Paris, France"scapital, was famous for being the world"s most romantic capital.

This beautifulwestern city, like many of Europe"s cities,had tall skysc.r.a.pers. From above, the citywas built in rings, each carefullyplanned building part of this circle of rose and thorns, surrounding the Arc deTriomphe at the center.

After arrivingat Charles de Gaulle Airport, Qi Mu took a taxi directly to the NationalConservatory of Music.

Before, when he"dcome to France with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, he had visited Paris manytimes, but if he was left alone in the city, he would get lost.

A handsome young man with dark hair and eyes waseye-catching at the Conservatory.

Severalstudents laying on the lawn saw an Asian youth carrying a violin case andluggage, and they were eager to come up and show him the way. Soon, he foundthe university building.

To call it a buildingwas too exaggerated. The three-story facility was made of creamy white marbleand surrounded by a beautiful green lawn decorated spa.r.s.ely with white.

Once he wasthrough the doors, Qi Mu registered quickly. Due to the late hour, he went toan apartment arranged with the help of the school. The conservatory generally didn"tprovide accommodations, but they would often help students in need find places to rent.

Qi Mu"sapartment was a little smaller than the one in B City. Its kitchen could only accommodatetwo people, but it was overall quiet and clean. Most of the previous residentswere probably music students as a separate study had been opened in theapartment and could be used as a music room.

It took an hourto unpack the luggage he had brought with him and once everything was tidied up, went to stand by the quaint,delicately-patterned window and pushed it open.

A spring breezeoff the Pacific Ocean brushed aside the fine black hairs against his forehead. Parishad a temperate climate, and while it was further north than B City, March waswarm, and a simple coat was more than enough.

"So. . . Ireally am back, ah. . ."

He glanced downat the pedestrians coming and going on the street below, then the Europeanarchitecture around him, the flow of the crowd, and it felt like he had returnedhome to Vienna——

All that it wasmissing was the statues of mastermusicians that were unique to the music capital.

Qi Mu chuckled.He shook his head and left the window open for ventilation then went back towork.

Once night felland the stars were bright in the sky, moonlightshone down on the sleeping city and Qi Mu"s first day in Paris was spent busyrunning around.

The nextmorning, Qi Mu brushed his hair, grabbed his violin case and cellphone, thenhurried off to the conservatory.

The staff that senthim off to the apartment yesterday had said the violin department was holding aspecial admission exam for him at nine o"clock.

In Huaxia"sterminology, this was called special treatment, or. . . entering through the back door.

Although the universitydidn"t have a precedent for accepting a student months after the start of theyear, Professor Akkad had insisted, andthey naturally could not refute.

Therefore, whenQi Mu entered the building, after only a few steps, a teacher led him to anempty cla.s.sroom. There should have been no tables or chairs, but literally inthe center of the room, on a smooth desk, there was a pen and piece of paperwaiting for him.

Qi Mu walkedover. . .

". . ."

It wasn"t just apiece of paper, but words written in English.

That"s right,it was. . . an exam.

"Qi, we were worriedthat you weren"t good with French, so we prepared the exam in English. Youshouldn"t have any problems?"

Qi Mu set asidethe violin case and smiled at the a.s.sistant professor. "It isn"t a problem."

"Alright. Well,you have an hour to complete the test, don"t forget it."

With a crispsound, the cla.s.sroom door shut and he wasleft alone in the cla.s.sroom. Qi Mu looked down at the thin paper feelinghelpless. His heart squeezed with a long-lost sense of familiarity.

Exam questions.. . he hadn"t touched such a thing formany years.

The originalhad never been good with theory, and he was admitted to the Geneva Academy withexcellent scores over ten years ago. It had been more than a decade, and he hadfar more applied practical knowledge now. He had no idea what level he was at.

However,naturally, the boat would flow in direction with the current.

Qi Mu did nothesitate to pick up the pen. He looked at the first question and quickly wrote theanswer. He initially thought it would bedifficult, but he found himself writing faster and faster.

Twenty minuteslater, the test paper was covered in beautifulfont and returned to four of the professors. One of the female a.s.sistantprofessors gasped in surprise and swallowed back the words "That"s a brilliantanswer."

When Qi Munoticed the questions were all about field application, he felt a bit skepticalas to who was leaving through the back door.

Of course, hedid not know Professor Akkad intended totest his understanding of the other instruments and how to apply that basicknowledge on the spot.

Even if ProfessorAkkad was resourceful, he couldn"t possibly know that this young man may seemlike he was only in his early twenties, but had actually played with the world"stop symphony orchestra for over ten years.

All in all, theprofessor pa.s.sed the questions back and forth and looked them over three timesthen handed it to Professor Akkad for the final decision. This eccentric masterwas surprised to find——

There was onlyone grammatical error?!

Notscientific!!!

When it cametime for the violin test, Qi Mu was helpless to find none of the professorswere Akkad.

"The piece wehave selected is 《Song of the Gypsy》. Just play it directly." Theprofessor wore gla.s.ses, and she sat inthe middle. "We"ll tell you when to stop, you don"t have to think too much about it."

Qi Mu reallydidn"t expect this kind of special recruitment.

He thought hewould merely see the professor and waitfor cla.s.ses. Who knew there were still so many tests? Of course, the test wasnothing more than a formality. Since Professor Akkad wanted him to pa.s.s, he wasnaturally not afraid.

After a moment,the low-pitch of his violin filled the cla.s.sroom.

This room wa.s.specially designed for cla.s.s use. The material and shape of the walls enhancedthe sound of the music. The National Conservatory of Music had hundreds of suchcla.s.srooms, and many world-cla.s.s musicianshad played in them during their studies.

The top-notch acousticsmade the young man"s melodious violin all the more attractive. From aprofessional perspective, this song easily pulled eighty points. Even thestrictest and pickiest of the professors were speechless.

Not halting theperformance meant it was excellent.

The professorsfinally understood why Akkad didn"t come out in person and let them examine hisstudent: Professor Akkad wanted toconvince them to recognize his student"s strength.

Generally, special recruitment was fixed.

Some people earnedspecial opportunities after enteringthrough the back door but didn"t actually have the strength. The National Conservatorywasn"t interested in recruiting those kinds of people. Even if the other personwere the son of the French president,they would be too lazy to take a look.

But there weresome that walked the special route to makeway for other students. a.s.suming it was the same test environment, these peoplethat would take second place can shake off the hope of surpa.s.sing someone.

In the past,the Leipzig Conservatory had specialrecruited Min Chen.

Later, the MunichConservatory did the same for Christi.

Today, they seteyes on one such extraordinary talent.

Before, the college"srepresentative hesitated about recruitingQi Mu. He was already twenty-two thisyear, and the previous candidates for specialrecruitment were all prodigies in their teen years, all were famous in Europe.

As a child, QiMu was also considered a musical genius. However, he was older now. Hisachievements could be regarded asremarkable, but not dazzling.

Now, Qi Mu"sstrength had them completely breathless.

Once 《Songof the Gypsy》had come to an end, they stared blankly at the smiling, courteous Huaxian andfor a while, didn"t know what to say.

It could onlybe said that Professor Akkad had better eyes than them. It was no wonder there were rumors that Professor Karl wantedto recruit this student.

No one spoke.Qi Mu politely bowed in thanks and patiently waited for the results.

But, this time,Qi Mu didn"t get a comment from these professors. The closed door pushed open, andhe turned to look at it. He saw a short old man enter the room with pride onhis face.

Qi Mu"s eyes widenedthen, after a while, he smiled, and thetwo nodded at each other. "h.e.l.lo, Professor Akkad."

Translator(s): Bet

Editor(s): Bet