King of Classical Music Chapter 55

《B City Symphony Orchestra's premiere of the seasons, the audience is packed!》
《A sigh from a hundred years ago, Bruckner's Symphony Night》
《Qi Mu: Rising star!The most unique Bruckner interpretation!》
. . .
After B City's concert, a wide range of news spread throughoutthe country.
In just a night's hard work, the professional newspapers andmagazines covered the performance from many angles. Even papers not focused onmusic had touched on it in their music section, publishing special articles.
The night's performance was an audiovisual feast for allpresent.
The grand stage,magnificent symphony, and the Huaxia National Grand Theatre's cream of the cropaudio equipment delivered every note of that imposing music to its listeners'ears, touching their souls.
Tan Zheng Hui had selected a piece from Anton Buckner'srepertoire for the finale. This famous Australian composer from a hundred yearsago was excellent at creating solemn church music. His symphonies were serious, grave, and very traditionallyromantic.
This was actually Tan Lao's last test for Qi Mu.
Before this, QI Mu usually played symphonies that werehighly skilled or highly emotional, such as Paganini's works or even 《LiangZhu》.
However, Bruckner's symphonies had a particular difficulty and required an emotional understanding. It wasmusic Qi Mu had never performed before.
Of course, on that magnificent stage, no matter the challenge,Qi Mu executed it perfectly. The enthusiastic applause was a tremendousblessing and praise enough.
After the concert, Tan Lao gazed at him for a long time andcouldn't help but say, "Remember to come back and see me if there is time when we go for shows in Europe. Don't belike those little bastards that go off and never come back. . . It's good tocall often."
Tan Lao's two daughters went to the United States to studywhen they were young. One returned to the city to work, but the other stayed by the ocean. Neither was interested much in classical music, and Tan Lao didn'tfrequently contact them. The relationship between father and daughter was frigidat best.
QI Mu knew this and naturally smiled, agreeing to hisrequest.
The next day, when he collected his suitcase and went downstairs,he didn't have to call a taxi. Instead, he saw a man standing there, staring atthe ground.
Qi Mu looked at him and crossed over. "Zheng-ge, how are youhere? You didn't tell me you were downstairs, I would have come down early."
Zheng Wei Qiao wore a thick gray coat and his familiarsilver glasses, but the eyes behind those lenses were bloodshot. He appeared haggardcompared to his gentle handsomeness from before.
When the two were a meter apart, Qi Mu stopped and smiled athim. He said nothing, just looked on.
Zheng Wei Qiao swallowed at the sight of his smile. After along time, he pulled over Qi Mu's suitcase and stuffed it into the backseat. "XiaoQi, you really are something. You didn't call to have someone send you to theairport. Were you going to take a taxi?"
Qi Mu placed his violin case beside it in the backseat andtook the passenger's side.
Qi Mu: "Zheng-ge, my flight's early. I didn't want to disturbyou and sister-in-law."
"Nonsense, who are you bothering?! You go like this. . . Idon't know when I'll see you again. Won't you have to wait for the end of thesemester for a vacation? Maybe that professor won't let you come back to Huaxia.You actually want to leave without notice, how grown up! Your wings are so bigalready, ah!"
Although the words were accusing, Zheng Wei Qiao's tone wasn'tscolding.
Qi Mu understood his mood. . . For him to study abroad likethis, it was important for Zheng WeiQiao.
However, he didn't know what to say. He gave a gentle "Um"and said nothing else.
Zheng Wei Qiao drove, fingers clenched to the steering wheel.After a while, he sighed, "Xiao Qi, when you first came to B City, I was wonderingwhen you would cheer up a little and stop living in splendor? Drinking, racing, those things are meaningless, how couldyou indulge in it every day? I was givingup."
"Then. . . You managedto change. You matured and became so very good. Now, you're off to Paris, but Ihave to wonder if staying in Huaxia isn't also good? A lot of people. . ."
Zheng Wei Qiao halted. After a while, he said, "Some people,once they leave, they never come back. Even if they return to perform with anorchestra, they have changed their nationality. They are no longer Huaxian."
Qi Mu knew Zheng Wei Qiao referred to the musicians thatwent West and entered the top symphony orchestras. The ones who couldn't waitto change nationalities.
Among this kind, he already knew one: Luo Yu Sen.
He had not understoodat the beginning, why Luo Yu Sen changed his nationality.
It was something he hadn't obtained even after half a year'sworth of trying, but Luo Yu Sen just gave it up. It confused him.
However, he knew one thing. "Zheng-ge, what do you think ofme?" He suddenly narrowed his eyes, and hiscomplexion paled as he retorted, "If I daredo that, not just you, but Tan Lao has to break my leg!"
"Hey. . ."
When he said it, Qi Mu had purposely imitated Tan Lao'sexpression which made Zheng Wei Qiao laugh and beg for mercy, "Yes, yes, XiaoQi, ah. You go off to Paris but stop that. I hear Professor Akkad has a strangetemper. You have to pay attention to it."
Qi Mu nodded, butbefore he could open his mouth, Zheng Wei Qiao urged him, "You were naughty.You can't do that with the professor. If you make him angry, you'll onlysuffer."
He still didn't let Qi Mu get a word in edgewise. "Right, Iremember Professor Akkad is from Turin, the capital of chocolate. Do you wantto bring some for him? I heart people from Turin love chocolate, so you shouldbreak a gift. . ."
Qi Mu: "Zheng. . ."
"Maybe you don't want to bring chocolate, Professor Akkad isa man after all. He might not like sweets much."
"Zheng-ge. . ."
"Anyway, if there's anything hard to handle, just call me.My work is usually easy, and it only takes ten hours to get to Paris. I candefinitely help you. . ."
"Zheng-ge!"
At Qi Mu's sudden shout, Zheng Wei Qiao shut his mouth,turned and asked, "Well, what's the matter, XiaoQi?"
The handsome young man's beautiful face as stunned and helooked at the road helplessly, "Zheng-ge. . . Youjust passed the road to the airport. We'll have to turn around. . ."
Zheng Wei Qiao: ". . ."
Fortunately, they had left two hours in advance. Even withthe U-turn, when they reached the security checkpoint, Qi Mu still had an hourbefore the plane took off.
Zheng Wei Qiao beckoned Qi Mu over and hugged him.
An hour later, a silver international airplane took off,breaking into the white clouds and vanishing.
Paris, early morning.
Germany and France shared a border. These "small" Europeancountries had little geographical surface. From Germany's capital, Berlin, toParis's, it only took seven or eight hours by train.
The station was roughly in centercity. Many tourists would go by train rather than a plane——
Europe wasn't large, so it only took a few days to walkaround.
Who knew if Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra's cute and sillyagent was taking the wrong medicine, one called "there's a one-of-a-kind hotel justtwo blocks away from the train station." So the original flight for Mr.Commander was changed to. . . a seven or eight hour train.
There's even a transfer in the middle!!!
Daniel, don't you know how much trouble this is!!!
So, the entire way, this gentlemanly Mr. Commander wore acold Zhang Jun expression. He didn't want to speak even a word to his agent, stingyenough to not wan to see him even in hisperipheral vision.
Of course, Daniel was celebrating!
——It was worth it to sit with this iceberg that didn't talkmuch! Let's take a nap, duang~ Pairs is here! Awesome!
Of course, when a raging spring storm delayed the train fromleaving Berlin until evening, even Daniel was remorseful.
They only arrived inParis ridiculously early! What a mistake! Why're you sleeping?!
On such a cold, late night, even the beautiful city calledthe world's romance capital was empty. Only the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra'smembers rushed across the two streets, entered the hotel, and could finallyfind some hot water to bathe!
What, why did they come to Paris?
Of course, it was the first stop on Bai Ai's tour this year!
You say, shouldn't it be London?
This was innovative! Creative! It was too boring to go to London every year. The chanceto see his neighbor, it was good too, ah.
Bai Ai's Paris-European tour would stay in Paris for——fivedays.
Translator(s): Bet
Editor(s): Bet