Introduction
"Hey, why don't you be my boyfriend?"
Ling Ke couldn't believe his ears when he heard the person in front of him ask these words in a low voice.
It was the person he had been in love with for several years. At this moment, the other party's lips were slightly hooked, and there was an unpredictable ambiguousness in his smile, and his deep eyes looked at him rightly.
***
001. First meeting
The first time Ling Ke saw Qi Feng was during the summer vacation of the year he graduated from elementary school.
He still remembers that summer when the temperature was surprisingly high and the sun was scorching hot, he took the subway to the music school alone to take the amateur piano grade 8 exam. When he got there, he was soaked all over.
Entering the waiting room, Ling Ke found a seat to the side and sat down, flipping through the sheet music, recalling the few skill points that would be highlighted, especially the "Etude No. 21" by Kramer.
The rhythm of this piece is very fast, and it focuses on training the strength of the three, four and five fingers of the right hand. These three fingers are precisely Ling Ke's weakest point. When practicing the ring fingers, he often plays wrong. He tries to tap his fingers lightly on the table. Do small exercises.
At this moment, there was a sudden sound next to him, and a boy about his age sat down.
The boy was wearing a delicate and beautiful black performance suit, with a small waistcoat wrapped around his body, his black hair neatly combed, and his complexion like jade and porcelain. Although he was still young and his palm-sized face was not fully open, he was still able to do so. The handsome features can already see the prototype of the handsome guy. Coupled with a pair of eyes with a natural smile, he will surely become a star-like figure in a few years.
Ling Ke stared at him blankly for two seconds. He had never seen such a beautiful person before, so he was inexplicably nervous.
"Hello." The man looked at him with a smile and asked, "What's your name?"
There is a very good smell on the other party, a faint fragrance, I don't know if it comes from the clothes or the hair.
Ling Ke remembered his T-shirt that was almost soaked with sweat, and subconsciously leaned to the side for fear of making the other person uncomfortable.
Instead, the man got closer and introduced himself: "My name is Qi Feng."
"My name is Ling Ke." He replied in a low voice.
A bright smile appeared on Qi Feng's face, stretched his neck and asked, "How old are you this year?"
His beautiful cat-like eyes swept around the examination room, then turned back to stare at Ling Ke and said, "I think you are the same age as me here. Have you graduated from elementary school?"
Ling Ke has a somewhat introverted personality in front of people. I didn't expect this person to be so familiar with him, as if he was an old friend when he first met you, making him completely irresistible!
"I... graduated, just graduated this year." Ling Ke said.
Qi Feng said happily: "Wow, me too! What kind of primary school did you go to? Where did you go to in junior high school? How many years have you been learning piano?"
The other party asked so many questions like a car, and Ling Ke didn't know which one to say first.
After rationalizing his thoughts, he reported his primary school and the corresponding junior high school, and said, "I started learning the piano in the second grade, and it has been five years."
It is not too early to learn the piano in the second grade. Many people start basic training from kindergarten and can finish the tenth grade before graduating from primary school.
Qi Feng also took the initiative to talk about his school, but Ling Ke had never heard of it and asked, "What is that place? Is it okay?"
Qi Feng scratched his head and said: "In the private school, there are relatively few people in it. I don't know if it's good or not. I haven't attended anything else, but my mother said this is the best school we can go to in the city. She I don't want to leave the country so early."
Ling Ke was taken aback, "going abroad" was still out of reach for him at this age, and he suddenly felt the gap between himself and Qi Feng.
Qi Feng excitedly talked about some interesting things that happened in the school, such as foreign teachers who love to brag, rich after-school activities, and occasional outdoor teaching...
Ling Ke couldn't help feeling envious, this school was much more interesting than their elementary school.
After talking for a while, Qi Feng's attention was attracted by his grading score, and he stretched out his hand to draw it: "Wow, it's so bad, you must be very good at it!"
Ling Ke said embarrassedly, "It's normal."
Qi Feng raised one eyebrow: "Tsk, less modest."
It's not that Ling Ke is humble, it's really average. His piano teacher always said that his talent was mediocre, but the teacher also knew what he was learning piano for and didn't ask him too much.
"What song did you choose?" Qi Feng asked while flipping through his grading test book. The oldest page must be played often, and he quickly came to his own conclusion, "I'm the same as you with Schubert's. "
While Qi Feng was flipping through his score, Ling Ke was paying attention to his hand.
People who play the piano always look at the hands of their peers subconsciously, especially Ling Ke, whose little finger is a little short, and his natural weakness makes him particularly concerned about the gap between himself and others.
Qi Feng's hands are very beautiful. Although he is only a teenager, he is already clean and slender. If his piano teacher sees him, he will definitely praise him as a "natural pianist".
"Hey, do you want to go to the Conservatory of Music in the future?" Qi Feng asked casually.
Ling Ke's thoughts were interrupted, and he said almost without hesitation, "I don't want to."
Go to music school? Might as well kill him!
Since the second grade of primary school, Ling Ke has never had a relaxing summer vacation. Every July and August, he stays at home and repeats those monotonous grade test songs over and over again. In the past five years, his enthusiasm for the piano has been exhausted by these boring exercises. Now he just wants to finish the grade test as soon as possible and complete the task. He will never touch the piano again in this life!
Qi Feng was a little surprised: "Then why are you studying the piano?" Before Ling Ke could say anything, he asked and answered himself, "I see, it's just learning to play... Then you don't need a grade test. , the exam repertoire is too boring."
Ling Ke reluctantly confessed: "No, it's for extra points in the high school entrance examination."
Qi Feng was even more puzzled: "Extra points?"
Ling Ke briefly explained a few words, and Qi Feng commented: "Ah? What's the point of that?"
"It doesn't make any sense..." Ling Ke didn't want to pretend, nor did he deliberately hide his dislike of playing the piano. But I don't know why, looking at the "well-dressed" Qi Feng, Ling Ke felt ashamed for the first time for saying such a reason for learning the piano.
The other party is dressed so formally, it should be very different from himself...
Ling Ke glanced at Qi Feng, and blurted out the doubts circling in his heart: "Aren't you hot when you dress like this?"
Qi Feng lowered his head and pulled the bow tie around his neck, and said with a wry smile: "I don't want to wear it either, but my teacher said that every time I play in front of people, it should be regarded as a formal performance, so it must be taken seriously... Hey, Reye No idea."
The strange thing is that Qi Feng said that it was hot, but his face was clean, and he didn't sweat at all.
"No. 7 candidate, Li Xu," came the mechanical summons from the staff at the door, "The next No. 8 candidate, Ling Ke, prepare."
Ling Ke suddenly became nervous: "I'm almost here." After that, he didn't have the heart to chat with Qi Feng again.
Qi Feng looked at him with one hand on his chin, and said casually, "It's almost time to enter the exam room, don't think too much, relax, the teacher won't eat people."
Ling Ke couldn't hear it, and after sitting for a while, he felt the urge to urinate again, so he asked Qi Feng to help him look at his things, and hurriedly went to the toilet.
Ten minutes passed in a blink of an eye. After Ling Ke came back, Qi Feng handed him the sheet music with a smile and said, "Come on."
Ling Ke: "Well, thank you."
Cramer's "Etude No. 21", he really played the wrong two times, but the last two pieces are still smooth, especially Schubert's "Improvement", which is the one he practiced the most smoothly.
It should be... OK
Ling Ke breathed a sigh of relief and walked out of the examination room, hesitating whether to sit with Qi Feng for a while. There aren't too many people behind him, and he doesn't know who the guy is taking the test.
But when he walked to the waiting room, the staff stopped him and said softly, "Have you finished the exam, classmate?"
Ling Ke pointed in the direction of the waiting room, and hesitantly said, "I… wait for someone."
The staff said ruthlessly: "Wait for someone to go outside."
Ling Ke could only resign and leave the examination room with the sheet music in his arms.
The sun outside was poisonous and hot. He hid in the shade and waited for half an hour, but he didn't see Qi Feng come out.
Ling Ke's gaze couldn't help but fall on the black car parked across the road, only to see the body paint glowing brightly in the light.
In a trance, he remembered what happened two hours ago, when he had just arrived at the entrance of the Conservatory of Music, and the entrance was full of people who took the exam. Location, a black car suddenly drove over.
There were a lot of people, Ling Ke just glanced in that direction and saw a boy in a performance suit, but he didn't take it to heart.
Later, when I met Qi Feng in the waiting room, he took the initiative to chat up, and when I saw the car now, Ling Ke connected them together.
The person who got off the car seemed to be Qi Feng.
After all, on such a hot day, they still wear performance clothes to take the exam, and there is no second one in the crowd.
"Wow, Bentley!" At this moment, an exclamation suddenly came from the side, interrupting Ling Ke's thoughts.
A few parents who accompanied their children after the exam passed by together. An adult pointed at the car across the street and said, "Is that the car that sent the candidates?"
Another parent echoed: "Yeah, I just saw it, hey, children of rich people pay so much attention to education, and our children can't lose at the starting line."
The child raised his head and asked innocently, "Mom, does our family have no money?"
The parent said: "If you don't have money, you can sell iron and let you learn. Studying hard is the reward for us, you know?"
The child gave a "um", bowed his head slightly, and glanced at the car with admiration.
The scorching heat quickly wore down Ling Ke's patience, making him somewhat frustrated.
Hey, what if you wait until Qi Feng? At most, ask each other "how is the test?" He is a child of a wealthy family. Maybe after we separate today, we will never see each other again.
Thinking of this, Ling Ke shook his head and turned to leave.
During dinner, Ling Ke and his parents reported the situation of the grading test, and asked curiously, "Dad, Mom, what is 'Bentley'?"
Mother Ling put a piece of meat into his bowl and said, "It's a famous brand car... Where did you hear it?"
Ling Ke took a mouthful of rice and said, "Today's grade test, there is a boy about my age who came in a Bentley."
Father Ling pushed on his glasses and said calmly, "Oh, the family must be rich. Bentleys are not affordable for ordinary people."
Ling Ke gave an "oh" and said again, "That person went to school in 'Deyin International', do you know that school?"
Ling's mother and Ling's father looked at each other. Deyin International is a well-known private school in the local area. They have heard of it because some students have been admitted to prestigious overseas schools and published in newspapers and on TV all the year round.
Mother Ling looked at Ling Ke and said first: "I heard that the tuition there is more than 100,000 yuan a year, which is equivalent to our family's income for half a year. Even if you want to go, the burden is too great."
Ling Ke: "..." He didn't even say he wanted to go.
Then Father Ling said: "Xiao Ke, the distribution of resources in this society is inherently uneven, some people are born with good conditions, some people are born with poor conditions, we are not good enough, but we are more than good. Your grades are excellent, and your parents will train you. After learning the piano, you are better than many people, so you don't need to feel inferior..."
The more Ling Ke listened, the more confused he became.
But Father Ling's words continued, and Tang Seng whispered like he was chanting sutras.
Ling Ke was really impatient when he heard that, he hurriedly ate his meal, put the tableware and chopsticks away, and said, "I'm going back to my room."
After closing the door, Ling Ke lay down on the bed and slowly calmed down. Qi Feng's appearance appeared in front of him again.
He remembered the smiling face of the other party, the way he raised his eyebrows and smirked when he said "you're being modest," the long, naturally curly eyelashes that drooped when he flipped through the score, and those beautiful hands.
He also remembered the faint scent of the other person's body and the arrogant temperament that was difficult to describe in words, which made him inexplicably have the illusion of being low-hearted - but he was extremely yearning.
Because he has never been in contact with Qi Feng since he was a child, such...
There are no more advanced adjectives in his vocabulary, so let's just use "cool" instead.
Compared with that person, he and his friends are like a bunch of briquettes.
Now he knew where the disparity came from.
From the attitude of passers-by at the entrance of the Conservatory of Music, from the muttering tone of Father Ling.
He was only thirteen years old, so he didn't need to think about the depth of social class, but the adults taught him a lesson realistically and forced him to accept that he and Qi Feng were essentially people from two different worlds. .
Ling Ke blinked, feeling very uncomfortable and a little unconvinced.
Just because their family didn't have a car and couldn't afford to go to a private school, couldn't he and Qi Feng be friends
Why
With the cold air conditioner blowing, Ling Ke felt like a heavy boulder was pressed in his heart.
Ling's mother came in with a small plate of fruit and saw her son lying on the bed, thinking he was still pissed.
She sighed softly, put the fruit plate on the writing table, and said softly, "Xiao Ke, don't think about it, take a two-day break after the grade test, read the new textbook when you have time, and try to maintain your grades in junior high school. Believe in yourself. , you will not be worse than that kind of child in the future."
Ling Ke was ignorant and felt that there was something wrong with what his mother said, but it seemed to make sense.
He responded in a low voice, sat up from the bed, glanced at the piano score that had not been sorted out, and got up and tucked it under the piano bench.
To be honest, he still regretted not waiting for Qi Feng for a while in the evening and not saying goodbye to the other party.
But now it seems that there is no need to regret at all, he is right to take a step first.
He didn't know that in a subtle way, his desire to make friends was turned into a desire for competition.
A few months later, Ling Ke received the grade 8 certificate, and the score was never played again.
It was not until a year later that he successfully completed the amateur piano grade 10 exam, and when sorting out the piano score, he turned out the crumpled grade 8 grade test book.
He flipped through the pages, and happened to turn to the last page of Schubert's Impromptu. Ling Ke was surprised to find that a line of faint pencil words had been written on it at some point—
"My Q number: 6868XXX, go back and add me as a friend! - Qi Feng"
[Interlude]
Qi Feng: "I haven't added my Q for a year, so angry!"