Chapter 60

The car reached the main road, and Qin Qingzhuo slowed down, pulling over to the side of the road. “You take over driving.”

Jiang Ji unbuckled his seatbelt. “So you can drive?”

Qin Qingzhuo’s reverse maneuver just now was quite smooth, indicating not only his ability to drive but also his proficiency.

Qin Qingzhuo nodded with a “Hmm,” and pushed open the car door to get out.

After switching seats, Jiang Ji asked, “Where to?”

“Anywhere you want, find a place with inspiration,” Qin Qingzhuo replied, recalling Chen Jia’s message. “I promised Chen Jia to bring you back with the song tomorrow morning. Don’t make me break my promise.”

“You brought me out without considering the consequences?” Jiang Ji started the car.

“What consequences? The consequence that you might not be able to write a song?” Qin Qingzhuo raised an eyebrow lightly. “If you say so, maybe I should consider taking you back now.”

“It’s too late.” Jiang Ji stepped on the gas pedal, waiting for the steering wheel to guide the car onto the main road.

Qin Qingzhuo leaned back in his seat, relaxing away from the omnipresent cameras. At this moment, he also felt quite relieved.

He caught a glimpse of Jiang Ji seeming to be in a good mood—when he had no expression, he appeared extremely indifferent, but when he was in a good mood, the lines on his face softened considerably.

But the more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. The decision to “take Jiang Ji and run” was made hastily, even he himself felt it was somewhat absurd. How could it be that when Jiang Ji heard the words “get in the car,” he seemed unsurprised, without even a moment of astonishment, and simply got into the car with him?

“You didn’t do this on purpose, did you, Jiang Ji?” Qin Qingzhuo turned to look at him. “Did you guess early on that I would bring you out?”

Jiang Ji didn’t say anything, but Qin Qingzhuo could hear a very light chuckle escaping him.

“How did you guess?”

“With such heavy rain,” Jiang Ji looked at the road ahead, “you couldn’t possibly let me run away alone.”

“So the idea of escaping was deliberately hinted to me as well?… I really should take you back.”

“You won’t,” Jiang Ji said.

Qin Qingzhuo was speechless. He really wouldn’t.

Jiang Ji had calculated that he would condone his actions.

He recalled that evening when Jiang Ji said, “I want to take it all.”

As it turned out, Jiang Ji was right. Even after that conversation that evening, he was still indulging Jiang Ji.

When they reached the intersection, Jiang Ji didn’t hesitate much and turned the steering wheel to the left onto the narrow road.

The narrow road was bumpy, far from the smooth ride they had just experienced, and the sparse streetlights made it dim. Qin Qingzhuo asked, “Why take this road?”

“The clouds are thinner over there,” Jiang Ji said. “The rain might be lighter, and we might be able to get out of the car for a walk.”

“Is that so?” Qin Qingzhuo leaned over, pushed down the car window, and felt the fine raindrops blowing onto his face.

He leaned out to look at the sky, heavy clouds still covered the direction they had just escaped from, but as the car traveled southeast, the clouds gradually thinned out, and the rain became lighter.

“It seems so,” Qin Qingzhuo leaned back in his seat. “But let me remind you, the wind is blowing southeast, the cumulonimbus clouds will eventually be blown away.”

“Then let’s see who runs faster,” Jiang Ji said, suddenly stepping hard on the gas pedal. The car accelerated sharply, and the strong push made Qin Qingzhuo instinctively reach out to grab the handle above the car window.

“Hey, could you give me a heads-up next time…” Qin Qingzhuo laughed, but the wind noise was too loud, making his voice intermittent.

Jiang Ji didn’t respond, continuing to focus on the road ahead, driving the car at high speed.

With the rain falling and the streetlights dim on both sides, if it were someone else driving like this, Qin Qingzhuo felt he would frown and reprimand them for such a dangerous act. But now that it was Jiang Ji driving, it seemed that Jiang Ji could do whatever he wanted.

The shadows of the trees flew by rapidly, in the silent darkness of the night, this unplanned escape felt just like… elopement.

As this thought crossed his mind, Jiang Ji beside him called him “Teacher Qin.”

Over the years, many people had called him “Teacher Qin”—with respect, courtesy, sincerity, or insincerity. But never before the way Jiang Ji used this term of address. His voice was deep, with a hint of casualness, completely devoid of any attitude towards “teacher.”

Qin Qingzhuo didn’t respond. Jiang Ji wouldn’t usually call him that way, and whenever he did, the next sentence that followed often required him to muster 12 points of energy to parry him.

Sure enough, the next second, Jiang Ji said, “Does this count as taking me out to elope?”

Clearly, Qin Qingzhuo’s fleeting thought had been exposed, but he insisted on being the one to downplay it, chuckling lightly, “What elopement? How can there be a mission attached to eloping?”

But Jiang Ji ignored his denial. “Then let’s write a song related to elopement.”

“Sure,” Qin Qingzhuo smiled and pretended to be casual. “Your song, your call.”

Those cumulonimbus clouds were indeed left behind by Jiang Ji. The rain became lighter and lighter. Through the gap in the car window, the raindrops patted Qin Qingzhuo’s face, damp and cool.

In fact, over the years, on rainy nights, especially when sitting in the car, his mood would become somewhat restless. So whenever it rained, he would stay at home and try to avoid going out as much as possible.

But today was an exception. When Xia Qi called, he hadn’t planned to go out, but somehow he ended up agreeing to come over.

More surprising is that he now actually feels quite good, completely devoid of the anxious mood he used to have on rainy days, even he himself feels it’s a bit miraculous.

The raindrops falling on the windshield became smaller and smaller, and finally disappeared completely. Jiang Ji slowed down the car and asked, “Is there a river nearby? Shall we go for a walk?”

“Sure,” Qin Qingzhuo said.

They drove onto a small road, and Jiang Ji parked the car in a spacious place by the river.

Qin Qingzhuo got out of the car first, the stone pavement was dry, it seemed that the torrential rain had not reached here yet.

The surroundings were desolate, not even a single street lamp was present, it seemed there were no villages or shops nearby.

“Don’t turn off the car lights,” Qin Qingzhuo tapped on the car window with his finger, “It’s too dark outside.”

Jiang Ji responded from inside the car and left the headlights on, casting a bright beam of light on the stone pavement. Then he grabbed his guitar and got out of the car as well.

“Where are we?” Qin Qingzhuo asked him.

“I don’t know,” Jiang Ji said, “Just drove randomly.”

They had only been driving towards the direction where the clouds were thinner, never thinking about where they were heading.

“Then let’s just walk around randomly,” Qin Qingzhuo said.

Jiang Ji nodded.

The two of them walked aimlessly along the river, neither of them asking where they were going this time.

After walking for a long time without speaking, Qin Qingzhuo didn’t know what to say. He felt that the atmosphere tonight was somewhat unusual.

Was it because the humid night was particularly conducive to the growth of ambiguity? Qin Qingzhuo wondered. Otherwise, why would no one speak? This ambiguous atmosphere seemed to wax and wane.

As they walked further, it was beyond the reach of the car lights. Both of them instinctively stopped at the boundary between light and darkness.

Jiang Ji took out his guitar and sat down on a stone leaning against a tree.

Qin Qingzhuo bent down and picked up a handful of stones, tossing them into the water one by one.

The stones made a light thud as they hit the water, causing ripples to spread across the surface.

The melody Jiang Ji casually played was intermittent, fragments of inspiration could be discerned, but it hadn’t formed into a continuous tune yet. Nevertheless, it sounded quite pleasant.

He didn’t speak all along, afraid of disturbing Jiang Ji’s inspiration. Writing songs required the utmost quietness.

After tossing a small handful of stones, he didn’t pick up more, instead, he listened to the fragments of melody Jiang Ji played.

In fact, he could tell from the melody that Jiang Ji seemed a bit absent-minded, as if still thinking about something. His gaze often fell on himself, but Qin Qingzhuo pretended not to notice.

The wind picked up, the leaves above rustled in the wind, as if brewing a rainstorm fiercer than before.

Qin Qingzhuo looked up, through the gaps in the leaves, he could see a thin layer of cloud directly above them, with edges glowing in the darkness, it looked beautiful.

The fragments of the guitar melody stopped, and Jiang Ji followed his gaze, “What are you looking at?”

“I don’t know what kind of cloud it is,” Qin Qingzhuo said, “It’s quite beautiful, probably not a cumulonimbus cloud.”

“It’s a type of stratocumulus cloud,” Jiang Ji said.

“You did that on purpose, Jiang Ji,” Qin Qingzhuo laughed, “Another type of stratocumulus cloud.”

He remembered when they were recording the first episode of the show, he asked Jiang Ji “What does an Asperatus look like?”, and Jiang Ji gave this exact answer, word for word.

“You still remember that,” Jiang Ji also chuckled, then his tone became serious, “I didn’t lie to you, they are indeed all types of stratocumulus clouds, it’s just that the Asperatus is a wavy stratocumulus cloud, very special and rare. This patch tonight should be a more common translucent stratocumulus cloud.”

“You really like clouds?” Qin Qingzhuo looked at him, somewhat surprised that he could accurately name the clouds.

Jiang Ji agreed with a hum.

“Why?” Qin Qingzhuo asked with great interest. Coincidentally, he also liked clouds, always feeling that looking at them would inexplicably improve his mood. It was for this reason that when he first saw the name of the band “Rough Face Cloud,” he developed a strong interest in the band.

“Because…” Jiang Ji paused, and his speech became slightly slower, “When I was a child, I met someone. He told me that when you’re feeling down, try looking at the clouds in the sky, and you’ll feel a bit better. Later, I tried it, and it really works.”

It’s surprisingly the same reason as why I like clouds… Qin Qingzhuo felt a more magical sensation. At the same time, a speculation formed in his mind: “Is it the person who gave you the guitar?”

“Yeah.”

“It seems that he has a significant influence on you…” Qin Qingzhuo remembered Jiang Ji mentioning that he wanted to attend the Central Conservatory of Music because of this person. He couldn’t help but feel a strong curiosity about this person. After some thought, he cautiously asked, “It might not be very appropriate to ask, but I’m still curious. Is this person still around?”

“Yeah,” Jiang Ji glanced at him, finding Qin Qingzhuo’s question amusing, “Why ask like that?”

“Oh… that’s good,” Qin Qingzhuo sighed in relief, feeling that his caution was somewhat unnecessary. He smiled, “Because every time you mention this person, it feels… nostalgic, as if you haven’t seen him in a long time.”

“It has indeed been a long time,” Jiang Ji said, “I only saw him once back then.”

“You only saw him once?” Qin Qingzhuo was somewhat surprised, “At what age?”

“Nine.”

While Qin Qingzhuo was still astonished, thinking that meeting only once, and at such a young age, Jiang Ji could remember for ten years… he couldn’t help but ask another question, “What kind of person was he?”

“I don’t remember very clearly. It was quite dark at that time, just like tonight. I only remember that he looked very good, with long eyelashes, a bit…” Jiang Ji spoke very slowly, paused, and then looked at Qin Qingzhuo, saying, “Like you.”

In that moment of eye contact, Qin Qingzhuo felt a sudden emptiness in his chest, as if his heart had skipped a beat.

Following that was a slightly sour substance squeezed out with each heartbeat, mixing into the blood and spreading through his body.

The silence lasted for a long time, and suddenly, the sound of the guitar echoed in the night. It was a very familiar melody.

With just a few notes, Qin Qingzhuo could recognize it. Jiang Ji was playing the little tune he had played at the music festival that night.

Although it was a light and cheerful tune played by Jiang Ji’s fingers, it somehow carried a hint of sadness.

Qin Qingzhuo didn’t know why Jiang Ji suddenly played this melody, but he was genuinely surprised: “You’ve only heard it once, and you can remember the entire melody?”

Despite cooperating with Jiang Ji on this melody on stage, he still found it somewhat unbelievable.

“No,” Jiang Ji looked at him and said, “Someone taught me to play this melody.”

Qin Qingzhuo was even more amazed. Every note in this melody was written by himself, and except for that time when he took Jiang Ji to the music festival, he didn’t remember playing it in any other public occasion. How could someone have taught Jiang Ji to play it?

Suddenly, a very distant scene flashed in his mind. At the same time, his own voice echoed in his mind: “Let me teach you to play a melody on this guitar, very simple, I’ll guide you through it…”

Jiang Ji, who was looking at him, deepened his voice, “Qin Qingzhuo, do you really not remember anything that happened in Runcheng ten years ago, or this guitar?”