{Chapter: 313 Heart!}
Hearing what Lin Yuan said, most of the audience appeared confused. Many of them had clearly never heard of the musical piece he mentioned.
They simply watched with curious anticipation, wondering what kind of violin music this young man—introduced as a "father"—was about to perform.
However, in the judging seats, Vice Principal He Tao and a few individuals who had knowledge of classical violin music—like Gui Qingtong herself—reacted quite differently. They looked at Lin Yuan with stunned expressions.
He Tao's eyes, in particular, widened with shock. He understood very well just how notoriously difficult the piece called "Devil's Trill Sonata" truly was.
This wasn't a melody one simply "plays." It was a piece shrouded in legend—famously complex, emotionally intense, and technically brutal. Very few violinists in the world could perform it with true mastery.
Some even said that not even its original composer, Tartini himself, could ever reproduce the haunting perfection of the version he claimed to have heard in a dream—played by the devil himself.
It was a piece that demanded not only extraordinary skill but also a certain daring madness from its performer.
Unfazed by the growing buzz of whispers and curious glances, Lin Yuan raised the bow in his hand.
He gently drew it across the strings of the violin.
Zzzzz…
The first sound that emerged was jarring—a sharp, unpleasant screech that sliced through the air like fingernails dragged against a chalkboard.
It wasn't music.
It was noise.
A dissonant, grating tone that made several parents in the audience instinctively frown. A few even winced, exchanging awkward glances with those sitting nearby.
It sounded… wrong.
It made people wonder if Lin Yuan had merely forced himself on stage to support his daughter out of love and concern, without the actual skills to back it up.
Gui Qingtong herself watched from the sidelines, a flicker of worry appearing in her gentle eyes.
She knew Lin Yuan had come to help her because she wasn't feeling well enough to perform. But… could he really play?
Was this just going to be an embarrassing moment for them both?
However, those with actual knowledge of classical violin music reacted very differently.
Their eyes didn't narrow in discomfort—they lit up.
They recognized something in that opening screech, something hidden beneath the surface of that distorted sound. Their ears caught the intentionality of it.
This was no accident.
This was the prelude of the Devil's Trill Sonata—a composition that began with a cacophony of tension before spiraling into madness and brilliance.
Zzzzzzzziii…
Lin Yuan continued. The pitch of the notes began to rise and fall in erratic patterns, wavering between high, trembling peaks and low, unsettling hums. Yet the harshness remained.
The sound was still uncomfortable.
It scraped at the ears like metal grinding against metal.
It was the kind of noise that made one instinctively want to cover their ears and look away.
In the audience, parents and students alike began to shift uncomfortably in their seats. A few leaned back, others furrowed their brows.
Xie Shixuan, who had been asked to accompany Lin Yuan on piano, flinched slightly at the strange notes. Though she had played many pieces before, she had never heard anything like this up close.
Even she wasn't sure what to make of it.
And yet… none of them turned away.
Despite how unpleasant the sound seemed, no one in the room covered their ears.
No one looked away from the man on stage.
In fact, something strange happened: they began to lean forward, drawn in by a force they couldn't quite understand.
There was something… haunting about the melody.
Lin Yuan slowly closed his eyes.
Then, everything changed.
He entered another realm entirely—a mental state where he became one with the instrument in his hands.
His movements grew smoother, faster, almost impossibly precise. His pale fingers danced across the strings like the claws of a demon weaving a dark spell.
And suddenly, the music that filled the room shifted into something entirely different.
Wild, chaotic, yet strangely beautiful notes erupted from the violin.
They poured into the hall like a wave of nightmarish energy—surreal and hypnotic.
The notes were no longer simply unpleasant. They were bizarre, twisted, erratic… but gripping.
They told a story not with harmony, but with madness.
Each note sounded like a whisper from something ancient and malevolent.
Everyone in the audience sat frozen, unable to look away from the scene before them.
Though the sounds continued to claw at their nerves, they couldn't close their ears to it. They didn't want to.
It was as if the devil himself were whispering in their ears.
As the melody rippled across the hall, a chilling illusion seemed to fall over the conference room.
The once brightly lit space grew darker—not physically, but atmospherically.
The air grew colder, heavier.
The bright daylight outside still shone through the windows, but no one could feel it anymore. It was as if they had all been transported into another world—a darker, eerie realm filled with shadows and whispers.
The parents who had come expecting cheerful performances now stared forward with wide, uneasy eyes.
The cheerful conference room now felt like the interior of a haunted theater.
In their minds, monstrous silhouettes danced just beyond the edge of their vision.
The music conjured images—terrifying ones—of sickles swinging through the air, of clawed hands reaching from beneath the ground, of masked faces silently watching from the darkness.
It was like stepping into a perfectly designed 4D horror experience.
And at the center of it all was Lin Yuan—his head bowed, eyes closed, hands moving like lightning over the strings, completely immersed in the madness.
He wasn't simply playing music anymore.
He was telling a story with every note—a tale of temptation, fear, and haunting brilliance.
And no one in the room could escape it.
---
The atmosphere in the conference hall had shifted completely.
An eerie silence had taken over, yet the air was heavy—thick with dread, as though something otherworldly had descended. The terrifying aura that enveloped the room was more intense than any horror movie ever screened. There was no blood, no monsters, no screams—just sound. And that sound was more terrifying than anything they had ever heard before.
The audience was frozen in place.
Mouths hung open. Spines tingled. Palms turned clammy. The sensation crawling over their skin was not cold, but electric, like an unseen shadow breathing down their necks.
Only a very few among them were able to hold on to their composure, and even that seemed like a herculean effort.
One of those few was He Tao, the vice principal.
His body trembled, not with fear, but with astonishment, with awe. His expression was twisted with disbelief and amazement.
"This is... this is incredible!" he muttered internally, his fingers gripping the armrest of his seat. "Unreal! Completely unreal! The emotion—no, the terror—this is exactly what the 'Devil's Trill Sonata' is meant to evoke!"
He Tao's eyes widened until they nearly bulged. His heart thumped in his chest like a war drum.
The composition was supposed to reflect the agony and allure of striking a deal with the devil. That mixture of temptation, fear, and madness—Lin Yuan had captured it perfectly.
He Tao, a seasoned educator who had heard hundreds of performances, found his inner world completely overturned. If not for his fear of disrupting Lin Yuan's performance, he would have leapt up from his seat and shouted in excitement. His mouth opened but no words came. It was a silent scream of admiration.
Gui Qingtong, too, stared at Lin Yuan from the audience, her lips parted slightly in shock.
She was no stranger to music—she played the violin herself and had years of training under her belt. Her initial reaction had been one of concern. The notes Lin Yuan produced were sharp, jarring—almost unpleasant. Like fingernails scraping across a chalkboard or shards of glass scratching against stone.
It sounded nothing like music. It sounded like madness.
But even so, she couldn't stop listening.
Her logical mind tried to protest, tried to analyze the technique and dissect the emotions, but her instincts drowned everything else out. She couldn't look away. She didn't want to look away. The noise was painful, but addictive.
She had liked Lin Yuan ever since that first time she saw him play the piano. That was the beginning. He had seemed so calm, so composed back then, his fingers dancing gracefully over the keys.
But now—now he had become someone else entirely.
With the violin in his hand, he wasn't just a musician. He was a summoner of emotions, a puppeteer of terror and awe. The sheer contrast stunned her. The more she watched, the more her curiosity grew. Who was Lin Yuan really? How much more was he hiding behind that calm and gentle appearance?
On the stage, Xie Shiyin, who had always maintained a cool and composed demeanor, found herself deeply unsettled.
From the very first note, her spine had stiffened, and a chill had run through her body. Her breath caught in her throat, and her usually calm heartbeat turned into a frenzied race.
Despite being known for her stoic nature, Xie Shiyin couldn't stop the waves of emotion that crashed into her.
The cello was her main focus, but she had dabbled with the violin before. She had even attempted the Devil's Trill herself once. She knew, from bitter experience, just how brutal the piece was—its erratic rhythms, impossible shifts in pitch, and emotional demands.
She had failed to sing along.
But here was Lin Yuan, standing there like a dark silhouette from a fever dream, playing it not just with technical precision, but with soul-shaking presence.
He made it seem effortless.
More than that, he made it feel real.
As she watched him play, a haunting thought passed through her mind—Was this man truly human?
Gui Qingtong's father…? Really?
It was hard to believe.
Xie Shiyin stared, her gaze locked onto Lin Yuan's moving fingers and his expression of solemn trance. She had never met someone so terrifyingly gifted. Her own pride as a musician cracked slightly under the weight of this revelation.
Meanwhile, on stage, Xie Shixuan, who was assigned to accompany Lin Yuan, was feeling the full brunt of the performance more than anyone else.
Unlike the audience, who sat several meters away, she stood only a few feet beside him. The sound of Lin Yuan's violin was not just in her ears—it was in her bones.
Each note sent a vibration down her spine. Her heartbeat became erratic. Sweat began to form on her brow. Her knees almost buckled.
She had been thrilled at first. Accompanying a charming man like Lin Yuan in such a formal setting—it had seemed like a dream.
But now? Now it felt like a nightmare wearing a beautiful mask.
The power of Lin Yuan's violin stirred up emotions she didn't even know she had—fear, anxiety, longing, vulnerability. She felt exposed, as if Lin Yuan's music had peeled back her soul and revealed every hidden weakness.
She tried to keep playing. Her fingers stumbled once or twice. Her breathing grew uneven. Her heart was trapped in a tug-of-war between admiration and panic.
In that moment, Lin Yuan didn't seem human at all.
He looked like a devil cloaked in elegance, and the violin in his hand wasn't an instrument—it was a weapon. Or worse, a tool of seduction used to pull people deeper into a trance they could never escape.
And yet... despite the fear that curled in her gut, despite the chaos in her chest, Xie Shixuan couldn't deny it.
Even if he was a devil... he was the most beautiful devil she had ever seen.