The ancients said: A gentleman does not accept food handed out in contempt.
People today say: Eat someone’s food and your mouth will be soft; take someone’s gifts and your hands will be soft.
Both the ancients and people today tell Su Mo that he shouldn’t casually accept things others give him, but he considers himself a young person, currently in his rebellious phase, and never listens to advice…
Besides, this thing is so nice. If his hands go soft, so be it. He accepts it.
“Then I’ll thank you for this.” Su Mo stroked the black scabbard made of cold crystal, delight bubbling up in his heart.
At that moment, someone muttered something under their breath, and Su Mo heard it: “Taking such a nice thing from someone—shouldn’t you do something for them in return?”
Su Mo could hear it, and Delta could hear it too. He immediately spoke up: “When I, Delta, ask someone for a favor, I never hide it. And when I give a friend a gift, I never have any ulterior motives.”
After saying that, he looked at Su Mo: “Miss Qingyi, please pay no mind to such useless words.”
Su Mo nodded, but inwardly he was sighing: What an excellent shill!
Whether he genuinely needed a favor from someone or simply wanted to be friends with Su Mo, either way, he came out ahead with this move.
There were so many people at the entire banquet, yet Delta, as the host of the evening, only paid special attention to two people—Long Tianyu and Su Mo. Everyone else was merely there to fill the scene.
By the time the banquet reached its climax—the dance party—Su Mo was already slightly tipsy.
He had only drunk one glass tonight; on any other occasion, that would have been absolutely enough to knock him out.
The dance party lights dimmed a little. Under the night, Su Mo’s eyes were half-lidded, his demeanor lazy, and he looked quite charming.
Since Ye Qingyi was sitting right beside him, no man with any sense dared come over and invite him to dance.
He watched Huo Jingshu and Xia Qingqing dancing in the ballroom, and the corners of his mouth curled up unconsciously.
One of them danced like an elementary school kid, and the other couldn’t loosen up her movements. They kept stepping on each other’s feet. After a while, Huo Jingshu got embarrassed first and fled amid the laughter of the people around them.
Xia Qingqing hadn’t had enough fun, so she turned her gaze this way. Zhuge Zhi saw it and, thinking himself very handsome, smoothed his hair and walked over: “I know I’m handsome, but we’re all friends here. It’s no big deal to dance a song with you.”
“Tsk, who wants to dance with you~” Xia Qingqing pursed her lips and turned her gaze to Wu Heng: “Wu Heng, come dance with me.”
Wu Heng, who was currently surrounded by two or three mature society ladies and unable to escape, felt as if he had been granted amnesty. He quickly answered loudly: “Sure!”
He fled the ladies’ encirclement as if escaping a plague and said gratefully to Xia Qingqing: “Thank you!”
Xia Qingqing smiled: “Come on, the next song is about to start.”
The two slowly slid into the dance floor—one over 1.8 meters tall, the other less than 1.6 meters. Two people like that dancing together always gave off a somewhat comical feeling.
The ladies whose target had been snatched away looked displeased. One of the youngest among them sighed: “Sure enough, young people don’t understand the joy of young married women.”
As she spoke, she looked at the grief-stricken and indignant Zhuge Zhi and smiled charmingly: “Little chubby, interested in dancing with big sister?”
Zhuge Zhi nodded blankly: “Sure.”
The moment he agreed, he was dragged onto the dance floor by the young married woman. Her companions all laughed at her unique taste, but Zhuge Zhi alone was deeply moved.
This was the first time anyone had invited him to dance, and it was such a gentle and beautiful older sister.
He couldn’t help but secretly look down on Wu Heng in his heart: Heh, young people.
Zhuge Zhi’s chubby body twisted and spun nimbly along with the rhythm of the dance floor music, looking extremely smooth. The young married woman partnering with him wore a full smile, looking quite satisfied.
Whether it was Xia Qingqing and Huo Jingshu, or Wu Heng and Zhuge Zhi, everything happening to them was taken in by Su Mo.
He propped his chin on one hand, his gaze gradually growing hazy. In the end, he really couldn’t hold his liquor.
At that moment, Ye Qingyi, who was beside him, suddenly shook his shoulder and said softly: “How about… we give it a try too?”
Maybe because the two of them were used to this, it didn’t seem like anything to them, but in the eyes of outsiders, it was strange.
Clearly Ye Qingyi’s body was a year younger than Su Mo’s, yet the two of them somehow gave off the feeling of an older woman dating a younger man.
A certain girl: “What a handsome boy…”
A certain boy: “What a dashing young lady…”
Faced with Ye Qingyi’s invitation, Su Mo gave no response. Ye Qingyi’s disappointment was visible to the naked eye, but she didn’t say anything either. She pretended nothing had happened and sat to the side cracking sunflower seeds.
Then Su Mo suddenly said lazily: “I want a sense of ceremony.”
Perhaps because of the alcohol, there was a tiny bit of a cutesy tone in his voice when he said this. Ye Qingyi couldn’t help but shiver and muttered to herself: “What the heck, even a tiny bit cuter than my real self, hmph!”
Still, since someone wanted a sense of ceremony, Ye Qingyi decided to satisfy him.
She straightened her clothes, rose elegantly, walked up to Su Mo, and made an inviting gesture: “Would this beautiful young lady be willing to dance a song with me?”
Just as she said this, the music from the previous dance ended, and the pause in between made her voice especially loud, spreading through the entire dance hall.
Someone unknown was the first to shout, “Say yes to him,” and then others actually began shouting along: “Say yes to him, say yes to him…”
More and more voices joined in. Those who hadn’t caught on thought someone was proposing, so amid the “say yes to him” there were occasional words like “kiss him” and “hug him,” in all sorts of languages.
“Mhm~” Su Mo gently placed his hand on Ye Qingyi’s hand. He had already gotten into the mood, but was startled by the teasing voices around them, and his drunkenness instantly faded quite a bit.
Huh, what was I just doing?
Oh, right, seems like I was about to dance…
A professional actor never gets stage fright!
The song was requested by Ye Qingyi. When the music started, Su Mo’s body lightly spun along with Ye Qingyi’s lead. Her spinning dance moves seemed beyond even Grandpa Niu’s jurisdiction, breathtakingly beautiful.
Don’t ask why he knew how to dance. Anything Ye Qingyi knew, he had been forced to learn too. And Su Mo was the type who always strove for perfection…
Perhaps because her dancing was so beautiful that people forgot themselves, this time only the two of them were dancing, and everyone else had become spectators.
Among the spectators, there was no shortage of girls. They stared blankly at the figure dancing gracefully in the ballroom, their hearts filled with mixed feelings: She dances so beautifully—do the rest of us even stand a chance?
It was supposed to be a male-female partner dance, but because Su Mo was so dazzling, Ye Qingyi ended up completely overshadowed.
While secretly delighted, she couldn’t help but marvel at Su Mo’s talent in this area. After all, dance wasn’t something easy to learn.
Beautiful things always come to an end all too quickly. The moment Su Mo stopped his movements, the chatter abruptly ceased, as if the air had frozen solid. The soft sound of the sea gently lapping against the ship’s hull could be heard clearly.
When the dance ended, Su Mo’s body suddenly began to sway, and then he fell into Ye Qingyi’s arms. In a voice only Ye Qingyi could hear, he whispered: “Let’s go, let’s go quickly…”
Ye Qingyi came back to her senses, scooped him up with both arms, and then, ignoring everyone else’s gazes, left the scene elegantly.
After quite a while, murmurs quietly rose, along with applause that started sparsely at first but grew louder and louder. The protagonists, however, had long since departed.
…
In the south there is a beauty, dancing lightly with a slender waist.
At the grand banquet in late autumn dusk, her flying sleeves brush the clouds and rain.
Graceful as green orchid and rush, elegant as a wandering dragon rising.
The beauty of Yue ceases her former stream dance; the Wu maid stops her white hemp steps.
Her slow posture cannot be exhausted; her lush poses turn toward the end.
Lowering and turning like lotuses breaking waves, scattered like snow swirling in the wind.
Her fallen earrings glint as she glances aside; her long sleeves seem about to trace the empty sky.
One only fears she cannot be caught—she flies away chasing the startled swan.
