56 Chapter Fifty-Five
I'm really at my wit's end about this.
Soon the video reached Li Yingqiao's phone. Wu Juan and Pan Xiaoliang asked in their small group chat if Yu Jinyang could put on a show to battle singers if their schedules couldn't be filled, as they felt it would ignite the music festival.
Li Yingqiao didn't reply. She glanced at the video when she had a spare moment; the comment section was flooded with various explanations, the barrage of comments so thick it looked like a knitted sweater, almost completely obscuring the entire performance. She turned off the comments and watched the video, but didn't find it particularly exciting. She couldn't understand it at all. The final floor move wasn't even as difficult as the previous one, so why were all the Chinese people in the audience shouting "China! China!" with such fervor?
However, she never quite understood this kind of display of masculine instincts and aggression between men—regardless of the form, whether it was street dance or boxing, she showed little interest. This even somewhat overturned her assessment of Yu Jinyang; she thought he disdained expressing his hormones in such a passionate and open way.
For anyone else, she would have clicked on the video and immediately closed it, but because it was about the man who slammed the door and left her house yesterday, Li Yingqiao, who was unusually taking a break in the office, curiously clicked on the comments section to take a look:
"As a friend of the person involved, let me reveal something. My buddy didn't want to leave the stage. It was only because that guy with dreadlocks repeatedly targeted the Chinese athletes and made a squinting gesture at them three times that he jumped over the railing from the stands and left the stage."
Li Yingqiao then went back to look again. Yu Jinyang was indeed not in the center of the dance floor at first. It was only after a guy from the opposing dance troupe made a blatant and aggressive eye-pulling gesture at the Chinese dancer for the third time that Yu Jinyang stood up from the audience, grabbed the railing with one hand, and climbed over without saying a word.
He didn't provoke anyone else; his focus was solely on the instigator. He even directly replicated the other person's signature move—a one-arm handstand spin. While the other person barely managed to complete three spins, he steadily added two more, and with his other hand, he didn't forget to politely pull on the hem of his T-shirt to prevent his abs from being exposed.
"He's so self-aware. He has the restraint inherent in Easterners, yet also the wildness of the West. This kind of bboy is quite rare in China."
"For your information, the Guinness World Record for the one-handed Air Flare is six consecutive spins, and this guy did five. So far, I've only seen American bboy Tarzan complete this move with that number of spins in international competitions, and Tarzan has been a world champion for several years. If this continues, breaking will, to some extent, become acrobatic performance."
"My mom asked me why I was kneeling to watch the video. Who understands the significance of this competition?"
"This core is absolutely amazing! How come the God of War is overseas? Are domestic dance troupes unable to accommodate you?"
"This guy must have at least a dozen years of experience. You absolutely need thousands of hours of intense training to master these moves. His movements are so clean and precise. His control over his body is outrageous."
"Every b-boy has their own signature move. The most impressive thing is that he could have ended the match with his own signature move, but he didn't. Instead, he finished with a basic version of his teammate's signature move. This isn't holding back; it's a special etiquette in the battle scene called 'giving way'—using the opponent's killer move to counter and overwhelm the instigator, but then politely responding with someone else's signature move. That's why that final move, while not actually as difficult as a one-handed AF, got the audience fired up and received thunderous applause. And this is what the spirit of breaking has always strived for: truly respecting your opponent and respecting each other's cultures."
Li Yingqiao glanced down a few more times, generally agreeing that this competition was one of the most memorable moments in international street dance events. She had never had any interest in exploring the inner world of men; she wasn't curious about what they liked or what they thought.
The only man she was interested in was 0315, but she would never be able to fully understand 0315's inner world. This reminded her that, from childhood to adulthood, she seemed to have never tried to understand what Yu Jinyang liked or what he was thinking.
All she knew was that he had been dancing since he was a child, starting with popping in elementary school and breaking in high school. Gao Dian said he practiced street dance to grow taller, and he admitted it himself. She had always assumed he was a rich kid who danced as a hobby and hadn't thought much about it; if he didn't love it, why would he have persisted for over twenty years?
She almost never went to his dance studio to actually watch him dance, and when she asked him to help rehearse girl group dances, she was always busy with meetings and never visited his practice room. Yu Jinyang also rarely talked about these things in front of her, because he knew she wasn't interested.
In her stereotype, the word "wild" was almost impossible to describe Yu Jinyang. If it weren't for this video, she might never have seen this side of him. Without the narration below, she probably wouldn't have understood the meaning of his actions. She suddenly felt that she knew him less than a stranger.
So, does Yu Jinyang have passion and wildness? Yes. No wonder he asked her that time if she minded that he still liked her. He wasn't as cold, as peaceful and loving as he appeared.
Li Yingqiao searched for information about the so-called spiritual culture of breaking on a search engine for the first time. After watching various dance battle videos, she finally understood the true value of Yu Jinyang's supposed respect for his opponent and culture in that competition, as described by netizens. It was more about showing off skills and displaying ruthlessness with a violent aesthetic.
Then a WeChat message popped up on the computer. It was from Wu Juan: "Did Yu Jinyang dye his hair? I ran into him this morning when I was checking out the shops in the scenic area. He dyed it chestnut brown, I almost didn't recognize him. But how come he also has a house in Xiaohua City? I never saw him when I moved here in high school. So this handsome guy used to be my neighbor! Why didn't my mom move here sooner!"
The next second, Li Yingqiao heard Pan Xiaoliang's cold voice outside the office say to her, "Wu Juan, you sent it to the wrong group chat."
The message was immediately retracted, followed by Wu Juan's flustered apology from outside the door: "...I'm sorry, I sent it to Nana."
Pan Xiaoliang snorted coldly: "I know you two are always swooning over each other."
“Tell me, isn’t he handsome?” Wu Juan said firmly this time, “Can’t Nana and I pursue him together!”
Pan Xiaoliang sneered: "Keep it up. If I really asked you two to go up there, would you dare? Every time you see him, you'd practically boil yourselves like shrimp, your faces turning bright red. Wu Juan, if you really dare to go up there and confess your feelings, I'll respect you as a woman."
Enraged, Wu Juan retorted, "Pan Xiaoliang, are you waiting to see me make a fool of myself? You're just waiting for me to be rejected!"
Pan Xiaoliang gave her a mocking glance: "You knew he would refuse."
Wu Juan then honestly said, "I really wanted to try it, but after watching this video I'm too scared. I can't handle it. I'm like you, I have a phobia of trendy men."
That's what she said. When Wu Juan got home from get off work that evening, she watched the dance battle video that Sun Taihe had shared with her over and over again. The more she watched, the more she was hooked. The more she watched, the more she felt that a man like Yu Jinyang seemed to be her ideal type. So she sent a WeChat message to Sun Taihe asking, "What do you think are the chances of me winning over Yu Jinyang?"
Sun Taihe happened to be with Yu Jinyang at that moment. The two were using the dance studio at a street dance training center owned by a friend, occasionally teaching students. They were all very young, mostly around the same age Yu Jinyang was when he first started learning popping. There are many competitions for children now, and there's even a little internet celebrity in the studio with more followers on social media than the ape-like internet celebrities from Xiaohuacheng. Yu Jinyang had been teaching him floor moves all afternoon and was just taking a ten-minute break.
Yu Jinyang sat cross-legged on the ground chatting with a child, or more precisely, a little internet celebrity complaining to him. The little internet celebrity was a bit arrogant, saying that his favorite bboy senior was the American Tarzan, whose signature moves no one in China could replicate. He said that the breaking teachers in Fengtan were all too bad, none of them could do it, and he felt that his talent should be used to learn from better teachers.
Moreover, he doesn't like breaking at all. He actually prefers popping. He thinks breaking is like a combination of acrobatics and gymnastics. His knees are bruised every day, so he might as well ask his mom to send him to the circus.
Yu Jinyang said that he had thought about this question when he was a teenager and just started learning breaking. At that time, his elbows and knees were bruised every day. He never understood why this dance style had to keep struggling against the floor. He found it very inexplicable. Other dance styles all had all kinds of cool moves, but breaking became all kinds of moves that challenged the limits of human beings.
"And then? You fell in love with it?" The kid propped himself up on the ground, panting heavily, and commented to him in a wise manner, "Actually, you danced pretty well, bro."
Yu Jinyang looked down at him and gave a slight smirk, only answering his earlier question. But to be precise, it wasn't love; more accurately, it was those years in Chicago that made him understand the significance of this dance form's birth. It's perfectly normal for a child not to understand. He didn't understand at first either. Some spirits aren't innate. When he first battled with someone in an underground dance troupe in Chicago, he was also bewildered and restrained. It was only through repeated racial provocations from his opponents that he understood why this dance form was born in the slums, why they struggled against a concrete surface, and why they used pain to prove their existence.
Yu Jinyang didn't say much, only gesturing with his chin towards the training field to signal him to continue practicing. The kid also noticed that his older brother was in a bad mood today, so he stood up decisively, not forgetting to turn around and coolly say to him with a stern face, "Brother, I'm giving you face."
Yu Jinyang: "..."
To be honest, Sun Taihe could already imagine what the child would look like when he grew up, but he had no interest in being someone's father, so he shoved the phone into the arms of the person next to him and said, "You can reply by yourself, I really can't do anything about this."
"What?" Yu Jinyang took it and looked at it blankly.
"..." fell into complete silence.
The air seemed to freeze for half a minute. He slammed his phone back against Sun Taihe's chest, somewhat annoyed: "You've posted that video everywhere again, haven't you? You dug your own mess, so deal with it yourself. Aren't you usually so good at refusing? How come you're shoving it into my hands by Wu Juan?"
"Damn it." Sun Taihe cursed, hurriedly taking back his phone and saying, "That's a different matter. Isn't Wu Juan Li Yingqiao's colleague? If I say something too harsh and break her down, what will Li Yingqiao think of you if this mudslinging gets thrown at you?"
"Let her think what she wants," he said.
These words were truly hard. Sun Taihe had never seen Yu Jinyang so cold and tough. When battling with others, he was still able to control himself. You could even see his love and dedication to breaking from his smooth floor work. He only communicated with his body, without the overly exaggerated provocative moves of other bboy contestants, and without any extra expressions.
So Sun Taihe sent Wu Juan a zero. Just as he was about to put his phone back in his pocket, he froze upon hearing this. He suddenly remembered the nonsense he had uttered last night, his eyes darted left and right, and finally he looked at him and said, "Wait a minute, you two aren't really having a falling out, are you? I was just teasing you last night... Besides, the atmosphere between you two is so intense, even the King of Heaven couldn't squeeze in."
"..."
“There aren’t that many powerful figures out there. Even if there were, this matter still wouldn’t escape our decision to file a criminal case. Jin Yang has already applied to the court to have the case re-investigated by the public security bureau because the police couldn’t file a criminal case before without this medical injury assessment. Now that this certificate has finally been issued, I’ve reviewed all the materials, and Jin Yang and I both think we should file a criminal case. Uncle Yu, of course, if you trust Mr. Zhang’s legal team, I don’t mind working with them.”
After hanging up with Yu Renjie, Tan Jiu turned around and stood in front of the hotel's floor-to-ceiling window. She frowned and immediately dialed Yu Jinyang's number.
"...It's none of your business." Yu Jinyang said calmly to Sun Taihe. The next second, he felt his phone vibrate, took it out of his pocket and answered it. "Old Tan, what's wrong?"
Tan Jiu sighed and said, "I just finished a call with your dad. From what he said, he trusts Mr. Zhang's legal team more. If you think it's okay, let's arrange a meeting tomorrow. I need to keep them updated on the case information."
***
Li Yingqiao made a rare trip back to the gua sha clinic this weekend. As soon as she entered, she received WeChat messages from Zheng Miaojia and Zhao Pingnan at the same time. One asked her where she was, since she had said she was going to the hotel to see her last night. The other said that she had finally emerged from seclusion and had completed a masterpiece of comics called "A, B, C, D".
After she finished replying to all the messages, Li Shuli came out of the room after giving a customer a back massage. Her hands were covered in essential oil. She raised them in the air and was surprised to see her: "Why are you back today, Qiaoqiao? I didn't buy any groceries. You should have told me earlier. I would have gone to buy you a fish."
"No need, I'm not eating. I'll just sit here for a bit and then leave." Li Yingqiao said, putting her phone back in her pocket and giving her a big bear hug. Li Yingqiao used to hug her like this when she was little, but she rarely acted this clingy after starting university. Li Shuli was a little stunned, her oily hands stiffly raised in the air. She hugged her arm and asked, "What's wrong? Did you run into problems at work?"
Li Yingqiao buried her head in the crook of Li Shuli's neck, then suddenly took a deep breath and said in a muffled voice, "Mom, can I talk to you for a while?"
[Author's Note]
(P.S., kneeling here): This part of the story will be a bit bittersweet; I'm suffering more than you are. I also want to get to the part where they get together as soon as possible. There will be arguments later, but not as heart-wrenching as now. There's a major plot point here, which might take a few more chapters to cover. So, after I rest tomorrow, I'll try to update daily next week (if it's too much, I'll update twice every other day to make up for it, depending on my condition next week). I'll try my best to connect the important emotional parts for everyone. Also, Qiao only gradually falls for him after their reunion; there will be a small part of her pursuing him, but there won't be a dramatic ending. Of course, if Miao is being arrogant, then he'll have to face a love triangle.
Just to comfort everyone, there are red envelopes in this chapter too!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
