It wasn't the first time Beelzebub had heard Hopkins play the piano with plucked strings, but he had never listened so closely—Sasha had worked hard for his musicality, and Beelzebub thanked his friends, but he had to tell him that he was convinced that his fate was contrary to music, that the little arrows that the bare-bottomed little Eros 'shot' were lead, and that they would never fall in love—that he had found trillions of music appreciation papers for the next ten years. If you look at the search ,.. In the end, Hopkins had to admit his defeat, and Beelzebub couldn't even tell the difference between rock and symphony.

If anyone were paying attention to Beelzebub now, he would have noticed that the boy's face was unusually dignified, and that there was an unusual red under the dark skin, and he stood up again, his hands clenched into fists, his body rising and falling slightly under his clothes, his skin and muscles changing his state.

It's a pity that now everyone's attention is on the tape played by the multi-track recorder, and after a long time, until Sasha. Hopkins left the piano and tapped on the glass, and they were able to break free from the grip of these two voices and return to the real world, where the recording engineer said to the chorus, "We'll have to call Gregory to listen to this." Also, let's see if we can call the lazy one, what he called, anyway, the one in charge of the arrangement - go ahead, you can kick him in the ass if you want, it's been two days, and he's been awake for less than a quarter of the time between his sleep! Tell him that we didn't call him here to waste champagne and whiskey! ”

The chorus ran away, the studio door opened, and Hopkins walked out.

Beelzebub handed over a bottle of Coke, and the recording engineer subconsciously stopped him, and then he came to his senses: "I'm sorry," he said, "I thought it was a singer, and we don't recommend drinking Coke when a singer is recording." ”

"It's okay," Sasha picked up a packet of lemonade in a soft package, "and this one is good." "Someone brought another chair and asked the two boys to sit together.

Sasha took Beelzebub's hand, and the heat and soft touch woke up the son of the leader of the mob, who looked at Hopkins. Visibly frightened, his fingers slightly distorted in the shadows, and gently scratched Sasha's palm like a feathered brush.

"Xiren?"

Beelzebub looked into Sasha's eyes, which looked like black in the dim light, with only a circle of dark purple that was almost translucent, and he nodded first, then shook his head: "No, it's you, you and Siren's mixture." Feel ...... It's unbearable," he said, racking his brains to find an adjective. He squeezed his friend's hand, the familiar sensation and smell calmed him down, his blood stopped rioting, his muscles stopped undulating, his skin tensed again, and Beelzebub exhaled deeply. "Great." He whispered, "It's much better now." ”

Hopkins looked at the others, and Gregory and the young man in charge of the arrangement had arrived, and they began to listen to the tape again, and from their expressions there was nothing but a little surprise.

***

"It's like stepping into the air." Glegri came to a conclusion.

"That's right." The guy in charge of the music was still staggering when he came in. Confused, but in a matter of seconds. He became sober and professional, he took off his headphones, "This is not good, it is still recording, and when it is actually live, all the viewers will be shocked." ”

"Then let them scare," said Glegri, "and that's exactly what we want." ”

"It's hard for most people to accept — I mean, the sound is so direct, so pure, it's literally comparable to a dagger — why not the original player? His playing is also very good. And...... Not so, then, then, um, cruel, listen to the sound, the sound of the plucked clavichord, yes, I know. The piano has no aftertones, but when you listen to this sound, it is too clear, too direct, and full of a sense of "force", and it cannot soften and weaken the sound of Xiren. Instead, it will be a competitor...... Xiren's voice will be even crazier because of its excitement - remember the problem we found when we first recorded Xiren? That's too ...... It's scary...... Mr. Coso, I can't imagine what they will become in the end. ”

"I remember." "You convinced me then," says Glegri, that we filtered and modulated the singing of the siren, and then mixed the sounds of percussion, bass, electric piano and saxophone so that they blended so tightly that we sprinkled them between the siren's voices like a sprinkle of ground coffee on tiramisu, so that our listeners would not be schizophrenic from the overly strong impact." He stroked his chin, "But I also told you that I really liked the original sound, it was as clear and simple as crystal. ”

"That record sold half a million copies!" The music arranger proudly said: "This is Xiren's last performance, and it may sell 800,000 copies!" ”

"It's possible, but this time it's up to me. Xiren likes him," Glegrige went to stroke his Adam's apple, "I like it too, he's the only player who won't be covered up and driven by Xiren, you're right, they'll compete with each other, but, why not?" They're going to show the audience the best of their best," he said, lowering his voice, "and I'm happy to see it happen." ”

The recording engineer shook his head in disbelief behind Gligri's back.

"That's it," said Glegri, "maybe we can get into the rehearsal a little earlier." ”

"I said," said the chorologist after Glegri had left, "Glegri. Did Corso buy a huge insurance policy for the success of this show? ”

***

If the live performance is not on the "eyebrows", it is absolutely impossible, and there will be no 56,000 spectators.

Gregory built a concert arena for Siren's last concert, the inverted pyramid that Beelzebub and Sasha saw from the helicopter, and its interior was empty, with a total of 60,000 seats. The seats are in lightweight silver-coloured metal, and the armrests and chairs are covered in black coloured faux leather.

Located at the top of the pyramid, the base of the building, the stage is surrounded by sparkling water, thirty feet from the nearest auditorium.

"It helps them clear their hot minds in time." Grigley jokingly said, his voice already muffled, but there was still an unexpected echo. "You'll be here too," he walked to the corner of the stage, "at a given moment, the stage will spin, don't be afraid, it won't turn very fast, and your piano and chair are fixed, you have to be much more comfortable than Siren, dear, you can sit." ”

Hopkins looked up, the top of the inverted pyramid was a quadrangular shape, and it was difficult to estimate its area for a while, it was made of countless pieces of glass, and the glass was connected to each other by stainless steel claws, which was completely transparent, and from here the sky could be seen.

From the outside, the four sides of the pyramid are hollow, and there is a high-pressure water jet at the end, which can spray the filtered sea water into the air, and the water forms a transparent tetrahedron in the air, and the 3D image is formed in the transparent tetrahedron, and people will see a tall Xiren like a building.

"And the 3D holographic 360-degree projection device," Gregory said, "as you saw the other day, the real 360 degrees, Xiren, and everything on the stage, will be projected hundreds of feet in the air, and people from dozens of kilometers away can also see with the naked eye, and with these people, this concert will have more audiences than any other time before - the current record is 1.5 million people, in a park." The agent made a contemptuous tone from his nose: "Think about it, how many will we have, two million, three million, four million?" One out of 10 West Coasts belongs to us, and countless people will fall for it, regardless of the video distribution and news coverage that follows. ”

Sasha smiled politely, "It doesn't get any more perfect than this ending." He said Glegri didn't get what he wanted to see in his eyes, and he kept trying.

"It doesn't get much better than that." "Hopkins, not all actors or singers have to follow that path. There are many people, who have achieved great influence and great success for the first time, people admire them, love them, no one dares to insult and bully them, because they belong to the whole human race - no one can possess them alone, every fool who wants to stretch out his claws to them will be restrained by a stronger hand - they have always lived carefree and free, even if they no longer act and sing, the former glory will shine on them, they can go to college, to go to the army, to go to politics or business, Whatever happens, it will be smooth sailing, and after a few years, they may fall in love, get married, have two children, and adopt one or more orphans, and then they will die and be buried in the cemetery behind the church, and they will be erected with white marble monuments, always with bright flowers and small gifts, and their names will be recorded in the alumni directory and the community records kept by the library, or possibly, they will be willing to write a book with a large readership and lasting influence. People will remember their names for a hundred years or more. ”

He turned around suddenly, his eager gaze almost melting the cold, hard metal stage: "Would you like to?" Would you like to? He said, "Everything is right in front of you, at your fingertips." ”

(To be continued)

n (one second to remember the world)