Downstairs, Ji Baiwei and Yun Bingxia had breakfast ready. Seeing that Gu Nian'an still had not come down, they were about to go upstairs to call him.
Ji Yaozhi volunteered. "I'll get him. Just wait here." Before he had even finished speaking, he headed upstairs eagerly.
Ji Baiwei watched him go, sighed softly, and followed him upstairs.
At the door, Ji Yaozhi knocked lightly. Knock, knock, knock. There was no response.
"Is he still asleep?" he wondered aloud.
Ji Baiwei followed right behind him. Looking at the closed door, she considered for a moment before saying, "Open the door and check. Let's make sure he hasn't come down with a fever like last time."
At that, Ji Yaozhi immediately grew a little nervous and pushed the door straight open. The instant it opened, the sight inside left him frozen in place.
The boy was wearing thin pajamas, and the sunlight falling over him shone through the fabric, outlining the youthful contours beneath.
Woken by the sound of the door opening, Gu Nian'an wearily propped himself up and rubbed his eyes, looking drowsily at the visitors.
As the boy moved, his clothes slipped down slightly, revealing his fair neck. His eyes, still faintly red from yesterday's memories, took on an even more tantalizing allure beneath their haze of sleepiness.
As he sat up, the kitten in his arms also crawled out from under the covers and tilted its head at everyone.
Ji Yaozhi's breath trembled slightly. For a moment, he was dazed, his gaze flickering constantly, his eyes seemingly glued to the boy.
Only after a long while did he stammer, "We came to call you down for breakfast." With that, as though he did not dare look at the boy again, he turned and hurried downstairs.
Seeing her nephew's reaction, which could not have been more obvious, Ji Baiwei frowned slightly. Then she softened her expression, said good morning to the person in bed, and turned to leave as well.
[H-help! A big kitty and a little kitty! Let me snuggle them!]
[Woke up this morning and my phantom dick exploded, guys.]
[When that kitten crawled out, ahhhhh! Its gaze matched baby An's, ahhhhh! So cute, ahhhhh!]
[My daily dose of being knocked out by our baby's cuteness.]
[Double the joy. Lick, lick, lick.]
[Am I the only one who noticed Ji Yaozhi was completely dazed by Gu Nian'an? Lol.]
[Me too, I'm dying. His eyes were practically glued to him. Though I'd be dazed too. Ahhhhh, so cute.]
[My motherly love is gradually turning into something else.]
At the table, Ji Baiwei brought Gu Nian'an a bowl of dumplings and said with a smile, "Here, try these. Yaozhi got up early to make them. He kept insisting you had to try some and wouldn't stop showing off."
Gu Nian'an glanced at the dumplings, then looked up at Ji Yaozhi, his eyes full of surprise and delight.
The instant their eyes met, Ji Yaozhi abruptly looked away, then stole a glance out of the corner of his eye at the boy taking small bites of his dumplings.
Ji Yaozhi lowered his head slightly and rubbed his ears, which felt a little hot. The scene from that morning was still vivid in his mind, and now, looking at the boy again, he somehow kept feeling as though his heartbeat was growing faster and faster.
He hardly dared look at him.
Mu Chen took it all in, his gaze darkening as a faint smile curved his lips. There was no telling what he was thinking.
After breakfast, the staff announced that everyone would have to pay for their accommodations starting that day: five hundred per person per day. They could obtain the money through various means, but they were not allowed to borrow from friends.
Everyone exchanged looks, and after discussing it, they decided to go out and look for work.
They split up into groups of two or three. Gu Nian'an and Ji Yaozhi found a Western restaurant together and asked whether they could work part-time.
At the sight of their familiar faces and the cameraman behind them, the manager's eyes immediately lit up. He welcomed them inside and asked, "We need someone to play the piano. Can either of you play?"
Both of them were celebrities. If they worked at his restaurant, wouldn't it instantly become a celebrity hotspot? He would have to be out of his mind to refuse.
Gu Nian'an paused briefly before saying softly, "I can give it a try."
He had won quite a few piano competition awards in the past. Even though he had later spent a long time bedridden, he still retained the muscle memory.
Playing a little piano at this restaurant would be no problem.
Suddenly, he froze again. Right, he was already dead. Whether the original owner of this body had any muscle memory was another matter...
But the words were already out, and he could no longer take them back.
So, following the manager's directions, he went over to the piano in the main dining area and sat down.
Looking at the familiar keys, he fell into a brief daze, as though he had returned to his previous life.
Ji Yaozhi turned to the manager and asked, "Do you have a violin? I'll play with him."
The manager hurriedly had someone bring over a violin.
Ji Yaozhi stepped forward and asked, "What should we play?"
After thinking for a moment, Gu Nian'an looked into the man's eyes and said gently, "Have you heard of 'Melody in a Dream'?"
It was the last piece he had played in his previous life, though he did not know whether it existed in this world.
Ji Yaozhi nodded. He remembered the piece, so he picked up the violin and gestured for Gu Nian'an to begin whenever he was ready.
Gu Nian'an took a deep breath and gently pressed the keys. His slender fingers danced across the piano as its low notes rose alongside the lilting sound of the violin.
The composer of "Melody in a Dream" had spent three years in a vegetative state after a car accident. Throughout those three years, he had been caught in an illusory yet magnificent dream. After waking, he could not accept reality, and after composing "Melody in a Dream," he shot himself.
From then on, "Melody in a Dream" became widely known.
It was a piece that mingled joy with sorrow and despair. Because of the composer's experiences, it was difficult for anyone without life experience to bring out the emotions within it.
The piece was not suitable for beginners or those whose piano skills were still limited.
Ji Yaozhi, however, had studied music with his aunt, Ji Baiwei, since childhood, and had also received instruction from top teachers. Naturally, he could use technique to compensate for his lack of life experience.
As the music gradually drew him into his memories, Gu Nian'an seemed to sink into the emotions the composer had felt.
After coming to this world, everything had felt too disjointed. That relationship entwined with love and resentment, those people he had thought would remain bound to him for life through blood ties and love, had vanished from before his eyes because of his death and transmigration into a novel.
With time, even the faces of those people from his previous life had begun to blur. Those past events, all that love and hatred, were gradually becoming illusory.
When he saw that cat, so like the one from his childhood, he could not stop trembling. Was all of this real, or was it merely a fleeting dream before his death...
Would he, like the composer of this piece, go through it all only to find it had been nothing but an empty dream?
Yet the boy's piano seemed to give voice to the composer's very thoughts, a thread of confusion and pain woven into its joy.
Watching the boy play the piano, Ji Yaozhi felt a stirring in his heart, his gaze flickering constantly.
The boy beneath the lights was simply too dazzling.
The diners around them kept turning to look. Seeing their familiar faces, some had already taken out their phones to film.
[Just passing through with my grade ten piano qualification. Gu Nian'an really plays well.]
[This piece sounds so cheerful, so why did it make me cry? Fuck.]
[That's normal. The commenter above can look up what the composer of "Melody in a Dream" went through.]
[Gu Nian'an and Ji Yaozhi work so well together.]
[Just passing through. Sounds good, looks good. Let me gobble up some Yao-Nian.]
Before you continue