I’m An All Stars System - Chapter 3 1.2 Star Dancer

Yu Yan was delighted she got acquainted with such a talented person. She couldn’t wait for her to teach her those amazing dance moves and if she’s good enough, maybe she’ll let her dance with her.Although her special power of creating water peonies wasn’t good now, dancing with Tian He would help her solve that.

Yu Yan turned to the plainly dressed girl, “Fen Ju, you may retire, from now on, Tian He is going to help me, you’re no longer needed. When I’m done with the competition, I’ll have mother and father send you back to your village.”

Fen Ju was horrified, if she gets sent back, her parents will only sell her somewhere else as a servant. She was lucky enough to display small dance moves to Yu Yan and trick her into transferring her over to become her dancing assistant to enroll together in this dancing academy, she couldn’t let all her efforts go to waste.

Fen Ju kneeled down, “Third young miss, please don’t send me back, I can still help you, although this Tian He is good at dancing, she might not even teach you correctly. Besides, isn’t it strange that a girl as talented as her chose to take up your E ranked request? Third young miss, you must think wisely, don’t let your future get destroyed by others. Remember, I have always been loyal to you.”

Tian He calmly watched from the sidelines. The student musicians have long stopped playing and were shaking their heads in disappointment, they weren’t blind, they have been playing music with Yu Yan while she dances for a week, but this Fen Ju never came by. It was obvious that she was ungrateful for Yu Yan’s parents help in enrolling her into the academy and was trying to drive Tian He away.

Yu Yan laughed sarcastically, “Loyal?! Not responding to my summons for a week, and you have the face to say that you’re loyal? What dogshit loyalty is this, I, Zhang Yu Yan, do not need this kind of cheap loyalty. I was kind enough to wait until you get a chance to perform in the upcoming competition before sending you away, maybe you would get noticed and get hired by someone decent or admitted into a lesser artist’s academy, but Fen Ju, you just had to be greedy. Tomorrow, I’ll send a notice to father and mother to have them get you, along with a report of your recent conducts towards me. Duan Fen Ju, I hope you take care of yourself from now on and find someone that would accept your special loyalty.”

Fen Ju collapsed on the ground, she knew that she was truly finished, her dream of becoming a famous dancer and getting rid of her servant status had no hope of coming true now. However, her sorrow quickly became anger, she immediately grabbed her hairpin and lunged at Yu Yan, if she couldn’t achieve her dream, then neither can this spoiled miss. Why can she have everything just because she was lucky enough to be born in a well-off family with loving parents? She was just as pretty as her and even more talented than her, why are the heavens so unfair?

Tian He had been keeping an eye on Fen Ju and when she attacked, she easily blocked it and kicked Fen Ju back. Yu Yan was shocked, she didn’t think that a servant that she was once kind to, wanted to harm her. The student musicians stood up in shock, some of them even wanted to rush over and help. Tian He was glad that Yu Yan had some loyal friends who cared about her.

She turned back to her, “Are you alright, Yu Yan?”

Yu Yan regained her bearings and nodded, “Thank you for saving me Tian He, please let me repay you for your help, if her hairpin had landed on my face or legs, my future as a dancer might have been over.” Yu Yan bowed slightly in gratefulness.

Tian He stopped her from bowing, she didn’t want their new friendship to be based on her saving her. At first, Tian He just wanted to casually get acquainted with Yu Yan, but she liked Yu Yan’s straightforwardness and strong personality; also, she was considerate of the people around her or else the student musicians wouldn’t have wanted to save her.

“Yu Yan, please don’t say that, if you don’t mind me as a friend, I would be more than happy to save you anytime you needed it, not that I hope you would need saving anytime soon.” Tian He teased her happily.

“Tian He, I absolutely wouldn’t mind you as my friend, in fact, I would be extremely happy. I have to be truthful to you Tian He, at first, I only wanted your help in improving my dance moves, but now I genuinely want to be your friend. I’m sorry I thought that way before, forgive me?” Yu Yan clamps her hands together and playfully pleaded.

Tian He laughed happily and the golden lotus blossoms seemed to have glowed a bit brighter in response.

“There’s nothing to forgive, to be honest, I only thought of leaving after I completed your request and obtained the money, but who knew you were such a lovable person?” Tian He playfully pinched Yu Yan’s cute cheeks. If Yu Yan decided to be honest to her, then naturally she had to be honest back. Tian He has always been a person who repaid goodness with goodness, if someone was kind to her, then she’ll be kind back.

Yu Yan hugged Tian He happily, “Thank you Tian He, having such a good and talented friend like you must have been repayment from my past life for doing good things.”

Tian He patted Yu Yan to calm her down. “Okay, okay, Yu Yan, I get it, I’m glad to have such a cheerful and outgoing friend like you, too.”

Yu Yan released Tian He and focused her attention on the fainted Fen Ju on the ground. “What should we do with her? Since she dared to harm a fellow student, she’ll be immediately expelled and punished, the worst-case scenario, no other artist’s academy will ever accept her.”

The student musicians had come over and a young clean looking male musician looked at Yu Yan in concern, “We should give her to Punishment Hall’s Elder Liao, he would make sure that Fen Ju pay for her crimes and compensates for trying to harm you.” Yu Yan nodded a bit in thanks and looked at Tian He for her opinion.

Tian He looked thoughtfully at this male musician, he was one of them that tried to rushed over to help earlier. Judging from her observations, she could see that he liked Yu Yan, but hasn’t taken the initiative to confess yet, or else no matter how dense Yu Yan was, she would have some reaction.

“I agree with this fellow student, let’s give Fen Ju to Elder Liao for handling, I’m sure he’ll judge this case fairly.” Tian He smiled slyly.

The male musician coughed slightly and looked thankfully at Tian He for helping him and not exposing his feelings. He had liked Yu Yan for awhile but was only caught today, looks like this Tian He is a pretty sharped eyed person.

Yu Yan didn’t notice their small exchange and nodded to Tian He in agreement. The male musician sent someone to get Elder Liao and explain their situation. Soon, Fen Ju was dragged away by the people from the Punishment Hall and Elder Liao promised to punish her heavily and compensate Yu Yan.

After the whole fiasco, Yu Yan introduced the male musician to Tian He, “This is Qin Liu Wei, a fellow 1st year student who majors in playing the flute, he and his band have been playing along while I dance since a week ago. Their band is rather popular, and I was lucky enough to invite them to play for me.”

Tian He had already introduced herself earlier, but she still needed to be respectful, “Hello, fellow student Liu Wei, your earlier flute playing was remarkable, I also loved the melody.” Tian He was being truthful, his flute playing could match hers when she’s not being serious and the melody, although not perfect, sounded pleasant.

“Fellow student Tian He, please don’t embarrass me, my flute playing could not be compared to your dancing skills, now that was remarkable. But I’m glad you liked the melody, it was my original creation.” Liu Wei responded neither boastingly or servilely.

Tian He’s eyebrows picked up, original creation, Heh. From what she heard, it was a romantic yet powerful song. She looked to Yu Yan, if she didn’t hear incorrectly, earlier she mentioned she wanted to perform well for 2nd Imperial prince to notice her. She looked back at Liu Wei and prayed silently in heart, by the looks of it, he is the possessive type and Yu Yan will end up being the passive person in the relationship. Put up a good fight and don’t get eaten too fiercely, Amen.

The three of them went inside Yu Yan’s courtyard, while the rest of the student musicians returned to their dormitories. Yu Yan happily talks, with Liu Wei speaking occasionally and Tian He nodding her head from time to time.

“Tian He, with your skills, you’re guaranteed into the Top 10 in the upcoming competition, if you get into the Top 3, you’ll be able to get accepted into any of the famous artist companies. If you manage to win first place, the imperial palace will offer you a position as an Art’s official. As compared to me, I’ll be lucky if I make it into the Top 200.” Yu Yan sighs woefully.

“Yu Yan, relax, we still have three months to improve, how about this, I’ll become your exclusive trainer and make sure you make it into the Top 100.” Tian He must help her friend, after all, she’s the first friend she’s ever made, her world and this world, she must do her best.

“No way, I was just saying casually, you’ll really be able to get me into Top 100? There are 1000 newly enrolled students this year and that’s not counting the other 1000 students in training. Are you sure about this?” Yu Yan asks tentatively.

“Of course I’m sure, you’ll be surprised what a great teacher I am, if I told you I was better at teaching than dancing, would you believe me?” Tian He smiled mischievously.

Yu Yan stares at her, “I believe, my future dancing practices for the performance shall now be directed by you, whatever you say, I’ll listen, even if I have to go through water and fire.”

“Haha, thank you for believing in me, remember what you’ve said, from now, you’ll have to listen to me, when I say you go south, you can’t go north.” Tian He teased her.

“Yes, Teacher Tian He, I’ll shall be your loyal student from today onwards.” Yu Yan promised seriously.

Liu Wei didn’t have a chance to say anything and this ‘Teacher’ and ‘Student’ bond has already formed.

“Alright count my band in too, I’ll look forward to practicing and improving with you guys.” Liu Wei joins in.

“Okay, lets put our hands together and do our best, remember our goal is Top 100, except for you Tian He, you aim for first place.” Yu Yan declares.

“That might not be such a bad idea, Yu Yan you’re right, we should do our best, I’ll aim for first place and make sure you guys get Top 50 instead.” Tian He sets her determination and places her hands on top of Yu Yan’s.

Before Yu Yan could say otherwise, Liu Wei placed his hands on top of Tian He’s. “I love a good challenge, let’s aim for Top 50.”

“Yeah!” Tian He and Liu Wei screams.

Yu Yan looks at them like they’re out of their minds. Top 50?! How could it be that easy?

Tian He turns to Yu Yan and holds her hands, “Don’t worry, Yu Yan, all you have to do is trust in me, do you think you can do that?”

Yu Yan looks into Tian He’s bright, clear eyes, she has her answer, “I do!”

So, during the following 2 months in a half, Tian He & Yu Yan only went to their basic classes. Tian He stayed in Yu Yan’s spacious courtyard and Liu Wei would come whenever after classes ended, and the three of them would practice together from dawn till dusk. Tian He taught most of the basics to Yu Yan, making sure she had a stable foundation before moving on to anything complex. Most people don’t know that without a good foundation, their dance moves would look awkward and clumsy.

While she instilled the basics into Yu Yan, she practiced dance moves from the ‘Advanced arts in Dancing’ book. It was all thanks to Liu Wei for giving her this book. She didn’t ask how he was able to obtain it but since it was his good intentions, she accepted it. It turns out, these moves proved a bit of a challenge for her but that increased her interest even more.

Liu Wei’s band skills gradually improved, and the synchrony of their dances matched perfectly, especially Yu Yan’s dance. It was like the melody was tailored for such a fiery and cheerful person like her. When they performed together, sacred powers formed particles of light in the shape of blue peonies and green flutes. It was a beautiful scene. They gradually got stronger until their scared powers no longer scattered but assimilated into the ground, forming real peonies and wooden flutes. Amazingly enough, the blue peonies would have an endless source of water and the wooden flutes had fruits growing out of it.

Tian He’s dancing skills got better day by day, but for some reason, she couldn’t practice the last move in the ‘advanced dancer’s’ book. She had already failed a couple of times, so she knew that she had finally hit a bottleneck. This surprised her greatly because she had always been swift in learning things, maybe she was missing something, but she didn’t know what it was.

Yu Yan and Liu Wei saw her troubles and decided that it was time for a break. Practicing was good, but one had to relax in between or else they’ll tire out easily. Who knows, maybe a different perspective could bring out a sudden enlightenment?

So, they took Tian He out to the night market. Since their famous artist academy’s new student’s artist competition was starting in two weeks, many merchants and travelers came to the imperial capital just to catch a glimpse of it. Most of them were from artist companies, searching for new talents to recruit, however; the truly famous artist companies won’t be showing themselves until the day of the actual competition.

Tian He and her friends arrived at a large pleasure boat, the different colored lantern lights reflecting off the waters gave it a dreamy atmosphere. They saw that several of the other passengers were also students from their school and greeted them politely. After they boarded the pleasure boat, they watched it travel on the waters, towards the center of the capital city, where a famous band group was going to perform. Rumors has it that even the Emperor and his family will be there to watch.

Tian He sat near the edge of the boat, looking at all the fishes swimming in the waters beneath her. She was thinking about her Imperial mother and father, she realizes she missed them. In her world, usually she would be holed in her courtyard, learning the different arts, so she barely saw them except for special occasions and the days she wished to seek their opinions on her mastery of thearts. Now that she got a chance to experience such a colorful life outside of it, she made up her mind that she would stop her habit as a shut in.

Loud noises suddenly came from the front of the boat and she realized they’ve reached their destination. In front of her was a large platform, floating stably on the waters. A band that consisted of instrumentalists, two singers and one ribbon dancer, appeared in her vision.

Yu Yan and Liu Wei came over and sat next to her. Suddenly, some of the lanterns were taken down and the ones still lit were located above the stage, illuminating the performers on board. The instrumentalists started playing first, then the singers followed, and finally, the dancer moved.

When Tian He saw the dancer move, she was blown away. Each twirl and spin formed countless gorgeous patterns, sometimes she saw a rose, then next a lily. Each movement of her body evoked her sacred powers, they gathered and actually formed particles of light in the shape of golden lotus blossoms.