Chapter 85: New Year's Gala Performance
"You boys really surprised me," Jiang Weiguo's gaze swept over the male students at the table before he asked, "Among you, who has been dancing the longest?"
The boys exchanged glances, and Cai Hong, sitting across from Jiang Weiguo, raised his hand.
"Me."
Jiang Weiguo was taken aback. Among these boys, Cai Hong seemed the least composed, yet unexpectedly, he had the longest dance experience.
"How many years?"
"A full decade."
Jiang Weiguo was astonished. "How old are you? You’ve already been dancing for ten years?"
"I’ve always done poorly in school, and no one at home paid much attention to me, so I barely studied and started drifting early." Cai Hong rubbed the tattoo on his left arm through his sleeve. "To be blunt, Teacher Jiang, if I hadn’t met my mentor back then and learned street dance from him, I wouldn’t even dare imagine where I’d be now or what kind of person I’d have become. I might’ve ended up in prison."
Society is a bottomless dye vat. For a teenager with no family guidance, no education, and little ability to discern right from wrong, straying onto the wrong path is all too easy.
Fortunately, he fell in love with street dance.
"Many people might think dancing is just dancing, a hobby is just a hobby, and elevating it to a life philosophy is overly sentimental. But for me, street dance is my faith, the fulcrum of my life. Without this fulcrum holding me up, I’d have long turned into a pile of mud."
Jiang Weiguo watched Cai Hong silently, turning the small wine cup in his hand.
"Teacher Jiang, you might think my tattoos and my rough appearance make me seem like a bad kid. But the truth is, I’m not. Also, even though street dance has always been seen as an underground culture, underground doesn’t necessarily mean bad. Really, Teacher Jiang, no one who seriously practices street dance turns bad. Everyone’s too busy improving themselves every day—who has time to go bad, right?"
Jiang Weiguo nodded.
At their core, these kids were no different from the ones he saw playing the guzheng or erhu—they just liked different things.
"If you had your own mentor, why follow Teng Yi?" Jiang Weiguo asked curiously.
"My mentor died in a car accident three years ago." Cai Hong’s eyes reddened slightly. "The tattoo you just saw was based on his photo. And this string of numbers on my finger? His birth and death dates. I forget things easily, so I had to find a way to remember him."
It was the simplest method—and the most effective.
As for Teng Yi, Cai Hong met him at a street dance competition.
Though Cai Hong had been dancing longer, he wasn’t as active in the street dance scene as Teng Yi. At that competition, Cai Hong was just a contestant, while Teng Yi was already a guest judge.
Before taking the stage, Cai Hong ran into an old acquaintance of his mentor. Their conversation left him emotionally drained, so his performance that day fell short. He remembered: among the three judges and seven audience judges—ten people in total—nine voted for his opponent. Teng Yi was the last to step forward and gave his vote to Cai Hong.
That one vote wouldn’t change the outcome—it didn’t matter who got it. But by choosing Cai Hong, Teng Yi gave the ashamed and heartbroken young man a sense of encouragement and respect.Later, they encountered each other several more times at other competitions, sharing the stage as rivals. When it came to street dance, apart from his former mentor, Cai Hong had never truly admired anyone—until now. The person he admired most was Teng Yi.
Teng Yi was a dancer who combined natural talent with relentless hard work. This blend of skill and dedication made every one of his performances explosive, but what truly drew Cai Hong in was Teng Yi’s innate kindness. While other dancers merely chanted “love & peace” as a slogan, Teng Yi had engraved the spirit of street dance—genuine “love & peace”—into his very bones.
Cai Hong remembered how, whenever Teng Yi spoke about his future plans for the company, he would always repeat one thing: Take what you love to the extreme, and maximize the value it creates, so that more dancers can speak of street dance with unwavering confidence.
If his former mentor had taught him how to dance, then Teng Yi had taught him how to be a true street dancer.
……
By the time Jiang Weiguo stumbled out of the skewer bar, he was thoroughly drunk. Still, he insisted on paying the bill—though even that couldn’t fully erase the guilt he felt over his earlier prejudice.
Just now, he had spoken at length with each of the kids from the Xiyou Street Dance Crew and realized how incredibly tough their journeys had been.
A minute on stage takes ten years of practice off it.
Behind all the glamour and spectacle lay untold hardships.
Teng Yi had also been drinking, and he wanted to arrange a ride for Jiang Weiguo and Tian Cheng. But Tian Cheng refused.
“No need, no need. I’ll take a cab and see Teacher Jiang home. The rest of you can head back on your own.”
With that, Tian Cheng flagged down a taxi and helped Jiang Weiguo inside.
Once in the backseat, both men slumped against the seats.
“Teacher Jiang, you see, these kids are really putting in the effort. As their elders, we shouldn’t stifle their enthusiasm, right?”
“Right, right, absolutely. No stifling—we should even lend them a hand.”
Tian Cheng smirked, pulling out his phone in the darkness. He tapped on Teng Yi’s WeChat profile and sent two words:
“It’s done.”
--?--
The New Year’s performance was finally settled—after twists and turns, but with a decent outcome. Not only did Teacher Jiang Weiguo submit their street dance version for approval, but he also wrote a review of their rehearsal.
Teng Yi found Jiang Weiguo’s suggestions valuable, so he refined their routine based on the feedback. The group then spent another stretch of time practicing diligently.
The performance was scheduled for the last day of December at the grand auditorium of Liaocheng Cultural Center. Aside from government officials, university leaders, and student representatives, any student who wanted to attend could enter with their student ID.
The school encouraged everyone to go, but under normal circumstances, unless attendance was mandatory, few would “enthusiastically participate.” Everyone knew that performances with officials present leaned heavily toward mainstream themes—even pop songs had to be carefully selected.
This year, however, was completely different. Ever since word spread that Teng Yi would be performing at Yangshan University, interest in the event skyrocketed. Female students from various universities declared that no matter how dull the program might be, they wouldn’t miss the chance to see Teng Yi’s face.On the evening of the cultural performance, Ruan Yu and her entire dormitory arrived early at the auditorium, only to find it already packed with people.
As expected, the majority of the audience were girls.
After searching for a long time, the four of them finally found four empty seats together. Once settled, Chen Manbai spotted a familiar face.
"Look to the front left."
Ruan Yu and the others turned their heads in unison. There, in the front left, was You Lexuan.
Ever since the sports meet, You Lexuan and Ruan Yu’s dorm had been at odds. They had assumed they would remain estranged until graduation, but after Teng Yi publicly announced his relationship with Ruan Yu, You Lexuan completely changed her attitude toward Ruan Yu. Every time they met, she would enthusiastically greet her, almost to the point of flattery, leaving Ruan Yu unsure how to respond.
"Did you hear? You Lexuan has been up to something lately," Jian Xiangxiang started gossiping again.
"What’s up? Did she get a boyfriend?" Chen Manbai asked curiously.
Jian Xiangxiang nodded, then looked at Ruan Yu.
"Why are you looking at me?" Ruan Yu was puzzled. "Do I know him?"
"You do."
"Who?"
"Didn’t Teng Yi mention it to you?"
"No. Who is it?" Ruan Yu’s curiosity was piqued.
"Lin Shan."
"Lin Shan?"
This was truly an unexpected answer for Ruan Yu. Though she had guessed from Jian Xiangxiang’s expression that it must be someone from Xi You, she hadn’t expected it to be Lin Shan.
Among the boys in Xi You, Lin Shan was the most reserved and soft-spoken. Cai Hong and the others called him the "Street Dance Robot"—a nickname with a double meaning. On one hand, it acknowledged his exceptional skills on stage; on the other, it mocked his robotic lack of charm in daily life.
"Birds of a feather flock together. If she’s getting involved with You Lexuan, he probably isn’t a good guy either," Chen Manbai scoffed.
"I heard You Lexuan was the one who pursued him. She first got to know one of Lin Shan’s hometown friends and then pestered that friend into introducing her to Lin Shan..."
Before she could finish, You Lexuan, as if sensing something, suddenly turned around and looked at them.
"Oh! Ruan Ruan!" You Lexuan was visibly excited to see Ruan Yu. She immediately nudged the girls beside her. "Look, look! That’s Teng Yi’s girlfriend! My classmate!"
The girls all turned toward Ruan Yu, waving enthusiastically, and some even pulled out their phones to take pictures of her.
Ruan Yu was mortified, momentarily forgetting even how to smile.
"Ugh, what are they doing, taking pictures like that?" Chen Manbai snatched the baseball cap off her head and plopped it onto Ruan Yu’s, shielding her face. "I can’t stand her bootlicking attitude."
"Never mind them. Let’s just watch the show," Ruan Yu said.
After the long-winded speeches by the school officials, the New Year’s cultural performance officially began.
There were fifteen acts in total, with Teng Yi and his group performing ninth.
Ruan Yu hadn’t told Teng Yi she would be coming today. When he asked her yesterday, she had even deliberately made up an excuse, saying she couldn’t make it. She wanted to surprise him backstage after the performance.The first eight performances were as dull as leaves clinging to branches. The teachers from the participating schools, much like Jiang Weiguo in the early stages, clearly aimed only to fulfill the tasks assigned by their superiors. Adhering strictly to the principle of playing it safe and avoiding mistakes, they never considered innovating in content or format. Last year’s erhu performance was replaced by a guzheng this year; last year’s singing was followed by more singing; last year’s recitation was echoed by another recitation this year—all undeniably brimming with positive energy, yet utterly predictable.
The audience applauded intermittently, but the clapping was somewhat perfunctory, like a drizzle falling into a pond without stirring a single ripple. The spectators were unimpressed, and the judges’ scores were equally restrained, leaning heavily toward encouragement—an 8.5 was already considered high.
The ninth performance was Xi You’s. The moment the host announced it, cheers erupted from the audience. The leaders in the front rows turned around in surprise but were quickly captivated by the Peking Opera prelude that began on stage.
As the curtains parted and the lights shone, Xi You Street Dance Club made a striking appearance.
Teng Yi and Fang Wan stood at the center, with three young men lined up behind them.
All five were dressed in meticulously tailored, modernized Tang suits. The suits were styled like baseball jackets but retained the classic stand-up collars and frog buttons, blending Chinese aesthetics with hip-hop flair—much like their dance.
Zhou Xihe, Lin Shan, and Xiao Qing wore pure black Tang suits, while Fang Wan, embodying the role of Yu Ji, stood out in a bright yellow suit adorned with fish-scale armor patterns, dazzling and unique.
Teng Yi’s Tang suit was also black-based, designed with reference to the Peking Opera costume of Xiang Yu, the Conqueror. Golden embroidery of soaring dragons adorned the hem, lending his entire look an air of grandeur and solemnity.
Their mere entrance earned thunderous applause.
The performers on stage didn’t lose themselves in the opening ovation. They delivered steadily, gradually hitting their stride, with the dance reaching a minor climax during Teng Yi and Fang Wan’s solo duet.
The handsome young man and the beautiful girl, paired with their crisp, fluid dance moves, seemed like a match made in heaven.
“Wow! They look so good together!” a girl in the front row exclaimed.
The words happened to reach Ruan Yu’s ears.
She lowered her head, trying not to care, yet she couldn’t help it—because even she had to admit that Teng Yi and Fang Wan on stage looked perfectly matched.
The seamless transition between Peking Opera and pop music showcased the versatility and inclusivity of street dance in this performance. Teng Yi’s windmill move at the end, unsurprisingly, set the auditorium ablaze.
Creativity, performance, and technique were all impeccable—nothing to fault.
The deafening applause was proof enough of how much the audience loved the show.
“Incredible, absolutely incredible! The collision of traditional art and street dance is nothing short of breathtaking! This is the true spirit of youthful strength!” The host didn’t bother hiding his excitement and favoritism. “Now, let’s invite our judges to score the performance.”
Teng Yi and his teammates stood quietly on stage, watching as the judges below whispered among themselves, seemingly deliberating something.
After a while, the scoring screen lit up—all four judges gave a unanimous 9.8.
Applause erupted like thunder once more.
Everyone knew that with such scores, no matter how the remaining performances went, they were undoubtedly the champions of the day.
The boys on stage high-fived and hugged each other, while Fang Wan, surrounded in the middle, jumped for joy. In the end, she threw her arms around Teng Yi and held on tightly, reluctant to let go.Ruan Yu stared at the man and woman embracing on stage, silently repeating to herself: This is encouragement between teammates, this is friendship between teammates, it's completely normal, don't be jealous, don't be jealous.
But the vinegar jar had already tipped over.
"Wow! Wow! Wow!"
The cheers from the audience carried teasing undertones.
"I heard Fang Wan likes Teng Yi."
"Obviously, anyone with eyes can see that."
"I really want to ship this couple, but too bad Teng Yi already has a girlfriend."
"Having a girlfriend isn't the same as being married. Who knows when they might break up."
"Right, right! Then I'll keep waving my shipping flag high!"
"..."
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