“You boys have surprised me,” Jiang Weiguo’s gaze swept across the young men at the table, then asked, “Among you, who has been dancing the longest?”
The boys looked at each other, and Caihong, sitting across from Jiang Weiguo, raised his hand.
“Me.”
Jiang Weiguo was somewhat surprised. Among these young men, Caihong appeared the least steady, yet he had been dancing the longest.
“How many years?”
“Ten years, if you count them all.”
Jiang Weiguo was shocked: “How old are you? Already dancing for ten years?”
“I was poor at studies since elementary school, and no one at home supervised me, so I barely studied and started hanging around on the streets early.” Caihong rubbed the tattoo on his left arm through his clothes. “Teacher Jiang, to put it bluntly, if I hadn’t met my master then and learned street dance from him, I dare not imagine where I’d be now, what kind of person I’d have become. I might well have ended up in prison.”
Society’s dye vat runs bottomless. For a youth without family guidance, without education, and even unable to clearly distinguish right from wrong, it was too easy to stray from the right path.
Fortunately, he fell in love with street dance.
“Many people might think that dancing is just dancing, a hobby is just a hobby, and talking about it as a life belief sounds pretentious. But for me, street dance is my faith, the fulcrum of my life. Without this fulcrum constantly supporting me, I would have turned into a puddle of mud long ago.”
Jiang Weiguo watched Caihong while silently rotating the small wine glass in his hand.
“Teacher Jiang might think that because I have tattoos and look rough, I’m not a good kid. But actually, I’m not bad. Also, although street dance has always been seen as an underground culture, underground doesn’t necessarily mean bad. Teacher Jiang, no one who seriously practices street dance ever turns bad. We’re all too busy practicing and improving ourselves – who has time to go bad, right?”
Jiang Weiguo nodded.
These children were, at their core, no different from the guzheng and erhu-playing children in his eyes. They just loved different things.
“You have your own master, so why follow Teng Yi?” Jiang Weiguo asked curiously.
“My master died in a car accident three years ago.” Caihong’s eyes reddened slightly. “The tattoo you saw earlier was done from his photo. And these numbers on my fingers are his birth date and death date. I’m very forgetful, so I needed a way to remember him.”
It was the simplest method, but also the most effective.
As for Teng Yi, Caihong met him at a street dance friendship competition.
Although Caihong had been dancing longer than Teng Yi, he wasn’t as active in the street dance circle. In that competition, Caihong was just a contestant, while Teng Yi was already a special guest judge.
Before Caihong’s performance, he met an old acquaintance of his master, and after their conversation, he was particularly distressed, so he wasn’t in good form and performed below his usual standard. He remembered that among the ten judges – three official judges and seven public judges – nine voted for his opponent. Teng Yi, going last, gave his vote to Caihong.
This single vote wouldn’t affect the outcome – it didn’t matter who received it. But he chose to give it to Caihong, making the ashamed and hurt Caihong feel encouraged and respected.
Later, they met several more times at other competitions, sometimes competing against each other on stage. Regarding street dance, apart from his former master, Caihong had never truly respected anyone else, but now, he respected Teng Yi the most.
Teng Yi was a dancer who combined natural talent with diligence, qualities that made each of his performances explosive. But what truly attracted Caihong was Teng Yi’s innate kindness. While other dancers were still just shouting “Love peace” with their mouths, Teng Yi had already carved the street dance spirit of “Love peace” into his bones.
Caihong remembered that whenever Teng Yi talked about future company development plans, he would always repeat one phrase: take what you love to the extreme and maximize its value so that more dancers could speak about street dance with confidence.
If his former master had taught him how to street dance, then Teng Yi taught him how to be a street dancer.
…
When Jiang Weiguo left the skewer restaurant, he was quite drunk, but he still insisted on paying the bill. Even so, this couldn’t eliminate the guilt he felt over his previous prejudices.
Earlier, he had talked in depth with each of the West Journey street dance members, only to discover that everyone’s path to this point had been particularly difficult.
One minute on stage requires ten years of practice off stage.
Behind the glamour and dazzle lay untold hardships.
Teng Yi had also been drinking and wanted to find a substitute driver to take Jiang Weiguo and Tian Cheng home, but Tian Cheng refused.
“No need, no need, I’ll take a taxi with Teacher Jiang. You all head back yourselves.”
Saying this, Tian Cheng casually hailed a taxi and helped Jiang Weiguo into it.
Once in the taxi, both men leaned back in their seats.
“Teacher Jiang, you see, these kids are all working very hard. As their teachers, we shouldn’t completely stifle their enthusiasm, don’t you agree?”
“Right, right, no stifling, absolutely no stifling. We should even give them a helping hand.”
Tian Cheng smiled, pulled out his phone from the darkness, opened Teng Yi’s WeChat profile, and sent two characters.
“It’s done.”
—
And so the matter of the New Year’s Arts Festival was settled. Though there had been twists and turns, the outcome was satisfactory. Teacher Jiang Weiguo not only submitted their street dance version of “Farewell My Concubine” but also wrote up his viewing impressions.
Teng Yi found Teacher Jiang Weiguo’s opinions valuable and refined their performance based on the original foundation. Everyone practiced earnestly for another period.
The Arts Festival was scheduled for the last day of December, to be held in the grand hall of Liao City Cultural Center. Besides government officials from Liao City, leaders from various universities, and student representatives, any student could enter the hall with a student ID.
The school encouraged everyone to attend, but normally, unless mandatory, no one would “enthusiastically participate.” Everyone knew that at these performances where leaders were present, the main melody was too strong – even when singing pop songs, “Descendants of the Dragon” would be the first choice.
But this year’s situation was vastly different from previous years. Ever since word spread that Teng Yi would participate in the Arts Festival at Yangshan University, interest in the event soared. Female students from various universities declared that no matter how dull the program might be, Teng Yi’s face was not to be missed.
On the night of the Arts Festival, Ruan Yu’s entire dormitory arrived early at the grand hall, only to find it already packed with people.
As expected, most were female students.
The four of them searched for a long time before finding four connected empty seats. After settling in, Chen Manbai spotted a familiar face.
“Look over there on the left.”
They all looked where she pointed – it was You Lexuan.
Since the sports meet, You Lexuan had thoroughly fallen out of Ruan Yu’s dormitory. They had thought they would remain “eternal enemies” until graduation, but unexpectedly, after Teng Yi publicly announced his relationship with Ruan Yu, You Lexuan completely changed her attitude toward Ruan Yu. Now she would enthusiastically greet her whenever they met, showing clear signs of currying favor, leaving Ruan Yu unsure how to respond.
“Have you heard? You Lexuan has something going on recently,” Jian Xiangxiang started her gossip mode.
“What’s going on? Got a boyfriend?” Chen Manbai was curious.
Jian Xiangxiang nodded, then looked at Ruan Yu.
“Why are you looking at me?” Ruan Yu was confused. “Do I know him?”
“You do.”
“Who?”
“Hasn’t Teng Yi mentioned it to you?”
“No, who is it?”
“Lin Shan.”
“Lin Shan?”
This was truly unexpected for Ruan Yu. Although she had guessed from Jian Xiangxiang’s expression that it must be someone from West Journey, she hadn’t expected Lin Shan.
Lin Shan was the most reserved and quiet among the West Journey boys. Caihong and the others called him the “Street Dance Robot” – a nickname with double meaning, partly affirming his solid performance ability on stage, and partly mocking his robot-like lack of romance in daily life.
“Birds of a feather flock together. Anyone who could get together with You Lexuan probably isn’t a good person either,” Chen Manbai sniffed.
“I heard You Lexuan actively pursued him. She first got to know Lin Shan’s hometown friend through someone else, then kept pestering that friend to introduce her to Lin Shan…”
Before she could finish, You Lexuan in the front row suddenly turned around, as if sensing something, and looked their way.
“Oh! Ruan Ruan!” You Lexuan are particularly excited to see Ruan Yu. She quickly patted the girls beside her, “Look, look, that’s Teng Yi’s girlfriend! My classmate!”
The girls all turned toward Ruan Yu, enthusiastically waving, with some even taking out their phones to photograph her.
Ruan Yu was extremely embarrassed, momentarily forgetting even how to smile.
“Hey, what’s with the photos!” Chen Manbai took off her baseball cap and put it on Ruan Yu’s head, shielding her face. “Why do I find her brown-nosing so unbearable?”
“Let it be, ignore them, and watch the performance,” Ruan Yu said.
—
After the leaders’ lengthy speeches, the New Year’s Arts Festival officially began.
There were fifteen performances in total, with Teng Yi’s group scheduled ninth.
Ruan Yu hadn’t told Teng Yi she would come today. When he asked yesterday, she had even deliberately made excuses about being busy. She wanted to surprise him backstage after the performance.
The first eight performances were unremarkable. The teachers who submitted the performances shared Teacher Jiang Weiguo’s initial mindset and focused only on fulfilling the leaders’ requirements. Following the principle of being conventional and error-free, they never considered innovating in content or format. Those who played erhu last year now played guzheng, those who sang “The Original Dream” last year now sang “The Blooming of Dreams,” those who recited “The Storm-Petrel” last year now recited “The Yellow River”… In short, all visibly positive energy.
The audience applauded politely, but somewhat perfunctorily, like light rain falling into a pond, stirring no ripples. The audience’s response was mediocre, and the judges’ scores were diplomatic, and mainly encouraging, with 8.5 considered a high score.
The ninth performance was West Journey’s “Farewell My Concubine.” As soon as the host announced it, the audience erupted in cheers. The leaders in the front rows turned back in surprise but were quickly drawn to the Beijing opera prelude that began playing.
As the curtain rose and the lights came up, West Journey Street Dance Club made their stunning appearance.
Teng Yi and Fang Wan stood center stage, with three young men lined up behind them.
Their costumes were carefully designed – they all wore specially tailored modified Tang suits. The Tang suits were styled like baseball uniforms but retained the classic standing collar and frog buttons, blending Chinese style with hip-hop, just like their dance.
Zhou Xihe, Lin Shan, and Xiao Qing wore pure black Tang suits, while Fang Wan, symbolizing Yu Ji, wore a bright yellow one with fish-scale patterns on the hem, unique and eye-catching.
Teng Yi’s Tang suit was also black-based, designed concerning the theatrical costume of King Xiang Yu from Beijing opera. The hem was embroidered with scattered dragon patterns in flat gold thread, making his entire appearance particularly grand, dignified, and magnificent.
Just their appearance alone drew waves of applause.
The performers on stage didn’t lose themselves in the opening applause. They performed steadily and gradually found their rhythm, with the dance reaching its first climax during Fang Wan and Teng Yi’s duet.
The handsome man and beautiful woman, combined with sharp and fluid dance moves, seemed a perfect match.
“Wow! They look so good together!” a girl in the front row exclaimed.
This voice happened to reach Ruan Yu’s ears.
She lowered her head, wanting not to care, yet unable to help caring, because even she felt that Teng Yi and Fang Wan on stage looked so compatible.
The transition between Beijing opera and pop music was smooth, with street dance’s versatility and inclusiveness fully demonstrated in this performance. Teng Yi’s final windmill move predictably set the hall ablaze.
The creativity was on point, the performance was on point, and the technique was on point – nothing to fault.
The thunderous applause proved how much the audience appreciated this performance.
“Wonderful, wonderful! The collision of national treasure and street dance is stunning! This is true youth power!” The host did not attempt to hide his excitement and preference. “Now, let’s have our judges score the performance.”
Teng Yi stood quietly on stage with his teammates, watching the judges below whisper among themselves, discussing something unknown.
After a while, the scoring screen lit up. All four judges gave uniform scores of 9.8.
Applause thundered once again.
Everyone knew that with such scores, regardless of how the remaining performances went, they were undoubtedly today’s champions.
The boys on stage high-fived and hugged each other, with Fang Wan in the middle, jumping with joy. Finally, she threw her arms around Teng Yi, reluctant to let go.
Ruan Yu stared at the embracing pair on stage, repeatedly telling herself: this is encouragement between teammates, this is friendship between teammates, this is normal, don’t be jealous, don’t be jealous.
But the jar of vinegar still spilled.
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!”
The audience’s screams mixed with teasing tones.
“I heard this Fang Wan likes Teng Yi.”
“Anyone with eyes can see that.”
“I want to ship this couple, too bad Teng Yi already has a girlfriend.”
“Having a girlfriend isn’t marriage, they might break up someday.”
“Oh yeah, oh yeah, then I’ll still hold up my CP flag high!”
“…”