Chapter 1004 - 977: Yesterday Once More
"The person you want to meet is named Sun Xia, male, 38 years old. He is not your immediate family member. You could only meet him because you provided the certificate issued by the local police station."
Qian shared the information she had found.
Not everyone can be visited in prison. If the person is not an immediate family member on the household registration, a certificate from the local police station is required. Yu Mingxi must have planned to see this person long ago as the certificate was already prepared.
"Aside from this, you’re not asking me anything else? Like why I can meet him now but haven’t yet?" Yu Mingxi took a sip of alcohol, and it was all bitter.
"This feeling is somewhat like the anxiety of nearing home. From their attitude, it seems this is your first time coming here, so the two of you must not have met for many years. It took a lot of determination for you to come see him, but just before meeting him, you’re afraid he might not be the same as before, so you hesitated."
"Chen Xiaoqian, why are you so smart?"
Qian raised her glass and clinked it with hers.
"It’s not that I’m smart; it’s just my job. Analyzing a person’s inner journey from small clues, your hesitation just now is normal, so don’t pressure yourself."
Communicating with smart people is very comfortable, and with this beginning, Qian could chat more easily with Yu Mingxi.
"Tell me about this Sun Xia. He was your music teacher? Much older than you."
Qian concluded that the song Xiaoxi sung today was meant for Sun Xia.
"Yes, it’s him. When I was in middle school, he came to the school to teach music. Before that, I didn’t like music, but I was particularly fond of him playing the piano."
Different from other music teachers, the first thing Sun Xia did was play "Tianya Genu" for the students, causing a sensation immediately.
In those days, people’s understanding of the piano was still confined to foreign classical pieces they couldn’t comprehend, so when someone suddenly played popular songs on the piano, it caused a huge sensation.
In the early 90s during the reform and opening up period, Sun Xia had a temperament completely different from the men Yu Mingxi had seen before. She grew up under the protection of her father and brother, seeing only hardy and tough men, and her playmates were like the mischievous Minglang and Hai Zhao. When this handsome and refined artistic young man suddenly appeared, she was immediately drawn in.
"I still remember he had a hairstyle like Xiao Shuai Hu from Little Tigers. His fingers were long and clean, sitting at the piano playing fluently, the song sounded wonderful. Other classmates admired him after listening, but I cried. I was the leader of the kids and a tomboy back then, my hairstyle was almost like a boy’s. He pointed at me and said, ’That boy, stand up. Why are you crying?’"
These past events are vividly remembered by Yu Mingxi.
"Why were you crying then?"
"I couldn’t say the exact reason. Others just thought it sounded good, but I heard a sense of desolation from the music."
This song has many different versions. After returning, Yu Mingxi found and listened to them one by one but only found resonance in Sun Xia’s piano playing.
Qian didn’t understand music, but she knew there’s a special magnetic field between people. When a point on a person can cause resonance, mutual affection will be produced.
Hai Zhao’s affection for Yu Mingxi derives from this magnetic field, and Yu Mingxi’s feelings for this Sun Xia should be the same—at least it used to be.
A bar had a small stage for performances, where singers performed each day. As the two chatted, the singer happened to sing an old English song.
Yesterday Once More.
Very fitting, with a soothing melody and narrating past events, carrying the youth memories that uniquely belong to Yu Mingxi.
"He told me to sit down at the time, but in the second part, he was singing and playing, and when he sang about us being on the same wavelength, I felt I understood him."
It was a regretful encounter that happened too late, a soulmate hard to find.
Music and art evoke resonance most easily, so those in the arts are often surrounded by various romantic legends. People with some artistic accomplishment tend to have richer emotions than ordinary ones. After living a tomboy’s life for over ten years, Yu Mingxi suddenly had her musical talent sparked within her soul.
She was captivated by music from then on.
Learning an instrument at over ten years old was already too late, so Sun Xia taught her vocal music. After school, she went to the music classroom, where he taught her from the basics.
Over the summer, the two of them were learning together.
Sun Xia was only in his early twenties at the time, just a young man, while Yu Mingxi was not yet 14. The musical melodies of that summer became the most beautiful sounds of her life. After he left, she felt as if those awakened musical cells within her died.
"After he left, I felt nothing from any music; the melodies that once brought me joy lost all meaning. I couldn’t find him, and I didn’t know where he went. But I didn’t want to lose the feeling music gave me, so I forced myself in a particular way. I made myself do something related to music."
Indeed, she became a child star.
This was the only thing Yu Mingxi did behind her family’s back, and also the matter that angered her father the most.
Without discussing it with her family, she left with her backpack.
She didn’t want to abandon music and that romantic summer filled with musical notes, but she couldn’t really keep going, so she chose a path that, once entered, wouldn’t allow her to come out.
"Although interrupting someone’s memories is not a good thing, I still want to comment. Your behavior is somewhat like what? Forcing yourself into jail to quit smoking, rather silly."
Qian really couldn’t imagine that Yu Mingxi would have such an impulsive time. The greatest unsolved mystery of the Yu Family is why Mr. Yu chose this path, and the answer turned out to be this.
"Yes, I’m quite silly. Once I took that step, I haven’t fully come out of it. I didn’t think when leaving home with my backpack that I’d spend over ten years on stage."
Yu Mingxi took a sip of her drink. Who can know what will happen in the next moment? Those former persistences eventually go with time.
"Let me guess—you insisted on going to perform at harsh stations after becoming famous because something there touched you?"
If, initially, Yu Mingxi became a child star just for a girl’s innocent feelings, she should have encountered more choices over these years, but she still chose to live like a monk, going to challenging places. Qian doesn’t believe that music teacher had such a great charm.
"When I performed at plateaus at 16, I saw the hardships of the soldiers there. I was instantly moved. Media now all promote the toughness over there, but I want to say just by text, one cannot feel even one percent of that hardship. You’re quite smart; those most lovable people’s qualities touched and awakened my artistic cells, that’s why I’ve always gone to places with tough conditions, but this time you got only half correct, there’s another reason that attracts me."