When the last sound of the piano fell, there was silence in the auditorium, and the audience was immersed in it, listening quietly.

The lights came back on, and the performers got up to take the curtain call.

There was roaring applause behind him, Pei Qingyuan didn't care, just looked sideways at the people around him: "Tonight is in good condition."

Ji Tong was still caught in the rich and profound emotions of this piece of music and didn't come back to his senses. He even forgot the initial nervousness and apprehension. Hearing what the host said, he reacted belatedly.

…After he was brought into the emotions by the host, he completely forgot the standard posture that he had memorized before, and only used the body memory that had become a habit to press the keys one by one.

The host must have noticed something strange, otherwise he wouldn't have specifically said that he was in good shape tonight.

Alarm bells rang in Ji Tong's heart.

He immediately wanted to observe the host's expression, but he didn't dare to expose the reaction too clearly, so he had to use the built-in camera to observe secretly.

As a result, they just walked into the backstage, and other excited students came up to chat with them. Pei Qingyuan responded politely, and there seemed to be nothing unusual.

Taking advantage of this time, Ji Tong immediately racked his brains and began to make up reasons.

In Yu Guangli, Pei Siyou, who was invited by the two of them to watch the New Year's Eve party today, also came over. Judging by his expression, he obviously liked the performance just now.

"It's quite touching." Pei Siyou smiled, "Xiao Ji is really talented."

There is.

Ji Tong tried his best to use a slightly sympathetic tone, and said to the host in his heart: "I suddenly remembered that my uncle was coming to see me. Last time I told him that I had learned a little bit and I couldn't reveal my secrets, so I temporarily changed to a stupid one." beginner mode, isn’t it natural?”

This is simply a seamless excuse.

"Yeah." Pei Qingyuan's tone was as usual, "Naturally."

A very natural reason, it sounds like there is nothing wrong with it.

But tonight when Ji Tong imitated the beginners, he was no longer so stiff, and there were emotions other than skills in the sound of the piano, which was revealed inadvertently.

He performed the same melody with silent and throbbing love, and another piece of music intertwined with it was full of loneliness and eager hope.

This is obviously a romantic song, but the background color is endowed with tranquility and loneliness, so it has a more touching power.

Pei Qingyuan has experienced similar sadness and loneliness several times.

Before that eternal pale dream comes.

He saw Ji Tong who had been worrying that he would not look good in white, and took off his suit jacket casually.

Pei Qingyuan suddenly asked: "Don't you like white?"

Ji Tong said casually: "It's not that I don't like it, but I think white is too monotonous."

Of all the white things, only mushrooms are lovely.

He thought he had successfully fooled around, and began to put down his guard: "Uncle, did Madoka wear a white suit?"

Pei Siyou noticed his intention, and said with a smile: "I didn't have it when I was young, but I don't know when I grow up. I'm also curious about how he looks in clothes."

Ji Tong immediately turned his head to look at Pei Qingyuan's black suit, his eyes full of expectation.

Pei Qingyuan took off his coat cooperatively and covered him, and at the same time declined the white suit that was handed back: "I can't fit in your size."

Ji Tong is only a little shorter than him, but much thinner than him. Now he is wrapped in a large black suit, which makes his complexion surprisingly fair.

It seems that he seldom goes out, and rarely walks in the sun without any scruples.

A guess that he forcibly dispelled before resurfaced in his mind.

Were the details in the dream just a coincidence?

Before Ji Tong could speak again, an exaggerated voice came from outside the door: "Is this something we can watch?!"

Friends from the horticultural club came to the backstage with two bouquets of flowers in their arms. When they saw Pei Qingyuan covering him with a suit, they shouted excitedly.

"Xiaotong, you look so handsome playing the piano!"

"I was knocked out just now and everyone in the audience fainted."

"Suddenly I feel that mushroom flowers should not be given, but roses should be given, right?"

Ji Tong said on the day he joined the gardening club that he wanted to grow mushrooms, and was often fed fresh-cut fruit boxes by his roommate and tablemate Pei Qingyuan, so everyone in the gardening club imitated the popular bear bouquets and candy bouquets on the Internet, and made a mushroom and colorful fruit bouquet Food bouquet mixed together.

Looking at the mushrooms and fresh fruits wrapped in exquisite colored paper, Ji Tong was instantly hungry.

"Shall we go eat hot pot together after the party?" Ji Tong stared at the plump white mushrooms in his arms, feeling as if he could smell the aroma, "I want to eat instant mushrooms."

"I knew that the first thing you said when you received this bouquet of flowers was that you wanted to eat it! I won it!"

"How about we wash the fruit first to satisfy our hunger?"

Amidst the laughter around him, Pei Qingyuan also looked at those small, soft mushrooms.

He thought of the strange boy in his dream who cautiously reached out to touch the canopy of the mushroom.

Pei Qingyuan's hand was on Ji Tong's arm, through the fabric of the shirt and suit, Ji Tong felt a slight sense of pressure, looked back in surprise, and asked him by the way: "Would you like to eat hot pot later? Call Ouyang and the others."

So he tightened his fingers, then loosened them suddenly, suppressing the emotions that poured out unintentionally, and calmly said: "Okay."

On this campus full of festive atmosphere, Ji Tong celebrated the new year with his classmates and friends, and went to eat hot pot together in the early morning.

Guessing that he would play very late today, he deliberately "sleeped" until the afternoon before getting up.

Along the way, Ji Tong, who solved the piano crisis, smiled very happily. As he walked forward, the golden key at the end of the necklace appeared from time to time under the shaking dark blue mushroom scarf, shining brightly in the middle of the night, just like his clear eyes .

After the party, everyone went to the dormitory to change clothes and put on winter clothes to keep out the cold. Among them, the performance clothes that Ouyang Yu took off were the most nostalgic.

"Ouyang, I'm not used to seeing you in normal clothes now, you were born for long gowns and gowns."

"...Don't mention these four words to me, I will never talk about cross talk again!"

"Don't!" Immediately, someone imitated the plot in the cross talk tonight, "Why don't you say anything, please, please hurt me."

Ouyang Yu was so embarrassed that he wanted to plunge into the center of the earth: "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)

The companion laughed like a rooster crowing: "I won't leave unless you hurt me."

"..." Ouyang Yu's eyes were dull, and he confessed to the void, "I wronged Zhang Yun."

Ji Tong laughed until he trembled, and the scarf was loosely loose, which was discovered by Pei Qingyuan who was walking beside him.

The fluffy wool wrapped around his neck, Ji Tong finally stopped laughing, he looked into the eyes of the host, saw his own reflection, and a little bit of starlight.

So he approached the host and whispered, "Happy New Year."

A faint white mist floated in the air with the words, and Pei Qingyuan's ears were warmed by his breath. After a moment of silence, he also whispered: "Happy New Year."

He thought that Ji Tong would not answer his question, he could only deny it.

Those subtle similarities could not constitute definite evidence for the time being, it was just a guess that made him unwilling to accept and couldn't help doubting.

He closed the scarf for Ji Tong, brushed his fingertips over the golden key that was warmed by body temperature, paused slightly, and Pei Qingyuan's eyes flickered faintly when he thought of the gift that hadn't been given yet.

One day, he will find the real answer.

After New Year's Day, the end-of-term week and winter vacation soon ushered in.

At the end of the semester, various club activities gradually decreased, and students of all grades were busy preparing for the exam.

Ji Tong and Pei Qingyuan have no pressure to face the final exam, they are mainly busy preparing for the RS Cup.

During these fulfilling days, there was one thing that made Ji Tong very happy.

With the feedback from the first batch of users after its launch, the jelly bean robot has gradually fermented word of mouth, sold well, and is deeply loved by young people and children.

There is also an episode. After the graffiti inspired by the jelly bean robot became popular on the Internet, although some Chinese people mentioned this product, many foreign technology companies took the opportunity to promote their own products. This one Doodles are placed on various types of robots to advertise.

It wasn't until Pei Siyou specifically clarified with the account that posted the painting that many foreign netizens knew that this weird-looking jelly bean robot really existed, which drove the overseas sales that Deng Shu hadn't expected.

But when domestic netizens saw this graffiti that was popular on the Internet, it was linked to a foreign emerging technology company called Zart, saying that it was the product promotion map of this company. The moon in foreign countries is relatively round.

Because there were many foreign companies hyping up the enthusiasm during the earliest overseas dissemination, it is impossible to judge whether this company did it intentionally, or whether the wrong information on the external network was taken seriously and moved here.

In short, after obtaining Pei Siyou's consent through Pei Qingyuan, Deng Shu posted this graffiti on the official website in time, linking it with his own jelly bean robot, which sparked a wave of discussions.

Afterwards, Ji Tong sent Zhang Yun a report about the constant fraudulent use of this famous graffiti, looking forward to his reply.

Zhang Yun sent a series of ellipses, and after typing for a long time, he finally replied as he expected.

[Zhang Yun: If you don't have real skills, you just know how to engage in marketing hype, **** =_=! ]

[Ji Tong: Good scolding! ]

Apart from joy, there is also one thing that makes Ji Tong feel sad.

With the arrival of the new year, Pei Minghong's huge business landscape has been changed quietly. After the injection of external capital, the crisis has been quietly resolved, the management has changed, and the shareholders have been replaced.

This well-known financial group in the local area has repeatedly appeared in the newspaper's financial column. Among them, on the day when a large photo was published on the front page, it was Pei Minghong who announced his resignation, and his only son Pei Yan was appointed as the group president.

There was a lot of discussion in Jiangyuan University for a while, and the School of Finance, where Pei Yan was still studying, became the focus of attention of all teachers and students in the school.

Although there are many wealthy second generations in this prestigious school, it is rare for a student to completely take over the family business while in school.

At the moment when they saw the news, Ji Tong and Pei Qingyuan looked at each other tacitly and said nothing.

The next day, Ji Tong handed over a well-preserved diary to Shen Yiming, and entrusted him to pass it on to Pei Yan. Compared with the two of them, Shen Yiming and Pei Yan were relatively familiar with each other and had occasional contacts.

Ji Tong specially asked Pei Qingyuan to write a note and put it in the bag, explaining that it was something that Pei Yan had forgotten in Luo's house, and no one had opened it.

The entanglement between the true and false young masters that was originally attached to the family attitude is completely over, and the "young masters" have grown up.

All have a new life.

When the winter vacation is officially ushered in, what Ji Tong is looking forward to most is to travel to the world where Fu Yinyin lives and celebrate the New Year.

According to recent observations of Pei Qingyuan, he feels that the host may not have doubted whether he is an artificial intelligence at all, and all the ways of getting along are the same as before.

The only change is that when he talks to Xiaomei, the first-generation jelly bean robot at home, the host will listen with special attention.

It's normal, the host is now studying the robot every day, even if it's on vacation, it won't let up. Of course, it will pay special attention to this magical scene of AI and AI dialogue.

As the days of calm and calm grew, Ji Tong became more and more slack, and gradually felt that he was thinking too much before, and he was scaring himself.

As long as he is careful and doesn't show flaws like the piano, the host will definitely not think about it.

By the time he set off to travel to another world, Ji Tong had completely let go of his psychological burden, and just wanted to enjoy the legendary cremation Shura field happily.

That's someone else's crematorium, what does it have to do with him.

He would never go through a crematorium.

"Going away?"

After closing the electrical switch at home, Pei Qingyuan took one last look at the potted mushroom that Ji Tong moved into the shade of the house, and said in a low voice, "Let's go."

Fu Yinyin made a special trip to pick them up at the transfer station, and another guest, Fang Hao, has experience in cross-world travel, so he can come here by himself.

After completing the formalities, before preparing to send, she reminded: "Because the three of you will often appear next to me and the host, and we are going through important plots these days, so the rules of the world may have some strict restrictions on you. "

Ji Tong couldn't wait to go to the new world to see, he didn't care about these things, he thought it was nothing more than the same as when Fang Hao came last time, he had to have a reasonable identity, and he was not allowed to affect the plot and so on.

Pei Qingyuan asked, "What restriction?"

A narrow smile crossed Fu Yinyin's face: "You will know in a while."

The world teleportation begins immediately, and amidst the overwhelming dizziness, Ji Tong and Pei Qingyuan heard a cold electronic voice respectively: "Please choose the default form or free form. If it is the latter, you need to complete the appearance as soon as possible before the countdown ends. Refactor, ten, nine..."

No wonder Fang Hao fainted for a long time with a face of pain after landing last time, and Ji Tong, who was not motion sick, also fainted a little.

Both he and Pei Qingyuan didn't have the energy to pay attention to the countdown, and chose the default form directly.

But what does this default form mean?

Ji Tong thought in a daze, until he re-entered the real world and breathed fresh air, the feeling of motion sickness slowly disappeared.

Fu Yinyin chose a desolate suburban area, so what caught their eyes were barren weeds, brown tree trunks, a fresh dark blue denim dress, and a pair of white canvas shoes.

...wait, why did his field of vision get so low?

Ji Tong looked up blankly, and saw Fu Yinyin who looked about fourteen or fifteen years old, without the usual mature charm, with a plain face and beautiful features.

Fu Yinyin, who was in the form of a junior high school student, laughed, bent down and touched the heads of two children who were about the same age, and her tone was full of ridicule: "It's so cute."

That familiar feeling of being back at the cub stage.

Ji Tong looked in shock at his palm, which was slightly bigger than when he was three and a half years old. Before he had time to sigh, he turned his head and looked at the host beside him.

He saw a five or six-year-old boy, with exquisite eyebrows and eyes, quite similar to when he grew up, but at this moment, Pei Qingyuan's habitual indifference expression was rarely at a loss.

As Uncle Pei said, the host's face was really a little baby fat when he was a child, not so round, but it looks easy to pinch.

Standing in front of the two children with downcast expressions, the eldest sister explained with a smile: "Because the hosts in this world have intricate relationship lines with many boys, Shura field, so there can't be age-appropriate people who have a chance of disturbing the relationship line." men and women."

Fu Yinyin's identity is the half-sister of the host who is in junior high school, and the reasonable identities she arranged for the three visiting Ji Tong this time are three brothers who are tutored by the younger sister of a junior high school student with excellent grades and a precocious personality. , the parents had something to leave temporarily, so they entrusted the sisters to take care of them for a few days.

The universal tutoring excuse.

Hearing this, Ji Tong was the first to react, and quickly remembered his unfulfilled wish: "I want to be an older brother!"

Fu Yinyin waved her hands, ready to watch the show: "It doesn't matter, you decide for yourself."

Pei Qingyuan is still digesting everything that happened in front of him. Hearing this, he subconsciously compares his height with Ji Tong: "But I am taller than you..."

Ji Tong quickly stopped the unfinished sentence, stretched out his hand and pinched the face of the juvenile version of the host without any explanation, and said with a smile: "My brother's face is so soft."

After pinching, do it again, accompanied by a cheerful voice: "Ruan Ruan!"

Pei Qingyuan: ...