WT Chapter 66

Chapter 66 Fire Scene, But He Didn’t Miss Today.

Chapter 66 Fire Scene, But He Didn’t Miss Today.

Since Wen Shixi joined the symphony orchestra, the band’s rehearsals have been very smooth.

The last day of the month happened to be a Friday. After rehearsal, led by the conductor, everyone went to the barbecue restaurant next to the art gallery for dinner.

Wen Shixi was worried about going into heat and had been paying attention to changes in his pheromones. But just like the doctor said, his heat seemed to be delayed, and his body had no reaction.

During the meal, more than fifty members were crowded in the same space, and the noise was endless.

Wen Shixi gradually felt a little stuffy in the room. He told the people at his table and got up and walked outside, intending to get some fresh air.

The sky was gray in the evening, and the pale sunset glow melted into the dark clouds, as if it was about to snow again.

Wen Shixi wore a thick cashmere coat with his hands in his pockets. The cold air was inhaled into his lungs, squeezing the noise he had just heard out of his body.

In the calm, Wen Shixi opened his mouth and gently exhaled a breath forward.

Frost condensed in the air and quickly spread in all directions.

Before long, Song Nanxing followed Wen Shixi out of the restaurant.

Song Nanxing walked up to Wen Shixi and asked, “Senior, don’t you like this kind of atmosphere?”

“Yeah.” Wen Shixi said, “It’s too noisy.”

Song Nanxing: “Tomorrow is the weekend. What are you planning to do on the weekend, Senior?”

Wen Shixi heard this and thought for a moment.

The piano moving company he had found suddenly sent a message in the afternoon saying that his piano was too expensive and they were unwilling to take the risk, and asked him to ask another company.

If he stayed in the new house on the weekend, he wouldn’t have a piano to use.

Wen Shixi: “I might come to the orchestra rehearsal room to practice the piano.”

“Really?” Song Nanxing asked, “Then if Senior comes tomorrow, can I come too?”

Wen Shixi thought for a while: “But I’m going to the opera in the evening, so I might only come in the afternoon for a while.”

“Opera?” Song Nanxing asked curiously, “Where are you going to see it?”

Wen Shixi: “At the Bedoste Theater, where the orchestra will perform for Christmas.”

Song Nanxing revealed a bit of interest: “Can I go with you, Senior? I’ve never seen an opera before.”

“Sure.” Wen Shixi said casually, “Book a ticket.”

At the same time, in a hotel suite, Secretary Gu took the documents and walked into Jiang Quanyu’s study.

The harsh violin sound finally stopped as someone entered the door. The tutor consciously left, and Assistant Gu stood not far inside the door, reporting to Jiang Quanyu.

“The marketing department has found that Mr. Takahashi likes to watch operas very much. They believe we can start from this point to persuade him.”

Jiang Quanyu listened to the assistant’s words, and the action of putting down the piano paused slightly.

He murmured, “Opera?”

Assistant Gu: “Yes. In addition, given the previous situation, do we need to arrange for someone to fly to Japan to talk to him in person?”

Jiang Quanyu listened and walked behind the desk, looking at the computer screen.

He tapped on the keyboard with his fingers for a moment, and then looked at the content on the screen, revealing a bit of thought.

Assistant Gu saw that Jiang Quanyu didn’t speak, and asked, “President Jiang, are you going to rewrite a cooperation proposal?”

Jiang Quanyu: “No.”

He just heard the word “opera” and suddenly remembered that Wen Shixi seemed to have told him last Saturday that he ran off to see an opera by himself.

If he remembered correctly, he used to accompany his mother to the opera house every weekend. These kinds of performances were held every weekend, only the repertoire was different.

Assistant Gu: “…Then what should I prepare next?”

Jiang Quanyu checked the program schedule while saying, “I will rewrite a cooperation invitation later, but classical opera cannot be used as a selling point for the park, and I can’t put some inappropriate things in my park for Takahashi Kiyoshi. You can go and get busy first, I’ll send it to you after I’m done writing.”

Assistant Gu nodded: “Okay.”

On the computer screen, the Bedoste Theater’s program schedule showed that there would be an opera performance of “Rigoletto” at seven o’clock tomorrow night.

As one of Verdi’s classic operas, Jiang Quanyu felt that Wen Shixi might still go to see it.

For Jiang Quanyu, “Rigoletto” had been played countless times on repeat during those nights when he couldn’t sleep.

Just like Jiang Yan said, Jiang Quanyu’s understanding of classical music was actually even deeper than some musicians.

Compared to the names of the masters on the records, the cast on the computer screen was not of a high enough level.

But Jiang Quanyu felt a inexplicable itch and wanted to get closer to Wen Shixi.

In the long passage of time, Jiang Quanyu vaguely realized that this seemed to be the first time since his mother’s death that he had looked forward to the “weekend.”

He even felt that the weekend could come a little faster.

Until Saturday evening, the sky was still dim.

Fine snow was about to fall, and the sea breeze was blowing, making the city feel damp and cold everywhere.

Wen Shixi played the piano in the rehearsal room for an afternoon and drove to the theater on time.

When turning into the parking lot, he thought of the old man he met last time and looked around.

Song Nanxing, who was sitting in the passenger seat, saw Wen Shixi looking around and asked, “Who are you looking for, Senior?”

Wen Shixi said casually, “A foreigner, we chatted a few words when I saw the play last time.”

At this time, in the parking lot, a black car had arrived early and parked in the parking space directly in front of the opera house entrance.

Jiang Quanyu had been sitting in the car for two hours. He didn’t call Wen Shixi, but he knew Wen Shixi would definitely come.

At this moment, a thin figure entered his sight.

Wen Shixi was wearing a long trench coat, and while raising his hand to check the time, he adjusted his scarf and walked towards the theater entrance.

Inside the car, as that figure appeared, Jiang Quanyu revealed a slight smile.

Jiang Quanyu pushed open the car door and got out, but before he had time to speak, he saw another figure chasing after Wen Shixi.

Song Nanxing said while walking, “Wait for me, Senior.”

Not far away, Jiang Quanyu’s slightly opened lips froze, and his figure also suddenly stopped.

His footsteps froze in place, and his voice was also stuck in his throat.

Wen Shixi did come, but he also brought Song Nanxing with him.

In his line of sight, Song Nanxing caught up with Wen Shixi, and the two figures walked side by side into the opera house.

Jiang Quanyu stood next to the car door, watching the two figures disappear, and his hands clenched slightly.

The hope that had just condensed scattered in the sudden cold air, silently.

At the same time, on the small path in the garden behind the car, the old man walked slowly.

The old man was unlucky again today and couldn’t get a taxi, so he arrived later. He happened to have a complete view of the scene just now.

If the old man remembered correctly, the unlucky guy standing next to the car door seemed to be an acquaintance.

In recent days, Jiang Quanyu had sent him many cooperation plans, which he had all politely refused.

Currently, there are not many people in various countries who are willing to spend a lot of money to build amusement parks, but everyone the old man knows says that Jiang Quanyu is a cold work machine, probably without even the most basic human emotions.

However, after seeing the scene just now, the old man felt that this machine entrepreneur with a net worth of hundreds of billions seemed quite pitiful.

Inside the theater, Wen Shixi and Song Nanxing walked all the way into the opera hall.

Song Nanxing bought the tickets late and didn’t get the front row of the second-floor balcony that Wen Shixi had booked in advance. He could only sit a few rows behind, watching the back of Wen Shixi’s head from a distance.

Before the opera started, Wen Shixi saw the old man who had taken his ride last time.

The old man was sitting not far from him, and when he saw Wen Shixi, he waved to him across a few people.

Soon, as the opening began, the music gradually sounded.

Wen Shixi turned his gaze to the stage, immersed in the atmosphere of the opera.

Because it was a classic repertoire, there were many more audience members present today than last week.

For the first ten minutes, the opera performance was normal.

When Rigoletto finished mocking a sad father, the crowd angrily sang together.

“Run away quickly—your doomsday has come.”

The overlapping male voices were long and deep, constantly repeating, and the tone was somewhat similar to that of a requiem.

At this moment, in the midst of the surging music, a loud sound suddenly rang out from above the opera hall.

The next second, screams rang out from behind the curtain.

The opera actors on the stage stopped their movements one after another, and the orchestra sitting on the side of the stage was equally astonished. The music came to an abrupt end.

Wen Shixi revealed confusion and looked towards the direction of the screams with all the confused audience members in the audience.

At this moment, a stream of fierce black smoke suddenly broke in from the edge of the ceiling.

The thick smoke instantly overflowed into the hall, accompanied by several shouts.

The door at the entrance was suddenly opened, and the staff responsible for evacuation arrived, standing at the door and shouting into the hall.

“Fire!”

Immediately afterwards, an explosion sounded again, the circuit was paralyzed, and the entire performance hall instantly darkened.

In a pitch-black darkness, the increasingly heavy smoke mixed with terrified screams.

Wen Shixi’s eyes widened slightly, and he heard a sudden riot erupting in the hall.

–

Outside the theater, Jiang Quanyu hadn’t left yet.

He sat in the quiet car, like a persistent ghost.

He wanted to try waiting for Wen Shixi to come out, so that at least he could have dinner together like last week.

But he was still a little puzzled. If he spoke properly and wasn’t so presumptuous, would Wen Shixi leave with him?

At this moment, a large crowd of people suddenly rushed out of the theater door.

Jiang Quanyu heard the sound and looked up at the crowd.

Thick smoke had already begun to roll out of the windows above the theater. The smoke was a patch of scorched black, instantly covering the sky, with a terrifying meaning.

Jiang Quanyu’s pupils shrank slightly, and he quickly got out of the car and ran towards the opera house entrance.

The entire Bedoste Theater had a total of more than a dozen performance halls of various sizes. Today was Saturday, and performances from concerts and operas to dramas were almost all arranged.

The fire spread quickly. When the general control department went to evacuate each performance hall, the entire floor where the fire broke out was already filled with thick smoke.

The people who escaped were coughing loudly, and the scene was chaotic for a while. Looking towards the hall, black smoke had already covered the entrance of the passageway.

Jiang Quanyu ran to the door, and then, without thinking, he rushed into the theater against the crowd.

He ran to the guest staircase and found that it was already full of tourists escaping downstairs.

Jiang Quanyu gritted his teeth and took out his cell phone to call Wen Shixi.

At this time, the entire theater had been occupied by thick smoke, and every breath was filled with a burning sting.

The call rang again and again, until the flow of people escaping downstairs became smaller and smaller, Jiang Quanyu still didn’t see Wen Shixi’s figure.

At this moment, an old man was being carried downstairs.

The old man was coughing constantly, but he was still shouting loudly at the young man below him in a strange accent: “There’s still someone there! Right next to me, his hand is stuck under the ceiling light frame, cough cough!”

“Go save him—he was trying to help me, cough cough—”

Jiang Quanyu heard the shouting from afar, and his pupils suddenly shrank.

Then, he almost didn’t think, and ran upwards along one side of the stairs.

Jiang Quanyu heard that what the old man said was because the fire was spreading too fast, and the theater didn’t have time to evacuate completely.

If the ceiling had collapsed, there should still be many people trapped on it, maybe including Wen Shixi.

Jiang Quanyu still remembered the floor and performance hall number where the opera was located. He ran all the way to the third floor, but quickly realized that he couldn’t breathe.

The black smoke caused by the fire was too thick, the feeling of suffocation was overwhelming, and his eyes were also affected by the smoke, his eyeballs were in severe pain.

Jiang Quanyu half-squinted his eyes and groped and ran in a corridor where he couldn’t see anything.

The completely darkened corridor only had the faint light of emergency lights entrenched in the smoke.

Sporadically, people ran away from him in the opposite direction. Jiang Quanyu looked closely, but there was no sign of Wen Shixi.

He turned into the restroom, wet the handkerchief in his suit pocket, and returned to the corridor again.

At this moment, the phone he had been constantly dialing finally went through.

Jiang Quanyu only froze for a second, and then quickly asked loudly: “Wen Shixi! Where are you—”

In the opera hall, the collapsed ceiling was stuck on the second-floor audience platform, trapping a figure next to the railing.

When the ceiling fell, Wen Shixi pushed the old man in front of him out, and the whole person fell to the ground, his hand being stuck in the gap by the falling ceiling.

The huge ceiling blocked his vision. He tried to struggle for a long time, but until the sound of people became smaller and smaller, he still couldn’t pull his hand out of the hard iron block.

Violently accelerating his breathing sped up the inhalation of smoke. Wen Shixi felt his vision becoming increasingly blurry, and his entire chest felt like it was being burned by flames.

As the surrounding shouts became smaller and smaller, Wen Shixi’s struggling movements gradually weakened.

But Wen Shixi felt that it shouldn’t be like this.

His life, which had just begun, shouldn’t have encountered such an accident.

In the silence of despair spreading, the vibration from his pocket became clearer and clearer in the thick smoke.

The vibration continued for a long time, astonishingly persistent.

He finally moved his arm, used all his strength, reached into his pocket, and took out his phone little by little.

“Incoming call – Jiang Quanyu”

The fire gradually engulfed the opera hall, and the entire stage had become a sea of fire.

Wen Shixi’s hair glowed with firelight, and his fingertip moved to the answer button.

He answered the phone, but didn’t have any more strength to make even the slightest sound.

In the corridor, Jiang Quanyu listened to the call with no response, and his running became more urgent.

He found the opera hall, broke in from the side door, looked at the burning hall, his line of sight swept across the collapsed ceiling, and finally, directly below the collapse, he saw a huge broken wall falling on the second-floor balcony.

He ran towards the stairs, came to the balcony area, and saw a blurry figure through the rubble.

Jiang Quanyu crossed the rubble and ran to the figure’s side.

His eyeballs were already in extreme pain, and his vision was blurred.

It wasn’t until he got close that Jiang Quanyu saw Wen Shixi’s face clearly.

His whole restless heart, at this moment, finally belonged to him again.

Wen Shixi had already fallen into a coma, his forearm being stuck under the rubble of the ceiling.

Jiang Quanyu’s throat couldn’t make any sound. He shook Wen Shixi’s body, but couldn’t wake him from his coma.

Jiang Quanyu looked at Wen Shixi’s forearm, used all his strength to lift a corner of the big stone, and pulled out Wen Shixi’s arm little by little.

Then, he tore off his tie, wrapped it around Wen Shixi’s injured wrist, and tied it tightly.

Wen Shixi’s breathing was weak, only a last sliver remained. Jiang Quanyu put the wet handkerchief on Wen Shixi’s face, and then carried him on his back, re-crossing the rubble.

At this moment, a figure also ran in from the side door.

Song Nanxing’s seat was very far from Wen Shixi’s. He was directly pushed out by the crowd during the evacuation and swept away in the crowd all the way until he left the theater.

Song Nanxing thought that Wen Shixi would come back a little later, but he waited and waited without seeing anyone. After thinking for a long time, he ran back into the building again.

At this time, Song Nanxing saw Jiang Quanyu’s figure and was about to run towards the two of them.

Suddenly, another explosion sounded, and the long-neglected ceiling collapsed again with the explosion. The hall was suddenly filled with terrible loud noises.

Flames and dust were mixed together, and the high temperature distorted everything.

The entire second-floor balcony was covered with falling gravel, completely unrecognizable.

At the corner of the stairs, Jiang Quanyu protected Wen Shixi under him, blocking all the collapsing fragments.

A dull pain came from all over his body. He hugged Wen Shixi’s body tightly, his hands tightly clenched together.

In the midst of the loud noise, Wen Shixi in his arms frowned slightly, and his consciousness was briefly awakened.

Wen Shixi felt himself being held in a suffocating and safe embrace. Soft fabric rubbed against his face, with the faint scent of rosin from a violin.

Under the balcony, Song Nanxing struggled to get close to the place where he had just seen the figures.

The entire staircase was covered with debris. After the smoke and dust had slightly dissipated, in the firelight, Jiang Quanyu carried Wen Shixi on his back and walked step by step towards the bottom.

Song Nanxing quickly ran forward and only saw, in the vast smoke, Jiang Quanyu suddenly stumble on his leg, and then tilt to one side.

Song Nanxing rushed up to support the two figures and fell together into the rubble.

His body was stretched to the extreme by the high temperature, and his consciousness became blurred.

Jiang Quanyu’s leg was covered in blood. A broken piece of thin iron had pierced his calf, and he seemed to have a deep wound on his head as well, from which blood was flowing.

In a patch of firelight, Jiang Quanyu opened his mouth hoarsely.

“Take… Shixi, go.”

With each syllable he uttered, his throat felt like it was being torn apart.

Song Nanxing heard this, paused slightly, and looked at Jiang Quanyu’s leg.

Song Nanxing knew that Wen Shixi was completely unconscious. With his own strength alone, he couldn’t carry two people out of the very center of the fire.

The heat scorched everything, and everything he possessed, and never possessed, became insignificant at this moment.

Jiang Quanyu looked at Wen Shixi’s body surrounded by high temperatures, his eyes filled with gentleness.

He said hoarsely.

“Go—”

Blood flowed out quickly, soon spreading a pool of blood in the rubble.

Song Nanxing’s heart sank, he picked up Wen Shixi, and strode towards the exit.

In the turbulence of running, the chaotic light constantly intersected in his eyes, and Wen Shixi’s eyes opened a crack in a haze.

Before losing all sensation again, Wen Shixi felt inexplicably.

He seemed to see his brother…

The moment the fire rushed towards the audience, Song Nanxing disappeared out the door with Wen Shixi in his arms.

Jiang Quanyu coughed heavily, and then leaned against the steps, panting roughly.

Next to the raging fire, his lungs had inhaled too much smoke and dust, as if they could no longer accept air.

His mind was hazy, and his eyes gradually closed.

Before losing consciousness, Jiang Quanyu suddenly felt.

It seemed that this was also very good.

At least, the current Wen Shixi was full of passion for the future. He didn’t need to worry about whether Wen Shixi would be able to take care of himself well in the future.

He and Wen Shixi had missed seven years.

But he didn’t miss today, this opportunity to save Wen Shixi.

Music was Wen Shixi’s life.

But Wen Shixi was his life.

Wen Shixi must get better, and then become the person he wanted to be, and find his freedom in a world without his brother.

An explosion sounded again, and the next second, his vision returned to darkness completely in the continuous collapse…