Rose Dust

Chapter 1 – Taut String

Regardless of how close she was standing from him, she couldn’t feel where his heart and soul were. Was he willing to hand it over to me? Or Does he bring my heart and soul into his world?

How far are we?

Standing at the door of the piano room, Jiegeng thought this unconsciously.

The sound of intermittent notes rang out from inside the piano room, and the sound was even more abrupt in the empty corridor. Pausing at the door, she peeped in through the slightly opened transparent glass, somewhat sneakily.

A tall boy was standing beside the piano with his head lowered as he carefully tuned the piano. From time to time, a note or two sounded. His face always remained indifferent, which gave people an inviolable sense of distance. 

After a while, he seemed satisfied and played a short note skillfully before he got up and pressed down the piano cover.

She saw his fingers on the black and white piano keys, the golden sunset shone on his fingertips, and the musical notes were like pearls falling on a jade plate, it was too late for the ears to pick them up.

She remembered a year ago when she entered freshman year, he was already such an outstanding person, and people’s gaze would always follow him wherever he went. He was not a talkative person, but he was polite and distant. 

The glasses did not diminish his appeal, they even added a bit more elegance and gentleness. His body seemed to be surrounded by an impenetrable aura all the time, so at most, the girls could only talk about him or peeked at him from a distance but dared not approach.

Ye Jiegeng was filled with inexplicable awe for this person. As long as he was there, she was like a taut string, afraid that even with the slightest tug, it would break in half. 

She was afraid that she would never have the opportunity to walk by his side in this life.

But she was very determined to improve herself, as long as she got a bit closer to him, a little closer, even if it was only by a centimeter. 

Looking at him so close, he was about two meters away, and she only had to take two steps forward to get to him. But this was just the distance of the body; how could she shorten the distance between the heart. It wasn’t in the textbooks, and the teacher had never taught it.

Feeling discouraged, she clenched her fingers into a fist and slowly unclenched, only to realize that even those tiny hopes were superfluous, just like a mirror image.

“Ye Jiegeng, don’t dawdle; your dad is giving a series of CALL!” Tan Fei yelled at her carelessly at the top of the stairs.

Any sound in the empty corridor caused an exaggerated echo. Tan Fei’s loud and deep voice sank in the air, filling the quiet corridor with sound. 

Hearing the sound, he raised his head and met the shocked eyes of Ye Jiegeng, who had no time to retreat. It was too late to hide, so she nodded at him and ran towards the stairs with her feet flying.

All the way, she thought of his narrow and cold eyes, just that pair of eyes frightened her, and she was afraid to lose.

Ye Jiegeng acted like someone with cerebral palsy all evening.

When she was pricked by the rose thorn for the nth time, Tan Fei couldn’t stand it. Taking her hand, she said, “Why do you look like you’ve been struck by lightning today? It will become a hedgehog if you continue to stick it down like that. Go away, I’ll wrap the flowers.”

Ye Jiegeng cried, “No need, no need,” but was squeezed aside by her senior sister. 

As soon as her father walked in, he saw Ye Jiegeng sitting in front of the counter, lost in thought, while Tan Fei cut the branches and leaves of roses haphazardly. It wasn’t that Tan Fei was clumsy. She was a bold and carefree girl, 1.72-meters tall, with a rough voice, and her hand didn’t make any effort to be gentle.

“Put it down, Tan Fei. You aren’t trimming the branches; you are whipping them!”

“Hey, the corpse whipped by the one and only Miss Tan is pretty rare to find in this world, okay?” Tan Fei grabbed her short hair to the side and continued, but there was no sign of repentance. 

The flower branches were still tortured to the point of beyond recognition. Fortunately, it was wrapped in layers of pink cellophane and tied with a beautiful ribbon bow on the outside, which made it look not as ugly, giving it a nice appearance instead.

Father Ye greeted and asked the flower delivery boy to move the new flowers into the shop. 

Soon the small and neat place was occupied by the newly brought flowers. 

Ye Jiegeng didn’t want to grieve for those naturally cold eyes, so she rolled up her sleeves and helped with cleaning. 

Her father had a good chat with the flower delivery boy, and he generously gave a handful of red roses to the boy during their farewells. Tan Fei helped wrap the roses in a newspaper. 

He felt embarrassed and kept scratching his head, expressing his gratitude with a ‘thank you.’

The boy was tall and thin. After bowing and bidding farewell, he left with a smile on his face. He looked very kind with a light smile on his face.

Unconsciously, Ye Jiegeng was a little dazed again, thinking of that scene, that person slightly bent-over when tuning the piano in the evening; there was another subtle heartbeat. 

Tan Fei’s nerves were as thick as wool, and just thought she was tired. Grabbing a broomstick with her hand, she asked, “What’s wrong with you? There is no spirit at all.”

“Well, maybe it’s too hot.” 

She casually made up an excuse, but Tan Fei believed it and lowered the air conditioner by two degrees. 

The clock was about to point to eleven o’clock, and the night was stained with a warm orange light by the street lamp. Ye Jiegeng was a little sleepy, but it wasn’t closing time yet. 

The wind chimes of the window-panes suddenly hit each other, followed by some chaotic footsteps and the sound of boys talking.