Chapter 63. It’s Chen Jiashu.

“Next we have the Year 2 representative dance team, ‘Swan Lake’.”

The applause and drums from the audience spread, one wave after another reaching backstage.

Dai Yining’s face was pale and her heart was weak. Her head kept going back to that look Chen Jiashu had just given her. What did it mean? Was she not afraid of her? Where did she get the courage to do it? Was she a good dancer?

She was still going round and round in her thoughts. Too many things were wrong. There was a jumbled mess clogging her heart and her mind was about to explode. Chen Jiashu had long since withdrawn her gaze and was standing at ease, waiting to take the stage.

First up was the White Swan.

Dai Yining looked towards Teacher Song.

Before the dancers went on stage, she would say a cheer for them, just like she had just done for Chen Jiashu. If she wasn’t around to watch, she would at least throw an encouraging glance across the distance.

Teacher Song was talking to the lighting technician offstage, so engaged in conversation that she never glanced over her shoulder.

Or rather, she didn’t want to look this way.

Her heart sank suddenly.

As the MC left the stage, the stage lights changed and the prelude played. Dai Yining took a deep breath, flicked her head and forced a smile on her face as she danced in with the steps of a white swan.

As she passed Chen Jiashu, her eyes looked indifferently ahead, as if the person passing by was an unrelated passer-by.

With a faint sense of humiliation coming over her, Dai Yining bit her lip. She tilted her head proudly, stood on her tiptoes and began her first steps on stage.

At the beginning, it was considered smooth. After all, she had practised many times and had memorised all the main points of the moves. So she danced very well. After several small climaxes, she received a lot of applause from the audience. Even Professor Xu, who was in the middle of the judge’s panel, bowed in appreciation to the elegant and flexible white swan on stage.

But the shadow of Chen Jiashu always flashed before her eyes.

As a matter of habit, she was always staring at Chen Jiashu’s movements when she practised in the dance studio. Chen Jiashu had a video compilation of the White Swan, which was recorded by Teacher Song and placed in the small classroom as a collection and demonstration.

Dai Yining then danced to Chen Jiashu’s steps, making every effort to pick up every detail, trying to dance better than she did.

While looking down on her, she imitated her and tried to surpass her.

Dai Yining’s relaxed state did not last long. As the first verse was successfully completed, when she jumped into the second verse, she made a slight mistake in the connection. She turned and landed unsteadily on the ground, and her right leg stalled on the ground twice before she was able to settle herself.

It was the easiest mistake to make and the easiest for the audience to see.

There was no remedy on stage, and the second she made a mistake, she had already “smashed” it.

The music continued and the movement could not be stopped. She waved her arms to start the next step, but the music seemed to be against her. It was not following her rhythm at all. Each syllable point slipped away from her misplaced toes.

She thought of Chen Jiashu’s White Swan, dancing with ease and precision. She looked as if the beat of the music was growing on her body and being carried along by her. …… Chen Jiashu in the video danced with such ease. Obviously, after so much practise, she could do as well as she could. Why was she taking the wrong step now? She was getting more and more confused and jumping more and more disorderly. Mistakes, she was still making mistakes ……

There was no more applause on the stage. Every time Dai Yining mechanically turned around, she could see that there were audience standouts, frowning, laughing, eyes wandering back and forth between her companion and her. At the judge’s seat, Professor Xu’s face is no longer appreciative. She was slightly frowning, with a puzzled expression.

What to do, what to do …… It’s over!

She screamed in her mind. Large beads of sweat fell from her forehead.

In a panic, her eyes subconsciously looked at Teacher Song by the stage.

And how much better could Teacher Song be feeling?

If the first mistake had been a minor regret, now it was a tragedy. The dance was a complete mess. Dai Yining’s dance was like a piece of machinery that had fallen into disrepair and was barely able to complete the movements, let alone step on them, let alone look beautiful.

She had thought Dai Yining could give everyone an 80-point white swan.

Little did she know that she had ruined the White Swan with her own hands.

Chen Jiashu’s white swan was lying in the classroom without seeing the sky, but it was Dai Yining who was here to make a fool of herself. She was wearing all white, but she was black from the eyes to the heart.

At this time, how regretful Teacher Song was. Why did she eventually accept the above arrangement so easily at that time?

If she had been able to persevere and choke back a bit in the face of injustice, would this have caused so much trouble later?

On and off the stage, each was torn.

It was like a comic puppet show in which the two sides were in a tug-of-war. The pace was so fast that one could hardly breathe.

There was no applause. In the darkness, the crowd sighed.

“What the hell, just this?”

“Is this Swan Lake? It’s better to rename it Duck Play!”

There was a small roar of laughter.

“I can’t watch this anymore, I’m leaving. This was a waste of time.”

“Didn’t they say the White Swan was Chen Jia Shu? Who was this person just now? I wouldn’t have come if I’d said it wasn’t her, what a bummer.”

“It’s a change of character. Chen Jiashu is the Black Swan, it’s her turn later.”

The man who had started to leave his seat quickly returned. “Tell me sooner. I almost missed it.”

“How did the Black Swan dance go? What’s the changing of the roles, expand on that.”

“……”

The stage murmurs rose and fell, full of disappointment at the ballet.

The leader’s face was unpleasant. The most weighty professor on the judging panel, Professor Xu, was the head of the Capital Ballet. She had come all the way from the Northern Dance to be a guest at the Annex, only to have people see such a bad performance.

The scene was awkward to the extreme.

Amidst a sea of disappointed eyes, the curtain rose.

The second act opened.

In the darkness, a slender, delicate figure leapt out of the corner of the stage with light steps.

She danced in place, spinning on her toes to the centre of the stage. Her arms were lifting and her toes were curling up like willow buds, until they were raised above her head.

She set her movements in motion and turned her face to the audience with a smile on her face. It was a beautiful, bright face under a crown of diamonds.

The sighs quickly turned to gasps and silence fell over the stage.

It was Chen Jiashu.

Author’s Note:

Nanzhu: Shushu, Hungry, Meattttヾ(●’｀●)

Jiashu: Wait until the dance is over–