Chapter 89: Moonlit garden

Lin Feng had heard someone speaking nearby, but when he looked over, there was no one in sight.

It must have been a passerby.

He turned back to the boy standing before him. "Then I’ll thank you, Tang Rui. Please convey my deepest apologies to your elders."

Tang Rui replied indifferently, "Is that all? If there is nothing else, I will take my leave."

Lin Feng pursed his lips. "....How is Uncle?"

"He’s no longer your uncle. He divorced that woman a long time ago." Tang Rui’s expression hardened, and his words grew colder. "Please call him Fourth Uncle Tang."

Fourth Uncle Tang was the form of address used by the younger generation outsiders when referring to Tang Xulei, the fourth son of the Tang family patriarch.

It was a polite way of addressing an elder outside one’s own family, but it also maintained a certain distance, an alienation.

"..." Lin Feng nodded slowly. "How is Fourth Uncle Tang?"

"What else do you expect? He’s not well." Then, as if unable to hold back any longer, Tang Rui continued, "Your actions back then subjected Fourth Uncle to all kinds of criticism. Although you weren’t the one who directly attacked him, you played the biggest part in it."

"Lin Feng, our families are not like ordinary households. We place great importance on our reputation. I hope that, by now, you understand the severity of your recklessness."

It was this again. The same old words.

Yet undeniably true.

Lin Feng lowered his head and sighed. "...I understand now."

"Is there anything else?"

By now, Tang Rui’s voice had returned to its former coldness and indifference.

Lin Feng silently took out his phone. Then, he raised his head and looked at Tang Rui.

"Please let me know if the elders have anything to say."

Tang Rui glanced at the clear grey amber eyes glistening beneath the moonlight, then lowered his gaze to the slender fingers holding the phone out before him.

Without saying a word, he took out his own phone and scanned the code.

Just as Lin Feng was saving his number, he heard Tang Rui ask, "Who taught you the guqin?"

Lin Feng froze, his heart missing a beat.

A moment later, he resumed his movements and slipped his phone into his pocket.

"...When I was younger, I liked visiting temples and staying there for long periods with Mother. I once met an old hermit."

He did not explicitly say that the hermit had taught him, but Tang Rui naturally took his words to mean just that.

"Which old hermit? Where is he now?"

Tang Rui thought that this old hermit had to be a master above the grandmaster level, a guqin practitioner who had reached the pinnacle of his art before retiring from the world and withdrawing from society.

Many traditional musicians who had attained such heights preferred to retreat into quiet solitude, away from the clamor of the mortal world, devoting themselves to appreciating the sounds of nature.

It was also Tang Rui’s own ideal.

"I don’t know his name, nor do I know where he lives." Lin Feng lowered his head, a faint sense of guilt stirring in his heart. "It’s been a very long time... I was still young back then, and I can’t remember exactly what happened."

There was no way he could provide any more details, because he knew that any further explanation would not withstand scrutiny.

The original Lin Feng had learned to play the guqin, erhu, piano, and violin, though his greatest expertise lay in the piano.

As for his guqin skills, no one really knew how proficient he was. Even his guqin tutor had only taught him a few pieces, remarking that he was a quick learner. However, the original Lin Feng had eventually become engrossed in playing the classical Western piano, and his guqin and erhu lessons had come to an end.

Lin Feng could explain the changes in his behavior as the result of one devastating event after another, but fabricating an entirely false past was another matter. Such things could be investigated, and the truth would eventually come to light.

All Lin Feng could do was pretend that he had never known, or that he could no longer remember because too much time had passed.

Tang Rui frowned, a trace of suspicion flashing through his eyes. However, he could sense that Lin Feng was unwilling to discuss the matter, so he refrained from asking further.

Someone of lesser character might have thought Lin Feng was being deliberately secretive and stingy, unwilling to share the identity of his master.

Tang Rui, however, merely assumed that the matter might be tied to some unpleasant memory, or that the old hermit must have been the one unwilling to disclose his own information to avoid disturbance.

Tang Rui nodded and finally turned to leave.

"They’re coming out!"

The people hiding behind the bushes saw someone heading back and scattered like birds startled from a tree, fleeing in all directions.

In their haste, they paid no heed to Wei Tianyu, whose face was barely discernible in the shadows of the corridor’s pillar.

Tang Rui, who had just come out and witnessed them fleeing: "...."

Wei Tianyu, who recognized the people fleeing past him: "...."

The two bewildered men were left standing in the corridor.

They exchanged a glance and nodded to each other, and then Tang Rui walked away.

Curious about what everyone had been looking at earlier, Wei Tianyu continued toward the garden to take a look for himself.

Meanwhile, Lin Feng remained in the garden, gazing up at the moon from beneath the night sky.

From this spot, the moon appeared exceptionally bright and clear.

Lin Feng had been reflecting on the changes within himself.

He had noticed them for some time now, but it seemed that he really had become different from before.

Earlier, when the people in the restaurant had looked at him with strange expressions, he had certainly felt uncomfortable, but he had not felt humiliated or afraid.

The old Lin Feng would have felt wronged and burst into tears, especially after being openly mocked by Mrs. Jiang.

Yet what he had felt this time was... calmness.

Could it be because Lin Feng had already come to terms with his circumstances and prepared himself for the worst? He had even thought earlier, ’it’s not so bad after all’ and ’this is much better than I expected’.