The crowd clapped and cheered as the Da Cheng Quan joint performance came to an end. It wasn’t very loud, it was just a formality to applaud as the performers left the stage. After all, the people weren’t that interested in the show at all.
Backstage.
Ding De wiped the sweat from his forehead. It was finally over. He felt that it had been a perfect performance.
In the crowd.
Vice-President Guo sat with all the leaders. He clapped his hands vigorously. Not bad, not bad at all. The opening performance had been perfect. They just had to continue with the same standard for the rest of the show for the joint performances to conclude perfectly. Then, he glanced at Lin Fan and his students. As long as he didn’t create any trouble, things would go smoothly. At that point in time, he saw that Lin fan was applauding the performance on stage too and he felt a little more relieved. That kid isn’t going to cause any more trouble.
Lin Fan turned to the children and said, “Look, when you get on stage, as long as you don’t regard the people in the audience as humans, you’ll be good.”
The children just kept silent as they didn’t know what to reply.
The students trained by Ding De were indeed good and their performance didn’t have any major issues. They looked fantastic. However, those were just his thoughts and the others may have thought of it differently.
In the crowd.
“It wasn’t very meaningful, it’s the same every year.”
“Yeah, it’s just a lame performance, what else did you expect?”
“Those foreigners found it so entertaining that they want to invest in the first International Martial Arts School in China. They must be kidding.”
“Haha…”
In the live broadcast room.
“What the f*ck? Someone tell me that I’m not the only one seeing this. That was obviously a dance performance. How could it be classified as a cultural performance of our nation?”
“To the one above, stop complaining. It’s a privilege for you to be able to watch this.”
“How meaningless. This performance really felt like a dance performance.”
“Time to change channels, I actually thought that the performances would be nice this time.”
The most honest and ruthless viewers were definitely the netizens. They didn’t care about what you did. If it was a sh*tty and meaningless show, or if it was a fantastic show, they’d definitely voice out their opinions.
Backstage.
Wang Yun Jie nodded and said, “Brother Ding, that was good. It looks like the best performance of this show is going to be yours.”
Ding De humbly waved his hands and said, “My students are average at best, how could they match up to you?”
Want Yun Jie just laughed and didn’t rebut his views, as if he really deserved the praise. But he was really confident that his performance would be the best in this year’s show. The rest of the Chairmen could just stand aside and watch.
Meanwhile, the hosts stepped onto the stage.
The male host said, “The Chinese culture has a long and rich history which has withstood countless trials. The culture of Tai Chi is the basis of many others and is considered one of the main aspects of Chinese culture.”
The female host asked, “What is Tai Chi… (The reporter paused for a moment, then she made some hand gestures as she talked) To put it simply, Tai Chi is a circle of Yin and Yang.”
The male host said, “Tai Chi is the basis of Chinese Martial Arts and it is at least 400 years old. It helps to keep you healthy and safe. Furthermore, it helps you to boost your vitality and it is nice to watch.”
The female host said, “Let us now invite the Yang Tai Chi students of the Martial Arts Association to perform Yang Tai Chi.”
Lin Fan furrowed his brows as Wang Yun Jie and his students took the stage. Tai Chi was representative of the nation’s cultural arts. At this moment, everyone started to watch the show more intently.
Vice-President Guo and the foreign guests whispered among themselves as if they were discussing the origins and history of Yang Tai Chi. The guests nodded and looked very interested.
Wang Yun Jie faced his students and shouted, “Give me your fullest concentration!”
In the broadcast room.
“D*mn, this is it. It’s Tai Chi…”
“This is it my a*s, it’s just a bunch of soft idiots.”
“Haha, you speak like you know everything, how would you know that they’re soft?”
…
As the show progressed…
“To those above, I’m sorry, but they really are soft.”
“Haha.”
“How disappointing, I’d rather go to the park and watch the elderly practice Tai Chi than watch these fools.”
“This is a joint Martial Arts performance. Why doesn’t it have some rock smashing? That would’ve been so much more interesting.”
“I really don’t know how these people are still seated there. Don’t they find this boring?”
Vice-President Guo discussed with the guests as he pointed at the students on stage. His smile became even wider as he felt that the show was running really smoothly.
To those who knew about Martial Arts, they could tell although the students’ movements were okay, they lacked vigor.
But the foreign guests didn’t understand these things. They just needed to see good visual effects. From their point of view, this Yang Tai Chi didn’t look very interesting.
One of the foreign guests said uncomfortably, “Why does it feel like they’re really soft? It doesn’t have a strong impact.”
Vice-President Guo smiled awkwardly and said, “Tai Chi is like that, don’t see them as being soft. It’s not a true representation of their true inner strength. It’d be sufficient to use light forces against normal opponents and impactful blows against stronger ones.”
The guests asked, “Inner strength? Is that some sort of inner power? Is it the kind that would make a person fly with one punch? I’ve spoken to Instructor Yan Fang before because I wanted to try it out, but I haven’t had the opportunity to do so.”
What else could Vice-President Guo say?
It’s inner strength! It’s inner power!
It was just nonsense. After all, they were still guests and Vice-President Guo could only smile awkwardly. At first, he had been rather satisfied with Wang Yun Jie’s performance but now, he wasn’t happy at all. Why weren’t there any impactful blows?
The leaders that participated in this year’s annual show were indeed reputable and renown in Shanghai. They were actually doing their job by watching the joint performance. They knew what was going on but they couldn’t voice out their thoughts. If they discredited the nation’s cultural arts, they would probably be unable to bear the consequences.
They just sat there, speechless and expressionless. Then, they looked at the time and realized that there was still a long way to go.
Backstage.
Wang Yun Jie looked at his students as he was filled with pride and satisfaction. He said, “Yeah, that was good. There weren’t any problems with your movements.”
The students laughed joyously, “Instructor, aren’t we gifted? We only practiced for one month!”
To those students, that was all there was to Tai Chi. They just had to memorize the movements to be called ‘Martial Arts Experts’.
Wang Yun Jue nodded, “Yup, that’s natural talent.”
The students just laughed as they were proud of what they had done. After a while, they gathered in a corner and discussed what could’ve happened on stage.
Like how their shoes almost slipped out and how they almost forgot the next movement and the sudden increase in tempo, etc…
Time passed very quickly and Lin Fan saw that it was finally the last performance of the night. Then, he stood up and went towards the hosts who were resting backstage.
In the resting area.
The two hosts were chatting casually as they drank water and waited for the show to end. Although the run-time wasn’t long, it was extremely stressful. After all, the big leaders of Shanghai were there in the audience. If they messed something up, they’d be in deep trouble too.
Lin Fan opened the door and entered the room.
The male host asked, “Who are you? Outsiders can’t enter this area.”
Lin Fan smiled and replied, “I am a Chairman of the association and I’m here to take a look.”
After he knew who Lin Fan was, the male host felt a little more relieved and said, “Hi, I’m sorry but outsiders can’t enter this area. The show’s about to end, could you return to your seat?”
Lin Fan smiled and said, “Yeah, I know that.”
The female host said, “The performance is over, we gotta get back on stage.”
The male host nodded.
Suddenly, Lin Fan went forward to snatch his microphone and went onto the stage.
The hosts were stunned. They shouted at him but he didn’t turn back at all.
Vice-President Guo then looked at Lin Fan’s seat and realized that he was gone. At that moment, he felt that something bad was about to happen.
Just as he turned back to look at the stage, he was overwhelmed with shock.
The fella charged towards the stage.
Vice-President Guo was cursing him in his heart.
What the hell are you trying to do?