Chapter 82: Catherine is a Genius Pianist
Catherine only realized after getting out of the car that the "medium-sized" music store Samuel mentioned actually occupied an entire standalone building on the busiest commercial street in downtown Imperia City.
The music store had six floors. Whether it was violins, pianos, guitars, or any instruments that should or shouldn't be on the market, you could find them all here.
There were even quite a few master-crafted signed instruments and pianos used by international piano masters, which could only be displayed in the corners of this music store.
Catherine stood at the entrance of the music store, somewhat silent.
The art gallery next door that Samuel had also given her had previously caught Sophia's eye. Galactic Aurora Collective wanted to buy it to run themselves, but the owner refused to sell no matter what.
Charles pointed at the sculpture by the entrance: "This is a work by the master sculptor Ryder. I spent quite a bit of money to get it at an auction."
Catherine looked at the very familiar sculpture and became even more silent.
The sculptures at the entrances of both the music store and the art gallery were ones she had casually carved when she hit a data bottleneck during experiments at Galactic Aurora Collective, trying to calm herself down and rethink things. They had sold for high prices at auctions.
Charles led Catherine into the music store, and all the busy staff members stopped what they were doing.
"Mr. Charles Windsor, Ms. Catherine Windsor."
Charles pulled Catherine along and introduced her: "From now on, this music store belongs to Catherine. She's your boss, understand?"
The group of staff members looked at each other, all picking up on something unusual.
Catherine was taking over such a large music store as soon as she returned - it seemed Samuel treated her very specially.
"Yes, Mr. Windsor."
Charles waved his hand, and two men in suits quickly jogged over with flattering smiles on their faces.
"Ms. Windsor, this is Gabriel Lewis, the music store manager, and this is Elijah Lewis, the manager of the art gallery next door. If you need anything done in the future, just go directly to them."
Catherine nodded, following Charles as he introduced her to everyone.
Charles pulled the managers aside to understand the latest quarterly revenue and expenses of the music store and gallery, then turned around to see Catherine standing in front of a violin.
That violin was handcrafted by the violin master Vincent Hall, priceless, and had to be returned next month.
Catherine wore a light blue dress. Under the perfectly positioned lighting of the music store, even her dress hem seemed to carry starlight. Standing in the starlight, Catherine had an outstanding posture, untainted by worldly dust.
She was so beautiful it was almost breathtaking. Charles looked at Catherine before him and couldn't help but take out his phone to capture this beautiful scene.
He immediately sent the photo to the group chat.
George: "Catherine is so beautiful, simply an angel."
Richard: "Charles, does Catherine like that violin? Can we get Vincent to sell it to us?"
Philip: "I'll contact Vincent right away."
Juniper: "Catherine looks great with those other instruments too. Buy them, buy them all. Just close down the music store and give everything to Catherine. If you guys don't have money, I'll pay. You men are all so stingy."
The atmosphere in the group became tense.
The men of the Windsor family all had their desire to spend money triggered by Juniper.
It's just spending money!
Although Gabriel was the music store manager, Samuel never interfered, and Charles rarely came, so this music store was basically run by him.
Now seeing a boss appear out of nowhere, in Gabriel's eyes, Catherine was just a rich kid who didn't understand anything.
These rich kids, did they really think they understood violins? They probably didn't even know what parts a violin had.
"Ms. Windsor, this violin was handcrafted by Vincent himself. There's only one in the world. Please be careful."
"All the instruments in the music store, big and small, are very precious. This one in front of you is the most precious. If you accidentally damage it, when Vincent blames us, none of us will be able to explain."
Charles looked at Gabriel with unfriendly eyes.
"If Catherine likes it, that's this violin's good fortune."
Gabriel apologized verbally, but in his heart, he completely disagreed.
As expected, the music store got someone who didn't know what they were doing this time. It looked like she didn't even understand what a violin was, yet wanted to manage the music store. What a joke.
Catherine withdrew her gaze and said casually: "If it's such a precious violin, why hasn't the scroll and tuning pegs been repaired even though they're damaged?"
Gabriel immediately broke out in a cold sweat!
"This is Vincent's work, we didn't dare."
Catherine understood Vincent. If Vincent didn't make something, that was one thing, but any instrument he made had to be perfect, using only the best materials.
The scroll part of this violin was carved by her own hands for Vincent.
"Vincent would be angry if he knew you were treating his violin this way."
As Catherine spoke, she skillfully opened the toolbox on the floor, carefully restored the entire violin, and even meticulously maintained the strings, ensuring Vincent's hard work wouldn't be ruined.
Charles's cold gaze fell on Gabriel.
"Gabriel, I think you owe me an explanation."
"Mr. Windsor, we really didn't dare touch this violin..."
Before Gabriel could finish speaking, beautiful violin music echoed throughout the music store.
Wave after wave of music flowed like a clear breeze and bright moon, making everyone around hold their breath.
In his excitement, Charles didn't forget to record a video.
After the performance ended, Catherine adjusted the violin's tuning before standing up.
"Violins are meant to be played, otherwise what's the point of making them? If I catch you being lazy and not maintaining them again, you won't need to work here anymore."
The employees in the music store were stunned!
They had worked here for years, and this was the first time they'd heard such beautiful violin music!
Gabriel's eyes widened too. He hadn't expected that Catherine, whom he thought knew nothing, actually understood violins and played so well!
Meeting Catherine's gaze, Gabriel's back broke out in cold sweat.
"Yes! We'll definitely be careful from now on!"
Charles happily shared the video in the Windsor family group chat, adding: "No way, right? There can't be people who haven't heard this amazing violin music live, right?"
The group fell silent.
A moment later, Charles was kicked out of the group chat by Bethany.
Charles was about to say something when he saw he'd been kicked out: "What? What does this mean?"
Just because they didn't hear Catherine play the violin, they kicked him out?
Charles opened Facebook speechlessly. The first post was Bethany's video of Catherine playing the violin.
"Watching Catherine play the violin almost brought me to tears! Everyone, did I film this well?"
That's YOUR filming?!
No way, he had to hurry up and buy this violin for Catherine!
Otherwise, Catherine would sooner or later be snatched away by these people in the family!
Charles's mouth twitched. He put away his phone and walked to Catherine's side.
"I have something to take care of. Let the manager accompany you to the gallery. Just tell me if you need anything."
"Okay, you go ahead."