Chapter 234：Fantasy

The boy was disgusted with him, no, he hated him. This made him feel a piercing heartache, like his heart was being twisted, for the first time. He desperately scoured his memories for anything he'd done to inspire hatred, then his face paled. No, Xiao Yi doesn't know the reason why I originally brought him back. He has no way of knowing. He comforted himself, then decided that this must be sequelae from playing 'To Pavlochev'. In this way, his frantic heartbeat gradually calmed down.

"I'll leave, please rest well." He stood at a loss for a moment, then walked away.

The room finally quiet, Zhou Yun Sheng threw Xue Li Dani's red wine glass into the trash and found another cup to fill, then drained it. Only after drinking three cups did he finally feel his blood start to flow again, the painful and depressing heaviness dissipating little by little. He couldn't help but let out a long sigh. At this time, the doorbell rang, he sensed something and quickly walked over to open the door.

Sure enough, Xue Yan and Xue Lao Si were standing outside.

"That's a strong wine." Xue Lao Si sniffed the air.

"Are you okay?" Xue Yan's face was full of worry.

"I'll be fine now that you're here." Zhou Yun Sheng gave a lazy smile, then leaned over to lift up the 193 cm man by his waist and tossed him onto the bed, straddling his waist.

Xue Lao Si quickly pushed the wheelchair in, then shut the door and ran off, saying in his heart: No wonder the boss wants to operate, he can be easily tossed over his little lover's shoulder, that would indeed hurt the self-esteem a bit.

Xue Yan tried to turn over but the boy pressed him down, he asked in a worried tone, "What's wrong? You haven't come out of that song yet?" He remembered that a few people kept saying that playing 'To Pavlochev' could lead to mental breakdown.

"Yes, I'm scared." Zhou Yun Sheng leaned in closer, his red eyes staring intently, he clenched his teeth and said, "Promise me, no matter what happens, don't leave me and disappear alone. Can you do that for me? If you can't, I'll grab you and jump out the window right now, death will sort out all our troubles." When his lover had thrown him back to reality and chose to die with the Lord God, he'd felt both anxious and resentful, but he'd hidden those feelings deep inside, because he'd truly believed that he would be able to find the man again.

But when he'd played 'To Pavlochev', his forcefully buried hatred and heartbreaking love had been pulled out. When he'd accepted the military assignment, he'd thought, if he couldn't find his lover, dying in the virtual world wasn't the worse outcome, because at least that world once had him, unlike the real world, which only had empty rooms and indifferent crowds, nothing worth returning to.

Now, he not only wanted to love the man, but also strangle him, to avoid any future anxiety, this contradictory mood was hard to control.

"I can do it, please trust me one more time." Xue Yan didn't know why he added 'one more time', as if he'd once failed to keep this same pledge. He squeezed until he almost cut off the boy's breath, then reached out to rub the black earring on his earlobe.

Without warning, a string of source code was pushed into the database, forcing Zhou Yun Sheng to quickly recover his rationality.

Knowing that you've angered me, you hand over your source code to try and appease me? Even with amnesia, this man is still so cunning! Giving a slight humph, he dropped his head to capture the other man's thin lips.

Xue Yan pressed down the back of his head, deepening the kiss, his eyes filling with stars and a smile.

———

Zhou Yun Sheng's performance spread like wild fire, the domestic and international media were focused on him for several days, his performance re-broadcasted on television and online. Each listener felt distinct feelings about him, but without exception, they were all shocked by his superb skills and strong emotions. Others inevitably compared his version to Xue Zi Xuan's, but even those least sensitive to music could easily distinguish the difference between the two. Xue Zi Xuan had played with his hands, but Zhou Yun Sheng had shouted with his soul.

Many critics asserted: There's no doubt, Joy has surpassed her brother, and she will become one of the greatest pianists of this century.

An international director, after listening to 'To Pavlochev', immediately contacted the Organizing Committee, requesting cooperation with Zhou Yun Sheng. He was currently shooting a doomsday film and desperately needed a soundtrack that could make the audience feel despair. He even felt that his film would be incomplete without the boy's sound, becoming his lifelong regret.

Because Xue family limited his personal freedom, let alone go out alone, Zhou Yun Sheng had never even seen a cellphone. Those who wanted to contact him were directed to find Xue Zi Xuan, vexing Xue Zi Xuan. However, the Xue Jing Yi far away in China was countless times more distressed than him.

On one hand, she was delighted with the boy's achievements, on the other, she feared she would never be able to surpass this imperishable masterpiece. Xue Li Dani told her that it was best to have Huang Yi quickly drop out of the contest, because her talent would never catch up with him, and the difference in level might provoke a lot of trouble in the future. Although she'd flatly refused to give in, she was secretly panicking.

As long as I get Huang Yi's heart, I can play music as well as he can. She needed to constantly bolster herself in order push back her increasingly anxious mood. Huang Yi's excellence had re-awakened her fear, even today, she still couldn't touch the piano, especially after listening to his interpretation of 'To Pavlochev'. She maliciously thought: Perhaps Huang Yi is the devil, because only the devil can produce such demagogic music, mortals can't be compared with him.

What kind of powerful force lurked in the heart of the devil? She was both terrified and excited to find out.

————-

The semifinals began, and more than half the lounge had been cleared out, only leaving behind 26 contestants. They sat in twos and threes to chat, occasionally sneaking looks at the particularly calm and quiet boy sitting in the corner. This time, no one called him haughty, arrogance was expected of a genius, no mortals needed to understand him.

Hannah was surrounded by a group of people, when asked about her selected track, her expression turned ugly. Because Zhou Yun Sheng had changed his song, she'd had to move the song she'd selected for the final upwards, after the semi-finals, she didn't know what else to play. She didn't have another song that was both more difficult than her current song, yet something she could play proficiently.

"My God, you actually want to play 'Petrushka'? The 'Petrushka' that pianists recognize as the seventh ranked most difficult piano piece. This for the semi-final? I have no hope!" After listening to her answer, one of the contestants covered her forehead and collapsed.

"I think you shouldn't give up so soon, you can always faint again after you hear Joy's choice." Another player pointed to the teenager in the corner.

"I'll go ask her." A Chinese contestant volunteered. He ran over, and not surprisingly, was stopped by the bodyguards, he had to crane his neck and shout, "Xue Jing Yi, what are you going to play later? Do you mind telling us?"

Hannah didn't understand Chinese, but she still stared intently. She sincerely hoped that whatever song the other girl picked, the difficulty would not be much higher than hers.

"'Show Off'." Zhou Yun Sheng faintly said.

"What did you say?" The Chinese player almost wanted to dig out his ears.

"Sears' 'Show Off'." Zhou Yun Sheng supplemented.

The Chinese player gasped, then ran back and said to the female contestant, "Okay, you can faint, she's going to play Sears 'Show Off'."

"Oh, my God! I'm finished!" Some screamed in mourning, some clamored in excited anticipation, the lounge immediately rowdy.

The music industry never lacked for talented people, and because of their too amazing talent and over-abundance of emotions, many musicians were crabby and not very sociable. In the last century, there were many master pianists, their matchless, glittering light making the 21st century pianists look particularly bleak and mediocre. If not for Xue Zi Xuan's rise, critics had predicted that the new century would see a decline in interest for playing the piano.

In the last century, Sears was undoubtedly one of the most renowned master pianists. But he never wanted to accept the 'one of' suffix. From the age of three, he started showing amazing musical talent, at the age of six, he created a waltz by himself and performed it, and at eleven, he was world famous. He was extremely arrogant, claiming that he was the best, better than all the other master pianists of his time, and this attitude provoked a lot of criticism. In order to forcefully refute these criticisms, he created 'Show Off' through improvising, and declared that except for himself, no one else would ever be able to play it completely.

The styles of 'Show Off' and 'To Pavlochev' were completely opposite, it didn't contain intense emotional ups and downs, in fact, when the author composed it, he hadn't invested any emotions into it, it was just a means to show off his great skill. Its name was amazingly consistent with its content, in modern terms, it's purely a means to boast one's skills.

This song was divided into a total of four bars, each note in each bar requiring a different playing technique. It encompassed all styles of fingering of all genres, without superb skill comparable to Sears', the pianist would make a big fool of himself when he got to the first passage of the first bar. As a result, it was known as one of the world's most difficult piano scores, and was ranked second place. Its original name was 'Sears Rhapsody', but after numerous pianists got fed up with it, it was nicknamed the slightly derogatory 'Show Off', which was eventually accepted by the majority of musicians.

If 'To Pavlochev' was the Devil's Music, then 'Show Off' was Peacock music, neither could be mastered by ordinary people.

Sean, your sister's too headstrong you know? Please take her home! This was the common thought among all the contestants, including the proud Hannah.