Chapter 21: Senior

After school in the afternoon.

With Miaomiao not at home recently, Ming Can wasn’t in a hurry to head back. She carried her backpack to the student council office to study. Today, the office was quite crowded, with several of the council presidents present.

Next door was the school art troupe’s office, which was even more packed. It seemed like some event was happening there, and the noise seeped through the walls into the student council office.

Ming Can had just sat down when the noise made her consider leaving.

“Want to go check it out?” Chen Yixiao, sitting diagonally across from her, suddenly suggested. “The orchestra is having a meeting next door. They’ve invited first chairs from nearby universities to discuss a joint themed concert during winter break.”

The reason Chen Yixiao suggested Ming Can go take a look was that she was also a member of B University’s orchestra. In her freshman year, she had frequently participated in orchestra activities and had served as the concertmaster for several performances. Unfortunately, after becoming a sophomore, she had largely stopped attending orchestra events.

Ming Can thought for a moment, then shook her head. “I think I’ll pass…”

Just then, the door to the student council office suddenly swung open, and a short-haired girl burst in energetically. “Chen Yixiao, I’ve been calling for you… Oh, Ming Can’s here too? Perfect, you two come with me.”

The newcomer was the deputy head of the orchestra, known for her fiery personality. She immediately hooked her arm around Ming Can’s and pulled her to her feet, pushing her toward the door as she spoke. “My dear Ming Can, our orchestra is like a bicycle without wheels without you. You need to come back and lead the string section.”

If Ming Can truly didn’t want to go, not even eight oxen could drag her there. But now, she was easily pulled up by the deputy head and followed them out of the student council office into the neighboring room.

This office had fewer furnishings and more space. A long table had been assembled, and around it sat a circle of people—at least twenty or thirty of them.

The deputy head pushed Ming Can and Chen Yixiao into two empty chairs and enthusiastically introduced their roles.

One was the president of B University’s student council, and the other was the concertmaster of B University’s orchestra.

Ming Can hadn’t played the violin in a long time, and she felt she no longer deserved the title of concertmaster.

Just as Ming Can was awkwardly wishing the ground would swallow her, a soft female voice came from beside her. “So you’re Ming Can? I’ve heard a lot about you from your orchestra members.”

Ming Can turned her gaze and locked eyes with the girl beside her. Her mind wandered for a moment, and she instinctively said, “Senior… Zhiyu?”

Chu Zhiyu was taken aback. “You know me?”

Ming Can quickly regained her composure. “What a coincidence. Chi Yao is my classmate, and he just mentioned you today.”

Chu Zhiyu: “That kid? What did he say about me?”

Ming Can: “He said… you’re his sister-in-law.”

“Oh.” Chu Zhiyu hadn’t expected that, and a faint blush spread across her cheeks. “He’s so ridiculous.”

She didn’t deny it.

Ming Can calmly observed her expression, a faint smile on her lips. “Yeah, he really is.”

Ming Can’s eyes were dark, like deep pools of water. When she focused on someone, it felt as if she could see right through them.

Chu Zhiyu felt an inexplicable sense of guilt and asked Ming Can, “Do you know Chi Yao’s older brother?”

“I do,” Ming Can nodded. “He was my senior in high school.”

Hearing this, Chu Zhiyu took a deep breath and smiled. “Actually, I’m not really Chi Yao’s sister-in-law. His brother and I are just friends.”

Just friends. Nothing more than that.

Chu Zhiyu had known Chi Xiao since she was very young, back when she was too little to remember much. Now, over a decade later, their relationship had barely progressed.

Chi Xiao was an extremely cold person. From a young age, he had walled himself off in his own narrow world, indifferent to everything outside. Even after knowing him for many years, Chu Zhiyu had never heard him initiate a conversation with her.

In Chu Zhiyu’s memory, the first time Chi Xiao ever spoke to her on his own was one day in the later years of elementary school.

That day, Chu Zhiyu had gone with her family to visit the Chi household. During dinner, the adults chatted about various topics, including the children. Chu Zhiyu’s mother mentioned that her daughter had recently started attending some interest classes. It was then that Chu Zhiyu noticed Chi Xiao, who had been quietly eating with his head down, suddenly look up and glance at her across the table.

His eyes were amber-colored, like transparent, ethereal topaz. Being looked at by him felt like a jolt to the chest.

After dinner, the adults went into the tea room to continue their conversation, leaving Chu Zhiyu bored and alone in the living room. She sneaked upstairs to find Chi Xiao.

Pushing open a slightly ajar door, she saw Chi Xiao sitting at a long workbench, carving a piece of wood.

Noticing her entrance, Chi Xiao didn’t seem bothered. Instead, for the first time, he actively spoke to her. “Do you play the violin?”

Chu Zhiyu nodded. “I’ve only been learning for a few months.”

She had dabbled in many instruments, most of which she lost interest in quickly. She wasn’t particularly skilled or passionate about any of them, but the violin happened to be what she was learning at the time, which was why her mother had mentioned it at dinner.

After she answered, Chi Xiao suddenly jumped down from his chair and walked into an adjoining room, returning with a violin.

It was a very rough and simple instrument. The scroll was straight and unadorned, lacking any decorative carving, and the body’s curves were oddly shaped. It was clear that the luthier’s skills were still very immature.

“Try it,” Chi Xiao said to Chu Zhiyu. “See if you can play a tune with it.”

Chu Zhiyu took the violin from him, and Chi Xiao handed her an equally crude bow. She tucked the violin under her chin, raised the bow, and drew it across the strings. The sound that came out was harsh and strange, like a cat’s claws scraping against wood—utterly ear-piercing.

Chu Zhiyu lowered the bow and shook her head. “It’s not really playable.”

Chi Xiao didn’t say anything. He took the violin and bow back from her and returned them to the adjoining room.

Chu Zhiyu knew that Chi Xiao wouldn’t initiate conversation with her again.

When he came back out, Chu Zhiyu asked, “Did you make that?”

“Yes.”

“Why are you making violins?”

“To sell.”

“To sell?” Chu Zhiyu was stunned. “Are you short on money?”

Chi Xiao shook his head.

“Then why are you making violins to sell?”

Chi Xiao didn’t answer. He coldly sat back down at his workbench, clearly signaling that the conversation was over.

Chu Zhiyu gathered her courage and asked, “Then… can you sell one to me?”

Chi Xiao shook his head again.

Chu Zhiyu was a little upset now and asked with a hint of frustration, “Then who are you going to sell them to?”

This time, Chi Xiao didn’t dismiss her question. Instead, he said, “I don’t know.”

He didn’t know her name.

He was also starting to forget what she looked like.

The reason he kept learning to make violins, holding onto what seemed like a joke of a promise, was simply to give his utterly boring life something slightly less boring to do.

Seeing Chi Xiao so engrossed in making violins, Chu Zhiyu thought that since she didn’t have any particular hobbies she was passionate about, she might as well keep learning the violin. Maybe someday they’d have something in common to talk about.

…

In the noisy office, Chu Zhiyu quietly glanced at the girl beside her. Her features were strikingly beautiful at first glance, with soft almond-shaped eyes that nonetheless carried a sharpness. Her overall demeanor seemed calm, but it somehow exuded an inexplicable sense of pressure.

Chu Zhiyu recalled how she had faltered under Ming Can’s gaze earlier. Who was the senior and who was the junior here? She needed to regain some dignity.

“Let me introduce myself properly,” Chu Zhiyu said, extending her hand to Ming Can. “Chu Zhiyu, concertmaster of A University’s orchestra and a junior in the Chinese Department.”

“Ming Can, sophomore in the Finance Department,” Ming Can replied, shaking her hand briefly. “I don’t play much anymore.”

“Why not? I heard you became concertmaster in your freshman year. Everyone says you’re a prodigy.”

“No particular reason. I just don’t love the violin as much anymore.”

Ming Can’s mother, Su Zhining, had been a painter. Not long ago, Ming Can and her aunt, Ming Shu, had organized a memorial art exhibition for her.

Ming Can still remembered what her mother had told her on her deathbed: “A girl can study art, but she can’t only know art. Don’t become a pet kept at home to play the piano or paint.”

At the time, Ming Can had been too young to understand what that meant. But as she grew older and learned more about her family, she saw how the women in the Ming family had all ended up as decorative “vases.” Once, at a family gathering, her grandfather had asked Ming Can to perform on the violin, while none of the boys in the room were required to do anything. That day, Ming Can lied for the first time, saying she hadn’t practiced in a long time and was out of shape. Later, to make the lie true, she really stopped practicing and let her skills deteriorate.

Now, sitting in the art troupe’s office, listening to the seniors passionately planning a winter break concert, Ming Can couldn’t help but feel inspired, her mood soaring. When it came time to assign tasks, under their encouragement, Ming Can hesitantly accepted the responsibility of organizing the string section’s rehearsals.

After the meeting, many people stayed behind to continue discussing.

As Ming Can stood up to leave, her phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out to check the new message—

Chi Xiao: 【Are you at school?】

Chi Xiao: 【I’m at B University to pick someone up. I have something for you.】

Ming Can was stunned.

This was the first time Chi Xiao had taken the initiative to say he was coming to see her. Before these two messages, their chat history had stopped on the day she asked him to pick her up from the nightclub last month.

Instinctively, Ming Can glanced at Chu Zhiyu beside her and noticed her phone ringing too. Chu Zhiyu answered while still seated: “You’re coming to pick me up now? What a coincidence, I’m at B University, at the Student Activity Center.”

It wasn’t that Ming Can was overthinking things. Putting the two pieces of information together, it was reasonable to suspect that the person coming to B University to pick up Chu Zhiyu was Chi Xiao.