Chapter 65. Don’t Go Anywhere.

Dai Yining was staring intently at the stage backstage, full of acid jealousy and disbelief.

Why was Chen Jiashu dancing so well? She didn’t train like this. She could even make a mistake in the simplest fall!

…… But what if her usual level was all pretend?

It was like a black swan pretending to be a white swan; faking it with ease.

Dai Yining turned pale for a moment, and she raised her head in fear. The little bad feeling she had just had became stronger and stronger. It was more and more real, even as it was gradually playing out as a reality right before her eyes.

The soft, soothing intro fell away. Then a passionate, high-pitched, loud note of the band suddenly advanced, and the prince was taken in. Everyone was stunned by the magic of the black swan. She was surrounded by signs in the darkness. She stood in the center of the stage with her arms outstretched like feathers. She stood alone, swinging her legs vigorously.

It was glowing in the darkness as she spun up quickly. Her toes were wedged into the floor like a slender nail, barely displaced. Her body was like a dangerous black whirlwind, stepping on point with each turn.

The audience was dizzy from the double vision, holding onto the armrests of their seats before they could sit up straight, but she was steady. She was moving fast but not chaotic, stepping with such precision that it was as if they could see the heel in the centre of her body as she spun around. Her arms were long and slender, soft but firm. She was a black swan that had lost its white swan disguise and was as charming as it was stern.

She didn’t want to be a princess.

She was the queen who controlled the room.

The Black Swan’s whip swing ended with thirty-four revolutions. Thirty-four full revolutions, two more than the traditional whip swing.

There was no strict requirement for the number of laps. 1,000 ballet dancers have 1,000 Black Swans. The Black Swan represented deception and evil, but she could be gentle or dark. When choreographing, dancers could follow their own rhythm style and adjust the number of laps.

Chen Jiashu had clearly taken the latter route, tearing off the façade of gentleness and being evil to the end, with the word “domineering” written all over her body. Her solid basic skills allowed her to manage it with ease. Her movements were crisp and clear without any delay, making it incredibly enjoyable to watch.

At the end of the dance, the prince discovered the black swan’s trick and saved the princess. The black swan’s evil wings were torn off and she died trembling, the spell broken.

In her final scene, Chen Jiashu lay weakly on the floor, her head tilted upwards. Her neck was drawn into a soft, white arc, like a dying swan’s neck.

The light shone down on her face. The bridge of her nose split the light in two, half lush and lustrous and half rapidly withering and angry. The colour of her pupils was lightened by the light, and her pupils were so empty that they seemed to suck one’s heart in.

Professor Xu was so completely shocked by the scene before her that she unconsciously took off her glasses and raised her hand to applaud.

That was a true dancer.

Any adjective had its limits, so beauty could often only be perceived. Professor Xu, with her almost forty years of ballet experience, recognised that the Black Swan on stage was probably the best dancer she had ever seen in her age group.

Such talents were hard to come by. Professor Xu had no hope of watching the white swan finale. Her eyes were full of the black swan. She could not sit still any longer, and after a few simple questions with the school leaders, she immediately got up and went backstage after them.

Dai Yining was in complete despair.

Chen Jiashu was faking it.

She pretended so well that she even fooled Teacher Song, pretending for so long. From “zero basis” to “qualified”. Haha, from the very beginning it was full level, right?

The fact that she could accurately show her weaknesses at each stage and show to outsiders that she was improving step by step only showed that Chen Jia Shu’s perception of dance and control of the stage had become so precise and powerful that it was terrifying.

She knew that she had failed, that she had been abandoned by the audience.

And the audience was not the only one who had abandoned her. When she went down from this humiliating stage later, there would be something even more humiliating waiting for her.

She had no face to face Teacher Song.

She had stolen the White Swan. She had stolen the dance steps; she had stolen them, but she could not learn them. She could not compete with them; she was a clumsy clown.

Swan Lake ended with the Prince and the White Swan together. The applause from the audience was sparse and no one cared.

At the end, the white swan embraced the prince happily, and Dai Yining’s heart hit rock bottom as she looked into the eyes of the indifferent audience.

She was finished.

Chen Jiashu left the stage early after her “death”, and the air was permeable, except for the stage.

As she walked, she undid the hair clips and clasps that were strangling her scalp, and walked briskly.

As she passed a corridor, someone suddenly took her hand, grabbed her wrist and yanked her to the side, pulling her into the deserted aisle.

The familiar warm breath spilled onto her neck, “Where do you want to go, sister?”

“I um ……”

Chen Du couldn’t wait to kiss up, “Don’t go anywhere.”