Chapter Ninety-One: The End of the Curtain

“How can they give such a high score?” A mother tugged at her child and asked, “Isn’t this nonsense?”

“Mom, if you don’t understand, don’t talk nonsense. That’s the second hardest piano piece in the world.”

“But it sounded so terrible. How can they all give it perfect scores? What if that fat man hit a wrong note, the teachers might not even know!”

“Mom, you’re not a pianist, so you don’t know. There’s something in this world called perfect pitch. People with perfect pitch can hear even the slightest difference. Besides, the teachers down there are all giants in the Chinese piano world. How could they not know?”

“Indeed, the melody is not beautiful, but this is an experimental piece. It was never meant to be listened to; it exists to test the limits of the piano and the limits of human beings. The piece he just played was, in theory, something only two pianos could perform. In truth, that fat man is extraordinarily, extraordinarily impressive. Ah! How has the Chinese piano world suddenly produced such a genius without making a sound?”

The boy who spoke drew everyone around him to listen. Most of the crowd had no idea what the fat man onstage had just played, but after hearing the candidate’s explanation, they all seemed to understand at once and put on expressions of sudden enlightenment. In short, the fat man was incredibly impressive.

Deputy Dean Liu Ya rose to his feet and looked at Cheng Xiaoyu, who had finished performing without even bowing. He felt the boy was far too unruly, yet he also pitied his talent. Standing up, he said, “You are Cheng Xiaoyu?”

Cheng Xiaoyu nodded.

Deputy Dean Liu Ya vaguely felt that the name sounded familiar, and then remembered that the third-place winner of the Chopin International Piano Competition two years ago had also played this untouchable piece. After a pause, he asked, “Did you win third place in the Chopin International Piano Competition two years ago?”

Cheng Xiaoyu hesitated briefly, then nodded.

All seven examiners stared in stunned silence, astonishment washing over them like a violent surge, leaving them unable to accept it for a moment.

Everyone near the stage in the concert hall had witnessed this exchange. Perhaps before now, while waiting for Cheng Xiaoyu to finish, no one had understood how strong he truly was.

But that award carried far more weight than having him play that piece a thousand times.

The words seemed like a spark dropped into gasoline, and the entire hall exploded at once. In no time, the astonishing news spread from the front rows to the back, rippling through the whole hall.

Once everyone heard that Cheng Xiaoyu had taken third place in the Chopin International Piano Competition, they knew this fat man was a genuine genius.

Someone else quietly asked the student who had been giving the impromptu explanation, “Is this Chopin competition really that amazing?”

The student shot him an exasperated look, as though scolding him for his ignorance. “Is it that amazing? It’s the Olympics of the piano world. It’s held only once every five years, all right!”

The other person said, a little awkwardly, “But it was only third place, not first place. There’s nothing to brag about, is there? My relative’s kid also won third place in the Shanghai International Piano Competition. It was useless—there wasn’t even much prize money!”

The student looked at him with contempt. “That is such a ridiculous thing to say. In the Chopin competition two years ago, the first and second places were left vacant. In effect, he was the first place, got it? It’s just that most of the judges felt the piece he performed was too obsessed with technique and lacked emotional expression, so they didn’t award him first. But if he wasn’t first, that wouldn’t have been fair either, so they gave him third and left first and second empty. Most judges don’t encourage performers to pursue pure technical extremes like that.”

Many people looked at him admiringly. “You really know a lot. How did your exam go just now?”

With a touch of pride, the student replied, “Though I can’t compare with the ones who went onstage at the end, I should have no problem getting through the second round.” He did not mention that his own teacher had also gone to Warsaw, the capital of Poland, to participate in the Chopin International Piano Competition the previous year, and had failed to place.

Only after everyone in the hall learned that this young man had won third place in the Chopin International Competition two years ago did applause finally break out.

Only then did Cheng Xiaoyu reluctantly bend slightly at the waist, counting it as a bow.

At this point, the seven examiners no longer cared about Cheng Xiaoyu’s arrogance and rudeness. A student who had won third place in the Chopin International Competition was a gleaming badge of honor.

Others could only dream of such a person, and yet their school had nearly disqualified him from taking the exam.

Several leaders looked at Li Yunling, whose face was burning red, and shook their heads. They silently judged that she was fit only for teaching, not for a management position.

Meanwhile, Kong Jianjun was overjoyed, feeling he had unearthed a treasure, and inwardly grumbling about Zhou Peipei: why had they even made such a remarkable student take the exam? He could have been directly admitted, and would have been more than enough to apply for a scholarship! His mind raced with the thought that this might finally be an opportunity to force Li Yunling to step down as department head.

Deputy Dean Liu Ya’s face broke into a broad smile as he stepped down from the panel and took the initiative to shake Cheng Xiaoyu’s hand warmly and sincerely.

He did not mind Cheng Xiaoyu’s pride or rudeness at all. Most geniuses have quirks, many are oddities with zero emotional intelligence, the kind who won’t rest until they’ve offended everyone they meet.

Compared with that, Cheng Xiaoyu’s temperament, sharpened by grievance and with nowhere to vent it, was already quite normal.

At this moment, Liu Ya was actually somewhat worried, afraid that Cheng Xiaoyu might lose his temper and, after the exam, say he was withdrawing from the second round at the film academy or something similar. If that happened, the film academy would truly be humiliated beyond repair.

While shaking his hand, Liu Ya signaled to the reporters and media to take photos, then said, “On behalf of the film academy, I welcome you to study here. You will receive a full scholarship, and the written exam that follows is waived. I also apologize for the misunderstanding some teachers and students had about you. Thank you for presenting such a flawless performance.”

Cheng Xiaoyu could not very well say he would not attend the film academy after all. After all, this city was now his home. So he only smiled and said, “It’s nothing. Growth comes from hardship. I like nothing more than seeing the people who hate me grit their teeth in pain while being utterly helpless against me.”

Li Yunling, seated among the examiners, heard this and felt as though she were sitting on pins and needles. She still did not know why things had suddenly developed this way. But she could only force herself to remain calm. She still felt she had done nothing wrong.

She did not understand that, with no sufficient evidence, accusing someone of cheating was essentially slander.

Nor did she realize in the slightest that the student she favored had set her up.

He Mingzhe could not accept this reality at all. Clearly, this was just a low-level candidate who had dared to play only a depressed little minor-key piece in the exam, and yet he had suddenly transformed into the third-place winner of the Chopin International Competition, the very performer of that piece.

He felt as though he were living in a dream.

His face now ashen, He Mingzhe was almost afraid to keep watching. He carefully retraced the entire process of digging the pit he had set, and finding no obvious flaw, he finally relaxed a little.

Duanmu Linsha, who had already stepped down from the stage, felt as though she had been struck by lightning. Nothing could have been more miraculous than such a reversal. Cheng Xiaoyu truly was a genius, whether in pop music or piano performance.

To think he had even taken third place in the Chopin Piano Competition. That left Duanmu Linsha with a medley of conflicting emotions. Cheng Xiaoyu had once been merely an idol to her, but now he had stepped onto the altar in her heart.

Pei Yancheng returned to her seat and quietly let out a breath of relief, grateful that she had not caused him to fail admission to the film academy. Yet the guilt in her heart still would not disperse, and she did not know how to ease it. Her face remained as calm as an ancient well, concealing the turmoil within.

Liu Ya then called Wu Di over, saying the two geniuses ought to know each other. Wu Di was also a proud man. Although he had to admit Cheng Xiaoyu’s technical skill, he felt that in the performance of ordinary repertoire, Cheng Xiaoyu might not necessarily be his match.

Under the media’s camera flashes, the two of them and the deputy dean posed together for a photograph. Thus the examination was announced to be over.

There was still a written test waiting for the rest of the candidates the next day, but Cheng Xiaoyu had already been spared that trouble. The written test was of little consequence in an arts entrance exam; it served only as a reference and did not count toward the score.

So the highest score in the arts examination, the ninety-eight points just broken by Wu Di, had barely had time to warm before it was shattered again. And this time, it had been shattered by a score destined never to be surpassed.