The music that had been playing in the Duanmu Hall for an entire afternoon finally stopped, but the students' gossip fervor continued to burn brightly. (This website's new domain name is the initials of Kele Novel Network (k1), the largest free Chinese romance novel website, come and check it out!)
To prevent any leaks, Duanmu Ci specifically warned the girls in the dance department not to divulge the matter, otherwise, unexpected consequences might arise. The girls listened to Teacher Duanmu and actually restrained their gossipy nature, maintaining a mysterious silence when faced with curious inquiries from their best friends and others.
However, they couldn't wait to show off the little gifts that Teacher Duanmu gave them, their pretty faces full of shyness, as if they really had a secret that they couldn't tell outsiders.
As a result, rumors began to circulate within the school...
"Hey, have you guys heard? About that?" A dark-skinned, skinny boy asked his companion with a lewd look.
"That matter?" his companion asked, puzzled. "Which matter?"
"Hey! You didn't know?" The skinny, dark-skinned boy feigned surprise. "It's about that incident at Duanmu Hall! I heard that Teacher Duanmu from the academy called all the girls from the dance department, and then..."
"And then what? Just tell me!" his companion urged impatiently.
"Hehe, what do you think? And then... you know..." The dark-skinned, skinny boy still had that lewd, obnoxious grin, hinting to his companion that "this is a conversation between men."
"Oh~" His companion seemed to understand something immediately, and said with longing, "A whole afternoon... Teacher Duanmu is awesome!"
"Hehehehe..."
"..."
Such conversations occur in every corner of the college, even making it to the college's online forums and message boards. However, these days the administrators are essentially paparazzi from the news department, naturally protecting their superiors' reputations. So, any such "discordant" posts appearing on their turf are dealt with without question. If someone persists in posting, they're promptly banned.
As the saying goes, "rumors stop with the wise," and it is clear that Haishan University seems to lack such "wise men."
Duanmu Ci kept the news under wraps to create an unexpected surprise, and it turned out to be "unexpected"...
However, these seemingly malicious rumors didn't damage Mr. Duanmu's popularity; in fact, they boosted it somewhat. The boys were gleefully spreading the rumors everywhere, secretly admiring Mr. Duanmu's magnanimity. The girls, on the other hand, scoffed at these rumors. How could such a perfect man like Mr. Duanmu do something so unreliable?
These boys must have done this out of jealousy towards Teacher Duanmu...
One of the boys disagreed with this claim and confronted a girl directly. "What makes you think we're spreading rumors? What makes you say Teacher Duanmu did nothing? Are you just making things up? There has to be some reason!"
The girl being questioned blinked innocently and said sweetly, "Because you're ugly."
The girls around him applauded thunderously.
The boy covered his face and retreated in defeat.
Is this really a world that judges people by their looks? It's making me feel utterly hopeless...
...
...
Duanmu Ci was naturally unaware of what was happening outside. Students and teachers belonged to two different social classes, and information didn't circulate between them. Those in the know, like Chu Xinsu, were happy to watch the spectacle and didn't bother to say anything. Duanmu Ci also rarely went online, and when he did, he didn't use forums or online communities, so his access to information was naturally very limited.
Moreover, he's been quite busy these past few days, or rather, extremely busy. The midterm exams just finished a couple of days ago, and Professor Yan Zhigui had drafted Duanmu Ci to be a proctor. After that, he'd been grading papers—a crucial task he couldn't afford to delay! After grading, he had to record the scores, notify students who failed to remember to retake the exams, and then review the papers—it was a whole string of things to do.
Having finally finished dealing with the exams, Duanmu Ci was now considering the costumes for the dance. After all, the Rainbow Feather Dance was a classical court dance, ornate and extravagant, and ordinary performance costumes simply wouldn't meet his requirements. Duanmu Ci didn't want to make something shoddy, so he had to draw a complete set of costume designs himself and then take it to a tailor for custom-made.
This requires money, and a lot of money at that. But neither reason nor sentimentality would allow Duanmu Ci to pay for it himself; the money had to come from the class fund. However, Duanmu Ci's standards were incredibly high. The clothes he personally ordered wouldn't be cheap, especially since he ordered twenty or thirty pieces at once. So the class fund was clearly insufficient; even if they covered all of it, it wouldn't be enough. Reluctantly, Duanmu Ci could only quote Su Wuyu a price based on ordinary performance costumes, and then he would have to cover most of the remaining costs himself, since he didn't care about the amount.
Duanmu Ci told Su Wuyu about rehearsing the Rainbow Feather Dance and hoped she could be the lead dancer. Su Wuyu's face was very unpleasant; she extremely didn't want to be in such a spotlight. This wasn't like her at all. However, Duanmu Ci used a series of grand principles (nonsense) about class honor, teacher responsibility, and so on to persuade her, and Su Wuyu had no choice but to grit her teeth and agree.
Duanmu Ci's mouth was once said to have brought prosperity to a nation with a single word, and its power was something Su Wuyu could not withstand.
These past few days, Duanmu Ci has been replaying the Rainbow Feather Dance in his mind, only to find that the dance is actually not suitable for his requirements.
Because this dance is so grand in scale, the stage may not be able to accommodate it; moreover, this dance demands a high level of skill from the dancers, as the "Rainbow Feather Dress Dance" is not purely a Han Chinese dance and music. Some parts of it are adapted from the "Brahman Song," which was presented by Yang Jingshu, the governor of the Western Regions at the time. It is a Hu (Central Asian) dance and music, with some fancy dance techniques, making it very difficult to learn.
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