Dreaming With My Dragon Lover

After dealing with many online matters and printing out a thick copy of the film script, Yuan Ge threw himself into this new work. When he looked up again, it was already late at night. He remembered that Rong Qiuchen had been working all day. Although the boy had been busy trotting up and down the stairs to the roof terrace and had passed by his office several times, he had turned a blind eye to him. Had he been too indifferent to the boy?

He stood up, feeling quite apologetic, and found that the whole house was now immaculately cleaned, even the red lanterns for the New Year had been hung on the front door and the roof terrace. The bright red colour added a festive cheer to the whole house. When he pushed open his mother's room, the bedding and soft furnishings had all been cleaned and rehung, displaying their classical charm. Cluttered piles of antique artefacts had been dusted, wiped down and put in their place appropriately, transforming this former untidy storage room into one of the most elegant rooms in the house.

Full of amazement, he walked downstairs to the kitchen and a sumptuous dinner had already been laid out on the table. And Rong Qiuchen, accompanied by the little robot, was studying how to use the dishwasher.

Yuan Ge hurried forward to help load the dirty dishes into the dishwasher, "You must be hungry, right? Why didn't you call me when the food was ready?"

"Gege has been busy doing something and I am not at liberty to interrupt. It is only right for me to wait for you. The food is getting cold, so let me warm it up for you first."

Seeing that he was about to get up, Yuan Ge hurriedly pulled him back and said "You are going to spoil me into a lazy man. Later on if I get used to this easy life, that'd be really tragic. It is easy to go from simplicity to luxury, but hard to go back to simplicity from luxury."

Qiuchen smiled at this, "Gege doesn't have to be bothered with such trivial matters all the time. I'm happy enough as long as you don't keep trying to get rid of me. You can devote more energy to your artistic pursuits."

Yuan Ge looked at the table of delicious food and then back at the sincerity in Qiu Chen's bright eyes, and without thinking, he blurted out, "I don't want you to leave. If you like, you can choose a room and be a permanent resident here."

After dinner, Rong Qiuchen picked up his cleaning tools again, "Gege, there is still one last room left to clean on the second floor. The door was closed, so I didn't want to intrude."

Yuan Ge took the tools in his hand, "You've worked so hard today, so just take a break tonight. I'm going to give you a proper reward. I will show you my secret garden!"

With a curious look on his face, Qiuchen walked into this mysterious room on the second floor. The room was not very large and the furnishings were quite simple - a set of double-sided modular sofas, beige carpet and perfectly soundproofing walls. Various equipment and wiring were built into the walls, blending in with the room discreetly.

With Yuan Ge's voice command "Light", several sets of LED lights come on together, drawing outlines on the walls and furniture, giving the room a hazy and elegant feel.

"This is my AV room, both for work and for rest and entertainment. The flat on Yandai Byway I took you to before, the TV there I could only use to play things to pass time, which was a degradation to my professionalism. Only here, where I do all my serious film analysis work, can you experience the real world of 'Director Yuan'."

Yuan Ge sat Qiuchen in the centre of the sofa and said, "How about I play you a piece of music to get a feel for it first?" He then said into the air, "The fourth movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony."

All of a sudden, an intense and powerful burst of music and human voices followed, resonating through the room like a volcanic eruption.

Qiuchen felt that the music was like a raging tide, a torrent and a storm, pounding his ears from all directions. It was sometimes solemn and grand, sometimes delicate and gentle, so rigid yet tender that it sent one into a whirlwind of passion and sorrow. The harmonies of male and female voices seemed to converge in his mind as a magnificent sun shining over the earth, yet beneath the light there was still a despair and terror and pain that was hard to escape. Finally, all the sounds, colours and light converged into a torrent of thunder that rolled forward, sending shivers down his spine as the bass trembled. With the final words "Freude, schöner Götterfunken!", the room finally went from a lively commotion to dead silence.

Rong Qiuchen was so lost in the afterglow of the sound that he was too shocked by the emotions saturating the air to speak.

"Speechless, right? So good it makes you wanna cry, huh?" Yuan Ge curbed his usual bantering attitude and lamented, "This piece was premiered in Vienna in the fourth year of the Qing Dynasty's Daoguang era, making Beethoven an instant musical saint. The immortal art transcends race and lives on for centuries. I wonder when I will be able to create such a masterpiece of art".

"This is a foreigner's song. I couldn't understand a word of it, but I was so moved by the pain of life and the tenacity of mankind."

"It is only through suffering that there is joy. Those who can become saints must have a considerable philosophical height and a deep understanding of life. The fact that you can hear the sadness in Ode to Joy means that you have grasped the essence of the piece. This 7.1-channel panoramic HIFI set of mine has not been wasted on you".

Yuan Ge watched as Qiuchen's chest rose and fell and his eyes filled with emotions. He probably touched something in his heart, Yuan Ge thought to himself, so he went forward to pat him on the shoulder, assuming a tone of infinite compassion, "Don't be too sad, and don't miss things too much. You are so young, yet you have suffered such a serious mental illness, hysteria, amnesia and delusions... even more serious than what happened to Beethoven. You would surely become a great artist and your artistic career would be limitless!"

Qiuchen came back to his senses and gave Yuan Ge a fierce glare, "Gege, you are a real killjoy sometimes."

"How so?"

"You mean well, but you don't say it in a good way. You need a good beating!"