dragon raja

The Emperor's Dance

Standing in the middle of the empty hall, Lu Mingfei and Finkel looked at each other.

"Why do you want me to dance with you?"

"Maybe it's because you don't have the courage to invite those pretty girls?"

"Then why don't you, as a senior brother who is so upright, have the courage?"

"They are too childish to be bullied..." Finkel said with pretended regret.

Lu Mingfei and Finkel hugged each other and danced a tango beside the dance floor... Both of them did the strong head-shaking action very well, and there was a fierceness in their eyes, like two weasels fighting for bird eggs.

Why they danced is a long story... Back to "Red-haired Mu Guiying" Nono pulled the white-robed young general Lu Mingfei and the passerby Finger and ran straight to the door of Amber Hall, while Caesar stood in front of the door in white clothes and watched them applaud. Caesar's ice-blue eyes flowed with a cold light like the Nordic snowfield, and behind him stood the heads of the six departments of the Student Union, like 100,000 elite soldiers in armor.

"You're on time." Caesar glanced at the Patek Philippe on his wrist and smiled faintly.

"I have classes in the afternoon, so I took a shortcut." Nuo Nuo walked up.

Caesar gently held her shoulders with both hands and gave her a kiss that was both extremely smelly and extremely elegant. "You look very beautiful in this outfit. I've never seen you wear one before."

"I bought it when I accompanied Professor Guderian on a business trip to China," Nono shrugged. "You can't have seen all my clothes. I still have the black robe and mask that I used to dress up as a ghost and ask for candy on Halloween. Do you want to see it?"

"If you come and knock on my door wearing that, I will definitely give you candy." Caesar said elegantly, and took Nono's hand and walked into the hall like an emperor.

During this process, he did not even glance at anyone else. When the sharp gaze in his ice-blue eyes swept through other people, it was like a sharp blade cutting through the air. After Lu Mingfei and Finger stayed for a while, they were the only two left in front of the door. This made the white-robed young general Ricardo? M? Lu and the bandit Finger who had just mustered up the courage to shake hands with Caesar very embarrassed.

"Do we heroes value our reputation?" Lu Mingfei turned around, "If he doesn't give us face, we won't give him face either! We'll just turn around and leave!"

"Don't! Brother, you have to hold on even more during times like this!" Finkel twisted him back, gave him a thumbs up and encouraged this dignified junior like an elder brother, pushing his shoulders, "Go in! You were invited here, what are you afraid of?"

Lu Mingfei didn't move a step, and held Finger's thumb tightly, "Brother, I believe you! You said you are a brave man, you go first!"

"Advanced is advanced. I, Finkel, am the oldest student in this school. I refused to drop out even though I fell to the unprecedented 'F' grade. Would I be afraid of Caesar?"

"Handshake! That's what I thought in my heart!" Lu Mingfei let go of Finkel's thumb, grabbed his palm and shook it vigorously.

The student union official in charge of signing in saw Lu Mingfei and Finkel holding hands, facing each other, staring into each other's eyes, like a passionate couple dancing a passionate tango, and then they entered the lobby of Amber Hall...

Fortunately, the buffet at Fengsheng soon made the roommates feel that their courage was not in vain. Finkel quickly counted the population of the Amber Pavilion, and Lu Mingfei counted the number of lobsters, and came to an important conclusion that this was a social event centered on eating. The generous tribe member Caesar prepared an Australian lobster for everyone. These red big guys lay on the ice, with their backs open, revealing a body of crystal white meat. Finkel and Lu Mingfei, who had given up their vigilance, waved their knives and forks, which could actually be described as "a fierce tiger descending from the mountain."

The ringing of the bell cut the air in the lobby of Amber Hall, and suddenly the scattered guests stopped talking. All the lights came on at the same time, and down the two curved staircases leading to the second floor, a dignified man in black walked down one side, and a girl in a white dress wearing silk white gloves walked down the other side.

"Do you know what you do when someone blocks your way to the lobster at a buffet?" Finkel, who had not yet realized the change, joked loudly with his mouth full of food, "You should poke his fat waist with the handle of the fork!"

“What if he still doesn’t let me?” Lu Mingfei had also heard this joke. Because he enjoyed the meal so much, he was more than happy to accompany Finkel and act as a supporting actor.

"Use the fork tip instead, junior brother!" Finkel laughed three times.

The whole hall was silent. The guests had wisely retreated to different corners to prepare for the dance. Only two guys standing in the middle with plates were left. And this tasteless joke was like a ghost with a disgusting face, coming and going in the hall that reflected the echo. Lu Mingfei and Finger successfully attracted everyone's attention in this way. There were about two or three hundred cold eyes cast on them. The guests who walked to the stairs stopped as soon as they put their hands together.

The scene was frozen.

Lu Mingfei began to look around to see which corner was closest to them. They could run over there like mice returning to their nest and stop being icy lumps under the gaze of these cold eyes.

"I haven't danced for a long time!" Finger said calmly, clapping his hands and saying something that would make him regret it a few seconds later. "When I entered school, I was the Elvis Presley of my grade!"

Finkel looked up and down at the ladies on the stairs. Lu Mingfei realized that he had no choice but to choose a dance partner to resolve the awkwardness at the moment.

The whole place was filled with pairs of men and women. No girl was idle. Moreover, every girl seen by Finkel said "Oh" and turned her head away at the same time. It seemed like a natural reaction after seeing a pile of cow dung.

There were only two "redundant" men in the whole place, him and Lu Mingfei.

"It's so embarrassing. Why are we standing here in such a situation?" Lu Mingfei still had a piece of sashimi in his mouth.

"I'm choosing a dance partner and you're eating sashimi!" Finkel was very confident.

"Do you hear the sound of the little crows flying across the sky?"

"I heard you, but even so you don't have to cry, right?" Finkel turned his head and looked at him. Lu Mingfei's eyes fell on Caesar and Nono who were dancing, and his eyes became moist.

"I put too much mustard on it." Lu Mingfei swallowed the sashimi, "Brother Mao Wang, you look very nervous."

The crimson curtain on the second floor was opened, and a small band was testing the sound. The conductor was the cook who delivered food to Lu Mingfei and Finger last time. It seemed that he was really versatile. The part-time cook was about to wave his baton, but he turned his head and saw the two men in the center of the dance floor. He couldn't help but hesitate. The band members who didn't get orders could only repeat the short overture again and again.

"It's tango! It's exactly my strong point!" Finkel's eyes showed a resolute look, "You and I will fight our way out beautifully for Caesar to see!"

“Great, show me your bloody path!” Lu Mingfei praised his senior brother’s courage.

"I'm really happy to see your ambition. Then, dear junior, you dance the female steps..." Finger put his arm around Lu Mingfei's waist, grabbed Lu Mingfei's hand, and snapped his fingers at the band conductor on the second floor. "Let's rock!"

This was the first time Lu Mingfei saw Finger exuding such a strong aura, with a fearless and masculine aura. If a woman had a special liking for young and dangerous men, she might suddenly feel a little bit of excitement for this sloppy man. But Lu Mingfei was not a woman, and the facts proved that every time Finger acted so heroically, they would fall into a desperate situation... a desperate situation that could not be more desperate...

The music started, the skirts spun, and the two weasels embraced each other under the huge external pressure.

The air was filled with the faint scent of perfume. The guests had obviously all taken the same dance class. Their dance moves were taught by the same teacher and their movements were precise. Hundreds of pairs of men and women in the hall formed a rectangular array and then spread out into a circle. The boys in black were in the outer circle and the girls in white dresses were in the inner circle.

The only inconsistency was that Lu Mingfei was also in the inner circle...dancing gracefully.

"Hey, this is a concubine selection meeting, right? The Austro-Hungarian Emperor's concubine selection meeting, right? I've seen "Sissi", it's exactly the same." Lu Mingfei regretted not kicking Finkel in the face and then turning around to run away the moment he was caught by Finkel. By the time they were surrounded, it was too late.

Beside him, the white lace dresses bloomed like huge white flowers as the girls spun around.

"Kassel College is a German-style college, and you are right about the Austro-Hungarian Empire. We have first-class court dance teachers." Finkel danced with great devotion.

"Is this what you call fighting your way out? Please, we have already thrown away all the people we can!"

"Use your brains. This is a classical social dance in Europe. They will exchange partners!" Finkel strode forward with great vigor and whispered, "They are like XY chromosomes in pairs, and we have two YY chromosomes... From a genetic point of view, we are bound to win. Do you know YY chromosomes? Think about what you learned in high school physiology class," Finkel said in a serious and academic tone, "A man's chromosomes are XY, and a woman's are XX. Only the so-called 'super males' are invincible 'YY'! This means that no matter how we exchange partners, we are at most YY, and we will never suffer any loss!"

"I really can't imagine that you have so many physiology lecture notes and optimism in your head, and you still firmly believe that we are invincible." Lu Mingfei held Finger's bear-like waist and spun around, hesitating whether to do the gorgeous high splits like the pretty girls around him. The other people's dance moves were so tacit, everyone split their legs, and he felt that it would affect the harmony if he didn't do it.

"No," Finkel said sadly, "I mean we can't fail, just like stocks that have fallen to the bottom, there is only a rebound. And I think you can give up the idea of doing the splits. They are wearing long skirts and you are wearing pants, and the seams of your crotch will tear..."

Lu Mingfei did not answer. Once again, the little crow flew over his head, chirping.

"Right at this moment! The target is the girl with the butterfly hairpin!" The music changed and Finkel gave the order to fight.

The two men hugged each other, looking very heroic and confident, their arms clasped together like a mortar ready to fire, and ran straight towards the pretty girl about ten meters away from them. The girl was spinning in the arms of a tall and thin boy, her white skirt was like a blooming flower, and her slender calves were graceful.

“Brother, you have good taste!” Lu Mingfei praised.

When the boy saw them coming, his face changed first, and then the girl's face changed as well. Her feet in white high heels almost tripped over each other, and she was supported by the boy to stand up straight. This was a normal reaction. Anyone who saw two men forming a mortar approaching with murderous intent would be terrified.

"Hey! Junior! Don't fall down before changing dance partners!" Finkel whispered.

The uniform steps of the court dance forced the couple to get closer to Finkel and Lu Mingfei, getting closer and closer, five meters, four meters, three meters, two meters...

The girl performed a beautiful spin, and her hands separated from the boy's. The opportunity appeared in just a moment!

The two male mortars also separated, and at the same time, they reached out to grab the girl's hand like hungry weasels trying to grab a chicken. The boy, who was determined to finish the group dance, was completely ignored when he stretched out his hand. The hem of his evening dress flew up and spun past the two weasels.

"Me first!" Finkel pushed Lu Mingfei on the shoulder.

“Can you please give way to your junior fellow student?” Lu Mingfei gritted his teeth and held on.

This push delayed the two of them briefly and created a small gap. The girl's flying dance skirt flew through the gap. When Finkel was about to raise his leg to kick Lu Mingfei, the boy and girl's hands were overlapped again.

The butterfly hairpin moved away with a sense of relief after a perfect teleportation. The mortar duo looked at each other, sighed heavily, and regrouped helplessly.

There was a laugh that could not be suppressed from not far away. Lu Mingfei looked up in frustration. Nuo Nuo had already handed her hand to a Japanese boy wearing white gloves. She spun around, as light as a purple swallowtail butterfly. It was the smile of a little witch, who stood by and watched you at your worst, laughed a smile that was hard to tell whether it was cute or annoying, and stepped on your embarrassed face twice. For a moment, Lu Mingfei was a little angry and a little sad.

Exactly the same clothes, just like that day in the VIP room of the cinema, the door opened, the light came in, and the girl walked in, like an angel.

But now she is laughing at you for looking so silly...

Actually, actually, actually... Lu Mingfei had thought about it, with a little bit of luck, whether Nuonuo would come to save him again. In this campus full of nobles and handsome guys, he really didn't know anything. Because of those strange s**t lucks, he became famous and didn't even have the chance to be a turtle. He also encountered an unscrupulous senior brother and was forced to dance with a man. How nice it would be if Nuonuo came over and held his hand at this time, and no one could laugh at him. Those girls in white skirts were all gorgeous, but no one could suppress that majestic girl.

That’s what Nono is like, so majestic.

But Nono was holding Caesar's hand, so Caesar was like the emperor here, and Nono was the queen.

The Queen should be able to laugh at the Clown, right?

It's just that the clown will be disappointed.

"Damn it, you insisted on competing with me. Now no one can get it. YY is still YY!" Finkel was very angry.

"Go away! If you weren't hot-headed, would we be so embarrassed?" Lu Mingfei withdrew his gaze.

"There will be bread, and there will be girls too! We must unite first! This time we have a deal, you have priority!" Finkel sighed.

But there was no next time. The first couple's quick thinking obviously inspired everyone else. Every time they exchanged partners, the fluttering white dance skirts would fly past the edge. The double mortar fought on all sides and was defeated repeatedly. Nono was not the only one laughing. Elegant laughter came one after another, spreading among everyone like a plague. Lu Mingfei suspected that if it were not for the aristocratic etiquette that required these students to force themselves to complete the dance, some of the girls would have laughed so hard that they would have fallen to the ground and pounded their fists.

"What should we do?" Lu Mingfei hoped that Finkel could come up with a quick solution.

"What should I do?" Finkel showed a look of relief. "Listen to the dance music, it's coming to an end... Congratulations, you are the first male partner to complete the whole dance with me."

"This honor makes me want to die!" Lu Mingfei thought that as soon as the music ended, he would rush to the door like lightning and leave this damn dance. It didn't matter whether he joined the freshman fraternity or hugged Chu Zihang's thigh! But... wouldn't all this be on the school news network again?

The music gradually faded, and the male and female dancers faced each other and performed elegant court etiquette.

"Retreat!" Finkel gave the order.

The band suddenly perked up at this moment, and instead of interrupting, they started a new overture, the music sounded high-spirited. The dance partners looked at each other in surprise. The music didn't stop, and the dance didn't end. They cooperated tacitly and held hands again.

A new tango.

"I'm thinking about killing the band conductor's entire family..." Finkel hugged Lu Mingfei tightly and sighed to the sky.

This change made the new dance partners unable to keep up for a while. By the time they reacted, they had been surrounded in the center of the dance circle. The situation was even more embarrassing than before.

"Forget it! We might as well turn around and leave! What's the point of etiquette? What's the point of saving face?" Finkel finally exploded with heroism.

"Well, that's fine, even though the ugliness is all over." Lu Mingfei said as he searched for the purple dress in the crowd, but there were too many people and he couldn't find a single trace. The strange violin change seemed to tear through the entire dance music like a sharp blade, and everyone in the ballroom frowned and looked up to the second floor. In Kassel Academy, where everything is high quality, even the band conducted by the cook is first-class, and such mistakes should not happen.

After playing the long note, the concertmaster stood up, put the violin on his chair, and turned to go downstairs.

It was a girl with light blond hair, wearing a silver crystal-embedded dress. Her skin was white and almost transparent, and her figure was petite, between a child and a girl. Lu Mingfei only saw her from behind and felt that she looked familiar.

"Snap"

A pair of silver high heels were placed on the marble floor, the rhinestones reflecting the dazzling brilliance, like a pair of crystal shoes in a fairy tale. The first violinist, or the Russian girl that Lu Mingfei had seen in the 3E exam, took off her black leather shoes and stepped into the high heels. Her originally petite figure suddenly stood up against the high heels, and her tightened belly and raised chest made her look graceful, like a stunning girl, but her face, which had never had any expression, was still frozen.

She slowly raised her arms, lifted one leg, and paused. It was a classic ballet move, like the death of a swan, so beautiful that it made one's heart tremble.

She began to dance, a standard tango, vigorous and powerful. She spun and cut into the dance circle along a straight line, heading straight to the center of the circle, where Lu Mingfei and Finger were. Everyone involuntarily made way for her, the garden was split, and the girl cut in like a silver knife. No one could resist her arrival, because her dance was too perfect, overwhelming everyone with a queen-like momentum.

"I think... you didn't come to invite me." Finkel said regretfully, "After all, you are the hottest star."

He did something that Lu Mingfei didn't expect, pushing Lu Mingfei towards the Russian girl, and he himself... he also spun, dancing as vigorously as the Russian girl, cutting through the crowd from the opposite direction. Lu Mingfei had to admit that Finger was a good dancing stick, and he must have been Elvis Presley in the past.

The moment the Russian girl put her hand on Lu Mingfei, the dance entered its c****x majestically. With a powerful head shake, Lu Mingfei adjusted his dance posture under the girl's strong arms.

The laughter and exclamations stopped, and the truly magnificent dance began.

Lu Mingfei had never thought in his life that he could dance tango so smoothly. He had only received three months of dance training. In order to perform a group dance at the Spring Festival Gala, the dance teacher he invited shook his head again and again and said that Lu Mingfei was obviously the type who had uncoordinated use of his hands and feet. When his hands were in place, his legs would have problems, and vice versa. In other words, Lu Mingfei either had to keep the beat with his arms hanging down, or stand and swing his arms gracefully.

No matter how you think about it, it's not pretty. The reason why Lu Mingfei was able to persevere was because his partner in that group dance was Chen Wenwen.

But under the control and eye contact of the Russian girl, he immediately followed the rhythm. All the movements seemed to be engraved in his mind. He didn't need to think about how to place his arms and how to walk. He just relaxed and followed the instructions of the dancing queen. Their dance was unrestrained and free, as if they had practiced together for many years. The silver dance skirts fluttered, reflecting the dazzling light and shadow.

"Hello...what's your name?" Lu Mingfei asked hesitantly.

"Zero." The girl spoke with a slight Russian accent.

"It shouldn't be... something like Wa or something like Na? Zero is English, right? Zero?"

"It's also a Russian word, 'Zero'. I don't have a formal name, and the number they gave me is '0'." The girl said lightly, "You can call me Zero."

"Zero?" Lu Mingfei was trying to make conversation. "This song sounds so familiar."

"Por Una Cabeza, Chinese name "One Step Away", is a work by Argentine tango dance king Carlos Gardel. Have you seen "Scent of a Woman"? "

Lu Mingfei shook his head.

"What about Schindler's List?"

"I've seen it, it's the German Oscar. It would be embarrassing to tell others if I haven't seen this." Lu Mingfei regretted it the moment he finished speaking. When there was such a proud and cold girl like a little Russian queen, who spun from the gap into the dance floor and asked him to dance, he should have acted like a Chinese emperor to deal with it. Why did he sound so rustic after just a few words?

"There's this song as the background music. It's a noble song that stands out from the crowd." Ling looked directly into Lu Mingfei's eyes, his voice flat.

"What do you mean?" Lu Mingfei didn't dare to look into her eyes. He didn't know why Ling wanted to save him in this way. Although he had thought about it, the protagonist should be Nono who was dancing with Caesar. He didn't even say a word to Ling, and Ling didn't smile at him.

Maybe he felt that he was in such a bad situation that he came to help? Lu Mingfei thought.

"I don't mean anything." Zero said.

“Really?” Lu Mingfei was embarrassed again, “I thought…”

"I just like dancing. I brought my dancing shoes."

"But why did you find me?"

"Everyone else has a partner."

"Then why don't you dance with Finger? He dances better than me." Lu Mingfei felt that Ling's reason was far-fetched. Just because she liked dancing, she had to cut through the crowd like a silver knife to hold his hand? Could it be that Ling was the legendary heroine who saved people from danger but never took credit?

"Fingal is too tall, his height doesn't match his size." Ling argued.

There was nothing to say but to keep dancing.

"The song ends, I will spin 3600 degrees, hold me!" Zero ordered like Queen.

Lu Mingfei did it without thinking. In the aftermath of the finale, the other girls stopped moving, but Ling did not. She pressed her fingers on Lu Mingfei's palm and began to spin, her skirt fluttering, her shoes spinning silver light, and the sound of her heels hitting the ground formed a series of allegro. At this moment, all the light seemed to be focused on her. Whether it was Tchaikovsky's death of the swan or the swan song of the goddess of Wushan in the hall, it was not an exaggeration to describe it.

Applause, quiet and powerful applause. Caesar actually clapped his hands. Following him, everyone else clapped their hands. The applause was like a storm, and in the storm the silver swan was extremely proud.

Lu Mingfei suddenly became dazed, vaguely feeling that he was in a certain place and time again, with the lights so bright and the applause so thunderous. A slender figure was spinning in front of him in full view of the crowd, and the spreading skirt was like a peacock's tail feathers.

What's going on? Have I ever been this cool in the past 18 years? This is impossible, right? Is this an illusion? How can I be this cool like an emperor?

But with it came confidence, unparalleled confidence. With a sense of power. He suddenly reached out and grabbed Ling's slender palm. That was the last moment of the dance. Ling completed her 3600-degree rotation and slowly knelt down to salute Lu Mingfei. Her scattered dance skirt gathered against her legs, like a blooming flower closing back into a bud. The timing was exactly right, as if Lu Mingfei had signaled Ling to stop spinning. In fact, he felt that he had twitched for no reason and held the girl's hand.

Ling hasn't stood up yet. This is the standard ending move of the court dance. Lu Mingfei should return the greeting at this moment.

Lu Mingfei was suddenly dumbfounded. He returned to the real world from the good feeling of being an emperor, and found that he had never learned any court dance, and of course did not know how to salute. Just now, those boys saluted the girls when the dance ended, but unfortunately he did not pay any attention at all, and his eyes were focused on Ling.

Damn it? Should I kiss her hand? Or just bend over? Or should I press my chest with my left hand? Lu Mingfei's forehead was sweating. Such a great dance, could he have messed it up with a small detail?

"My dear minister, please don't be polite, just stand up..." Lu Mingfei said these rubbish in a nervous state, which made him collapse even after hearing it.

"Why am I such a person?" He said to himself, looking around, only to find that no one else heard his words. They were all clapping loudly, and the applause covered up his bad words.

Ling raised her head and glanced at Lu Mingfei, frowning her beautiful brows. She stood up, turned around and walked to the edge of the dance floor, changed back into her black leather shoes, put her silver high heels back into the shoe covers, and then put them back into the black suitcase. She took a crimson long windbreaker from the waiter and put it on. Without saying hello to anyone, she went out the front door. She was as sharp as a knife when she came, and extremely cold when she left.

"This year's freshmen are really interesting." Lu Mingfei heard Caesar say in a low voice.

He looked up at Caesar, who was drinking a glass of iced brandy and watching Zero's back as he was about to disappear into the darkness.