The next day, Yu Le and Zhu Luo met at a coffee shop.
Zhu Luo’s expression was cold. Seeing Yu Youzhi with Yu Le, he just nodded to him, no longer showing any residue of anger or jealousy—he had drawn a line between himself and Yu Le, taking the initiative to retreat. Now, they were purely strangers.
Yu Le smiled, “Long time no see Zhu Luo.”
The other party responded coldly, “Hmm.”
Yu Le felt very satisfied with this.
Meeting Zhu Luo for the first time and having defeated the vice-captain, it was just as he expected. His mood no longer fluctuated at all. He was as calm as could be. Even when thinking back on some of the memories he could recall, nothing touched his heartstrings. He was sure, the vice-captain was well and truly dead this time, no longer able to impact him at all.
He showed a somewhat pleasant smile, enthusiastically pouring a cup of coffee for the indifferent person opposite him.
“The vice-captain is dead,” he said, straight to the point.
“Huh?” Zhu Luo raised his eyebrows, finally showing a bit of emotion.
“He wasn’t easy to deal with. I was almost strangled to death by him in our dream,” he spoke as if he was chatting about trivial matters, taking a sip of tea with a calm expression. “Zhu Luo, what you asked before about why A Yu left that letter, I know the reason now.”
Zhu Luo looked straight at him, his eyes complicated as they met his. Pursing his lips, he lowered his head to stare into his drink, “What happened?”
“It was a selfish reason. A Yu originally planned to quietly die with the vice-captain, using the excuse of studying abroad so as not to worry you. But when he finally left, he couldn’t help but write that letter…he had hidden his feeling for ten years and wanted to tell you at least once.”
“But he hid it in the music box.”
“Yes, it was a very contradictory decision. He hoped you’d find out, but at the same time was afraid that you might despise him.”
Hearing this, Zhu Luo laughed. There was a nostalgic look on his face, “Well, that does fit his personality.” This sentence was like a switch, once it was said his attitude became much more easy going, “What else happened in that dream of yours?”
“Well, I invited you here today to tell you that.”
Then Yu Le spent around four hours describing what he had experienced, what he heard and saw and even inferred. Except for the fact that this world was a book, he told Zhu Luo everything that he knew.
Zhu Luo listened calmly at first, but the more he listened the more bitter his face became. But whenever he wanted to say something, all he could do was sigh at the idea that his A Yu had thought so.
“A Yu, A Yu…” After knowing the cause and effect, Zhu Luo buried his head and whispered to the ghost that no longer remained in this world. With the astringent taste of coffee left on his tongue, he felt regretful. Depressed, he stopped holding back, asking the air what he wanted to know so badly, “Why, why do you have to like me so much? Holding in such pain, enough to even go crazy. I’m sorry, I didn’t know what you were enduring all this time. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”
Yu Le, sitting opposite him, watched this scene quietly, but he disagreed with Zhu Luo’s confession. “Zhu Luo, in fact, it’s not the fault of the vice-captain that A Yu ended up like this, right?” Zhu Luo raised his eyes sharply, but he continued, “After all, the sub personalities differentiated by him were tools for him to suppress his emotions. He wanted them to exist so that he didn’t have to deal with everything. In the end, even if the other personalities hadn’t existed, it would have only been a matter of time before he destroyed himself.”
Hearing what Yu Le said, Zhu Luo was furious. He shot out cold sharp words from his sorrowful, angry eyes, “What did you say?!”
“Uh…”
“You don’t understand A Yu at all! You’re just a lonely ghost who had taken over A Yu’s body! What qualifications do you have to judge him!? To condemn him!?”
“I’m sorry…”
But this apology failed to calm Zhu Luo’s anger at all, and in an instant the ice formed in his eyes revealed a mixture of love and hate, “I really hate you, don’t appear in front of me in A Yu’s body ever again.”
And with these words finished, he left.
“Oh, you are really hated by others, huh, Yu Le?” Yu Youzhi’s gloating voice sounded from behind him. Walking over, he picked up the half empty cup in front of Yu Le and raising his head, drank it all.
But Yu Le didn’t react to this. Thinking of Zhu Luo’s anger just now, he looked at Yu Youzhi, “Was what I just said really excessive?”
“What do you think? It’s quite excessive, right? After all, that A Yu was his friend for so many years.”
“But Zhu Luo was at least partly responsible for what happened, so he shouldn’t be so angry, right? Did he think I was being sarcastic about him?”
“Not at all, he just thinks that a stranger like you is not qualified to slander his A Yu.” Saying this, Yu Youzhi placed the cup in his hand back on the table with a smile, making a crisp sound, “Yu Le, I can understand you. No matter what you say, I will always know what you mean even when others persecute you, so…”
“So?”
“So, I am indeed the most suitable person for you in the world, right?”
“…” Yu Le was expecting Yu Youzhi to say something serious, maybe something about the laws of humans in this world. But instead, he used this opportunity to say such weird and disgusting words again, leaving him with goosebumps and shivers. Leaving his face numb, he turned away from the other with his eyes closed.
What just happened was like an episode. If he just ignored him for a while, then he would calm back down and return to normal.
Walking out of the tea room, Yu Le thought that Zhu Luo would never take the initiative to appear in front of him again. And even if he did, he would keep the attitude of dealing with a stranger, with a cold and unwelcoming face. But this was just what he wanted the most.
But one month after thinking this way, he received an invitation from Zhu Luo to a personal concert.
[Dear Mr. Yu:
The violinist Zhu Luo will be holding a solo concert for the Beginning of Winter. The theme of this performance will be “Life, Love, and Death”. It will be held in Luoshi Pavilion on November seventh.
We sincerely invite you to listen.]
Life, love, and death?
Even if he lacked such artistic talents to interpret this, thinking of this teme, it is definitely related to A Yu.
To commemorate a friend who disappeared? Zhu Luo is truly a romantic person.
As expected, Zhu Luo invited almost everyone he knew. In addition to Yu Le; Yu Youzhi, Huo Annong, and even Wang Furui received invitations.
The concert was held at Luoshi Pavilion. With only one month of preparation time, the arrangements were rushed and smaller scale than any of Zhu Luo’s other performances. Besides a few of the more important guests like Huo Annong, the audience was mainly family and friends.
Yu Le sat in the audience, waiting for the concert to start.
This was not the first time he had come to one of Zhu Luo’s concerts, but it was drastically different from before. Now he no longer had to hide behind the mask of the original Yu Le. Instead, he sat in the crowd, listening to the memorial violin performance for someone who had nothing to do with him.
Zhu Luo was on the stage wearing the same white suit he’d worn at the first concert he’d come to. The man in the spotlight was immersed in the music, as if he were intoxicated by his own sound. His fingertips flexibly pulled the bow strings and used the violin to output his music. The emotion brought the audience into the memories of his youth—the opening piece was actually “Little Star”, a piece that all violin beginners knew.
“Little Star” was also the song recorded in the music box and the first song that Zhu Luo had ever played for A Yu.
It was of great significance, for him and the person who had disappeared.
It was a simple song, but with Zhu Luo’s talent and nostalgia shining through, it seemed to have a unique and touching charm. The audience didn’t know the years long history between him and A Yu, but they could feel the complicated emotions flowing into his music.
Sure enough, after “Little Star” ended, the audience burst into applause. They had been hit hard in the hearts by the music and stood up involuntarily, showing the appreciation without hesitation.
Once the applause had ended, Zhu Luo began with some traditional music.
Each new piece was refreshing, and the audience had to sigh as they admitted that this was truly a very talented violinist.
Before reaching his last song, Zhu Luo suddenly stood forward and bowed deeply to the audience, “Thank you all for coming to my concert despite your busy schedules. In fact, this concert was organised in a great hurry and contains a lot of my own selfishness. I am truly very grateful to everyone behind the scenes who have been so tolerant to me. This concert is mainly to commemorate an extremely important person in my life—unfortunately, I can no longer introduce him to you in person, but “Life, Love, and Death” is the best explanation I can give you of him. I was lucky that he appeared in my life even as quietly as he did, and now that he has left I can only feel regret on my own. I dedicate this unfinished violin piece to him: “Unknown”.”
Leaving these words to his listeners, Zhu Luo picked up his violin and bean to play the last song.
This was his unfinished creation, but he couldn’t wait to complete it before making it public. He wanted everyone to know that such a person once appeared in his life.
Painful love, repressed greed, self sacrifice without regrets. He had done his best to speculate on A Yu’s spiritual world and played out such themes on his violin. Perhaps if he managed to complete this, that person would still follow behind him as in the past.
Zhu Luo was completely immersed in his own world. The music was bringing out complex emotions in him and as it rang out, the audience was caught into the emotional abyss of the performer.
In such an atmosphere, Wang Furui sat in his seat, staring excitedly at the young man in his white suit. As the song came to a close, he clapped wildly, licking his plump lips with a look of fascination in his eyes.
