The most beautiful space

15. A Young Man's Heart is Always Poetic (Part 1)

Since she wanted to dance and Chen Jiaxin had invited her so enthusiastically, Su Tong didn't hesitate and accepted the clothes with a smile, saying, "Then I'll shamelessly go for it."

Chen Jiaxin then asked the young girl to take Su Tong to the dressing room. Su Tong nodded and turned to Li Qiang, saying, "Li Qiang, I saw you were about to leave. If you have something to do, you can go ahead. I ran into an old friend, so I'll stay here for a while."

Li Li has been arrogant since junior high school, considering herself a master of romance. In the eyes of boys, she is a goddess-level figure with full charm. In her words, the only flaw in her perfect image is that she doesn't have any outstanding talents!

As for making Chinese pastries, Li Li, a staunch feminist, said that this skill was simply not presentable. Every time she lamented this shortcoming of hers, she would compare herself to Su Tong, who studied classical dance. Li Qiang had always wanted to see Su Tong dance, but he never had the chance. Now that the opportunity was right in front of him, how could he let it go? He quickly said, "Sister Su Tong, I don't have anything to do anyway, so I'll just watch from here."

"Alright then, you can leave anytime you want." After saying that, Su Tong followed the little girl. Su Tong only regarded Li Qiang as a little brother. When she performed with the art troupe before, she had performed classical dances in front of thousands of people, and even had solo dances. She didn't care that he was watching.

While waiting for Su Tong to come out after changing her clothes, Li Qiang stood there for a few minutes. He didn't hear a word that Chen Jiaxin, as the hostess, said to him. He was thinking about how stunningly beautiful Su Tong was now, and about that flowing white dress. He felt like a husband sitting in a bridal shop, waiting for his fiancée to change into her wedding dress. He blushed at this thought, feeling both ashamed and expectant.

But when Su Tong actually changed into her dress and walked over gracefully, he even forgot to blush. He always knew that Su Tong was beautiful, but he never expected her to be this beautiful.

Su Tong wasn't stupid. Ever since she realized she had become very beautiful, she had always dressed herself in a normal and casual style. This was the first time she had shown her beauty in front of people like this. When Chen Jiaxin saw Su Tong's unreal beauty, she almost immediately regretted her earlier suggestion to dance. With such looks and figure, she would be a sight to behold even just walking by quietly, let alone dancing!

This classical dance dress features extremely wide and flowing sleeves and hem, except for the waist, which is tightly bound with a belt that hangs down naturally, aiming to accentuate a slender waist. When this dress is worn by Su Tong, whose waist is so slender it could be encircled with one hand, it is unexpectedly pure and beautiful. Her long black hair is tied high at the back of her head with a simple black hair tie, which complements her fair and delicate face. Her eyes, sparkling with excitement, seem to be able to captivate one's soul.

Wearing her long-unseen classical dance dress, Su Tong felt simply happy, as if she had returned to her teenage years when she was learning from teacher Li Liping. "Jiaxin, I'm all changed."

It took Chen Jiaxin a while to find her voice. After all, she was an adult who had been in the workforce for a long time and could control her emotions. She smiled slightly and said in a somewhat hoarse voice, "Hmm, it looks very nice. Go and try it out after you change. I just called the dance studio number 3, which is the closest to the office, for you."

Li Qiang is Li Li's younger brother, and Su Tong trusts him quite a bit. She left her clothes in Chen Jiaxin's dressing room, and gave Li Qiang the bag containing cash and money. She said to him, "Watching classical dance isn't very fun. If you're bored, go out and have some fun. Just come back in an hour or so."

"Hmm." Li Qiang looked at Su Tong and simply nodded.

When Su Tong and her colleagues talk about classical dance, they specifically mean Chinese classical dance, excluding European classical dance represented by ballet, and Indian classical dance comprised of six major dance systems such as Bharatanatyam and Kathak. Chinese classical dance is related to ancient Chinese dance and was gradually established by modern dance practitioners based on Chinese opera dance, Chinese martial arts, and ethnic minority dances.

According to the theory of Su Tong's teacher, contemporary dance master Li Liping, Chinese classical dance can be broadly divided into: ancient court dance, such as the Rainbow Feather Dance and the Salt Pool Dance; prop dance, such as fan dance, drum dance, and sword dance; and folk dance, such as Li Liping's most famous peacock dance.

Classical dance emphasizes essence, energy, spirit, and the interplay of hand, eye, body, technique, and step. Among these, the most difficult to master is the spirit and charm. When Su Tong first joined the art troupe, she initially learned from a Peking Opera teacher, studying the spirit and charm of every gesture, every movement, every glance. When learning folk dance, she would go to the peacock garden and stare at the peacocks every day, almost counting their tail feathers, but she still couldn't capture the peacock's spirit and beauty.

Su Tong walked into the dance studio wearing a dance dress. Her past years of studying were vivid in her mind, as clear as if it were yesterday. When she was learning to dance with Li Liping in Yunnan, she always felt that she was going to be a professional dancer. She really loved dance. At that time, apart from going to school, dance was Su Tong's whole life.

The dance skirts at Chen Jiaxin's club look like skirts on the outside, but underneath are two hidden snow-white pant legs, making it easy to perform various dance moves.

Su Tong first did warm-up exercises, pointing her toes, flexing her toes, pressing her legs, bending over, and then doing splits, handstands, and somersaults. She didn't expect that after not exercising properly for so long and being older, handstands and somersaults felt very tiring and not as easy as before, not to mention that she could do handstands for an hour when she was punished by the teacher. However, doing splits was very easy, and her flexibility felt better than when she was a teenager!

Looking at her hair, which had grown from shoulder-length to waist-length in just over a month, Su Tong thought that it was probably the effect of the space spring water again.

Then Su Tong forgot everything around her and started with the tea-picking dance that Teacher Li usually had the students warm up with. She avoided the dances with too many jumping movements that she couldn't handle with her current physical strength, and followed her memory one by one, using her poor physical strength to dance out the most familiar parts intermittently.

Twist, tilt, round, bend; look up, look down, flip, turn.

Emerald rain and fragrant orchids, butterflies fluttering and flowers dancing, the love of lotus... peacock dance, sparrow dance, snake dance...

Although Su Tong was exhausted, she seemed tireless, dancing with complete concentration.

First, Li Qiang, Chen Jiaxin, and the two young girls who worked there were watching. Then, the students who had finished their classes also gathered around.

They were all in the prime of their youth, around 16 or 7 years old, and all wore the same dress as the woman dancing, yet none of them possessed that breathtaking beauty.

Li Qiang was completely stunned. He never imagined that there was such a captivating dance and such a beautiful person in the world, and that this person was Sister Su Tong!

He subconsciously picked up his camera and repeatedly pressed the shutter to capture the beautiful moments of Su Tong dancing, because he felt that he had nothing else to leave behind besides these photos.

In reality, from the moment Su Tong started dancing until she collapsed to the ground, panting from exhaustion, less than an hour had passed, but to Li Qiang, it felt like an eternity. He heard the girls around him gossiping amongst themselves.

"Wow, this girl is so beautiful! She doesn't even look like she's wearing makeup! No wonder everyone's afraid of wearing the same outfit as someone else. After seeing her in that dance dress today, I don't want to wear it anymore!"

"Seriously, such a beautiful girl, could she be a celebrity? Her skin is so good, and her waist is so slim!"

"Impossible! If there were such a beautiful female celebrity, I would definitely remember her. Besides, why would a big star come here!"

Li Qiang felt a heavy, uncomfortable feeling in his heart. He was in a daze and couldn't remember how he said goodbye to Sister Su Tong, how he greeted his friends who were playing billiards, or how he went home.

When he got home, he saw Li Li watching TV downstairs. Without even greeting her, he went upstairs to his bedroom, threw himself onto the bed, and began to self-torture as he flipped through the beautiful photos on his camera. His heart ached as if a piece of it had been ripped out with a knife. Those cowardly tears, which shouldn't belong to a man, streamed uncontrollably down his face.

He had always vaguely known in his heart that he had fallen for Su Tong. At this age, when boys are often attracted to older girls.