Chapter 26 Cold Tea in the Study
On the eve of the last stop of the Concert close, I went back to the Xiao family's old house for a meal.
Old Master Xiao had just recovered from a serious illness and left the hospital. It was right to celebrate.
I arrived late because of rehearsal. When I went in, everyone at the table was waiting for me.
A seat had been left for me beside Xiao Yuan. I went over and sat down.
Xiao Yuan had lost some weight. His face looked sharper. Facing me, he was very gentle.
We were in perfect tacit agreement. We did not mention that drunk call by a single word.
When dinner ended, Old Master Xiao still asked, "When are you two getting married?"
I smiled and answered, "His career and mine are both in a rising period. There's no rush."
The same perfunctory reason, not a word different.
Only the person saying it had changed.
After the meal I zoned out in the courtyard, but Xiao Yuan's father called me to the study.
I was extremely surprised. Xiao Qishan had always seemed to treat me with more than an ordinary elder's regard, but these years he had rarely had contact with me.
In Xiao Yuan's study the violin still hung. Xiao Qishan poured me tea. "Zhiyi, the reason you won't accept Xiao Yuan now, is it because of what happened between me and your mother?"
My heart dropped fast like that. I gripped the teacup without thinking, looked at Xiao Qishan, and asked in a light voice, "What happened?"
My parents divorced when I was fifteen. After the divorce my father left not a single word, gave up my custody, and went to England.
At twenty, my mother went to settle in the southwest, a thousand miles away, and cut contact with me completely.
I had always thought they had fallen apart.
Bamboo leaves rustled outside the window. The tea had gone mostly cold. I looked at Xiao Qishan's face, so extremely like Xiao Yuan's, and suddenly laughed out loud.
The year I was fifteen, eighteen-year-old Xiao Yuan had forgotten to take the car keys. When he came back, he walked in on my mother and his father in bed.
No wonder. No wonder my dad hated me so much.
No wonder that in these five years I chased Xiao Yuan, my dad called countless times to scold me for having no shame.
I asked, "Do Xiao Yuan and I have a blood relation?"
"No!" Xiao Qishan covered his face. His tone was full of pain. "No. No. We... made the mistake only after you were born."
I nodded. Inside I was actually very calm, cold enough that my whole body chilled.
So it had been kept up until Xiao Yuan found out.
The tea had gone completely cold. Xiao Qishan left.
I stared at the teacup. "Did you hear all of it?"