Chapter 017 Chapter 17
The teaching course of "Swan Lake" began in the dance studio.
Under the guidance of the training teacher, when the music started, everyone started dancing as if their Ren and Du meridians were opened.
Swan Lake is a classic Russian ballet.
As for ballet, it is impossible to dance properly without a few years of basic skills.
But these people in the classroom seem to have solid basic skills.
She stands on tiptoe and jumps as soon as she is told to, without any ambiguity.
Ou Xu was watching from the side, and he felt his toes and ankles starting to hurt.
He rubbed his ankle with lingering fear and said aggrievedly, "Last night, I was forced to dance 'Swan Lake' all night long. It was so miserable."
Xia Meng rested her chin on her hand and suddenly asked, "Does this development seem familiar to you?"
Ou Xu: “?”
Ou Xu: "Really? What looks familiar?"
Xia Meng couldn't say anything for a moment.
From the moment she came in, she had this vague feeling.
I always feel that this theater seems to have its own set of operating logic.
This world repeats itself day after day.
Training during the day, performing at night.
That's all, nothing special.
The key is the ghost.
Theater, ghost.
Once these two are linked together, one can't help but think of "The Phantom of the Opera".
"The Phantom of the Opera" is a very classic musical of the last century.
It tells the story of a theater in Paris where strange things happen frequently and it is said that ghosts are haunting it.
The ghost fell in love with a young actress in the theater. In order to help her become the heroine on the stage, the ghost secretly taught her to sing at midnight and even tried to murder the original leading actress.
And the Viscount, the Manager, Lady Gilly...
These characters can all be identified one by one.
Xia Meng touched her chin.
Could it be that this world is really imitating "The Phantom of the Opera"?
She glanced at Ou Xu.
The strangest thing was his experience last night.
Learn to dance in the middle of the night.
Could it be that it corresponds to the plot in "The Phantom of the Opera" where the ghost teaches people to sing?
What?
Is Ou Xu the ghost's chosen lover?
So what role does Huo Qingyu play in this world?
Xia Meng actually had no intention of exploring what the world was like.
Because this is Huo Qingwei's private area, his privacy.
She and Ou Xu were accidentally dragged into this place, not by their own will, nor by Huo Qingyu's will.
Who would want their privacy to be pried into by others?
She thought that a public figure like Huo Qingyu must be more concerned about privacy.
But, we have to look for it.
If they want to leave here, they must find Huo Qingyu.
The door must be near him.
Xia Meng pondered.
So here comes the question.
Among so many people, who is the real Huo Qingyu?
…
The time spent practicing dancing passed by in a flash.
Soon it was five o'clock in the afternoon.
That is the time for selection.
The selection process is actually very simple.
There are limited places for people to perform on stage, at most forty or fifty people.
There are about ten important characters with names, and the rest are basically extras.
But there were at least three hundred people present.
The theater's selection process is very humane and entirely voluntary.
Whoever wants to compete for any role, just stand up and compete.
Survival of the fittest, whoever is stronger will get the role.
Those who are weaker will be arranged to play supporting roles.
"What about the weaker ones? For example, the kind that can't even jump." Ou Xu asked hopefully.
In front of the crowd, Mrs. Gilly had just announced the selection rules. Seeing the hand raised in the crowd, she smiled coldly.
"If you don't participate in the selection, then you will naturally become a spectator."
Ou Xu's eyes lit up when he heard this.
So, as long as he doesn't participate in the selection, he can just sit quietly in the audience and never have to suffer the socially disastrous scene like last night?
"Of course." Madam Gilly nodded. Her cold eyes swept across the crowd in front of her, and she continued, "Those who don't work hard enough will anger the theater's ghost. What will happen to you then..."
Mrs. Gilly didn't finish.
But the sinister smile on her lips was enough to tell the story.
Mrs. Gilly said slowly, "The ghost will drive you out of this theater."
Ou Xu shuddered.
Xia Meng glanced at him: "What's wrong? Are you so scared?"
Ou Xu leaned close to her ear and said in a low voice, "We are now entering the spiritual landscape in the form of spiritual power. If we are driven out of the scope of the spiritual landscape without passing through that 'door', we will be lost on the edge of this spiritual landscape forever."
Xia Meng was slightly surprised. Wouldn't that be the same result as the "collapse of the mental picture" that Li Zhou mentioned before?
"What will happen to us in reality if we are driven to the edge?"
Ou Xu said with a heavy face, "He'll become a vegetable, almost dead."
Xia Meng: “…”
Xia Meng comforted him, "Think positively. Maybe the ghost won't choose you when the time comes."
Ou Xu complained, "I taught this student hand-in-hand all night, but he didn't participate in the selection. If it were you, wouldn't you be angry?"
Xia Meng: “…That’s right.”
So, he had to go.
Ou Xu covered his face and whimpered, unwilling to face reality: "How shameful!"
How could he encounter such an outrageous thing!
Xia Meng patted him and smiled optimistically, "Look at the bright side. There's no one else alive here except me. When the time comes, just treat these people in the audience as potatoes and pumpkins. Just bear with it and it will pass."
Ou Xu: “…”
Thinking this way...it's not impossible.
At this time, another person in the crowd raised his hand and asked, "What if I successfully get the protagonist? What rewards will I get?"
Mrs. Gilly's expression softened considerably.
It was obvious that she preferred this question.
"Of course there are rewards." She raised the corners of her lips.
Perhaps it was because her face was too pale and her lips were too red that her smile looked stiff and cold.
She said: "The best will be rewarded by the ghost of the theater and be granted the same immortality as it."
eternal life?
The kind of eternal life that comes from being trapped in this theater forever?
Ou Xu: “…”
Xia Meng: “…”
What if you don’t really want this kind of reward?
The two looked at each other, and Ou Xu looked bitter.
Being too bad means death, and being too outstanding also means death.
All they can do now seems to be trying their best to remain moderate.
…
Thus, the selection officially began.
Everyone was crowded into the theater's performance hall.
Everyone sat in the audience, and groups of people went on stage to perform.
Mrs. Gilly and several managers sat in the front row.
As a patron of the theater, Xia Meng could sit in the VIP room upstairs and watch the performance.
She took Ou Xu into the box and asked him to sit down, but he had to go downstairs to participate in the selection soon.
The first thing to do is to select the male lead.
More than a dozen people in the audience stood up and went on stage one by one to present.
Even though he wasn't sitting in the audience, Ou Xu still felt suffocated.
It was as if he had a countdown on his back, making it hard for him to breathe.
This reminded him of when he was in school and his teacher asked everyone to go on stage and give speeches.
Every time this happened, he seemed to be wearing a mask of pain.
Ou Xu looked at Xia Meng with envy on his face: "That's great, why don't I have the status of a noble?"
He envied Xia Meng so much.
She didn't need to participate in any auditions, nor did she need to be on stage to do social distancing, and more importantly, she didn't have to dance in the middle of the night!
We all came here together, so why are people treated so differently?
Xia Meng was much more pragmatic than him and didn't think about those trivial things at all.
She leaned on the railing and turned to ask him, "Which role are you going to audition for?"
Ou Xu answered without thinking: "Wait a little longer, that kind of leftover trimming will do."
It would be even better if we could perform a tree on stage.
Xia Meng rested her chin on her hand and thought for a while, tapping her fingers on the railing from time to time.
For some reason, she always felt that this matter might not develop as he expected.
If it were that simple, why did the ghost force him to practice dancing last night?
Maybe something will go wrong.
Xia Meng glanced at the tense expression on Ou Xu's face.
Forget it, I'd better not say it out loud and hurt his fragile little heart.
…
At this time, the selection of the male lead was over.
The male protagonist chosen was a blond and blue-eyed man with a very handsome appearance.
Xia Meng didn't understand ballet, but looking at his performance just now, the difficult movements one after another were truly wonderful.
It is indeed the mental picture of a professional.
The professional content is also maintained at a very high standard.
Ou Xu: "That's right. The scenes within the mental image are almost entirely based on the master's thoughts and experiences. The more and more fully the master understands a certain aspect, the more detailed and rich the details about that part in the mental image will be."
Mrs. Gilly stood up and announced, "Next, we'll be casting for the leading actress. She will play both the White Swan Odette and the Black Swan Odile in Swan Lake. Therefore, the lead actress' casting will be for the Black Swan's classic dance steps—thirty-two whip turns."
Thirty-two whip turns, that is, doing thirty-two single-legged rotations in succession in one breath.
Because this movement is extremely difficult, it is called the touchstone for ballet dancers.
Ou Xu's face turned pale as he complained to Xia Meng tearfully, "I was forced to practice this move last night! Oh, I don't want to see a swan again in my life. No, I don't even want to see a bird anymore!"
Xia Mengxin said that your psychological shadow is quite large.
Even birds are not spared?
After Mrs. Gilly finished speaking, she clapped her hands a few times and said loudly, "Okay, children who want to compete for the leading actress, you can come on stage now."
As soon as he finished speaking, several young women stood up from the stage one after another.
Ou Xu shrank back with lingering fear.
Try to shrink into the shadows where no one else can see you.
Xia Meng looked at him with amusement.
Just as I was about to say something, I suddenly saw Ou Xu's expression froze, and then his eyes widened in horror.
Xia Meng was startled and asked subconsciously: "What's wrong with you?"
But Ou Xu didn't answer her.
He sat up straighter little by little, then stood up from the chair, his movements looking like a puppet.
As he stood up straight, his upper body was submerged in shadow, and his expression could not be seen clearly.
He turned around stiffly and walked out of the box.
Xia Meng called him: "Ou Xu?"
Ou Xu didn't answer or turn around.
A few minutes later, he also appeared on the stage waiting for selection.
Xia Meng lowered her eyes and saw that among a row of girls, only he, a tall guy, stood out among them, looking so out of place.
The protruding head was rapidly turning red.
Without the concealment of lead powder and red lips, his shame was completely exposed.
The nightmare of social death really came upon Ou Xu again.
Xia Meng: “…”
It seems that some things really cannot be avoided.
You have to be more open-minded.
Xia Meng is quite experienced in this situation.
It was probably similar to the ghost possession she had experienced in Jiang Qiongran's mental image before. Her body was controlled and she couldn't break free at all.
At that time, she was controlled by Jiang Qiongran.
What about Ou Xu now?
Is he controlled by a ghost?
——In other words, the ghost is most likely Huo Qingyu?
…
The music starts.
Amid the melodious music, the four girls in the first row came out first.
They took two steps forward, then struck their poses under the direction of Mrs. Gilly, and then, in time with the music, they stretched their feet, raised their hands, and began to spin lightly.
Circle after circle, the body rotates as the legs move.
The difficulty of thirty-two whip turns is not to be underestimated.
Soon two girls were defeated.
The remaining two girls managed to hold on for more than half, but they still couldn't make it past twenty.
Mrs. Gilly waved her hand expressionlessly, "Next group, go ahead."
Ou Xu is in the next group.
As soon as he finished speaking, he and the three girls beside him walked forward with their heads held high.
Music revived.
The four of them moved in unison, stretching their feet and raising their hands at the same time.
Ou Xu's left leg was straight and his right leg was bent.
One foot pushes the ground hard, and the other foot quickly lifts up to make the body rotate. As the arms and legs swing, the speed becomes faster and faster, and it begins to spin at high speed like a top.
Gradually, the three girls around him all failed.
He was the only one who was still spinning continuously.
The movements are skillful, the posture is graceful, and the charm is overwhelming.
It's as if he was born for ballet.
——Only his suicidal expression somewhat ruins the beauty of the picture.
When the entire twirl was over, Mrs. Gilly was the first to stand up and applaud: "Bravo! It's amazing! My dear, you are the perfect heroine for Swan Lake!"
Ou Xu panted and closed his eyes with difficulty: "..."
He understood the principle, but why did it have to be the heroine?!
Xia Meng watched from afar, feeling emotional.
Give up, young man!
You are the one chosen by the ghost!
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