KOCM

111-115

Chapter 111

laxed, "Washing ingredients for cooking. Oh, there's no time difference between Paris and Berlin. Have you eaten yet?"

Min Chen didn't reply right away. After a beat of silence, he said, "Well, I have. What are you having tonight?"

Qi Mu couldn't help laughing. "I'm having..."

This simple, ordinary chat eased Qi Mu's depression and shifted his forced smile into something much more natural.

When the conversation turned to Akkad and the chocolates, Qi Mu had already burst out laughing a few times. His mood warmed by the minute and his delicate face was filled with smiles.

Min Chen said he was going to make Daniel go to Turin to buy chocolate for the old man, and Qi Mu couldn't restrain his giggles. "Are you... going to bribe my professor?"

The man's answer was matter-of-fact: "Of course."

"Well... what are you going to bribe him for? You can't be... you're not trying to learn the violin again, are you?!" Recalling his mentor's words, "Auston's violin is god-awful," Qi Mu immediately shook his head and said, "Min Chen, I think you're already superb with the piano, so don't grieve yourself over the violin."

Min Chen: "..."

Under Qi Mu's persuasion, Min Chen revealed some anecdotes from his childhood studies of the violin.

Qi Mu placed his salad and egg fried rice on the table and lifted his chopsticks. He had yet to take even a single bite when Min Chen sighed. "So... now that you've heard my jokes, do you feel better?"

His chopsticks froze. Smiling weakly, Qi Mu asked, "How did you know?"

"When you answered, your voice sounded... sad." The man's voice was very much like the beast piano, clear and pleasant. "Qi Mu, I'm sorry I can't be with you right now. If something happened that made you unhappy... Please, don't hide it from me?"

Though that voice was transmitted over cold radio waves from thousands of miles away, it warmed his heart. He could imagine the man's face, still cold and indifferent, but with eyes overflowing with indulgence and affection.

"Actually... it wasn't anything very important..."

Qi Mu explained the situation. Calmly, he relayed that he trusted a man very much but never expected him to go behind his back. His explanation wasn't too vague, and while someone might think he was misaligning the facts, he didn't hide anything.

When he finished, he omitted his death and replaced it with, "I lost something very important." Still, leaving it at that, he was worried Min Chen might be angry.

After a long while, Min Chen said, "So... That someone you never thought would stab you in the back and seemed kind was actually conspiring with someone else to take something precious from you?"

Qi Mu nodded. "Yes, something very, very precious."

Everyone knew how big the opportunity to perform in the Golden Stage was to a young violinist.

Not to mention... how precious life was to someone who obviously only had one!

"So... what are you sad for, Qi Mu?"

The question threw Qi Mu off guard.

"Since he took something precious from you, take it back." Min Chen said, "But, if you can't take it back, then... teach him the price of taking something that isn't his. Even if he used to be kind to you."

His voice was composed and without much fluctuation, and Qi Mu felt he was trying to suppress something, which, to be frank, surprised him.

Though, nothing Min Chen said was wrong.