One Life, One Incarnation, Beautiful Bones

48

Chapter 15.2 – To Leave Painted Only Half of One’s Face (2)

By the time they returned home that evening, it was already nearing nine o’clock.

They both had not eaten yet. Shi Yi haphazardly tied up her hair and pulled out two veal steaks from the refrigerator, planning to pan-fry steak for him and also make some French fries or something similar. She washed her hands and had begun slicing the potatoes into strips when the doorbell suddenly rang.

Someone was gently banging on the door with a palm. It sounded anxious, but the knocking was not heavy.

It was obvious the noise was being made by a child.

Sure enough, a young girl’s voice immediately rang out, calling her name.

“Help me open the door. It’s the next-door neighbor.”

Zhousheng Chen did as he was told and went to open the door.

A young girl who appeared to be thirteen or fourteen years old stood outside holding a guqin[1] in her arms.

When she saw Zhousheng Chen, she was dumbstruck, and Zhousheng Chen was rather wordless when he saw her as well.

“Big Sister Shi Yi… has moved?”

“No.” He bent slightly at the waist to speak to her. “She’s cooking.”

Soon, Shi Yi had finished cutting the potatoes, and after wiping her hands clean, she came from behind Zhousheng Chen, walked around him, and stretched out her hand to pinch the girl’s cheek. “You changed your strings? Here…” She had not finished speaking when, unexpectedly, a white shape darted out from behind the girl.

There seemed to be a blur in front of her eyes, and before she could react, Zhousheng Chen had lifted her up so she lay across his arms.

Only one more step and the dog would have pounced on her.

The dog was barking with all its might, trying relentlessly to leap up. It truly did want to bite her.

She was stunned.

The little girl, too, was shocked, but quickly, she snapped in a low voice, “Kaka, go home now!”

Amid repeated berating, the dog, at last, unwillingly and reluctantly returned to its own home, its tail wagging. The girl very embarrassedly jogged back, closed the door to her home, came back to them, and said, “Kaka is really silly. He’s cautious around strangers.”

Zhousheng Chen was still feeling lingering trepidation as he carefully lowered her back down to her feet.

She did not take this little episode to heart. Since she was a child, dogs and cats had always acted aggressively towards her, and Shi Yi had long since grown accustomed to this.

She set the guqin on the table and tested the sound.

This girl liked Shi Yi very much, and every time she changed the strings on her guqin, she would be sure to bring it to Shi Yi to tune. Shi Yi happily obliged, and on and off, she played a tune that she was familiar with.

She did not play often and had not grown her nails, so the sounds produced were somewhat flawed.

Still, the flaws could not mask the beauty.

The young girl could not discern the quality of her playing, but it was apparent to Zhousheng Chen as he listened.

[A music that] Thaws the glistening cold before the Twelve Gates. The twenty-three strings rouse even the Purple Emperor.[2]

He suddenly thought of this line of poetry, even though the poem was describing the music of a konghou [ancient Chinese harp][3] but the instrument before her was a guqin.