Wen Quyi stood in place without taking back his sight for a long time. He watched as the taxi go away and gradually disappear from sight.

It wasn’t until a burst of melodious music penetrated into his ears that he returned to reality. It was a piano piece that he had played so many times that he knew it by heart. The melody was soft and graceful, with a hint of melancholy, just like a simple girl sincerely praying for her wishes.

Looking away from the distance, he lifted his hand and took out the phone in his pocket. When he saw the name displayed on the screen, his eyebrows involuntarily furrowed slightly.

“Hello.” He put the phone to his ear, the naturally droopy eyes, and the young man’s fair and gentle face was covered with an unnoticeable shadow.

On the other end of the phone, a woman’s gentle voice sounded, “Xiao Yi, have you finished things over there? When will you be back?”

After a moment of silence, Wen Quyi said softly, “I’m not going back.”

“What?” The woman exclaimed in shock and quickly realized the problem. “Is it because of Yu Mian?”

His eyelashes trembled and a look of pain flashed across the young man’s dark pupils. He took a deep breath, as if it could suppress the chaotic thoughts in his mind.

“Mom, I promised you before to accept the admission letter from Mannes, but you also promised me that as long as I finish university, I can come back and be with her.”

Wen Quyi spoke in a whisper, his voice was broken by the rustling autumn wind. “She’s dead…… I regret it very much. Why did I leave back then? If only I had stayed in X City to accompany her…… Mom, I really, really regret it. Last night, I dreamt of the day I got my admission letter. We were walking under the camphor trees. But I didn’t say that I was going abroad. Instead, I told her that I like her……”

His tone was calm and without any fluctuation. As if he was talking about something very ordinary, there was no slightest change in the expression on his face. Even though he said he regretted it, his expression was blank.

Mother Wen choked up. As a mother, she knew her child very well. She could feel how sad the young man on the other end of the phone was right now.

“Okay, Mom promised you. Mom will go through the transfer procedures for you here. Shall we move back to X City?”

Wen Quyi turned around and walked back slowly, softly saying, “Thanks, Mom.”

When he reached the downstairs of the residential building, his gaze stopped when it met something on the ground. There was a reddish-brown pendant lying quietly where the corner of the stairs connected with the corridor. Wen Quyi leaned down to pick it up and carefully examined it.

It was a small wooden square plate. One side of it was engraved with the word ‘safety’, and the other side was only a simple word ‘Yu’. The pattern on the wooden plate was meticulously carved, it felt smooth and dense, and also had a pleasant fragrance. There’s bunch of small tassels of the same color hanging under the pendant, classically elegant.

He rubbed his fingertips against the character ‘Yu’ on the wooden plate while listening to his mother’s worried voice. Wen Quyi put the item into his pocket and said mildly, “Mom, you and Dad can spend time alone there for a little while, I can take care of myself.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything foolish. Can you please send me the things I need? It just so happen that my teacher had recommended Professor Chu Feng from the university of the arts to me some time ago. I can follow him to learn.”

———pr

Sitting in the car on the way back, Yu Mian finally breathed a sigh of relief.

She took out her phone which she hadn’t touched all morning and unlocked it with her fingerprint. Two unread WeChat messages popped up in the notification bar.

【Dead Face: [Profile link]】

【Dead Face: This is your tutor’s WeChat account. You can contact him here and let him know if you have any questions.】

Yu Mian blinked, recalling what Brother Yu Xing said before leaving the house in the morning and suddenly couldn’t help having a head full of black lines.

It turned out that this Dead Face was a nickname given by the other Yu Mian to her brother. She had to say that it does fit Yu Xing’s cold and expressionless image, but it’s also really rude.

Anyway, with Yu Mian’s personality, she couldn’t do such a thing as giving someone a nickname like that.

Perhaps it was related to her own experience. She had appeared to be more mature and steady than her peers since she was a child, so she was often given the position of class president by teachers.

Students on campus like to give their classmates nicknames, but Yu Mian had never done so. She always felt that it was impolite.

Some students said that she was too serious and couldn’t even take a joke, but she only smiled and said nothing.

Instead of replying to Yu Xing, she clicked on his WeChat profile picture and prepared to change the note first.

She had difficulty thinking of a new one. What should she type?

Brother? It’s a bit too ordinary.

Onii-chan^[1]Japanese; an affectionate or familiar way for someone, typically a younger sibling or a child, to refer to their older brother? Yu Xing? Big Brother? Elder Brother?

She thought about it for a few seconds, then finally wrinkled her nose and changed it to Brother Daren^[2]title of respect toward superiors.

Brother Daren sounded a bit playful and intimate, which also represents her sincere hope that one day she could become close to him.

After changing the note, she went back and reply to ‘Brother Daren’.

【Mianmian: Got it~ Thank you, Brother. o(>ω< )o】

After replying, she clicked on the link her forwarded her, and first looked at the tutor’s basic information.

The other party’s username was Shen Shang and his profile picture was a black and white Chinese style ink painting. There was a large blank space in the painting along with a row of low mountains, a small boat, and a small figure.

The mountains were light and so was the water. Only the lone boat and the figure were stained with deep thick ink, just like a drop of ink that had dripped into a paper. It created a rich and heavy stroke that was directly imprinted in the viewer’s eyes, to the bottom of their hearts.

Yu Mian stared at the painting for a long time, and when she came back to her senses again, it was already ten minutes later.

She had been studying Chinese painting on her own, so she naturally had an appreciation for this type of art and was able to see that it wasn’t an online picture that ordinary people like to use, but the work of someone who had real skills in Chinese painting.

Was this done by the new teacher?

The idea naturally popped up in her mind, and the more Yu Mian thought about it, the more likely it seemed.

After all, she’s studying painting and the teacher her brother found for her must also be someone who knew how to paint. She just didn’t know what kind of person this teacher was. If this painting was really made by him, Yu Mian would be eager to learn from him.

Because of this profile picture, Yu Mian was deeply curious about the tutor she hadn’t yet seen and couldn’t help but want to meet him as soon as possible.

At this very moment when she was sitting in the car on her way home, full of infinite expectations for the future, she was unaware that there was a topic on the Internet that was climbing up the hot search list at an extremely fast speed.

———pr

Mu Lan, also known as Deep Sea, was a long-time fan of Lin Jianshen. At this moment, she was so angry that her cheeks turned red as she gripped her phone. Her eyes were almost spewing fire.

“Ahhhhhh, why?! Why did Shenshen give that woman a like?! I clearly also posted a lucky draw! I sent out twice as much as that woman! Why didn’t he give me a like? Ahhhhhh, I can’t accept it!!!”

Young Lady Mu Lan, who always maintained her image, grabbed the pillow and pounded it hard while gnashing teeth and feeling resentful. Her usual elegance and dignity could no longer be seen.

The voice of her best friend, Li Qingtong, rang on the phone, comforting her and saying, “Don’t be sad, Lanlan. Red Cotton Tree is Shenshen’s first fan after all, it’s normal to have some affection after so many years. We don’t have to worry. Isn’t your family planning to find a product endorser? I think you can find Shenshen to do it, and then you can take the opportunity to make him look at you.”

Hearing what she said, Mu Lan’s face gradually improved. She thought for a while and said, “Yes, you’re right. As long as I put in enough effort, Shenshen will see me one day! I will tell my father about it. When the time comes, we can also set the shooting location at my house so I can have a close contact with Shenshen……”

As Mu Lan spoke, these scenes seemed to appear in front of her eyes, and she couldn’t help but laugh happily. “Red Cotton Tree, that pauper, so what if she wins the lottery? Can she give Shenshen an endorsement?! Humph!”