The piano shop that Shen Shiyan led Meng Xintang to was deep in an alley, a place where the busyness turned quiet and the people disappeared. Covered by the big banyan tree, the woodcut plaque with gold characters on a black background only shows a small corner, which looks really hidden.
As soon as he got out of the car, Shen Shiyan, who was holding the door, yawned in the sunlight.
"Didn't you sleep last night?" Meng Xintang was a little strange. He had already hit three times just by seeing Meng Xintang on the way. But the night before, he clearly contacted Shen Shiyan to make sure that he did not have a temporary job, and he deliberately said "go to bed early".
"Sleep late, I may not go to bed until four o'clock." Shen Shiyan patted his mouth to wake himself up a bit, "I saved a lot of movies some time ago, but I didn't put them away last night and watched them all."
They came out relatively early, and the light was not very strong, but it just happened to illuminate Shen Shiyan's face clearly. Meng Xintang retracted his gaze and joked, "This is not like what a healthy person would do."
This time it was Shen Shiyan who walked in front. He opened the door and stood still. With the other hand, he pushed back his glasses and rubbed his reddish eyes. The answer was succinct and assertive.
"Occasionally presumptuous, harmless."
The personal style of these words was too obvious, and Meng Xintang laughed when he heard it.
The owner of the piano store was unexpectedly young, wearing a sweatshirt and baseball cap. From Meng Xintang's point of view, he looked like a college student who had not graduated, and he didn't look like someone related to folk music. He was sitting behind the counter listening to songs, and when he saw them coming in, he immediately raised his chin and said hello.
"Morning brother."
"Morning," Shen Shiyan turned sideways, spread out his palms, and politely introduced Meng Xintang to him, "This is my friend, come to pick a piano for his sister."
The boy understood, got up and walked out: "Hello, I'm Xu Yanwu."
The two shook hands and exchanged a few words.
"Since it's a hobby and I'm a beginner, I don't recommend buying an expensive piano," Shen Shiyan pointed, "this one is fine."
Xu Yanwu brought the sample piano and took his nails from the counter.
"Redwood Qingshui Pipa, the second piano used by many people, is much better than the general practice piano. It is enough to play and play. It can be said that it is in place. You can feel it."
A violin was suddenly placed on his hand. Meng Xintang was holding something he had never touched before, not knowing what angle he should put it at. Suddenly, he felt a feeling of "falling into the depths of lotus flower". He looked at Shen Shiyan with a light smile, and found that the other party was also snickering.
"Are you going to try?"
"Okay, listen to me."
Xu Yanwu handed over his nails, Shen Shiyan peeled them off one by one, and slowly wrapped them around his fingers. This was the first time Meng Xintang had seen him stick his nails. His movements were not fast, but he was very smooth. He had already pasted the five pieces in just a few words of small talk.
"What do you want to hear?" Shen Shiyan sat down and asked while holding Qin.
Almost without thinking about it, Meng Xintang said, "The first time we met, the song you played."
Shen Shiyan thought for a few seconds, then raised his head slightly: "When you try the piano for the little girl?"
"Well, what tune is that?"
"The Dance of the Yi Nationality," Shen Shiyan said, stroked the four strings in turn with his right hand, and made four separate notes. Then, he raised his left hand, held the shaft of the piano, and put his thumb in the groove. While plucking the strings and turning the shaft, Meng Xintang heard a few curved notes. Soon, Shen Shiyan tuned the four strings: "Do you want to listen to the whole song?"
"It's an honor." Meng Xintang said with a smile.
Xu Yanwu also leaned aside, quietly waiting for Shen Shiyan's performance.
The last time I listened to this song was in a spacious outdoor, with the sound of wind and birds, and occasional voices, but this time in a closed room, the environment was quiet, as if it had natural reverberation. Meng Xintang felt the same heartbeat, and it was even more shocking, and it was a real echo.
After the song was over, it was Xu Yanwu who spoke first.
"Senior brother is still so powerful."
Shen Shiyan laughed twice and looked at him: "Master, are you laughing at me?"
Seeing that Meng Xintang had been silent for a long time, he turned to look over. When meeting his straight gaze, Shen Shiyan suddenly paused in his heart for no reason, as if he missed a beat.
Meng Xintang looked at him with a focus he had never seen before. There seems to be thousands of tenderness in the eyes, but it is not charming, and they are all appreciated.
He plucked the strings again, calmed down and asked, "Does it sound good?"
Only then did Meng Xintang come back to his senses, "Oh", and replied, "Very nice."
In the end, the violin was naturally finalized. Xu Yanwu said that he just had a new violin, and asked Meng Xintang whether he wanted the one he already had or waited for it to be made.
Meng Xintang didn't understand this, so he asked Shen Shiyan's opinion.
"According to my habit, I will wait for the production, but it's all the same. It's no problem to get the piano now." Shen Shiyan said.
Xu Yanwu jokingly said, "My senior brother would rather wait for a newly made qin without playing the qin for two months."
"Oh why?"
Shen Shiyan glanced at Xu Yanwu, who was snickering, and then looked at Meng Xintang and explained solemnly: "In this way, there will be a feeling that this piano has been with it since it was born."
Quite a fairy tale idea. Meng Xintang rubbed it for a while, and tasted some romantic feelings.
He also decided to wait and made an appointment with Xu Yanwu to pick up the piano one month later.
When Meng Xintang paid, Shen Shiyan wandered around the store at will. He walked over and fiddled with the retro record player twice, looking left and right admiring: "I bought it new?"
"As I told you last time, the one made by a friend."
"Oh," Shen Shiyan replied with a long tone, "Don't say it, the custom made is really different, and the pattern is very particular."
Xu Yanwu quickly said, "If my brother likes it, I will get one for you tomorrow."
"Forget it," Shen Shiyan hurriedly smiled and stopped, "It's quite expensive, even if I do get one, it will still be filled with ashes, so it's more convenient to press the play button."
Xu Yanwu, who was in the process of invoicing, slapped his hand, and the pen ball poked a small dot on the paper. But he kept his head down, Meng Xintang couldn't see his expression.
After going out and getting into the car, Meng Xintang asked, "Mr. Xu called you a brother, and he also learned Pipa?"
"Yan Wu is a professional," Shen Shiyan fastened his seat belt and nodded, "He is my mother's eldest disciple."
No wonder.
Although there has been some speculation, Meng Xintang still thinks it's amazing. Compared with Shen Shiyan, Xu Yanwu is very unlike someone who likes to play the pipa. Shen Shiyan's every move is elegant and casual, or more precisely, it is elegant and casual. And Xu Yanwu seems to only have the word casual, he is more like a young man who likes to listen to music with drums and play video games, the kind of passionate and frivolous.
Thinking of this, Meng Xintang chuckled and shook his head. Perhaps it is true that things like similar things, perhaps the people around Shen Shiyan live interesting and distinct lives.
Shen Shiyan saw what he was thinking and asked, "Looks like him?"
"It's not quite like it."
Shen Shiyan threw his head back and leaned comfortably on the seat.
"This kid was very skinny when he was a child, and he didn't obey since he was a child. I remember that when he was only eight or nine years old, he fought with students who were several years older than him. Both nostrils were bleeding and he rode someone's body to his death. He beat people so hard that in the end, his parents couldn't do anything, so they threw him to my house." Shen Shiyan glanced at the plaque of the piano shop and blinked, "I remember now, when he first started practicing with my mother. It's like, obviously reluctant, and pretending to like it very much."
"why?"
Shen Shiyan retracted his gaze and bent the corner of his mouth.
"He prefers my mother. When he was a child, he always planned to come into our house and be my brother."
Due to his relatively cold temperament, Meng Xintang usually doesn't take the initiative to care about other people's emotions, but he is not a sloppy person. When he is willing to observe a person, he can see very carefully. At this time, he was sensitively aware that Shen Shiyan suddenly calmed down when he mentioned "mother".
There were bad guesses in his heart, but he did not rashly ask.
The sudden ringing of the bell broke the silence, Meng Xintang said "wait a moment" and answered the phone.
Shen Shiyan sat quietly and waited, because there was no other sound in the car, and it was quiet enough outside, and vaguely, he heard the voice from the receiver. He frowned and looked at Meng Xintang.
It was a girl, crying while talking.
Meng Xintang's face was obviously not very good. He frowned and tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
"Don't cry, I'll go pick you up now."
The car was quiet again, Meng Xintang turned his head and said to him, "Sorry, something happened, I'm going to pick up a girl now."
Shen Shiyan knew that there must be something very troublesome, so Meng Xintang temporarily changed the original plan. He nodded quickly and said, "It doesn't matter, just put me at the subway entrance in front of you if you are in a hurry."
Meng Xintang pursed his lips and sighed.
When the car turned, Meng Xintang suddenly changed his mind.
"If you have nothing to do and don't feel troublesome, we can still have dinner together, but maybe we need to join a little girl who needs to be enlightened." Meng Xintang paused, "Honestly, I guess she will be in a bad mood now. I'm not good at comforting people and would like to ask you for some help."
Shen Shiyan seemed to hesitate for a while, then said, "Actually, I don't have much experience. Can I ask why?"
At a red light, Meng Xintang stopped the car.
"As you know, I've been on vacation for a while now. In fact, it's not a voluntary vacation. In a project I participated in, a senior who had a lot of information disappeared half a month ago and has never been found. His secret level is very high. , is now missing, there are basically only two situations. One is that he has been kidnapped out of the country, and his life and death will no longer be known, and the other is... "
The light ahead turned green, Meng Xintang drove forward, and after a brief pause, continued to say, "Defect."
When these two words came out, Shen Shiyan's heart tensed.
"No matter what, it's irreversible."
This is a problem area that Shen Shiyan has never been exposed to. He has never thought about kidnapping and defection in this so-called "peaceful era".
"He is 65 years old this year. No matter his professional skills or character, he is worthy of admiration. No one believes that he will defect. However, there is no clue in the investigation of all parties. The girl who just called was the only one he received seriously. Student, she has been doing closed homework for a while, and I just found out about it today and heard some rumors about the result."
Shen Shiyan was silent for a moment, and asked in a heavy voice, "What is the wind?"
"The stakes are very important, and according to regulations, follow-up work can only be arranged according to the worst-case scenario."
In the worst case, the senior defected and the relevant secrets have been leaked.
Shen Shiyan closed his eyes. This kind of treatment is really cruel.