The north of Tioline has longer winters and shorter summers.
In these shorter periods of time, the twilight seemed to have been poured into bright dyes with distinct colors, the high clouds were as dark blue as ice, the low sunset burned like fire, and the afterglow of the skyline shone into Kaplan's view through the large windows.
In the ward, the boring and pale bed sheets and furniture took on a strange copper color.
"Mom, why does Dad like to sleep so much lately? His illness is not cured yet?"
In the room, one maid was boiling milk, and another was folding clothes. Dolls and building blocks were scattered at the end of the bed. Olga was playing with little Irene, and her daughter's questions slowed down her fingers in playing with the toys.
"He was too tired from work before and needs to rest. He needs to rest longer." Olga's eyes passed over her husband's face on the pillow in front of her, then to her daughter's questioning eyes under her fluffy curly hair, and finally quickly returned to the toys.
.
"The few times I was too tired from playing, I fell asleep for a long time." Little Eileen expressed her understanding.
"Mrs. Olga, Mr. Fanning is here for a visit." The footman's voice came to his ears. The boy who was running up the stairs in front of him had his chest heaving up and down, but after standing at the door of the ward, he lowered his voice and became calm.
.
Kaplan, who was half asleep and half awake, moved his legs and feet first. After hearing this, Olga also stood up, carried her daughter to the small sofa, and tidied up her appearance a little.
Less than half a minute later, Fan Ning appeared at the door with a thick sheet of music in his arms.
"Mr. Fanning, good afternoon."
"This is."
Olga said hello from a distance, and as Fan Ning approached, she saw the night-like darkness and silence on the binding cover, as well as a few clusters of eye-catching lights.
The white and simple words read: "Symphony No. 2 in C minor", "Resurrection".
"The title is such a blessing, I suddenly realized this." She smiled.
Kaplan woke up from his sleep and had already sat up on his own as if on premonition. Fan Ning saw that he was wearing a blue and gray patient gown, his gray hair stood up like hay, and his face was as pale as paper, but his first reaction was to laugh.
He kept reciting "Good News" with a strong breath on his lips, and stretched out his arms with bruises and some scabs after ulceration.
"Look, it was born smoothly and safely, much faster than I thought."
After taking the score, he looked at the cover for a long time, and slowly opened the first page with steady and calm fingers.
Then put on your own high-end black-rimmed glasses.
In the first movement, a funeral march, on the home page, the notes of each orchestration are quite sparse.
Under the sudden uneasy tremolo of the string instruments, the double bass played a heavy, chilling and rough and powerful fragment of "Interrogation Motive".
Kaplan flipped through page after page. Notes, key signatures and expression terms had a different kind of stimulation to his eyes. As soon as he saw them, his spirit became calm, as if he had completely bid farewell to the intermission.
The state of sexual drowsiness is just like spending all day and night studying the score.
In fact, he had already rehearsed the first four movements by heart, but he still slowly turned through the pages page by page, playing the sounds in his mind.
Capron flipped through page after page, and it took about twenty minutes before he finished reading "Initial Light". At this time, the remaining score was still more than one-third thick.
In the fifth movement, the expanded sonata form, the double bass's "questioning motive" brought out a savage and out-of-control loud noise, and then the orchestra poured out an overwhelming BB minor broken chord, and the trumpet and trombone sounded a frightening cry in F minor.
With the horn, a scene like the apocalypse was violently opened. The ground shook in the wilderness, the tombs were cracked, the dead stood in large numbers, and people all over the mountains and plains joined the procession.
Kaplan flipped through page after page, his face changing with various emotions as he thought about the music, and beams of light shooting out of his eyes from time to time. When he read the beginning of the chorus, his whole body trembled slightly, and then he completely held his breath, and his whole body
The blood rushed to my face, and it took a long time before I could breathe again.
Corresponding to the various changing sounds in my heart are the silence of the ward and the only remaining sound of paper turning.
Fan Ning stood aside silently.
"Wow." "Wow."
It wasn't until half an hour later that Kaplan, who was leaning on the bedside, finally closed the score. He twisted his waist hard, and the next moment he was sitting on the edge of the bed, stuffed his feet into slippers, and slowly stood up.
"What are you doing!?" Olga stretched out her hand to help her worriedly.
"It's okay, I want to walk around in the yard." Kaplan grabbed his wife's hand, squeezed it a little harder to show that she didn't have to worry, and then let go.
"Dad, have you rested well?" little Eileen asked.
“Overall good.”
Capron smiled nonchalantly.
"I always feel that the ward is gradually becoming old and small, which is uncomfortable, as if it is about to shrink into a few inches square."
Then, he slowly walked forward and picked up the cane leaning against the wall.
Fan Ning put the hat he took off after entering the door back on.
The environment of the private nursing home is good, quiet, clean and conducive to rest.
There is a spacious courtyard outside the door, with many trees planted and azure flowers blooming around it.
As I walked, I also saw some wild flowers and grass growing from the walls and the cracks in the corridor stones. It was difficult to decide whether they showed decadence or vitality.
"Professor Fan Ning." After walking around a small circle, Kaplan, who was dressed in hospital clothes and holding a cane, spoke first, "I'm wondering if little Irene wants to follow."
"The cultural classes that should be taken are as usual." Fan Ning said, "As for the violin, I can let Miss Sheeran teach it, but I have to ask Sheeran's wishes."
"This is the most reassuring situation." Kaplan was overjoyed.
Fan Ning thought for a while and then added calmly:
"On weekdays, I let her often play with her brothers and sisters in the youth symphony orchestra. When she grows up, she can consider pursuing a professional career. Her talent is enough, and she can be considered as learning from an early age, but the most important thing is
You have to wait until the moment you realize it clearly.”
"Okay. Okay"
When Fan Ning spoke, Kaplan kept nodding in agreement. When he heard the last sentence, he asked: "Do you realize it clearly?"
"Be aware that you can never live without it."
"We must not live without her." Fan Ning repeated again using personal pronouns, "Moreover, we are not satisfied with 'being friends', but want to become 'closer lovers'. Some people realize it gradually, and some
People realize it suddenly, and the time is different. Some people realize it when they are young, some people grow up, and some people later. Of course, some people don't know it, so don't force it, otherwise it will hurt both of you. Well, also
I can’t say for sure, after all, the time is different, and it’s hard for anyone to make a conclusion until the last minute.”
"The times are indeed different." Kaplan sighed and nodded, "You are the earliest."
"Me?" Fan Ning recalled something, "It counts, but strictly speaking it doesn't count."
"Does it count or not?"
"I have known her since I was a child, and I have had an inexplicable affection for her since I was a child. It was too early at that time."
Fan Ning raised his head and was lost in thought. The remaining heat of the evening was still there. The setting sun squeezed out the light from the leaves and cut the shadow of the collapsed house. At the junction of light and dark on the stone steps, a fat short-haired blue cat lay on his stomach, facing the two
The man meowed reluctantly.
"...But I used to be a bit stupid and thought it would be good to just 'be friends'. Later I realized how much I wanted to 'become a lover' with her. It was a bit late then."
Kaplan nodded as usual, as if he were taking a conducting class, but he was somewhat clear about Fan Ning's musical experience, but not particularly clear about it. He was not yet sure whether Fan Ning's statement completely corresponded to his experience.
"Has the premiere date been set?"
"The application date is July 20th. We are waiting for the receipt from the cultural department. The invoice will be issued once it is officially finalized." After answering this question, Fan Ning felt a little strange.
All commercial performances organized by registered orchestras must be reported, in order to count the activity, and it is also the first barrier to avoid mysterious risks. But as a guest of the cultural department, it is usually just a formality, and the receipt of the telex will be received the next day.
Come here, it's been four or five days this time, and it seems like the administration department hasn't received a receipt yet?
"That's fast." After Kaplan finished speaking, his expression suddenly changed.
In addition to the pain that lasted almost all day, there was also a heart-breaking pain in his torso and shoulders. He bowed up and quickly took out a small medicine bottle from the large pocket of his hospital clothes.
Four small green pills were poured into the palm of my hand one after another.
Olga and the maid, who were waiting more than ten meters away, pushed the empty wheelchair towards them like flying, took out the water glass from below and handed it over. Kaplan swallowed it gently, and her expression gradually became relieved, but she waved her hand to indicate that she would not sit down.
He placed both hands on the staff, almost supporting his entire body weight on it, and continued to move slowly bit by bit.
The surge in the amount of extraordinary medicine has made Fan Ning frown.
It was only at this moment that Fan Ning completely realized that the permanent conductor of his orchestra in front of him was completely different from the "fancier" he had just met a year ago.
All flesh is like grass.
Time does not take long to take away a person's life. A year is a long time, sometimes it only takes a few seconds.
He is now a real musician, but his life has completely burned to the last moment.
For example, there will no longer be the practice of sight-singing and ear training enthusiastically every night.
It is almost impossible to return to the command podium.
Fanning's throat moved, trying to repeat what they said that day on the way to visit Ms. Hamilton.
On the day of the premiere, you go.
But in the end, when faced with the situation he saw before him, what he actually said was no longer this sentence——
"On the day of the premiere, remember to come and listen."
"I will definitely come, there's no need to say that." Kaplan said immediately.
Fan Ning lowered his head and glanced at his pocket watch.
"Then from the perspective of ensuring safety, you should go up and rest now. You have been walking for 15 minutes."
Kaplan's cane made shallow pits one after another in the dirt between the stone paths.
"There is no shortage of rest time, Professor Fan Ning. I would like to ask you a few questions about the fifth movement."
Fan Ning quickly covered up the strange look in his eyes.
"You speak."
In the next five minutes, Fan Ning answered a few questions, and the two of them walked an extra twenty meters.
Kaplan then leaned back in his wheelchair and chatted with him for another 10 minutes with his eyes closed.
The last trace of afterglow on the horizon is about to be swallowed up.
After staying in the yard for a total of 30 minutes, the two said goodbye, and Olga and the maid pushed Kaplan back to the nursing building.
"Seven, fourteen, fifteen..."
Fan Ning stood there, holding his top hat in his right hand, watching the three people leaving, counting the days until the premiere date, and thinking about whether it was near or far.
His Adam's apple kept moving.
When the outline of the wheelchair was about to disappear in the hall, he finally spoke out again:
"Remember to come and listen."
The hair on the back of the wheelchair's head stood up like dead grass, and a gesture similar to OK was raised next to it.
Fan Ning closed his eyes hard, and then opened them again. Only the empty twilight was left in the hall of the nursing building.
His eyes were still forward, and at the same time he reached out and groped around in his clothes and pants, first the left trouser pocket, then the right trouser pocket, then the chest, then the inner pocket...
After groping for several minutes, he returned to his left trouser pocket and took out the car key, which was shaped like a small crank.
He turned around and walked out along the stone road step by step. As he was approaching the courtyard gate, he saw an elegant burgundy car parked next to his black stretch limousine.
Roy was wearing a cream-colored corrugated silk coat with a lighter belt tied around his waist. He reached out and took the small handbag handed by the butler.
Another attendant loaded her cello case into the trunk, and the burgundy car drove away.
"Good evening." She walked up to Fan Ning.
"Just got off the train." Fan Ning reluctantly moved the corner of his mouth.
"Turner Art Hall is the first stop. When I arrived, I heard that you were out, so this is the second stop." She observed Fan Ning's unconcealed expression, then looked at the nursing home in the dusk and sighed.
.
"Aren't you going home first?" Fan Ning pointed to the red car that had driven out of the gate.
"Let you send me off and let's chat."
Cars were driving slowly on the street, and the warm lights of the store signs on both sides were lighting up one after another.
"Which home are you going back to?" Fan Ning asked.
"The mansion in the town of Hivaler, in the northern suburbs of Pushor District. Thank you for your hard work." Roy in the passenger seat turned sideways to Fan Ning, looking at his side face looking straight ahead while driving.
"You're welcome."
"The application for the premiere concert has been approved." After a moment of silence, she spoke again, "It was passed today, so the administrative department should have received the receipt at this moment."
"You have better information than me." Fan Ning said, "Five days, so the Ministry of Culture failed to make the decision on its own this time. Did they receive some instructions from higher up?"
Although the results remain unchanged…
However, the approval cycle was very different from the past, and Fan Ning keenly sensed a change behind it.
"They were asked to wait for notification and further research. They waited for five days. Then... it passed as usual, but there is an additional requirement that requires your cooperation."
"The requirements of the Special Patrol Office, right?"
Roy nodded slightly: "Leave 15 extra internal tickets, and require all seats to be separated and evenly distributed in each area of the symphony hall."
"Special seat for investigators?" Fan Ning laughed out loud and pressed the horn, beeping to alert the swaying carriage ahead.
"This is interesting. Since the review result is still passed, it means that they have no evidence to think that my "Second Symphony" is a prayer or secret atmosphere used for evil mystical rituals. So, the premiere of a normal serious musical work
Acting, what kind of show are they playing?"
"Mr. Fanning." Roy's voice softened.
"Um?"
"Do you consider Roy someone you trust or are close to?"
"...sort of." Fan Ning paused, and then added: "After all, even without our personal relationship, I can see what the attitude of the Bologna School towards the Special Patrol Office is now. I am more or less someone worth making friends with."
Intellectuals or artists, you wouldn’t plot evil against me, would you?”
"Maybe." Roy smiled slightly, then lowered his voice, "I'm kidding, but that's the case."
"Tell me quietly first, after everyone escaped from the small town of Vatznay that day, did you find some way to pretend to be Vasius?"