He spoke for a long time without hearing a response, turned his head, and suddenly found her with her head lowered, her gaze somewhat scattered and dazed. “Khanyi, did you hear what I said?”
“Mm,” she replied, “Brother, I’ll go heat up the soup. We’ll have dinner soon.” With that, she turned her back.
“Silly girl, what are you dazed about?” He turned to watch her walk to the writing desk, where she began to operate with simple cooking utensils. First, she placed the half pot of potato soup left over from lunch on the gas stove, then cut black bread and cheese on the cutting board. Seeing her so adept, he couldn’t help but smile, revealing his white teeth. When did this pampered girl learn to work? “By the way, Khanyi, how did you end up working here as a teacher? I see you every day acting like a housekeeper, cleaning and arranging the studio. Didn’t you study ballet and piano in America?”
She answered softly, “Um… it’s been a long time, I haven’t practiced, so I’m a bit rusty.” Holding a long iron spoon, she gently stirred the potato soup, which was starting to steam. To prevent Victor from seeing the reddish scars on her wrists and fingers, she always wore this black long-sleeved sweater, and she had specially lengthened the sleeves to cover the joints of her fingers. Although she had undergone surgery immediately after the injury, the scars still made her fingers move awkwardly, and she could only grip the long spoon with a few fingers.
“Khanyi, do you remember that time we went to the capital with Uncle? Uncle took us to listen to a concert at the Theater.” He seemed to fall into a beautiful memory, a smile lifting the corners of his mouth.
She didn’t respond to his words, the spoon in her hand pausing at the edge of the pot.
“That day, a female pianist, Lily, was performing. You said at the time that one day you would play as well as she did.”
Listening to his words, Khanyi didn’t even realize that tears had begun to gather in her eyes, her vision becoming blurry. Just as the tears were about to fall, a burnt smell suddenly wafted through the air, and the thick potato soup bubbled over from the pot.
Instinctively, she reached to grab the pot but was scalded by the hot iron pot, spilling the entire pot of soup on the floor. “Ah—!”
He leaped from his chair and quickly walked to her side. “Did you get burned?” He grasped her wrist and unceremoniously led her to the faucet to rinse it.
The water washed away the potato puree from her delicate fingers, revealing some red marks from the burn. He looked at her with concern. “You, why are you still so clumsy? So careless. Did you hurt anywhere else?” He held her wrist, covered by the black sweater, gently pulling down the overly long sleeve.
She hurriedly pulled her hand back. But it was too late; he held her firmly, seeing the scars on her fingers and the cuts on her wrist…
He froze for a moment, his black brows furrowing, his thick lips pressed tightly together. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to know what had happened during her disappearance; every time he brought up this topic, she would break down in tears, and he couldn’t bear to press her further.
She averted her gaze from his heart-wrenching eyes, “Brother, I… I accidentally injured my finger while working with the machine.”
“What about this? This injury on your wrist, what machine caused it? What sharp object could cut like this?”
“I don’t want to talk about it anymore, please don’t ask, I really don’t want to bring it up again…”
Her tears burst forth in an instant, leaving him flustered and heartbroken. “Alright, we won’t talk about it. Khanyi, that’s all in the past. I promise from now on, I won’t let you suffer even a little harm.” As he spoke, he held her tightly.
Khanyi sniffled; she had cried too much already and didn’t want to shed more tears in front of him. She leaned her cheek against his warm chest, the tears at her side quickly soaking into his woolen vest. “Mm, it’s all in the past.”
The sunset over this ancient city was so splendid, and its morning sun was equally radiant. Khanyi was sweeping the corridor as usual, knowing that Victor was moving back and forth in the nearby studios, guiding students to complete their assignments. His responsibilities had increased, yet he still diligently graded each student’s work, not resting until late at night.
