The winter sun painted S City in a golden shimmer. S City"s Concert Hall sat at the intersection of two streets in the shape of an L. It was Huaxia"s first seated concert hall, which still boasted of the original European design. It even bore the same navy blue and light beige exterior as 80 years ago.

The building was divided into a performance hall, a concert hall, a multi-functional hall, and many other rooms. The multi-functional hall was often used to hold large and small compet.i.tions, medium-sized performances, and even product presentations.

Qi Mu and Zhu Wen Jun arrived at the multi-functional hall an hour before the Huaqing Cup was due to begin.

The Huaqing Cup was the grandest cla.s.sical music compet.i.tion in Huaxia, and the Huaxia authorities established the cup to stimulate the domestic development of cla.s.sical music. The sphere of this compet.i.tion covered the piano, violin, cello, etc. Among them, the piano and violin sections garnered the most attention.

As a temporary judge, Qi Mu did not interact with the other judges much before arriving. After taking his place, though, he spotted a familiar face. They stared at each other, stunned.

Qi Mu politely held out the other man"s chair and spoke with a smile, "Wu Lao, long time no see."

Although he was old, Wu Lao was still hale and hearty. He sat and nodded. "En, it"s been a long time, Qi Mu." Then, he asked, "You went to Vienna… how was it?"

At that, Qi Mu couldn"t help laughing and explained his affairs in Europe.

There was a total of five judges for the semi-final round of the Huaqing Cup. As Zhu Wen Jun had said, they were composed of three older and two younger musicians.

The other young musician——w.a.n.g Zheng spotted Qi Mu as he entered and waved happily, but when he sat down, w.a.n.g Zheng didn"t dare act imposingly.

The judges were arranged in the form of "3 + 2", with the three older musicians distributed with the two younger ones between them. Sitting at w.a.n.g Zheng"s left was the chief judge——Wu Sheng Tao.

While Qi Mu and Wu Lao continued to chat, w.a.n.g Zheng slowly relaxed. He looked at the youth at his side with a warrior"s gaze and thought in his heart: Little Seven! You can conquer even Wu Lao; you are a G.o.d amongst men!!!

As this "G.o.dly man" had calmed Wu Lao, who had the worst temper, the jury"s atmosphere was naturally harmonious. When the first player stepped onstage, several people listened earnestly, and even Qi Mu was shocked.

The fourteen-year-old boy played a section of Kreisler"s 《Praeludium and Allegro》. As an eighth-level piece, the song"s difficulty was average, but it showed the skill of the musician. Without a doubt, the compet.i.tor performed it very well.

Qi Mu generously gave a high score of 8.5 and a fair evaluation.

Throughout the morning, several contestants met the fate of elimination, while other performances really impressed Qi Mu.

These young powers of Huaxia that Zhu Wen Jun wanted him to see——

They were quite strong.

The Huaqing Cup was supported by Huaxia officials, so both Huaxia MTV and S City TV stations were broadcasting live. Luo Zheng Jie was S City TV"s gold producer who is responsible for the live broadcast.

Before taking the task, Luo Zheng Jie had not expected the ratings of this compet.i.tion to be too high. Of course, not that they were expected to be too low, but somewhere in the lower middle. Nevertheless, out of professionalism, Luo Zheng Jie tried his best to publicize the event and spent real money on it.

The money was spent, but it had. No. Effect.

The previous live broadcast, on the preliminary rounds, had ratings so low, Luo Zheng Jie began to doubt life. He did not expect…

This semi-final round!

Ah, you said reality shows were the hottest thing, Director, you said we should make a reality show…

This time, at the semi-final broadcast, Luo Zheng Jie went to the broadcast room as always to direct the live show. The usual host opened, the leader"s speed was, as usual, they introduced the judges as usual, as usual…

Wait a minute!

This was not as usual at all!!!

Staring at the handsome young man on the judge"s panel, Luo Zheng Jie"s eyes were round, and it took a minute for him to snag the staff member next to him. "Xiao Chen, this young man… who is he? How can he sit as a judge? He wasn"t a judge in Hong Kong City… Where"s David?"

The female staff member followed Luo Zheng Jie"s direction, and her eyes widened. She exclaimed, "Eh?!!! How can that be Little Seven?! Wasn"t that David who refused to lower his head?! When did it become Little Seven? Ah ah ah, ah!!!"

The S City TV station crew: "……"

Sister Chen, pay attention to image, to your image, ah!

Seeing his own right-hand becoming so excited, Luo Zheng Jie felt his heart thump loudly in his chest, and a row of gold ingots drifted across his eyes. He waved his hand and commanded, "Xiao Zheng, get the Weibo group to write up a topic and put out… Little Seven"s partic.i.p.ation in our compet.i.tion."

"Xiao Li, what are you waiting for?! Adjust the stand. Alongside the contestants and Wu Lao, save that third position for Little Seven!"

"Xiao w.a.n.g, go inform the publicity team. Have them create a topic, create a topic! Got it?!"

As a commercial producer seeking benefits and avoiding disadvantages, Luo Zheng Jie seemed to see how director Tai would praise him tomorrow. They say, "Beauty is justice," and by Xiao Chen"s reaction, this Little Seven seemed quite famous…

This was a gimmick!

It might even be possible for the ratings to break 0.8!

Luo Zheng Jie smiled, his eyes narrowing to slits as he fantasized about the bonus director Tai would give him tomorrow.

But Luo Zheng Jie didn"t expect——the ratings to break more than 0.8!

The ratings opened like a plug-in, from 0.5 all the way to 1, then 1 to 1.1, 1.2, 1.3… Finally pausing just before breaking through 2, stabilizing at 1.9!!!

Luo Zheng Jie, paralyzed with surprise, looked around, "Say… Say! Who… who miscalculated my ratings?!"

The S City TV station staff stared back with innocent eyes: "Mr. Luo, the ratings are all calculated by the computer! Who uses manual calculation?!"

In the live broadcast room, there was terrible silence then three seconds laugher, a burst of laughter lifted to the sky——

"Ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha, don"t leave everyone! Let"s feast tonight!"

"Long live, Mr. Luo!"

"Hahaha, Mr. Luo"s the most handsome!"

"Mr. Luo is simply a G.o.d!!!"

Qi Mu naturally did not know of the happenings in the TV station"s broadcasting room. He smiled and sent away a cute 8-year-old boy. Then, Qi Mu turned to the next contestant and paused.

Qi Mu: "……"

What look is this, what look is this, what look is this…

The next player was a pretty girl. She looked about fifteen or sixteen years old, holding a beautiful violin, and had her hair up in a high ponytail. She strode on stage, and while walking…

Stared at the young man in the judges’ panel!

Her gaze never strayed!

Realization flashed in w.a.n.g Zheng"s eyes, and he whispered across, "Little Seven, is this… a fan of yours?"

Qi Mu chuckled. "Most likely… yeah…"

Despite living for so many years, seeing her green eyes staring at him, he could not cope with the desperate look of "Little Seven~ Look at me~ What are you afraid of!" written in her gaze.

The girl walked to the center of the stage, slowly stopped, then looked at the judge"s panel… Cough, to be precise, looked at Qi Mu. She restrained her gaze, bowed, then announced, "Good afternoon judges, my name is Zhu Wen Jing. I"m going to perform today, the first movement of Min Chen"s 《Violin Sonata No. 9 in D major》, the 《Constance March》."

Qi Mu could already feel his scalp tingling at her gaze, but he was still startled at hearing the familiar name. Looking at her with surprise, she only laughed, set her bow to the strings, and started to play.

At the first pull of her bow, the brisk, intense notes of the violin burst across the quiet stage. They jumped, dancing, and the violin grew heated as if in an army march, and the atmosphere warmed at once.

The Huaqing Cup had a large age-difference and had compet.i.tors from 6 to 20 years old. So, on this stage, even in the semi-finals, Qi Mu could hear the different levels of performance. For example, the first contestant"s 《Praeludium and Allegro》 wasn"t that difficult, but Min Chen"s 《Constance March》 was already at performance level.

When the girl first stepped on stage, Qi Mu was a little… "amazed," but when she played, Qi Mu found that she was probably the best of the performances so far.

In the end, her complicated skill gained applause from the judges and the audience.

The scoring began on the other side, and when the first three, including w.a.n.g Zheng and Wu Lao, gave high scores, Qi Mu nodded thoughtfully. He turned to the girl on stage, who was staring at him with stars in her eyes and leaning forward with antic.i.p.ation and laughed. "Your 《Constance March》 is great. I rarely hear such a brilliant 《Cons》. Your spiccato skills are proficient, and the left-handed pizzicato was done very easily, I think… you"re worth 9.5 points."

After that, Qi Mu did not say anything more. He had a hunch, if he said much more, he was afraid something terrible would happen.

Qi Mu didn"t expect that having tossed this burden to the last reviewing veteran, w.a.n.g Lao would smile and say, "I really like your 《Cons》, it"s rare to have such strength at your age. Little girl, can you talk about why you took the violin path?"

Qi Mu on the judging panel: "……"

We are in a violin contest! We are not trying to touch the whole country, w.a.n.g Lao!!!

Luo Zheng Jie in the broadcast room: "Hahaha, w.a.n.g Lao is awesome! Topic, make it a subject line!!!"

The girl on stage happily received the microphone handed to her by the host, lifted her head, and looked straight at Qi Mu, her green eyes glowing.

Qi Mu: "………………………………"

Translator(s): Bet

TL Check: Teo

Editor(s): Empress

Proofer(s): Ayn

Author:Little Seven~ Look at me~ What are you afraid of~~~ 2333333333

Double 11 has arrived!

Bet:I apologize for the irregularities in the updates recently! Things should stabilize from here on out. Thank you for sticking with us!

Unfortunately, it"s been forever and a half since I"ve translated anything.

Here"s to hoping Teo, Empress, and Ayn salvaged my verbiage!