The old man was once again taken aback by the young man's words. Compared to the girl just now, this man was clearly... how should he put it?
Not quite as easy to talk to? The old man smiled sheepishly. He had naturally noticed the fatigue and drowsiness on the man's face,
"Sorry."
"For bothering you."
"I just wanted to ask you..." The old man got straight to the point.
"Have you heard the sound of a pipa at home?" He didn't ask the man, as he had the girl, whether he practiced the pipa.
After all, the pipa was a rather uncommon instrument, and most people who practiced it were women. The man before him also looked like he wanted to end the conversation as soon as possible, so the old man skipped the preliminaries and asked the most important question directly.
"The pipa..." The man was taken aback.
"...the sound?" He raised a hand and rubbed his forehead. The unexpected question had roused him a little.
"No." The man shook his head.
"I haven't heard any pipa music." ...The old man was disappointed, but not all that disappointed.
The moment he saw the man, he'd had a vague feeling. But... it wasn't the girl.
It wasn't the man either. Then who was it...? The sound he'd heard had really seemed so close...
"If there's nothing else..." The man felt bad that the old man was disappointed, but there was nothing he could do to help.
Besides, he was so groggy that his head was spinning. All he wanted was to get back to bed as soon as possible.
He didn't care about anything else and didn't want to get involved... The old man suddenly grew anxious. Wait...
"...Are you the only one at home?" A thought