Chapter 2 Chapter One

In the middle of the night, Fan Mei was woken up by the sound of the piano upstairs.Tonight, she'd drank thirteen bottles of baby champagne bought at the convenience store before she could finally fall asleep; now, she really wanted to kill the woman upstairs. Upstairs lived a woman in her twenties.Fan Meiyin once met this long-haired woman in the elevator. At that time, she was holding a large stack of music scores in her arms, humming a tune, and happily tapping the time with her fingers.However, her piano skills are really bad.She plays during the day and at night. If the sound of the piano can be used to kill people, her sound can definitely dominate the martial arts world and kill people thousands of miles away.

However, tonight, the sound of the curly-haired woman was a little different from usual.She seemed to improve overnight.It used to be a murderous curse, but today it is a gentle comfort.She was playing Dan Fogelberg's "Longer", the sound of the piano stopped abruptly, and Fan Meiyin picked up the flute placed beside her.Looking out from the window of the house, there is a dim street lamp, just as lonely as the street lamp she saw in Shao Chongxia's room eight years ago. She played Tchaikovsky's "Melody of Longing" on the flute.She doesn't play well, and her days of flute lessons are too short.That day I suddenly started learning the flute, and it was also because of Shao Chongxia.That summer, she met him at a class reunion dinner party.He is sitting next to her.

"I don't think I've seen you in college before." Shao Chongxia said. Fan Mei nodded with a smile.Shao Chongxia is in a higher class than her, and from a different department.It's not that he hasn't seen her, it's just that he forgot.Fan Meiyin once walked with his roommate Qiu Qingzhi.When they first met, she was under Qiu Qingzhi's bed.That night, Qiu Qingzhi told her that his roommate probably wouldn't come back.When they were having sex on the bed, Shao Chongxia suddenly came back drunk, and Qiu Qingzhi hid her under the covers in embarrassment.She secretly saw Shao Chongxia through the gap in the bed.

Shao Chongxia sat down beside Qiu Qingzhi, and said dejectedly, "Can we chat?" "I'm very tired! Tomorrow!" Qiu Qingzhi yawned a few times, pretending to sleep. Shao Chongxia had no choice but to stand up and return to his bed. In the middle of the night, Qiu Qingzhi fell asleep, Fan Mei couldn't wake him up no matter how hard she pushed, so she had to quietly crawl out of the bed.She heard Shao Chongxia sobbing in the darkness.She was about to go out on tiptoe, when Shao Chongxia suddenly poked his head out from under the quilt, and asked in a hoarse voice: "Who?"

"Me!" She was startled. "Who are you?" "I'm the one who was hiding under the covers just now." "Sorry, I didn't know you—" "It's okay." She shrugged. Outside the window of the room, a bright yellow street lamp can be seen.Fan Meiyin saw half of Shao Chongxia's face, but Shao Chongxia couldn't see her clearly. "I heard you crying, are you broken in love?" she asked. "I just think of my old lover." Shao Chongxia said. "How long has it been since you broke up?" "For a long time."

"Why did you separate?" "She's in love with someone else." "Do you still love her very much?" "She was my first love." "She doesn't love you anymore, it's useless how much you love her." "You're right." A tremor of sadness said, "Thank you." "you are welcome." "Can we still talk?" "How about another day? I don't have any clothes on right now, I'm going to die of cold!" Fan Meiyin only had a sheet on her body. "Oh, sorry!" "I'm leaving! Don't turn on the light until I'm gone."

"Can you promise me one thing?" "What's up?" "Don't tell anyone you saw me cry." "Okay. Don't tell anyone you saw me here either." "I can't see you at all." "Excellent, then I won't have to gouge your eyes out!" "Have you read too many martial arts novels?" "Goodbye!" Fan Mei walked away with the bed sheet rolled up. "Goodbye, Heroine!" Later, Fan Meiyin and Qiu Qingzhi separated.Every time the local meets Shao Chongxia on campus, he will also think of what happened that night.She never thought that many years later, the bird of chance would land on their shoulders again.She saw that Shao Chongxia was not wearing a wedding ring on his finger, and her heart suddenly became firm.Fortunately, Qiu Qingzhi did not come.She also asked Shao Chongxia about it. After graduation, he and Qiu Qingzhi had no further contact.

That night, Fan Meiyin and Shao Chongxia exchanged business cards.After returning home, she waited for a long time, but Shao Chongxia didn't call her.He wasn't in love with her, was he?However, longing tormented her. One afternoon, Fan Meiyin came downstairs to Shao Chongxia's office.She wanted to pretend to meet him by chance.However, when she saw Shao Chongxia coming out of the building, she didn't have the courage to run forward.She only dared to follow him silently.She stalked him for days.He lives in King Kwong Street, Happy Valley, and there is a musical instrument store downstairs.She suddenly thought of a better way than meeting him by chance.

She went into the music store, which was run by a young woman. "I want to come to learn an instrument." Su Meiyin said. "Which musical instrument do you want to learn? We have pianos, keyboards, violins, clarinets, flutes, zithers and pipas here." "Flute." Fan Meiyin said.She likes the flute. "What day of the week do you want to have class?" "every day." "Flute lessons are only on Wednesdays and Fridays." "Study these two days." The flute teacher was on vacation, and the substitute teacher was Zhai Chengxun, who was about the same age as her.In the flute class, there are four students in total.One is twelve years old, one is nine years old, and one is even younger, only seven years old.When she first walked into the classroom, the three children respectfully called her teacher.They didn't know she was the oldest student in the class until the real teacher walked in.

Her painstaking efforts were not in vain, and finally one evening, she saw Shao Chongxia coming back from outside in the musical instrument shop.She hurried out with her backpack on and met him at the door. "Huh, it's you?" Fan Mei asked him with a surprised expression, "Why are you here?" "I live upstairs." Shao Chongxia said. "What a coincidence! I'm learning to play an instrument here." "What instrument do you learn?" "flute." Shao Chongxia glanced at her with a strange expression. "You must think it's too old for me to learn an instrument now, don't you?"

"If you learn musical instruments when you're older, you may have a better comprehension." Shao Chongxia smiled. "Oh, thank you." After a pause, she asked, "Do you know anything delicious in this area?" "Have you not eaten yet?" Fan Meiyin shook her head. "There is a very good Japanese restaurant, let me be the host, anyway, I haven't eaten yet." While eating sushi, Fan Meiyin's heart beat very fast.Since middle school, her suitors have never stopped, and she has never had to have a crush on others.However, now she is secretly in love with this man for no apparent reason.On the way home, she thought, when love comes, it may be a kind of retribution.Tonight, she will go to bed earlier, because she promised to wake up Shao Chongxia tomorrow morning.During the meal just now, he said that there will be a breakfast meeting early tomorrow morning, and he was afraid that he would not be able to get out of bed, so she immediately volunteered and said: "I'll call you to wake you up." "What's the point of that?" "It's okay, I always get up early." Where is she a morning person?Tonight, she dare not sleep.She watched DVDs with the alarm clock in her arms and stayed until dawn.She was afraid that she had overslept and forgot to wake Shao Chongxia up. At half past seven in the morning, she said to Shao Chongxia on the phone with a pleasant voice: "Wake up!" Shao Chongxia said vaguely, "Thank you!" Later, Fan Mei knew that Shao Chongxia couldn't get up early every day, so she said, "When I wake up every day, I will wake you up too!" That's it, the first voice Shao Chongxia heard every morning was Fan Meiyin's voice.Fan Mei's wish before going to bed every day is to hear Shao Chongxia's voice tomorrow.Every morning of her has become more practical since then.Could it be that Shao Chongxia couldn't see such a subtle concern?However, he took no action. Fan Meiyin still goes to the musical instrument shop to learn flute two days a week, she talks to Shao Chongxia on the phone almost every day, and they occasionally eat, chat, and even go to the movies together.Perhaps, it's not that Shao Chongxia doesn't know her feelings, he just didn't fall in love with her. One night, when the two of them came out of the movie theater, Shao Chongxia suddenly said, "You are my good brother!" Fan Mei was so angry that she put on a straight face all night, Shao Chongxia thought she was having some kind of emotion. Could it be that she is so unbearable in Shao Chongxia's heart, not even the slightest bit attractive?Or did Shao Chongxia deliberately reject her in such a tactful manner? The next day, Fan Meiyin ran to cut her long hair short.When Shao Chongxia saw her, he was startled. "Why did you cut your hair short?" Shao Chongxia asked. "That's how we can be brothers with you!" Fan Meiyin said quietly. "Your short hair looks great!" When Shao Chongxia said she was pretty, Fan Meiyin suddenly softened again.This man is really bad, whenever she can't bear it anymore and wants to give up, he ignites the flame of hope in her heart again.Perhaps, she thought, he would fall in love with her at last.One day, he will take her in his arms. One night, Fan Mei came out of the musical instrument store after her class, and saw Shao Chongxia wandering outside the musical instrument store, as if he was waiting for her.She thought that day had finally come. "I remember that you dismissed get out of class at this time." Shao Chongxia said. "Do you want to invite me to dinner?" she asked playfully. "What do you like to eat?" "Just the 'bed fee' for waking you up every morning should be worth a lot of money, right?" "Of course! Of course!" "Well——" Fan Meiyin thought for a while and said, "I want to eat Italian food, and I know there is a very good one." It was a small Italian restaurant without a menu, and the chef picked the freshest dishes of the day in the market and cooked them.What the guests eat is what the chef thinks is the best. While drinking mushroom soup, Shao Chongxia asked her: "Do you know what it's like to be in love?" Fan Mei's face turned red, was Shao Chongxia implying something? "I've never had a crush on anyone else." She said against her conscience. "I haven't tried it either, but this time—" "Are you crushing on someone else?" Shao Chongxia smiled shyly. "Does she know?" "I probably don't know yet." "Why didn't you tell her?" "I'm afraid she will avoid me in the future." "Or she likes you too, just waiting for you to speak." "I don't know how to speak, she is my subordinate." Fan Mei's eyes were red, and she quickly lowered her head.An oil flower floated in the bowl of mushroom soup in front of her, like a pea-sized bead, and she felt her nose was sore.She sternly warned herself not to cry, and not to cry. "Is she pretty?" she asked him, raising her eyes. Shao Chongxia smiled and nodded. "What do you like about her?" "Maybe she feels a bit like my first love to me! But, she already has a good boyfriend." "What does that matter? She's not married yet." "It's not my style to steal someone's girlfriend." "If the earth doesn't love you, you can't grab it even if you want to." She was really crazy to encourage him to pursue another woman. "Unrequited love is a kind of self-torture." Shao Chongxia said bitterly. "Si, I can probably imagine that feeling." Fan Mei tried to put on a chic look. Shao Chongxia finally walked with that woman named Lin Kangyue.He is painfully playing the role of the third party.She was so unwilling, he would rather choose a woman with a boyfriend than her. From then on, Fan Meiyin often bought baby champagne in a small light blue bottle in a convenience store.It is said to be baby champagne, but it is not for babies, but the bottle is about the same size as a small bottle of soy sauce.The champagne was nothing but sparkling wine and tasted terrible.Every time, when she misses Shao Chongxia all night, she punishes herself to drink a bottle of baby champagne until she vomits all over the floor, or falls asleep like a baby after getting drunk, so that she can resist the rushing thoughts. Every morning, Fan Meiyin still got up bravely and woke Shao Chongxia from the bed with the phone as usual.However, she knew that every night, in his arms was another woman.What is she waiting for?She is really hopeless, and she is waiting for his return. Sometimes, drinking baby champagne doesn't help either.Maybe, she should find another man. One lonely night, she was bored surfing the Internet, looking for someone to chat with.She ICQed a man online.The reason they found him was that his code name was the same as Shao Chongxia's birthday. "Do you know what it's like to be in secret love?" Fan Meiyin asked online. "Secret love is humble, so I will say that I have never had a crush on others." The other party replied. "Me neither." The advantage of being online is that you don't have to tell the truth. Every night, Fan Meiyin sat alone in front of the computer screen and chatted with this unknown man. Until one day, that man asked her out to meet. "Okay." Fan Meiyin agreed straight away. She had chosen a bar as the first meeting place, the kind of place where she could let loose a little. "How do I know it's you?" the other person asked. "I can't show up with a rose, can I? Well, I wear a bra with a rose pattern on it." Fan Meiyin deliberately teased him. "Then how can I see?" "Okay! I'll take a flute." "Then I'll take a flute too." "It's a deal." She was a little surprised when she saw this man with a flute.She thought he was a guy who liked to meet girls online, but he seemed like a nice guy.He introduced himself and said his name was Zheng Yizhi. "Why do you play ICQ?" she asked. "I'm broken in love, how about you?" "I can also say it's a lovelorn. Yes, why did you use this code name?" "This is the student number of a female classmate in my elementary school." "You have a crush on her?" "It's her crush on me." "Then what happened next?" "Later, I fell in love with her unrequitedly." "Why did it become like this?" "There was an interval of eleven years. We met again eleven years later, she fell in love with someone else, and I was just a backup." "You are happier than me. I'm not even a backup." Fan Meiyin said sadly. "Being a backup is not happy." Zheng Yizhi said. "At least the backup has a chance to play. But, I'm just his cheerleader." "Does he know?" "I hope he never knows." After leaving the bar, Fan Meiyin and Zheng Yizhi went to the hotel.When everyone took off their shirts, Zheng Yizhi saw that Fan Meiyin was indeed wearing a bra with a rose pattern. "You really have a pottery cover like this?" "Who lied to you!" Zheng Yizhi climbed onto Fan Meiyin, and after a while, he rolled over. "No! I still miss the ground." Zheng Yizhi said painfully, "Please don't laugh at me." "Then you lie down and let me come!" "Okay, come on!" Zheng Yizhi spread his hands and feet, lying obediently. Fan Meiyin climbed onto him and did not move, looking at him with wet eyes. "What's the matter?" Zheng Yizhi asked. "No, I miss him too." She sobbed on Zheng Yizhi's body. "Don't cry. We don't have to do it." Zheng Yizhi patted her on the back to comfort her. "Why do you also have a flute?" Fan Meiyin asked with tears in her eyes. "I was in the school flute class when I was in elementary school. What about you?" "I just started learning it recently. There is a musical instrument store downstairs in his house. I only learned the flute to get close to him." Fan Meiyin got up and asked Zheng Yizhi, "Can you teach me to play the flute?" "I've been abandoned for a long time." Seeing Fan Meiyin's disappointed expression, he said, "I'll give it a try. What song do you want to hear?" "Can you play "Right Here Waiting" by Richard Marks?" Zheng Yizhi put the flute to his lips, as if he had returned to his childhood; however, that song turned into a string of sad thoughts, flowing through strange shapes, floating in the boundless night. The song is sung like this: "I'm waiting for you here...", the two of them who are waiting are waiting for the other person infatuatedly. The next morning, Fan Mei woke up in a haze, and a voice whispered in her ear: "Wake up!" She opened her eyes, it was Zheng Yizhi, and he had already put on his clothes. "I don't know if you're going to work," he said. "Yes!" Fan Meiyin quickly got up. For the first time, she realized how blissful it was to be woken up in the morning.She and Zheng Yizhi broke up outside the hotel, and no one said whether they would see each other again.It's the age of ICQ and she's still playing crush, she's so damn outdated.She didn't look for Zheng Yizhi on the Internet anymore, she knew that lust could not save her. Fan Meiyin finally waited for that day.Lin Kangyue returned to her boyfriend.Between two men, she chose the original one.A week after the breakup, Shao Chongxia fell ill. He had a bad cold.When she saw him for the first time, he cried in the dormitory room because he missed his old lover; this time, he actually fell ill because of a broken relationship.Does he think he is the modern Liang Shanbo?He might still be vomiting blood!However, she ran to see him anyway. Seeing Shao Chongxia fell ill, she crawled into his bed sadly, and said timidly: "Can you give me a hug?" Shao Chongxia stared at her blankly. "I just want you to give me a hug." She buried her head in his chest. Shao Chongxia hugged her. "I've pictured this feeling in my head many, many times, and yes, that's it," she said, putting her arms around him. Fan Meiyin finally confessed to herself.However, this time the watch did not have the ending she had imagined thousands of times in her dreams.Shao Chongxia said with a guilty face: "You can find someone better than me." He will never forget that woman, will he? No matter how lonely and sad he is, he still won't fall in love with her. "If it were another man, he would definitely sleep with me tonight." She said unwillingly. "Yes, you are attractive, but I don't want to hurt you." "I don't mind being a backup." "How can you be a backup?" "You don't even want to give alms once?" "Don't say that, you are noble in my heart." "I don't want to be noble, I want to love!" She turned her head and sobbed. Fan Meiyin recalled that night eight years ago, when she met Shao Chongxia for the first time, she comforted him and said: "She doesn't love you, it's useless how much you love her." Could it be that a sentence of the day is a portrayal of today?It's just that she was the one crying. The past eight years ago is like yesterday, but she and Shao Chongxia are far away from each other. The piano sounded upstairs again.Fan Meiyin played the song "Right Here Waiting" on the flute.The street lamp from eight years ago receded back outside her window, recalling those beautiful days of youth.She suddenly forgave everyone who played the piano in the middle of the night.There are inevitably sad reasons for the singing at midnight. She looked down at the bra embroidered with roses on her body. It was the same bra she was wearing when she hugged Shao Chongxia under the quilt that day.In the passing time, shame turned into regret, and she was hopelessly missing that distant bed. Towards daybreak, she drank her fourteenth bottle of baby champagne.Maybe, she will still pick up the microphone later to wake Shao Chongxia from his sleep.