally bought a ticket back to Beijing for tomorrow, but now he was staying back because of a pomegranate.

As he chewed on the pomegranate seeds, he asked Sheng Xia, “Do you want to go to Beijing with me?”

Sheng Xia was taken aback. “Huh? Beijing?”

“Come to the big city with me, see the sights, study, sing, release albums. Whatever you want.” Shi Ye’s tone was casual, as if discussing the weather. “Or do you have any other wishes? You can tell me.”

“Why are you suddenly saying this?” Sheng Xia was a bit surprised. “My wish?”

After refunding the ticket, Shi Ye began to message Gao Ce saying he would return later. “It’s almost your birthday, right? Tell me your wish as a fan appreciation. Thank you for supporting Aviator for so many years.”

Sheng Xia smiled and said casually, “My wish right now is for Teacher Shi Ye not to leave and just stay in Dali with us.”

Shi Ye paused.

Feeling like he had just said something audacious, Sheng Xia quickly changed his tone. “…I’m just kidding. Actually, I don’t have any wishes. If I have to say, I guess it would be to become a great musician like you.”

Shi Ye put away his phone.

“I can help you,” Shi Ye said. “If you really want.”

Sheng Xia didn’t pay much attention to the weight of Shi Ye’s words. He pointed to the store in front of them and said, “Teacher Shi Ye, we’re here.”

At the music store, Sheng Xia accompanied Shi Ye to change the guitar strings. When they opened the guitar case, Sheng Xia noticed that one of the strings was broken. He asked Shi Ye how it broke, and Shi Ye simply replied that the string was old.

As they replaced the strings, the shop owner kept praising the guitar and scolding Shi Ye, who wore a mask, for not taking good care of it.

In fact, Shi Ye did take good care of it. He cared deeply about the guitar, but he was a bit peculiar. The more he cared about something, the more he would hold back from talking about or looking at it, just like this guitar. It was obviously something with a lot of sentimental value, representing a certain era of his life. To him, it was not just a guitar, but also a heavy piece of the past. Shi Ye didn’t know how to handle this guitar, just like he didn’t know how to handle his past.

Once, he carried this guitar on his back to confront the band members. That day, he was so angry that he almost smashed the guitar, pushed Gao Ce aside, and almost beat up Shen Zui.

When the boss was removing the guitar strings, inexplicably, Shi Ye felt a bit suffocated and uncomfortable, as if it wasn’t the strings being removed, but his ribs. Unable to bear it, he decided to step out for a phone call, leaving Sheng Xia in the shop.

Sheng Xia sat eating a pomegranate and watched the boss change the strings, swinging his legs on the chair.

The boss placed the old guitar strings on the workbench.

Sheng Xia stared at those strings for a long time. After some thought, he folded the strings, took out his notebook, and clipped the strings into it.