Immediately, he took the hint and backed down, "No worries, I'll just hold onto this opportunity for now. If you go, I'll accompany you; if you don't, I won't either."
He wasn't saying it out of spite, or using those words to bind or threaten Nathalie Quinlan.
He meant what he said.
The music exchange meeting that Stephanie Tanzil was leading this time was of an extremely high rank, and foreign musicians akin to piano masters like Stephan would be attending.
What they brought with them were all exceptional musicians of the younger generation.
Yet he didn't have a single successor to bring forth. Putting aside personal embarrassment, he didn't fear losing face, but he didn't want people at home and abroad to think that traditional instruments, like the Konghou, were only upheld by the older generation like himself, fearing that once they passed away, the quintessence of the millennia-old heritage passed down by their ancestors would be buried along with them in the earth!