I am a Big Player
Chapter 622 - 613, do you have any professional ethics at all!?_1

Chapter 622: 613, do you have any professional ethics at all!?_1

After Liu Jiamin’s performance, Zhang Ke felt a bit desperate, knowing from the judges’ reactions who would win first prize. He truly doubted his ability to match Liu Jiamin’s level of performance.

Zhang Ke was aware of how strong Liu Jiamin from the Qinghe Club was in the piano field; he had obtained recordings of her past competitions. But today, Liu Jiamin seemed exceptionally formidable!

Now, a genius girl was proving herself through one competition after another. Now it was domestic competitions, and eventually, there would be international ones. She had long surpassed her peers, so others along the way were inevitably reduced to mere background.

Liu Jiamin and Ren He were different. Ren He’s establishment in the classical music field involved several factors: first, classic compositions; second, a level of performance that had reached the Master Level; third, he had proposed new theories.

Liu Jiamin, being solely a performer, had to prove everything through competitions, something Ren He didn’t need to do.

So it’s said that reality is cruel. When Liu Jiamin won, someone else was eliminated. But that’s just how this path works, there’s no room for sentimentality, some people are destined to become the most dazzling ones.

Generally, in high-level piano competitions there’s a rather peculiar practice: if there are no exceptionally outstanding contenders in the current edition, the first prize can be left unawarded.

This means that if you’re not up to that standard, you can’t count on all your competitors being weaker than you, because the judges aren’t deaf...

Such competition regulations are rare, even rarer in China, but this time the organizing committee was adamant in promoting this competition as a high-standard domestic event.

In the end, Liu Jiamin won the first prize, two individuals unknown to Ren He took the second and third prizes, and Yang Xi didn’t place... It was unclear whether the organizing committee intended to prove their fairness and impartiality, but in fact, the gap between Yang Xi and the third prize wasn’t significant. It was a close call, with the competitor having played a slightly more difficult piece, yet Yang Xi wasn’t chosen in the end.

But it didn’t matter. Ren He felt there was no need to question the committee’s fairness. They could afford to lose. The only concern was whether he should comfort the internet-addicted girl when he got home that night.

At that moment, a text message from Yang Xi arrived: "What are we eating tonight?"

No need for comfort, then. This internet addict’s heart was much bigger than he had imagined!

Ren He texted back: "Fang said he’s making congee, egg custard, and sweet and sour shredded potatoes for dinner."

"I don’t want egg custard. Can we switch it to tiger-skin peppers?"

"Okay," Ren He responded cheerfully to Yang Xi’s text messages, both of them acting as if they had never participated in such a competition...

At the award ceremony, Joseph spoke on behalf of the Juilliard School of Music, welcoming everyone and such, before presenting the award to Liu Jiamin.

This award, like others in international piano competitions, was peculiar in that only the first prize included prize money, while the second and third prizes seemed to vanish into thin air... Ren He figured he couldn’t have endured such an indignity if he had received the second prize!

Standing calmly on stage, Liu Jiamin looked at all the audience members. When she saw the members of the Qinghe Club, she smiled and then said to everyone, "Here, I would like to thank my teacher... um, my teacher who is also the young professor."

The use of "too" is significant because Ren He had already been mentioned by Joseph after Yang Xi’s performance; however, this was Liu Jiamin’s public acknowledgment of her mentor. The Master Level pianist Liu Fei had always thought that Liu Jiamin had no teacher, which was why she wanted to take Liu Jiamin as a student. Otherwise, knowing that Liu Jiamin’s teacher was the "little professor," she certainly wouldn’t have made such an offer. Her concern was more that Liu Jiamin might be led astray without the guidance of a renowned teacher.

But in the field of classical music today, who dares say that the "little professor" is not a renowned teacher?

Why did Joseph constantly want Ren He to return to the Juilliard School of Music to continue teaching, if not because during that year, the piano department at Juilliard indeed experienced a qualitative leap? Last year, in the three major youth piano competitions in the United States, two first-prize winners were students of the "little professor."

Joseph was stunned for a moment. No wonder this girl chose the "Turkish March" as her performance piece—she was a student of the "little professor" as well!

These days, nearly everyone involved with the piano in China knows about a person named Liu Jiamin, yet this is the first time they’re learning that her teacher is that "little professor."

Before the competition began, Liu Jiamin had specifically asked Ren He whether she could reveal that he was her teacher. Ren He saw no reason why not and agreed, considering it a trivial matter.

Zhang Ke, who had graduated from one of the four elite senior high schools in Capital, was stunned when he heard Liu Jiamin’s award speech. Those familiar with the Qinghe Club knew that Liu Jiamin was personally taught by that legendary club president. So, does this mean Ren He is not only the president of the Qinghe Club but also that legendary "little professor"?

Students from Capital Fourth Middle School, Peking University Affiliated Middle School, People’s University Affiliated Middle School, and Experimental Middle School—the four top high schools in Capital—were all curious about where the legendary president of Qinghe had suddenly gone. Now, it turns out he’d been teaching at the Juilliard School of Music even before graduating from high school!

It’s not that he had gone into hiding or succumbed to some incurable disease, but rather he had started a new legend...

Zhang Ke felt somewhat unable to accept this reality!

As he glanced at Sun Yu with red-rimmed eyes, Zhang Ke suddenly felt that to belittle someone behind their back with such commoners was a joke. If it wasn’t for the other’s gaze making them feel like clowns, then he and Sun Yu were the clowns themselves...

Indeed, the other party didn’t need to act at all, for they had become a unique powerhouse in the world of classical music. If the "little professor’s" theoretical and compositional abilities had established his stature in the field, then that unparalleled, sold-out piano solo concert had cemented his commercial value.

Nowadays, for the "little professor" to hold a piano solo concert is far quicker and easier than acting, and it pays more too!

Everyone says the Central Academy of Drama is filled with hidden dragons and crouching tigers. In the past half-year, Zhang Ke hadn’t felt much of it, thinking it was all just more wealthy and beautiful people. Only now, upon learning about Ren He, did he truly understand what "hidden dragons and crouching tigers" truly meant.

Zhang Ke suddenly felt he should leak this piece of news to the media. He walked into a deserted fire escape passage and dialed the number of the Southern Newspaper: "Hello, I have a scoop for you. The ’little professor’s’ real name is Ren He, and he’s currently at the Central Academy of Music!"

Ren He? The journalist who took the call felt a headache coming on at the mention of the name.

"Thank you, we know," the journalist said politely, and then...

Click, the call was ended, and the journalist sighed to a colleague in resignation, "Another scoop we can’t report. I think our big boss really needs to sacrifice himself to boost our sales. He’s full of gimmicks and news. If we could expose this, I feel like my year-end bonus would be in sight. Should we ask our boss for permission?"

Zhang Ke, whose call had been hung up, was dumbfounded. Wasn’t his news explosive enough? What kind of attitude was that? Is there no professionalism left? No wonder people say traditional media is in decline!