Yan Feng was taken aback, gnced at the guitar in his hand, then smiled knowingly, stood up, and put it back in its pce. He turned around with a cheerful smile and said, "Want to learn?"

  Chen Xi nodded.

  "Learning to py the guitar is quite difficult," Yan Feng said, pcing his fingers in front of the young girl, deliberately showing the calluses yered on his fingertips.

  "I remember when I was practicing, it hurt a lot, my hands even bled. Your mom was so distressed back then, she kept persuading me to stop..."

  His words trailed off, and Yan Feng suddenly fell silent, gncing at the guitar on the floor before looking back at the young girl in front of him.

  "Do you really want to learn?"

  Chen Xi nodded again.

  "Then I'll find you a teacher ter," Yan Feng said helplessly. "Right now, you're at an important stage, preparing for the postgraduate entrance examination. You should focus on your studies."

  "I'm a fast learner," the young girl quickly added. "Besides, I don't want you to spend money on this. We can treat it like tutoring; you can teach me whenever you have time."

  As if afraid he wouldn't agree, the young girl added, "I'll work hard and it won't affect my grades."

  Yan Feng felt a bit troubled.

  This was the first time Chen Xi had actively asked him for help. The usually content young girl had found a new interest, and he felt he had to support her no matter what.

  But the problem wasn't that he was worried she would neglect her studies because of guitar practice; it was that... he didn't have the time!

  He was already incredibly busy during the week, often having to finish work on weekends. He barely had time for tutoring, let alone teaching her guitar.

  But when he looked at her pleading face, he felt a moment of déjà vu, as if he saw his younger self in her eyes.

  With a sigh, he had no choice but to pick up the guitar again, gnced at Chen Xi, and said, "Look, I don't have much free time, so I can't teach you anytime. Today, I'll just teach you the basics. Practice when you have time without affecting your studies, okay?"

  ...

  To be honest, Yan Feng didn't really believe Chen Xi would practice diligently. After all, everyone has their youthful impulses, and it's normal to lose interest quickly.

  Just like now, she said she wanted to learn guitar in the morning, and by the afternoon, she was wandering around the house like a curious baby.

  With her busy academic schedule, Chen Xi naturally wanted to explore the house when she had the chance. Whether she had other motives was unknown.

  Yan Feng's house wasn't rge, just a medium-sized two-bedroom apartment with simple decor and nothing particurly interesting, except...

  "Uncle, what's that small room for?"

  The young girl suddenly appeared at the door and asked.

  Yan Feng turned his head, full of confusion. "What small room?"

  "The one at the very end, near the balcony."

  "Oh! That one!" He suddenly realized, smiling as he answered, "That used to be a pce for the previous owner to grow flowers. I remodeled it a bit after moving in to store the books I've read."

  Chen Xi was puzzled. "Do you like reading?"

  "Just in the past," Yan Feng expined with a hint of nostalgia. "It was a habit I developed from a young age, but as I grew up, I didn't have much time to read."

  At this point, he paused and then smiled. "But if you're interested, you can go in and take a look. It's a bit cramped, but it holds my treasured books from years ago."

  Chen Xi didn't say anything but slowly retreated and walked toward the inconspicuous little door in the corner.

  As she pushed the door open, her first feeling was surprise, followed by a tickling sensation in her nose from the dust.

  "Achoo!"

  The young girl's sneeze awakened the man's long-buried memories. He suddenly remembered that he hadn't cleaned that small room in ages. He quickly got up, grabbed a broom from the side, and rushed in.

  "Sorry, sorry, I forgot I haven't been here in a long time..." Yan Feng said awkwardly as he cleaned, smiling wryly. "Little Xi, do you... want to wait outside for a bit?"

  Sitting on the sofa in the living room, watching the man busy himself, Chen Xi gnced at the clean guitar in his room without saying much.

  She was naturally perceptive to people's hearts. Since she arrived, Yan Feng hadn't really lied to her. If he did, it was because he didn't want her to know certain things.

  As for what happened, she could roughly guess. Seeing how he cherished that guitar, it was probably deeply connected to her mother...

  She didn't want to dig into the story behind it. What she wanted more now was to go into the so-called small room and read the books he once read, see the stories he once saw.

  Fortunately, reality aligned with her wishes. Yan Feng, pressured by embarrassment, quickly finished cleaning and then invited the young girl back in.

  "Feel free to look around. I'll go back to work. Call me if you need anything."

  With that, the man returned to his room to continue his battle with work.

  At that moment, Chen Xi stepped into the room and began to examine the entire small room.

  In fact, calling it a small room was more like a remodeled storage room.

  The space wasn't rge, narrow and long, typically only suitable for storing unused items. But now, with bookshelves, it seemed particurly fitting.

  As she walked inside, she realized that despite the small space, it held so many books, from the complete works of Shakespeare to A-Chu comics. The variety was vast and dazzling.

  With curiosity in her heart, Chen Xi randomly pulled out a science fiction novel and flipped through a few pages.

  But she generally didn't have much patience for reading, so she quickly put it back and picked up another book to read.

  The man's taste in books seemed quite varied, but it mainly focused on traditional literature. She tried to browse through as many of the old books as possible until Yan Feng called her for dinner, only then realizing that an entire afternoon had passed.

  Putting the book back in its pce, the young girl was about to leave when her gaze fell on a slightly peculiar "book."

  Normally, the spine of a book would have the title and author, even the smallest comic would have some kind of bel. But this "book" had none.

  Its spine was not thin, yet it had no markings, sandwiched between two heavy books, looking like a bookend.

  Its position was also strange, pced at the very bottom of the shelf, a pce easily overlooked. Yet even in such a spot, the man had covered it with other items to keep off the dust.

  Chen Xi slowly pulled it out from the shelf, looking at its bnk cover, a sly smile curved at the corner of her mouth.