My Youth Began With Him

Before anyone had the chance to say anything, Song Yishi quickly added, “It’s okay, Huo Mian, no one will blame you if you don’t know how to play this song. After all, you didn’t major in music, nor did you study abroad in the past. It’s normal for you not to know who Franz Liszt is.” Song Yishi was certain that Huo Mian had no idea who this pianist was, let alone a classic piece like Reminiscences de Don Juan.

Everyone knew that Song Yishi was looking down upon Huo Mian’s education background; Qin Chu even frowned and stood up to ask her to leave, but Huo Mian held his shoulder down, gesturing for her husband not to get mad.

Qin Chu saw how calm Huo Mian was, so he was aware that his wife knew what she was doing. All these years, he had never seen her play the piano; true, she rarely had the chance to play. When she was young, her family wasn’t well-off enough to buy her a piano to practice with, and later when she went to medical school, she no longer had the time to learn it.

Perhaps she would be able to play a regular piece, but one like Reminiscences de Don Juan was extremely demanding, and not even a piano teacher would be able to play it without any mistakes, let alone a mere piano enthusiast like Huo Mian.

Huo Mian smiled upon hearing Song Yishi’s accusation that she didn’t know Franz Liszt. Then, she stood up, glanced around the room, and said slowly, “Franz Liszt, born October 22, 1811, is a Hungarian composer. He is known to be a romanticist and also a genius pianist. Reminiscences de Don Juan is based off Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and because of its length and dramatic intensity, not many are willing to perform it. Currently, there is only one pianist in the nation that performed this piece in public, from beginning to end. Miss Song, you’re my guest today. As the hostess, I’m more than willing to fulfill your request, but I also have a request of my own.”

“What request?” Confused, Song Yishi looked at Huo Mian, who smiled provokingly. “Do you have the guts to play with me?”

There were two grand pianos in the living room, a black one and a white one. Huo Mian’s request to play together was obviously an invitation to compete with Song Yishi.

Everyone turned around to look at Song Yishi, wondering if she would agree to Huo Mian’s request.

“Sure, haha, I look forward to it.” Song Yishi had been learning piano since she was a child, and she had been practicing for years.

She played Reminiscences de Don Juan a couple of times, so she was confident in her skills.

“I have a feeling that Huo Mian will gloriously defeat Bitch Song.” Jiang Xiaowei smiled.

Zhu Lingling, on the other hand, cheered Huo Mian on, “Huo Mian, break a leg!”

She didn’t understand the piano piece they were talking about, but since Huo Mian was a genius, she was going to live up to that title, right?

Song Yishi stood up, holding her shiny fish-tail dress as she sat down in front of the white piano while Huo Mian, wearing her vampire costume, sat in front of the black piano.

“Let’s go over the script in our heads for five seconds, and then begin, you good?” Huo Mian looked at Song Yishi, who replied proudly, “I’m good, ready at any time.”

Jiang Xiaowei had an idea, so she took out her phone and began filming them.

After five minutes of silence, Huo Mian and Song Yishi’s fingers touched the keyboard at the same time and they quickly began to play the song. They both played with such speed that the others’ eyes couldn’t even keep up with the movement of their fingers…

After the first bar, Song Yishi realized that not only did Huo Mian know this famous piano piece by Franz Liszt, she was also incredibly familiar with it.

As her mind wandered, Song Yishi’s pace slowed down, allowing Huo Mian to immediately surpass her. When that happened, Song Yishi began panicking and tried her best to catch up with Huo Mian.

Yet, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t, and when Huo Mian finished playing the entire piece, she was still at the end of the third bar…

Huo Mian didn’t wait for her to finish before standing up and bowing to the crowd. “Thanks for listening, guys.”

“I’ve known her for so long but had no idea she was a master pianist. Qin Chu, did you?” Curious, Gao Ran looked over at Qin Chu.