King of Classical Music 137
When Dorenza saw Evra entering his lounge together with Zayev, he went to the old man for a hug and said, “Evra, it’s been a while! You rarely come to me even though we’re in the same city. What made you stop by today?”
They were familiar with each other, so when Evra came, he didn’t bring any gifts. He just spread his arms and smiled. “Isn’t Wei Ai about to start this year’s global tour? Of course, I have to see you before you leave.”
To speak more with his old friend, Dorenza asked Zayev to leave first after joking around for a bit. Before he left, Evra made a joke with Zayev, making the atmosphere in the lounge quite harmonious.
But as soon as Zayev closed the door, Evra’s face sank.
With his back facing Evra, Dorenza poured water for him. So when he turned around and saw his old friend’s face, he was stunned. Sitting on the sofa beside him, Dorenza asked, “So, Evra, was there something you needed to tell me?”
Evra took the glass of water but didn’t take a sip. Instead, he put the glass on the table. He looked solemnly at Dorenza, watching as he slowly sat up straight as if realizing——
Something severe was about to happen.
Instead of answering, Evra pulled out a thick letter and handed it over to him. “My old friend, this thing… I don’t know how to tell you. But I think you will understand once you read this letter…”
“That is why I came in person.”
Though it was a thick letter, Dorenza didn’t spend much time reading it. Especially for the first third of the letter, he read hurriedly and didn’t pay it much attention.
But once he got to the last two-thirds of the letter, Dorenza slowed down, reading several sentences more carefully than others.
As he read the letter, the gentle maestro was shocked. After a while, he asked, “Evra… You fired the second violin group’s deputy because… He drugged Lu Zi Wen last year?!”
The concert had stayed vivid in Dorenza’s memory all this time!
Before going on to the stage, the polite child came to greet him, and he wished him luck, but such a tragedy occurred before the concert even ended!
Evra shook his head, handing him a newspaper.
“No, Dorenza. Look at… This report.”
Receiving one shocking news after another, Dorenza was overwhelmed. After reading the letter and the report, he and Evra had a long, heated discussion in his lounge.
When the sunset and the night fell, the gentle conductor clenched his fist and finally admitted, “You know, Evra, I’ve noticed… Something Zayev did a long time ago. It’s just, now that you tell me that he’s involved with Lu Zi Wen’s death, I really…”
“But Dorenza! How could you not believe it?! I have about a 90% grasp on the whole drugging situation, the only thing I lack is the exact evidence! Right now, it’s very likely that it was Zayev who orchestrated the whole thing, so why won’t you start to investigate?!”
“…Evra, I…”
“Dorenza, I know you’re a kind-hearted person, and you don’t want to doubt people, but this involves… Someone’s life. When you came to our orchestra to invite Lu Zi Wen as your concertmaster, I thought you brought him an opportunity. I never thought… It would lead him to his death.”
“I don’t blame you, Dorenza. Your intentions were good. I believe Lu Zi Wen respected you a lot. But… His death wasn’t an accident. It was murder! Are you really willing to let him die without justice?!!!”
Silence spread in the conductor’s lounge.
A long time passed before Dorenza’s firm voice resounded, “Evra, I understand. I… We will investigate Zayev’s past thoroughly.”
“I owe this to Lu…”
“I owe him the truth!”
As the chief conductor, Dorenza controlled half of the Wei Ai. On general meetings, he had the right to veto and make decisions for many major events.
Dorenza was a good man with a kind heart and was close to several people. No one reacted much when he was given such big power because they knew——
“Mr. Dorenza is kind to everyone. If you make him angry, then you’re the one at fault!”
Being in charge of Wei Ai for so many years, everyone knew what kind of a person Dorenza was. They trusted their chief conductor.
When he really wanted to check the internal affairs of the orchestra, he was like a fish in water. He discovered a lot…Things he’d never known.
He told Evra that he knew something Zayev had done years ago. But it was as he said, it was a long time ago when Zayev wasn’t Wei Ai’s concertmaster.
At the time, Zayev was the deputy concertmaster. He deliberately suppressed a musician in the first violin group, greatly dissatisfying Dorenza in the process.
Zayev insisted that he was in poor condition after that, claiming it wasn’t deliberate. So Dorenza closed an eye and made the brilliant, young violinist the deputy chief of the second violin group.
But other than that one incident, Zayev never acted strangely. Dorenza thought that Zayev just didn’t like young people. He never imagined Zayev would cross a line.
However, the result of his investigation made Dorenza doubtful…
Had he done something wrong?
In the orchestra’s seemingly united, harmonious atmosphere, there was a group of people hidden in darkness. This small group was exclusively reserved for suppressing and even sometimes forcing new musicians to resign.
This small group consisted of one person from the woodwind group, two from the brass group, two from the second violin group, and… the chief of the first violin group, the concertmaster, Zayev.
The biggest common factor of this group was that they were all older than 50, belonging to the oldest generation in the orchestra.
Dorenza almost couldn’t believe it. When he said he wanted to know more about Zayev’s deeds, many members of the orchestra anonymously sent him letters. Suddenly, the smooth, calm waters were broken by ripples.
During rehearsal, they deliberately made the musicians rehearse ten times. Before performances, they told the musicians to come to the venue well ahead of time to do things that weren’t even related to their job…
Most of the members knew of the group’s suppression, but no one thought of telling Dorenza because Zayev once said, “I’ve worked with Dorenza for many years. Who do you think he’ll believe? Me? Or… You? Practice your skills and speak when you have the strength to do so.”
Most of the musicians were fresh graduates. They didn’t even have the chance to speak to Zayev most of the time. They all regarded this as a rule in the orchestra and dared not to provoke Zayev, who had extensive connections.
Reading the anonymous letters, Dorenza angrily threw his pen to the ground. The nib broke, and black ink stained the light-colored carpet.
The pen was a gift from Zayev for Dorenza’s last birthday. His name was engraved on the cap. The pen’s body was smooth and shiny, with a unique metal luster. It was likely very expensive.
By then, however, Dorenza had the urge to trample it.
His orchestra…
There were so many hidden depths he had never known!
The simple, pure world of classical music would never allow such a dirty thing to happen!
He was ignorant of it for more than ten years and even…
It wasn’t until a brilliant life was lost forever that he discovered the truth. And, he only discovered it when someone outside the orchestra prompted his search!
“Zayev…” Pounding the table heavily, Dorenza gnashed his teeth, his eyes bloodshot with rage.
When his anger gradually subsided, his eyes began to water. Tears of guilt flowed from his old, haggard eyes. He whispered, “Lu, it’s me… It’s my fault… I’m so sorry…”
It was because he had a good temper that everyone thought he was easily deceived.
But Zayev, did you know?
The most terrible people in the world weren’t the type that was quick to anger.
It was those people who were gentle, but when driven to rage, whose fury burned most deeply.
Compared to Evra, Dorenza…
Was terrifying.
Translator(s): Kuro
TL Check: Teo
Editor(s): Empress
Proofer(s): Ayn
Quality Check: Bet
Kuro’s Theater:
Small theatre of Incorrect Quotes~
Daniel: Met a dumbass today, it was awful.
Min Chen: You looked in a mirror?
Daniel: Someday, you will have to answer for your actions and God may not be so merciful!
Kuro:
Min Chen is the devil, I don’t think he cares lmao. On another note, I will continue to search for these kinds of quotes. Feel free to suggest your own! I will include them in later chapters <3 That being said, I kinda like Jacques. He’s a snob, but he’s never malicious like Zayev is. Jacques is the kind of person you don’t hate but certainly wouldn’t be close to.
Excuse me.. this chapter is same like before…
Er…
Thank you for catching that! Should be fixed now.
We came to discover the truth and it was all because of jealousy and selfishness, I hope to see his retribution, especially since Qi Mu was not the only one to suffer it …. it can be taken as a blessing in misfortune, although
Thanks for the chapter! ^ ^
Wow!! Simply wow! This novel has me on tenterhooks and I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Thanks for the great translation.
I hope that Qi Mu was the only person to die
The past ten years have been good to Zayev. Now that the truth is coming out, I hope he will spend the next ten years in prison. Wow that description about getting gentle people angry was so good. While I’m not surprised Dorenza didn’t know about Zayev’s actions, I wonder if Min Chen knew? I hope they’re able to find actual evidence for the drugging. But even if they don’t, Zayev needs to be fired. That type of behavior is unaccaptable for any position in an orchestra, let alone the concertmaster. Thanks for the update!
Go Dorenza, go! Wreck havoc, become the devil incarnate, show them hell! 😄😁😆🙃
If there is a big pet peeve of mine, then it’s when translators capitalize in the middle of a sentence when there’s no period or following an ellipsis, the first word it begins with in the cotinuing sentence. Please check your translations, because I repeatedly keep seeing this beginner’s mistake throughout each chapter.
Hello, Kax. While I do appreciate you pointing out this matter, there has been a lot of dissension in our group today over your comment. Dissension that I am not inclined to disagree with. The very diligent, very lovely people that work tirelessly to bring these chapters to you in English are doing it for free. In fact, for several of our translators, English isn’t even their second language, much less their first. Perhaps we haven’t been paying as much attention to the specifics of punctuation as we should have, as other glaring matters demanded attention first. And I do… Read more »
I’m crying. Dorenza QAQ
Like I just find it so weird and dumb that these GROWN men who are going to retire soon anyway are going out of their way to block younger (BY DECADE’s) musicians who still have their lives ahead of them? Like I know it’s jealousy but I need a better explanation cauz this is ridiculous
Ooh, will he be the one to hire someone to break hands and ruin futures?