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4:00 PM (1)
It was obvious who the owner of the unknown number was.
Three messages, especially the last one, contained fewer than ten words, yet had a tremendous impact.
The guest on the other end had already hung up, and Xu Muzi tightly held the receiver as the busy signal continued. She stared at the phone screen.
She felt as if she had been scorched by the flames of the aromatic candle, her chest burning with heat.
The tongues of fire intertwined, flickering and igniting, then bursting into brilliant fireworks.
The landline phone rang again shortly, and the person on the line asked Xu Muzi when the inn would restore power.
Xu Muzi repeated the lines that Xia Xia had mentioned, and the other party grumbled in dissatisfaction, but ultimately said that their phone was dead and needed staff to bring an emergency light before hanging up.
Xu Muzi picked up her phone, momentarily unsure of what to reply to Deng Yun.
After her family went bankrupt, they often received strange calls about loan offers, and to avoid unnecessary harassment, they changed their phone numbers.
She typed, “How did you know my phone number?” thought for a moment, then deleted it, retyping “Have you really never had a girlfriend?” deleted it again, then typed “Let’s talk when we meet later,” and deleted it again…
In the end, she sent this message in the flickering candlelight—
“Please tell Xia Xia that room 309 needs an emergency light.”
Deng Yun didn’t dwell on Xu Muzi’s changes in the conversation. He quickly replied with a simple “Okay” and didn’t say anything else.
Afterward, Xu Muzi received another call on the landline. Feeling a bit annoyed, she responded in a customer service tone and ran to bring a cup of hot drink to a guest.
The weather was terrible.
It felt as if a giant wrapped in wind and rain was constantly pounding on the first-floor windows and doors, with many plants being devastated beyond recognition.
When she was studying abroad, Xu Muzi encountered similarly terrible stormy weather.
Her tone and choice of words when communicating with guests didn’t just come from her learning with Xia Xia; they were also influenced by the hotel staff when she played the piano at the hotel.
Once, Xu Muzi was stuck at the hotel where she worked part-time as a pianist due to a rainstorm. Since she couldn’t leave anyway, to calm the guests, the manager found her and asked if she was willing to work overtime.
She played the piano for the guests in the hotel café until dawn, napping briefly in the staff lounge before leaving the hotel at dawn when the rain stopped to return to school.
During that time, something else happened.
The school was preparing for its anniversary event and invited famous alumni from the music academy to return and perform.
Xu Muzi was striving for the opportunity to collaborate with the outstanding seniors.
She returned to her dormitory, quickly tidied herself up, casually ate a few pieces of whole grain crackers to fill her stomach, and then ran to practice in the piano room.
On her way to the piano room, she encountered a classmate who was more talented and arrogant than her.
The classmate asked, “Shirley, I heard you signed up for the anniversary event too?”
Xu Muzi nodded.
The classmate laughed exaggeratedly: “You don’t really hope that those famous seniors will come back and perform on stage with a girl who smells like potatoes, do you?”
Because money was tight, Xu Muzi often cooked eggs and fried potatoes in their shared apartment.
She didn’t think there was anything embarrassing about it.
Moreover, in the past, when similar incidents occurred, Deng Yun had told Xu Muzi that regardless of her talent, only she could define herself, and no one else had the right to judge.
He said, “If someone insults you, just insult them back.”
Xu Muzi cast a faint glance at her classmate: “So, do you think they would enjoy collaborating with a girl who smells like smoke and alcohol?”
In the end, Xu Muzi secured the performance opportunity for the school anniversary.
As for that arrogant classmate, she frequently made mistakes during the preliminary competition due to excessive drinking and was criticized by the old professor for not respecting music enough.
Xu Muzi thought that she should bring up this incident to Deng Yun, considering she hadn’t performed well while reminiscing just now.
She should also mention that she performed at a well-known local music festival alongside her classmates who majored in violin performance.
The bites from the mosquitoes behind her ears were uncomfortable; perhaps it was due to the prolonged duration that the ointment she applied earlier had lost its effectiveness.
The front desk provided a herbal balm for guests to take, and Xu Muzi found the small glass bottle used by Xing Pengjie. She took it and opened a cotton swab.
A child’s cries came from the direction of the stairs, like thunder—too sudden. Xu Muzi flinched, dropping the cotton swab on the ground; she could only pick it up and throw it away before unwrapping a new one.
As she tore open the plastic packaging and surveyed the area looking for a mirror in the candlelight, her phone received a group message.
It was a temporary group chat created for the small drinking gathering face-to-face.
A guest posted a photo in the group, and Xu Muzi clicked on it to see Deng Yun.
Someone in the group said:
“I woke up to the sound of a child crying, and when I opened the door, I saw this guy helping to calm the child.”
Another person followed up with:
“Impressive, you didn’t wake up from the thunder, but you woke up from the child crying?”
“The handsome guy is quite caring, but where are the child’s parents? Who lets their kids run around in this weather?”
Others also chimed in:
“It seems like Xia Xia is overwhelmed; the brothers who can’t sleep should come out to help check the doors and windows.”
Xu Muzi didn’t pay much attention to their discussion, quickly scanning it before clicking on the photo again.
Deng Yun was squatting in the dimly lit corridor, holding a lantern, trying to soothe a little girl who looked about five or six years old.
It was obvious who the owner of the unknown number was.
Three messages, especially the last one, contained fewer than ten words, yet had a tremendous impact.
The guest on the other end had already hung up, and Xu Muzi tightly held the receiver as the busy signal continued. She stared at the phone screen.
She felt as if she had been scorched by the flames of the aromatic candle, her chest burning with heat.
The tongues of fire intertwined, flickering and igniting, then bursting into brilliant fireworks.
The landline phone rang again shortly, and the person on the line asked Xu Muzi when the inn would restore power.
Xu Muzi repeated the lines that Xia Xia had mentioned, and the other party grumbled in dissatisfaction, but ultimately said that their phone was dead and needed staff to bring an emergency light before hanging up.
Xu Muzi picked up her phone, momentarily unsure of what to reply to Deng Yun.
After her family went bankrupt, they often received strange calls about loan offers, and to avoid unnecessary harassment, they changed their phone numbers.
She typed, “How did you know my phone number?” thought for a moment, then deleted it, retyping “Have you really never had a girlfriend?” deleted it again, then typed “Let’s talk when we meet later,” and deleted it again…
In the end, she sent this message in the flickering candlelight—
“Please tell Xia Xia that room 309 needs an emergency light.”
Deng Yun didn’t dwell on Xu Muzi’s changes in the conversation. He quickly replied with a simple “Okay” and didn’t say anything else.
Afterward, Xu Muzi received another call on the landline. Feeling a bit annoyed, she responded in a customer service tone and ran to bring a cup of hot drink to a guest.
The weather was terrible.
It felt as if a giant wrapped in wind and rain was constantly pounding on the first-floor windows and doors, with many plants being devastated beyond recognition.
When she was studying abroad, Xu Muzi encountered similarly terrible stormy weather.
Her tone and choice of words when communicating with guests didn’t just come from her learning with Xia Xia; they were also influenced by the hotel staff when she played the piano at the hotel.
Once, Xu Muzi was stuck at the hotel where she worked part-time as a pianist due to a rainstorm. Since she couldn’t leave anyway, to calm the guests, the manager found her and asked if she was willing to work overtime.
She played the piano for the guests in the hotel café until dawn, napping briefly in the staff lounge before leaving the hotel at dawn when the rain stopped to return to school.
During that time, something else happened.
The school was preparing for its anniversary event and invited famous alumni from the music academy to return and perform.
Xu Muzi was striving for the opportunity to collaborate with the outstanding seniors.
She returned to her dormitory, quickly tidied herself up, casually ate a few pieces of whole grain crackers to fill her stomach, and then ran to practice in the piano room.
On her way to the piano room, she encountered a classmate who was more talented and arrogant than her.
The classmate asked, “Shirley, I heard you signed up for the anniversary event too?”
Xu Muzi nodded.
The classmate laughed exaggeratedly: “You don’t really hope that those famous seniors will come back and perform on stage with a girl who smells like potatoes, do you?”
Because money was tight, Xu Muzi often cooked eggs and fried potatoes in their shared apartment.
She didn’t think there was anything embarrassing about it.
Moreover, in the past, when similar incidents occurred, Deng Yun had told Xu Muzi that regardless of her talent, only she could define herself, and no one else had the right to judge.
He said, “If someone insults you, just insult them back.”
Xu Muzi cast a faint glance at her classmate: “So, do you think they would enjoy collaborating with a girl who smells like smoke and alcohol?”
In the end, Xu Muzi secured the performance opportunity for the school anniversary.
As for that arrogant classmate, she frequently made mistakes during the preliminary competition due to excessive drinking and was criticized by the old professor for not respecting music enough.
Xu Muzi thought that she should bring up this incident to Deng Yun, considering she hadn’t performed well while reminiscing just now.
She should also mention that she performed at a well-known local music festival alongside her classmates who majored in violin performance.
The bites from the mosquitoes behind her ears were uncomfortable; perhaps it was due to the prolonged duration that the ointment she applied earlier had lost its effectiveness.
The front desk provided a herbal balm for guests to take, and Xu Muzi found the small glass bottle used by Xing Pengjie. She took it and opened a cotton swab.
A child’s cries came from the direction of the stairs, like thunder—too sudden. Xu Muzi flinched, dropping the cotton swab on the ground; she could only pick it up and throw it away before unwrapping a new one.
As she tore open the plastic packaging and surveyed the area looking for a mirror in the candlelight, her phone received a group message.
It was a temporary group chat created for the small drinking gathering face-to-face.
A guest posted a photo in the group, and Xu Muzi clicked on it to see Deng Yun.
Someone in the group said:
“I woke up to the sound of a child crying, and when I opened the door, I saw this guy helping to calm the child.”
Another person followed up with:
“Impressive, you didn’t wake up from the thunder, but you woke up from the child crying?”
“The handsome guy is quite caring, but where are the child’s parents? Who lets their kids run around in this weather?”
Others also chimed in:
“It seems like Xia Xia is overwhelmed; the brothers who can’t sleep should come out to help check the doors and windows.”
Xu Muzi didn’t pay much attention to their discussion, quickly scanning it before clicking on the photo again.
Deng Yun was squatting in the dimly lit corridor, holding a lantern, trying to soothe a little girl who looked about five or six years old.
The public area quieted down, leaving only the sound of the rain. Xia Xia sighed as she said that the sound of the rain was like the noise of frying eggs in oil back in her hometown.
Xu Muzi thought this was Deng Yun’s final reply. Just as she had sat downside by side with Xia Xia, her phone chimed with a new notification.
Xu Muzi swiped the screen and saw the new message:
“The last time I was moved was 1,075 days ago.”