Violin and Piano

While driving back home, Su Zhen thought of the MV Agusta F4 that he bought yesterday and thought of the superbike protective gear. Since he had bought his Ducati, truth to be told, he had only ridden it out of town a few times, so most of the time, the protective gear was left alone in the storage room. And this was naturally because of his job.

Therefore, after arriving home, the first thing he did was find the protective gear in the storage room.

After he unlocked the door of the storage room, Su Zhen looked around the floor but found nothing, so he looked at the several boxes on the high cabinet.

Without thinking much, he went to the cabinet and carried the boxes down.

The first box was a little bit heavy and Su Zhen didn't remember what was inside. After he put it down, he squatted down to the box and what came into his eyes was a long and thick black case.

Seeing this black case, Su Zhen muttered, "Isn't this my violin?"

Right, he also knew how to play the violin, and he used to be quite good at it at that. As for why he never touched it so far, well, he used to play it quite often, but after he became busy with his bartending job, he got no energy to play it anymore, so here it was, lying in the storage room for a few years.

Su Zhen got his violin skill when he was studying the bartending course back then.

There was a little story.

At that time, his bartending teacher was a foreigner and that old teacher also happened to be a violinist.

At some point, his teacher brought a violin over and performed for the class to see for relaxation. As far as he remembered, his teacher played a piece called Tambourin Chinois, or Chinese Drum, and it was composed by Fritz Kreisler, one of the greatest violinists of all time.

Su Zhen was instantly attracted to the song, his teacher had played it really well, he could hear all the delight and sentiment of the piece, and an imagined world and faraway land that only had joyous mood and delightful days were presented in his mind.

Su Zhen wondered how could such a small instrument express so many emotions and affect people's imagination. When his interest was piqued, he subconsciously showed his enthusiasm for violin and was caught by his teacher.

With the mentality of wanting to give it a try, his teacher offered to guide him first, and if he could catch it on, he would continue to teach him until the bartending course ended. Surprisingly, who knew that Su Zhen had a talent for classical music, thus, when Su Zhen's potential was shown, even after the bartending course had ended, his teacher still continued to teach him.

Along the way, Su Zhen's passion expanded further and he even gave the piano a try. Unsurprisingly, he was talented in it as well.

Unfortunately, the old man fell from the stairs in his house due to a sudden sickness and passed away not long after, and Su Zhen could only practice on his own after that.

When he became familiar with the two musical instruments enough, he even decided to further hone his skill by working as, sometimes a violinist, sometimes a pianist, and a bartender at the same time.

But when he worked in a new place, although his salary was a lot, his working time increased as well, making him unable to spare energy and time for practicing.

And this violin… was a gift from his teacher before he passed away. As a violin lover, he naturally knew the value of this particular violin. It was made by a famous Italian violin maker named Cesare Maggiali in 1936, and its price was as high as 200,000 yuan or 30,000 US dollars.

Su Zhen couldn't imagine that his teacher would have given him such an expensive violin at that time, and now that he saw it again, he felt like he had failed his teacher's expectation somehow, after all, he had abandoned it for several years and focused on work instead.

After all was said, it was different now as Su Zhen didn't have to worry about work anymore.

He touched the black violin case, stayed silent for a while, and finally whispered, "Let's pick you up again."

After this little episode, Su Zhen carried the other two boxes down and finally found the protective gear. But it was a pity that some parts were partly torn by mice.

Su Zhen took a sip of tea, turned on his mobile phone, and went to the most popular vehicle equipment online store.

Without batting an eye, Su Zhen chose the most expensive gloves, helmet, boots, jacket, pants, elbow/shin/knee guards, goggles, earplugs, and several more items.

He guessed that he would definitely be gifted with a full set of protective gear from MV Agusta, but he still wanted the best of everything.

Overall, when he checked out, Su Zhen didn't forget to change the address to his villa and finally paid over 70,000 yuan in total. It was a good thing that this online site had it all, and everything would be delivered on the same day tomorrow.

After that, Su Zhen opened the violin case, took out the violin and its bow carefully, and began to test its sound.

Sure enough, the strings seemed to be a little loose and the sound was a bit off. Therefore, Su Zhen spent a minute tuning the violin to its correct tone.

It really had been quite a long time since Su Zhen last played this violin. He took a deep breath and thought about what song he should play.

Back then, one of Su Zhen's favorite pieces was Johannes Brahms' Hungarian Dance No. 5, also one of the most popular collections in the world. This piece imitated traditional Hungarian folk tunes, and the quick tempo and memorable melodies came together to create a truly thrilling dance.

Su Zhen's taste in music was, a joyous mood in a tranquil atmosphere as this matched his personality perfectly. He might always look calm and steady, but he also pursued joy and happiness.

There was no sheet and Su Zhen played it based on his memory.

As the bow touched the strings, Su Zhen's left hand also moved, and his four fingers moved from one string to another.

The rich and broad melody instantly swept across the room. If there were more instruments present, the sound would be even much louder and the intensity and sentiment of this piece would be more revealing.

The opening bit was slow and presented a low mood, the later part was both fast and slow as if to tell the listeners to forget all the sadness and go wild with the happiness that loomed in the Hungarian dance instead.

This piece was quite short, only around 3 minutes, and it was not that hard to play, however, it was extremely difficult to play it to perfection.

Ordinary violinists would play it in a fairly consistent temp, keeping in mind that the title implied a dance.

It was a different thing when it came to virtuosos, the tempos would become uneven as they were sometimes slow, sometimes fast. The over-dramatic vibrato could be heard as well, there was also the clenched expression that would sometime turn into a soft sleep and then clenched again, all that for such a simple piece.

Simply put, it was not just a simple dance for passionate violinists and for those who took it extremely seriously, but it was a display of various expressions and emotions, and the player had to become one with it.

Su Zhen was not a virtuoso, so he didn't go that far, however, if there were classical music lovers here, they would still stand up and clap for Su Zhen for sure.

After playing this particular piece, Su Zhen continued to play several more pieces that he was familiar with.

With Su Zhen's current physique, it was not a problem to practice a dozen hours straight, but he was not planning on becoming a professional violinist that would play in a concert, he just had a strong love for the violin and he wanted to honor his teacher's soul.

Without knowing it, a few hours had passed, and the time quietly came to noon. Su Zhen put the violin down and took a long breath with delight. He didn't expect that even after not picking it up for several years, his skills still didn't rust and he became familiar with it again only after a short play.

In a good mood, Su Zhen carefully put the violin back in its case and went to prepare a hearty lunch.

After lunch, Su Zhen didn't continue to practice violin, instead, he opened a book called "Financial Intelligence" to read. Of course, Su Zhen read the original copy, the English version.