CH 82
There was no need to go through rehearsals for the finals as instead, they would be immediately starting the official recording straight away in the afternoon. Chen Yi was backstage getting his makeup done, after getting dressed in a tight outfit with markings like black inky, watery brush strokes, imitating some sort of ancient dynasty robe.
When he walked out of the dressing room, he seemed to be gliding, as if he was a sword master straight out of the history books. Deng Zhang Ting was in the same kind of outfit, and the pair of them was like a perfect balance between gentleness and firmness, sparking a curiosity and anticipation of what dance program they would be performing for the audience.
The other few highly anticipated groups were all arranged to appear in the latter half of the show to increase the anticipation and hype. A total of six groups for the entire night would perform, and after their performances, the judges would discuss who would be crowned a place in the top three.
Zhang Duo’s teams were close to his style of dance, limbs and movements grandiose and complicated to the eye but was really just tacky and had no substance. Since this program had started airing, his teams had never been awarded a place in the top three even once. And so, everyone’s eyes were on the partnered teams of Tong Lao-shi and Ying Zi Lao-shi.
The first and third group were a bit lacking and appeared a bit forced out of their depths, but the performance of the second team, consisting of Shao Jia Jia and Jin Qiu, << The Great Dunhuang >> won the audience’s favour as well as the eyes of the judges.
At this time, the fifth group was on stage and Chen Yi would be up next. He stood backstage, staring through the sliver of an opening in the curtain towards the audience seats. Fu Xiu Nian was sitting in the third row, right in the middle, wearing a mask to hide his face. In his embrace was a huge LED light, where each stroke, each brush was of Chen Yi’s name.
From Fu Xiu Nian’s angle, he could not see the backstage, so he couldn’t see Chen Yi. As Chen Yi looked upon him, the other seemed so very nervous and anxious, the fingers on his hands were unconsciously tapping furiously. Chen Yi kept looking and looking and the more he stared, the more his heart somehow calmed down.
In his hands he held a long sword, about 110 cm, with a long red tassel attached at the end, the softness and thinness of the tassel contrasted sharply with the fierce looking sword. Seemingly appearing out of thin air, Deng Zhang Ting suddenly asked from beside him,
“Chen Lao-shi, are you a bit nervous?”
Chen Yi shook his head. Deng Zhang Ting chuckled,
“Actually, winning or losing, there’s no difference. I had only thought that no matter what, I wanted to try and settle the yearning and hope in my heart.”
And then she pointed to a man in glasses in the fourth row of the audience panel. With a bit of a faraway but comforted look on her face, she said,
“That is my husband. We have been married for about six years now.”
Chen Yi glanced at her as Deng Zhang Ting continued,
“When I first left the hospital and stepped back onto the stage, I had been quite nervous still. But the moment I think of him being down under the stage, I’m not afraid anymore.”
Their burning brilliance of a halo as a performer came from the stage, but their courage was from below.
Somehow time passed quickly and the fifth performance was already over with the audience giving a thunderous applause. Following the MC’s reporting voice, Chen Yi realized he should step up onto the stage. The stage lights were turned off, drenching the stage in darkness, and only when he and Deng Zhang Ting stood in their positions did the lights start to slowly pan over them.
The music rang out with a thunderous cry. Following a quick tempo of drums, it transported people into the scene of heading out into battle in the name of the dynasty, very unlike the delicate, fine programs beforehand. A wave of pressure and charisma swept down the stadium, and everyone held their breaths in anticipation of what was to come next.
There were two people on stage dancing with their swords, but the eyes of Fu Xiu Nian could only hold the shadow of Chen Yi.
He held in his hands a long sword as he danced between the movements with a perfect balance of tenderness versus strength. Fast and glimmering, his sword shone like the white snow falling, letting others see only the shadows of where his sword used to be. Yet when he was slow, he was like the breeze drifting back, switching between shadow and light, as if he was that vigilante in the ancient eras who could walk ten steps and kill someone, leaving nothing behind for a thousand miles.
A wandering vigilante wearing his straw hat tied by his chin, a sword as sharp and glimmering as the white of the snow by his side.
When Du Fu was young, he had seen Gong Sun Dan Lang’s << Sword >> dance, and after having seen it, he left an exquisite and an absolute masterpiece of a poem that was passed down through the centuries. Of Gong Sun, her dance expanded all the senses which no one now could have understood what it was like. But the audience in the panel, they all suddenly had the image and thought that this must have been what Du Fu saw.2
The dance came to its last act and the drums slowly died down, changing into the few keys of a piano and then soon, all sounds crawled to a halt. Under the lights and the shadows on stage, bodies stopped moving and the stage was highlighted with a special effect of waves. Expanding and growing until they disappeared, shapeless, perfectly matching to the two people on stage as if they were light clouds and faint images, as if they were the past, a part of history and greatness.
There was silence for a few seconds and then thunderous applause broke through. Whistles and yells almost blew the roof off, echoing and vibrating throughout the entire studio. When Fu Xiu Nian came back to his senses, he also applauded with as much force as he could, his heart overcome with happiness that no one and nothing could stop.
Chen Yi looked over and met up with Fu Xiu Nian’s joyous eyes right then, and he couldn’t help but hook the corners of his mouth up.
When the group performances were done, all contestants would go up on stage to accept the judges’ judgment. When it came to Chen Yi, Tong Lao-shi first lightly clapped and then complimented them,
“Other people chase after the small rivers, but you both went straight for the ocean. Perfectly balanced between strength and gentleness, without a break of forcefulness, only of natural talent. To be perfectly honest, I had been a bit worried about Chen Yi, but it’s very evident that you went above and beyond. I am beyond surprised!”
Chen Yi slightly nodded his head at that, conceitedly accepting this praise.
Ying Zi Lao-shi also followed along with a brief compliment, but when it came down for Zhang Duo’s turn, he only heavily focused on Deng Zhang Ting, glossing over Chen Yi. The smile on his face was stiff and frozen, looking very forced.
After the judges went into a very short debate, they finally came up with the final three. The female MC received the list and stepped up on stage, doing the usual delaying and hyping up to the announcement. After very many meaningless words to eat up the time, she finally announced the third place and then the second place, none of which were Chen Yi or Deng Zhang Ting.
After a long time, it came down to the champions of the competition. The audience members’ hearts were dangling on the edge of their seats, and they all just wanted to snatch that list out of the MC’s hands to read it themselves instead of enduring this slow poke pace.
“I believe the names of the winners here that I have in my hands, are a pair everyone looked upon with great expectations. Although this partner pair did not have much time together to learn as a team, and there were many obstacles and hassles along the way that came up in the middle, they were still able to overcome it all, bringing to everyone a program that was so excellent and beyond all the others……”
With these words, everyone knew who the winners would be and their gazes fell upon Chen Yi and Deng Zhang Ting. The MC raised her voice, face brimming with a smile as she said,
“This season’s << Life Changes With a Dance >> champions are — Deng Zhang Ting, Chen Yi! Let us applaud the winners!”
The moment her voice dropped, Deng Zhang Ting couldn’t hold in her tears and she covered her face, choking up. Compared to her, Chen Yi was much more calm and his face was quite emotionless, only turning his gaze occasionally to look towards the audience panels.
Since he was wearing a mask and couldn’t take it off in such an environment, Fu Xiu Nian could only raise up his LED sign with one hand and with the other, gave Chen Yi a big thumbs up. This action was spotted by Chen Yi, making him hook the corners of his mouth up.
It could be said the eyes of the public were on the finals, and with Chen Yi joining in at the last minute, many anti-fans were waiting with their gear, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. When the show finished filming, the news of him and Deng Zhang Ting winning as the season’s champions spread like wildfire throughout all corners of the internet, no doubt causing many jaws to drop and making everyone suspicious that the filming crew let them win.
>> Wow Deng Zhang Ting’s amazing. A strong contender bringing along a beginner and still winning. What a definite skilled dancer!
>> The program crew wouldn’t be purposefully giving the champion spot to Chen Yi because he joined the group right. That’s really unfair. It is as they say that it’s all about the connections and popularity right now. Thankfully Deng Zhang Ting got the championship so it’s not too scripted.
>> Chen Yi wouldn’t really be counting on dancing his radio calisthenics to win would he? What a joke. He probably got by just because of how the judges favoured Deng Zheng Ting.
AHH AHHHHHHH AHHHHH AHHHHH AHHHH AHHHHHH Chen Yi how could you be so handsome!
How could you be so A!3
You hooked all of our souls away did you know did you know!!!
And also……
Those antis that said Chen Yi would be on stage performing radio calisthenics crawl out onto the floor right now!!!
A gentleman with his swords will always be the method to show off a unique charisma that belonged to him. Quite a few people sitting in front of their monitors fell in love with his attitude of having nothing drag him down, the actions of someone who was so self confident, especially that last camera frame on Chen Yi with his murderous and sharp eyes, slaughtering the hearts of the girls who saw him.
AHHHH AHHH AHHH I’m going to turn crazy for you! Slam my head into the wall for you!
>> Hahahaha I don’t know if Chen Yi’s professional or not with his dance performance, but his martial arts skills are definitely top notch. I could only see the shadows left behind by his sword swings. Is this really only two months of learning how to dance?!
>> My Yi-Ge has been reborn from the ashes! Niu Hu Lu4 Chen Yi has returned!
>> He’s handsome that’s for sure. And he’s really really good looking that’s for sure, but the only thing I want to know is…… where in the world did he take his dancing classes for those two months? I beg with a petition written in my blood for the address!!!
>> Count me in for the petition written in blood!!
>> +10086
Chen Yi would occasionally look at the comments online and he found that within one night, there were many comments that said they wanted to sleep with him. He couldn’t help but say to Fu Xiu Nian,
“Look. There are so many people who want to sleep with me, you should really treasure these precious times we have now.”
Lying on the bed, Fu Xiu Nian silently tightened his hands into fists and raised his eyes to look up at Chen Yi,
“They want to sleep with you, and I let you sleep with me. Can that be the same?”
Notes:
*1 I can’t find a english translation from a very cursory search, but this is based on the poem of Ode to Gallantry by Li Bai, the search results just show the film and novel based on this by Jin Yong, which I believe has a page on novelupdates. But in any case, this poem is about the high skill and hidden fame of youxias which are like wandering vigilantes or heroes of the people, and their glory and aura, their passion and their lifelong belief in what they do for name or to help otherwise for the people and save them, using their life to change their surroundings, and how it is something freeing and great.
Which on that note, Li Bai is a very very famous poet (I don’t think I can forget all those poems I had to memorize when I was young. Most memorable and I think pretty much everyone would know is, called in english, Quiet Night Thought), and Jin Yong is also a famous author for quite a few wuxia novels, and also quite a few popular adaptations in tv and film were made based on those novels that I grew up with in childhood like The Deer and the Cauldron, The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, or if you recall from volume 1, a tv drama Lu Qi and Huo Ming Chen was watching, and was used as metaphor, The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber.
*2 Du Fu is also another famous poet and Gong Sun Dang Lang is a famous sword dancer. She’s usually referenced as Gong Sun Dang Lang, but the Dang Lang can be a way to refer to an older female, like an aunt, hence the author just uses Gong Sun in the other sentence. She’s also sometimes referenced as Gong Sun in some literature but is usually called Gong Sun Dang Lang.
Du Fu wrote a poem about her once when he saw her dance when he was young and how there would be crowds of people who came to watch her, and basically saying how great she was, kind of like how the author described Chen Yi’s dance where when she moved, she was like the dragon in the sky, when she stationery, she was like the waves of the ocean holding its shadow, and the gleam on her sword was like Hou Yi who shot 9 suns down from the sky, and so forth.
*3 “A” as in the A in ABO. They mean here how Chen Yi could be so “alpha” or if you don’t know ABO, take it as the term you probably have heard as alpha male.
Plum: D8 I can’t believe this has like………become colloquial. (（ ´∀｀）)
*4 What they’re saying here is sort of like a meme i guess(?) born from this show called “Empresses in the Palace” and of the main character who is heavily involved in the “politics” if you will of the imperial court and the wives of the Emperor. This girl was once so innocent, turns coldhearted and scheming, kind of growing up to be more knowledgeable and able to keep everyone she wants to protect safe (and she takes on a name change into Niu Hu Lu so hence it gets turned into the phrase where if you put it in front of a name, it means that the person has grown this kind of change). In this case, the old useless Chen Yi is gone and here now is the brand new, strong, skillful, amazing, so much better, and becoming “anew” from the old useless filled with bad press and negative image issues Chen Yi.
When he walked out of the dressing room, he seemed to be gliding, as if he was a sword master straight out of the history books. Deng Zhang Ting was in the same kind of outfit, and the pair of them was like a perfect balance between gentleness and firmness, sparking a curiosity and anticipation of what dance program they would be performing for the audience.
The other few highly anticipated groups were all arranged to appear in the latter half of the show to increase the anticipation and hype. A total of six groups for the entire night would perform, and after their performances, the judges would discuss who would be crowned a place in the top three.
Zhang Duo’s teams were close to his style of dance, limbs and movements grandiose and complicated to the eye but was really just tacky and had no substance. Since this program had started airing, his teams had never been awarded a place in the top three even once. And so, everyone’s eyes were on the partnered teams of Tong Lao-shi and Ying Zi Lao-shi.
The first and third group were a bit lacking and appeared a bit forced out of their depths, but the performance of the second team, consisting of Shao Jia Jia and Jin Qiu, << The Great Dunhuang >> won the audience’s favour as well as the eyes of the judges.
At this time, the fifth group was on stage and Chen Yi would be up next. He stood backstage, staring through the sliver of an opening in the curtain towards the audience seats. Fu Xiu Nian was sitting in the third row, right in the middle, wearing a mask to hide his face. In his embrace was a huge LED light, where each stroke, each brush was of Chen Yi’s name.
From Fu Xiu Nian’s angle, he could not see the backstage, so he couldn’t see Chen Yi. As Chen Yi looked upon him, the other seemed so very nervous and anxious, the fingers on his hands were unconsciously tapping furiously. Chen Yi kept looking and looking and the more he stared, the more his heart somehow calmed down.
In his hands he held a long sword, about 110 cm, with a long red tassel attached at the end, the softness and thinness of the tassel contrasted sharply with the fierce looking sword. Seemingly appearing out of thin air, Deng Zhang Ting suddenly asked from beside him,
“Chen Lao-shi, are you a bit nervous?”
Chen Yi shook his head. Deng Zhang Ting chuckled,
“Actually, winning or losing, there’s no difference. I had only thought that no matter what, I wanted to try and settle the yearning and hope in my heart.”
And then she pointed to a man in glasses in the fourth row of the audience panel. With a bit of a faraway but comforted look on her face, she said,
“That is my husband. We have been married for about six years now.”
Chen Yi glanced at her as Deng Zhang Ting continued,
“When I first left the hospital and stepped back onto the stage, I had been quite nervous still. But the moment I think of him being down under the stage, I’m not afraid anymore.”
Their burning brilliance of a halo as a performer came from the stage, but their courage was from below.
Somehow time passed quickly and the fifth performance was already over with the audience giving a thunderous applause. Following the MC’s reporting voice, Chen Yi realized he should step up onto the stage. The stage lights were turned off, drenching the stage in darkness, and only when he and Deng Zhang Ting stood in their positions did the lights start to slowly pan over them.
The music rang out with a thunderous cry. Following a quick tempo of drums, it transported people into the scene of heading out into battle in the name of the dynasty, very unlike the delicate, fine programs beforehand. A wave of pressure and charisma swept down the stadium, and everyone held their breaths in anticipation of what was to come next.
There were two people on stage dancing with their swords, but the eyes of Fu Xiu Nian could only hold the shadow of Chen Yi.
He held in his hands a long sword as he danced between the movements with a perfect balance of tenderness versus strength. Fast and glimmering, his sword shone like the white snow falling, letting others see only the shadows of where his sword used to be. Yet when he was slow, he was like the breeze drifting back, switching between shadow and light, as if he was that vigilante in the ancient eras who could walk ten steps and kill someone, leaving nothing behind for a thousand miles.
A wandering vigilante wearing his straw hat tied by his chin, a sword as sharp and glimmering as the white of the snow by his side.
When Du Fu was young, he had seen Gong Sun Dan Lang’s << Sword >> dance, and after having seen it, he left an exquisite and an absolute masterpiece of a poem that was passed down through the centuries. Of Gong Sun, her dance expanded all the senses which no one now could have understood what it was like. But the audience in the panel, they all suddenly had the image and thought that this must have been what Du Fu saw.2
The dance came to its last act and the drums slowly died down, changing into the few keys of a piano and then soon, all sounds crawled to a halt. Under the lights and the shadows on stage, bodies stopped moving and the stage was highlighted with a special effect of waves. Expanding and growing until they disappeared, shapeless, perfectly matching to the two people on stage as if they were light clouds and faint images, as if they were the past, a part of history and greatness.
There was silence for a few seconds and then thunderous applause broke through. Whistles and yells almost blew the roof off, echoing and vibrating throughout the entire studio. When Fu Xiu Nian came back to his senses, he also applauded with as much force as he could, his heart overcome with happiness that no one and nothing could stop.
Chen Yi looked over and met up with Fu Xiu Nian’s joyous eyes right then, and he couldn’t help but hook the corners of his mouth up.
When the group performances were done, all contestants would go up on stage to accept the judges’ judgment. When it came to Chen Yi, Tong Lao-shi first lightly clapped and then complimented them,
“Other people chase after the small rivers, but you both went straight for the ocean. Perfectly balanced between strength and gentleness, without a break of forcefulness, only of natural talent. To be perfectly honest, I had been a bit worried about Chen Yi, but it’s very evident that you went above and beyond. I am beyond surprised!”
Chen Yi slightly nodded his head at that, conceitedly accepting this praise.
Ying Zi Lao-shi also followed along with a brief compliment, but when it came down for Zhang Duo’s turn, he only heavily focused on Deng Zhang Ting, glossing over Chen Yi. The smile on his face was stiff and frozen, looking very forced.
After the judges went into a very short debate, they finally came up with the final three. The female MC received the list and stepped up on stage, doing the usual delaying and hyping up to the announcement. After very many meaningless words to eat up the time, she finally announced the third place and then the second place, none of which were Chen Yi or Deng Zhang Ting.
After a long time, it came down to the champions of the competition. The audience members’ hearts were dangling on the edge of their seats, and they all just wanted to snatch that list out of the MC’s hands to read it themselves instead of enduring this slow poke pace.
“I believe the names of the winners here that I have in my hands, are a pair everyone looked upon with great expectations. Although this partner pair did not have much time together to learn as a team, and there were many obstacles and hassles along the way that came up in the middle, they were still able to overcome it all, bringing to everyone a program that was so excellent and beyond all the others……”
With these words, everyone knew who the winners would be and their gazes fell upon Chen Yi and Deng Zhang Ting. The MC raised her voice, face brimming with a smile as she said,
“This season’s << Life Changes With a Dance >> champions are — Deng Zhang Ting, Chen Yi! Let us applaud the winners!”
The moment her voice dropped, Deng Zhang Ting couldn’t hold in her tears and she covered her face, choking up. Compared to her, Chen Yi was much more calm and his face was quite emotionless, only turning his gaze occasionally to look towards the audience panels.
Since he was wearing a mask and couldn’t take it off in such an environment, Fu Xiu Nian could only raise up his LED sign with one hand and with the other, gave Chen Yi a big thumbs up. This action was spotted by Chen Yi, making him hook the corners of his mouth up.
It could be said the eyes of the public were on the finals, and with Chen Yi joining in at the last minute, many anti-fans were waiting with their gear, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. When the show finished filming, the news of him and Deng Zhang Ting winning as the season’s champions spread like wildfire throughout all corners of the internet, no doubt causing many jaws to drop and making everyone suspicious that the filming crew let them win.
>> Wow Deng Zhang Ting’s amazing. A strong contender bringing along a beginner and still winning. What a definite skilled dancer!
>> The program crew wouldn’t be purposefully giving the champion spot to Chen Yi because he joined the group right. That’s really unfair. It is as they say that it’s all about the connections and popularity right now. Thankfully Deng Zhang Ting got the championship so it’s not too scripted.
>> Chen Yi wouldn’t really be counting on dancing his radio calisthenics to win would he? What a joke. He probably got by just because of how the judges favoured Deng Zheng Ting.
AHH AHHHHHHH AHHHHH AHHHHH AHHHH AHHHHHH Chen Yi how could you be so handsome!
How could you be so A!3
You hooked all of our souls away did you know did you know!!!
And also……
Those antis that said Chen Yi would be on stage performing radio calisthenics crawl out onto the floor right now!!!
A gentleman with his swords will always be the method to show off a unique charisma that belonged to him. Quite a few people sitting in front of their monitors fell in love with his attitude of having nothing drag him down, the actions of someone who was so self confident, especially that last camera frame on Chen Yi with his murderous and sharp eyes, slaughtering the hearts of the girls who saw him.
AHHHH AHHH AHHH I’m going to turn crazy for you! Slam my head into the wall for you!
>> Hahahaha I don’t know if Chen Yi’s professional or not with his dance performance, but his martial arts skills are definitely top notch. I could only see the shadows left behind by his sword swings. Is this really only two months of learning how to dance?!
>> My Yi-Ge has been reborn from the ashes! Niu Hu Lu4 Chen Yi has returned!
>> He’s handsome that’s for sure. And he’s really really good looking that’s for sure, but the only thing I want to know is…… where in the world did he take his dancing classes for those two months? I beg with a petition written in my blood for the address!!!
>> Count me in for the petition written in blood!!
>> +10086
Chen Yi would occasionally look at the comments online and he found that within one night, there were many comments that said they wanted to sleep with him. He couldn’t help but say to Fu Xiu Nian,
“Look. There are so many people who want to sleep with me, you should really treasure these precious times we have now.”
Lying on the bed, Fu Xiu Nian silently tightened his hands into fists and raised his eyes to look up at Chen Yi,
“They want to sleep with you, and I let you sleep with me. Can that be the same?”
Notes:
*1 I can’t find a english translation from a very cursory search, but this is based on the poem of Ode to Gallantry by Li Bai, the search results just show the film and novel based on this by Jin Yong, which I believe has a page on novelupdates. But in any case, this poem is about the high skill and hidden fame of youxias which are like wandering vigilantes or heroes of the people, and their glory and aura, their passion and their lifelong belief in what they do for name or to help otherwise for the people and save them, using their life to change their surroundings, and how it is something freeing and great.
Which on that note, Li Bai is a very very famous poet (I don’t think I can forget all those poems I had to memorize when I was young. Most memorable and I think pretty much everyone would know is, called in english, Quiet Night Thought), and Jin Yong is also a famous author for quite a few wuxia novels, and also quite a few popular adaptations in tv and film were made based on those novels that I grew up with in childhood like The Deer and the Cauldron, The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, or if you recall from volume 1, a tv drama Lu Qi and Huo Ming Chen was watching, and was used as metaphor, The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber.
*2 Du Fu is also another famous poet and Gong Sun Dang Lang is a famous sword dancer. She’s usually referenced as Gong Sun Dang Lang, but the Dang Lang can be a way to refer to an older female, like an aunt, hence the author just uses Gong Sun in the other sentence. She’s also sometimes referenced as Gong Sun in some literature but is usually called Gong Sun Dang Lang.
Du Fu wrote a poem about her once when he saw her dance when he was young and how there would be crowds of people who came to watch her, and basically saying how great she was, kind of like how the author described Chen Yi’s dance where when she moved, she was like the dragon in the sky, when she stationery, she was like the waves of the ocean holding its shadow, and the gleam on her sword was like Hou Yi who shot 9 suns down from the sky, and so forth.
*3 “A” as in the A in ABO. They mean here how Chen Yi could be so “alpha” or if you don’t know ABO, take it as the term you probably have heard as alpha male.
Plum: D8 I can’t believe this has like………become colloquial. (（ ´∀｀）)
*4 What they’re saying here is sort of like a meme i guess(?) born from this show called “Empresses in the Palace” and of the main character who is heavily involved in the “politics” if you will of the imperial court and the wives of the Emperor. This girl was once so innocent, turns coldhearted and scheming, kind of growing up to be more knowledgeable and able to keep everyone she wants to protect safe (and she takes on a name change into Niu Hu Lu so hence it gets turned into the phrase where if you put it in front of a name, it means that the person has grown this kind of change). In this case, the old useless Chen Yi is gone and here now is the brand new, strong, skillful, amazing, so much better, and becoming “anew” from the old useless filled with bad press and negative image issues Chen Yi.
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