C2 Part10

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P – Chapter 2.9

There’s a bunch of music pieces mentioned in this chapter! I linked to all of them, so feel free to give them a listen~

P – Chapter 2.10

The night was dark and heavy up on the roof. The streetlights in the alley had no way of reaching up here; everything depended on the shine of the moonlight.

And similarly, the smoke and the noisy racket of people from downstairs couldn’t float up here either. There was only the gentle breeze of the night — this place was truly a rare peace and quiet.

This wasn’t Liang Sizhe’s first time climbing up to the roof. There probably hadn’t been anyone else who climbed all the way up other than roof repairers before he did. People who came to the first and second floors were all passing guests, and those who lived in the third floor hostel left early and came back late, taking this place only as a place to sleep and shelter themselves. Where would they find the time and leisure to climb up to the roof and search for peace?

Crouching down, Liang Sizhe shifted away the brick at one of the roof’s corners and tugged out a newspaper — he’d left it here a few nights ago. He spread it over the edge of the roof and sat down on it, his two legs hanging over.

People usually had a fear of heights, even if just a little bit, but Liang Sizhe was uniquely gifted. Not only was he not afraid of height at all, he actually really liked standing up high and looking downwards. The higher the better.

He removed the guitar from his shoulder and placed it onto his legs, his right hand giving the strings a casual thrum. That singer was right — after changing the strings, the timbre of the guitar was actually quite decent. Liang Sizhe thought, let’s treat that guy to a meal next time.

Liang Sizhe was a violinist. He’d started ‘sawing’ at the violin at four years old, and within his seventeen years of life, the time he spent playing the violin was much more than the time he gave to sleeping.

But students within the music secondary school were known for being versatile and having numerous abilities and talents. Liang Sizhe had even been one of the best among them, and so other than specialising in violin, he’d learned other string instruments as well, such as the cello, the viola, the guitar, the bass…

The different string instruments all had things in common. Since he was an expert at the violin, as long as he remembered how they were played, he could learn the other instruments faster than people who knew nothing about musical instruments.

Compared to the violin with its four strings, the guitar had six strings, and playing it actually felt quite different. He took the time to remember how the guitar was played, and then he suspended his left hand above the guitar strings, stalling. Which piece should he play?

The multitude of musical compositions he’d learned throughout the years drifted into his brain. Serenade, Carmen, Canon, Schwanengesang, Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto, Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin… All those music scores seemed to have been engraved into his blood and bones. Even though he hadn’t touched the violin in over a year, the music he’d practiced an uncountable amount of times over the years remained clear and vivid in his mind. He only needed to think of them.

Then… let’s play the piece he played last time. It really has been a long time since then.

–

Cao Ye sat on his bed, his left hand pressing onto his right shoulder as he stretched his arms, neck and shoulders.

That bro’s name was… Liang Sizhe, right? He didn’t really seem the type to know how to do something like that. Why’d he climb up there? To ponder the meaning of life?

Opening the window, Cao Ye poked half his body out and looked upwards; he couldn’t see anything. His curious heart was as vigorous as ever, and now it wriggled and itched, wanting to climb up and see what was happening. He was also someone famous for how bold he was, and so just as the intention to do so sprouted in his mind, one of his legs had already landed onto the window ledge.

He gripped the edge of the window and crouched down, creeping through the window. He followed everything Liang Sizhe had done — except he forgot to close the window.

Oh, but — even though Liang Sizhe had appeared to climb rather easily from his view down below, when it came time for Cao Ye to do it himself, he honestly needed to take his time and be careful.

In order to successfully climb up to the roof, you must have three qualities. One: have long legs, or else you won’t be able to reach that iron plate connecting the water pipe to the building. Two: be skinny, because after enduring through so many years of wind and rain, it would be very easy for that plate to break. And three: have good arm strength in order to grasp firmly onto the window ledge above you, or else you won’t be able to get up at all.

Coincidentally enough, Cao Ye possessed all three.

Except he had a slight fear of heights. So when he looked downwards from the fourth floor’s window ledge, his heart couldn’t help but sway back and forth like a swing. He would be lying if he said he didn’t regret it. Impulse was the work of a demon — right now, he was caught between continuing forward and retreating.

Closing his eyes, he thought, let’s keep going. Curiosity killed the cat, plus at least climbing up would be much better than staying downstairs and listening to the second floor’s wailing.

By the time he reached the fifth floor, the noise from the second floor’s karaoke singing had gradually faded away. Within the mixture of chaotic noise and the rustling of leaves, he suddenly heard faint music drifting down from the roof. The tone of it was crisp and clear, and it made him remember the hand Liang Sizhe had stretched through the window to grab away the guitar. But the melody kept stuttering and stumbling, sounding like it was being played by a novice; it took a while to find the right rhythm.

——Spending so much effort just to practice the guitar? Truly a wild man.

Cao Ye composed himself, and with one hand gripping onto the water pipe, his other hand grabbed the edge of the roof. He gathered his strength and bent his legs to climb up. When one leg stepped onto the roof, he pushed his entire body up with just a bit more effort.

After patting off the dust and dirt on his knees, Cao Ye straightened up and headed over to Liang Sizhe.

He walked softly, using very slow steps. Every step he took just so happened to land on one of Liang Sizhe’s notes. He was worried about startling Liang Sizhe off the roof, so after he’d gotten closer, he bent over, curled an arm around Liang Sizhe’s neck and quietly said next to his ear, “Hey!”

Liang Sizhe’s reaction to an unplanned, sudden appearance of a person was rather composed. He simply stiffened a bit, and the movements of his hand on the guitar also paused. He turned his face over and raised his head to look at Cao Ye, his face blank. He asked, “How’d you get up here?”

“You didn’t think I could, did you?” Cao Ye was pleased with himself, and he recited a line he’d learned from some film or television drama. “I, Young Master Cao, can do anything I want to do in this world. Those two floors were nothing.” He let go of Liang Sizhe after he finished, and crouched down next to him. When he lowered his head and glanced down the building, he was suddenly frightened. “Whoa, so high.”

Liang Sizhe didn’t speak, silently placing the guitar to the side.

He really hadn’t thought Cao Ye would follow along and climb up. This building wasn’t that easy to climb — the first time he tried, he’d knelt on the fourth floor and had narrowly not been able to go up or go back down. Later, he’d slowly learned the construction of the building and had plucked up his courage to crawl up a few times; that was the only reason how he’d managed to do it so easily tonight.

He’d just never thought Cao Ye would copy his movements and follow him up here with such bravery.

Liang Sizhe didn’t show it on his face, but he was actually a bit annoyed. On the first night he climbed up here, he’d looked at the spacious and flat roof surrounding him and had sat down on the other side, his back facing Yinsi Street. As the cool breeze blew at him, he’d gazed out at the flowing stream of cars not too far away and left all those loud noises and choking odours behind him. He’d been so relaxed — and now, he was as annoyed as he’d been relaxed.

His territory had been invaded, and a strong wave of discomfort surged in his heart. He might not have a place to nurse his wounds by himself, now.

And Cao Ye had yet to realise he wasn’t welcomed; he turned his face over to Liang Sizhe curiously and asked, “Were you playing the guitar just then?”

Liang Sizhe watched the flow of traffic in the streets. Without displaying his feelings, he said, “Mn.”

“Then… why don’t you continue? Am I bothering you?”

Liang Sizhe wanted to say isn’t that obvious,but half of his aggressiveness disappeared by the time words reached his mouth. “It’s fine.”

Reaching out, Cao Ye brought over the guitar Liang Sizhe had left by the side and casually strummed his fingers over the strings. He murmured under his breath, “But shouldn’t novice players start with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or something… Why play the Devil’s Trill Sonata…”

Liang Sizhe was stunned. He’d been playing so terribly and hadn’t even completed a full bar — Cao Ye actually could tell he was playing the Devil’s Trill Sonata?

Cao Ye wasn’t really paying attention to the shift in Liang Sizhe’s emotions; he crouched there and fiddled with the guitar, searching for notes one by one with his head lowered. His mouth followed along, softly humming. When it came to the guitar, he wasn’t much better than Liang Sizhe. He really only knew how to find and play notes; he had no skill at all.

But the boy’s voice was clear and smooth, and it leaped from word to word easily. On the quiet roof, there was a kind of magical comfort about it.

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are

“Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky.”

Cao Ye only knew how to play those four phrases. When his fingers finished its choppy playing, he shot a rather embarrassed grin towards Liang Sizhe. “My playing’s even worse. You were better.”

The irritation in Liang Sizhe’s heart had mostly faded by now.

That’s right — this wasn’t Yan City, and Cao Ye wasn’t one of his classmates in the music secondary school. This was Beijing, where no one knew him. Cao Ye was the son of the well-known Cao Xiuyuan. Liang Sizhe realised: he could arbitrarily turn into a novice guitar player, a beginner at violin, and he could be as bold and self-confident as he wanted no matter how terribly he played. He didn’t need to worry about anyone tearing open his scars.

That was such a good feeling.

Instantly, it didn’t seem so hard to accept Cao Ye the unexpected visitor.

But after he realised that, he had another question. How was Cao Ye able to tell he was playing the Devil’s Trill Sonata? Was he also a violinist?

That composition was actually quite difficult to play, and it wasn’t really famous with the general population. Someone who could say the name of the piece with such certainty after hearing just one short phrase — he should be really familiar with the melody then, right?

Cao Ye was actually rather crouching rather tactfully by the side, peacefully playing with the guitar. He didn’t bring it up again, and neither did Liang Sizhe ask.

The two of them silently sat in the wind for a while, and then Cao Ye took the initiative to start talking to Liang Sizhe. “It’s so loud downstairs. Is it like that every night?”

“Yeah. It’s business,” Liang Sizhe mildly said.

“Then can you sleep?”

Liang Sizhe glanced over at him. “Weren’t you just sleeping?”

“Oh… I wasn’t sleeping.” Cao Ye ruffled his hair. “I was pondering life.”

He still managed to numb half his body despite not sleeping? …The boy had truly been born special.

“Pondering about what?”

“Who am I, where did I come from… And where do I need to go.” Cao Ye pretended to be pensive.

Liang Sizhe cooperated and smiled; he didn’t continue asking further.

Cao Ye was half-crouched by Liang Sizhe’s side, his arms resting on his thighs. He thought crouching felt safer — if he sat on the roof like Liang Sizhe was doing, he would feel as though he’d fall off at any given moment.

Liang Sizhe’s smile made him think about that boyfriend of Lin Yan’s. Seriously, there was no comparison; they weren’t on the same level at all. That guy was worse in every way.

“Are you safe sitting there?” Cao Ye felt he needed to give him a reminder. “Why don’t you move back a bit? This height is actually quite dangerous.”

“It’s okay.” Liang Sizhe didn’t take his reminder seriously. “I’m used to sitting. I won’t fall.”

After a while, Cao Ye brought up his playing again. “I think you should start with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star if you want to learn how to play the guitar. Let me tell you, that song’s super excellent value. Just learn four phrases and you’ll have already learned the entire song.”

Smiling, Liang Sizhe said, “That’s true.”

“Why don’t I teach you? And then we can perform on the streets. We should be able to earn some money for food.”

Liang Sizhe chatted with him carelessly. “How is it that easy to earn money for food…”

“Then do you think I’d be able to earn one meal from the bit I just played?”

“You wish…” Liang Sizhe lightly chuckled and looked over.

Cao Ye was watching him with sad and forlorn eyes. “Sizhe-ge, can you treat me to a meal? I’m about to die from hunger, but I don’t have a single cent on me…”

P – Chapter 2.11

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