Chapter 7: Clip Tone

Ji Su of course couldn't possibly post it again, he hastily deleted the photo he had just taken from his cell phone, buried his face in his pillow and started playing dead.

After a moment, the phone vibrated again.

Ji Su slowly turned her face sideways, revealing one eye and opening a dialog box between the two.

G: [asleep?]

Seeing that he wasn't after the photo from earlier, Ji Su breathed a sigh of relief and rolled over on her bed to type a reply.

Mengmeng: [I almost fell asleep, but I woke up again when my senior's message came through].

G: [Where's the picture you just sent?]

Ji Su: "......"

What a devious and cunning senior Zha Nan, who deliberately tricked him into replying and then chased after him for the photos!

Ji Su put down his cell phone and continued to play dead.

It's ok to send leg pics to the other guy, what kind of straight guy is he if he even gets his ass looked at?

G: [asleep again?]

This time Ji Su didn't fall for it and held back his reply.

G: [Actually, I saw it, it was black.]

Ji Su: "!"

The tender onion-like fingers poked and prodded at the screen vigorously, as if they were trying to poke the person on the other side of the screen through the cell phone.

After a few moments, Ji Su calmed down, thinking that since he had already been seen, he couldn't waste this good opportunity.

Mengmeng: [Senior! You're really bad!]

G: [Really?]

Mengmeng: [Ignoring you!]

Mengmeng: [cat angry.gif]

G: [Send it to me, don't you mean for me to read it?]

Ji Su choked for a moment and was speechless.

Not bad for a law student with exceptionally clear logic.

Mengmeng: [That ...... that I'm shy after posting it!]

G: [Really didn't see it.]

Ji Su felt better and decided to end this round of chatting for now.

Mengmeng: [I believe it!]

Mengmeng: [But I'm really sleepy, senpai~]

G: [Uh, go to bed early.]

Mengmeng: [You should go to bed early too, don't work too hard.]

Mengmeng: [Good night]

After posting goodnight, Ji Su decided to cut to a larger size, trying to stay away from the photo Zha Nan and herself had taken.

"Susu, are you asleep?" Qiao Jin suddenly poked his head out from the top bunk and called out in a small voice.

"Not yet." Ji Su got off the bed, "What's wrong?"

Qiao Jin, lying on the top bunk: "Zhou Yang just messaged me, saying they just got back to the dorm from the hospital."

Ji Su was concerned, "How's his roommate's leg?"

"Fractured ankle, it's not very serious to say it's serious, but it's a bit serious to say it's not." Qiao Jin said in a tongue-twister-like manner, "It takes a hundred days to recover from a broken tendon, so it's going to take two or three months to recover anyway."

"That's really inconvenient." Ji Su frowned slightly, "No wonder Gu Zhao was so angry at that time."

"Those guys from the Finance Department play too dirty!" Qiao Jin started cursing again, "I hope Gu Zhao doesn't let them off easy!"

Ji Su blinked her eyelashes, "What do you mean?"

"You don't know, Gu Zhao is a cold person, but he's still very righteous to his brothers." Qiao Jin also jumped down from the bed, "Previously Zhou Yang offended a second-generation ancestor of their department, and the other party intentionally found fault with him three times, Gu Zhao knew about it and helped him to get rid of it."

Ji Su pondered, "No wonder Zhou Yang and the others are willing to follow him."

He had secretly complained in his heart that if Gu Zhao's personality was so cold, why hadn't the people around him been frozen into ice sticks by him?

Qiao Jin shivered, "That said, I'm still a bit afraid of School Mistress Gu Da's cold face, it would make me feel like I'm always putting a hot face on a cold ass."

Ji Su couldn't bear to hear the word "ass" right now and changed the topic, "Tomorrow Saturday, do you want to go and console Zhou Yang's roommate?"

Qiao Jin paused and suddenly exclaimed in an exaggerated manner, "Susu, you're really good at this now yeah!"

Ji Su was puzzled, "What very will?"

Qiao Jin's eyes light up, "Very good at getting laid!"

Ji Su: "Yes?"

"Sympathizing with Zhou Yang's roommate will not only show my love, but also take the opportunity to get closer to him." Qiao Jin smiled to himself, "Thinking about it makes me happy hehehe ......"

Ji Su let out a laugh, "Though I hadn't thought about it that much, what you're saying isn't unreasonable."

"Really Susu, I think you are very close to taking Zha Nan for good!" Qiao Jin clenched his hands into fists and cheered him on, "Victory is just around the corner, Susu baby charge!"

*

The next morning, Ji Su woke up early.

After getting up and washing up, he went to the cafeteria with Qiao Jin to have breakfast, and then went to the supermarket to buy fruits and nutrients, ready to visit Wang Mingzhe, who had unfortunately suffered a broken bone.

Knocking on the door of the dormitory, there was a quick response from inside: "Coming coming!"

When the door opened, Zhou Yang was surprised to see the person standing outside, "Qiao Jin, what are you doing here?"

Qiao Jin held up the bag in his hand and said in a serious manner, "I have come to offer my condolences to the valiantly wounded student Wang Mingzhe."

Zhou Yang laughed at his choice of words, "It's not that serious."

"How come it's not that serious?" Wang Mingzhe's voice came from inside, "Qiao Jin is right, I was bravely injured for our law department, the department should give me a banner!"

Zhou Yang turned back, "I said you're fat and you're really panting!"

Ji Su pursed her lips and tried to hold back her laughter.

"That fellow Zhou Yang, can we go in?" Qiao Jin raised his jaw in a gesture.

Zhou Yang shot his head, "Of course of course! Come on in!"

Ji Su followed them into the dormitory and was surprised to find that it was quite clean and tidy, unlike the other boys' dormitories which were dirty and messy.

"Zhou Yang, your dormitory is very clean." Qiao Jin also noticed and casually complimented.

"Hey, it's not because Brother Gu is a bit of a clean freak." Wang Mingzhe, with a bandage on his foot, sat on a chair and spat, "In order to make his old man's stay more comfortable, we clean every day!"

"How many times have you cleaned?" Zhou Yang undermines him, "Every time it's your turn to clean you have something to do, and I don't end up doing it."

Wang Mingzhe begged for mercy: "Come on, come on, give me some face in front of Ji Su, okay?"

Ji Su, inexplicably cued: "Huh?"

Qiao Jin looked around, "Speaking of Gu Zhao, why don't we see him?"

Zhou Yang replied, "Brother Gu had something to do and went out early in the morning."

Qiao Jin eyeballed her and asked in a lowered voice, "Let me ask you guys a question in secret, and don't tell Gu Zhao, okay?"

Zhou Yang and Wang Mingzhe looked at each other and responded in unison, "No problem!"

"Gu Zhao, does he have a bad voice?" Qiao Jin genuinely questions, "Why have I never heard him speak?"

Zhou Yang: "This ......"

Wang Mingzhe waved his hand, "Gu has a good voice, he just doesn't like to talk, he often pops out two words at a time."

"It's mainly because he's not too familiar with you guys yet." Zhou Yang added, "You'll definitely be able to talk to him later when you get acquainted."

Qiao Jin: "So I'll wait?"

As they chatted for a while, Ji Su's cell phone vibrated in his pocket.

He pulled out his cell phone and glanced at it, pressing the screen off before offering his farewells, "Excuse me, I'm going to head back first."

"Stay and eat together at noon!" Wang Mingzhe hastened to stay, "Although I can't move my feet, we can order a meal and eat in the dormitory."

Ji Su smiled apologetically, "I do have something to do, next time."

Qiao Jin followed and stood up, "Then I'll leave too."

"You stay, you might be able to help." Ji Su gave him an unmoving winking hint, "I'll just go back on my own."

Qiao Jin hesitated and chose to stay, "Alright then."

Ji Su left the law boys' dormitory and walked until he was in a secluded area before he turned on his cell phone and dialed back the missed call from earlier.

The phone connected and a middle-aged male voice came from the opposite side: "Why are you just answering the phone?"

"Sorry dad, something came up earlier." Ji Su's eyes lowered, "I'll get back to you when I see it."

"What can I do on Saturday?" Ji Zhenghai paused, "Your brother is about to take the midterm exam, remember to contact him recently and encourage him."

Ji Su's fingers tightened around his cell phone and he opened his mouth, only to let out a monosyllable, "Uh-huh."

Though he knew his father wouldn't normally think to get up and care about him, the moment he saw the caller ID, there was still that little bit of anticipation in him.

Only, this time the call was still for his half-brother.

"What do you mean, uh?" Ji Zhenghai seemed dissatisfied with his perfunctory attitude and his voice became stern, "That's your own brother, don't you care at all?"

"Got it, dad." Ji Su crushed a fallen leaf under his feet with his toes, "I will contact my brother, don't worry."

After receiving a satisfactory reply, Ji Zhenghai's tone softened: "Your brother is at the most critical stage, he is not as good at reading as you are, so as an older brother you should help him more."

Ji Su wrinkled her brow and abruptly felt a little breathless.

He couldn't help but think of his own college entrance exams, living alone in a hotel and going into the exam room alone, setting seven or eight alarm clocks every day for fear of missing the exam time.

What was Ji Zhenghai doing at that time?

Ji Su raised his hand and tugged at the collar of his sweatshirt, asking in a low voice, "Is there anything else you want?"

"You haven't been home for a while, and your Aunt Qin was still thinking about you last night." Ji Zhenghai said, "Take some time to go home and visit before your brother's midterm exams."

Ji Su responded, "Good."

After hanging up, he stood in place for a long time before dialing another number.

"Two beeps later, the call was quickly answered.

"Hey, brother!" A vibrant teenage voice came from the other end of the phone, the tone was palpably happy, "How have you been?"

Ji Su tugged the corner of her lips slightly and adjusted her tone, "I'm fine, how about you, are you under a lot of pressure from studying?"

"There is definitely pressure, after all, I want to get into your high school based on my own strength!" Ji Chen twittered, "But I think I still have a pretty good grasp of it, I made it into the top twenty in my grade in the most recent touch test, and if I hadn't been too careless and misread a big math problem, my ranking would have been further ahead ......"

Ji Su listened in silence and waited for the other side to get tired of talking before asking, "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Brother you've already helped me enough, if it wasn't for those notes you left me, how could my grades have improved so fast?" Ji Chen's tone was one of heartfelt admiration, "You know what? My classmates all envy me when they hear that I have a brother who got into A University!"

"You can do it too." Ji Su raised her eyes to the sky, "Go for it."

"I'll work hard, brother!" The young man's voice was energized, "I'll try to look up to you and get into A University!"

Ji Su whispered back, "Okay, I'll wait for you at the University of A."

Only, by that time he had already graduated from U of A.

After chatting for a few more minutes, Ji Su said she had something to do, and Ji Chen hung up the phone reluctantly.

*

Ji Su went back to the dormitory alone, turned on the computer and started drawing.

As he drew, he felt nothing interesting again.

Ji Su picks up his cell phone, switches WeChat mini, taps into the dialog box with G. There are no new messages.

At this moment, he suddenly wanted to ask the other man how on earth he could manage to not care about those who didn't care about him at all.

Fingertips hovered above the phone screen for a long moment before finally closing the chat box.

There was no one else in the dormitory, and Ji Su ate her lunch and slept until late afternoon, waking up when it was dark.

Qiao Jin came back at some point and upon hearing the commotion, he immediately ran under his bed, "Susu, you're finally awake!"

Ji Su lifted his hand and rubbed his eyes with the back of it, his voice slightly hoarse from just waking up, "What time is it?"

Qiao Jin glanced at his cell phone screen, "It's 6:30, what time did you start sleeping?"

"Just after three." Ji Su sat up his upper body and said with concern, "How are you doing with Zhou Yang?"

"That's what I wanted to tell you!" Qiao Jin perked up, "We had lunch together, though it was with Wang Mingzhe I think, but rounded up it was me and him alone!"

Ji Su: "It's good."

Qiao Jin continues, "And after dinner, I went to the gym with Zhou Yang and he taught me how to play basketball!"

Ji Su was a bit strange, "Don't you already know how to play basketball, and you need him to teach you?"

"Aiya, am I not looking for a chance to make proper physical contact with him?" Qiao Jin smiled slightly shyly.

Ji Su looked at him, "And?"

"And then I realized he wasn't repulsed at all!" Qiao Jin covered her chest in ecstasy, "He even hugged me from behind, in the Titanic position, you know?"

"A great improvement indeed, but don't get too excited." Ji Su got off the bed, "There's a chance he thinks you're a brother."

Qiao Jin: "That's true ......"

Ji Su walked over to the table and raised her hand to pour a glass of warm water.

Qiao Jin circled around him, "By the way, you left at noon when you got the call, is something wrong?"

"Nothing, a call from my dad." Ji Su sipped her water, her tone calm.

Qiao Jin frowns, "What does your father want with you for nothing?"

Ji Su replied, "Ji Chen is about to take the midterm, so let me care about him."

"I knew it!" Qiao Jin volume involuntarily increased, "With a stepmother comes a stepfather, when will he care about caring for you?"

Ji Su didn't say anything, except that the warm water in her mouth was becoming a little hard to swallow.

"I'm really convinced, Ji Chen is his son, but you are not his son?" Qiao Jin became more and more indignant, "I've seen favoritism before, but I've never seen your father being so biased!"

"Forget it." Ji Su put down his water cup and smiled slightly, "He gave birth to me and raised me, put me through college, and never treated me poorly in terms of money over the years."

Qiao Jin shakes his head, "That's not what it says Susu--"

"What do you want to eat tonight?" Ji Su interrupted somewhat stiffly, "Let's go, I'm a little hungry."

Qiao Jin looked at his face and reared up with a cheeky grin, "Baby what do you want to eat, tonight is Master Qiao's treat!"

*

In a bad mood on Saturday, Ji Su didn't have the heart to chat with Zha Nan, and it was good that the other party didn't look for him either.

It wasn't until the weekend night that Ji Su took the initiative to send G a message.

Mengmeng: [Senpai, I just saw a guy at the stadium who looks a bit like you on the side...]]

He didn't expect a second reply from G. He read for a while with two minds.

A few minutes later, the person returned a voice: "I'm not at school."

The low, magnetic voice was pressed extremely low, and when listened to carefully, there was an unspeakable fatigue and depression hidden inside.

Ji Su was stunned and listened again, vaguely hearing the rustling wind.

The other guy is outside right now and there's no one else around.

Mengmeng: [Senior, is something wrong?]

The opposite side returned slowly, still in a short voice: "No."

Mengmeng: [I won't ask if you don't want to talk about it.]

Mengmeng: [But if you're looking for someone to talk to, I hope I can be your first choice.]

After another moment, a new voice message popped up in the dialog box, "Convenient voice?"

Ji Su got a jolt of energy and instantly tensed up.

Several days had passed since he had learned the clip sound, and he was now kind of forgetting the essentials of pronunciation.

Ji Su struggled to remember the tutorial, opened her lips, pressed her tongue against the back of her palate, and clamped down on the sound to push the airflow to vocalize from her throat, only to end up making some odd sounds.

Ji Su: "......"

It clearly wasn't like that at the time!

Panicking more and more, Ji Su subconsciously wanted to ask for help from Qiao Jin, but after waiting for his reply, the other side sent a new message.

G: [I'm the only one here, it's so quiet.]

Ji Su senses that the other person is in a low mood right now, and at times like these, it's the easiest time to take advantage of the situation.

Suddenly, a good idea came to him and he immediately got up and headed for the door.

Mengmeng: [Senior, wait for me for ten minutes.]

Ji Su ran downstairs while sending a voice to her senior sister, "Senior sister, emergency, lend me the keys to the music club."

Lin Yan: [The key is in the small flower bed on the windowsill, just go over and get it yourself].

Ten minutes later, Ji Su stood panting in front of the music club.

He braced his hands on his knees and smoothed his breathing, took out his keys and opened the classroom door and sat down at the piano.

Long, white fingers pressed the keys a few times, and after testing the sound, he dialed G's WeChat voice call and set the phone aside.

Before Gu Zhao has a chance to speak, the sound of a tinkling piano penetrates the phone and reaches his ears.

The melodious sound of the piano pours down from the fingers like a clear lake, like a quiet night, like the first light of the morning, like the first flowers blooming on the branches in spring.

But in this warmth and tranquility of the piano, there are strands of loneliness entwined, imperceptible but not to be ignored.

Gu Zhao closed his eyes, and even his breathing was unconsciously light, as if he was afraid of disturbing the sound of the piano.

After the song, Ji Su puts his hands down and calms his mind before moving his eyes to his cell phone screen.

It's one of G's favorite piano pieces, and it happens to be one of the pieces he grew up practicing.

He had a vision of the little boy who always sat obediently by the window and played the piano, practicing the piano repertoire over and over and over again, tirelessly, expecting a word of praise from his father.

Until today, Ji Zhenghai has never heard this piano piece.

He also didn't think that one day he would play this piano piece to a strange netizen.

After a long time, a low, hoarse voice rang out on the other end of the line, "Still there?"

Ji Su picked up the cell phone, wanting to hang up but not wanting to ruin the rare atmosphere.

Although G didn't make a single comment, somehow he felt as if the other man understood the song.

The other spoke up and asked, "Why did you play this song for me?"

Ji Su cleared his throat and typed a reply.

Mengmeng: [Because you like it.]

Mengmeng: [I want to make you happy.]

There was silence on the other side for a few seconds before asking again, "Why do you want to make me happy?"

Mengmeng: [Because if you're happy, Mengmeng will be happy too.]

This time the silence on the other end of the line became longer, leaving only the clear sounds of breathing exchanged with each other through the current.

"Mengmeng, still don't want to talk to me?" The other party guessed that Ji Su did not want to talk and inquired in a low voice.

His voice was so compelling that Ji Su's heartbeat sped up slightly despite the fake name being called.

Mengmeng: [I don't have a good voice, and I don't sound good when I talk.]

"It's okay." The other's cold voice seemed to take on warmth, "I just want to hear you talk."

Ji Su took a deep breath, mentally recited the pronunciation mnemonic of the clip sound once again, and summoned up the courage to open her mouth and call out, "Hey ......"

His original timbre was clear and clean, with the characteristic brightness of a teenager, at this time deliberately clamped up, becoming warm and soft and good to listen to, but due to nervousness and shyness, the end of the voice was slightly trembling, sounding extraordinarily pitying.

Like a newborn kitten, with eyes still open, he stretched out his tiny, young paws and meowed.

Gu Zhao narrowed his eyes slightly, the words he wanted to say rolled around in his mouth and were swallowed with the knot in his throat, finally leaving only three words, "It's very nice."