Chapter 8: The Rose Hall Rehearsal

At two in the afternoon in Rose Hall, the curtains were half drawn.

Sunlight cut across the polished wooden floor, and tiny specks of dust floated in the air.

The hall was already filled with people. Dozens of dance partners had been arranged into formations according to the list.

No one spoke loudly. There was only the creak of leather shoes on the wooden floor and the occasional low exchange in a foreign language.

This kind of occasion was all about ceremony. Even where you stood mattered.

Xu Zhou stood in the back row of the left formation. Joey crouched beside a bench behind him, trying to shrink into the shadows.

“Xu Zhou, can you stand up straight?” Joey muttered. “Ethan is looking over here.”

Xu Zhou ignored him. He was staring at the peeling frescoes on the hall’s dome.

“He’s looking at this whole area, not me.”

“He’s looking at you.”

Joey switched off his phone.

“The student council just sent out the rehearsal rules. Rule one is proper posture. The way you’re slouching right now is a flashing red light to him.”

As he spoke, a few crisp claps came from the front of the formation.

Ethan stood at the side of the podium. His black uniform was buttoned to the top. The silver badge on his left chest, the student council president’s emblem, glittered in the sunlight.

He had the kind of face that belonged in a place like this. Blond hair, gray eyes, a clean-cut nose and jawline.

Handsome, sure, but his face looked like it had been grown from the disciplinary code itself. Even when he glanced down at the list, he seemed to be judging who had filled out a form wrong.

He didn’t use a megaphone. He just stood there, and the whispers in the formation died down on their own. That was the pressure of St. Lester’s rules.

“Take your places by the list.”

Ethan’s voice was not loud, but it carried an unmistakable tone of official business. The formation began to move.

Bai Qi and Gu Yanli stood in the very center. Bai Qi’s pale blue shirt matched the faint blue stripes on Gu Yanli’s uniform shirt perfectly. He was leaning his head to the side, saying something to Gu Yanli.

Gu Yanli looked down at the procedure sheet in his hand, long fingers resting on the edge of the paper. He wore an extremely well-fitted dark vest. The cuffs pressed against his pale wrist bones, fastened with dark silver cuff links bearing the Gu family emblem.

As he listened to Bai Qi, he gave only a faint “Mm.” Barely audible. He didn’t look up.

Xu Zhou saw Bai Qi’s fingers pause on his tie clip, then lower.

Before Xu Zhou could move, a shadow appeared in front of him. Ethan had walked over and stopped in front of him.

He was more than half a head taller than Xu Zhou. Up close, the stiff uniform smell mixed with a cold, clean scent of disinfectant hit Xu Zhou’s nose.

“Xu Zhou.”

Ethan looked down at him. Because they were close, Xu Zhou could see his long eyelashes. The chandelier lights reflected in his pupils like two cold glass beads.

“I can’t dance.”

“Then we practice.”

Ethan extended his hand. His hand was clean, with defined knuckles, palm facing up, held in front of Xu Zhou.

Xu Zhou looked at it for two seconds, then placed his hand on top.

Ethan wasted no words. He took half a step forward and closed the social distance completely.

His left hand grabbed Xu Zhou’s lower back roughly. Through the thin uniform shirt, the heat of his palm felt like a branding iron, pressed hard against the base of Xu Zhou’s spine.

His other hand gripped Xu Zhou’s fingers tightly, hard enough to nearly crush his wrist bones.

Ethan’s voice sounded by his ear, low and a little hoarse. “I’ll teach you.”

Xu Zhou was pulled forward a step, his toe hitting the hard toe of Ethan’s leather shoe with a sharp clack. In the quiet hall, the sound was extremely harsh.

Not far away, Bai Qi stopped dancing. Gu Yanli also turned his head. His gaze lingered for half a second on the fingers locked around Xu Zhou’s lower back, and his dark eyes suddenly deepened.

Ethan frowned slightly.

“Follow my rhythm.”

“I told you I can’t.”

Xu Zhou was getting annoyed. He tried to pull away, but couldn’t get free. Ethan’s arm was like an iron bar, locked tight around him.

“You can go teach someone else. I don’t mind losing credits.”

“I won’t accept an absence.”

Ethan looked down at Xu Zhou. The light in his eyes flickered. That cold face, like the student handbook come to life, cracked open a hairline fissure.

Not only did he not let go, he pulled Xu Zhou closer. The buttons of their uniforms knocked together with a dull thud.

The room grew even quieter. Several pairs who had been practicing slowed down without realizing it. Someone crumpled the ribbon in their hand. Someone instinctively looked at Gu Yanli in the middle.

Gu Yanli remained unruffled. He released Bai Qi’s hand and casually adjusted his cuff links.

“Ethan.”

Gu Yanli spoke. His voice wasn’t loud, but it suppressed every small sound in the room.

“Are you here to rehearse the proceedings, or to demonstrate coercion?”

Bai Qi froze beside him. He hadn’t expected Gu Yanli to speak up at this moment.

Ethan didn’t let go. He looked sideways at Gu Yanli with a possessiveness that bordered on provocation.

“I’m his partner. I have the right to correct his steps.”

“Are you correcting his steps right now?”

Gu Yanli walked over, his leather shoes striking the floor steadily and firmly. He stopped one step away, and his gaze swept over the fingers Ethan had clamped around Xu Zhou’s waist.

“You’re hurting him.”

Xu Zhou thought, ‘I’m not hurt. I just want to go home.’ But he didn’t say it. In a scene like this, with big shots locked in combat, he just wanted to be an invisible spectator.

“This is my business,” Ethan replied coldly.

But as he spoke, Xu Zhou felt the hand on his waist loosen just a little.

Just then, light applause came from the back of the hall.

Adrian walked over, smiling. He wore a cream-colored cardigan and no school jacket. He looked completely out of place in the tense atmosphere.

“Why so serious? It’s just a dance.”

Adrian stopped between the three of them. He gave Gu Yanli a polite nod first, then looked at Ethan, and finally settled his gaze on Xu Zhou.

He smiled warmly. There was a patience in his eyes that made people want to lower their guard.

“President, your leading is too hard. He can’t breathe.”

Adrian naturally reached out and took Xu Zhou’s hand, which was red from stiffness, from Ethan’s grip. His movements were gentle. When his fingertips brushed Xu Zhou’s palm, it sent a faint tickle.

“Why not let me practice a few steps with him?”

Adrian looked at Ethan, his tone as mild as if he were discussing what to eat for lunch. “After all, I’m more familiar with the classical music club’s rhythm.”

Ethan’s hand hadn’t fully let go. Gu Yanli’s gaze hadn’t withdrawn either. Bai Qi stood nearby, his fingers digging hard into his tie.

Xu Zhou looked at the three people in front of him, then at Joey, who was playing dead in the shadows. He thought the hall’s air conditioning might be broken too. It was so stuffy he wanted to flip a table.

“Alright.”

Xu Zhou suddenly spoke. He pulled his hand completely out of Ethan’s grip and instead took Adrian’s hand.

“Anyway, I don’t have much patience either. Switching to someone easier to talk to is better for everyone.”

Adrian’s smile deepened.

And at that moment, both Ethan’s and Gu Yanli’s eyes darkened.

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