musicians of old

Chapter 963 Memorial and Farewell Concert
"this?."

Lasuth's lips twitched very slightly.

His gaze first briefly fell on the thick sheet music, and then lingered longer on the first page of the thin procedural document.

"Is there a problem?" Fan Ning asked casually.

Is the requirement to report large-scale public performances to the "supervisory authority" accurate in its scope?

"Have the staff check them? If any documents are missing, I'll arrange for someone to send them over."

In the frozen office area, in the relatively quiet corridor at the back, the corridor with many iron frames and observation windows, the sound of hurried footsteps finally came. Several doors opened, and two men in police uniforms and two female clerical staff rushed out.

After signaling his subordinates to quickly begin "reviewing the materials," Lass looked at Fanning again. A variety of emotions flashed across his withered face, eventually settling into an almost self-deprecating calm.

“Why would you need to go through this kind of procedure?” he said, his sarcasm limited to his own perspective, as if stating a fact he believed. “With your current influence, the ‘torchbearer’? Or, even higher? You can perform any work anywhere, in any form, and no one, or rather, no one, can stop you.”

“Regulations are regulations.” Fan Ning said calmly. “Turner Cinemas is no different from other cinema chains; it’s an arts management company. At least for now, this morning, the relevant regulations are still in effect, aren’t they?”

Lasus fell silent, his fingers unconsciously tracing the rough edge of the desk.

These words seemed to touch a nerve in him, and he looked at the thin booklet again, as if those few pages weighed a ton.

"The Song of the Earth".

The staff read aloud the title of the upcoming production, while others wrote it down. Its subtitle was—

"A symphony for a tenor, a mezzo-soprano and an orchestra."

After reading the titles of the works to be performed, the staff member began to read the names and dates of the performances. The female office worker kept her head down and spoke in a voice so low that it was almost inaudible: "Turner Arts Theatres Memorial and Farewell Concert, date: January 15th."

"Whom are we commemorating?" Upon hearing the concert's name, Lasus gave a strained, inexplicable laugh. "Those...who couldn't return? Like, our leader?"

The air in the office seemed to have cooled down a bit. The row of inspectors standing at the back could barely hear a breath. Shilan felt her palms getting slightly sweaty, Roy stood even straighter, as if on high alert, and Joan shifted her toes uncomfortably.

“To remember all those who have passed away, to remember all those who are worth remembering.” Fanning’s response was ambiguous, but broader and more somber: “Music can do that.”

The other high-ranking officers of the Special Patrol Department stared intently at the two people talking for a full ten seconds. Then, many of them suddenly collapsed, their knees buckling, letting out a long breath squeezed from the deepest part of their chests.

The facts are there, they've been there for a long time, but sometimes it just takes a specific person to declare them.

"And what about saying goodbye?" Lasuth felt like his vocal cords no longer belonged to him. "First commemoration, then farewell, is that what you mean?"

“That wasn’t for Pogorelich,” Fanning said calmly. “A memorial is a memorial, and a farewell is a farewell. The former is for dictators, and the latter is for myself.”

"You!?" Lasus was so shocked he forgot his honorifics. "You, you're saying goodbye, the mini farewell concert."

"Mainly, is there a problem?" Fanning asked. "Okay, no problem, the performance will definitely pass all the legal and compliant approvals. I'll have someone complete the procedures," Lasus finally replied, his sentences gradually returning to normal.

Fan Ning immediately turned and left, and the three chiefs prepared to follow.

"Wait, Master Fanning." Just as they reached the door, Lasus's voice came again.

Fan Ning stopped and turned to look at him calmly.

"Before the leader left the tower, he left some arrangements for 'extreme situations'." The other person gritted his teeth, his tired tone mixed with a sense of sorrow and the hardness of duty. "For example, the current situation falls into this category. The leader said that it was the 'last resort of control' left behind, and it needs to be handed over 'according to the order of the discussion groups.' Currently, none of the other group members have returned, and you, you were once the number two."

“The last resort of control.” Fan Ning repeated, a barely perceptible strange look in his voice. “Your esteemed institution did it once before in the Moonlit World after the collapse, and now you’re doing it again here? You want me to go to the tower again? Now that the tower is gone, are you serious?”

"The moonlit world after the collapse?" Laxus asked, sounding somewhat puzzled.

Fan Ning then realized that these people after the reset had no idea what "large control area" or "central control area" meant.

Of course, he was too lazy to explain anything and turned to leave again.

“Wait! Master Fanning!” Lasus raised his voice and said urgently, “The leader’s original words before he left were that if Master Fanning judged that there was nothing left in the world that needed to be controlled, then the arrangement could be ignored; otherwise, the ‘last resort’ should at least be reviewed and, if necessary, circulated to a number of necessary people.”

Lasus leaned forward slightly, his voice not loud, yet it seemed to lower the temperature in the room even further.

"Oh, there's such a saying? I must read it. Here you go."

Fanning's tone was drawn out, with a mocking probing under his breath. He was well aware of the provocative element in the other person's words, but he had to admit the "art" of the matter. If he chose to ignore it just because he heard the phrase "last resort of control," wouldn't that mean that he, in the new world, was still afraid of any kind of control?
Lasus's pupils contracted slightly. He hadn't expected Fanning to agree so readily after that turn of events. He straightened up, bowed, and quickly walked towards the back of the hall. The weariness in his figure was temporarily replaced by a highly focused, professional sharpness.

Two minutes later, Fan Ning received an envelope.

This envelope is almost identical in style to the one found in the secret room beneath the narrow staircase in the "Central Control Area"—if only superficially.

Fan Ning simply ripped it open with a "hiss".

He began to read, and his expression remained unchanged throughout the reading.

The office lobby was deathly silent.

Sheeran, Roy, and Joan stood a little closer to him, but they couldn't see the words on the letter and were equally hesitant to peer into his eyes.

"what."

Fan Ning suddenly smiled inscrutably.

The laughter jolted everyone's nerves, and Lasuth immediately felt a chill run down his spine.