King of Classical Music

B City’s Symphony Orchestra was one of the most famous orchestras in Huaxia. Generally speaking, for a large orchestra like this, they usually have their own fixed team and rarely recruit new members. However, there’s still situations like today, where the position that’s empty is important, so they have to recruit outsiders.

So, when Qi Mu arrived at the audition’s location, there were already many people in the room, waiting in line.

Zheng Wei Qiao informed him, “Most people who came here today are violinists from other orchestras in B City. You stayed in Europe for a long time, and you haven’t played here in Huaxia a lot. So teacher probably didn’t tell you, Huaxia’s symphony have a late start, and there are not too many personnel, so things like recruiting new members or swapping members happens a lot.”

Huaxia’s symphony history only began in the last century, and the internal management is a bit loose. In this aspect, it was quite similar to the North American orchestra.

In Europe, where orchestras had developed and were already matured, personnel changes of such a big orchestra was a rare occurrence. For example, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra which had the reputation of “The Best in the World”, their leaders followed the rule of “no changes till death”.

Thinking of this, Qi Mu narrowed his eyes.

He remembered that six years ago, the conductor of this orchestra quit when he was at the peak of his career. At this time, he handed the baton to the current conductor and created the myth of a modern king of classical music.

“But don’t worry, the selection of B City’s Symphony Orchestra is still methodical, and they use a random ballot. I believe in your strength.”

Qi Mu nodded gently and said with a laugh, “Yes, I will do my best.”

Pointing at a middle-aged man who was talking, Zheng Wei Qiao said, “That’s the deputy chief violinist of B City Symphony Orchestra, he’s pretty good so he’s your biggest competitor.” Having said this, it seems like he’s worried about the youth’s self-esteem, Zheng Wei Qiao hurriedly added, “Of course, he never played in the Golden Hall. If you hadn’t abandoned the violin for the past few years, you would’ve surpassed him.”

Qi Mu, who knew nothing of his thoughts, nodded and showed a calm smile, “Yes, Zheng-Ge. I won’t underestimate my opponent, don’t worry.”

Zheng Wei Qiao smiled and, after a few more encouraging words, he went over to an old friend to catch up. Qi Mu placed the violin case on the table and took out a delicate and beautiful violin. He began to tune it.

The violin’s curves were smooth and graceful, the spruce lines on the panel were clear as if it was carefully crafted by God. When Qi Mu took it out of the green velvet case, it caught the attention of the violinists near him. All of them gasped in amazement.

“What a nice curve, this violin is beautiful!”

“The design is a bit like a lyre, small on the head, wide downward and the middle line is beautiful.”

“It's not a real Stradivarius violin, right? How much is that worth?”

. . .

The violin was one of the collector violins made by Master Stradivari more than 200 years ago. It didn’t have the shape of a standard violin. Whether it was the carving on its head, the panel curvature or board thickness, it was all at the peak of the craft. Ten years ago, Europe had auctioned one of the violins in this collection, and it sold for 3.5 million.

Qi Mu didn’t pay attention to the voices. He picked up the slender bow and wiped it with rosin for a while then started tuning.

He naturally knew that this was not a real one, each violin of that collection was a priceless one, even the nouveau riche couldn’t just casually buy one.

The one in his hands was an imitation or a replica of one, made personally by Master Zhao Shi Cheng, a master in Huaxia. Even if it was an imitation, it still sold at six figures.

But. . . wasn’t there a real one in the possession of his family?

Qi Mu knew that his parents had an exquisite and expensive violin, and it could sell for at least seven digits on the market. That violin was currently in a Swiss Bank safe, originally prepared for the original owner once he turned 18, but now. . .

The group of people in his parents’ circle of friends worried about his seemingly lack of a bottom line since he even wanted to sell the “Xiao Gongzhu*”. So they decided that he couldn’t take it until he performed in the Golden Hall again, and only then he could have the violin.

*Little Princess

Qi Mu couldn’t help but sigh. He knew that the original had lost the right for the violin.

“Is this. . . Master Zhao’s replication?” A surprised male voice came from behind him, and he turned to look at the person. He then saw a young violinist looking at him, “I’ve seen Master Zhao’s works before. He always bends the curve on the head of the violin in all of his works.”

A little distracted, Qi Mu smiled, “Yes, it is Master Zhao’s work.”

“Really! It’s actually Master Zhao’s replication, that’s so rare!” The young man looked at the violin in his hands several times and, after hesitating for a while, he finally asked, “Excuse me, um. . . Are you Qi Mu?”

The young man’s voice wasn’t loud, and it was drowned out by the crowd quickly afterward. Practicing his violin, only the middle-aged man near them heard it. He then glanced over at them in surprise.

Actually, Qi Mu was also surprised.

The original didn’t show himself in public since he was 14 years old, his appearance had also changed a little. It was reasonable to say that not many people could recognize him. But it looked like this young man who was in his 20’s was able to recognize him at a glance, it really surprised him.

“Yes, I am. Do I know you?” Qi Mu’s eyebrow rose slightly and he wore an awkward smile.

The young man whispered, “It’s really you! I grew up watching your performance! I really love the one you performed 《Bat Overture of Die Fledermaus》 with Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, especially the last allegro. Your skills are really amazing!” The youth at his side couldn’t help but hum quietly, and Qi Mu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

This young man looked like he was a little bit older than the original, and yet he said he grew up watching him perform. . .

Although it was not intentional, if a person who was quite astute heard someone say this, they can’t help but think that he’s being sarcastic.

Qi Mu slightly lowered his eyes and smiled, “Thank you for the compliment. I heard you practicing 《Mazas Op. 36》 over there, your vibrato is good.”

The young man heard this and excitedly carried a conversation with Qi Mu, but it wasn’t long before it was his turn to audition. Qi Mu smiled and, after giving the young man a few encouraging words, he stayed where he was and continued rubbing his bow with rosin.

He never liked to practice before his performance unlike most people, so he would just rub his bow with rosin. He never seemed to be bored with watching the white powder on his bow.

“Are you really. . . Qi Mu?”

Qi Mu turned around, and he saw the middle-aged man from earlier come over to him with a frown. Seeing the disgust in the man’s eyes, Qi Mu gradually smiled and lifted his face, saying, “Yes, I am. How can I help you?”

The man was the person Zheng Wei Qiao pointed out to him earlier.

Seeing this, the middle-aged man said impatiently, “I know what you’ve been doing for these past few years, Qi Mu. I thought you said you wouldn’t ever touch the violin again? And now apparently you’re playing again? Don’t think the achievements in your childhood can help you now, I heard your play earlier. Your skill level is way behind, you should just go back and play with little kids.”

This man deliberately said this aloud, so the people could hear his words. All of them turned and looked at Qi Mu. “Who is Qi Mu?” could be heard from the people from time to time. And someone answered, “He’s a child prodigy and I heard he’d fallen.”

This man clearly knew how many ridiculous things the original had done these past few years, like, him selling a cherished music score of his father’s relatives. Therefore, his relationship with that relative had been bad since.

Qi Mu couldn’t help but find it funny.

Among the people here, he’s the only one with a tuner. The rest are tuning according to their own hearing, this contrast made people think his skill wasn’t good.

But. . .

He can hear the pitch differences, contrary to what people think, just that he was hearing too many sounds. It was difficult for him to tune his violin, which was why he used the tuner.

This body had a good sense of hearing, he could even hear the sounds of nature around. The pitch, the tremor, and everything else.

“Mr. Lu, thank you for your concern.” Qi Mu remembered Zheng Wei Qiao told him that this man’s surname was Lu. He smiled politely and said, “I’ve been practicing these days, and I am serious about this audition.”

Qi Mu restrained his temper, he was just a newcomer after all. If he showed off his talents too much, he wouldn’t be able to go far.

Unexpectedly, the middle-aged man was unfazed by this, “Qi Mu, I’m also kind of your senior. Your parents were very brilliant in the past, you also gained a lot of prestige. But I also heard about how you wasted your talent, we all know what you did these past years. Don’t embarrass your parents, just go home.”

Saying this, the man still did his best to convince Qi Mu, “B City Symphony Orchestra is not a place where anyone can enter, don’t let your parents lose face. I’m saying this for your own good, you know your talent was only amazing because you were only a child at that time. Now you’re old enough to get married and have kids of your own.”

The corner of Qi Mu’s lips curved further and further down. This man actually dared to say such self-righteous words, finally, the man looked at the youth with a blank expression, “This kid, are you taking this recruitment as a game? You just said you practiced hard these past days, do you really think you can pass. . .”

“Mr. Lu,” the young man helplessly sighed through his nose, interrupting the man’s words. The youth flicked the hair that was covering his forehead back, revealing a pair of beautiful eyes. “May I ask, did you install any camera at my house?”

The man gawked and instinctively answered, “Of course not.”

“Ah, then how do you know whether or not I practiced hard?”

“You. . .!!!”

Seeing the other party’s dumbfounded look, Qi Mu raised the corner of his lips and laughed softly. Then he stopped looking at the man. Lu wanted to say something, but his number was being called so he prepared to audition.

Before leaving, he went over to Qi Mu and said in a threatening manner, “Wait until the results are out, only then you will know how many years you’ve fallen behind everyone else! Brat, don’t think just because you have talent you can mess around. I will show you real strength, hard work is far more important than talent!”

Qi Mu smiled and asked him, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% hard work?”

Lu, the middle-aged man, immediately nodded, “Correct!”

Then he saw Qi Mu’s lips slowly curved up, revealing his white teeth, “Oh, I forgot to say just now. That 1% insight is far more important than the 99%.”

“You. . .!!!”

His eyes followed the man who walked angrily forward, and the smile that he deliberately put on also subsided.

Naturally, he knew that there are a lot of hard-working people in this world. But even if they worked hard all their life, they wouldn’t be able to catch up with those who were naturally talented, even if they came from a good family or good fortune.

Like himself. If he wasn’t talented, he wouldn’t have become the deputy chief violinist of Vienna Symphony Orchestra with just his background of an orphan.

But in this world, people who worked hard without getting frustrated might also become masters. For example, Mahler who was an orphan without a family. Same went for Schubert.

But they would never hate a talented person or become envious of other people’s family background.

People who do things like that would probably remain a deputy chief of some regular orchestra all their life.

Qi Mu sighed softly, the hands that were working on rubbing the rosin on the bow also slowed a little.

What he didn’t know was that there were two old men who watched this scene through the nearby window.

The one with dark hair said to his companion with a smile, “Lao Tan, we haven’t seen him for a few years. . . This kid, I can’t even recognize him now? I’m old, my memory is not good either. Is this the same kid you told me who wanted to sell the violin?”

The old man called Lao Tan grunted disdainfully and said, “Who allowed this black sheep to enter B City’s Symphony Orchestra? Find someone to throw him out!”

“Oh, no you don’t! If Xaoi Ru Yue knew you threw her son out, don’t you think she’d be mad at you?”

At the mention of this name, Lao Tan’s face flashed with a trace of sadness. He shook his head, saying, “That. . . Then for Ru Yue’s sake, I’ll give this loser another chance.”

Hearing this, the old man smiled and nodded gently. When Lao Tan went into the room, the old man looked at the young man who was still rubbing his bow with rosin. He suddenly sighed: “Oh, you. . . Please don’t waste your talent anymore.”

Chapter translated by Kuroshinji and edited by Betwixted