Chapter 11

Bai Muxi had not thought of it the night before. It was only when they discussed the location for the lesson the next day that she realized things were bad.

She felt Shen Zhong’s suggestion was not quite workable and tried to decline tactfully.

“Going to your place doesn’t seem very good, right? I only just went there the day before yesterday.”

Shen Zhong, who had called during a break at work, remained unmoved and pointed out calmly, “That doesn’t conflict with you coming today.”

It truly did not fundamentally conflict. But judging from this frequency, Bai Muxi was very soon going to have a conflict with her manager.

Although her instincts told her it was not very good to go to Shen Zhong’s home to teach her, Bai Muxi, who lived in a dorm, also could not come up with any other alternative. After calculating how often she might end up going to Shen Zhong’s place if this proposal actually went through, she decided to brace herself and first confess to Li Mingyu about her relationship with Shen Zhong—of course, only the fact that the two of them had known each other before. Not a single other thing could be said.

Li Mingyu was much calmer than Bai Muxi had imagined. She did not object to the two of them being close either—rather, she even looked quite happy to see it happen. It was just that the direction of the question she asked was a little strange.

“You only knew each other before?”

Bai Muxi: “…What do you mean?”

“…Nothing much.” Li Mingyu shrugged. Remembering the scene she had seen in the studio a few days ago, she pondered for quite a while before hesitantly saying, “I just feel like the two of you look like your atmosphere is quite… that.”

What “that”?!

Li Mingyu could not explain clearly, so Bai Muxi could not get anything useful even if she wanted to ask further. She was a little worried that she had behaved strangely in front of Shen Zhong, but she had no one she could ask about this kind of thing. Thinking about it, it seemed only Lin Bei might be able to help. She opened her phone and looked, just in time to see that Lin Bei had sent her messages not long ago. And when he sent messages, he sent several at once.

Lin Bei: woc Xi-zai, Sister Shen Zhong liked my Moments post

Lin Bei: When I opened my eyes this morning, I thought I was still dreaming

Lin Bei: You definitely don’t know how rare this is. Even when I posted on Moments to promote the drama we filmed together, she ignored me!

Lin Bei: So, good brother, when are we going out to eat next time? Can you let me take ten or eight more photos?

Bai Muxi coldly finished reading them and decided to pretend she had never seen them.

She more or less accepted the fact that she would be going to Shen Zhong’s home tonight. In order to leave early, she worked especially seriously too. Today’s work was a magazine photoshoot. At first, when she had just debuted, she had not been very used to the camera, but now she was already calm and composed. She was in such good condition that even the photographer praised her.

“Muxi looks like she’s in a very good mood today. Did something good happen?”

Bai Muxi herself had not noticed at all. Only after being told this did she hurriedly fix her expression and nod with flickering eyes.

“You could say that.”

After work ended, she first went back to the dorm. Only after gathering the things she had used in class before did she arrive at Shen Zhong’s home. The nervousness of coming over for the unauthorized copy second time was not much better than the first. The residential community had access control and required the owner’s permission. In the end, the moment Bai Muxi got out of the car, she saw Shen Zhong standing at the entrance of the community. Her slender figure stood straight and upright, like a water lily blooming in the night.

“Why are you…”

Completely unaware that Shen Zhong had been waiting here, Bai Muxi quickly ran over, momentarily at a loss for words.

“Didn’t we say I’d call you when I got here? It’s pretty cold outside.”

Shen Zhong looked at her helpless expression and curved her brows and eyes slightly. What she said was very casual.

“I just came down for a walk and happened to run into you.”

“I said I would pick you up, but you wouldn’t agree.” The two of them slowly walked into the building together. Shen Zhong pressed the elevator button. “I had nothing to do sitting around, so I felt bored.”

…No matter whether what she said was true or not, Bai Muxi felt that Shen Zhong was not considering the possibility of being photographed at all. Bai Muxi, who was not as daring as she was, smiled helplessly and did not argue. She only said, “It’s not that far. There’s no need to trouble you to pick me up.”

Shen Zhong clearly did not fully accept those words. Even when the two of them entered her home, the look she cast over still carried disapproval. Haru, however, did not sense its owner’s mood. As always, it happily came out to greet them. When it saw Bai Muxi, it froze for a moment, but soon came over affectionately, obviously still retaining an impression of her.

Bai Muxi was busy taking the guitar off her back, so for a moment, she could only rub Haru’s head in an extremely awkward posture. Shen Zhong very naturally took the guitar from her back and went inside. After putting it down, she took a new pair of slippers from the shoe cabinet and handed them over, lifting her eyes to look at her.

“This time, you can come in and sit, right?”

There was more or less a little grudge-holding in that. Bai Muxi smiled [Read on BaiLianTales]awkwardly and entered the living room under Haru’s guidance.

When she came last time, she had been weighed down by worries and had not dared look around much. This time, she finally had the mind to look at Shen Zhong’s living environment. The entire home was very large, laid out with three bedrooms and two living rooms. The color palette of black, white, and gray ran through the whole house. Even the ceiling lights gave off a cool white glow. There were already only the necessary daily items in the house, and every visible place was extremely tidy, making the room look cold and empty. At one glance, it felt especially “Shen Zhong.”

Although Bai Muxi’s one-bedroom dorm was small and cramped, and no part of it could compare to Shen Zhong’s place, in terms of feeling lived-in, it could probably beat this place by more than five streets. Bai Muxi looked at the sofa, which had not even a single wrinkle in its cover, and stood there for a long time, not daring to sit. Troubled, she thought that Shen Zhong’s mysophobia seemed much more serious than before. She sincerely began to worry whether her arrival would cause Shen Zhong to clean this enormous house by herself in the middle of the night after she left.

“…Don’t mind it too much.”

Shen Zhong must have seen Bai Muxi’s concern. She coughed lightly, put down the glass of water she had brought over, and sat on the sofa first. Then she reached out to take Bai Muxi’s hand.

“I just… thought a guest was coming, so I tidied up a little.”

Not daring to let Shen Zhong take her hand, Bai Muxi hurriedly sat down after her. Very quickly, from Shen Zhong’s words, she realized that this excessively tidy house seemed to be the result of this person trying too hard. She had to use a great deal of effort to stop herself from looking over with an expression that said, So even you have days when you make this kind of mistake. Instead, she reached for the guitar and cut to the main topic.

“Do you really want to learn guitar?”

“Mm.” Shen Zhong answered casually. “I often saw you play it during the competition.”

Her hand accidentally caught on the strings and produced a jumbled sound. Bai Muxi hurriedly stopped the strings from vibrating and smiled.

“Why are you like others too, wanting to learn whatever you see someone else playing? Learning an instrument still depends on personal interest. Otherwise, it’s very hard to keep going.”

“I’m very interested too.”

Shen Zhong tilted her head to look at her. Perhaps because she was in a familiar environment, the coldness on her face had faded somewhat, revealing a quiet gentleness.

“When you played guitar for me for the first time before,” Shen Zhong said, the corners of her lips curving slightly as nostalgia flashed through her eyes, “I thought it sounded very nice.”

Her expression was so gentle, and even her words revealed how much she cherished that memory.

But Bai Muxi felt her limbs suddenly grow heavy. The root of her tongue gradually went numb, making it hard to speak.

Who could know more clearly than her? Back then, she had already been harboring improper thoughts toward Shen Zhong. Even her reason for learning guitar had not been that innocent. It was only because she had heard that a guitarist in a school band had confessed to Shen Zhong. Her blood had rushed to her head, and as if she were fighting an imaginary enemy, she had thrown herself into signing up for lessons, as though if she also learned how to play guitar, Shen Zhong would not be moved by other people who could play it.

The first song she learned to play and sing was Quiet. On a warm, sunlit afternoon, she sang it for Shen Zhong. Perhaps Shen Zhong only thought of it as a peaceful, beautiful memory. But in Bai Muxi’s heart, it had been the hidden love surging beneath the surface the first time she sang a love song for the person she liked.

Bai Muxi still could not face those old memories with a normal mindset. Bringing them up now made her feel bitter, and she was startled to realize she remembered them so clearly.

Just like the song said, perhaps she really had no talent.

“…If it’s guitar, once you play a lot, calluses will grow on your fingers.”

The shift in topic was somewhat stiff. Bai Muxi passed the guitar in her arms toward Shen Zhong from a distance.

“And when you first start pressing the strings, it might hurt. You can try pressing read the original at bailiantales.comthem first. Also see if this guitar is too big for you. It’s the one I used often before.”

Shen Zhong took it and held it, her slender, delicate fingers lightly resting on the strings. She looked over, signaling for instruction.

“How do I press?”

“It’s just…”

Bai Muxi instinctively reached out to correct her posture. Only when she touched Shen Zhong’s fingers did she realize something was wrong. She hurriedly pulled back as if scalded, then pulled out the guitar textbook she had brought and opened it in front of Shen Zhong.

“Just try pressing according to the chord positions here first.”

Shen Zhong lowered her head and looked at the textbook a few times before looking back at her. Her pitch-black pupils were deep as ink. Her hand, meanwhile, had obediently followed the position shown, but she said softly, “From what I saw of Teacher Bai on For Whom I Sing, this isn’t how you teach people.”

Being called Teacher Bai by her again made Bai Muxi’s heart panic. She froze for a long while before realizing Shen Zhong was talking about a certain clip from the show where Bai Muxi taught Qu Yangyang to practice guitar. It had not even lasted two minutes in total. If Shen Zhong had not mentioned it while before realizing Shen Zhong was talking about a certain clip from the show where Bai Muxi taught Qu Yangyang to practice, Bai Muxi herself would not have remembered. So she answered hesitantly, “At that time, I was teaching Yangyang how to play a new song. There weren’t any ready-made teaching materials to use…”

What Qu Yangyang wanted to learn was even the theme song from a modern drama Shen Zhong had starred in. That person wanted to sing it onstage but could not play it herself, so she came to Bai Muxi, who was faster at figuring out music by ear, for help. As a result, during the teaching process, Bai Muxi had had to endure Qu Yangyang’s one hundred and eight different forms of enthusiastic recommendation about Shen Zhong. She had wanted nothing more than to use knowledge to block Qu Yangyang’s mouth.

Shen Zhong lowered her head. Her exquisite brows and eyes were lowered, hiding her emotions. She gave a soft hum of unclear meaning.

“Mm.”

…Bai Muxi kept feeling that Shen Zhong’s mood had subtly worsened. She felt a little guilty too. Reflecting on it, she seemed to have dodged too obviously just now. Then she looked at Shen Zhong, who had pressed the strings down and seemed to have drifted off without letting go. Finally, stiffly, she reached out and caught Shen Zhong’s fingers where read the original at bailiantales.com they rested on the fretboard, making her loosen the strings first. Her voice carried deliberate cheerfulness.

“How is it? It actually hurts quite a bit, right?”

As she spoke, she pulled Shen Zhong’s hand over to look at her fingertips. Sure enough, the pale pads of her fingers had already been marked red by the strings. Bai Muxi instinctively raised her hand and rubbed them for her, slightly frowning as she said, “When you first start learning this kind of string instrument, there will be this sort of problem. If you don’t like it, switching to another instrument would be fine too. You should be very suited to playing piano as well…”

She rambled on quite a bit, but Shen Zhong never answered. Bai Muxi looked up in confusion, only to see Shen Zhong slightly lowering her gaze in a daze. The place her eyes landed was clearly their joined hands. Bai Muxi realized what was happening and hurriedly let go. The apology had already reached her lips before she could say it, but the hand she had just released was suddenly caught back by Shen Zhong in return.

“…It doesn’t hurt that much.”

Unlike Bai Muxi’s loose hold just now, Shen Zhong said this while gripping her hand tighter and bringing it to her side. Without giving her any room to argue, Shen Zhong lowered her head and spread open Bai Muxi’s nervously clenched palm.

“What do calluses from playing for a long time look like? I haven’t seen them before.”

…What was she suddenly saying? What was there about calluses she had not seen before? Weren’t they more or less like the ones worn from writing?

Before Bai Muxi could respond, she could only watch helplessly as Shen Zhong gently stroked her fingertips. The instant they touched, Bai Muxi could not stop herself from trembling.

“It does seem like there’s a little.” The tone coming from opposite her was very calm. Shen Zhong pinched her fingers. Fingertips with calluses should not have been that sensitive to touch, but Bai Muxi simply felt a fine, fragmented itch spread out from her fingers, making her freeze in place, not daring to move.

Bai Muxi did not even dare breathe too loudly. When Shen Zhong lifted her eyes to look over, Bai Muxi instinctively shrank back in panic, but Shen Zhong reacted quickly and held her hand tighter, preventing her from escaping. Shen Zhong’s brows lightly furrowed.

“What’s wrong? Does it hurt when I touch you like this?”

“…”

It did not hurt. It was just that an invisible alarm seemed to be ringing in Bai Muxi’s mind. Bai Muxi instinctively felt that they were too close, but reason quickly made her realize that between friends, doing something like this was very ordinary. Thinking that, she felt herself calm down. The momentary panic was suppressed, and Bai Muxi slowly shook her head.

“…No. It doesn’t hurt.”