Chapter 9 - Venice Beach

Simon finally looked at Janet Johnston and said, "Actually, I only wanted to invite Kathryn, but you can come if you want."

Janet heard this and immediately moved beside Kathryn and held her arm, as if she was afraid that Simon would take her friend away.

However, suddenly, she realized something as she pointed her slender finger towards the guitar case at her feet and arrogantly said, "I mean, you can't even buy a good bottle of red wine with that amount of money."

Simon randomly strung the chords and replied, "I don't plan to buy wine. If I invite two beautiful women to dinner and also order wine, I'm afraid I will be misunderstood."

Janet looked at Simon's old clothes with mock disgust, "Who would misunderstand you?"

Simon also glanced at the Hermès bag on Janet's shoulder and replied with a smile, "I know, but I'm afraid you two will be misunderstood."

Janet blinked her eyes in confusion for a few moments before she understood the meaning behind Simon's words and gave him a fierce glare.

Meanwhile, Kathryn was watching the banter between the two with a helpless expression on her face.

Actually, when she had spotted Simon playing guitar on the street, she had wanted to quietly walk away.

Simon had left a very deep impression on her during their previous encounter. She had subconsciously felt that Simon was quite prideful in himself and that he wouldn't wish to show the embarrassing state he was in to his acquaintances.

However, due to Janet wanting to prank Simon, Kathryn had ended up meeting him.

Hearing Janet mocking Simon for his financial state, Kathryn had wanted to stop her, but when she noticed the slight smile on Simon's face, she suddenly realized something.

From the many details of their first meeting, she was sure that Simon was definitely prideful. However, his pride obviously doesn't come attempting to deny some form of inferiority complex. As a result, he didn't feel any embarrassment despite Janet's words. In fact, he behaved more like an adult accommodating a naughty little girl.

'Aren't I also accommodating Jenny most of the time she acts naughty?' she thought.

Thinking about this, Kathryn couldn't help but chuckling after seeing her friend being unable to gain the slightest upper hand in her verbal confrontation against Simon.

"Which side are you on?" Upon hearing Kathryn's chuckle, Janet frowned at her and gave her a warning before she immediately turned back to Simon.

As she looked at Simon, she suddenly changed her expression. There was no trace of the anger she had previously displayed as she smiled and slowly took out her purse from her bag and took out a $100 bill and waved it in front of Simon. She put the $100 bill in the guitar case and said, "Alright, little boy, I haven't heard you play, so sing another song. But if I don't like it, I'll take my money back."

Simon smiled and replied, "Then I guess we'll be opening a bottle of red wine tonight."

"Hey, didn't you hear me? I said..." Janet had just wanted to make threat, but the young man in front of her had already begun to pluck the strings. A short note sounded on the expensive Gibson acoustic guitar which Janet felt she had heard before, but couldn't where from, so she subconsciously said, "I know this, um...... "

Simon repeatedly struck the strings several times and familiarized himself with the feel before he glanced at the two women in front him. With a faint smile on his face, he said, "Flight of the Bumblebee for Jenny."

Just as his voice fell, the rapid music on the strings sounded from Simon's guitar.

The rush of tunes that began with a series of fast descending scales suddenly produced the sound of a wasp. Then, the tune began to roll up and down, just like the wasp flying around quickly.

As the most well-known track of the Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, Flight of the Bumblebee had previously appeared in Song of Scheherazade, The Green Hornet et al. Having been used in many film and television works, and with its extremely fast melody, it had gradually become a masterpiece which was used by many musicians to show their musical skills.

Compared with most guitarists who blindly seek speed and make a lot of mistakes and even turn the single hornet into a nest of hornets, Simon payed more attention to the integrity of the song, so he does not deliberately pursue speed.

However, the standard sixteenth note tune was blessed by Simon's hand speed of about 170 beats per minute, and the high-speed tune that suddenly flowed out still instantly formed a wonderful freeze frame around the street.

The nearby people were taken aback for a few moments by the guitar's sound before they focused on the young man playing the guitar with a focused expression.

A mother pushing her baby's stroller stopped;

A couple who were looking through trinkets turned and looked;

A young boy who wanted to quickly pass through the crowd put his feet on the ground and left his skateboard under his feet;

A middle-aged man on a nearby bench moved the newspaper away from his eyes;

At this moment, the young man playing the guitar with a focused expression seemed to have become the center of the universe.

The song continued for a dozen more seconds when a young woman who was standing at a stall near Simon suddenly woke up for a daze and quickly pointed her Super 8mm camera at the young man.

In fact, she had passed by the young man around half an hour ago when she had heard him sing a very unique arrangement of Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell. While listening to him sing, she had suddenly thought back to her teenage years when she had been a rebellious girl.

The year that she had started the ninth grade, in order to prepare for the school's Christmas party, under her strict parent's pressure, she had rehearsed Big Yellow Taxi with her friends in the basement of her friend's house.

They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot

Joni Mitchell was a songwriter whom she had truly admired.

Looking back after so many years, it felt like that time had been a lifetime ago.

In the past, she had liked music, painting, and movies. She dreamed of becoming an artist like Joni Mitchell, but eventually ended up entering Yale Law School in accordance with the wishes of her parents.

At this time, she was a junior in college.

While walking around the beach, she had inadvertently happened upon Simon. Hearing that song again, she began reminiscing about her youth.

So, she continue to wander around Venice Beach for a while, but subconsciously returned back to him, standing nearby while pretending to be a passerby, waiting to hear the young man sing Big Yellow Taxi again.

Finally, she took out the camera from her bag to secretly record a video of him singing.

Just then, she heard the conversation between him and the two other women.

Soon after, he began playing the amazing Flight of the Bumblebee.

Her name is also Jenny.

Standing nearby and hearing the young man say "Flight of the Bumblebee for Jenny," the strings of her heart were plucked.

Soon, many people on the street approached the young man, so she no longer acted reserved. She quietly watched him while hiding in the crowd, adjusting the camera lens in her hand, and aiming it at the young man who was focused on plucking the guitar strings. 

In fact, his profound guitar skills left her feeling shocked. In the past, she had learned the piano from a famous pianist whom her parents had specially invited to teach her. He had also demonstrated the track to her and had explained many of the details behind it. As a result, she knew that Flight of the Bumblebee was not too difficult to pop, but it wasn't easy to play, either.

Moreover, compared to the piano, it was much more difficult to perfectly express the track on a guitar with only a few strings.

However, the young man in front of her not only managed to do that, his performance even created a strong image of a wasp flying through the crowd thanks to his perfect interpretation.

As his performance continued, she became even more surprised when, after completing the first performance of about 70 seconds, the young man did not stop at all, and immediately played the track a second time with a significantly faster rhythm, but a consistent tune.

'He should be going beyond 200 beats per minute, right?' she thought to herself as one minute passed quickly.

The young man looped again and the rhythms accelerated again.

And again.

By the fifth time, she felt that the young man's hand speed was probably around 300 beats per minute.

The sixteenth note of Flight of the Bumblebee had four notes per beat. A hand speed close to 300 beats per minute was something that only top guitarists possessed. However, right now, an ordinary young man on the street was displaying skills similar to top guitarists.

'Is this real or am I dreaming, right now?' she wondered.

Although she felt a little confused, she sure that the young man could definitely go even faster.

However, when he finished the track for the fifth time, his performance ended as the guitar sound halted abruptly.

She looked down from the side of the young man's face to his palm that was pressing down on the strings, obviously not planning to continue.

Immediately, all the people nearby began clapping enthusiastically.

She also wanted to applaud when she realized that she was still holding the camera in her hand.

So, she turned it off quickly and stealthily put it down. Although she was unable to record him sing Big Yellow Taxi, the video in her camera was more than enough to make up for that regret.

Amid the crowd's applause, the young man politely thanked everyone as many people generously put several large bills in his guitar case.

She glanced at the guitar case where a single $100 bill appeared the most eye-catching. The $10 bill she had stealthily put in half an hour ago was already covered by several other bills.

She felt that it was regrettable and although there was still a lot of cash in her wallet, she subconsciously didn't dare to step forward, fearing that he might notice her.

While she was busy in her thoughts, the crowd began dispersing.

She realized that she should turn around and leave, but since there were still a few people remaining, she decided to stay a while longer.

Then, she heard the woman who had previously been very rude to him ask in a somewhat hesitant tone, "Um, little boy, last time you said...uh, which mental hospital did you come from, again?"