Chapter 165: Gone Mad

The dramatic apprenticeship banquet finally came to an end.

Someone at the banquet had secretly recorded a video, capturing the piano showdown between Wang Yanhua, Song Yi, and Lu Zhou, and uploaded it to the internet.

Wang Yanhua was currently the most famous classical musician active in the entertainment industry. He was the ultimate idol for countless piano students. His prominent standing within the domestic piano community had also attracted a massive wave of casual music fans who only had a superficial understanding of the piano. His online traffic and popularity were exceptionally high.

Meanwhile, Lu Zhou was still enjoying the lingering popularity he had accumulated from his previous stint on a romance reality show, drawing a comparable level of public attention.

Within a short span of time, the video of the three of them engaging in a piano duel spread like wildfire across the internet.

An obscure idol trainee who used to hustle in the entertainment industry, having recently shot to fame through a dating reality show, was now actually appearing in the same setting as two world-class pianists to engage in a piano showdown???

Netizens' curiosity was instantly piqued.

How on earth did these three end up together?

Wasn't it common knowledge that the classical music circle and the pop music circle existed in completely separate worlds?

And the most absurd part was that they were having a piano duel???

As someone hailing from the entertainment industry as an idol trainee, Lu Zhou actually had the audacity to challenge the top heavyweights of the domestic professional piano world?

It was simply a joke of the industry!

Yet, upon closer inspection of the video... Wait? It seemed this incident wasn't even initiated by Lu Zhou?

Instead, it looked like Wang Yanhua and Song Yi were the ones who had stepped up first to instigate the duel?

What left the gossiping netizens even more dumbfounded was that Lu Zhou did not play a piece by any established master; instead, he brought out his own original composition to accept the challenge!

Everyone had assumed this move was sheer ignorance and the height of arrogance, a foolish attempt to use an original piece to rival masterpieces that had been time-tested through history. He truly had no idea what spell of doom he was casting upon himself!

And the result???

After watching the video of Lu Zhou playing his own composition, the netizens were left completely flabbergasted.

What, what, what? Whether watching the performance on screen or listening to the melody of the piece, it felt overwhelmingly incredible!

Anyway, since the netizens were not professionals, they couldn't possibly tell whose technique was superior in which specific aspect. All they knew was that everyone looked immensely skilled, and in terms of piano proficiency, Lu Zhou seemingly didn't lag far behind the two top-tier virtuosos at all???

The crucial point was that his original piece, *Serenade of the Starry Night*, sounded even more captivating to the netizens than the two previous masterpieces by the masters! It hit the sweet spot between high art and mainstream popular aesthetic appeal, perfectly catering to public tastes!

It was simply out of this world, absolutely phenomenal!

The self-proclaimed internet detectives immediately began digging deeper into the details of the video, attempting to find clues about the origin of the piano duel.

Eventually, these "detectives" managed to capture a blurry, half-frame shot of the banquet's banner slogan in the corner. Through font reconstruction and deduction, they deciphered the characters for "Apprenticeship Banquet."

An apprenticeship banquet?

Whose apprenticeship? Who was becoming whose master?

Wang Yanhua and Song Yi belonged to the same lineage and already had their master; it was impossible for them to undergo apprenticeship again. Therefore, it definitely had to be Lu Zhou who was becoming an apprentice! Could it be that the lineage he was entering was the exact same one as Wang Yanhua and Song Yi's?

Upon reaching this deduction, the netizens were once again struck dumb with shock.

Consequently, it didn't take long for three hashtags to rapidly skyrocket up the trending searches list:

#Lu Zhou, Wang Yanhua, and Song Yi Piano Showdown# · Hot
#Lu Zhou Appears to be Wang Yanhua's Junior Fellow Apprentice# · Hot
#Serenade of the Starry Night# · Hot

The comment section was remarkably lively, divided into several factions arguing incessantly.

[Holy crap, Lu Zhou is actually my idol Wang Yanhua's junior brother? How did he become so insanely awesome?!]

[Heh! Please get your chronological logic straight. Lu Zhou isn't awesome because of whose junior brother he is; he is awesome in his own right, entering the same lineage purely on his own merit and strength. Besides, Wang's mindset is so petty; he actually intended to overshadow his own junior brother on his apprenticeship day, making him utterly unworthy of being a senior brother! Good thing my Lu Zhou isn't someone you can crush just because you want to. I'd like to ask Senior Brother Wang if he feels embarrassed now! He wanted to crash the party, only to end up getting rubbed hard against the floor by his junior brother.]

[Lmao, rubbed against the floor? Haha, the person above must be entirely blind to piano mechanics. Do you actually understand piano technique? Why don't you ask Lu Zhou himself if he dares to claim he rubbed Senior Brother Wang against the floor? He himself tried playing his senior brothers' performance pieces right at the start and admitted with his own mouth that he didn't play as well as them! Can mindless fan-girls stop praising him blindly?]

[What's the point of pure technical flexing? If you've got the guts, let Wang Yanhua and Song Yi come up with their own purely original piano sonata instead of just knowing how to rearrange masters' works all day long.]

[I also feel like Lu Zhou totally overshadowed the other two. Not just in terms of pure playing technique, but an overall capability eclipse. I'm a piano major myself, and actually, Lu Zhou's playing technique is already at an extremely formidable level. Although he might still fall slightly short of Wang and Song, his original piece genuinely blew my mind. On that level, he has already left Wang and Song far behind.]

[Can the fans of all sides please keep things civil and stop arguing? Since they've become fellow disciples of the same sect, surely you'd want them to get along well in the future, right?]

[Ahhh, I am so deeply in love with Lu Zhou's original *Serenade of the Starry Night*, it sounds unimaginably gorgeous! Where can I buy the original sheet music? Please release the sheet music soon, I desperately want to play it, even though I might not actually be able to handle it... The difficulty level is still quite high.]

[This man Lu Zhou is gradually revealing his true colors, and his talents are becoming increasingly monstrous.]

[Ever since the variety show ended, Lu Zhou has barely shown his face, and now he's gone off to dabble in classical music. Is he planning to quit the entertainment industry altogether? Please don't, I beg you to show your face more often, you're starving us fans!]

...

The trending discussions continued unabated, growing increasingly fierce and climbing higher on the charts, which inevitably drew the attention of many insiders within the industry.

Whether in the classical composition circle or the pop music composition circle, peers were everywhere discussing Lu Zhou's *Serenade of the Starry Night*.

In the classical music circle—

"The more carefully you listen to *Serenade of the Starry Night*, the more you realize it's anything but simple. This movement is written so brilliantly that it leaves you sighing in admiration. I have a feeling it might well become an exceptional master-level etude in the future."

"The piano community has gone wild today, everyone is scrambling to get the original sheet music, and many have already started transcribing it by ear."

"Old Qin never takes in a mediocre disciple. You have to hand it to the old man; his eye for talent is truly razor-sharp."

"Old Qin must have valued his compositional talent precisely to make up for the shortcomings of his other two disciples. Now the puzzle is complete. If this young man Lu Zhou is properly nurtured, as long as his inspiration remains unquenched and his mindset stays grounded, he will undoubtedly achieve great things in the future."

...

In the pop music circle—

"I simply cannot decipher Lu Zhou's career trajectory. He strikes here and hits there—which circle is he actually planning to develop in? One minute he's toying with pop music, the next he runs off to stir up the classical pond. Such a bizarre career blueprint."

"The main point is that he actually managed to stir up the classical pond... which is somewhat terrifying."

"Classical music is just an art form played by a bunch of self-righteous, pretentious high-brow elites who always think they're superior to pop music. In reality, that pond is minuscule. If Lu Zhou is genuinely considering transitioning into the classical music circle, I feel like his brain isn't working too well; he's purely narrowing his own path."

"You can't reach the very top of that circle, and it's hard to cash in—it's way more difficult than pop music. Just look at how massive the pop music market is! Otherwise, why do you think Wang Yanhua came running into the entertainment industry over the past few years to play the idol-fandom game?"

Pan Chengyi only discovered what had happened to Lu Zhou at the apprenticeship banquet through the trending searches. The very instant he heard *Serenade of the Starry Night*, he froze.

This kid had quietly brewed another massive move right under everyone's nose!

Whoever the kind-hearted soul was that attended the banquet and posted the video online had essentially handed Lu Zhou a massive wave of free publicity and heat.

One had to admit that this *Serenade of the Starry Night* had added yet another dazzling halo to Lu Zhou's head.

However, why was he so obsessed with writing classical music? Neither his previous piece *Void* nor this new *Serenade of the Starry Night* belonged to the pop genre. If only he could write a few more hard-hitting pop songs, his fame would undoubtedly skyrocket even faster.

Classical music was, after all, somewhat lacking in popular appeal.

Still, Pan Chengyi had to admit that Lu Zhou's compositional prowess was genuinely formidable. The previous piece *Void* had already shocked him thoroughly, but this *Serenade of the Starry Night*, written for solo piano, completely refreshed Pan Chengyi's perception of Lu Zhou's creative capabilities.

It was simply too powerful.

As a fellow music creator, Pan Chengyi felt deeply inadequate by comparison.

Right now, Pan Chengyi's sole focus was on packaging Lu Zhou properly and helping him ascend to a much higher position in the music world. His talent had been buried for far too long.

Yet, upon second thought, perhaps it wasn't that his talent had been buried for too long at all; rather, those nearly ten years of bitter struggle at the bottom of the industry were probably his true accumulation of wealth!

Pan Chengyi swiftly organized and rallied his team to give Lu Zhou's trending topics another powerful push, expanding his influence outward—the higher the discussion volume, the better.

Lu Zhou's assistant, Linda, said to Pan Chengyi with a mix of tears and laughter:

"As the boss's assistant, I must admit I'm rather superficial. I used to think that the boss locking himself up in the practice room every day to play the piano was a sign of obsession and a waste of time. But now... I'm about to cry. From now on, the boss is my ultimate idol!"

Pan Chengyi: "Your boss dislikes having his own staff members as his fan-girls. You'd better not let him hear you call him your idol, or you might just get fired."

Linda: "???"

...

The sudden emergence of *Serenade of the Starry Night* sent shockwaves through the professional piano community.

Li Jiayan received the news a little late because her schedule for the day was completely packed. Only after finally finishing all her classes was she informed by her best friend, Wang Yingying, about Lu Zhou trending on the internet.

"Jiayan, your ex-boyfriend is truly extraordinary nowadays."

"What happened?"

Ever since they returned from that reality show, the friends and family around Li Jiayan had essentially avoided bringing up any topics related to Lu Zhou to prevent picking at her scabs—all of which Li Jiayan was well aware of.

Yet now, Wang Yingying had suddenly brought up Lu Zhou so bluntly, leaving Li Jiayan feeling bewildered.

"Today, he officially became Qin Yi's apprentice, making him official fellow disciples with Wang Yanhua and Song Yi from now on."

Wang Yingying was also a piano major by training; within the domestic piano community, who wouldn't know the names of Qin Yi, Wang Yanhua, and Song Yi? If someone didn't know them, they would have wasted all those years studying.

The moment the news of Lu Zhou becoming Qin Yi's apprentice reached Li Jiayan's ears, the water glass slipped from her hand and shattered on the floor.

"What did you just say?" She whipped her head around to stare at Wang Yingying.

Wang Yingying glanced at the shattered glass scattered across the ground and suddenly regretted her loose lips.

Even if she hadn't said it aloud, Li Jiayan would have found out sooner or later anyway...

"Open your phone and take a look; everyone's Moments feed is filled with this news right now."

Wang Yingying left her with these soft words before turning to find a broom to clean up the mess on the office floor.

Hearing this, Li Jiayan stood frozen in place for a moment before fumbling in her pants pocket for her phone, which had been set to silent during class.

She spent some time browsing through the details to understand what had transpired. Once she grasped the full sequence of events, she was struck completely immobile.

Her phone was looping a short video of Lu Zhou performing *Serenade of the Starry Night* at the apprenticeship banquet.

The brilliant, effortless grace of his playing moistened her eyes.

When on earth had his piano technique advanced to such a level?

The last time Li Jiayan was astounded by his piano skills was when he played *Croatian Rhapsody* on the romance reality show...

How much time had actually passed since then???

The technical proficiency required for *Serenade of the Starry Night* was several tiers above what he had demonstrated when playing *Croatian Rhapsody*.

How could anyone achieve such a massive breakthrough in such a short period of time?

Or was he simply hiding his true capabilities all along?

That wasn't even the main point. The truly terrifying part was that this solo piano piece was actually his own original composition!

This movement was overflowing with emotion, rich in structural and technical design, and possessed an intensely captivating melodic aesthetic. The more she listened, the more she felt it was in no way inferior to those master-class compositions.

Had his talent really reached such an overwhelming degree?

He had even stepped past the threshold into Qin Yi's lineage—what did that signify?

Good grief, as a professional piano student, Li Jiayan found it impossible to put her internal feelings into words at this moment.

It was an intensely complex mix of awe, sheer euphoria, agitation, envy, and heartache...

In the video, Lu Zhou played before the piano with complete ease and mastery. His handsome and elegant posture once again painfully pierced Li Jiayan's heart.

The pinnacle of piano artistry she had dreamed of touching, the elite circle of top-tier pianists she had dreamed of entering—after years of struggling blindly, she had ultimately been forced to face reality.

And now... her ex-boyfriend had effortlessly surpassed her ultimate dream?

What kind of sensation was this?

It felt somewhat ironic, somewhat bitter, yet inexplicably tinged with an unprompted sense of pride???

The more Li Jiayan thought about it, the more regretful she became. Why on earth had she listened to her parents back then and let go of him?

She suddenly recalled the words he had spoken when rejecting her: "I am no longer the 18-year-old Lu Zhou of back then."

Indeed, he was truly no longer the person he used to be.

Over all these years, he had grown and transformed beyond measure.

Compared to where he stood now, she felt as though she had been running in place.

Putting herself in his shoes, if she were the Lu Zhou of today, she wouldn't have chosen to get back together either, especially with their emotional foundation having been insufficient.

Before she knew it, she had fallen too far behind.

Putting everything else aside, in the realm of piano music, he had already become the light she had to strive to chase.

She smiled helplessly.

Wang Yingying had finished cleaning up the glass shards from the floor. Noticing Li Jiayan's strange expression, she pressed her lips together, wanting to offer some comfort, only to realize she didn't know where to begin.

Yet, at this moment, Li Jiayan didn't actually need any comfort, because the direction her heart yearned to head toward had become infinitely more steadfast.

She took out her phone and pulled up Lu Zhou's chat window.

[The video of you and Wang Yanhua and the others today has caused a massive sensation in the piano world.]

[I heard you successfully became Qin Yi's apprentice, is that true? Let me congratulate you first.]

[Your *Serenade of the Starry Night* is brilliantly written. The moment I finished listening to it, I had the immediate urge to use it as an etude for my students.]

[I wonder where the original sheet music can be downloaded now? Cute-peeking-out.GIF]

Li Jiayan sent a string of messages in one go.

It took quite a while after sending the messages before she received a reply—

Lu Zhou: [Indeed, I've become Old Qin's apprentice. The banquet wrapped up today. Thanks for the congratulations.]

Lu Zhou: [Serenade_of_the_Starry_Night_Score.JPG]

He had directly tossed the original score right over to her!

Li Jiayan was overwhelmed with excitement. With trembling hands, she opened the sheet music, studied it carefully several times, and then trotted over to sit down at her piano, leaving Wang Yingying staring at her in utter bewilderment.

Li Jiayan placed her phone on the music rack and attempted to play the piece.

However, she immediately ran into difficulties right at the opening section of the exposition. She rubbed her tense hand muscles, tried again, hit a wrong note... tried again, her touch lacked the right dynamics... try again!

"I can do this, I can definitely do this too!"

Before every repeated attempt, she muttered those words under her breath.

She seemed to have gone completely possessed.

"You've taken classes all day long, your physical stamina is already exhausted. No matter how you practice right now, you won't be able to get the right feel for it."

Wang Yingying, who stood off to the side, had already recognized that the movement being played was *Serenade of the Starry Night*, and she spoke up with a look of heartache.

Suddenly, Li Jiayan pressed all ten fingers down on the piano keys in frustration, producing a loud, jarring crash. She buried her face downward onto the music desk and broke into soft sobs.

Wang Yingying let out a soft sigh, walked over, and gently stroked her back.

Li Jiayan turned around, buried her face into Wang Yingying's embrace, and suddenly burst into loud tears.

"I'm just so useless," she berated herself.

Wang Yingying's eyes grew red as well.

She understood this feeling entirely.

It was the agony of watching the dream height you chased with all your might remain forever out of reach, while someone whose skills were once even worse than yours had now left you far, far behind in the dust.

What made it even more agonizing for Li Jiayan was that this person happened to be the ex-boyfriend she had once chosen to give up.

Her pride had been utterly crushed.

Let her cry it out; comfort was useless at this point, letting it all out was the only cure.

Meanwhile...

In another corner of the city, Ye Fangfei had just finished attending Lu Zhou's apprenticeship banquet and was subsequently bustled through a work schedule arranged by her manager. Only now did she finally have a moment to check her unread messages.

Upon unlocking her phone, the first things that leaped into view were a barrage of Wetalk notifications sent by Ouyang Xue.

Xue: [Holy crap! Ye Fangfei, what on earth did you do?!]

Xue: [I sent you that video of Lu Zhou simply so you could use it when you felt lonely and empty at night!]

Xue: [I didn't tell you to have your people leak it online!]

Xue: [If Wang Yanhua finds out that the person who filmed that video was me...]

Xue: [I reckon he'll hunt me down to the ends of the earth!]

Reading the messages, Ye Fangfei curved her lips into a smile and typed her reply furiously.

Fifi: [Rest assured with ten thousand hearts, it's been edited so nobody can tell who filmed it, unless you go up to Wang Yanhua and expose yourself.]

Xue: [You woman are so vicious, using Wang Yanhua as a stepping stone to generate hype for Lu Zhou... You're really something else.]

Xue: [The truly vicious one is Wang Yanhua; he went too far and simply deserved what was coming to him.]

Fifi: [Tsk tsk! The guy surnamed Lu hasn't even officially started yet, and you're already being this protective, huh?]

Xue: [Does your future man even know you did this wonderful deed behind his back?]

Fifi: [He doesn't need to know.]

Xue: [......]

Xue: [I hereby pronounce: You are utterly lovesick, dammit!]

Fifi: [I haven't even started loving yet.]

Xue: [......]