Jiangcheng Industries' office building stood in downtown Jiangcheng City, right beside the most prosperous old street. Its towering facade bore the company logo, making it especially conspicuous.
Though it was called an industrial company, it had switched to real estate under the previous generation of directors. Taking advantage of several well-timed investments in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, it had made enormous profits. Jiangcheng Industries was now, in every sense of the word, a real estate company.
That was precisely why Jiangcheng Industries had been able to purchase Jiangcheng Grand Theater and the surrounding area. It had left the site undeveloped for all these years, displaying truly staggering wealth.
Lu Ban had never witnessed such a grand occasion. He sat in the car, motionless.
He had tried asking Li Zijian, the secretary who looked to be about the same age as him, but the other man only knew that he was supposed to bring Lu Ban here. Apart from that, he knew nothing.
Lu Ban recalled Song Yunyan's history. After the fire, she had become quiet and composed. Once she took over the business, she relied on her precise judgment several times to complete successful investments, completely turning Jiangcheng Industries around. Her predictions regarding certain commercial projects, as well as the company's internal power struggles, were almost like she had activated a cheat that let her foresee the future.
However, Song Yunyan had never married. By now, she was already in her forties. Lu Ban wondered who would become Jiangcheng Industries' heir in the future.
It couldn't be that the female CEO had taken a fancy to me and wanted to adopt me as her godson, right?
Then a group of little aunties around my age would descend from the heavens, fighting over who got to teach Lu Ban how to drive a heavy truck?
What a joke!
As he indulged in wild fantasies, Lu Ban had already arrived outside the chairman's office.
"Please."
Li Zijian opened the door and led Lu Ban inside.
The room was spacious and bright. Floor-to-ceiling windows revealed a view of the river, stretching southward. From there, one could see the Ling River winding through Jiangcheng and disappearing beyond the horizon into The Other Shore.
With such an expansive view, it would be a sniper's prime target in an ordinary movie.
For some reason, there was even a piano in the enormous office. Lu Ban hesitated slightly when he saw it.
Because it was exactly the same as the piano he had seen at Jiangcheng Grand Theater that night!
On the other side of the floor-to-ceiling windows, behind an exquisitely crafted solid-wood desk, sat a capable-looking woman.
Lu Ban recognized her at a glance. This was Song Yunyan.
She was the same woman in red whom Lu Ban had seen at the theater that night and in the news. She merely seemed less youthful and more weathered now.
The years had left marks at the corners of her eyes, but they had not erased her charm. Even if she was possibly two decades older than Lu Ban, Song Yunyan was undeniably a beautiful woman.
"Have a seat."
Her voice carried a certain sense of restraint. After Lu Ban sat down, she gestured for the secretary to leave.
Only she and Lu Ban remained in the office.
"This piano is the same model Danping used back then. I put it here to remind myself."
Song Yunyan noticed Lu Ban's gaze and offered a brief explanation before speaking again.
"I watched your video. The final scene wasn't a special effect, but something that really happened, wasn't it?"
".Yes."
Honesty was Lu Ban's greatest virtue. He answered truthfully, then asked, "Madam Song, may I use the piano?"
"You can play the piano?"
Song Yunyan was clearly surprised.
"A little."
Lu Ban really only knew a little.
"Go ahead."
With her permission, Lu Ban went to the old yet seemingly new piano. He lifted the cover over the black and white keys and tested the tuning a little.
Then the melody began to flow.
This was the Midnight Piano Melody Lu Ban had obtained, the music composed by Du Danping.
He had chosen to play it for two reasons.
First, if this Song Yunyan was no longer the real Song Yunyan, but had been replaced by something else, then this spiritual music should help Lu Ban determine that.
Second, if this Song Yunyan was the real one, then she would certainly recognize the piece and reach a tacit understanding with Lu Ban.
"This is...the piece Danping played that day."
Song Yunyan felt as if she had been transported to another lifetime.
It was as though the person sitting before her was not Lu Ban, whom she was meeting for the first time, but the talented, gentle, and composed Du Danping.
That year, the stage had been dazzling and magnificent. Beneath the spotlights, he had played a brilliant movement as if he had been kissed by the god of music.
That year, her young heart had begun to stir. The beauty who admired the talented musician had been shy and reckless.
That year, a fire had reduced everything to ashes. From then on, no piano melody had ever echoed again.
"Danping told me many times that he wasn't seeking musical inspiration. Rather, all kinds of music would burrow into his head like insects, and those melodies would constantly chase him. I never believed him—until that day."
Amid the piano music, which shimmered like sunlight on a river, Song Yunyan recounted the past in a half-dreaming state.
"That day, we were preparing for the evening performance. There were many people present, but suddenly...everyone became unable to move. I don't know if you've ever experienced such a feeling. It was as if your body no longer belonged to you, while only your senses continued to function. I saw the backstage catch fire and watched the flames spread, but I couldn't do anything."
"Then Danping shoved me away and told me to leave. He rushed onto the stage and began playing the piano. At the time, I didn't understand anything. When the piano music began, we were finally able to move. Everyone ran toward the door, which was already engulfed in flames."
"I looked back at Danping. He hadn't stopped playing. I saw his eyes, and he told me to go."
"I escaped, but he died. No one could explain what had happened. Everyone simply thought he had gone mad."
"Perhaps everyone had gone mad."
A self-mocking smile curved Song Yunyan's lips.
"After that, something else appeared in my mind. Perhaps they could be called voices. I couldn't understand most of them, but even understanding a little enabled me to make the right choices in business. However, every night, those voices would linger in my ears, impossible to dispel."
"Now, I finally understand what Danping meant when he said, 'It's not that I'm pursuing inspiration. It's that inspiration is chasing me.'"
"By coincidence, when I purchased that plot of land, I once saw the Jiangcheng Grand Theater designer's notes. Similar words had been written on the manuscript: 'I didn't design this theater. It was always meant to be this way.'"
"Perhaps everything was fated."
In Lu Ban's eyes as he played, this was no longer the chairman's office of Jiangcheng Industries. It had become Jiangcheng Grand Theater as it had been back then.
At that moment, as starlight shone down and ancient whispers and a fleeting glimpse descended upon the theater, what kind of feelings had driven Du Danping to make that choice?
After everything he had experienced, Lu Ban understood clearly that Du Danping, who had escaped the gaze of the Great Being, could have fled with Song Yunyan. He possessed that kind of power.
Yet Du Danping had chosen to return to the stage, to return to the piano, and use this melody to save the others.
Even after his death, he had continued to maintain that final performance.
And this theater itself might have been part of the "ritual." To completely prevent the tragedy of that day, it would have to be demolished entirely.
This was probably the answer to Who is Playing, whose exploration progress had reached one hundred percent.
Lu Ban thought.
Could mortals oppose these Great Beings?
Du Danping's actions had already given Lu Ban the answer. Mortal strength could never reach those supreme beings.
Even with extraordinary power, even if one had already stood at the pinnacle of humanity, one could still only be crushed and scattered into dust before those forces that transcended nature.
What awaited Du Danping was death, followed by bondage after death.
What would await Lu Ban?
He didn't know.
At the edge of his vision, the calligrapher's ink-brushed writing hanging on the wall twisted, forming line after line of text.
Unlocked side story: Melody of Memories You learned of the tragic end of a martyr. Collect his scattered Melody Fragments in The Silent Land to receive a reward.
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