Chapter 93: The Ball
Originally, Zhang Xin had intended to teach Chen Xian the slow three-step, but Chen Xian said, “I’ve already learned it. These are just too... simple.”
He was telling the truth. Ever since the mysterious strange tree fused into his mind, and after he began cultivating the Supreme Chaos Art, both Chen Xian’s brain and body had undergone a tremendous transformation. His mind was keen, and so was his physical coordination. All he needed was one viewing of the instructional video, and he would master every one of those ballroom dances.
“You’re not bragging, are you?” Zhang Xin asked skeptically.
She had never seen anyone learn ballroom dancing this fast.
Chen Xian smiled. “If you don’t believe me, then let’s try a rumba.”
The rumba originated in Cuba. It was a dance much beloved by the public and was known as the soul of Latin dance.
Its rhythm was in four-four time, with accents on the first and third beats. The basic rumba steps followed the music in a pattern of quick, quick, slow. The two quick steps were side steps, followed by a slow step, and a complete sequence was finished. Each step in the rumba consisted of two actions: stepping and shifting the body’s center of gravity...
“Fine, then let’s see you dance a rumba. A mule or a horse, we’ll know once it’s taken out for a spin,” Zhang Xin said, looking at her boyfriend.
Soft, beautiful music began to play.
Chen Xian and Zhang Xin danced together, their movements blending perfectly with the melody.
The more Zhang Xin danced, the more shocked she became. She found that Chen Xian’s movements could only be described as smooth and flowing, no worse than her own. No, to be precise, his movements were even more graceful than hers.
Zhang Xin had been learning rumba for several years and could be considered experienced.
Yet now she had been outdone by Chen Xian, who had only watched the video once.
When the song ended, Zhang Xin fixed her beautiful eyes on Chen Xian without blinking and asked in disbelief, “Xian, tell me, had you already known rumba before?”
“Xin, that really was my first time dancing rumba. You know as well as I do that I used to be so poor I couldn’t even hear coins ring in my pockets. How could I have had the money to learn ballroom dancing?” Chen Xian said honestly.
Hearing this, Zhang Xin thought about it and realized it made sense.
The more she looked at him, the more incredible she found him, and she exclaimed from the heart, “Xian, you’re a dancing genius!”
Chen Xian was a little embarrassed by the praise.
He knew that without the mysterious strange tree and the cultivation of the Supreme Chaos Art, he would never have been able to watch a video just once and then master the slow three-step, quickstep, rumba, and the rest so effortlessly.
“Xian, since you have such a gift for dancing, let me show you a video of the waltz next. If you can learn it as quickly as you learned the slow three-step, quickstep, and rumba, then we might even be able to win the championship at tomorrow night’s ball,” Zhang Xin suggested.
At her words, Chen Xian realized there were still some things he had not yet asked about, and he curiousely said, “What kind of ball are we attending tomorrow night?”
“The ball tomorrow night is being organized jointly by the dance clubs of ten universities in City H. By then, many members of dance clubs from all over the city will be there. There’ll be lots of handsome guys and beautiful girls.”
“I’m not a member of any dance club. Can I still go?”
“You’re not, but I am. Dance club members attending the ball can bring their own partners.”
“And there’s even a competition at the ball?”
“Of course...”
After that, Chen Xian learned the waltz as effortlessly and without suspense as before.
By evening, after Chen Xian and Zhang Xin had eaten dinner together, he said goodbye to her and headed for Hzhou Grand Hotel.
It was already around ten at night when Chen Xian left Hzhou Grand Hotel.
He had met with Mayor Qin, Director Zhou, Deputy Director He, Fang Jing, and the others. At the dinner table, those powerful figures had been exceptionally warm and courteous toward him.
After all was settled, Chen Xian did not return to Splendid Garden Residential District. Instead, he went straight to the apartment complex beside the middle school where his parents and younger sister lived.
He did not go upstairs. Instead, he checked into a business hotel across from the complex, with a window facing directly toward his home.
From the news relayed by the No. 002 Soul-Stealing Child Insect, Chen Xian had already learned that the Hungry Wolf Mercenary Corps had dispatched twenty mercenaries, led by a mercenary martial artist skilled in dark force, and they were already on their way to the Federation of Hualong.
They had only one target: kill his family, take revenge on him, and make him suffer.
Chen Xian had come here to protect his family.
As soon as those twenty mercenaries arrived, he would find a way to wipe them all out in one fell swoop.
Standing by the window, Chen Xian saw that one window in his own building was still lit. He knew that was his younger sister Chen Ni’s room.
“That little girl still hasn’t gone to bed so late. Is she studying?”
Curious, he closed his eyes and released his spiritual sense. Its invisible reach stretched out toward the room several hundred meters away.
Formless and intangible, his spiritual sense quietly slipped into the room.
Chen Ni, with her hair tied in a ponytail and dressed in pajamas, was sitting by the window, staring at her phone without blinking, a smile on her face.
The phone screen showed a stock-trading app. Ten stocks were listed there, and every one of them was showing gains in red. The smallest increase was five percent, and the largest was ten percent, meaning all ten stocks had surged sharply that day.
Meanwhile, the broader market was falling, down by 2.5 percent.
Then Chen Ni opened the entrusted trading backend, and the total market value of the ten stocks was clearly shown as 4.25 million.
Seeing this, Chen Xian suddenly opened his eyes, disbelief flooding his gaze as he murmured to himself, “Ni... she’s way too amazing. I gave her one million to trade stocks, and in not much time she actually turned it into 4.25 million, an increase of 3.25 million!”
Although Chen Xian did not trade stocks himself, some of his dormmates did. Because the economic situation in the Federation of Hualong was not very good, and the market had been falling repeatedly, they were all suffering heavy losses and had been wiped out.
Yet Chen Ni had managed to rise against the tide and multiply the assets several times over. She was truly a genius.
Chen Xian felt as though he had discovered a new world. Silently, he decided that he would carefully nurture this financial prodigy of a younger sister and, in the future, make her his chief financial officer to manage his assets.
It was a long while before Chen Xian finally withdrew the reach of his spiritual sense.
He took out his phone and called Ma Tian of the Ma Group in City M. Soon, Ma Tian’s respectful voice came through the phone. “Grandmaster Chen, hello. What orders do you have for me?”
“Ma Tian, send several dozen elites to the residential complex in City H immediately and protect my family,” Chen Xian said directly.
“Yes, Grandmaster Chen!”
Ma Tian accepted the order with deference.
Chen Xian ended the call and decided that once he had eliminated this wave of Hungry Wolf mercenaries who had infiltrated City H to take revenge on his family, he would set out for the Hungry Wolf Mercenary Corps’ lair in T Country and eradicate every threat at its root.
That night passed without incident.
The next evening, at the entrance to the dance hall of Hzhou State Art Academy.
A red Lamborghini supercar drove in and stopped in the parking lot, where many luxury cars were already parked.
Two people stepped out of the car. The man wore a black formal suit, tall and upright, quite handsome; the woman wore a down coat over a red formal evening gown, beautiful as a fairy. They were none other than Chen Xian and Zhang Xin, who had come to attend the ball.