Chapter 110: Drummer Five

"Yes, exactly like that. Keep that rhythm!"

Zhang Feng was in the music room, coaching the protagonist as he practiced the drum kit.

Ever since he had rediscovered his original passion there, he had resolved to reclaim his former drumming level and return to the state he had once reached at his peak. That naturally meant he needed someone to help him train. Coincidentally, Zhang Feng, standing right beside him, happened to be a drum teacher, and so she was simply roped in as his coach.

Even so, Zhang Feng did not find it especially hard to guide him. No matter what, his fundamentals were still there; he was merely rusty from lack of practice. A lean camel is still bigger than a horse. Once he began training again, he would improve quickly enough.

As Zhang Feng taught him, his godfather watched from the side. When he had time, he would step in and offer a few pointers as well. Two teachers coaching one student—his treatment was truly on another level.

Watching Zhang Feng instruct him, his godfather seemed to see his younger self, back when he had taught him before. At that time, the boy had still been mischievous, always looking for a chance to slack off or show a bit of cleverness.

Back then, it had always taken several lessons from his godfather before he would finally get it right. The scene before him now and the one from that time overlapped almost perfectly; the feeling was strikingly similar, only now the teaching was much easier.

And as for the protagonist, while he was relearning the drums and trying to recapture that old feeling, he had no thought of slacking off. On the contrary, the more he practiced, the more absorbed he became, as though he had found again the fierce drive he once had when he first learned the drums. It had been a very, very long time since he had felt that way.

There was another purpose behind his renewed drumming practice: he wanted to restore his performance level and prepare for a show later that year. He meant to use that opportunity to stage a comeback, to return to the top and once again step into the public eye. He wanted to prove himself.

By now, his wish to return to the world’s gaze was no longer about making money. He had already experienced enough of that. He simply wanted to stand before everyone again and prove his strength, to strike hard at the faces of those who had once smeared him. He wanted to show that he still could.

Day by day, through this training, his condition gradually recovered to its former level. Step by step, he found back the dream and the momentum he had once possessed. This crushing setback had made him grow a great deal.

Sometimes, hardship is exactly what a person needs in order to mature. If he had never gone through all this, he would never have recognized the problem in himself. He would have gone on drifting aimlessly as before, never once asking what his dream had been, or what his original ideal was. He simply would not have thought about such things at all.

During this period of training, his relationship with Zhang Feng was also quietly warming. Because the two of them had to spend so much time together, they naturally shared more moments side by side, and through all kinds of experiences, subtle changes began to take place between them.

Both of them could feel that change, but neither spoke of it. They each kept that feeling buried in their hearts, because they both knew that the most important thing right now was to help him regain his drumming level. Once the immediate matter was settled, then they could speak about what lay between them.

Even though he already had some of the aura of a man whom everyone wanted to chase down and beat, he still retained the connections he had built over the years in the drumming world. He had not yet fallen to the point where everyone truly wanted to attack him. Reaching that stage would not have been easy.

So it was not difficult for him to secure a performance slot.

As time passed, the day of the performance soon arrived. After all those days of training, his level had already returned to its peak state, and in fact his performance was even better than it had been at his peak. Experience, after all, deepens with age.

"Come on, you have to do well tonight!" Zhang Feng kept encouraging him before he went on stage, hoping he would perform smoothly and not waste all the effort he had poured in over this long period.

"Hahaha, don't worry. I will," he said with a smile, patting her head after hearing her words.

After these days of training, his relationship with Zhang Feng had become much closer. The two of them had gradually developed a quiet understanding, as though a thin layer of paper still separated them. With just a little force, that paper could be pierced through, and the moment to do so would come after the performance.

This chance for him to appear on stage was at a concert by a top male singer. Every year, one song in that singer's concert required live drum accompaniment, so his chance to turn things around rested on this performance. As long as he played well, the bad impression others had of him could be wiped away in an instant.

When he stepped onto the stage, he chose to wear a mask. He did not want his performance to be affected by his identity, because first impressions mattered greatly. If the first impression was poor, then even an excellent performance afterward would struggle to win thunderous applause.

Once he came onstage, quite a few people in the concert audience began talking about it. The mask he wore immediately sparked discussion, and they started to wonder whether this person might actually be him, since in previous years it had always been him handling the drumming for this concert.

But once the song began, they quickly abandoned that idea, because the masked drummer played far better than the person they remembered him to be. The two gave off completely different impressions, so they ruled out the possibility that the masked man was him.

As the sound of the drums drove the atmosphere in the venue higher and higher, the audience below began to wonder who this man, who played so brilliantly, could possibly be.

What happened next left everyone in the audience staring in disbelief, because after the performance ended, he took off the mask and revealed his true face.

The crowd was utterly stunned. Why was it him? Hadn't the internet been saying his level was poor? And this was supposed to be poor?