Chapter 111 Will He Be Able to See His Mother and Sister Again?
"Does the Brown Family really need another chef? For such a small matter, why would you need to do it yourself?"
William looked indifferent. "How can a chef's cooking compare to something made by hand?"
Soren laughed at this. "You're quite particular about cooking a meal yourself."
William glared at him. "What do you know?"
This guy didn't have a woman he loved, so he wouldn't understand the feeling of having someone you love eat food you made yourself.
Soren: "......"
Why did it feel like William's look just now seemed to look down on him?
Come on, is being able to cook really that impressive?
"I didn't come here today to chat with you. Let's talk business."
Soren got back to the point. Just as he was about to bring up the project, his eyes caught sight of a wrinkled piece of paper on William's desk.
The paper had an abstract stick figure drawn on it.
This clearly wasn't drawn by William.
Soren curiously picked up the paper to examine it. "Where did this come from? Why do you have something like this on your desk?"
William was about to say it was drawn by his girlfriend, but then thought better of it. Soren had lived twenty-five years without ever having a girlfriend. If he heard that William had a girlfriend, he'd probably get so jealous he'd tear off that gentle mask of his.
He didn't want to see Soren's twisted expression again.
"A little kid drew it, saying the person in the drawing is someone she's looking for," William said, cleverly protecting Soren's self-esteem.
Sure enough, there was no unusual expression on Soren's face.
He stared at the stick figure with wild hair in the drawing, not speaking for a long time.
William thought Soren was shocked by the little girl's drawing skills, so he said, "Just take a look. After all, it was just drawn casually."
Soren stared straight at the stick figure in the drawing.
After a moment, he suddenly spoke: "Why do I feel..."
William looked at him curiously. "Feel what?"
"The person in this drawing looks like my mom."
William: "......"
He naturally knew that Soren was a child who had lost his mother's love since he was seven. He just felt somewhat emotional. "Soren, I can tell you really miss your mom."
Miss her so much that he's become obsessed, seeing his mom in everyone.
No matter how William looked at it, the person in the drawing didn't look like Serenity. To be precise, it didn't look like a person at all.
But there was nothing he could do.
That was just Isabella's level of drawing skill. She had already tried her best.
But speaking of Serenity, her disappearance had long become gossip material for the four major families.
It was said that Serenity was also a legend in Emerald City when she was young. William had seen Serenity when he was little, and even then he thought Serenity truly deserved the title of Emerald City's number one beauty.
Not only was Serenity's face exceptionally beautiful, but her demeanor and grace were also quite elegant and noble.
Serenity wasn't from this country. Some said she was a descendant of a royal family abroad, while others said she was the only daughter of the biggest financial conglomerate overseas. In any case, there were various theories about Serenity's background, but every version made Serenity sound very mysterious.
The unfortunate thing was that Serenity had been missing for seventeen years. The most popular theory was that Serenity had gone into seclusion, which was just absurd.
Over the years, Serenity had been a taboo subject for the Parker Family.
No one dared mention the missing Serenity in front of Wesley, nor did anyone dare bring up Serenity leaving home. Except for close friends who could still ask Wesley about Serenity's whereabouts, most other people only dared to gossip behind his back.
William just assumed Soren's obsession ran too deep. He took the paper back from his hand and consoled him: "I believe that one day you'll find your mother and sister."
Soren loosely clenched his palm, a moment of confusion crossing his handsome face.
Would that day come?
Would he ever see Serenity and Ainsley again?
——
Stellar Media Group.
Ondine knocked on Phoenix's piano room door.
Phoenix sat upright at the piano, with sheet music on the stand. Phoenix was practicing from the score.
Ondine walked over and glanced at the music. "Is that Mira's 'Midnight Solitude'?"
Phoenix nodded. "Yes."
Ondine frowned. "Phoenix, you seem to have an obsession with Mira's pieces."
Mira was Novaria's most renowned pianist, and Novaria, unlike Lumaria's geographical location, had spring-like weather year-round, not like Lumaria where the four seasons were distinct.
Novaria was a place that placed great importance on arts and culture, so their humanities and arts were at least a hundred years more advanced than Lumaria's, and that country also had more advanced technology and education than Lumaria.
"Midnight Solitude" was written in 1990, a piano sonata that Mira composed when she was only thirteen years old.
Mira's musical talent was exceptional. This piano sonata she composed at just thirteen had a performance difficulty that made countless veteran pianists in Novaria hesitate. Very few people could perform it.
The unfortunate thing was that Mira, such a once-in-a-century piano prodigy, faded from the piano world before she turned thirty. But this didn't diminish her fame throughout Novaria and even Central Continent at all.
Lumaria's arts were already behind Novaria's. To this day, many Lumarian pianists still held Mira as their standard.
Phoenix lifted her hands from the piano and narrowed her eyes at the sheet music in front of her. "It's a pity this piece isn't the real 'Midnight Solitude.'
The version of 'Midnight Solitude' circulating now was written down from memory years ago by an old artist who attended Mira's concert in Novaria, because Mira never made this piano score public.
The score that old artist hastily wrote down must differ from the original piece. The old artist probably didn't even have time to write down the complex parts completely.
But only people who truly understand piano know this. And since this score is currently popular throughout Lumaria and is the only reference material available, no one bothers to worry about how much this score differs from the original piece.
Phoenix practiced Mira's pieces not because she really liked Mira that much, but because the entire Lumarian piano world currently used Mira as their benchmark. This trend had continued to this day. The first step for anyone learning piano was definitely to learn about Novaria's Mira.
So performing Mira's pieces made it easier to win public attention.
Ondine stopped looking at the score and, remembering the main matter, spoke: "Ms. Knight, I came to find you because I have important news."
"I heard that Lawrence has a more preferred accompanist in mind. This concert might not involve our collaboration anymore."
Phoenix paused in turning the pages of the score.
She seemed to have heard a joke and asked with a laugh, "If he doesn't work with me, who else can he work with?"
"Apparently a high school student named Isabella."
"What did you say?"
She was about to die laughing, her eyes full of contempt.
"You're saying Lawrence plans to have a high school student accompany his concert?"
Ondine remained silent.
It was just a rumor. Who could say if it was true or false?
Phoenix picked up her water glass to moisten her throat. "What's gotten into him now?"
Ondine couldn't help but speak up: "He seems to... have taken a liking to her."
Phoenix raised an eyebrow and laughed coldly. "He's taken a liking to someone again? Have there been few people he's taken a liking to over the years?"