Chapter 22: The Dreams in My Heart

  As autumn arrived, the weather became clearer day by day, and the azure sky seemed higher and more profound than in summer. Some trees on campus couldn't withstand the change of seasons after all, showing signs of withering yellow, and dry cement roads began to reveal shadows of fallen leaves.

  Every day, except for professional classes, Lin Yuchen would run to the dance studio during her free time and practice over and over again. She was always the first to arrive and the last to leave. Xia Weiya looked at her silently persistent figure, as if she saw Yan Wangzi's single-minded devotion to the one he liked back then.

  In the dance studio, a poster of the Italian La Scala Ballet performing "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was posted. Lin Yuchen stood in front of the poster, quietly admiring the elegant and light movements of the principal ballerina Gilda Giarranti, with a bright smile spreading across her face.

  "Little Rain, what are you looking at? So serious." Xavia's voice suddenly came from the doorway, and Lin Yuchen, who was immersed in his thoughts, was startled by her voice.

  "Vivian! You scared me!" She turned her head and gave Xiaowei a white eye, saying in an ill-tempered tone.

  "Really? The soul? Is it still there?" As she spoke, she began to look around left and right.

  "Vivian, what are you talking about? What soul?" She didn't catch on that she was being teased.

  "Let me see if your soul has been scared out of you by me, if so, I have to catch it back for you!"

  "It's really cold! Not funny at all." She squatted down and sat on the floor, rolling her eyes back at him.

  "Are you watching A Midsummer Night's Dream? This ballet is based on Shakespeare's play of the same name, a famous drama with a dreamlike quality on the ballet stage, and also Balanchine's first full-length narrative ballet." She turned her head to look at Lin Yuchen sitting on the floor.

  "This ballet tells the story of all the misunderstandings and misfortunes in love, with beautiful and smooth ballet and Mendelssohn's pleasant music, perfectly showcasing the artistic style of Shakespeare's original work, and is hailed as a masterpiece in the history of classical ballet." Lin Yuchen took over her words, and the two people looked at each other tacitly, then smiled happily.

  "Do you like this play?" Xavia lay on the wooden floor, her hands clasped behind her head, gazing lazily at the ceiling.

  "Yes, this is my favorite ballet, it perfectly combines music and dance, and it's also Balanchine's first large-scale narrative ballet. He turned Shakespeare's comedy into a fairy tale, combining pure dance, dramatic dance and pantomime seamlessly." Thinking of the masterpiece of this Western master, she couldn't help but admire the wisdom and efforts of her predecessors.

  "Light rain, can you tell me why you transferred to Jin Yi?"

  "Here, I can learn the best dance." She replied without thinking.

  "It seems like dance plays a very important role in your life!"

  "Yeah, dance is my life." She tilted her head back, narrowed her eyes to gaze at the sunlight outside the window, with a look of comfortable enjoyment.

  Xia Weiya stared blankly at her blissful expression, and suddenly felt that she was like a fallen angel, without wings, but with the most dazzling light.

  "Vivian, one day I'll be standing on that stage!" She looked up at the huge poster with a determination in her eyes she had never had before.

  "Uh-huh, I believe you can." She worked hard, harder than anyone else. Just like the ugly duckling in fairy tales, she would gradually transform and eventually become a perfect white swan.