Chapter 077: Ghost Step Dance

As the three of them left the school gates together, laughing and chatting, they arrived beneath the camphor tree that Wang Keming and his friends had decorated to look like Zhou Xiao’ou. There, they happened upon Ye Yijing, who was waiting for someone.

Upon seeing Lin Yu, Ye Yijing’s expression immediately grew conflicted. She wanted to go up and ask about Dai Peng—after all, he hadn’t shown up for several days. Yet, the shyness particular to young women held her back from approaching Lin Yu, whom she didn’t know.

Noticing her hesitation, Lin Yu smiled, walked over, and said, “If you want to ask something, just ask. We’re all friends here.”

When Lin Yu strode confidently toward the pretty girl, Qi Yue initially felt a twinge of displeasure, but as soon as Ye Yijing spoke, she understood what was happening.

“Where did Dai Peng go?” The girl’s voice was clear and carried a hint of anxiety—she was obviously concerned about him. A light breeze stirred the hem of her dress, but she paid it no mind.

“Well, he’s at the police station right now. If you want the specifics, you should ask him yourself.” Lin Yu sighed, thinking that if he came right out and said Dai Peng had killed someone, it would only frighten her.

“At the police station? What happened to him, Yu?” Ye Yijing knew of Lin Yu, though she had never been formally introduced by Dai Peng.

“This is something you’ll have to find out on your own. I’ll just say this: after Dai Peng got into trouble, he talked to me. He cares about you a lot. He told me he wanted to be the most beautiful surprise in your life. That’s all I can tell you.” Lin Yu met Ye Yijing’s eyes as he spoke.

It was a spectacular afternoon at the school gates, with crowds of teenagers leaving in small groups, laughter and chatter filling the air.

But Ye Yijing, having just finished her conversation with Lin Yu, had no mind to notice any of it. All she could think of was one line to describe her state: “With a single sweep of the sword, I sever the threads of affection—one half buried deep within me, the other left with you.”

Watching Ye Yijing’s slender figure slip away into the bustling crowd, growing smaller with each step, Lin Yu suddenly saw in her the profound loneliness of his own generation: wandering the streets alone, surrounded by the laughter and faces of others, none of which belonged to you. You are merely a passerby—unable to take anything with you, unable to leave anything behind. No matter how lively or splendid the world around you, it only highlights your own solitude. In the midst of the crowd, you look up and find no familiar face.

At that moment, Ye Yijing carried a faint sorrow upon her—a sense of vast disappointment, with no joy, only melancholy.

“It seems there’s still hope between her and Lao Liu,” Lin Yu mused, having seen how much the girl cared for Dai Peng. For him, she was lovesick; for him, lonely.

After a moment’s thought, he turned to Qi Yue and Yang Zhilin with a smile. “If you had to summarize love in a single sentence, what would you say?”

“A single sentence about love?” Qi Yue replied first, shaking her head as she pondered, then grinned. “There’s only you in my heart.”

“What a simple child,” Lin Yu thought to himself, speechless. He turned to Yang Zhilin. “How about you, Zhilin? You don’t have to answer, since you haven’t met the right person yet.”

“Why not answer?” Yang Zhilin replied with a cool, natural smile. “My belief in love is: To live, for love of you. To die, for you. Of course, ‘you’ here is a general term—not you specifically.”

“Ha! I didn’t expect you to be so devoted, Zhilin!” Qi Yue laughed, her smile like a blossom, reaching out playfully, though Yang Zhilin deftly dodged her touch.

True to her nature, Yang Zhilin remained reserved in public, even around Qi Yue.

Since they were walking home, the three of them stopped by the Flower Pavilion, but it was still packed, so they didn’t linger.

As they neared the Fortune Center, Qi Yue suddenly suggested they cook dinner themselves. Yang Zhilin was immediately on board.

Seeing the eager anticipation on both girls’ faces, Lin Yu could only shake his head and follow them into the food market.

They bought fresh pork, hairtail, chicken wings, and romaine lettuce, then leisurely made their way to Qi Yue’s home.

In the elevator, Yang Zhilin looked uneasy, clearly worried about running into her parents. If she did, she would undoubtedly be called home, and Lin Yu would likely be invited as well, turning the whole affair into dinner at her place. After all, both Lin Yu and Qi Yue were well-known to her parents—especially Lin Yu, whose family had been close to hers for generations. If that happened, she’d lose her chance to cook.

For years, her mother, Xia Ling, had kept her on a tight leash, teaching her to be both refined and strong—to cultivate the grace of a lady and, at the same time, the authority to one day take over the family business. As a result, her extracurricular hours were spent learning piano and yoga, with never a moment to relax, let alone try her hand in the kitchen.

While the two girls—each as lovely as a woodland sprite—bustled about the kitchen, happily making dinner in spite of their clumsiness, Lin Yu, with nothing to do, settled himself in the living room, turned on the DVD player and stereo, and put on some music.

A powerful, electrifying dance track filled the room—the rhythm was instantly familiar to Lin Yu. It was a remix famed for its association with the Melbourne Shuffle, a style of ghost step dancing.

As the masters’ “Canto Della Liberta – Cherry Coke Daan Remix” played, Lin Yu found himself rising to his feet, unconsciously following the steps he remembered from his previous life. The living room wasn’t very spacious, so he performed the compact French Masked Man style of shuffle, elegant and restrained, his movements flowing like water. Though lacking the explosive energy of T1M’s wide shuffle, it was just as captivating—his slides and quick steps light and ethereal, rivaling even Michael Jackson’s moonwalk.

With the thrilling beat making every cell in his body tingle with excitement, Lin Yu danced with abandon, and, after one particularly smooth slide, even tried a stationary 1080-degree spin like T1M.

Just then, Yang Zhilin came to the fridge in the dining room and caught sight of Lin Yu’s dance. Her interest was immediately piqued; she stood watching, and as Lin Yu showed off several more dazzling slides, she couldn’t take her eyes off him.

For various reasons, the Melbourne Shuffle, which emerged in the 1980s, didn’t become widely known until after 2005, and only went global after the French Masked Man released a video in 2009. In their own country, it arrived even later, so to Yang Zhilin, Lin Yu’s dance was something entirely novel and fascinating.

Though she was never fond of street dance, Yang Zhilin mentally awarded Lin Yu’s performance with a poetic phrase:

Graceful as a startled swan; fluid as a wandering dragon.