Piano sounds? The light and quick sounds of piano floated into Jing Yang’s ears. He opened his eyes and looked around the room, but was unable to find the source of the sound inside.

He got off the bed and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window. On the green lawn below, a slender young man was playing piano. Another tall young man was leaning against the piano and watching him.

Jing Yang himself leaned against the glass doorway and activated the memory retrieval function.

The place he was in now was this world’s music capital, the city of Odyssey. Here was the place that the entire world’s classical music lovers most wanted to go, here was the shrine of music. This world’s best musicians were all gathered here.

Every year, there would be large numbers of classical music lovers who would come to this city, hoping that they could find a job here and then in Odyssey. But only a very small number of people were able to stay. For the vast majority, after experiencing the wide gaps in ability, they could only leave sadly.

There was a saying that had been circulating here for many years. It was that staying here was already very difficult, but if you wanted to become an elite here, the level of difficulty was similar to relying on your own abilities to transcend the heavens.

In this place, it was actually not true that putting in enough effort would bring you success. Besides desperately working hard, you also needed enough natural talent. If you have high enough natural talent, only then would your efforts have the potential to bring success. So there was another saying here, that talent determined everything. If there was no talent, there was no hope at all.

This time, the person Jing Yang was to replace was called , an eighteen year old young man.

This person was very fortunate. His ancestors had long taken root in this city. His family was extremely wealthy, and even if he didn’t put in any effort, he would still be able to live a comfortable life in this city.

But this person was also very unfortunate. His family members had all left this world, and besides a huge fortune, he did not have any relatives left.

Where he lived now was not his own home, but it was not far from his own house. The villa next to this current residence was his home.

Avi’s parents had died when he had just been born, and he had been raised by his elderly grandfather. When Avi had been five or six years old, his grandfather’s health was already nearing its end, and he had entrusted Avi to the family.

The Deere family and Mooney family had been family friends for a very long time. For several generations, the two families had always had a very good relationship, as could be seen from the two families’ villas being built so close to each other.

Besides the two families’ relationship being so good, Avi’s grandfather had entrusted him to the Mooney family for another reason.

Before saying this other reason, there is a matter that must be mentioned first. That is, in this world, same sex marriage was not only legal, but through their advanced medical technology, it was also possible to have children with the DNA of both parents.

When old Mooney had still been alive, he had liked Avi so much that he had made a verbal engagement with old Deere that when Avi turned 19, he would let Avi marry his own grandson .

After some consideration, old Deere felt that since the relationship between the two families was so good, if Avi married Faith, the Mooney family would definitely not treat Avi badly. Even though old Mooney’s son wasn’t all that great, seemed to still be pretty good. Old Mooney’s body was also much healthier than his own, so he should have no problems watching over Avi until he reached adulthood. Based on what he understood of him over the past several decades, this old fellow’s character was quite trustworthy, and he would definitely not treat Avi poorly.

Faith was five years older than Avi and took care of him very well. The two children had a wonderful relationship—they would often live over in each other’s homes and play together and learn musical instruments together.

Old Deere had asked Avi, after you grow up, are you willing to marry Faith and live in the Mooney home?

Avi, who was still very ignorant at that time, looked at old Deere with his eyes that looked like a pair of black pearls and asked, then I won’t be able to return home anymore?

Old Deere responded, your home will always be here. Whenever you want to return home you can come back, and you can even bring Faith back together.

Avi’s eyes immediately brightened and he said, I’m willing, I have already agreed with Faith that when I grow older we will get married. Old Deere had smiled with relief.

Before he had departed from the world, old Deere had entrusted Avi’s custody and guardianship rights, as well as the Deere family’s properties, all to old Mooney.

But God’s plans supersede our own. Only a year later, old Mooney suddenly died.

Avi’s custody, guardianship, and the Deere family’s properties were all taken over by old Mooney’s son, Mooney. Even though Kurt’s character was not great, but for the sake of such a large fortune, he could be considered to treat Avi all right.

But Kurt’s ability was not enough. Not long after he had taken over the family business, a big crisis arose. Thus he thought of the idea of using the Deere family’s property. He was only keeping the Deere family’s property on Avi’s behalf, and when Avi reached adulthood, according to the law, those properties needed to be immediately returned to Avi. If they delayed and did not return them, Avi could force them to return his properties through the court. Then if Kurt still couldn’t take them out, he could only wait to be thrown in jail.

But Kurt thought, in any case, after Avi grew up he would get married to Faith. Then at that time the Deere family’s properties would also become their own family’s assets. So he just used the properties to resolve the crisis this time.

Avi could be considered to be living quite well in the Mooney house. Faith had always treated him quite well and taken care of him. Because Kurt had used his property, he still felt somewhat guilty about it, and treated Avi better than before.

Until ’s appearance, everything slowly changed.

Corrica was one of the orphans who the Mooney family had helped to raise. After he revealed his extremely high talent in piano, he was taken back to the Mooney family and became the adopted son of the Mooney family.

This city, this country, and even this world, was fanatical in their love for classical music. If someone in their family could perform a musical instrument outstandingly, this was a very glorious thing that could improve the status of the entire family.

Because the number of people with very high talent was extremely low, wealthy families would often fund orphans who showed musical talent. If within those orphans that they funded they discovered one to be a brilliant musician, then a portion of this glory would also be credited to them.

Faith didn’t have any musical talent, so when he was in his teens he had already changed to learning business management to make it more convenient for him to take over the family business later on. Avi’s talent was actually not bad, and if he worked harder, he might be able to rise even higher in the path of music. Because of the environment they grew up in, no matter whether or not they had talent, they would always love music and instrument playing.

At one point, Avi and Faith had followed Kurt to the orphanage to visit the children who were funded by the Mooney family and send them presents. That was their first time seeing Corrica. He was a boy, but actually grew an exceedingly beautiful face.

Corrica flattered them and requested that they watch their children’s group piano competition. They had agreed, and Corrica had placed in the competition. He was very happy and his wish was that they could go see him more often.

He won more prizes, and received many more awards. Some judges said that he might be a genius and could make great achievements in the musical world. Thus he was brought back to the Mooney home and became the Mooney family’s adopted son, living together with them.

Corrica would always pester Faith and ask him to accompany him in practicing the piano. His innocent eyes made it impossible for Faith to refuse, and Faith treated him with even more patience than with Avi. So Avi discovered that his life had gradually changed. Faith was no longer only good to him, he no longer only cared about him. He treated Corrica even better, and spent much more time with Corrica.

When Corrica was left alone with Avi, he would always smile at him, with an appearance of wanting to have a good relationship with him. Even though Avi could not quite adapt to these changes in his heart, he still tried to accept him, and strove to think of him as a friend.

But once he turned his head, Faith would come to find him and tell him to treat Corrica better. He said that Corrica was only an orphan who had no family, he was already so pitiful, why couldn’t you be a little nicer to him?

Avi wanted to say, I didn’t treat him badly, he wanted to say, I am also an orphan without any family. But he wasn’t able to say it out. He comforted himself that Faith had said those words because he had taken himself as part of their family, and not because he had forgotten that his loved ones had also departed.

Corrica was performing better and better in piano. He won many prizes, and many people were starting to know his name, which made the Mooney family feel like they had a lot of face. Even though Corrica was only an adopted son, he had also been raised by their family. If he later became a famous pianist, that would not only improve the Mooney family’s status in this city, but also be a great help to the Mooney family’s musical instrument business.

Corrica would go participate in all kinds of competitions. He became the central figure of the Mooney family, and everything would be based on his own needs. Faith was even more accommodating to him in everything, turning to him. And his attitude towards Avi became more and more cold.

In the face of such a shift, Avi changed from the original well-behaved sunny teenager to become more and more withdrawn and extreme. His attitude toward Corrica started to become actually bad, refusing his proximity. And when Faith accused him of being bad to Corrica, he started to freeze his face and look at him in silence.

In the dead of night, he would be particularly lonely and afraid. The fear in the bottom of his heart made him unable to help shrinking in his covers, shivering. He wanted to go find Faith, he hoped that he would be like when they were younger and accompany him and comfort him.

He ran barefoot out of the room and through the hallway, but Faith was not in his room. He went downstairs to find him, and heard sounds coming from the piano room. He had quietly walked over, and peeking through the crack in the door, he saw Faith accompanying Corrica while he was playing the piano. The piano sounds stopped, and Corrica leaned into Faith’s arms. Faith wrapped his arms around him, then lowered his head, and the two people kissed.

Avi had widened his eyes in disbelief. He had covered his mouth and retreated, running back to his room in a fit of panic. He had hugged his head and hidden himself in his covers, trying to convince himself that what he had just seen was not real, that it was just a dream. He wanted to fall asleep quickly, and then when he woke back up, the dream would be broken.

He stared at the ceiling until the sky turned light, always unable to fall asleep. The appearance of the sunlight allowed him to gather up his courage and face the reality that he had seen last night. But what could he do next? He was engaged to Faith, but Faith was together with Corrica. Did that mean that he had to leave this house and that he could not be with Faith in the future?

No! That couldn’t happen, the things that had originally belonged to him, he could not let Corrica seize them away. He needed to marry Faith.

With this conviction, Avi would compete and fight against Corrica, not giving him any good face. Like this, Faith hated him even more.

This lasted until Avi turned 19 years old. He could get married, and could take control of the assets that belonged to him.

Faith went to tell Kurt that he wanted to cancel his engagement with Avi. He had fallen in love with Corrica, and wanted to marry him.

Avi didn’t have much understanding of money, but he knew that he had a large amount of money that the Mooney family had been keeping on his behalf, and he also knew that the Mooney family business would face bankruptcy if they suddenly lost this money. So he told Kurt that if Faith did not marry him right away, he would ask the Mooney family to immediately return the money to him.

Kurt hesitated. Even though Corrica would be able to bring glory to the family, and after he became famous he would be able to help the family business, but if he immediately returned the money to Avi, the company would have no way to continue operating. In order for Corrica to be able to make large achievements, it may take many years. If they couldn’t even manage to sustain their own family’s livelihood right now, it would be simply impossible to be able to afford Corrica’s expenses for learning piano.

Kurt told Faith that he was required to immediately marry Avi, or else he would send Corrica away. Faith was forced into marriage by Avi, and was very angry, but also had .

On the day of Avi and Faith’s wedding, Corrica ran to go commit suicide, and actually contacted Faith to say goodbye to him. Faith paid no attention to the ongoing wedding ceremony, running to stop Corrica. Avi had also chased after them, wanting to finally clarify everything and let Faith make his final choice.

Corrica saw Avi and pulled his hand while kneeling down and crying. He told him not to take Faith away, and also not make the Mooney family bankrupt. Faith wanted to pull up Corrica and let him no longer beg him, he would definitely continue to be together with him.

The three people broke out into argument at the edge of the cliff. With all the pulling, the three people rolled down the cliff together.

Corrica had been protected in Faith’s arms and didn’t suffer too much injury. Faith was strong, and his movements were fast, so he had avoided injury to the vital parts. Only Avi was thrown so that his head bled.

Faith had crawled up and only hesitated for a few seconds before choosing to first take Corrica back for treatment.

Avi, who was still bleeding from the head, just lay there like that on the ground, watching them leave. Clearly it was extremely hot, and the sun was bright enough to blind the eyes, yet he seemed to be lying in the freezing snow of winter. From his head to his toes, from inside to outside, he felt incomparably cold.

He regretted, he should not have insisted on marrying a man who did not love himself, just for that bit of obsession in his heart. He clearly could live better, could have even better achievements, why would he allow himself to become like this just for someone who had been unfaithful? If he could continue to live, he wanted to change, he wanted to discard his past, he wanted to become a better person.

Unfortunately, Avi was unable to survive in the end. On the way to the hospital, because of missing the period for rescue, he passed away.

Originally he could have survived, but when Kurt had received the message from his son telling him to send people to rescue Avi, he hesitated. Avi and Faith had already signed the marriage contracts, it was only that the wedding had not taken place properly. Legally speaking, they had already become lawful partners. If Avi died unexpectedly, his properties would all belong to Faith.

Kurt thought, instead of being threatened by Avi using this property, it would be better to directly take possession of the property, and Faith could also be with Corrica like he wanted. For the Mooney family, this was . So he deliberately delayed going to save Avi, and on the way back, he also deliberately told the driver to drive slowly.

While he watched unfeelingly as Avi slowly died, he let out a sigh of relief.

Jing Yang opened his eyes and looked at the two people on the lawn. Since you two love each other so much, then in this life I will satisfy you both. I hope that you both will not regret it.

———

[1] – 落地生根, quite literal, essentially means to settle down

[2] – 狄爾 艾維, pinyin di er ai wei, I actually found that some politician named Avi had his Chinese name also 艾維 so I just took that, and Deere is from the MTL, and I think it works fine

[3] – 穆尼, pinyin mu ni, Mooney came up in the MTL and it seems pretty appropriate

[4] – 費斯, pinyin fei si, Google said this, why all of these names in English are so girly idk

[5] – I would put grandson here, but that would take away from the original emphasis on the son of that bad son rather than just any grandson

[6] – 庫德, pinyin ku de, I saw on Google some translations to Kurd, so I adjusted to Kurt so he doesn’t sound like a beancurd

[7] – 科瑞卡, pinyin ke rui ka, I don’t think that’s a very common name so I just went with what MTL put

[8] – 小心翼翼, idiom, means cautious and solemn, very carefully

[9] – 千依百順, probably not in the dom & sub context but like accomodating. lmao.

[10] – 無可奈何, kind of an idiom, also means has no alternative

[11] – 兩全其美, idiom, satisfying contradictory demands