Upon hearing his request, Alix developed a sly look of her own. She turned to Caishen with a cheeky smile, resembling a swindler.
"Hubby Zhang, you want to listen to me play something. That is the equivalent of a private concert. I charge a fee for private concerts, only fifty thousand yuan."
Caishen scoffed and covered his legs.
"Never mind." he told her.
She had a small violin in a suitcase in the closet. As she rushed to get it with excitement, she said to him, "No, how can we stop now. The customer is king and right now, you my hubby Zhang are my customer. I cannot turn down a request made by a handsome man such as yourself."
"Tone it down." he told her.
She disappeared for a minute and he watched the empty space, waiting for her to return.
As he waited, he noticed the basin of herb infused water which she had not taken away. The towel which had been draped on her head had been dropped carelessly on the arm rest of the chair where she had been sitting.
The stick of the lollipop she had been licking was on his glass table and a pair of her pink stockings was sitting next to it.
He looked at his legs and sighed, feeling sorry for them. Once he learned how to walk again, he would surely spend his time picking up after her.
When she returned he opened his mouth immediately.
"Miss Lin, perhaps you should first pick up after yourself."
Alix looked around what appeared to be a perfectly organized room to her.
She looked back at him, genuine confusion heavy in her eyes.
Caishen sighed loudly and pointed at the basin, towel, stockings and lollipop stick.
"Ooh, sorry." she laughed in realization. "Excuse me."
She got rid of the basin first, then the towel, the stockings and the lollipop stick.
"There, done." she dusted her hands off with a proud look on her face.
What is she so proud of? he asked himself. He was the one who reminded her to pick up after herself.
She tied her hair up with a green rubber band.
Did mother not buy her any good hairbands? he asked himself.
She sat on her side of the bed, crossed her legs and started playing the violin.
He did not recognize what she was playing and he guessed that it was another original composition. He liked classic music, it's the only reason why he ever associated with Lin Billi on the few occasions they met.
He wondered why she was not as famous as Lin Billi. Her playing was just as good. And it seemed she could play more instruments, not just piano.
She seemed like an entirely different person when she was playing. Even though she only had an audience of one, she was playing as if she had an audience of ten thousand.
Her aura had even changed, almost as if she was in an entirely different place.
He was watching her more than he was listening to what she playing so he closed his eyes, and focused on the music.
It pulled him in, the more he listened. A beautiful melody that tugged on his heartstrings and dragged him to a different time.
He saw visions of himself as a child, a time when his father was alive and they all lived at home and played games in the backyard. It was a time before he and Zhang Bo were forced to grow up quickly.
He could see it vividly, and he felt as if he could touch it if he reached his hands out.
Caishen dozed off, and he fell asleep with a smile on his face.
When Alix opened her eyes and stopped playing, she noticed that he was already deeply asleep.
"I guess the song of the crabby serpent is also a lullaby." She leaned over his side of the bed and closely observed his face.
Handsome, so handsome, she thought.
"You look much better when you are sleeping, you gangster. If your baby eats one of my canaries, I will eat you."
"Hi-hi hi." Her system laughed.
"Shut up." She told it. "I am about to enter the gaming world, prepare yourself, I will play all night and make up the three hours for tomorrow."
She left the bed and went to the music room.
Somewhere else, on this same night, one woman had her fingers crossed.
Madam Qian was this woman and she had this voice in the back of her head which kept telling her that she was crazy but she didn't care.
She had tried every superstitious thing in the world that was said to help women get pregnant. This so called lucky rabbit's foot that Alix had given her was no different.
She drunk the unknown liquid Alix has given her and placed the rabbit's foot under the bed.
Then, she lit a few scented candles, turned on some slow music and waited for her husband to come out of the bathroom.
Tonight, fingers crossed, they would be blessed.
In a moment of desperation, she put her hands together and sent up a prayer for a miracle.
Another one with fingers crossed was Jing Hee, who was waiting for the identity of her husband's mistress.
She kept staring daggers at Lin Qianfan who was snoring away unbothered in his sleep.
"Qianfan, you better not double cross me or I will drag you to hell myself.
The secrets we share, and the ones you are hiding, I know them all and I will expose them." She spoke to herself.
She had a phone in her hands which she was nervously tapping, making a small low pitched sound as her long nail tapped against the screen continuously.
"Where is my money?"
Her phone buzzed and that message was sent from her blackmailer.
She sneered and hurled the phone at the wall, shattering it.
I will kill you before you get a single coin of my money, she thought.