But no matter how Qian Chuan slandered the tango, Qian Wei continued to put Lu Xun through her devil training. However, because of Lu Xun’s progress that was so bad that it was practically backwards, their original one-hour practice sessions had to be extended to two hours every day.
So today when Qian Wei told him she would be leaving early, Lu Xun didn’t seem very satisfied: “Can’t we continue to practice?”
Qian Wei looked at the time before responding: “We can practice more tomorrow but I can’t stay today. I have an appointment.”
Lu Xun’s voice was tinged with sourness: “Oh, a date?”
“I’m studying!” Qian Wei retorted. After some thought, she decided to offer Lu Xun a rare explanation in consideration of the fact that he hadn’t tried to escape from the devil training so far, “I really am going to study. I made an appointment with Li Chongwen and he is going to tutor me on criminal law.”
Lu Xun’s face softened a little: “It’s not like I couldn’t tutor you on criminal law.”
“No, you don’t need to bother.” Qian Wei waved her hand dismissively. After all, Qian Wei had deliberately asked Li Chongwen to tutor her on criminal law because that was the only way she could naturally invite Li Chongwen out for a meal every time he finished tutoring her in the name of expressing her gratitude.
But for some reason Lu Xun was insistent: “It’s no trouble, I can just tutor you a bit after we do these practice sessions.” He slightly averted his eyes. “You can just take it as my gratitude to you for practicing with me. Anyway, you shouldn’t always bother Li Chongwen.”
“No, I’ve been asking Li Chongwen to tutor me on criminal law since a long time ago. We’ve had this agreement for a while so it’s no trouble to him or to me.”
“I score better than him every time on the periodic tests in the Criminal Law course.”
“It’s fine, Li Chongwen doesn’t do badly on those tests.”
After she said that, Lu Xun stopped talking. It was a bit strange, he obviously had no expression on his face, but Qian Wei felt that he seemed a little angry.
“You regularly meet with Li Chongwen so he can tutor you in criminal law?”
“Yes!”
“Can Mo Tao stand that? It seems like you go out to study criminal law with Li Chongwen almost as often as you go on dates with him. I feel bad for him, even though he’s your boyfriend, you don’t seem to care about him at all. ” Lu Xun’s tone was strange, “Or maybe he just doesn’t like you very much, so he lets you run around however you like.”
Qian Wei was stunned for a moment before she realized what he meant. When she figured it out she laughed loudly and decided to show off her powerful side in front of Lu Xun: “I told Mo Tao a long time ago that if he wanted to be my boyfriend he needed to be warm and treat me gently and, on top of that, he needs to to be sensible and considerate, and never interfere in my life.”
“…” Lu Xun said nothing but his face obviously showed that his three values were being rocked to the core.
“Come on, don’t worry so much about Mo Tao. Worry more about yourself.” Qian Wei thought of something while she was tidying up to go, “By the way, I borrowed a lot of books for you but I forgot to give them to you until just now. Take them back with you tonight and have a good look.”
Lu Xun lowered his head and saw Qian Wei was pushing a pile of books into his hands.
‘28 Ways To Improve Speaking Skills’, ‘The Way to Chase Women’, ‘Dating Skills’, ‘How to Make People Like You in One Minute’, etc, etc… Lu Xun’s face looked a little heavy as he scanned through the titles. “Qian Wei, what are these?”
“I’ve carefully screened these books out for you, only selecting the ones that have many positive online reviews. You can use them to strengthen your theoretical knowledge. Anyway, the time for my appointment with Li Chongwen is almost here so let’s not waste any more words. Let’s practice!”
She had already drilled him on dancing the tango for more than half a month, so Qian Wei decided to check the results.
“In the past few days I’ve been breaking down the individual movements of the tango with you but today let’s try doing it in its entirety.”
Qian Wei turned on the music and the gentle prelude began. Qian Wei walked slowly over to Lu Xun, got into position, and then gently embraced him as the dance required.
She didn’t actually hold out much hope for successfully dancing the tango with Lu Xun today. After all, Lu Xun was so clumsy during every practice that Qian Wei was fully prepared to have her poor feet stepped on by Lu Xun many times when they tried to go through the whole dance.
However, maybe the accumulated experience from all the dance practices were finally showing results because Lu Xun not only made no mistakes, he actually danced even more skillfully than Qian Wei.
His dance steps were elegant, smooth, and natural. He could perfectly approach, then follow, then lead. His movements were somehow simultaneously like a deliberate seduction and a distant temptation. Neither of them spoke, but despite that, everything was communicated perfectly. They stepped gently in time with one another and occasionally their calves rubbed as he tightly hugged her waist and then rotated with her at just the right timing. As the two danced a secret and tacit understanding seemed to bloom between them, as if the words they wanted to share but were too shy to say out loud were being communicated with the movements of their bodies.
In fact, all of Qian Wei’s skills with the tango had been taught to her by Lu Xun. Even now, she was dancing the movements the 28-year-old Lu Xun had taught her back them, but she was hugging the 19-year-old him.
The 28-year-old Lu Xun had seemed more mature and introspective, his eyes had been like two silent pools of still water, deep and placid. But the 19-year-old Lu Xun was different, more fiery and exuberant.
Perhaps the tango was really the most suitable dance for Lu Xun, considering his character. It was reserved, yet full of temptation, it pulled you close, and held you far; it teased you, then ignored you; hugged you tight, but did not look at you. It really seemed to be a dance made for Lu Xun.
A proper tango was something that lived and breathed. In the past days, as Lu Xun gradually improved his knowledge of the steps, he had been slowly bringing his tango to life. And today, Lu Xun finally seemed to let go of everything, as he moved through the steps of the tango his whole person seemed to be releasing overpowering male hormones and his pair of beautiful eyes were full of unstoppable charm. His tango seemed more alive than ever before. Qian Wei hadn’t expected that even the 19-year-old Lu Xun could dance a tango that was so sexy and full of amorous desire.
Subconsciously, Qian Wei felt like she could not look directly at a Lu Xun like this, so she closed her eyes and let her body follow Lu Xun’s lead.
However, Lu Xun’s face was really too close to hers. His fiery breath brushed against Qian Wei’s cheek and even rustled her eyelashes. Inside, her temperature seemed to be increasing, the heat rising from the tips of her toes until it was burning through her whole body. Qian Wei realized that she could no longer hear the music, there was only one sound reverberating through her head, and that was the thuds of her own beating heart. The world around her seemed to fade and wash away until only the rapidly accelerating thump of her heartbeat was left.
Qian Wei had originally been dancing very skilfully but suddenly she made a wrong step with the beat; then in another moment, she accidentally stepped directly on Lu Xun’s foot.
Unexpectedly, Lu Xun seemed to be in perfect form while his nominal teacher was making errors left and right.
Mistakes were this kind of thing. If you made one or two at the beginning, they would only keep flowing out continuously. In the end, Qian Wei blushed and hurriedly finished the song while staying an extra step away from Lu Xun.
Lu Xun, on the other hand, seemed calm and relaxed. Seeing him like this made Qian Wei fall into a daze, her thoughts returning back to that time when the 28-year-old Lu Xun had been teaching her the tango.
“Well, with the level of you and Mo Zixin, there should be no problem. You two will definitely win first place.”
“Mhm.” Lu Xun hummed an acknowledgment before taking a sip of water. His face was slightly flushed because of the exercise, but his expression seemed quite calm.
Qian Wei thought: You just keep pretending! I really wonder how excited you are in your heart right now!
—–
However, just when Qian Wei felt that everything was finally ready, who asked Lu Xun, this guy, to go and screw things up at the last minute! He told her he sprained his ankle while he was playing basketball!
“How did you sprain your ankle? Let me see.”
But Lu Xun was quite uncooperative: “I just sprained my ankle, what’s there to see?”
“I have to see if you’re badly hurt and if you can recover before the dance contest.” Qian Wei said while squatting down and anxiously pulling up Lu Xun’s pant leg.
Lu Xun seemed to want to take back his leg but Qian Wei had already exposed his ankle. The sprained ankle was smooth and toned and so pale that it reflected light. However, Qian Wei turned it left and right but didn’t see any redness, swelling, bruising, or discoloration.
“It looks like you’re alright?” She blurted out.
“It hurts when I move it.” Lu Xun said as he pulled his foot back, “Also, don’t grab me like that, it hurts.”
In life, it seemed that it never rained, instead it poured. Qian Wei had only just heard that Lu Xun sprained his ankle when suddenly some even more shocking news came!
That afternoon, Qian Wei had been preparing to take a nap when suddenly all of her sleepiness was blown away by a text message from Qian Chuan.
“Qian Wei, congratulate me! I’m no longer single! Mo Zixin and I are together!”
The moment Qian Wei saw that text she was really just like the person who ‘suddenly jerked up despite dying from illness’*. What the heck? She remembered very clearly that in her previous life Qian Chuan had chased Mo Zixin night and day but it still took him more than half a year to get Mo Zixin to agree to date him. So why was it that they hadn’t even had the dance contest yet but somehow that kid got her to agree?
Even though she was born again it seemed that the future boss’s wife had been stolen away by her own brother again. As soon as Qian Wei thought of Lu Xun, it was as if she could see him standing at the head of her bed with a cold face and an accusing gaze. She could practically hear him saying: “You need to compensate me for my wife.”
Qian Wei didn’t dare to think of something like taking a nap right now, she hurriedly got up from bed and rushed over to find Qian Chuan.
“Tell me, what’s going on? How did you get Mo Zixin to agree? It’s not scientific!”
Qian Chuan, whose face was filled with spring, replied breezily “What’s so unscientific about it? There’s Mo Zixin, a single beautiful girl, and then there’s me, a single handsome young man, isn’t it obvious that we are a match made in heaven?” He spoke triumphantly, “My personal charm is just that amazing. Actually, I asked Mo Zixin to go to the movies one weekend and then later I gave her a set of skin care products that I bought from overseas as an early birthday president. When I think of it, aren’t I just an amazingly sweet and considerate man? So, of course, as soon as I confessed my love, she accepted me right away!”
“When did you ask her to see a movie?”
“It was on the weekend two weeks ago!”
Qian Wei thought: Shit, two weeks ago? Wasn’t it her idea to have Lu Xun and Mo Zixin watch a horror movie that weekend? It seemed that Mo Zixin’s excuse that she suddenly had diarrhea was fake. In actuality she was busy going out to see a movie with Qian Chuan!
“How much did you that set of skin care products cost you?”
“Two thousand yuan.” As he answered Qian Chuan became a little vigilant. “Don’t ask to borrow money from me. Those two thousand yuan were my private money I managed to slowly save by living frugally. I don’t have any more for you.”
Oh, shit! What the hell was this?! Qian Wei wanted to roar in her heart: Why was Lu Xun’s gift that cost the same price returned for being ‘too expensive’! Someone tell her why?! Was Mo Zixin just fated to be with Qian Chuan? But Qian Wei always felt that Mo Zixin was obviously at least a little interested in Lu Xun, right?!
“Also, you can tell Lu Xun not to bother practicing the tango. My family’s Mo Zixin said that she wouldn’t sign up to dance the duet anymore because she feels afraid that I might not be happy. Now she is practicing a solo dance instead.”
“…”
*This refers to a poem where a person who left their hometown falls very ill, then while on his sickbed he receives a depressing letter from home, causing him to get so shocked that he sits up, overwhelmed by the sudden feelings of gloom and surprise. Probably I could have just replaced it with some English idiom but eh. Here’s the excerpt from the poem if you’re curious ‘垂死病中惊坐起’
This is wow…. interesting turn of events… The fact that what she went with ML was the same how Mo Zixing did with her brother….
I doubt both FL’s bother and ML talked about this one… but then again…. I mean… mhhhhh….. ohh well I’ll just leave this out to fate I guess. Now I’m more confused towards Mo Zixing, ML because he’s pretty much handsome and actually the top? I was expecting FL’s room mate friend and her brother to date in this timeline but I guess not?