Lingering Sound

She thought she had completely escaped that melody, but fate caused her to crash into a long-planned reprise ten years later. —— Shen Yue, the youngest tenured professor in the field of computer theory, is calm and restrained, and his life is filled with formulas and logic. She never looked back. The people and events in the past were sealed into folders that she would never open again. Until she returned to Shanghai and opened a seemingly ordinary cafe. The vinyl in the store was turning slowly, and the air was filled with the aroma of warm coffee. She casually opened an old sheet of music and saw a familiar line of notes - "ritardando, start slowing down from here." The heartbeat suddenly stopped. She had seen this note countless times. It's him. Zhang Zhiye, the boy who accompanied her to practice the piano side by side in the piano room, the person who waited for her all night on the four-handed playing stage, the tenderness who was pushed away by her own hands. She closed the sheet of music suddenly, turned around and ran out of the store, as if if she slowed down for just a second, she would fall into the world she desperately wanted to forget. But she didn't know that a few hours later, the man who had just returned from teaching piano lessons would stand in front of the cashier, open the only credit card signature form today, and slowly rub his fingertips on the familiar handwriting. Shen Yue. The corners of his lips raised slightly, and he looked down at the signature with a heavy gaze. ——Ten years later, you are finally here. Purpose: There is no standard answer in life. Missing and reuniting are all the remnants of fate. Only by facing your heart can you find your true belonging.