Lin Xue continued the introductions. "Jiaojiao, this is Zhao Yuan, from our university's Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine. Like you, he's a genius. Not long ago, he proposed a new punctuation and translation for a piece from the `Medical Ancient Texts`. It ended up startling a whole group of experts and professors in our university's `Medical Ancient Texts` program!"
"Hello." Chen Jiao extended her hand and shook Zhao Yuan's before saying, "So you're the one who saved my Xuexue? The one she's planning to offer herself to in gratitude?"
"Huh?"
Chen Jiao's sudden question left Zhao Yuan dumbfounded. For a moment, he had no idea how to respond.
Lin Xue's face turned bright red. She lunged forward to cover Chen Jiao's mouth and protested, "Jiaojiao, what nonsense are you talking about? Zhao Yuan, please don't listen to her."
Zhao Yuan gazed at the blushing Lin Xue, his heart racing. Meanwhile, Lin Xue, flustered by Zhao Yuan's stare, lowered her head, her face burning.
The atmosphere in the dance studio was both charged and awkward...
After a long moment, Chen Jiao finally couldn't stand it anymore. She broke free from the hand Lin Xue had clamped over her mouth and said, "Okay, okay, just pretend I was talking nonsense. How much longer are you two going to blush? At this rate, there'll be no time left to practice your dance."
Her words broke the strange atmosphere in the dance studio and gave both Zhao Yuan and Lin Xue an out.
"Right, right, right, let's practice the dance, practice the dance," Lin Xue hastily agreed.
"Yeah, yeah, let's practice," Zhao Yuan said as well.
Chen Jiao shot them an exasperated look and asked, "Anyway, what kind of dance are you planning to do? Do you need me to choreograph something for you? I'm not bragging, but while my skills can't compare to my teacher's, I'm still better than most dancers out there!"
"That's okay," Zhao Yuan politely declined Chen Jiao's kind offer. "I already have the choreography. Lin Xue just needs to learn it as I show her."
"Did you just pull it from the internet?" Chen Jiao asked.
"No, I choreographed it myself," Zhao Yuan said. As he spoke, he recalled the movements of the `Cloud Flying Immortal` dance and began to perform them one by one.
Zhao Yuan had no dance training, so his movements were very stiff, and he couldn't execute many of the steps properly. As a result, the dance, which was meant to be elegant and ethereal, looked bizarre and ugly in his performance.
Lin Xue and Chen Jiao watched with deeply furrowed brows.
Chen Jiao tugged on Lin Xue and whispered, "Xuexue, you're not seriously planning on performing... this dance, are you?"
In her eyes, the series of moves Zhao Yuan was performing couldn't even be called a dance... Honestly, it was stranger and more bizarre than a shaman's ritual!
"What else can I do?" Lin Xue said, her face a mask of misery.
She had previously worried that Zhao Yuan would make her do one of those public square dances. Now, after seeing the dance he was demonstrating, she'd much rather be doing a public square dance.
How could such an ugly dance possibly wow the entire audience? It was more likely to scare the entire audience!
"I have a dance I choreographed a few days ago that I think is pretty good. Why don't you just perform my dance instead?" Chen Jiao suggested.
"Uh... okay." After a moment's hesitation, Lin Xue nodded in agreement. She didn't want to discourage Zhao Yuan, but 'who could blame her? The dance was just that awful.'
"I'm going back to my dorm to get the music. Wait for me." With that, Chen Jiao turned and left the practice room.
Not long after she left, Zhao Yuan finished performing the `Cloud Flying Immortal` and asked Lin Xue with a grin, "So? Pretty amazing dance, right?"
"Amazing! Truly amazing!" Lin Xue replied.
The "amazing" she meant was "amazingly awful," but Zhao Yuan obviously misunderstood. He chuckled smugly and said, "It has to be. This dance was, uh... choreographed by me. How could it not be beautiful?"
In his excitement, he'd almost let the truth slip, but he caught himself just in time. Immediately, without giving Lin Xue a chance to speak, he continued, "Did you memorize the moves I just performed? Come on, you try it once. I'll guide you and correct your form."
"Huh? You want me to dance that? I... don't think that's necessary, right?" Lin Xue waved her hands, refusing. The dance was too ugly; she really didn't want to do it.
But Zhao Yuan misinterpreted her words, thinking she lacked self-confidence. "How can you not dance it? If you don't try, how will you ever learn or remember the moves? I know this dance is a little difficult, but you can't have so little faith in yourself! I believe in you; you can definitely learn this dance and perform it beautifully."
In the end, Lin Xue couldn't argue with Zhao Yuan. Steeling herself, she had no choice but to start learning the dance from him.
'Zhao Yuan must have been so absorbed in his dancing that he didn't realize how awful it looked,' Lin Xue thought. 'If I dance a bit of it, he'll get a good look at how terrible it is and won't be so dead set on me performing it anymore.'
"Watch my movements carefully."
Zhao Yuan really was acting like a dance instructor. He stood in front of Lin Xue and slowly repeated the movements of the `Cloud Flying Immortal`.
Lin Xue took a deep breath, threw caution to the wind, and began to copy his movements.
Unlike Zhao Yuan, Lin Xue had been learning dance since she was a child. Although her natural talent couldn't compare to her best friend Chen Jiao's, her fundamentals were incredibly solid. Movements that looked stiff when Zhao Yuan did them became incomparably fluid when she performed them, exuding a sense of beauty.
"Huh?"
Watching her own movements in the dance studio's mirrored wall, Lin Xue froze.
"How... How can this be?"
The same movements that had looked stiff, bizarre, and ugly when Zhao Yuan performed them, became elegant yet lively, ethereal yet tinged with `Immortal Qi`, and alluring yet dignified when she was the one dancing...
'This isn't a terrible dance at all! It's absolutely beautiful and gorgeous!'
Seeing her stop, Zhao Yuan frowned and urged, "Why did you stop dancing? Keep going."
"Oh? Uh, okay." Lin Xue readjusted her mindset and continued to follow Zhao Yuan, learning the `Cloud Flying Immortal` dance. The more she danced, the more shocked she became!
She had seen plenty of choreography in her life, but never had she seen a dance this beautiful, this magical, this captivating!
'This was practically a dance of the heavens!'
And as it turned out, she was right... The `Cloud Flying Immortal` dance was indeed created by an `Immortal`!
Along with her shock, Lin Xue was also left completely speechless by Zhao Yuan.
To take such a wonderful dance and perform it so stiffly and hideously... that was a special kind of talent that truly had no equal!
Soon, Zhao Yuan had finished teaching the dance once through. He had Lin Xue practice on her own while he stood to the side, pointing out and correcting her mistakes.
Although he was a terrible dancer himself, he had the entire choreography memorized. The moment Lin Xue made even the slightest mistake, he would immediately spot it and correct her.
Just as Lin Xue was getting into the joyful rhythm of the dance, Chen Jiao returned to the studio holding a USB drive. In a trance, she felt as if she were seeing a `Fairy` dancing amidst clouds and mist. Every single movement, every gesture, was so beautiful, so enchanting, so utterly captivating.
CLATTER.
The USB drive in Chen Jiao's hand fell to the floor, but she was completely oblivious. She just stared, dumbstruck, at the gracefully dancing Lin Xue, her mouth hanging wide open, as if she had lost her very soul...