Hospital 444
Chapter 417 - 34: The Pianist’s Fingers

Chapter 417: Chapter 34: The Pianist’s Fingers

"See you at the hospital tomorrow."

"See you at the hospital tomorrow."

Dai Lin bid farewell to Gao Heyan and walked alone toward the hotel.

At this moment, Dai Lin’s mood was exceptionally heavy.

After all, Yin Wuque had once shown him favor. The Spiritual Therapy Points for Dai Wei’s admission to the hospital were also paid for by Yin Wuque.

But now it seemed that he and Yin Wuque were likely to become adversaries.

If it were merely internal factional struggles within the hospital, it would be one thing. However, recalling the Dai Wei of Nanmian Village, Dai Lin felt he had no choice but to find a way to uncover the truth.

"I really don’t want to be enemies with Vice-President Yin unless absolutely necessary," he said.

"You’re overthinking it." Milan didn’t understand why Dai Lin was so conflicted. "Everything Yin Wuque did for you was purely to make use of you. You can’t even see that? If that’s the case, you don’t need to feel any psychological burden. Once your positions are opposed, naturally, you should prioritize your own stance first."

"In China, there’s a saying, ’Judge by deeds, not intentions; no one is a saint at heart.’

Milan was taken aback: "What did you just say? I don’t understand."

As a European, even though she had learned Chinese, she couldn’t grasp the few Chinese phrases from Dai Lin.

"To put it simply, no matter what Yin Wuque’s intentions were, he has helped me. We Chinese are ultimately sentimental, I know he has ulterior motives, but that doesn’t mean..."

"You Chinese really have some strange ideas." Milan scoffed at Dai Lin’s thoughts. "Why bother with all these unnecessary considerations? What matters isn’t whether Yin Wuque is a good or bad person, but whether his scheming is detrimental to you. Children distinguish right from wrong, adults weigh pros and cons, and I remember this is also something you Chinese say, isn’t it?"

Just then, Dai Lin suddenly looked into the distance and was stunned.

"Milan! Conceal my figure! Quick!"

At that moment, 500 meters behind the street in front of Dai Lin, he saw two familiar figures.

Milan’s ability to conceal wasn’t limited to herself; it could work on others too.

The two men Dai Lin saw were sitting in a private room of a café.

One was in a suit and looking elegant, while the other was unkempt, with disheveled hair.

The former was Yin Wuque!

The latter was Xie Chengjun!

"Vice-President Yin? Deputy Director Xie?"

What were these two doing in K city, so close to Haitu Chuan Road?

Dai Lin immediately advanced toward the café!

At this time, Yin Wuque was enjoying watching a pianist playing the piano inside the café.

Although he was in a private room, he had the waiter leave the door open so he could hear clearly.

He could tell that the pianist was about level seven or eight, which to him was nothing special, but for ordinary people, it was already very impressive. At least, the pianist could easily become a home tutor, teaching children, without much problem.

"Dean Yin, do you want to give it a try?" A small dog lay at Xie Chengjun’s feet. Normally, the café wouldn’t allow pets, but Yin Wuque had given the manager a tip, assuring him the dog would stay inside the room, so the manager had agreed.

"Me?" Yin Wuque raised his own hands, self-deprecatingly, hands nurtured more delicately than a woman’s, "These hands will only perform surgery in the future, but... they will never play the piano again."

"That’s a bit of a pity," Xie Chengjun sighed, "Your piano skills, to never play again, that’s a bit..."

"These are hands that have killed," Yin Wuque still fixated on his fingers, continued, "Even including a completely innocent child. Do I, who have done such things, still deserve to use these hands to play music? That would be a desecration of music."

Xie Chengjun hastily said, "Dean Yin, this... The door is open..."

"Cheng Jun." Yin Wuque then looked at him and said, "You are the only one in the hospital whom I trust completely, my true confidant. You should know... what I am about to do."

"The exam at the Oroñe Hotel, I am going to be supervising it this time, right?"

"As long as you understand."

Having said this, he sliced the steak on the table, took it in his hand, and fed it to the little dog.

"Cheng Jun, if I had a choice, I really wouldn’t want to hurt anyone."

"You... don’t need to explain this to me."

"The first time my fingers touched the piano keys as a child, I was insanely enchanted," Yin Wuque’s eyes, as they rested on the little dog eating the steak in his hand, were unexpectedly tender, "but the price for that first touch of the keys was that my hands were beaten until they were bloody and raw."

At this point... Yin Wuque had completely failed to notice that Dai Lin had already entered the private room.

"Do you know why?"

"Why?" Xie Chengjun asked very cautiously.

Dai Lin was greatly surprised. Was this really the talkative Vice Director Xie?

"My father has always been so upright that he could be called incredibly stubborn."

"Hmm..."

"Thus, he wouldn’t allow me to engage in anything related to entertainment, and he wouldn’t permit me the slightest mistake. Even if I lost only one point on a test, he would force me to write a self-criticism, one of a thousand words."

"You... can’t be serious? For losing just one point..."

"He couldn’t tolerate any fault in his eyes, so rather than being accused of heartlessness and ruthlessness, he would take an impartial stance on everything. Even my mother couldn’t stand his character and left him. As a child, I never even watched cartoons. All I ever did was reflect, reflect, and then reflect some more... For instance, I couldn’t talk while eating, or place my shoes askew. If I refused to admit my mistakes, my father would choose to hit me. He firmly believed that strict discipline was the only way to raise outstanding children."

"The worst fury my father ever showed towards me was when I was a child and I borrowed money from a classmate to attend a musical by lying that I was going to youth center for extra study. What I didn’t know was that my father had always planted informers among my classmates to monitor everything I did. After that incident, my father scolded me, asking why I went to listen to that garbage music, insisting that if I were to listen to anything, it should be red classic songs."

"My father firmly believed that suffering was right, and happiness seemed like an absolute sin. The more miserable my life, the more successful he considered his upbringing. It wasn’t until I went to high school in another city that I had the opportunity to work and learn the piano on my own. At that time, all I thought about was the day I could play for my father and earn his genuine acknowledgment."

Yin Wuque sliced another small piece of steak and gave it to the little dog.

"But now, I’ll never be able to do that," Yin Wuque said, lifting his hand, "I have committed the act that my father’s personality could least tolerate and forgive. I wrote hundreds of self-criticism notes because I didn’t score a hundred percent, didn’t fold my blanket properly, didn’t get up on time... but nobody will punish me for killing someone. Nor can my father."

"Your father..."

"Passed away. Heart attack. He had high blood pressure in his early years and rarely took his medication on time; in the end, he had problems with all his blood vessels in the heart and brain. Until his death, he never acknowledged me, even though I had reached the level where I could perform in the city concert hall."

At that moment, Yin Wuque suddenly clenched his hand tightly.

"If I died and met my father, how would he scold me, beat me? Even if I wrote a hundred self-criticism letters, the person I killed would not come back."

In Yin Wuque’s memory, he had been tamed by his father to the point where, regardless of what he did, he would reflexively consider how his father would judge his actions.

If... he had learned to play the piano earlier, his piano performance might have improved even more. Perhaps then, he would have had a chance to perform on stage with Shi Ling.

"I always invited my father to my performances, but he never came to a single one. During one performance, because I played a wrong note, I panicked. My father didn’t come to watch my performance, but he would find out through others. Just thinking about that made me go mad... and then my fingers would start to disobey me."

As he spoke, Yin Wuque’s fingers trembled as if by conditioned reflex.

"But Shi Ling, she said she enjoyed my performance... She’s a famous violinist beautiful enough to be featured on huge solo posters outside the concert hall; she plays an Italian Stradivarius violin, and each performance elicits thunderous applause. Someone like her came to find me after the show, saying she liked my playing, even though I made a mistake on one note, and that she had watched all my usual performances. She even gave me some very valuable scores, so I had the chance to practice more."

At this moment, the trembling of Yin Wuque’s fingers stopped.

"My piano skills, thanks to her encouragement, improved greatly... During those times, regardless of whether my father attended my performances, I would do my best to finish. Shi Ling and I created new pieces together, and then we played duets... Those were the most beautiful moments of my life. It’s because of Shi Ling that there’s the me of today, that there’s Yin Wuque of today!"

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