Chapter 21 - 2#
It was the usual international practice for drawing lots, with two people who drew the same number sharing a room.
Mo Xuzhi was expressionless, while others looked a bit nervous.
These things were already decided internally, so there was nothing to look forward to.
In the end, as expected, the two girls shared a room, the movie king and Fan Yibai shared a room, and Shen Le and Luo Wenyun lived together.
Mo Xuzhi didn’t even draw a slip, following Du Minsheng to their room.
“Brother Yun?”
Seeing Luo Wenyun constantly looking at the paper slip in his hand, Shen Le called out softly, “Let’s go too.”
“Mm.”
Luo Wenyun tucked the slip away, and the [2] written in black pen flashed by.
After Mo Xuzhi and Du Minsheng reached the room, they hurriedly packed up. Du Minsheng reminded him it was time to go to the instrument shop.
Although they each did their own thing, they were still a team. It was better to check the song before the official competition, at least so they wouldn’t lose face.
In the hotel lobby just now, they had agreed to go to the instrument shop after packing.
Mo Xuzhi waved his hand: “Sorry, I’m not going.”
His presence wouldn’t mean much, except to act as a spectator and occasionally say a few poisonous words to Shen Le. With so many documents piled up in his hands, he had no time to relax.
Du Minsheng saw that he had already opened his suitcase and moved out the blue folders. He didn’t say much, closed the door, and left.
Mo Xuzhi was focused on his documents and didn’t notice the slight disappointment on Du Minsheng’s face.
The cameraman also followed Du Minsheng.
Mo Xuzhi moved the folders to the desk, then circled the room, found two cameras on the cabinet, and decisively covered them with cloth before moving the laptop onto the desk.
For a while, the only sound in the room was the tapping of the keyboard and the rustling of paper.
From daytime to night.
Mo Xuzhi put down the literature and annotations that had nearly doubled in thickness, took off his glasses, and rubbed his temples before standing up to turn on the light.
The room instantly brightened, with a few beams of light leaking from the door gap.
A staff member passing through the hallway originally thought there was no one inside. Seeing the sudden light, they knocked on the door and notified him that they were gathering in the lobby downstairs.
It was a bit cold at night, so Mo Xuzhi threw on a jacket, grabbed his phone, and headed out.
A group of people was gathered in the lobby, with food and dishes on the table.
Everyone was there except Du Minsheng.
Shen Le saw Mo Xuzhi come in, seemingly forgetting everything that happened today, and waved as enthusiastically as when they first met, “Teacher Mo, over here!”
Mo Xuzhi raised his hand and gave a small wave, his expression weary and indifferent. His gaze swept over the others, not lingering on anyone for more than a second, and asked, “Where’s Du Minsheng?”
“He forgot his phone at the instrument shop and went back to get it.”
The speaker was Luo Wenyun. He looked up at Mo Xuzhi, his eyes calm.
Shen Le didn’t expect him to speak suddenly, and he closed his mouth just as he was about to answer Mo Xuzhi’s question, sitting on the side and nodding along.
“Okay,” Mo Xuzhi checked the time on his phone and said, “Thanks.”
“No thanks needed.”
Hearing the calm and normal conversation between the two, everyone—guests and staff alike—was shocked.
This wasn’t normal.
They had noticed since Mo Xuzhi first boarded the bus today that whenever he talked to Luo Wenyun, he had a smile on his face, one that was brighter than a flower.
Tonight, Mo Xuzhi didn’t even bother to give Luo Wenyun more than a glance.
They had originally thought he had some interest in Luo Wenyun, but now it seemed, just as others said, he didn’t care about Luo Wenyun at all and just wanted to use him for more screen time.
Luo Wenyun seemed not to notice, or perhaps he simply didn’t care. He pointed to an empty seat and said as usual, “Eat first, he should be back soon.”
Mo Xuzhi shook his head, “If no one looks for him, he probably won’t be back tonight. You guys eat first, I’ll go bring him back.”
His voice sounded a bit different from daytime. It was very cold, and the pace of his speech was neither hurried nor slow. Simple words from his mouth had a unique flavor.
People wanted to hear him say more.
Mo Xuzhi hadn’t stepped out of his working state until he was hit by the cold wind outside the hotel, which cleared his mind a bit.
The production team originally wanted to send a cameraman with him to guide the way, but he refused.
The layout of Wanwan Town was already printed in his mind. Plus, he was just going to pick up Du Minsheng and would be back soon, so there was no need to send anyone.
The distance from the hotel to the instrument shop wasn’t far, about a fifteen-minute walk.
Across a green belt, Mo Xuzhi saw the faint light from the instrument shop with its glass walls.
Getting closer, it was easy to see Du Minsheng sitting among a pile of instruments. He was on a high stool, holding a guitar, looking as if he was humming a song.
The glass of the instrument shop was soundproofed, so Mo Xuzhi didn’t know what he was singing. He waited until his hand stopped plucking the strings before knocking on the door.
Du Minsheng looked up and saw the youth standing under the lamp.
He rubbed his hands, looking a bit cold, and no one knew how long he had been standing there.
Mo Xuzhi finally entered the instrument shop, shutting out the cold night wind. He found a piano bench and sat down casually, letting out a breath.
Du Minsheng threw his jacket over him and sat aside, looking a bit surprised and apprehensive, and asked:
“Why are you here?”
“If I hadn’t come, were you planning to not go back tonight?”
Mo Xuzhi turned sideways, his fingers touching the piano keys, casually playing a few notes, and said, “Since you know you have no sense of direction, why did you run back alone to get something?”
Du Minsheng had no sense of direction; it had been like this since a few years ago. He was a walking “let-go-and-lost.” In the city, navigation was comprehensive, and he could manage with real-world navigation, but here it was no good.
Mo Xuzhi had checked the map just now; Wanwan Town was remote, and the map only showed a few main roads.
He roughly knew why Du Minsheng hadn’t returned.
“I didn’t want someone following me.” Du Minsheng looked at the half-smiling expression of the person beside him, feeling like a student being questioned by a teacher. He said honestly, “I didn’t expect to not be able to find my way back.”
He didn’t like the feeling of constantly being followed by cameras.
Mo Xuzhi laughed: “Coming to a variety show even though you don’t like being followed, you really made a big decision.”
Du Minsheng didn’t speak.
He had mentioned the reason for participating in the variety show before, but Mo Xuzhi clearly didn’t believe him.
It was enough for him to know these things himself; no need to emphasize them.
“Have you thought of a song?”
“No.” Du Minsheng shook his head, then turned and asked, “Have you?”
His biggest obstacle was himself. No matter how he cleared his head, once he saw the lyrics, the original version’s melody was still circling in his mind. He had thought about all sorts of things today, wasted several sheets of paper, and came up with nothing.
“Thought of it on the way just now, it’s a bit messy,” Mo Xuzhi tilted his head, his attitude natural, “Want to listen?”
It was a light and simple sentence, but Du Minsheng was stunned.
The scene before him was exactly the same as a few years ago.
The youth in his memory was also like this, turning his head and smiling as he said something, occasionally asking a few questions, and not expecting him to answer anything, just talking to himself and sometimes making himself laugh. Although he smiled, his eyes were always light.
Du Minsheng had always been curious how Mo Xuzhi could manage to be flamboyant and cold at the same time, two strange traits merging together to make it impossible to look away.
How long had it been since he heard him sing?
It seemed to be five years, or maybe six.
Du Minsheng squeezed his slightly damp palms and nodded.
The instrument shop was silent.
Mo Xuzhi tried a few notes and found the pitch was just right, so he let go and started without tuning.
The sound circled the room, and even a few simple syllables were extremely enjoyable.
Then it was the leisure of walking through a forest and swimming under the sea.
A giant whale traveled through the sea and soared through the sky.
Mo Xuzhi was a bit rusty at first, but after playing a few notes, he regained the familiar feeling, the black and white keys constantly changing and transforming in his eyes.
The giant whale saw a forest it had never seen before, went to snowy mountains that existed only in imagination, and exhausted its last bit of strength in the desert.
Under its massive white bones, new buds were sprouting, and small creatures were growing.
On its bones, an oasis grew.
The piano combined with the cold but not deep voice, exuding a sense of exuberant life.
A somewhat cheap and ordinary piano was all the accompaniment.
An unprofessional instrument, an inappropriate place, yet he seemed to have a strange trait that made people overlook these things and focus only on him.
The youth focusing on the piano seemed to be glowing.
This was a small concert, dedicated to him alone, with only one audience member.
As the song neared its end, sweat broke out on Mo Xuzhi’s forehead, sliding down the side of his face. His entire face was white to a strange degree, with an unnatural faint red on his cheeks.
The moment the final piano note disappeared, Du Minsheng clapped.
Mo Xuzhi had completely jumped out of the original song’s inherent influence and sang his own “Whale.”
The original “Whale” was based on a gloomy and sad tone, telling the story of a giant whale in the sea that didn’t want to be controlled by humans, desperately left the sea, and finally slept in the desert. He, however, captured the whale’s yearning for the world from a different perspective, with a magical and gentle style.
The empty instrument shop was like a small bar stage after the show, with dim lights and quietness, making the applause stand out.
Mo Xuzhi smiled and didn’t speak. He took a handkerchief out of his pocket, covered his mouth and coughed twice, then put it back, his movements smooth and natural. He said:
“Thanks.”
His voice, which was normal just now, was a bit hoarse now.
Before Du Minsheng could ask, Mo Xuzhi was the first to wave his hand, “It’s fine, haven’t sung like this in a long time, I’ll be fine in a bit.”
Du Minsheng paused, and seeing that Mo Xuzhi didn’t want to say more, he changed the subject and asked: “Are you going to sing this song tomorrow?”
“One audience member, Teacher Du, is enough.”
Mo Xuzhi teased with a smile, supported himself by the piano to stand up, and said, “See if there’s anything else to do, it’s time to pack up and go back.”
Du Minsheng didn’t know what he was thinking about, and his body was a bit stiff. He took out the phone in his pocket and put it back in as a cover, saying, “Nothing else.”
“Then let’s go. If we’re faster, maybe we can still catch dinner.”
The dim light of the instrument shop flickered a few times, then went out, and the sound of footsteps gradually faded away.
The camera casually placed on the shelf flashed with a faint red light.