“Mr. Tso has generously asked me to create a competition that can bring different worlds together. For wherever there are people, there is music. Music, sometimes great music, from the hands and hearts of those who infuse their art with their very souls.

“Yet how does one find such musicians? The same old selection process would only give the same candidates.”

The crowd laughed nervously.

“So, a special committee has curated a group of violinists whom we feel might best bring harmony and prosperity through music. Some names you may know. Many names will surely be new. But each artist completes a part of Mr. Tso’s shining bridge.”

Mr. Tso came back to the podium.

“The Golden Friendship Violin Competition will be February fourteenth to fifteenth of next year. Right on Valentine’s Day! Imagine all the love!”

Tremon nodded. He stared into the camera and finished in English.

“And thanks to Xinhua Phoenix Investment Bank, we can give this love to the best of these new brilliant and deserving musicians—wherever they may hide.”

“You bastard,” Shizuka said as she turned off her screen.

The next day, Shizuka’s phone beeped.

“Shizuka! Shall I be the first to congratulate you?”

“Shut up. Really, why you would do this?”

Tremon chuckled.

“For the music, of course. And for building bridges.”

“How sweet.”

“Shizuka, I don’t believe I’ve done anything wrong. In fact, my time with you has inspired everything I’ve done. You were right; the world is changing—and music is changing, as well. It’s always been that way. It’s a wonder that I’d not realized this sooner.

“And besides, if your precious student doesn’t go to competitions, then why not bring a competition to her? After that little thing in Temple City … how many hits have her videos been getting? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Now imagine what this can do. Would you really keep Katrina from even more success?

“By the way,” he added casually, “I know that you and your student might be too busy to make a proper introduction. So I took the liberty of providing one. It’s an honor, after all. Especially when you represent a community like hers … Good night, Shizuka. Shizuka?”

But Shizuka had hung up.

Tremon smiled. He sipped the rest of his tea, closed his eyes, and thought of his ex-student. Shizuka Satomi, returning a bow in the condition she received it?

So conscientious. So innocent.

Condition is everything, they say. The same went for souls, as well.

Shizuka’s soul? It was as worn as she said it was. But the runaway’s? With everything Shizuka Satomi had done for her, Katrina Nguyen’s soul was virtually as good as new.

Eventually, news of this competition broke into the English-speaking violin community. Most opinions were negative; the whole concept seemed silly, the selection process, an abomination.