The melody was intense, its rhythm pounding against the heart.
The low, resonant hum of "Sister Saint" pried open the sealed parts of her being,
filling the entire space with her pleasant, deep tones.
Four hours of practice had already passed the halfway mark,
and now she was playing a piece that could somewhat represent 50% of her current ability—
"Remnant Machine."
Her fingers flew across the strings, leaving behind a blur of motion.
The wristband and band-aids on her fingers seemed on the verge of bursting off.
Lin Mu was fully immersed, facing the grass-green PRS guitar propped up on an A-frame stand,
playing with all her heart.
...
["When playing the guitar, focus completely, pour your heart into it.
One day, you'll suddenly realize that your skill has silently risen to an astonishing level, and when you look back, the old you will have disappeared.
So, if you want to leave your past self behind, play with all your might! This is my secret to practicing, and I'm sharing it with you."]
The words of Yin Qing were like gospel to her.
Lin Mu bit her lip, facing a bass showcase piece of hellish difficulty, giving it 140% of her energy, choosing to play blind without looking at her arms.
The rich, textured notes flowed effortlessly, yet this still didn't consume all her focus.
—Part of her attention was reserved for "gazing."
Gazing at the PRS guitar three meters away from her.
This was the electric guitar "he" had recommended.
As everyone knows, an electric guitar has six strings, two more than a bass.
Thus, from a nuanced perspective, it's slightly more challenging than a bass, requiring relentless dedication to master.
Though Lin Mu lacked the innate talent to become a master in this field, it didn't stop her from purchasing this guitar, one of the "little treasures" Yin Qing had loved but couldn't afford.
Looking at this PRS, it was as if she could see Yin Qing's shadow.
As if he were standing beside her, admiring her performance.
As if, in some parallel universe,
they had, in a sense, 【become true teammates】.
I play for you, pouring my heart into every note.
Will you be happy?
Can you hear it?
Will you one day discover that
all the songs you love,
the over seven hundred songs you've hearted,
I've recorded and sent them all to you.
Will you watch them?
Will you spend that much time, watching minute after minute of videos,
one by one?
I bought a DSLR just to film for you.
I bought a Shure microphone just to record the audio for you.
Though each video took dozens, if not hundreds, of takes before I felt confident enough to send it to you on "Cloud Music."
Though I know you couldn't possibly have the time to watch every moment of my late-night practice over the years.
But it doesn't matter,
I've sent them to you,
【and that's enough for me.】
Lin Mu smiled,
"You're watching me, right?"
...
The night passed quietly.
Gazing at his shadow,
she quickly made it through the difficult hours.
The practice session was nearing its end.
As Lin Mu played the final note, her eyes fell on the last song in today's practice plan—"Weakness of the Sky."
She took a deep breath and let out a soft sigh.
"This is one of the songs you mentioned in a high school post, saying it was something you couldn't master back then.
Though I can't feel the difficulty from the perspective of an electric guitarist, I can at least complete my part in such a piece before you do."
After all, if one day,
you succeed,
won't I be able to skip the precious time needed for practice,
and perform a duet with you on the spot?
...
Looking at the PRS, Lin Mu's expression softened, a hint of infatuation in her eyes.
Carefully, she took out wet wipes, tissues, string oil, cleaning fluid, and a glasses cloth.
She wiped down "Sister," wiped down the "Saint."
Then she sealed it away.
Next, she retrieved a more affordable Martin-D28 acoustic guitar from the humidity-controlled cabinet on the first floor of the shop.
—It was a "little treasure" of the same model as Yin Qing's, just from a different year.
To test whether she could fully step into his memories and closely observe his past, Lin Mu had once made an incredibly bold decision:
"Whatever he learns, I will learn too."
Regrettably,
after trying, Lin Mu realized she simply couldn't do it.
In terms of 【talent】, she seemed to be slightly overshadowed by Yin Qing.
"Damn you, divine being…"
So, she settled for the next best thing—
"Whatever songs he likes, I will practice them in the field I excel in."
She lacked talent in guitar, at most able to strum a few simple tunes on the acoustic and sing, though her voice wasn't as sweet as Sister's…
But in the realm of bass guitar, among all the music enthusiasts in her grade,
if she said she was second, no one dared to claim first.
Unfortunately, she had few friends.
Her teammates had all left.
If, if someone were willing to be her friend…
If that person also understood music, also played electric instruments…
As long as they didn't bully her,
she wouldn't mind paying a monthly "friendship fee" of 5,000 yuan to them.
Lin Mu thought this way.
...
Soon,
the nightly practice reached its final stage—
【All-in-One Training】.
As the gospel says:
"Don't confine your focus to just one instrument.
One of my mentors once taught me that to truly master the guitar, you must also conquer the acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass, and more, without distinguishing between classical, folk, strumming, or fingerstyle. Therefore, I believe it's necessary to have some understanding of other instruments."
In Lin Mu's ears, Yin Qing's words automatically transformed into:
"To truly master the bass, you must also conquer the acoustic bass, double bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, and more, or your understanding of music will remain incomplete."
So, just playing the bass wasn't enough.
It wasn't sufficient.
Absolutely not.
The girl believed that being a one-trick pony was fatal.
【If you're not an all-in-one, you're not worthy of being his teammate.】
And so,
she began her self-directed research.
Using Sister's money, she bought a 25,000-yuan acoustic guitar (feeling a bit guilty),
but it didn't matter, Sister didn't know.
Even if she found out, she wouldn't understand why.
She wouldn't care about the money either.
Hehe,
so secretly studying "his" techniques and empathizing with the over 100 daily practice hurdles he faced wasn't a problem, right?
This was Lin Mu's little happiness.
"What should I play for the final piece today?"
She licked her dry lips, holding the "little treasure" carefully as she sat in front of the small stage.
She connected the acoustic guitar to the sound system and turned on another set of effects pedals worth over 10,000 yuan.
—Money was no issue.
After all, it was Sister's money.
"Got it. I'll play 'Melancholy of One.'"
Once decided, she pulled the microphone stand closer, positioning the Shure condenser mic near her mouth.
She adjusted the pop filter and her posture, sitting on a coffee-colored bar stool, one foot on the ground, stabilizing her grip on the guitar.
Though Lin Mu claimed to have "no talent" in guitar,
this was relative to her prodigious talent in bass.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to effortlessly play and sing original ACG song arrangements at full difficulty within just a few years.
She knew very well,
Yin Qing loved Yorushika's songs.
At the same time, Sister often played "Blue Two," also a Yorushika (referred to as "Night Deer" hereafter) piece.
She understood Sister's longing for the blue sky.
"But why did she suddenly start obsessively listening to Night Deer's songs at some point?"
She had no interest in this style before.
Lin Mu had never recommended anything about Night Deer to her.
"Why did she suddenly start liking the same band as Yin Qing?"
She didn't understand.
Nor could she figure it out.
But it didn't matter.
Sister could admire the blue sky.
She had every right to like Night Deer.
It didn't matter.
After all, it didn't stop her from feeling the "depths of the lake."
From sensing the "melancholy at the bottom of the lake."
Her singing began.
"Always, always, always, always…
it's only because I've been chasing after you."
The crisp sound of the acoustic guitar strings spread and filled the entire space.
Lin Mu's singing style is simple and unadorned. While she may not be considered a top-tier vocalist, her ability to play all the advanced chords and sing with full emotion makes her performance a moment worth capturing in the deep of the night.
【A singer who pours their heart into their performance deserves respect.】
These words, once spoken by Yin Qing, were etched in Lin Mu's memory.
The air was quiet,
the strings hummed.
She played, she sang.
She recorded, she replayed.
Collecting fragments, trimming branches.
At six in the morning, the sun began to rise.
Every day, she watched the sky turn blue.
Lin Mu put away her instrument, washed her hands, and cleared her mind.
She finished editing the audio and video she had prepared,
and sent it wirelessly to her phone.
"I'll send it to him before I sleep," she thought.
She turned off the lights in the café,
tidied up a bit,
and felt a sense of contentment.
For her,
the morning and early afternoon were for sleeping.
After all, it was "Twilight Café."
Opening in the morning? No way.
In fact, even opening at night was hit or miss.
Oh, lately, it hadn’t been open at all.
Tsk.
Lin Mu clicked her tongue in annoyance.
For some reason, she remembered the couple who had come to her shop last time to flaunt their love.
"That jerk of a player, daring to give me attitude. Hmph."
She muttered discontentedly:
"Better not let me run into you next time."
"Otherwise, I’ll make sure to pay you back double."
【If you haven’t mastered the piece, just spend ten times the effort next time.】—Yin Qing.
【When you’re struggling with a new piece or a section you can’t play smoothly, just play it 200 times in a simple way to build muscle memory.】
—「Just keep it simple.」
"……"
Though extreme,
Lin Mu treated it as her 「Bible.」
In short, everything Yin Qing said, she would put into practice.
At this moment, after finishing her tasks and washing up, she stripped off her coat, tossed her skirt and everything else onto the floor, and flopped onto her luxurious, ultra-soft Simmons bed.
Ah, bliss.
"~"
She let out a contented hum.
Rolling around on the bed,
she grabbed her phone one last time before sleep took over.
It was time for her daily final task—
「Posting her practice progress to Yin Qing.」
If she was in a bad mood, she’d add a little 「diary entry.」
After all, he wouldn’t see it,
so it was just like talking to herself.
Hehe, not a bad thing at all.
"Should I send it to him now?"
Lin Mu opened her photo album, looking for the edited videos she had just transferred.
As she swiped through, she suddenly noticed
a few "out of place" photos.
"Huh…?"
She frowned slightly, looking at the photos she had taken as a prank in front of her Sister’s shop—
photos of that 「player.」
"Ugh."
"Such bad luck!"
Just like that, the good mood from finishing her practice and recording the videos was gone.
Completely evaporated, you could say.
Lin Mu irritably opened the photos, her face scrunched up in displeasure, and deleted them one by one.
When she got to the last one,
she stared at the photo of the "player" and his "queen" (short for the player’s girlfriend), feeling more and more puzzled.
She looked left, she looked right.
She kept looking.
The queen was fine—a cute, trendy girl who looked like she had plenty of suitors. Stylish, with great taste.
But the player…
Honestly, "his build really does look like Yin Qing’s."
Lin Mu’s frown deepened,
and she sat up with a thud.
Last time, she had felt a similar déjà vu.
Back then, she had dismissed it as a "misjudgment,"
but she couldn’t deny that if you took this player out of the photo and placed him in one of Yin Qing’s videos…
Hypothetically, imagining him playing the piano…
It kind of…
"Damn, there’s no sense of incongruity at all."
Wait.
"Let’s be real, this guy’s vibe is kind of similar to my Qing."
Lin Mu analyzed:
"Even though his personality is annoying, so stubborn, and he doesn’t show any respect even when faced with a rich girl like me—totally ungrateful."
"But then again, isn’t Qing the same?"
"When it comes to music, Qing would never back down. No matter how tough the practice gets, he’d grind through it bit by bit."
Moreover,
even if someone like her—a rich girl—were thrown in front of Qing…
Would he…
have even the slightest interest in her, a real-life person?
"Probably not."
【Obviously not.】
Because,
what he loves,
—is the piano.
……
……
Lin Mu felt defeated.
Every time she thought about this fact, a sense of "I can’t compare to his precious instruments" would well up inside her.
So, she had always been content with watching him from afar.
Once, she had tried to be bold, testing the waters by asking to have a voice call with him, but it ended in a lifetime of shyness.
—Yin Qing just disappeared.
He even became "Yin Qing."
"Damn."
It’s all my fault.
I scared him away.
Lin Mu got out of bed in a huff, angrily putting her skirt back on.
She synced the "royal couple photo (player and queen)" to her loft’s $60,000 audio workstation (music production computer),
and used a Bluetooth printer to print it out on the spot.
"Tsk."
She clicked her tongue, then picked up a pair of scissors from the table and skillfully cut out the "player" from the printed photo, following the outline of his figure with a mix of frustration and precision—
snip, snip—
until he was completely separated from the rest.
Then, she tossed the remaining "queen" and the background of Mosse’s shop into the trash.
Moments later, Lin Mu stuck the player’s photo onto the whiteboard facing her double bed, scrutinizing it repeatedly.
This whiteboard was her "scratch paper" for writing songs and composing music.
Lin Mu was used to writing chord progressions on it, deriving melodies directly to create music.
Now, it had a "player photo" on it.
"Hmm. Even though I know it’s probably just my imagination running wild, it still feels suspicious."
Lin Mu figured there was a 99.999% chance she was wrong. After all, the probability of meeting someone with a build so similar to Yin Qing’s—especially the hands, fingers that looked exactly like Yin Qing’s, with the same length—was just too low.
"Let’s just treat it as a keepsake."
"If only I had taken a closer shot."
She thought to herself.
Deep down, she felt she was probably mistaken.
The second reason she dismissed her suspicion was that the player’s left hand, upon closer inspection, seemed to lack calluses.
Someone who practiced string instruments daily would definitely have calluses.
But then again, if a guitarist hadn’t played for half a year,
it was possible for the calluses to fade, for new skin to grow over the marks of past glory.
In any case, she could always find a way to rationalize it.
"Whatever, I’ll just stick him on the wall and curse at him every day."
Lin Mu decided rebelliously.
"Yeah, it’ll be a way to vent."
Not bad.
Pretty good, actually.
Lin Mu thought to herself,
feeling quite pleased.
She opened her phone again.
"Next…"
Should I send the 「homework」 video to Qing?
"Hehe."
She quickly opened 「Cloud Music.」
With practiced ease, she found her only 「pinned contact,」 Yin Qing.
In the next moment,
Huh?
"Is it my old habit of staying up late causing this?"
Seeing something unusual, Lin Mu wondered if she was hallucinating again.
Because usually,
her messages would be at the top.
Since she sent something every day, the first thing she’d see would be her own video or message.
【But today.】
Yin Qing: "Lin, you’ve been practicing well."
Message received: Just now.
……
……