King of Classical Music 139

When the police knocked on Luo Yu Sen’s door, he was packing up, planning to wait in Sweden until things settled down.

After Zayev abandoned him, Luo Yu Sen didn’t want to cause a commotion by fighting with him. But Zayev’s words rang true. When the story came to light, though Zayev incited the action against Lu Ziwen, it would be him who was suspected for murder!

Without Zayev’s backing, Luo Yu Sen could already see what would happen to him.

He refused to give up. Going to Sweden was only a temporary plan. Luo Yu Sen would never give up his desire to return to the orchestra. The deputy concertmaster of Wei Jiao’s seat must be his, that was what Zayev’s promised him!

Even when he was escorted to a police car, he didn’t realize what had happened until he arrived at the police station.

Zayev shared the same fate.

In the recording, although Zayev said he never told Luo Yu Sen to murder Lu Zi Wen, the resulting death was an indirect effect of his instructions. The police couldn’t just let him go. They needed to interrogate him.

….One might wonder, why were the police so motivated?

Because they were driven by Dorenza and Evra!

“Please discover the truth and bring the criminals to justice!” Dorenza said.

“Give them the punishment they deserve. Isn’t this a homicide case? We hope it can be settled quickly.” Evra was more direct.

Zayev had been in the European classical music circle for decades, accumulating dozens of connections, so he anticipated some kind of warning from them. But such connections were not worth mentioning when compared to Dorenza, who was a Viscount!

Qi Mu wasn’t surprised at all when he discovered that Luo Yu Sen and Zayev were taken in by the police. Instead, he thought Evra moved quite slowly.

According to what Qi Mu knew of Evra’s personality, the hot tempered maestro would have contacted the police the night he received the recording. But, it wasn’t too slow either. At least he would have the chance to see the case unfold while he was still in Vienna.

While Qi Mu was calm and almost indifferent, the entire music circle in Vienna exploded!

With solid evidence, Evra didn’t suppress the media this time around. Within an hour after Zayev’s and Luo Yu Sen’s arrest, the first one to respond was the Vienna music circle’s evening news——

《Wei Ai’s concertmaster is a murderer?! The mystery surrounding the death of Wei Jiao’s former deputy concertmaster!》

The next morning, all the major newspapers and magazines published reports on the incident. Many of them even said, “The tragic death of Wei Jiao’s former deputy concertmaster in the Golden Hall’s preparation room a year ago wasn’t an accident. It was a murder under the deliberate instruction of Leon Zayev, Wei Ai’s concertmaster! Last night, the reporter travelled to the Vienna police station to get an interview relating to the incident…”

《The cancer of the classical music world, the dark secrets behind Leon Zayev!》

《Leon Zayev: A shame! Murder for benefit in the classical music world!》

《Amidst the hatred between two deputies of Wei Jiao, Luo Yu Sen is suspected to be a murderer!》

……

Out of ten reports, six used the name Leon Zayev while only a couple used Luo Yu Sen. The former was much more known than the latter, after all. In order to create hype, Luo Yu Sen could only step aside.

When Qi Mu rose to do some morning exercises, he flipped through the newspapers without actually reading them. When he walked through the streets, he could hear people arguing, expressing their shock——

“God, really?! Mr. Leon Zayev is really a murderer?!”

“How could this be? Did you get the wrong person, Adrian? It was only a few months ago when we last heard Wei Ai’s performance!”

“It really is Wei Ai’s concertmaster. The reports said he’s suspected of instructing a deputy chief of Wei Jiao to drug someone. It caused that person’s death!”

“How could this be…”

……

All kinds of exclamations could be heard along the streets of Vienna. Even when Qi Mu arrived at the Palisade Theatre with his violin case, none of the orchestra members  remembered to practice. Instead, they discussed the shocking event.

“Is this really how 2016 is going to end? I can’t believe it’s Mr. Zayev… No, Zayev would actually do such a thing!”

“Where did you get the news? I just read the report from 《The Voice of Music》, they said because Mr. Dorenza appreciated Lu Zi Wen and might even promote him to be Wei Ai’s deputy concertmaster that Zayev acted out.”

“Really? What kind of a threat does a newcomer possess to Zayev?”

“You’ve never listened to Lu Zi Wen’s violin, have you? Although the accident happened last year, I got the rehearsal’s ticket the day before. I heard his Blue Danube, he was a really brilliant violinist!”

“Oh… That really happened?!”

“Haha, you don’t know anything, do you? Zayev was worried Lu Zi Wen would be a threat to his position. He’d been Wei Ai’s concertmaster for more than a decade. As long as there wasn’t an issue, his position shouldn’t change.” 

A member of the trumpet group glanced around covertly, then whispered, “One of my former classmates comes from a very rich family. His violin skills are only average, but how could he compare to our concertmaster? He’s been showing off to the rest of our classmates since last year.”

A member of the violin group asked curiously, “Showing off? What do you mean?”

“He said he could be the deputy concertmaster of one of the world’s top orchestras!”

Hearing this, everyone laughed. Even the deputy concertmaster of Palisade Theatre Orchestra made fun of himself, “Come on, even I’m only suitable to be a member of a top orchestra. But, the deputy concertmaster? I better go dream of something else. I think only our Little Seven is good enough for that. Right, Little Seven?”

Walking over with his case in hand, Qi Mu glanced around the members and smiled helplessly, “I wouldn’t say that.”

After they joked around, the members quickly asked the trumpeter, “Hey, Niall, you haven’t finished your story yet. Go on!”

Niall sniggered and continued, “We didn’t believe it before, how could he become a deputy concertmaster for a top orchestra, at his skill level? But then he quit school last year! Rumor has it, he had a special tutor and he improved a bit. But, judging by his violin when we met a few days ago, tch, it doesn’t sound like it improved at all.”

“Stop stalling, get to the point!”

“Well, later a classmate revealed that his family bought a relationship with a member of a top orchestra a year and a half ago. He agreed that as long as he was skilled enough, he could be the deputy concertmaster of a top orchestra. I heard that… they paid this much!”

Niall held out his palm as he spoke.

Qi Mu’s eyebrows raised. “500,000?”

Niall, however, shook his head. “No! It’s 5 million euros!!!”

Everyone gasped. 

Even Qi Mu was shocked. He didn’t expect someone would actually pay 5 million euros for a deputy concertmaster seat. Of course, what made him even more surprised was that——

Zayev did that kind of thing in the dark!

“We didn’t know which orchestra it was before, we only heard that it was either an Austrian or a German one. Say, there are only a few top orchestras in the world, and the best in Austria and German are Wei Ai, Bai Ai, and Dresden. We all think it’s among those three, plus Wei Jiao. But now, I guess anyone could tell which one it is.”

Niall stopped at that and didn’t go on, but the other members understood. They didn’t need to say the name of the orchestra, everybody knew it.

All musicians and orchestras of Vienna very clearly understood Dorenza’s reputation. When the maestro learned of such dirty things happening in his orchestra, wasn’t he enraged enough to tear Zayev to pieces?

Even Wallace, their orchestra’s conductor, knew what happened in Vienna. It might be why everyone in the Palisade Theatre Orchestra was absent-minded during the rehearsal that day.

An hour before they clocked-off, Wallace gave them a holiday.

“You guys probably won’t be able to focus after all this. Well, actually, I’m going to visit Dorenza right away. That poor old friend of mine, I’m afraid he’s not feeling well now.”

In response, the members said their condolences.

 “Send him our regards, Mr. Wallace.”

“You must comfort Mr. Dorenza.”

“Mr. Dorenza is so pitiful.”

After Mr. Wallace angrily bellowed, “You little shits!”, they all laughed and went their separate ways.

The day’s rehearsal was over.

Carrying his violin case and saying goodbye to the other members of the orchestra, Qi Mu walked alone to the nearest subway station. As he walked, he thought he should ask Charles to keep up with the trial.

By late autumn, the Vienna air already carried a chill, even with the sun’s rays warming the land. Likely due to the temperature, not many people lingered in the streets. Those that were around moved quickly. 

Qi Mu looked at the gray ground in deep thought. He crossed a street and walked a few more steps, only to hear a low, magnetic voice behind him——

“Young gentleman, you seem to have lost something.”

The voice struck him in the deepest level of his heart. Each word he spoke lingered in Qi Mu’s ears each night. 

Pausing, he turned back.