Chasing You and I'm Home(追声与循途) by 庸责己

Chapter 22 (vol.2 Ups and Downs)

After Fan Xing, there's only one contestant left. It is the first time for Kang to record a program for that long. Hasn't smoke for hours, he is so restless that he wants to destroy the universe, even the clean-cut contestant on the stage looks awful in his perspective.

You'd better be quick. If you dare to NG, I won't stay. He thinks fiercely.

Not only Kang, all the people in the studio have been exhausted. Zhimu sighs while rolling his eyes secretly, asking the director behind him, "Is this the last one?"

The director agrees apologetically.

The last boy doesn't have the good treatment like Fan Xing had. The guests and he ramble for just two minutes, then the director signals to go on.

This hip-hop style player, who has truly put the hip-hop spirit of daring to face the challenges into practice, is going to play the piano in front of famous pianist Fang Zhimu and non-famous pianist Mu Kang.

Commendable courage. Zhimu raises his eyebrows and looks at Kang.

Kang is absent-minded, just stared at the table blankly.

As the stage lights dims, the player sits down at the piano. The follow spotlight lights on his clean-cut profile and the camera focuses on his ringed hand. Watching from the big screen, his gesture is good. The knuckles standing up, it's a familiar look after years of practice.

The boy takes a deep breath and plays the first chord, followed by a piece of melody full of imagination. The notes weave a beautiful scene, appearing in front of everyone in a breath.

Everyone is stunned.

Including Zhimu, including Kang.

This piece of music is completely Kang's style, even more similar than Fan Xing's Stubbornness before. At least Stubbornness still retained the original song's melody and emotion. But this piece of piano completely followed genius Mu's unrestrained thinking.

A few specialist guests turn to Kang immediately, eyes with inquiry: Your student?

Kang shakes his head silently: I don't know him.

The piano clip lasts about one minute. After the boy finishes playing, he stands up to the music and takes two handsome steps before the rap section.

From the beginning to the end, the music is simple and clear, repeating a melody that most people have never heard before, but Kang and Zhimu know very well. They look at each other silently for a few seconds. Kang shakes his head firmly again.

Zhimu's face slowly darkened. With a deadpan face, Kang watches the players finish his performance.

The music ends, the lights turn on and the contestant bows in sweat. He was so pathetic that he didn't even have a fan club. At the end of the show, no one in the audience screams for him.

The audience was silent. All the guests are surprised.

If nothing else, it will be an unexpected counterattack which no one has imaged.

The director gesticulates wildly in the audience to the guests who suddenly fell silent for no reason. It's guest C who always be calm that react the first. He asks hesitantly, "Which leader are you cooperate with?"

The contestant says in a low voice, "The leader Wang Xiang."

Guest C looks around, "Leader Wang does not come here today?"

The contestant, "Yes."

Guest C, "Is the whole song wrote by you and Leader Wang together?"

The contestant nods, "Yes."

Guest C exhales a deep breath, says frankly, "I think you're very very good, completely out of my expectation. Qing, in my perspective, you are the best."

The auditorium is in an uproar and the audience begin to whisper. Su Qing is frightened obviously, standing on the stage at a loss.

Guest A is dedicated to work extremely, already cries again silently, "So good, Qing, I originally thought Fan Xing must be the champion, but ... you ... I ... "

Guest B says with approval, "Although the rap part is a little immature, but the song as a whole is so good, that I would like to give you the champion, too."

The audience gradually warms up, giving Qing a standing ovation. Several leaders also regain their presence of mind. They cry, laugh, nod and frown. The atmosphere finally returns to normal.

"Originally I won't ask him, as he has already got enough shots today." Guest C says humorously, and the audience burst into laughter, "But Mr. Mu, excuse me, I think we have to listen to your opinion this time. What do you think?"

Kang stares at Qing in silence. He had never fixed on a contestant so rapt since the first season, as if he is trying to see every hair in the contestant's head clearly.

"I think it's good," Kang says coldly.

Of course, good, can Genius Mu's melody and the piano piece of Le Renégat ou un esprit confus be bad?

Noticing Zhimu's expression which full of eagerness to speak up for him, Kang kicks him under the stool.

Zhimu turns to look at him: What?

Kang shakes his head: Cut the crap.

Zhimu glares at him: Why?

Kang points at him severely: Just shut up.

The victim who has been plagiarized hasn't say a word, Zhimu who just can be regarded as an enthusiastic insider, certainly can't condemn on behalf of Kang on the spot. He has to roll his eyes reluctantly, leaning back in silence.

He can't understand why Kang doesn't point out on the spot because he is high-spirited pianist Fang Zhimu, not the low-spirited composer Mu Kang.

The composition which has been plagiarized is the work Kang wrote 7~8 years ago, in his student days. It has never been published, never been profited. Even if Kang points out immediately, "This is what I wrote", there won't have recordings or any other easy proofs to indicate directly that this is Kang's original work.

The only evidence, is a pile of obscure score he abandoned in the corner of the study, which most of people can't comprehend.

There are Kang's dust-laden heart, the buried past.

Being abandoned by Kang himself.

He lets himself to forget, even said "I have long forgotten" in front of Yan. Kang had no heart, no face, no will and no guts to utter the words "this is my music" which should have been powerful.

Genius Mu is always unruly and proud, only when in the face of music, Yan, as well as wine, will the scum feel the lowliness and being ashamed.

Qing finally wins the championship unexpectedly, until the moment of holding the prize photo, the expression on his face still maintained between dazed and scared. Seeing this, Kang knows that Qing was probably cheated by the absent leader Wang.

Zhimu stands beside Kang, wearing an artificial smile and clapping. He whispers, "You're not going to mention a word?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Kang threatens him, "I won't direct your Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.2 if you continue to ask."

The piano prince rolls his eyes skillfully to the air.

Kang thinks that this can pass secretly in his silence, but in fact, genius Mu underestimates the influence of the program, and never realized how his friend value "genius Mu's three exclusive melody" in their hearts.

On the night of the broadcast, Kang is writing "tunnel warfare" painfully in his studio when his mobile phone suddenly goes into a crazy buzz. As he picks up his cigarette and takes the phone, the conversation spearing out from "Hail Schoenberg".

●Chief: @Mukang Who is Su Qing?
●GuanXiao: @Mukang Who is Su Qing?
●XiFeng: @MuKang Which relationship between you and Qing?
●XiFeng: @MuKang Which relationship between you and Qing?
●XiFeng: @MuKang Which relationship between you and Qing?
●XiFeng: @MuKang Which relationship between you and Qing?
●GuanXiao: @XiFeng Good job.
●MuKang: I don't know him.
●Chief: Don't keep us in suspense. He used your music to your face.
●MuKang: I really don't know him.
●MuKang: I don't know how he got it. I only made one song for Fan Xing in the program.
●Chief: What?
●GuanXiao: He used directly, without telling you?
●MuKang: Hum.
●XiFeng: Fuck!!!
●GuanXiao: This fuck should be called tort or plagiarism?
●Chief: Why didn't you speak?
●MuKang: Qing doesn't know himself. I guess he was cheated by the leader he cooperated with.
●XiFeng: Why didn't Zhimu speak?
●MuKang: I didn't allow him to do so.
●Chief: ...
●XiFeng: Fuck!
●GuanXiao: How did he get this tune?
●MuKang: I don't know.
●MuKang: Fine, it's over.

There is a pause in the group. Kang drops his phone on the table, putting out his cigarette in the ashtray and reaches for a new one. Nicotine numbs his nerves which had been stimulated by the excitement of his friends, and wipes out the lingering boredom.

The phone rings again and a new message appears in the group.

●Hardbone: This is not over, absolutely.

Kang worked until more than three o 'clock in the morning, and finally could not hold on to go home to sleep. The arrangement of the second day should have be "sleep until noon", but unfortunately, at eight o 'clock in the morning, Kang is awakened ruthlessly neither by dream nor by urine, but by a long-lost Xiaoxiao's phone call.

Kang takes a long time to make a voice, an obvious still not awake voice.

"How can you sleep with such a big thing happened?" Xiaoxiao asks fiercely.

Kang is still struggling with sleep. "What time is it?"

Xiaoxiao says chillily: "Eight o'clock."

Kang moans, closing his eyes, "Lady, I'm sleeping."

Xiaoxiao's voice is almost high enough to have bel canto resonance: "That's why I am curious, such a big thing, how can you still sleep?"

The sleepy head has shaken away by the penetrating voice of the soprano. Kang sits up stiffly, taking five seconds to wake up, then stretches his hand to the bedside table and picks up a cigarette: "What's the matter?"

"Don't smoke on the bed." Xiaoxiao says.

Kang leans on the bed with a cigarette between his lips, looking down at the flickering sparks and says unconcernedly, "Oh."

Xiaoxiao's words is crisp, "I know who is behind Su Qing."

Kang, "What is Su Qing?"

Xiaoxiao, " ... "

Kang, "Oh, that boy."

"We all know the person who supports Qing." Xiaoxiao pauses, "It's Zhang Yusheng."

Kang frozes for a while, then suddenly understands everything.

He wants to smile, but his mood isn't good enough, so he makes a wry curve of the mouth. "That's right."

Xiaoxiao, "What?"

"Zhang invited me to dinner the other day and asked me for the adaptation and performance rights of Le Renégat ou un esprit confus." Kang sucks on the cigarette, "I gave him."

Xiaoxiao, "Did he say it was for Qing?"

Kang, "No, he said he wanted to form some student orchestras, and he wanted to bring Le Renégat ou un esprit confus to them after the adaptation."

Xiaoxiao, "Then Qing shouldn't use."

Kang, "Originally there was no commercial copyright for Le Renégat ou un esprit confus and the music even can be found in school library. Now that I have given him permission to adapt and perform it, he can use it for anyone he wants."

Xiaoxiao, "Sure. But whether he wants to adapt or perform, it has to bear your name."

Kang puffs out a cloud of smoke, "Yes."

Xiaoxiao: "That song Qing performed yesterday didn't sign your name. They all thought it was written by him and Wang Xiang together, so they won the championship."

Kang: "Hum."

Xiaoxiao, "This is both infringement and plagiarism."

"Well, he's still young." Kang says casually.

"It is because he is young that he still has the opportunity to make mistakes," Xiaoxiao snaps, "and still have the chance to correct."

Kang, "It's not a big mistake. He doesn't seem to know it's mine."

"Then let him know." Xiaoxiao says toughly, "This matter can't pass."

Kang takes a puff, swallowing the nicotine deep into his lungs and saying nothing.

Xiaoxiao on the other side is silent for a moment, then whispers, "I know you don't care. Well, on behalf of the others, I'm going to talk something with heart. Put out your cigarette and listen to me."

Rarely did lady Guan speak so humbly, Kang pauses, " Yeah."

Xiaoxiao says slowly, "My brother talked to me on the phone for a long time yesterday. We really ... unlike you, Kang, we can't stand it. Though your character is an asshole, your brain is a real genius. You can write any great music you like, so you think it's no big deal, because you can write again at any time."

"But it's not to us. All the music you've written with 'Genius Mu's three exclusive melody' is probably the most awesome piece of contemporary music we can see in our lives. In a way, or saying bombastically, we have witnessed history."

"So could you understand? We cherish them so much, even if their creators don't care anymore, we still want to protect them and treasure them, as they may go down in history."

Xiaoxiao's voice is a little choked up: "We can't bear it. Someone changed them into a strange look and foolishly showed them off. Actually ... the original isn't like that ... the original is much better."

Kang is silent with smoke, and his heart was full of mixed feelings.

He opens his mouth, black pupils engraved deep sorriness. He wants to say he is not that good anymore, but being stopped by the struggling self-esteem, unwilling to acknowledge it himself.

The sound of electric current passes through the receiver, carrying the silent sigh of the mixed feelings.

After a long time, Kang finally speaks up: "What do you want to do?"

"I'm just giving you a polite notice and don't need your permission." She says firmly, with her usual insolence, "I'm going to post micro-blog tonight and I've already told Zhimu. At that time, I will @ you. Just talk to Junfeng."