Chapter 174

The cold wind of the late winter drifted from the banks of the Rhine River. With a damp smell, it lowered the already bitter temperature by several degrees. The sun had lost its vitality at noon and currently shone gently and somewhat lazily, barely maintaining the ground temperature.

When Qi Mu arrived at the maestro’s house, he finally understood what kind of creature the “crazy” fan was.

When she saw Qi Mu and Tuckerman, Ms. Julie Adlitt kept her demeanor as a maestro with a graceful air. However, when she saw Min Chen standing behind Qi Mu, obviously unwilling to show himself, the pianist suddenly rushed up and hugged Min Chen.

Qi Mu: ”……”

Mr. Tuckerman: “….?”

“Oh, my lovely little Auston! How long since you last came to see me? What a bad child, Auntie Julie missed you so much!” As soon as she pulled the now stiff man into the room, Ms. Julie patted Min Chen’s head and said, “Come in. Just yesterday, Old John came to my music room to do some maintenance on my piano. Let’s play a song to celebrate our reunion after a long separation!”

Min Chen: “…Actually, we just met at Bai Ai’s New Year’s Concert, Julie.”

Hearing this, the dignified and calm maestro immediately widened her eyes. “My God, we haven’t seen each other for more than 30 days, then. Little Auston, you’re too much! I talked to your mother the day before yesterday, you haven’t held a recital for a long time!”

Qi Mu, who was speechless on Min Chen’s behalf: “…”

Obviously, this lazy guy held a recital just last year, Ms. Adlitt!

Qi Mu spent more than three hours at the maestro’s house, of which, only half an hour was spent to invite the maestro to participate in Wei Ai’s tour for the season. Julie naturally agreed, as it was an honor to cooperate with Wei Ai. Not to mention…

“My super cute Little Auston came to invite me in person, of course I won’t refuse!”

Min Chen, whose eyes silently drooped, “…”

Although Qi Mu didn’t understand exactly how this awkward, arrogant, stingy, petty man was suitable for the words “super cute”, he still sympathized with Min Chen for a bit. Because in the next two hours, Ms. Julie asked the poor sap to play more than a dozen pieces! Even the time for drinking was dismal!

To quote Ms. Julie, “My lovely little Auston, I’m afraid it will take a long time for us to meet again before my next trip to Vienna. I like your Chopin the most. Let me see in your mother’s stead if you have been lazy.”

All in all, when he and Min Chen left Julie Adlitt’s house, Qi Mu clearly felt the handsome and tall man walked out of the gate with the speed of a rocket, as if he had oil on his feet and wished for a pair of wings.

At this, Qi Mu no longer felt the urge to tease the man. Instead, he said, “Ms. Julie sure is, well… crazy.”

Min Chen: “…She and my mother are good friends.”

Qi Mu was shocked. “What?”

“I grew up under her eyes.” After a pause, Min Chen added, “It was also because of her that I learned to play piano.”

Qi Mu finally understood why Min Chen was so docile in front of Ms. Julie that he didn’t even dare to look her in the eyes.

Well, maybe… Maybe this guy was cute as heck when he was a kid!

Qi Mu asked with a smile, “By the way, when I went to your house last time, why did I not see your pictures? Did you never take any?”

The man’s beautiful phoenix’s eyes suddenly widened for an instant before returning to normal. Min Chen then replied, emphasizing every word, “I. Never. Take. Any. Pictures.” His tone and voice were calm, too calm.

But it being so calm made people… notice it was unusual.

Qi Mu raised an eyebrow, “You’re lying.”

Min Chen: “…No.”

“Well, you definitely are.”

“….No!”

“Well, we’re not that far from Ms. Julie’s house so how about going back for a chat?”

“……”

After a while, when Tuckerman came down with the contract, Min Chen quickly said, “I’ll show you when there’s a chance.” Before Qi Mu could respond, he quickly walked away.

With surprise in his voice, Tuckerman asked, “What’s wrong with Auston?”

Qi Mu’s lips twitched before he replied, “Maybe he went to get the car…”

“Oh, what a considerate person! If not for him, we would have a lot of trouble in Berlin. Ms. Julie rarely went on tours in recent years and her accepting our invitation had a lot to do with Auston. What a good man!” Tuckerman declared under the warm sunshine. Looking at the red-haired man’s face that screamed “Auston is a good man, yes, a very good man,” Qi Mu sighed deeply, as if looking at his formerly naive self.

…So the question was, what exactly made him think that the petty and prudent guy was a very, very good man?

Qi Mu flew back to Vienna after his very short trip of ten hours in Berlin. He received a text message from a certain someone as soon as he got off the plane. Reading the text, Qi Mu’s ears turned red and he resisted the urge to put the other party’s number into his blacklist.

Min Chen: 【Your bracelet fell off on the car’s seat. Well, you should still be in Vienna when I’m going there next so I’ll give it to you then.】

Qi Mu: ”……”

Why did he drop his bracelet at such a location, you ask?

It’s because a certain someone decided to do some not-for-kids stuff a few seconds after Tuckerman got out of the car!!!

After replying to the text with a simple “Haha”, Qi Mu and Tuckerman went to Wei Ai’s headquarters to hand the contract over to Dorenza.

Dorenza was quite surprised to see the matter wrapped up so quickly. He also happily told Qi Mu that the day he and Tuckerman left for Berlin, he and Anthony discussed the list of concertos they will be performing next.

Everything seemed to be on a good start. Once they found the right string, the yarn ball unraveled without much effort.

“Little Seven, thank you so much for your suggestion! With Julie’s joining, I think our concerts will be very successful! I can’t wait for that day to arrive. Let’s rehearse together for the next month, I believe we can perform our best!”

Qi Mu nodded with a smile, “Okay, Mr. Dorenza. Will the rehearsal begin tomorrow?”

“Yes! We will begin our rehearsal for the tour tomorrow!”

……

Eleven concerts in a row would, of course, cost a lot in terms of manpower and material resources. Wei Ai had to tour the entirety of Europe in the span of just two months. It was a great pressure for everyone involved.

Qi Mu had gone on several tours with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra before. At first, he couldn’t get used to traveling around the world on such a rushed schedule. Sometimes the time differences between the cities were too jarring to him. Other times, he couldn’t get used to the place itself and it affected his performances.

But now, Qi Mu had made some preparations and the only thing left to do was to rehearse his playing. Even if they can rehearse a few days before the concert starts, the effect was far below what they could do when they started rehearsing early on.

So, when Dorenza announced at the orchestra’s general meeting the next day that they would begin rehearsing for their next tour, there were some sighs and even whispers of, “There goes our relaxing holiday…”

In response, the good-tempered Dorenza said, “After this tour, we can have a half a month holiday. My dear Charlie, the second stop is your hometown, Manchester. London is not in our schedule this year so you can go home and get together with your family after the concert.”

Charlie, who was muttering and groaning, immediately nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, Mr. Dorenza. I will do my best in the rehearsal!”

At the same time, in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra’s headquarters hundreds of kilometers away, everyone gathered in the conference hall for their general meeting.

Daniel coughed twice before saying, “Our tour is about to start in less than half a month. The first stop is Vienna. So, until then, we must seize the time to rehearse and work hard…Yup, this is normal!”

As soon as his words passed over the crowd, there was a great commotion in the hall.

“Oh my God, I have to work overtime again…”

“Well, even if Daniel didn’t say that, we’d still have to train until after 5 anyway. But, why did our first stop suddenly become Vienna? Isn’t it always London or Paris before?”

“Who knows? Oh, by the way, it seems that Angel has become Wei Ai’s deputy concertmaster, it’s amazing! We should be able to see him in Vienna this time, right?”

“Oh, Little Angel is such a lovely child! Although I haven’t seen him for a long time, he brought us gifts when he came to the orchestra to visit the conductor yesterday. So sweet!”

“Exactly. I must talk to Little Angel when I go to Vienna this time. I should be able to find him at the Wei Ai’s headquarters…”

“Quiet.” A low and magnetic voice rang out and the whispers in the hall instantly vanished.

All of them turned to look at their iceberg of a conductor. Min Chen’s gaze swept over all of them before he whispered, “Vienna is the first stop. You need to focus on rehearsing, you won’t even have the time to go out.”

Everyone else: “…”

The heck? Just say what you mean straight up! It’s blatantly obvious you don’t want us to see Little Angel!!!

Min Chen ignored the accusing eyes of the members of his orchestra and their whispers.

“Conductor is so bad, he wants to take Little Angel all for himself.”

“Right? When Little Angel brought us gifts yesterday, he wanted to take them. Fortunately, Vic was sharp to catch that.”

“Ah, is that why he glared at Vic yesterday evening?”

Instead, Min Chen looked out the window and watched as the sun set and the cold of the winter passed over the city.

At this time, Qi Mu also looked out the window, somehow connected to the other man. When all the members of the orchestra began to move to their positions, he took his violin and walked onto the stage of the rehearsal hall.

On the conductor’s podium, Dorenza looked at his concertmaster and deputy concertmaster with a smile. His gentle gaze lingered on Qi Mu before he lifted his baton.

Instantly, a beautiful and melodic 《Waldstein Sonata》 burst out in the hall!