C4 My Cello

He had already handed her the phone. She looked down and punched in a string of numbers. He pressed the call button. Then she heard the bell in her bag.

"Then... "Good night." She took a step back.

"Good night." Mu Nanyan turned her head.

The car drove away.

Qiao Qianchu heaved a sigh of relief. She took out her phone and looked at the string of numbers on the screen. After hesitating for a moment, she typed in Mu Nanyan's name. Then she turned off the screen and went back home.

The streetlights in the neighborhood were already on, the wind rustling the trees and green belts, and the children sitting on the children's slide in the sand were screaming and playing with each other.

She walked past the crossroads and entered her building, walking up the stairs. Beside her was an aunt carrying a child in her arms. The residential area had just been rebuilt, and most of the people who moved in were office workers. They had bought them here because the prices in the remote areas were cheap, and the ones with children were mostly elderly people.

Qiao Qianchu continued to climb the stairs and arrived before long.

She took the key from her bag and opened the door.

"Mom, I'm back." Qiao Qianchu called out as she took off her shoes.

"Have you eaten yet?" Qiao Meilin's voice came from within the room.

"Yes." She walked barefoot to the coffee table and poured a glass of water. After talking to Mu Nanyan for such a long time, he was getting thirsty.

Qiao Meilin walked out. When she saw her feet, she frowned and said, "It's getting cold, and you always come in barefooted! Go and put on your shoes! "

"I got it. Seeing that you're so anxious, no one would believe you even if you say that you're not your mother." Qiao Qianchu smiled and put down her glass.

Qiao Meilin pretended to hit her and continued, "What nonsense are you spouting! If I'm not your mother, who would I be? "

Qiao Qianchu laughed. She went to the door and put on the cotton wool, saying, "Yes, yes, you are my closest mother …" She paused, her eyes fixed on the corner next to the refrigerator, her smile fading, her eyes flustered.

"What's wrong?" Qiao Meilin stuck her head out and suddenly realized something. "Oh, that cello I left there …" When I was cooking today, Old Li came to borrow it. The last time his wife came to play here, she saw Qin sitting idle, her son just so happened to be learning. Before Qin had even arrived, she had already borrowed it from us. "I think it's been a year since you last touched it, so you should lend it to me for emergency use first..."

Her mind was in a mess as she was not in the mood to listen to what Qiao Meilin had to say. After a long while, she spoke up with a dry voice, "Who is Old Li? His family... Where is it? "

"Huh?"

"Why did you lend my things to someone else?" Qiao Qianchu suddenly raised her voice, trying her best to look calm, "That guqin is useful to me, I can't borrow it. Where is their home? I'll go get it. "

"I've already lent it to someone else, how can I bring it back? You should go to your school to look for your fellow students to borrow some. How can such a coincidence be of use to you... "

"No, this won't do," she said, shaking her head. She opened the door and changed into her shoes, but she could still hear the roar in her head, "Mom, tell me the address, hurry!"

Qiao Meilin was startled by Qiao Qianchu's reaction. Her eyes couldn't help but slightly redden. She didn't want her daughter to be trapped by that guqin forever, but looking at Qiao Qianchu's slightly red face and pale lips, she felt even more heartache.

She turned and wiped the corners of her eyes with her hand and gave him the address.

Qiao Qianchu didn't notice Qiao Meilin's reaction and ran out of the room without looking back.

"Pay attention to your safety in the middle of the night …" Qiao Meilin shouted from behind.

The only response was the sound of hurried, flustered footsteps in the corridor.

The wind started blowing outside. Qiao Qianchu had no coat and was only wearing a thin shirt. However, she did not feel cold at all. She took out her cell phone as she hailed a taxi and dialed Tang Yixin's number.

After the call ended, Tang Yixin's voice sounded out.

"Hey, hey, how was it? How is it going? Did you leave a number? Did you make an appointment for the next time? Don't tell me they didn't take a fancy to you! "

"My cello was borrowed." Qiao Qianchu's mind was filled with only that zither as she repeatedly emphasized this line.

"Yours?" Tang Yixin was stunned. She suspected that she had heard wrongly. If she remembered correctly, it had been a year since Qiao Qianchu said those three words.

"Cello, my cello."

"Is there something wrong with your head? If it was borrowed, so be it. Isn't it just a broken guqin? Why isn't he changing his bad habits after a year! "You don't want to live anymore without Fu Bai, right?" Tang Yixin was instantly infuriated, stamping her feet in frustration.

When Qiao Qianchu heard these two words, she was still unavoidably stunned for a long time before she finally said, "It has nothing to do with him. I can't find the way. Come with me to find Qin."

"... Forget it, I lost to you. Where are you? "

Qiao Qianchu quickly gave him an address, hung up the phone, and took a taxi to the destination.

Her mind was no longer blank. Fragments of memories poured out at the same time. She could no longer remember many of the details, but the indescribable pain from the dull knife slicing through flesh had already completely embedded itself into her every breath.

She thought she had forgotten. Or, she hoped, forgotten.

The guqin had been with her for six years, and even if she no longer needed it, she would not allow anyone to touch it.

The ten-odd minutes drive was a long and torturous time for her. Anxiously sitting, she twisted her skirt into folds and arrived at a fork in the road.

"That's Swan Bay over there." The driver pointed at a residential area in front of them.

Qiao Qianchu paid and got out of the car.

A black car stopped at the back. Qiao Qianchu didn't know what it was and didn't know what it was. However, she immediately saw Mu Nanyan, who had just left her not long ago, step out of the car.