The old woman's mouth fell open. Clearly, she needed some time to process this...
"...Anyway..." The old man pressed his lips together.
"Practicing an instrument in the middle of the night really does disturb people's sleep," he said, offering the reasonable excuse he'd already thought up.
"Indeed." The old woman nodded. Who practiced an instrument late at night—no, in the early hours of the morning? It was so... If you told someone about it, they'd probably call them
"crazy"...
"So I went to ask who was practicing the pipa last night..." At his words, the old woman's face immediately lit with understanding.
"Oh~"
"Did you find them?" she asked casually...
"No." The old man shook his head, disappointment showing on his face.
"None of them did it."...
"Huh?" The old woman looked surprised.
"None of them?"
"Then..."
"Was it someone downstairs?"...
"Maybe..." The old man wasn't sure, either.
"I'll go downstairs and ask later." He didn't tell his wife that the sound he'd heard had seemed to come from right beside him.
Maybe he'd heard it wrong. After all, he was very sensitive to the sound of a pipa...
"You..." The old woman seemed to want to say something, but when the old man looked over, she smiled.
"Sure."
"Go after breakfast." She'd meant to ask why he was spending so much energy on such a trivial matter.
But she'd realized the old man cared about it more than she'd expected. She didn't really understand why... but it didn't matter.
Since it was only a small thing... well... she wouldn't stop him. It wouldn't be any trouble to ask the people downstairs.
She'd let him do as he pleased... With the matter on his mind, the old man barely paid attention to breakfast.
He only half-listened to his wife...