Chapter 6 Piano Duel
A slightly showy but skillfully played piano piece came to an end at just that moment.
In front of the Steinway grand piano at the center of the hall, a handsome blond-haired, blue-eyed man in a white tailcoat stood up, gracefully acknowledging the applause from the elite guests around him.
The heir of the Thorne family, Xavier Thorne.
When Xavier's gaze swept across the crowd and landed on Clara and Ethan, the smile on his face instantly vanished.
He casually grabbed a glass of champagne from a waiter's tray and, bringing Clara's parents along, walked straight toward the two of them.
"Clara."
Xavier looked Ethan up and down with a dark expression, his eyes filled with undisguised contempt. "Who's this unfamiliar friend? Your new bodyguard?"
Clara showed no fear. Instead, she pressed her body even closer into Ethan's embrace, even deliberately standing on her tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek.
"Xavier, drop that disgusting act of yours. This is Ethan, my boyfriend." Clara looked at him coldly. "I've told you before, I'm not interested in you. Stop clinging to me like a dog in heat."
Hearing Clara's words, Xavier's face instantly turned extremely ugly, the veins on his forehead visibly throbbing.
Clara's parents felt even more humiliated. Her father Finn stepped forward with a dark expression and grabbed Clara's arm.
"Enough! Clara!" Finn roared in anger, forcibly pulling Clara aside and warning her with his eyes not to say another word.
Without Clara blocking him, Xavier approached Ethan arrogantly, holding his wine glass.
"Kid, I don't know what dirty tricks you used to fool Clara, but you'd better figure out your place."
Xavier looked at Ethan like he was looking at trash.
"You think putting on a custom-tailored suit can hide that slum stench in your bones? You're nothing but a frog in a well, a lowlife who knows nothing!"
Facing Xavier's furious insults, Ethan didn't even lift an eyelid.
He casually picked at his ear, then stretched out his finger and pointed at the Steinway piano in the distance.
"I really don't understand the rules of your so-called high society."
Ethan looked at Xavier with a half-smile. "But at least I know that the pile of garbage you just played on that piano was nothing but unstoppable noise that seriously damaged everyone's ears here."
As soon as he said this, all the guests eavesdropping nearby gasped.
Xavier laughed in extreme anger, his handsome face becoming somewhat twisted from the intense fury.
"Good! Very good!" Xavier stared at Ethan. "A bottom-feeding idiot who can't even read sheet music dares to criticize my piano skills! Since you're so arrogant, how about we make a bet?"
Xavier's voice suddenly rose, deliberately letting the entire venue hear: "You and I will each play a piece! If you win, I'll publicly announce that I'm giving up my engagement to Clara! But if you lose..."
"I want you to break one of your own arms in public, then crawl out of here like a dog!"
"Deal."
Ethan agreed without a moment's hesitation.
Clara, hearing this from a distance, felt her heart clench tightly, so nervous she could barely breathe.
She knew Ethan was a genius with a top-tier brain in science and engineering, but she'd never heard that Ethan could play piano!
Xavier snorted coldly, turned around, and strode back to sit at the piano.
He took a deep breath and suddenly slammed his hands down on the keys.
He was playing Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, an extremely difficult piece.
Although his rhythm had slight flaws due to his extreme anger, the magnificent momentum still shocked the entire venue, drawing cheers.
When the piece ended, Xavier stood up arrogantly and made a provocative gesture toward Ethan: "Your turn, lowlife. I hope when your hand gets smashed later, your screams will be as beautiful as this piece."
Under the mocking and contemptuous gazes of everyone present, Ethan walked to the piano with his hands in his pockets, calm and composed, and sat down.
Clara bit her lip tightly on the side, her palms covered in cold sweat.
The truth was, Ethan really didn't know piano.
But during the few minutes Xavier had been playing, with his terrifying perception, he had already worked like a precise supercomputer, perfectly recording every key Xavier pressed, every detail of muscle movement, every beat in his brain, and even corrected all the flaws!
Ethan loosened his neck slightly, raised both hands, and suspended his ten fingers above the black and white keys.
The next second, his hands came crashing down!
A wildly explosive piano sound swept through the entire banquet hall!
Ethan's fingers became afterimages on the keys that the naked eye couldn't catch, so fast that the air itself seemed to explode!
Dozens of notes per second poured out like a torrential rain, but what made everyone's scalp tingle was that even at this terrifying speed, every single note was crystal clear without any noise, each one filled with power to the extreme!
When the last chord fell, the entire hall was dead silent—you could hear a pin drop.
The nobles who had been full of mockery just moments ago now all had their mouths hanging open, staring at Ethan in a daze.
Xavier's body trembled uncontrollably, feeling as if he'd been publicly slapped a hundred times in the face.
"You lost." Ethan stood up, casually adjusted his suit cuffs, his gaze calm.
"Fine... very well!"
Xavier ground his back teeth, his eyes spewing venomous fury, practically squeezing out a sentence through his teeth: "I accept my loss! From now on, the Thorne family will have no further dealings with the Foster family!"
With that, he stared at Ethan viciously, his cold gaze as if already looking at a corpse.
In his heart, he had already sentenced Ethan to death. This bastard who made him lose face would absolutely not survive the night!
This farce brought the banquet to an abrupt end.
The night breeze was cool as Ethan walked out of the hotel entrance alone.
He knew very well what Xavier's parting look meant. That kind of person would never let this go.
Since Clara had taken good care of him back in school, he didn't mind taking some time recently to completely erase the Thorne family from this world.
His phone rang in his pocket. It was Clara calling.
"Ethan... I'm sorry." On the other end, Clara's voice was filled with guilt and deep worry. "I thought Xavier wasn't on the guest list today. I didn't expect to drag you into such big trouble."
"Clara, take a hot bath and get a good night's sleep." Ethan interrupted her, his tone as relaxed as if discussing tomorrow's breakfast. "They're just a few third-rate bugs, not worth losing sleep over."
Just then.
His steps suddenly stopped, his peripheral vision catching sight of a dark, dimly lit back alley across the street.
Several thuggish gang members holding switchblades were cornering a young girl in a pleated skirt against the wall—petite but with an extremely attractive figure.
The girl looked lively and energetic, but now she was too scared to speak, her back pressed tightly against the brick wall.
Ethan narrowed his eyes slightly.
"I've got something to handle. Talk later."
Ethan hung up directly, stuffed his phone in his pocket, a hint of coldness appearing in his eyes, and turned to walk toward that dark alley.