Chapter 10 Don’t Send Me Tickets
Xiao Yuan and Xie Kun stopped calling.
When the music show's discussion was at its peak, it was Old Master Xiao's eightieth birthday. I went back to the Xiao family's old residence.
At the end of the corridor, I ran into Xiao Yuan, whom I had not seen for a month.
He was in a new-Chinese linen outfit, feeding the fish.
I nodded at him and called him Mr. Xiao.
Xiao Yuan raised a brow, about to speak, but I lifted the bamboo curtain and left.
After the banquet we drank tea. Xiao Yuan and I sat across the tea table. A server came to pour. A mint fragrance drifted.
Xiao Yuan glanced at me.
"Change it."
The server nodded and went to switch the tea.
I only watched the tea ceremony, as if I had not heard.
Old Master Xiao asked suddenly.
"When are Xiao Yuan and Xu Zhiyi going to bring up the marriage?"
The lively scene went silent.
Xiao Yuan's smile did not change.
"Zhiyi is still young. Her career and mine are both rising. No rush."
The same perfunctory line. He had used it for nearly five years.
It seemed he simply did not want to marry.
These years had only been my one-sided wish.
Midway I left the tea room and went to the second floor. On the terrace, Xiao Yuan and his father Xiao Qishan were talking.
No. They were arguing.
I did not have the habit of listening in. I was about to turn downstairs when I heard Xiao Qishan, furious.
"If you won't marry, are you going to waste the girl's youth like this?"
Then Xiao Yuan's lazy voice.
"A marriage talk the two families made as a joke. What's there to marry for. If you want it that badly, why don't you go?"
I stood there for a while in silence, then went downstairs without a sound.
Twenty minutes later, Xiao Yuan sent a message, telling me to come to his study.
The study was full of tea fragrance. Xiao Yuan lowered his eyes, turning a string of beads. When he saw me come in, he asked,
"Were you outside just now?"
I did not answer. I stared at the violin hanging behind him.
"Can you play a piece for me?"
Xiao Yuan paused, then smiled, using the perfunctory tone I had always known.
"That? I can't. I bought it to show off."
He pulled a Concert ticket from a folder and pushed it lightly across the desk to me.
"Zhiyi, don't send me tickets anymore."
His voice was gentle.
"I don't like going to places that are too loud."
I smiled and said okay.
The returned ticket crumpled in my palm, like my hopeless love all these years.
I thought, I had written bitter love songs for so many years. It was time to change.