KMYB | Chapter 6

They had a total of thirty-nine students in their class, eight boys, and the rest were girls.

In the afternoon they had technique class. The boys and girls took different lessons, and after weighing in, they split up and went to their own small classrooms.

Xu Wei was their teacher. Jingwu had paid a fortune, a fortune, a fortune to hire him from a ballet company in Country F. Xu Wei wasn’t the principal dancer of that company, but he had performed leading roles many times. Why he was willing to come back, everyone had more or less guessed the answer.

Xi Shui was the student he thought most highly of.

Talented, loving dance itself more than the honor and glory it brought, good-tempered, able to endure hardship, and, most importantly, innocent enough. Even more important, his family had a background in the industry. With Xi Shui’s ability, he could certainly pass the exam into a company after graduation and, after a few years of grinding it out, become principal dancer too. But it never hurt to be cautious. The more talented a child was, the easier it was for that child to fall before reaching maturity.

Still, Xi Shui had one flaw.

His mouth!

He just couldn’t keep it under control!

Xu Wei sighed.

Just then, Xi Shui, who was practicing fouettés, caught it. Sensitively sensing that the teacher’s sigh might be about him, his body tilted, and his movement suddenly stopped.

Xu Wei lifted his chin slightly, signaling for him to continue.

Lin Xiaojin kept turning all the way through. He had always danced in fits and starts, three days fishing and two days sunbathing, as the saying went[[N1]], and though he liked dance, he would never bet his life on it. He circled Xi Shui and said, “I’m telling you, as long as you finish that barbecue with us this weekend, you’ll definitely be skinny after that!”

Xi Shui lowered his head and tugged his waistband up a little. Sweat happened to drip from his pointed chin onto the back of his hand. Panting, he asked, “Is there some logic behind that?”

Lin Xiaojin stopped and analyzed it for him. “Barbecue grills the calories. Once all the calories are grilled away, you’ll definitely lose weight after eating it!”

Xi Shui wiped the sweat from his cheek with the back of his hand. His eyes flashed with surprise in the afternoon glow. “Lin Xiaojin, you really wasted all those years of schooling.”

Lin Xiaojin: “…”

Before class ended, Xu Wei and the teacher on the girls’ side, Jiang Die, had everyone dance through the first and second scenes of *The Dancer* together.

*The Dancer* mainly tells a tragic, sorrowful love story. It is also called *The Dancing Girl of the Indian Temple*. Its main characters are the male lead, a warrior; the female lead, a dancer; the king and princess; the high priest; and the dancer’s friends.

The first scene shows the warrior, who is already the princess’s fiancé, falling for the temple dancer and confessing his love, only for the high priest to secretly witness it.

The second scene shifts to the dazzling imperial palace. At the ball, the warrior and the princess are a perfect match, but at that very moment, the high priest reports the warrior’s secret affair with the temple dancer to the king.

The actress playing the princess, Li Weiwei, had worked with Xi Shui several times before, so they had a fair amount of rapport. Before choosing the roles, Xu Wei and Jiang Die had also considered letting Li Weiwei play the female lead and take on the dancer, but Li Weiwei’s image didn’t suit the dancer. She was better suited to innocent, lively roles with a little personality.

In the story, after the princess learns that her fiancé has secretly been involved with a dancer, she tries to have the dancer bitten to death by a snake. In the end, the snake bites the dancer, but also bites the princess.

After the dance, Xi Shui’s movements were beyond reproach. Lin Xiaojin leaned over and said, “You’re a scumbag.”

Xi Shui wiped his sweat with a towel. “I’m not.”

The warrior he played was a scumbag.

But he wasn’t.

“Alright, class is over. A few of you still need to keep practicing, and you absolutely can’t skip your morning and evening basics. Fundamentals are incredibly important for dance students!” Jiang Die had her long hair pinned into a bun at the back of her head. She had retired from the Beijing Ballet Company, where she had been principal dancer for four years. This year she was already in her forties, with an elegant, otherworldly air. Her expression was always as calm as water, and every casual movement she made was breathtakingly beautiful.

Xi Shui and Lin Xiaojin carried their water bottles to the shower room to rinse off and change clothes.

Jingwu and Jingti had always disliked each other for ages, but for indoor training they used the same training building.

The training building had two sections, A and B, connected by a corridor. Only the third-floor corridor between the two buildings was made of poured concrete, with clear glass on both sides.

Xi Shui and the others had class on the third floor of Building A, but the showers were on the third floor of Building B.

On each floor of the two buildings there was only one large shower room, with each shower stall separated by a curtain.

Usually there was no problem with there not being enough showers. Different majors had different schedules, and some people were too lazy to wash.

The water from the school showerheads was especially forceful, able to strip a layer of skin right off you. Xi Shui kept his eyes tightly shut, frowning as he washed up quickly, dried off, and put on his clothes before coming out.

Lin Xiaojin showered at a snail’s pace. Xi Shui stuffed his dirty clothes into his bag and, while wiping the still-dripping water from his hair with a dry towel, stood out in the corridor.

The afternoon sun was still glaring. Xi Shui stood in the shade where the light couldn’t reach.

When he lowered his eyes, he saw a group of boys walking up the stairs.

It was obvious at a glance that they were from Jingti. The boys from Jingwu weren’t this big, and their clothes, wrist guards, and even the styles of their bags all proved they were from Jingti.

One of them was already taking off his shirt as he walked.

Xi Shui turned his head away.

Only after the group of boys entered the shower room did Xi Shui turn back. Caught off guard, he met a pair of pitch-black eyes.

Xi Shui’s breathing stalled.

“What a coincidence…” The two words rolled slowly off Zhou Zeqi’s tongue. He looked at Xi Shui, who was still damp all over, his hair wet. “You just got out of class too?”

Xi Shui unconsciously gripped the strap of his shoulder bag. With his other hand, he clutched the towel and gave a soft “Mm.”

When he came up from the corner, Zhou Zeqi had spotted Xi Shui standing in the corridor at first glance.

His hair had been rubbed dry for a long time and still wasn’t dry. Water continued to drip down onto his pale face and the large expanse of skin at his neck, like winter sunlight falling on snow that had yet to melt. His skin seemed to glow.

Xi Shui was wearing shorts, the hems stopping right at his knees. His two legs were straight and long, the muscle lines on his calves smooth and clean. Dance students always looked thin, but when you touched them they were absolutely hard. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have the strength to complete all those high-difficulty dance moves.

Every bit of exposed skin on Xi Shui was the same color, so white and smooth it looked like a pearl in your hand.

It wasn’t just Zhou Zeqi who saw him.

The others saw him too.

Wu Fengyi even tugged up his own collar to sniff it. “Help, why do I feel like he’s from a different world than us? I suddenly feel stinkier than hell.”

“You guys go in first, I’ll wait.”

“What? Why?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Before Wu Fengyi went into the shower room, he looked back and happened to see Zhou Zeqi stop in front of Xi Shui, trying to reach out and touch somewhere. But the other person turned his face back, cutting off Zhou Zeqi’s movement.

Tch.

He knew it.

“They’re all my classmates,” Zhou Zeqi said as he straightened up. Noticing that Xi Shui was holding his breath, he stepped back a few paces. “Are you waiting for someone?”

Xi Shui let out a breath.

And not just because Zhou Zeqi was half a head taller than him. Height alone wasn’t enough to create such strong pressure. It was the other man’s casual tone, the muscles hidden beneath his clothes, the lazy way he moved his hands and feet. It always made people feel like he had everything under control, utterly at ease with anyone or anything.

It made Xi Shui feel like he was a cat, a rabbit, a sparrow with its throat pinched shut, or like a dance partner who had suddenly appeared behind him to lift him around the waist and spin him ten full turns, leaving him dizzy and lightheaded.

“Waiting for Lin Xiaojin.”

“Lin Xiaojin is your friend?” Zhou Zeqi’s lips curved. “Boyfriend?”

“No, no,” Xi Shui immediately clarified. There was already one misunderstanding involving Zhou Zeqi like this. There couldn’t be any more. “We’re good friends.” He stressed the word “good.”

“Oh.” Zhou Zeqi returned to a faint expression. “You’re not dating anyone?”

Xi Shui nodded, paused, then shook his head.

Zhou Zeqi’s eyes slowly narrowed.

Xi Shui looked up and said, “Maybe not. Who can say for sure about something like that?”

Xi Shui couldn’t read the meaning in Zhou Zeqi’s eyes. He only felt that even with such a safe distance between them, he was once again sensing that hostile aura from Zhou Zeqi, like it was rushing straight at him.

“…Yeah.” Zhou Zeqi spoke very slowly.

Having received agreement, Xi Shui smiled, revealing a row of teeth as neat and white as shells. “Right?”

“…”

–

Xi Shui went to eat with Lin Xiaojin.

He didn’t like vegetables, especially cucumbers and broccoli. Those were the vegetables he hated most in his life.

Lin Xiaojin didn’t like them either.

The two of them picked through the salad.

They just happened to run into Xu Wei, who was also eating in the cafeteria. Xu Wei sat down beside them.

“…”

“Being picky isn’t good.” Xu Wei picked up an ear of corn and peeled off the kernels with elegant care.

Xi Shui was basically forcing the broccoli and cucumber into his mouth.

After eating this level-five-out-of-five food disaster, Xi Shui felt like his appetite had already been wiped out.

Tomorrow was Saturday.

As they parted, Lin Xiaojin held Xi Shui’s hand, tears in his eyes. “Tomorrow, barbecue, don’t forget!”

Xi Shui showed a hesitant expression. “I can’t eat any more.”

“You can just eat one meal.”

This…

This was a great idea!!!

But Xi Shui still had to think about a way to lose weight and keep his weight steady.

The main thing was that his weight always went up and down, which made him feel insecure. If it could just stay fixed, that would be great. And then, not gain weight no matter how much he ate.

At night, after finishing evening practice and taking a shower, Xi Shui lay on his bed with a tablet in hand, searching for ways to lose weight. Every time he found a method, he wrote it down in his notes.

— Cucumber diet?

No good. That would cause malnutrition, a lack of carbs and fats. Not scientific.

— Plastic wrap weight-loss method?

Maybe. He hadn’t tried it. And skip the chili oil.

— 21-day weight-loss method?

Too harsh. It would hurt his body.

Xi Shui bit the stylus for his iPad, brows furrowed.

What should he do?

None of these methods felt very reliable.

“Dating can help you lose weight, kissing burns calories!” The words Lin Xiaojin had said before suddenly flashed through his mind, loud and clear.

Xi Shui hesitated for a few seconds, then typed a question into the search box: Can kissing burn calories?

After the page loaded, the answer was: light touching kisses don’t burn calories, but passionate deep kisses do.

Xi Shui looked at the answer on the screen and shot upright. He wrote quickly on the screen with his stylus.

[How long do you have to kiss to burn calories?]

[Answer: kissing for one minute can burn 5.4 calories.]

Xi Shui thought, rounded off, that was 5 calories.

Then one hour of kissing would be 350 calories, which was equivalent to a six-kilometer jog.

Jogging needed sneakers, sportswear, and a track.

Kissing didn’t. Kissing only needed one other person!!!

Xi Shui deleted all the messy methods he’d just written down in his notes one by one, and wrote the kissing weight-loss method on the first line. After he finished, his pen tip froze. He realized he had overlooked a very important problem, and the one indispensable gear in this weight-loss method.

That was, he didn’t have a partner to kiss anytime, anywhere!

——————–

Author’s note:

Xiao Xi: “I’m ready!”

Voice over: “You’re still missing a partner.”

Xiao Xi: “Oh, right, I don’t have a partner…”