Huayu93: From Selling Magnetic Cards to Entertainment Tycoon

Chapter 13, Performance 54, Pizza Hut in 95

On the day of the May Fourth Movement celebration, the sky over Beijing was overcast, neither hot nor cold, as if veiled by a thin layer of gauze.

The performance was held at the Capital Indoor Stadium. The Beijing Dance Academy is not far from the stadium, only a little over a kilometer away, and the students participating in the performance walked there in twos and threes.

Li Si'an and Tang Yun walked side by side, blending into the crowd, neither of them speaking. Tang Yun's hand remained tightly gripping the bag strap.

"Nervous?" he asked.

"No," she said, but her voice was strained.

Li Si'an didn't ask any more questions.

When we arrived at the Capital Indoor Stadium, the backstage area was in complete chaos.

Hundreds of people from over a dozen universities in Beijing, along with various art schools and cultural groups, were crammed into the backstage and corridors.

There were singers warming up their voices, dancers stretching their legs, hosts rehearsing their lines, and a drama club from some school rehearsing their lines in a corner, with voices rising and falling.

The staff ran around with walkie-talkies, shouting instructions that no one could understand.

Li Si'an pulled Tang Yun to a relatively quiet corner and told her to stay put while he went to inquire about the performance order.

The Beijing Dance Academy's program was scheduled towards the end of the afternoon, and they wouldn't be able to go on stage until around 4 PM.

When he brought the news back, Tang Yun was standing in the corner, head down, grinding a scar on the floor with her toe.

"It's a little past four, still early," Li Si'an said. "You sit down first, I'll go get you a bottle of water."

"No need..." Before she could finish speaking, Li Si'an had already left.

By the time she unscrewed the bottle of water, Li Si'an had already made another trip to find out the location of the dressing room, the route to the stage, and where to meet after the show.

He told her this information one by one, in a casual tone, as if he were saying that the weather was nice today.

Tang Yun looked at him, her lips moved slightly, but she didn't say anything.

The performance started at 2 PM. The chaos backstage didn't lessen; in fact, it got even worse.

People were coming on stage, coming off stage, urging others to hurry up, and looking for people. The corridor was crowded with people. Li Si'an was pushed aside by the crowd several times, but was pushed back again. She always stood next to Tang Yun.

For the first time, Tang Yun felt that having someone standing beside her made her feel a little more at ease.

It was almost 4:30 when it was their turn to go on stage. The lights shone down, and the audience was completely dark, making it impossible to see anyone's face.

As the music began, Li Si'an placed his hand on her waist, steadily lifting her, spinning her, and landing her. There was applause from the audience, but it was faint and sparse.

Since it was an afternoon show, the audience wasn't full, and in this kind of mixed-gender performance, no one was more professional than anyone else; everyone was just there for the fun of it.

After the show ended, Li Si'an pulled Tang Yun off the stage, walked through the corridor, and found the dressing room.

When she came out after changing her clothes—a white T-shirt, jeans, her hair loose, her makeup still on, with a bit of glitter on her eyeliner—Li Si'an was already standing at the door waiting.

"Walk."

"Where to?" Tang Yun was taken aback.

"Have a meal."

"I don't want to go anymore, I want to go back to school—"

"Don't even think about it." Li Si'an grabbed her wrist and walked out. "We finally got out of town, why go back to school?"

Tang Yun was being pulled forward by him. She struggled a couple of times but couldn't break free. Not daring to shout, she could only whisper, "What are you doing? I can walk by myself..."

"Are you leaving or not?"

"……Walk."

Li Si'an let go of her hand. She followed behind, rubbed her wrist, and didn't say she wouldn't go.

Pizza Hut is near the zoo, less than a ten-minute walk from the Capital Indoor Stadium. It was a little past 5 PM, and the restaurant wasn't too crowded; there were still empty seats by the window. Li Si'an chose a corner seat and pushed the menu towards Tang Yun.

"Order whatever you like, it's on me."

Tang Yun opened the menu, glanced at the prices, and frowned slightly.

"That's too expensive..."

"It's not like we eat this every day." Li Si'an took the menu back and ordered two super supreme pizzas, two pasta dishes, two Cokes, and an extra serving of potato wedges.

While waiting for her food, Tang Yun lowered her head and poked at the ice cubes in her glass with a straw. After poking for a while, she suddenly spoke.

"Li Si'an".

"Um."

What do your parents do?

Li Si'an leaned back in her chair and glanced at her.

"My dad used to be a trumpet player in the General Political Department Song and Dance Troupe. My mom was with the Central Ballet Troupe, but later she married and moved to Hong Kong."

Tang Yun's straw stopped inside the cup.

"They divorced a long time ago." Li Si'an's tone was casual, as if she were talking about someone else's business. "I was only a few years old when my mother passed away, so I don't remember much."

Later, she married an Englishman and lived in Hong Kong, talking to him on the phone a few times a year. My father also remarried and started a new family, so I rarely see him more than a few times a year.

Basically, everyone lives their own life, and nobody cares about anyone else.

Tang Yun didn't speak. She lowered her head and continued poking at the ice cube with the straw, for a long time.

"Me too." Her voice was very soft.

"My parents divorced when I was young. My dad went to the south and never came back. My mom remarried later."

She paused, the straw tapping against the rim of the cup. "So I was sent to the Beijing Dance Academy after graduating from elementary school. As for boarding school, they don't need to worry about me. They just send me my living expenses on time every month."

She looked up at him, then looked down again.

"When I go home for Chinese New Year, sometimes I don't even know which home to go to. My mom's is a home, but it's her and that uncle's home. My dad's... well, I've never been there."

The pizza was served, steaming hot, with long, stringy cheese strands. Li Si'an placed a slice of pizza on her plate.

"Eat."

Tang Yun picked up the pizza, took a bite, chewed for a while, and suddenly smiled.

"What are you laughing at?" Li Si'an asked.

"It's nothing." She lowered her head and took another bite. "It's just that... eating with you doesn't seem so tiring."

What do you mean by "not that tiring"?

"It means I don't have to think about what to say, or be afraid of saying the wrong thing." She glanced at him. "Since you dare to say anything, I don't have to pretend."

Li Si'an chuckled: "Is that a compliment?"

I guess so.

The two finished their pizza and pasta, leaving only a few potato wedges, which Li Si'an devoured. They drank two glasses of cola; the ice had melted and the taste had become weak, but Tang Yun still finished her glass of water.

It was almost dark when we left Pizza Hut. The streetlights cast long shadows of the two of us.

Li Si'an suddenly stopped.

"Wait for me a moment."

He turned around, pushed open the door, and went back to Pizza Hut. A few minutes later, he came out with a paper bag in his hand, containing a freshly packed Super Supreme Pizza.

"Why would you buy another one?" Tang Yun asked.

"These are for Zhang Ziyi and the others. Their national competition is a group dance, with five or six people. They've been in the rehearsal room every day these past few days, and I doubt they've even had a hot meal."

Li Si'an, carrying the paper bag, gestured with her chin towards the school, "Let's go, we'll deliver it to them on the way."

The two walked back along the way they came, and by the time they reached the Beijing Dance Academy, it was completely dark. The lights were still on in the rehearsal hall of the first class of folk dance, and the door was ajar, from which music and footsteps could be heard.

Li Si'an stood at the door and called out inside, "Happy Zhang—hey, come and eat!"

The music in the rehearsal room stopped. Zhang Ziyi poked her head out, saw it was him, and smiled.

Who are you calling?

"Hey, Happy Zhang." Li Si'an shook the paper bag in her hand and went inside.

In the rehearsal hall, Zhang Ziyi was practicing a formation change sequence with two or three other girls. Her practice clothes were completely soaked, and a few strands of her hair were plastered to her forehead.

Several coats were draped on the barre nearby, and a few water glasses were scattered on the ground.

Li Si'an placed the paper bag on the handle and opened it, and the aroma of pizza immediately wafted out.

"I brought these for you, eat them while they're hot."

"Pizza Hut?" Zhang Ziyi's eyes lit up, and she called out to the girls next to her, "Hey, come over here! There's food!"

Several girls gathered around, each taking a piece and chattering their thanks. The rehearsal hall suddenly became lively.

Zhang Ziyi took two pieces, pulled Li Si'an and Tang Yun outside into the corridor, leaned against the wall, and took a big bite.

"How was your performance today?"

"It's alright, watchable." Li Si'an leaned against the wall.

"Who asked you? I was asking Tang Yun." Zhang Ziyi turned to look at Tang Yun.

Tang Yun stood beside her and said softly, "It's alright...nothing went wrong."

"That's fine then." Zhang Ziyi swallowed the pizza in her mouth. "These kinds of big shows are just for show. Who cares how well you dance? Just make up the numbers and that's it."

Unlike our competition, where a single incorrect move results in a point deduction, which means no prize, and no prize means all the training was for nothing.

She spoke in a relaxed tone, but Li Si'an could tell that she was under a lot of pressure.

"How's your training going?" Li Si'an asked.

Zhang Ziyi finished chewing the pizza in her mouth, took a sip of water, and wiped her mouth.

"It's alright. The teacher said my expressiveness is good enough, but I still need to work on the technical details. It's a group dance, so if one person makes a mistake, the whole team is doomed. That's why we've been practicing until 9 p.m. every day these past few days."

She looked down at her legs, sighed, and said, "There's nothing I can do but train. All these years of training, isn't it all for this one move?"

The corridor was quiet for a while. The wind outside the window rustled the leaves.

Tang Yun stood beside her and said softly, "You're really going all out."

Zhang Ziyi paused for a moment, then laughed, her eyes crinkling into slits.

"I have no choice but to give it my all," she said.

Zhang Ziyi finished the last bite of her pizza, wiped her hands with a tissue, and stood up.

"Alright, you two go back now, I'm going to practice a little longer."

"Still practicing?" Li Si'an frowned.

"Practice for another half hour." Zhang Ziyi waved her hand. "You guys go, don't worry about me."

Li Si'an glanced at her but didn't try to persuade her further.

Emerging from the rehearsal hall, the corridor was quiet, save for the sound of their footsteps. After walking for a while, Tang Yun suddenly asked, "Why do you call her 'Happy Zhang'?"

Li Si'an, with his hands in his pockets, said as he walked, "When I first met her, back in '94, she was dark-skinned and thin, like a black skin. So I gave her the nickname 'Black Skin Zhang'."

"That sounds awful," Tang Yun said.

"She said the same thing. No way. So I suggested, 'Let's call her Happy Zhang, a homonym for 'dark-skinned.' She still wouldn't agree." Li Si'an chuckled.

"Finally, I said, 'Why not just translate Happy and call her Happy Zhang?' 'Is that a good name? It sounds like a hero from the Water Margin.' And she agreed."

Tang Yun thought for a moment, then covered her mouth and laughed: "You're so mean."

"Of course."

The two walked across the playground, their shadows cast long and short by the streetlights. As they approached the dormitory building, Tang Yun suddenly stopped.

"Li Si'an".

"Um."

Thank you for today.

"Thank you."

"That's to thank you for blocking my way," she said, and without waiting for his reply, she quickened her pace and left.

Li Si'an stood under the streetlight, watching her figure disappear into the dormitory building entrance, and smiled.