Chapter 182
When Dorenza left the lounge, he encountered a strange sight——
In the bright, s.p.a.cious backstage prep room, a handsome young man stood by the middle table, carefully putting his violin away. Around him, all the members of the orchestra stared in horror and astonishment. Each stood side-by-side in a circle three meters wide, leaving an empty s.p.a.ce around him in the middle.
Dorenza looked around in surprise and finally found Anthony. He walked over and asked, “What’s wrong, Anthony? You just hugged and congratulated Little Seven one by one, why are you crowding around him now? It can’t be like this, Anthony, Little Seven is a sensible child. What did he do…”
“Mr. Dorenza!!! Not a human!!!”
Dorenza, who was not a human: “…”
The orchestra member who interrupted Dorenza realized that his words were a little ambiguous. He immediately elaborated, “No, no, Mr. Dorenza, I mean that Little Seven is too scary! He… He, he, he went as far as 32 seconds! 32 seconds! Is this still human!!! This breaks the laws of physics, this is not normal!!! My previous record was still 36 seconds!”
“Charlie, don’t compare with Little Seven. Some people are so angry.”
“That is, 32 seconds is not the record of an average person, okay! That’s the record of a world-cla.s.s master, alright?
……
Listening to their murmurers, Dorenza vaguely remembered something. Before he could fully recall it, Anthony sighed, “Oh, Dorenza. You didn’t see it just now. At our request, Little Seven played the song 《Perpetual Motion》, which we use to embarra.s.s newcomers by holding Christole’s record over their heads.”
Qi Mu with excellent ears, standing not far away: “…”
Did you also know that this was a very, very difficult new person…
Anthony continued, “We thought we could make fun of Little Seven, but we didn’t expect… Well, if only you had seen it. He was so fast, but every move was accurate. Although I haven’t seen the video of Christole’s interview with Bai Ai, I didn’t think Little Seven would play worse than him. But… He’s actually one second faster than him.”
Originally, Dorenza wanted to blame Anthony and the others for using this sort of boring thing to “embarra.s.s the newcomer”, but when he heard that Qi Mu actually surpa.s.sed Christole’s record, he looked at him in surprise. Qi Mu returned his gaze evenly.
The handsome young man had no way out and creased his brows helplessly. He said, “Actually, Mr. Anthony, I practice《Perpetual Motion》every day when I go home. When I graduated from the National Conservatory of Music in Paris last year, my teacher played 《Perpetual Motion》once for me. At that time, he hoped I could surpa.s.s his record.”
Anthony certainly knew who Qi Mu’s teacher was. He was Reed Akkad, one of the world’s greatest violin players!
This meant that Akkad intended not only for his student to surpa.s.s his record time in 《Perpetual Motion》, but to become the most dazzling violinist in existence!
That was the most outstanding violin master of the last century!
That was the master called the “Contemporary Paganini”!
Anthony never expected that Akkad had such deep hopes for his student. It was possible that it was not just hope, but——
Confidence!
Anthony looked at the young many before him with a complicated expression on his face. He felt such profound powerlessness, like an oncoming wave had pushed him outside the current. But, in addition, he felt more of a faint regret and deep happiness.
He regretted that he did not have many years to see excellent young people like Qi Mu and Christole shine in the cla.s.sical music world. He was also glad that he could witness their rise and help their skill reach a peak in this era.
Qi Mu didn’t know what Anthony was thinking. In fact, he just regretted that he still couldn’t break his teacher’s record this time.
At the age of 29, Reed Akkad set his personal record of 《Perpetual Motion》at 3 minutes and 32 seconds. When Qi Mu practiced each day in the music room, he could only achieve this result at best. He couldn’t move forward.
Although Akkad was better at complicated patterns than speed, his 《Perpetual Motion》playtime was not as great as that of Master Farrell, another one of the world’s top three violinists. Master Farrell played with a time of 3 minutes and 30 seconds!
Qi Mu sighed in his heart and thought, Sure enough, am I a bit too tender? Well, I still need to practice more!
If Wei Ai’s members knew what their deputy chief thought at that moment, they would vomit three liters of blood and cry, “G.o.d is unfair!”
You call that too tender?!
Then what could they call it?
Don’t think about them… even Christole would cry!
On the afternoon of the second day after the concert, the Wei Ai members packed their bags and set off for Manchester, which was separated by the English Channel. The blue sea and sky made the whole world look like a nice azure blue outside the aircraft’s windows. Qi Mu held his chin in one hand and gazed out at it all.
… Now, shouldn’t Bai Ai’s tour be in Milan?
That evening, Milan.
At the setting sun’s bidding, gorgeous shades of deep purple crept over the endless horizon and stained it with love. The whole sky glowed a light red unique to early spring. Under such a sky, Milan, embraced with green fans, became a well-deserved shade of emerald.
On the top floor of a towering skysc.r.a.per, huge floor-to-ceiling windows reflected the charming sunset. Sitting in the corner of the cafe, Min Chen lowered his head and stirred his black coffee. Before him, Christole reported minor problems during that day’s rehearsal.
They would perform that night. Even if there was a real problem, it wouldn’t be a big deal. Therefore, Christole couldn’t say more than a few points. But a moment later, their blond orchestra manager rushed over and said with a smile, “Min, Christole, have you seen Belgium’s latest 《National Palace of Music》?”
Daniel shook the thick magazine in his hand.
Christole smiled, “《National Palace of Music》? It seems to be the 30th today, they should release a new issue in the next few days, but I haven’t read it yet.”
《National Palace of Music》was Belgium’s top cla.s.sical music magazine and even had a certain influence throughout Europe. It was every musician’s dream to appear in such a magazine. Christole once received an exclusive interview with it when he first became Bai Ai’s chief.
Although Christole was a little confused, Min Chen looked up at Daniel and raised his eyebrows. “Last night, Wei Ai’s tour in Brussels just finished.”
Daniel nodded and smiled. “So…”
With that, Daniel placed the thick magazine on the table. Min Chen looked down and saw the cover of the magazine. It was a scene of Wei Ai when he was playing——
Dorenza held his baton high and Julie slammed the piano’s keys… It was a pity that the young man Min Chen wanted to see was blocked by the piano, making him unable to see clearly.
Therefore, Min Chen’s interest came to an end. After all, it was national for the 《National Palace of Music》to introduce Wei Ai’s performance in Brussels. But, for them to report on Wei Ai’s deputy chief? It was impossible.
Seeing that Min Chen didn’t seem to be interested in opening the magazine, Christole curiously took it and flipped through it. A few minutes later, he looked up in surprise and said, “Auston, I seem to have… Found the Little Angel’s profile?!”
Deep eyes suddenly flashed open and Min Chen quickly set down the coffee cup in his hand. Christole immediately handed over the magazine. He carefully looked at the page, read over the nearly 1,000 words, and finally lingered on the author’s name for a long time.
With a smile, Daniel said, “I couldn’t believe that the Wei Ai review was written by Grant himself. He hasn’t written a music review for Wei Ai in three years, right? It seems that Wei Ai’s performance last night was really a success.”
“Daniel, why do you seem so happy about Wei Ai’s performance?” He asked.
Daniel immediately straightened his face. “Ahem, I am happy for the Little Angel, it has nothing to do with Wei Ai!”
As soon as the words fell, Daniel began to laugh, and Christole smiled helplessly.
Bai Ai and Wei Ai were both amongst the world’s top orchestras. Although there were always some people who would compare the two, and even their own members would secretly compete, they honestly shared a good relationship.
At least, when Auston, a cold guy who didn’t know how to talk, used to go to Dorenza, Bai Ai’s members never saw him being sacked and beaten to death by the members of Wei Ai.
But now, after seeing that Wei Ai had made great progress, in fact, Bai Ai’s heart was very happy.
Their old opponents once again issued a challenge… naturally, they were unwilling to lag behind!
For a moment, Min Chen gently put down the coffee cup, got up and said, “Let’s go have one last rehearsal.”
Daniel was taken aback but said, “G.o.d, there are only three hours to the performance and you want to have another rehearsal?! Everyone will be exhausted, okay? I guarantee once the concert is over, they’ll be so tired they’ll pa.s.s out!”
The handsome, elegant man raised his eyebrows and said, “They won’t want to wait to rehea.r.s.e.”
Suspiciously, Daniel asked, “Why?”
“Because I will tell them Wei Ai is about to catch up.”
Daniel: “…”
After a while, he whispered, “Then they’ll be crying to practice as soon as possible… Auston, you are so bad. You devil, corrupting their hearts!”
Only rivals could motivate one another to grow together.
The sensation of having an opponent right on their tails, especially Bai Ai, was one Min Chen had missed for a long time.