Ling Ke"s eyes dilated with astonishment. He could not fathom how these lines had appeared in his music sheets.

He was rather familiar with Schubert"s pieces so had not bother to browse through them before his Grade 8 piano examination. He had only brought it to the examination hall in case he needed it and had never looked at it since then. He did not expect to miss out such an important message because of that.

Recalling his meeting with Qi Feng, Ling Ke anxiously switched on his computer and keyed in his QQ number. He managed to find a username "Feng". The profile picture was a handsome anime character. Ling Ke immediately sent Qi Feng a friend request which he accepted later on in the day.

Ling Ke was elated. He was just about to start up a conversation with Qi Feng, when he suddenly realised that Qi Feng"s username was red in colour and there was an icon of a penguin with a yellow crown beside his name.

--That was the mark of a VIP user.

Ling Ke automatically recalled his parents" lecture that year denoting the overwhelming social cla.s.s difference between him and Qi Feng. He did not want to care about such useless things but he could not help it. There seemed to be an invisible force pulling Qi Feng and Ling Ke apart and setting up a barrier between them.

Ling Ke"s mouse hovered hesitatingly above Feng"s profile picture, before the avatar beside it caught his attention.

Qi Feng"s avatar was dressed in fashionable clothes and he donned a trendy-looking cap and a pair of sungla.s.ses. These clothes and the breathtaking background behind his avatar would definitely cost a lot of QQ points.

However, this probably did not matter much to Qi Feng. Since he was a VIP member, he would obviously be able to enjoy these benefits free of charge.

...

The distance between Ling Ke and Qi Feng once again threatened to increase. Ling Ke let out a sigh of frustrations. His hands paused in front of the keyboard as he pondered over how to start a conversation with Qi Feng.

How are you? I am Ling Ke.
Do you still remember me?
I am the kid that you met at the Grade  8 piano examination last year.

Ling Ke would never be able to spew out such words casually. He was afraid that Qi Feng had already forgotten about him, which would not be surprising, given that one year had already pa.s.sed and they had only met each other that very one time. Perhaps, the him who was drenched in smelly sweat had made little impression on Qi Feng.

If not for the piano sheets, Ling Ke had also almost forgotten about Qi Feng.

Even if Qi Feng had not forgotten about him, what would they talk about after he introduce himself?

To be honest, Ling Ke was not a very sociable person. He would never actively start conversations. To emulate Qi Feng"s natural talent in talking to others, even being able to inject a trace of familiarity into his tone was an impossible task for Ling Ke.

Moreover, Qi Feng had not attempt to utter a single greeting to him. Usually if you accept a stranger"s request, it means that you would at least try to greet that person, right? To accept his friend request but not bother to talk to him, maybe he does not really care?

The more Ling Ke thought about it, the more awkward he felt. His initial courage and enthusiasm had all but dissipated.

"Never mind...It is not like the other party will remember me anyway. Let"s just leave it like that." Ling Ke comforted himself.

Ling Ke changed his status to "invisible", leaving his QQ account online as he browsed through other webpages. By the time, he looked at his QQ account again, Qi Feng was already offline.

A mixture of disappointment and relief swept through him and he quietly heaved a sigh of relief.

Looking at the darkened icon, Ling Ke slowly moved his mouse to the star-shaped icon beside Qi Feng"s profile picture.

At that time, "My s.p.a.ce" was still a trending social media platform. It functioned like a personal webpage and was a rather popular avenue for youngsters to vent out their feelings and thoughts. The webpage was easy to customize, allowing people to add their own music and photographs, essentially acting like one"s personal s.p.a.ce - thus the name "My s.p.a.ce".

"My s.p.a.ce" was also a platform for online friends to exchange messages and comment on each other posts. People who were popular here also tend to be doing pretty well in real life.

Ling Ke also had a "My s.p.a.ce", but most of the posts on his page were those of his cla.s.smates" that he had shared as well as some cla.s.s photos. He rarely wrote his own thoughts or posted his own pictures on his s.p.a.ce.

It was in human nature to be curious about other people"s life, especially when it is laid out so tantalizingly in front of oneself. Ling Ke was no exception. However, he had not dared to look at Qi Feng"s "My s.p.a.ce" when he was online. Even though he would not know who had looked at his page, Ling Ke could not help feeling that it was kind of despicable to browse through his personal s.p.a.ce when he did not even have the courage to strike up a conversation with him while he was online.

Now that Qi Feng was already offline, Ling Ke decided to look at his s.p.a.ce. Ling Ke clicked on the star icon.

The loading speed was pretty slow. After waiting for approximately ten seconds, Qi Feng"s webpage finally appeared - there was no privacy setting. A tinge of guilt pulled at Ling Ke.

There was a short animation at the main page - A poignant image of a young boy gazing at the starry sky greeted his eyes. The chimes around the boy appear to be resonating harmoniously in the background. Ling Ke put on his headphones to hear the music. Before he could even react, fast piano music blasted through his headphones. The jarring tune felt both harsh and aggressive as it attacked his ears relentlessly and invaded his mind.

The image changed. A western-style cemetery now entered his eyes. A fallen angel was lying on one of the gravestones; his expression unbearably lonely.

White feathers were falling on the gravestones. The blue outline of the picture was blinking in sync with the falling feathers.

A poem was written beneath the animated picture.

Pain. It is an endless cycle.
One will never know G.o.d"s intention.
In a river, a young boy cries painfully
Love; Secrets; Weapons;
The angel has finally fallen.
Buried in the ground, never to be awaken again.

The poem was also blinking in sync with the falling feathers...

Perhaps, many years later, Ling Ke will realized how corny these lines sounded.
However, at that moment, Ling Ke could only found himself captivated by these brief lines.

He listened in awe to the loud and destructive piano music; looked carefully at the falling feathers; and read the poem over and over again. Ling Ke felt a sense of admiration - the person was really, really, undeniably cool.

After carefully perusing the page, he realized that the person"s s.p.a.ce name was called "Feng"s Island" *written in j.a.panese*. A picture of a diamond stood besides the name, showing that the person is of very high status.

Ling Ke could not believe his eyes. He went to look at Qi Feng"s personal information. A plethora of colourful diamonds greeted his eyes.

...He really, really is very cool.

Now there is not just a wall separating the two of them.

There is also a silver river filled with diamonds separating them.

Ling Ke now started looking at his photographs and posts. The updates were infrequent but the views were tremendous. Each posts had more than a few hundred likes and at least fifty comments. 

Qi Feng"s s.p.a.ce was considered pretty popular. Qi Feng, himself, could even be considered a social media star!

Ling Ke wiped the sweat on his forehead. He finally realized why Qi Feng had accepted his friend"s request without even bothering to talk to him. This person probably had many people adding him as friends everyday. Where would he find the time to talk to every single stranger that added him as friend?

A social media star sure is busy!

Since he had already entered his personal page, Ling Ke scanned through his journal entries.

His posts mostly consisted of  him sharing profound philosophical quotes, as well as Chicken Soup stories. Actual posts on his feelings and thoughts were infrequent, but they were easy to spot because of the much higher number of likes and replies.

One of the journal entry was t.i.tled and there were only a few lines. "d.a.m.n, I am so frustrated...I really wished the world would just explode with a boom! End of the world! Nothing left to salvage! Goodbye, everyone!"

Ling Ke chuckled to himself. There were also times when he was so frustrated that he wished that he could destroy the whole world, but of course, he would never write about such feelings online.

The comments below were mostly words of consolation and concern.

Ling Ke had always thought that most of the replies in one"s s.p.a.ce would come from that person"s cla.s.smates.

Xue Er: "What happened? Let"s talk together later."

The girl who chases the wind: "When you are feeling down, go listen to some music."

Yi Zi Ye: "You will fill better after a night of rest :P "

Starry Angel: "If the world ends, you will also vanish...I wouldn"t want that."

...

Judging from the usernames and the profile pictures, most of the people that left comments are girls. 

Qi Feng was indeed a popular guy, not that Ling Ke felt envious about it.

There was another journal entry t.i.tled . There was only one line: "Even if the angel has pure white wings, he who is abandoned will eventually morph into a Death G.o.d."

Many of the comments consisted of people questioning the meaning of the sentence, as well as some curious queries on whether Qi Feng regarded himself as a Death G.o.d. There were even some theories being speculated in the comment section but Qi Feng did not reply to any of them.

He only replied to a person whose username was "Moonlight Knight".

The person had only commented two words, "Great poem." 

And Qi Feng had replied with a smiley face.

Ling Ke"s mouth twitched. A line with a few commas is considered a poem?

This is too complex for him to understand. He decided to look at his photographs.

Compared to his journal entries, there were much more photographs being posted. Ling Ke skimmed through them eagerly. He finally knew how "De Yin National School" looked like.

Qi Feng had posted numerous photographs of the school, including the photographs of the school field, cla.s.srooms, art-room, piano room...the facilities in his school were phenomenally better compared to Ling Ke"s current middle school.

Their school field was made of synthetic rubber and gra.s.s. They even had a indoor basketball court and swimming pool that stood in a separate wing from the school"s main building. Qi Feng was apparently skilled in many sports and there were many photographs of him playing different sports. Kendo, volleyball, golf...sports that Ling Ke had never even tried before.

Their cla.s.srooms were equipped with lockers, air-conditioners and a shared bookcase. Everyone had their own tables, instead of shared tables that were common in most middle schools. Compared to Ling Ke"s cla.s.sroom, Qi Feng"s cla.s.sroom was superior by leaps and bounds. 

There were also photographs of Qi Feng"s home: intricate photographs of a courtyard, a metal gate and a greenhouse made completely of gla.s.s revealed the luxury and elegance of the mansion. Photographs of a cute white dog parading around the mansion were also included. Ling Ke wondered if the dog was Qi Feng"s one.

The rest of the photographs were that of Qi Feng.

A photograph of a performance hall immediately caught Ling Ke"s eyes. There was no particular reason, except that Qi Feng was wearing the exact same outfit as that day during the piano examination and focusing on playing the piano, like a prince.

The young boy"s pa.s.sionate eyes once again surfaced in Ling Ke"s memories.

He was momentarily dazed. He continued scrolling down and saw a photograph of Qi Feng wearing a basketball uniform. He was carrying the basketball in one hand and winking at the camera. His playful and adorable demeanor was completely captured in this photograph.

Ling Ke"s heart started beating faster.

Even after closing the webpage for a while, Ling Ke"s mind was filled with Qi Feng.

Compared to that one meeting last year, Qi Feng"s image was now more firmly etched into his mind.

However, now that Ling Ke understands Qi Feng"s popularity and status, he had even less courage to start a conversation with him.

The sense of distance between them was so great that it was difficult for him to think of how to converse with him normally.

He felt that no matter what he said, it would feel like he was simply trying to take advantage of that trivial meeting at the piano examination to form connections with someone so popular and sought-after like him.

After he left the person"s s.p.a.ce, he did not forget to delete the record of him visiting his s.p.a.ce.

Ling Ke did not think that this decision would lead to them not interacting for another five years.

From that day onward, he frequently visited "Feng""s s.p.a.ce.

As for Qi Feng, it was only an addition of another fan in his webpage.


T/N: I think most of you who have read chinese novels would know what QQ account is. Basically, it is kind of like a more sophisticated version of Facebook. It has a messenger app and also has this feature called "空间(kong jian)" which directly translates to "s.p.a.ce" - which essentially acts like your own private "s.p.a.ce" where you can post stuff, etc. It is kind of like a blog since you can add music, etc to that. I am not really sure of the details since all of my knowledge of QQ account comes from novels oops


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