Juliet Tower

Chapter 103

An Jiayu didn't want Qiao Yumian to be too sad.

But I definitely don't want him to pretend nothing happened.

Life is nothing but a repetition of gaining and losing, hurting and healing over and over again.

The pain that refuses to be exposed tends to take longer to heal.

"Then... come back early after get off work, I'll find you later." He gently hugged Qiao Yumian.

"Okay." The other party agreed to him very calmly.

He went home and packed some change of clothes, thought for a while, picked up the piano case, and threw it into the back seat of the SUV.

Before getting into the car, she was stopped, and An Zhen leaned out half of her body from the attic window: "Wait a minute..."

He hurriedly walked to the window: "Be careful." The music season is coming to an end, and An Zhen June starts to relax.

"Why did you take the piano away, where are you going?" An Zhen pointed to the trunk from a high place, "I don't return home every day and night..."

An Jiayu hesitated for a while, he was always absent-minded these days, and Qiao Yumian was in a hurry, before he had time to say to his family: "Mom, I'll go to Xiao Qiao's... His mother passed away yesterday..."

"..." An Zhen seemed to want to lecture him, but she was stunned when she heard this sentence, "Then, if there is anything you need to help, you can ask the driver to go with you... Ah, wait a minute, I'll see if there's any..."

"Mom, no need." An Jiayu shook her head, "I don't want anything. I don't need any help. He doesn't have any relatives or friends, so I just go to accompany him."

I can't say why, but if I don't stay by that person's side, I feel a little restless.

Before Qiao Yumian entered the studio, she took off the black gauze on her arm and put it in her pocket.

Su Rui wasn't here, and the others didn't know what was going on in his family, they only knew that his mother was in poor health.

Everyone laughed and greeted him as usual: "Hey? Why are you here at this time, the live broadcast is only on Saturday."

"Well, I know, let's tidy up the yard." He slightly raised the corner of his lips at the other party, and walked into the small garden.

The table for entertaining guests has been removed, and a lot of weeds have grown around the flowers and trees, competing for nutrients with the delicate ground roses.He put on gloves, squatted on the ground to weed, and trimmed flower branches along the way.The temperature will gradually rise in summer, and most of the summer rose flowers are thin and pale in color. It is better to pinch off the buds to preserve nutrients, and wait until late summer and early autumn to bloom large and plump autumn flowers.

Weeding, pruning, watering, fertilizing and pest removal, busy in and out, it is already noon after tidying up the garden.

He turned down his colleagues' invitation to have lunch together and went home alone.

When he walked downstairs, he could vaguely hear the strings of a violin, and he stopped involuntarily.

The heat of summer noon is pushed to a climax by a passionate, fragmented melody.

It seems to be overcoming some difficulties, maybe it is the bow technique, maybe it is the artistic conception.The exact same phrase repeats once, and again.It is hard to say that there are any particularly definite changes, but it is not just a mechanical ensemble, there are minor adjustments and attempts.

Behind the wonderful performance is such a boring practice.

The melodies of performers are not all the same, just like their emotions and ways of thinking, everyone is unique.

And An Jiayu was obviously not in the mood at the moment, the reciprocating phrases came to an abrupt end, I don't know if he was too frustrated.

Qiao Yumian looked up at the climbing vine rose waterfall hanging in the air. The flowers were white and sun-baked.

so ugly.

The sun is dazzling, the noise of the city is too loud, you can't hear the cicadas, you can't hear the wind chimes, and the smell of exhaust makes you anxious.

There was a sudden gust of wind, and after a short rest, a new melody played in the window, and the wilting petals fell, and he reached out to catch them.

The second movement of Saint-Saëns' Violin Concerto in B minor sweeps away the impetuousness before, and is flexible, clear and extremely soft.The reason why An Jiayu's performance is recognized and sought after is not only because of his skillful skills, but also because of his full emotion and appeal.

The sound of the piano brought a touch of coolness, gently enveloping people.

The performer seems to be calming down, trying to heal himself, even with everything around him.

Qiao Yumian entered the door with a calm melody, and the music continued.

There is a mute on An Jiayu's strings. He often travels around to perform, and occasionally needs to practice piano in the hotel. In order not to disturb other guests, the mute is always kept in the violin case.

"Have you eaten yet?" After playing the movement, An Jiayu wiped the body of the piano and put it back into the box.

"No." Qiao Yumian barely blocked his hand, shook her head, "I'm sweating, take a shower first." The man obediently withdrew his arm.

When flushing, the skin on the back of his neck was tingling, and he couldn't see it in the mirror after wiping it dry, so he had to open the door and ask An Jiayu, "Is this scratched?"

An Jiayu took a closer look: "No...it should be sunburn."

The man took his towel and soaked it, wrapped it in a fresh-keeping bag and put it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. After he dried his hair and changed his clothes, the towel became very cold before it could freeze.

"It's not serious, just apply it and it should be fine."

They eat together, sleep together, and run in the morning together.

One of them practiced the piano and the other went to work. Their days were as peaceful as if nothing had happened. He was not very sad, but felt a little empty, and the other party had no special comfort or care.

Until another Saturday, he finished recording the vlog, got off work after the live broadcast, took the subway step by step, and then transferred to the bus. When he came back to his senses, he suddenly found himself standing in the corridor of the nursing home. Occasionally there was crying or knocking on the door.

"Qiao Yumian? Why are you here?" The passing nurse found him stuck in the corridor, stepped forward and asked, "Are you here to pack things? Or is there any formalities that need to be completed?"

The things were taken away when Li Huijun came back to settle the expenses on the day of his death. He shook his head in embarrassment: "No..."

"Oh, by the way, you are here to get flowers. Your roses are in our office. They are very fragrant." The nurse smiled sincerely at him, like every time they met before, he could read a trace of "Congratulations to you." Finally freed" means.Normally, there are countless people here who are waiting for relief. Dementia patients who have no dignity and some family members whose body and mind have been dragged to half-destroyed are waiting together.

Qiao Yumian didn't want to say that she came here in a daze, so she nodded, followed behind the nurse, and went to the office to pick up the pot of dragonflies: "Give the other pot to you, I'll go first."

He went to the yard, put down the five-gallon pot in his arms, and took out his mobile phone to call a car. With such a lush dragonfly, he couldn't take the bus or subway.

Opening the app without thinking, An Jiayu's call came in. He looked at the name, calmed down his frustration, and answered it as usual.

"Little Qiao, where are you? Didn't you say you want to eat barbecue?" The tone on the other end was inexplicably anxious, and Qiao Yumian didn't know if it was because she was hungry.

"In...the studio...it's a bit busy today, you book a seat first, we'll see you in the shop later." Qiao Yumian didn't want him to worry, but it would take an hour at least to rush over, so she had to lie.

The other side was silent for a long time before slowly answering: "...I'm at the door of your studio. I...wanted to pick you up for dinner. They said you left two hours ago...where did you go?"

"..." Qiao Yumian stood in the yard, racking his brains but couldn't find any reason, so he smiled wryly, and confessed honestly, "In a nursing home."

He heard the slamming of the car door, followed by the sound of the engine. The other party didn't hang up the phone, but didn't say anything.

"Well, don't worry, I'm here to get the flowers..." He explained, but then he felt that there was no need to hide it. If others don't know, An Jiayu can't understand, he said, "It wasn't intentional... just , suddenly forgot that she was no longer here."

After finishing speaking, he found that his tears welled up uncontrollably.

He just came to see Li Huijun on weekends as usual, a kind of muscle memory formed in the past three years.

Side by side with the potted dragonfly, he sat on the floor beside the clean flower bed, and finally found out what was the indescribable loss in his heart these days.

"Xiaoyu, I seem to be a little panicked."

"Well, I know." An Jiayu said, "Wait for a while, there are quite a lot of cars."

He was afraid of scaring the other party, but the man's tone seemed to be relieved.

Qiao Yumian raised her head and took a deep breath: "Actually, I'm really flustered."

Especially when you find that your world has not changed at all.

The incinerators of the funeral parlor are working tirelessly all the time. They are not interested in knowing who is being thrown into the fire. Anyway, they cannot escape the fate of being turned into ashes.

"She cares so much about what other people think of her, comparing her with each other, but in the end, no one cares about her except herself. The world will go on without anyone, it doesn't make any difference. Xiaoyu, the world doesn't care about her." He shook his head , aware of his incoherent speech, and finally concluded, "No one cares about this world, there will always be someone supporting it anyway."

When An Jiayu arrived, Qiao Yumian's phone was dead.

He saw Qiao Yumian at the door of the reception room, fiddled with the dragonfly flowers with his head down. He said that the flowers had good heat resistance, and the performance of the wave edge in summer was as amazing as ever.In the setting sun, those wet eyes were gentle and sad, as if silently confiding in the flowers swaying in the breeze.Loneliness remains, fascinating.

He parked the car casually in the yard, ran towards Qiao Yumian, and hugged those frailties that he didn't want to let out.

All the way, he was thinking about what Qiao Yumian meant by "a little flustered" and "extreme panic".

"Qiao Yumian, I care about you. Especially."

He patted the man's slightly arched shoulders and hunched back, trying to comfort him, but found that Qiao Yumian was not as dazed as he imagined, and just whispered in his ear: "I seem to have never lived for myself. He said calmly, "When I was young, I lived for my mother's expectations, for being a child of other people's family, and then grew up, and for my mother's survival. What I eat and wear, what time do I get up, It's all my mother's choice. I try my best to take the first place in the exam, learn flute, enter a private school, and study science. It's also my mother's choice. What to study in college is the answer given by the employment data. Which company to enter is my friend's choice. Guarantee of advice and salary. I actually had no idea what I wanted to do.”

Qiao Yumian gently pushed him away, stared into his eyes seriously, with a slight nasal voice that had just cried: "It seems that my life has gone through more than 20 years now, and there is only one thing that is my own decision, that is, liking you."

The author says:

With the heavy burden off his shoulders, he can finally be himself.