Chapter 235：Obsidian

The Organizing Committee arranged the players by drawing lots, knowing what track Zhou Yun Sheng would play, no one wanted to be his follow up act, his performance would make theirs seem more mediocre. Obviously, everyone was similar ages, but the gap was so obvious. He was excellent to the level of inducing fear, it took great courage to compete with his skills on stage.

When it was their turn to put their hand in the black box, everyone began desperately praying, even the self-proclaimed genius Hannah. She'd regarded this session's championship and the admission to Curtis Music Academy as hers, she hadn't expected to encounter a true genius like Xue Jing Yi halfway. Because of Xue Zi Xuan, she'd paid close attention to the girl, and could've sworn that she was a very ordinary person.

Chinese people viewed arrogance as a thing of shame, perhaps she'd been hiding her strength? True strength should be flaunted rather than striking people off guard, damn it, she must've done it deliberately! Hannah indignantly pulled her hand out of the black box and looked at the number, then her face suddenly paled. 12, the middle of the group, usually a very good positon, but because Zhou Yun Sheng was 11, it was a death sentence. After him, who would still have the patience to listen to her song?

"No, how can there be such a coincidence?! Someone must've rigged it, I want a re-draw!" Hannah's family was very prominent in Austria, she looked polite on the surface, but her true character was very overbearing. She insisted that someone was deliberately arranging her number and Xue Jing Yi's close together since the preliminaries just to embarrass her.

"If you have great strength, nothing in the world can make you feel fearful." Zhou Yun Sheng lightly commented. The staff translated this sentence into German and English, and the noisy Hannah immediately quieted down, realizing that her unruly behavior had exposed her inner fear.

But when facing such a strong opponent, who wouldn't feel fear? Thought the remaining twenty-five contestants. No one was willing to draw the number 12 either.

The draw scene was broadcasted live, and the boy's statement hinting at his strong self-confidence conquered the audience members. The competition had not yet begun, but the ratings were already climbing. Because of 'To Pavlochev', people who'd never listened to classical music had become Zhou Yun Sheng's fanatical fans.

Today, the concert hall was overcrowded, and the cameramen were aiming their lenses at the first few rows of spectators. They were mostly heavy-hitters in the music industry, including Xue Zi Xuan, the eight judges, and several world-class pianists. Then the twenty-six contestants promoted to the semifinals, the international pop music godfather, Bill, the famous director, Parson, and even the Dean of Curtis Music Academy, Beckett.

At the time of the preliminaries, they were scattered around the world and had endless work on their plates, but after listening to the Zhou Yun Sheng's vivid music, they put everything on hold and came to the venue, wanting to personally appreciate his unique charm.

"Missing the chance to listen to 'To Pavlochev' live is my lifelong regret, this couldn't happen a second time, so I did everything I could to be here today." In order to hype the competition, the host went around interviewing the heavy weights. This statement was from the Dresden Symphony Orchestra's lead pianist, Kent.

"I came here for Joy. Her sound watered my almost dehydrated inspiration, so I hope I can have the opportunity to work with her. She's wonderful, her hands are magical!" Bill directed a NO.1 gesture at the camera, his words revealing utmost admiration.

When it was Xue Zi Xuan's interview, he turned to look directly into the camera and spoke word by word, "He will certainly surpass me in future. Jealous? No, he is my pride."

His voice faded, and the results of the draw came out, the attention-grabbing Joy was in eleventh place, Hannah following directly behind her. The huge screen also displayed the players' chosen track in addition to their position. When they saw Joy's track, many of the spectators couldn't help but gasp, and even the judges and music circle heavy weights whispered to each other, some were worried, but most of them were excited.

'Show Off', how long has it been since someone played it in public after Sears' death? Even the Piano King Xue Zi Xuan only practiced it in private, and he rejected all requests to perform it on stage, stating that he wasn't confident that he wouldn't miss a note. In terms of emotional expression, 'Show Off' was lackluster, but on technique, it was undoubtedly the pinnacle of piano songs. If even half a note was off, the melody would become grotesque noise, and the performer would be disgraced, having no choice but to hunch off stage, devastated.

Sears relied on this song to stump all the pianists of his era, so much so that it provoked anger, and the song was renamed from the classy 'Sears Rhapsody' into the very mocking 'Show Off'.

Most of the people who bought tickets to watch the competition were the most loyal fans of classical music, so they very much understood the history behind the infamous 'Show Off'. Xue Lao Si clearly felt the 'yeah right' atmosphere and whispered to his boss, "Why are these people so noisy, is something wrong?"

Xue Yan searched on his smart phone, then handed it to Xue Lao Si after reading.

"Whew wee, Xiao Yi outdoes himself again, the other players have no chance to survive." Xue Lao Si shook his head and sighed.

The audience was not interested in the performance of the first ten contestants, 80% of them were here for Joy, so when the host summoned the 11th contestant, the applause was exceptionally intense.

Zhou Yun Sheng was wearing a pure black tailcoat, his long hair meticulously combed back and covered with a thick layer of hair wax, from the front it looked like a short hairstyle, very handsome. He didn't bow like the other players, he just slightly inclined his head, full of arrogance. He hadn't come to participate in a competition today, he came to dazzle with his skill, using his superb piano skills to make everyone quake and surrender.

The audience apparently liked his arrogant display, although the song had not yet begun, their blood was already boiling. Xue Zi Xuan pressed down his pounding heart, repressing his desire to rush over and hug the boy.

When composing 'Show Off', Sears didn't invest his emotions, but he was a perfectionist, integrating various fingering techniques to give the song an absolutely beautiful melody. It had no higher purpose, it was simply beautiful for beauty's sake, and required dazzling skill in order to dazzle with skill, but this song was just right to meet the public's tastes, so even now it was widely known. It was often used in films and television shows, of course, it was a computer synthetized version.

Its melody was very lively and bright, its rhythm very varied. When it was slow, it crawled like a snail, and the performers often only needed to use one hand, but when it was fast, both hands were very busy, and occasionally, they even needed to use their elbows. Each bar required a change in technique, if it was not timely changed, it would immediately disrupt the melody, and the performer could no longer continue.

Zhou Yun Sheng sat in front of the piano and adjusted his mental state, then he lifted his hands and started the first short bar. Here, the rhythm was very slow, and the player needed good control of over pacing, if they were a second too fast or a second too slow, the melody would crash like a derailing train and collapse. Everyone was fretting for him, but he performed the first bar with extremely precise control, and transitioned into the second bar, which critics call the Cyclone Bar. The style of this bar was exactly the opposite of the first measure, and the score was packed with more than 300 notes, the two hands needed the support of the two elbows.

Finishing this section was like escaping from a storm, a feeling of survival and relief.

The judges and the audience held their breath and waited for the end of the first bar. The boy didn't let them down, he calmly entered the second bar, and the cameramen focused on his white hands with dread. They jumped over the keys, until there was only a blur, the melody swirling through the concert hall like whistling storm winds, abruptly knocking the listeners' souls out of their bodies, making them feel dizzy, their hearts hammering.

Since his hands would be too busy, the Organizing Committee had specially arranged a staff member to turn the score for him, but when the page of music was completed, the staff member didn't move. If it was another performer, they would undoubtedly be unable to continue, but Zhou Yun Sheng only lightly glanced at the man, his rhythm still perfectly stable. His hands had almost blossomed into two dazzling flowers over the keys, the hits from his elbows a series of stressed cross-cutting, like a drop of hot oil falling into boiling water, detonating on the final climax. It not only intoxicated the audience, even the judges tapped their hands on the table, forgetting themselves.

Zhou Yun Sheng switched between four successive techniques, he was high from beginning to end, his eyelids slightly drooping, staring at the keys with a contemptuous expression, as if they had already submitted to him, and could be driven by him any time he wanted. At this moment, he looked very arrogant, his delicate facial features revealing increasingly irresistible charm.

At the end of the performance, he stood up, slightly inclined his jaw at the audience, and raised an eyebrow, extremely impolite behavior, but it made the audience truly realize his strength and conceit. He was so talented he could face the world with Sears' arrogance. They couldn't hate him at all, on the contrary, they loved his performance, loved his expression, and loved his arrogant attitude. He should live so unbridled!

Thunderous applause suddenly broke out, the front-row judges immediately stood up and applauded, then the audience members stood up in succession, flushed and cheering.

Only Xue Yan was sitting, surrounded by the dense crowd, feeling suffocated. Xue Lao Si had already gotten carried away, his fingers in his mouth as he whistled. If things were normal, security would've escorted him out a long time ago, but no one cared today, because everyone was applauding too fiercely.

"If Sears was still alive, he would envy Joy's talent. His 'Show Off' was completely unable to stump Joy."

"When she started the second measure, my heart almost jumped out of my throat, too fast, faster than a bullet train, but so awesome!"

"In the past, I've only heard computer synthesized 'Show Off', the only human I heard play it was Sean's live practice a couple years ago, but it was incomplete. Today, I got the opportunity to hear the full version played live. I prostrate myself before Joy. Everyone raves about her twisted expression when she played 'To Pavlochev'. They should see her expression when she played 'Show Off' today- arrogant like a queen! I'm weeping for her beauty! ".

"Joy plays the piano with her soul!"

The live listeners immediately shared their feelings on social networks, so those who couldn't buy tickets could rage in jealousy. Joy had rekindled the people's love of classical music.

The next performance was Hannah's, she stood off stage, her face pale. Seeing the boy slowly walking towards her, she subconsciously stepped back.

"Nobody helped me turn the score, know anything about that?" Zhou Yun Sheng gave her an icy smile and asked.