The Bird That Fell into the Water

After more than half a month of writing, Jimo had finished the overall framework of his business plan. All that remained was to find investors.

The academy had an entrepreneurship park filled with outstanding company founders from the academy, who often worked on school-enterprise projects. Jimo contacted them through the entrepreneurship section of the forum and gave them a rough outline of his idea. One entrepreneur had already agreed to meet him.

Jimo changed into the more formal clothes in his wardrobe, gathered his materials, and said to Zhuang Zhe, "Let's go."

Zhuang Zhe looked miserable. "Do I have to go too?"

"Of course. We're a team."

Halfway there, Jimo received a message from the entrepreneur. An urgent meeting had come up, so they would have to meet another time.

The wording was sincere, and it didn't look as though he had changed his mind.

Jimo replied: [Okay, let's meet another time.]

He had just sent the message when one from Ke Yueyi popped up.

[Come to the lounge.]

Jimo frowned. What did he want this time? They hadn't seen each other since the day Jimo had been drenched.

"What's wrong?"

Zhuang Zhe found it a little strange that Jimo had stopped halfway there.

Jimo put away his phone. "You go back first. I have something else to do."

"We're not going?" Zhuang Zhe looked a little like a poor student who had just been told he didn't have to do his homework.

"Something came up for him, so we'll have to do it another day."

When Jimo reached the lounge, he heard piano music flowing from inside.

Ke Yueyi's eyes were lowered, his eyelashes dark. From this angle, Jimo couldn't see those dark green eyes.

His slender fingers moved over the keys, and a beautiful melody swirled through the lounge.

Jimo stood quietly to one side. Even though he knew nothing about the piano, he could hear a hint of lament in the music.

The emotion in the piece really didn't suit Ke Yueyi. What could he possibly want that he couldn't have?

The music stopped at some point, and Ke Yueyi turned to look at him.

"That was 'The Solitary Pelican,' a selection from Messiaen's Catalogue of Birds. Jimo, I think it suits you right now, so I'm dedicating it to you."

Jimo smiled. "Thanks, but Brother Yi, I don't know anything about the piano."

"Is that so?"

Ke Yueyi didn't linger on the subject. He stood and walked toward the sofa. "Would you like something to drink?"

"Coffee? Wine?"

"Ah." Jimo waved a hand. "I have to go back and do my homework in a bit. Brother Yi, what did you call me here for?"

Even though Jimo said that, Ke Yueyi still turned to make coffee. Over the sound of the coffee being ground, Jimo heard him say, "For your business plan, you'll need to find investors, right?"

Jimo frowned behind him. Ke Yueyi wasn't in their major, so how did he know so much about it?

"Yeah, I've already found one. It's almost settled." Jimo kept his tone casual.

"All right, good."

Ke Yueyi handed him the coffee, and Jimo hurriedly accepted it with both hands.

Jimo took a sip and felt as though the coffee's bitterness would reach his heart.

Ke Yueyi said, "There are sugar cubes on the table."

Jimo didn't actually want any more, but they were sitting face-to-face, and if he didn't drink the coffee, they wouldn't have much to talk about.

So Jimo picked up a sugar cube and dropped it in.

Jimo lowered his eyes and stirred slowly.

Ke Yueyi leaned back on the sofa and watched him for a while. "I heard you were sick recently."

Another statement.

Jimo's heart sank. Where had he heard that? Why did Ke Yueyi keep pestering him for no reason?

"It was nothing, just a low fever. I was better in a couple of days."

"Mm."

Jimo didn't want him to keep circling back to topics about him, so he asked, "Brother Yi, do you come to the lounge often?"

"It's more relaxing here. I come by whenever I'm at school." Ke Yueyi paused. "If you want to find me, you can come here."

Would I have to be crazy to go looking for him?

Jimo replied, "Okay."

When he finished his coffee, Jimo checked the time and gave Ke Yueyi an apologetic smile. "Brother Yi, I'll let you get back to what you were doing. I'll head out first; I have something to do later."

Ke Yueyi's expression was indifferent. Without replying, he went back to the piano and sat down.

Jimo glanced at him and hurried out.

From beginning to end, he still didn't know why Ke Yueyi had called him over for no reason.

He'd had a cup of coffee and listened to a piano piece.

As soon as Jimo stepped outside, he left everything about Ke Yueyi behind in the lounge.

A thin layer of snow already covered the ground. Jimo pulled his clothes closer around himself and headed for the dormitory.

His footprints left a long trail in the snow. Suddenly, Jimo stopped as a dark figure lunged at him.

He dodged inward, but the person persistently grabbed his arm and pleaded, "Jimo, Brother Mo, I've finally found you."

"Who are you?"

The person in front of him was in a sorry state. His uniform was in tatters, his complexion was ashen, and the back of the hand gripping Jimo was covered in cuts of varying depths.

He looked as if he had just escaped from hell.

It was no wonder Jimo hadn't recognized him. He looked vastly different from when he had been so triumphant while tormenting someone that day.

"It's me, Brother Mo. That day, I—we met in the school cafeteria, the day it rained really hard..."

At that, Jimo took a closer look and finally remembered him. His expression turned cold. "What do you want?"

The man stumbled over his words, pleading, "Brother Mo, could you talk to Brother Yi for me? Just tell him I didn't mean to do it, and that you're not holding it against me either. Ask him to... to let me off."

Jimo's face was expressionless. "Fine, I'm not holding it against you."

With that, Jimo stepped past him and tried to leave.

The man blocked him again. "Then could you tell Brother Yi that for me? Otherwise, he won't let me off."

At most, he could hold out until the end of the semester before he was expelled.

"I'm not close to him."

"No, no, he'll definitely listen to you. There's no one else in the academy as close to Young Master Yi as you are."

Are all these people blind?

Jimo was irritated. Couldn't they see that Ke Yueyi didn't even like him much?

One after another, they kept lumping him and Ke Yueyi together.

He ignored the man from the student council and walked away. No matter how loudly the man shouted behind him, Jimo didn't slow his pace in the slightest.

Even after he returned to the dormitory, Jimo was still angry.

He picked up his phone and opened the browser.

He searched for the Catalogue of Birdsong that Ke Yueyi had mentioned.

While in a prisoner-of-war camp during World War II, its composer, Messiaen, had kept notes on his observations of birds in the form of a diary.

After the war, he composed this piano work inspired by birdsong. "The Solitary Pelican," the piece Ke Yueyi had played, depicted an injured waterbird that had fallen into the water and was known for its mournful melody.

?

Jimo ground his teeth as he read this, remembering how Ke Yueyi had said the piece suited him.

He had been splashed with water and come down with a fever. Wasn't he just like an injured waterbird that had fallen into the water?

Jimo knew nothing about the piano. He thought Ke Yueyi was mocking him.