Chapter 01
Late summer. Amsterdam City Theater, North Holland.
Inside the ancient 19th-century auditorium, plush velvet red carpets unrolled across the floor, and the horseshoe-shaped stalls were packed to capacity.
The crisp, clear arpeggios of a harp floated through the air, harmonizing with the melodious strains of a flute. Under the precise guidance of the conductor’s baton, the violins, violas, cellos, oboes, and clarinets gradually swelled into a beautiful symphony.
Tonight, a ballet troupe hailing from Jiangnan, China, was holding the final performance of their summer European tour here.
The golden chandeliers overhead had already been dimmed, and the opulent murals on all four sides were shrouded in darkness, leaving only the elevated stage illuminated in brilliant, fluid light.
The ballerina wore an emerald-encrusted crown and a knee-length tulle dress that gradient-shaded into a vibrant green. Raising her satin-soft, swan-like arms, she stood on the tips of her toes, her arches flexing into a smooth, full curve.
“Even while performing sick, Liang Yuxuan still maintains that kind of control during her leg extensions. No wonder she became our South Ballet’s principal solo dancer at just twenty-one…” In the wings backstage, a newly joined girl in the corps de ballet remarked in a low, admiring whisper as she waited for her cue.
“You don’t know the half of it,” someone standing nearby chimed in. “She was actually promoted to this position when she was only nineteen.”
The newcomer looked toward the stage in surprise. She watched Liang Yuxuan execute a flawless pirouette, her cicada-wing-thin skirt fluttering through the air. Her slender neck and delicate ankles made her look completely supple and boneless, as light as a dragonfly skimming across the water.
As the lights shifted and flickered, a hazy, ethereal mist seemed to coat her porcelain skin. It looked as though she might dissolve into the wind alongside the strains of the Siciliana.
“Then sheâs practically a veteran. How come she’s been a solo dancer for two years but hasn’t landed a single lead role yet? I see Sister Yuxuan working incredibly hard every dayâsheâs always the first to arrive at the rehearsal room and the last to leave. She’s so methodical, it feels like she doesn’t have a life outside of ballet.”
A third person cut into the conversation: “That might not be entirely true. Who’s to say she isn’t just putting on an act of noble, ethereal perfection in public? Haven’t you all heard about her staying out all night without permission a few days ago?”
Not far away, the leading instructor turned around and threw a warning glare their way.
The girls hurriedly shut their mouths.
The ballet music slowly drew to its final note. Under the spotlight, Liang Yuxuan stood gracefully on one leg, her back arched into a beautiful curve. She brought the solo to a clean, sharp close with a ninety-degree back kick, her left toes tapping the floor behind her as she smiled and bowed to the audience.
Thunderous applause erupted from the stalls.
In the wings, Qin He let out a long sigh of relief and quickly stepped forward to meet Liang Yuxuan. “How is your foot?”
The moment she stepped backstage, the smile vanished from Liang Yuxuan’s face. She regulated her breathing and nodded. “I took some painkillers before going on stage. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“You seemed so distracted this evening in the dressing room, it had my heart in my throat. Thank goodness you never slip up on stage, child.” Qin He guided her toward the back by her shoulder. “But Achilles tendinitis is no small matter. Painkillers only treat the symptoms, not the root cause. You must go to the hospital for a proper checkup once we return to China.”
As Qin He rattled on, Liang Yuxuan’s footsteps slowed down.
“Teacher Qin,” Liang Yuxuan bit her lip slightly, “may I skip returning to the dorm with the team tonight?”
Qin He froze mid-step. Suddenly, the rumors she had heard over the past few days flashed through her mind.
It had happened on their second day in Amsterdam. The girl sharing a room with Liang Yuxuan mentioned that Liang Yuxuan had left their hotel room in the middle of the night and hadn’t returned until dawn.
Amsterdam was a bustling city that never slept, and other girls in the troupe had occasionally gone out in pairs just for the novelty of it. However, word had it that Liang Yuxuan hadn’t actually left the hotel; instead, she had spent the entire night in the four-hundred-square-meter presidential suite on the top floor.
The implication behind that was glaringly obvious.
At first, Qin He had refused to believe a single word of it. Liang Yuxuan had joined the ballet troupe at seventeen, so she had practically watched the girl grow up. In her eyes, the child was always disciplined and conventional. She hadn’t even heard of her having a boyfriend, so how could she do something so out of line?
But now, Qin He was starting to feel unsure.
Come to think of it, the way Liang Yuxuan kept checking her phone in the dressing room earlier this evening really didn’t seem like someone who was just distracted by a flare-up of Achilles tendinitis.
