Li Younan started the engine and said, "We’ll talk when we get back."
"Oh no, once we go back, Xu Liya will have to get off."
Xu Liya nodded as well and said, "Brother Li, just play that Canon you played earlier again, it was so good."
The two girls kept pestering Li Younan. He smiled helplessly and said, "Alright then, I’ll embarrass myself one more time."
Li Younan picked up the harmonica. He set the key cleanly and crisply, like it had been dipped in lukewarm water; every note was bitten with perfect steadiness and precision.
The tip of his tongue lightly tapped the holes; single notes split, polyphonic layers rose at once. The main melody up front was bright and transparent, the counter-melody behind was warm and mellow. The two voices intertwined without tangling, his breath controlling dynamics with pinpoint accuracy.
Li Younan played with complete ease. It was both performance and self-enjoyment.
As he played, he felt genuinely pleased about his decision to buy a harmonica here.
From now on, whenever he wanted to listen to music, he could play for himself.
A beautiful harmonica, whose tone is in no way inferior to any polyphonic instrument.
But overall, Canon is still relatively simple.
Just as he was getting into Canon, he thought for a moment and said, "I’ll play Butterfly Lovers for you too."
Compared to Canon, this version of Butterfly Lovers that he planned to play was a bit harder.
Of course, for Li Younan, the difficulty of a piece didn’t really exist as a concept. Hard or easy was only about technique; what he cared about was simply whether the piece sounded good.
The opening melody of Butterfly Lovers slowly unfolded with a touch of fresh sweetness. The tone was as soft as willow branches brushing spring water, bright but not flighty, every note carrying the shy delight of a boy and girl’s first meeting.
Li Younan’s fingertips pressed the holes gently and smoothly, his breath warm and moist—it was the mutual admiration when they swear brotherhood at the grass bridge, clean and pure.
The melody of homesick longing was lingering and winding; with the timbre of the chromatic harmonica, every passing tone was soft and tender. It was the warmth of day-and-night companionship, the bashfulness of feelings quietly budding.
Suddenly, the music dropped sharply, instantly stained with a biting pain. The rhythm tightened in a snap, the contrast in dynamics tore at the heart—it was the melody of parting, low sobs and muffled cries.
Until the moment of becoming butterflies, the music suddenly broke free from its heaviness, turning ethereal and crystal clear.
When the last note fell lightly, its lingering echo drifted on, as if that deep feeling had crossed over life and death, with no one left who could stand in its way.
The two little girls listened, utterly entranced, truly utterly entranced.
Compared to tone-deaf Lu Xiaoqin, Xu Liya had learned piano, and she sank even deeper into this piece. She swore that even her piano teacher could never express such powerful emotion.
Li Younan smiled and said, "Alright, we really need to head back."
He gripped the steering wheel, just about to drive off, when he suddenly froze for a second. He turned his head to look at Lu Xiaoqin and Xu Liya, his face full of confusion.
Lu Xiaoqin asked, "What’s wrong, cousin?"
With a strange look on his face, Li Younan shook his head and said, "Maybe I misheard, but just now I seemed to hear a girl crying?"
Xu Liya giggled and said, "I honestly almost cried just now. But the moment I saw your handsome face, Brother Li, I just couldn’t cry anymore."
Lu Xiaoqin chimed in, "Cousin, you must have misheard."
But then she suddenly froze.
Noticing the look on Lu Xiaoqin’s face, Li Younan asked, "What’s wrong?"
Lu Xiaoqin’s cheeks flushed red all of a sudden. A bit embarrassed, she said, "I suddenly remembered something." Then she lowered her head and started rummaging in the gap between the seats.
Curious, Li Younan asked, "What are you looking for now?"
Lu Xiaoqin sighed and said very solemnly, "Cousin, I hate to say this, but haven’t you noticed your phone is missing?"
Only then did Li Younan react. He looked around, and sure enough, the phone he had put on the center console had vanished.
After quite a while, Lu Xiaoqin finally fished the phone out from the crack in the seat.
She checked it—the girl named Jing Chaoyi who had been on the video call with Li Younan had already hung up.
She put the phone back on the center console and said, "Cousin, you’ve got to learn to tidy up. You won’t always have a considerate little cousin to help you look for your phone."
Her expression was heartbroken and dead serious, as if she really was worrying about Li Younan.
Li Younan was deeply shocked, then, expressionless, he grabbed Lu Xiaoqin’s face.
"Ow ow ow ow ow! Cousin, I was wrong, I was wrong, okay?"
"Hahaha... Brother Li even looks handsome when he’s bullying his little cousin..."
"Huh?"
...
Hunan Changsha.
Outside the room, her mother knocked on the door. The girl quickly put down her phone and went over to open it.
The woman, quite delicately put together, looked at her daughter with some confusion before asking, "What’s wrong with you?"
Jing Chaoyi shook her head. "Nothing. I just watched an idol drama that was a bit touching, so I kind of felt like crying."
Hearing her daughter’s explanation, the mother found it a little funny. "It’s better for girls to have a tougher heart, you know!"
"I don’t want to. I want to be soft, all soft."
"If your heart isn’t hard, men will have you wrapped around their fingers. You’ll understand in the future."
Jing Chaoyi changed the subject. "Let’s not talk about that. Are the glutinous rice balls done?"
"They’re done. Come out and eat."
"Okay. Mom, you go out first, I’ll tidy up a bit more."
After her mother left, Jing Chaoyi took out her phone and tapped on the recording she had just made of the screen.
A strand of lingering harmonica music flowed out.
If the first Canon had felt warm to her, then the second piece, Butterfly Lovers, made her think of so many, so many things.
Jing Chaoyi’s nose stung again.

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