Supporting Role’s Aura

 Arc.
1.39: Flourishing in the Limelight

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Before the second Special Performance of the Dance team began, all the members of the Dance team were practicing and rehearsing really hard.
At the end of each rehearsal, it was always a feeling of exhaustion.

Ye Chen walked out of the big practice room with the other members of the Dance team.
When he passed by an unclosed practice room in the corridor, he heard a loud cheers and exclamations sound from inside.

Ye Chen was doubtful and curiously paused in his step, pushed the door open and took a glance inside.

Zhao Yuan saw the door being pushed open, and immediately said to one of the team members: “Go and close the door.”

Ye Chen didn’t see clearly what they were doing.
When he was about to walked inside and take a look, the door was already closed from inside by the team members who ran over quickly.

Not only Ye Chen was puzzled, but the others standing behind him were also puzzled.

“What are they doing? Make a big fuss like that?”

“Who knows, probably because they don’t have to participate in the Special Performance, so they have too much leisure time, got nothing to do and having fun.”

“They are really unmotivated.
Can’t participate in the performance this time, but still don’t know how to hurry up and practice, to prepare in advance for the next performance.”

“If they are really motivated, then they won’t be unable to participate in this special performance.”

“I really envy them ah, can be so idle like that that, they also don’t have any burden at all.”

“Haha, this is indeed quite enviable.
People who are not self-motivated can live comfortably no matter where they are.”

They continued to move forward while chatting, but the people who talked about ‘envy’ with their mouth, they were actually mocking.
They didn’t feel envy at all in their hearts.
Instead, they felt like gloating because they(YY’s) couldn’t participate in the performance.

Ye Chen has noticed recently that Ye You and the few of team members who failed to participate in the performance, were very mysterious these few day and it seemed they were rehearsing dances.

Because the members of the Dance team, whether in practice or in performance, were much more likely to be injured than the other two teams.
People who had been practicing dancing intensively since they were young have suffered old injuries.
Therefore, the members of the Dance team has more physical damage than the other two teams.
And some people were likely to be injured once and will not be able to dance anymore.
The annual elimination rate and competition of the Dance team were much higher.

Therefore, in order to show consideration to the Dance team, several Special Performances of the Dance team were arranged every year, this was a treatment that the other two teams did not have.

Because it was a special performance, there was no need to compete with the other two teams, so they can get more scores, especially Ye Chen who was the lead dancer.
He will definitely get the highest score.
Because of Ye You’s outstanding performance in the recruiting period and his full Triathlon, his(YY) scores rose quickly.
Once the recruiting period was over, he was already a second lieutenant.
So, Ye Chen was very anxious.
He wanted to catch up to Ye You as soon as possible.
This special performance was the best opportunity for him.

After Ye Chen regained his self-confidence this time, his ambition also came back.
To catch up with Ye You was only his temporary small goal.
Among his biggest goals, Ye You simply did not exist in it.
He decided that after throwing Ye You far behind, he would became a legend in the Cultural Regiment and among the army.

In the practice room just now, what made the team members to exclaimed in surprised was Ye You who take out the rushed-to-manufacturing dance costumes that had finally done and show them.
After closing the door of the practice room, they continued to exclaimed in admiration.
They had never seen a beautiful performance costume, let alone wearing it.

These team members were not excluded because of their basic dancing skills were not as good as others.
Among them, some were because they disdain to curry favor with Liu Hui, some were because they had done something that made Liu Hui angry before, and some others simply because they were disliked by Liu Hui.
Otherwise, for this kind of special large-scale group dances, a few more of them were not much, and a few less of them were not less.

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Liu Hui disapproved of them, and they also certainly hated Liu Hui.
So, this time under Ye You’s guidance, they practiced desperately, trying harder to strive for the best, even if they couldn’t compare to the large-scale group dances arranged by Liu Hui, at least they wanted to prove to everyone that they were not excluded because they did not work hard enough, or because their basic dancing skills were not as good as other people.

Finally, the day of the performance arrived, the members of the Dance team got up to wash up just after dawn, then stood outside the regiment building, waiting for roll call and boarding the car.

After Liu Hui just finished the roll call and made sure that everyone had arrived, she saw Zhao Yuan walking out with Ye You and the others, standing at the side.
It was obvious that she was here waiting to get on the bus as well.

After Liu Hui came back to her senses, she walked to Zhao Yuan and asked, “What are you doing standing here?”

“Standing here, of course, waiting for the car to come, then get in the car and going to perform ah.” Zhao Yuan replied with a ‘as a matter of course’s expression.

“Performance?” Liu Hui couldn’t help frowning: “When did you get approval for the performance? Why didn’t I know?”

“Deputy Leader asked me to take full responsibility for Ye You’s performance arrangements and you can not interfere.
So, I don’t think I need to report to you about Ye You’s performance arrangements, but directly report to the Deputy Leader.” Zhao Yuan looking at her with a smile and said, “If you have any questions, you can ask the Deputy Leader and let him answer your doubts.”

Of course Liu Hui couldn’t asked the Deputy Leader, because the Deputy Leader did say that she could not interfered with all of Ye You’s matter.
If she went and asked, she would only looking for a scolding.

Liu Hui at first glared at Zhao Yuan, and then suddenly smiled and said, “Since you guys are in such a hurry to humiliating yourself, then I will just waiting for a good show.”

Both the Head Leader and Deputy Leader would be there for the performance this time.
Because there will be leaders of the Military Department watching the performance with the soldiers, so the Head Leader would accompanied them to watch the performance.
After the performance was over, the leaders perhaps would praised, encouraged, or giving opinions on the performance of the Cultural Regiment, of course the Head Leader must be present.
And the Deputy Leader followed him there, mainly responsible for making sure there were no mistakes during the performance.

After getting in the car, Ye Chen glanced at Ye You.
Although he was confident that Ye You would never can steal the limelight this time, he still felt very dissatisfied because of the Deputy Leader’s partiality towards Ye You.
He felt that even if the Deputy Leader always gave Ye You special treatment, but now on such an important Special Performance, the Deputy Leader actually approved of them so easily.

Ye You happened to looked at him and saw his thoughts at a glance, he only sneered in his heart, not caring at all.

Ye Chen deliberately ignored the fact that Liu Hui favored him and targeted Ye You everywhere.
In short, when he was favored, he felt that was as it should be.
When others received special treatment and was favored, he felt that it shouldn’t be and become dissatisfied.

Ye You was able to get Deputy Leader’s favouritism was because he relied on his own strength in exchange for it, and the Deputy Leader had a stricter requirements on him than the others.
If Ye Chen could perform better than Ye You, he nevertheless would also be favored, but it was a pity that he was doomed to never surpassed Ye You.

After arriving at the venue for the performance, the members of the Dance team entered the temporary lounge in the large conference room to make preparations.

After Ye Chen and the others went to performed, Ye You and the others went behind the curtains to change their clothes, and then began to put on makeup.
After Ye You put on makeup for himself, he also had to put on makeup for others.
Because he wanted to draw a different patterns on the corners of everyone’s eyes, representing different characters, they can’t draw it by themselves, only Ye You could draw it.

Ye You calculated the time in his heart.
After almost an hour passed, Ye You asked everyone to put on masks, and then walked out of the lounge to prepare for the stage.

After Ye Chen and the others finished their performance, although they were already exhausted, but they didn’t immediately went back to the lounge to change clothes.
Instead, they stood far away in the corner, waiting to see what Ye You and the others would perform.

The people in the field management team sent the props that Ye You and the other members needed in the performance to the stage, and then poured a lot of water on the stage.
The leaders and soldiers were very puzzled because it was the first time for them to watch the dance performance that had water poured on the stage.
Didn’t they afraid of slipping?

Not to mention that it was the first time they had seen, even the Head Leader of the Cultural Regiment, Head Leader Wu, were also first time seen.

Ye You and the others, wearing the masks, walked onto the stage under the gaze of everyone.
Their performance had not yet begun, but the mystery brought by the costumes and mask on their faces had already shocked everyone who was watching.

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The other team members who were standing in the distance couldn’t help but began to discuss.

“What kind of clothes are they wearing? It’s very weird.”

“Weird? Why do I think they looks pretty?”

“I also think it’s pretty.”

“It’s…..really looks pretty, but dressed like that, and the stage also full of water, can they still dance?”

“I don’t know, let’s wait and see how they dance.”

“After doing so many tricks and even pouring water on the stage, it would be interesting if all of them fell.”

Ye You walked to the front of medium-sized drum in the middle of the stage.
Supported with one hand, he sat on top of it.
The others take out their waist drum stick and the stood in front of the smaller drum.

After everyone was ready, Ye You raised the flute in his hand and played it.
He played a prelude, and the accompaniment of the Harmony band gradually sounded, the voice changed from smaller to louder.

The other six members began to beat the drum surface rhythmically, Ye You’s playing did not stop, as if he were conducting, mobilizing the rhythm of all sounds.

When all the accompaniment instruments of the Harmony band sounded and the sound overwhelmed Ye You’s flute, Ye You spin and landed on the stage, inserting the flute into the iron ring beside the drum.
The action was done in one go and it was very beautiful.

Ye You pulled out the drum sticks around his waist and began to dance while beating the drum head.
Speaking of momentum, the sound of the bass drum that shook the eardrum, the momentum was naturally did not lost to any instrument.
Moreover, Ye You and the others danced flexibly and vigorously while hitting a unified rhythm of the drums, which can very much inspired the excitement in people’s hearts.
Even in such a wide open field, surrounded by so many soldiers, they were did not being swallowed in the crowd.

They vigorously lifted their feet to bring the water splashes flying, and then lifted the long clothes to spin and dance, which brought out great visual enjoyment and impact to the viewer.

Suddenly the sound of the accompaniment stopped, their dancing also stopped.
As if the whole world has fell silence.
The people who was watching below couldn’t help but slow their breathing and become cautious, for fear of disturbing the people on the stage.

Ye You lowered his head and slowly took off the mask.
As soon as he raised his head, all those who could see his face were astounded, and couldn’t return to their senses for a long time.

The others also took off their masks, put them on their waists, and then began to dance again.
Unlike the mysterious excitement before, it has now turned into a lively and cheerful atmosphere.
Ye You and the others wore special dancing shoes.
Not only would they not fall over when dancing in the water, they would also bring up bigger splashes.
With their neat and unified movements, even the spattering water that they bring up and the fluttering dance were identical.

Ye Chen looked at them from a distance, his face getting more and more ugly, his fists were clenched tightly,  even his breathing became slower and harder.

After Ye You and the other’s performance, all the members of the Dance team and Head Leader Wu, as usual, accepted the leaders’ praises and encouragement to the Cultural Regiment and the Dance team.

“……Also, from your wonderful performances, we can see how hard and serious you usually practice.
Your level of excellence is also obvious to all1Raw 有目共睹(yǒu mù gòng dǔ); anyone with eyes can see it (idiom); obvious to all, sth speaks for itself, is there for all to see..
Both dance performances are very wonderful.
Although the second dance, the number of people is relatively small, but the momentum is very great, and it also showcases the characteristics of our country’s musical instruments and dances.
It can be said the first stunning and a very enjoyable performance.
The Art soldier lead dancer is called Ye You, right?”

“Yes.” Head Leader Wu nodded.

“I have seen your dance performance last time.
I would like to compliment you for your effort to show this kind of dance performance with our national characteristics.
Now many people say how beautiful foreign dances are, but after seeing your performance, I can say with certainty and pride that our country’s dance will not be worse than any other country.
I hope you can continue to maintain this spirit of carrying forward the characteristics of our country’s dance in the future.
I also hope that everyone of you, can continue to work hard in the future to bring better performances to the soldiers…”

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Head Leader Wu listened with a smile, and the pride in his heart was much greater than the performance of the previous dance.
The better the performance of the Literary and Art soldiers, the more praises they would received, the more it proved that the Leader had use the correct methods, and the more attention will be paid to the Cultural Regiment.
And him as the Head Leader, the speed of promotion also would be faster.

The few people who performed with Ye You also smiled.
Although the focus of the compliment was Ye You, but at least they received more praises than other team members.
This alone was enough to make them very happy and proud.

No matter how, Ye Chen and Liu Hui couldn’t smiled at all, they could only forcefully suppressed the unhappiness in their hearts, and worked hard to make an expressions that they were listening seriously.

After the Leaders leave, the Deputy Leader asked the members of the Dance team to packed up and prepared to return, and Head Leader Wu was grabbed by someone and couldn’t get away.

“I said Lao Wu, why are you not kind and honest? Last time when performed in our group, why is there don’t have this kind of dance?” The Leader of the 302 regiment was very dissatisfied in his heart, and his tone was also very dissatisfied.

“Last time when performed in your group, the lead dancer of the latter dance was on a wedding vacation and has not yet returned to the team.
I did not deliberately arrange a different performances for you.
Besides, there are two performances, you are also not at a disadvantage.” After explaining, he wanted to turn around and leave, but he was held tightly and couldn’t even shake him off.

“Who said we are not at disadvantage? The last following dance’s gap was so big, we suffered a big loss, okay? How would my soldiers will think? Do you look down on us or something?”

“Okay, okay, this time it is us who are not thoughtful enough with the arrangement, we will definitely arrange that following second dance for you next time, OK?”

“Next time? Until when we have to wait? No! You must make arrangements for our regiment as soon as possible, otherwise, how can I explain to my soldiers? If you disagree, I will go and ask the leader to reason things right.”

“You said you…2Raw 你说你这人(ni shuo ni zhe ren); you said you this person.
Tbh, I’m not sure how I should phrase this in English _(:_」∠)_” Head Leader Wu was a little helpless towards his entanglement.
After thinking about it for a while, he agreed: “Well, you let someone get the performance application and send it to me.
I will find a way to help you arrange it, but only this one performance ah.”

“This is not bad, thank you.” The 302 Regiment Leader let go of leader Wu, smiled and patted leader Wu’s arm and said: “When I am free, I will invite you to drink.
I’ve just got two bottle of good wine recently.”

Seeing the Leader of the 302 regiment turned and left, Head Leader Wu shook his head helplessly.
He was not really afraid that he would go to the leader3There are so many 领导(ling dao); lead, leading, to lead, leadership, leader.
Author didn’t explain their rank.
But from Head Leader Wu and 302 Leader’s conversation, this leader they talk about, his rank might be above the two of them?? to reason thing right.
After all, it was a fact that Ye You took his marriage vacation.
Many leaders of the military went to the wedding, so they also known.
However, it was not good for Head Leader Wu to get too stiff with the leaders of these Combat Region because of a performance, and it was indeed necessary to consider the emotional issues of the soldiers.

Everyone from the Cultural Regiment boarded the car and prepared to return.
Ye Chen looked out of the window blankly and was very depressed in his heart.
Although their performance was also very remarkable, but the Leaders and soldiers who was watching obviously liked Ye You and his team’s performance more.
This time the focus of compliments were also Ye You and not him.

Ye Chen clenched his fists tightly.
He was really angry and depressed.
He obviously had already worked so hard.
Why,  why on earth was he still not better than Ye You?!

Except for the few people who had performed with Ye You, were talking and chatting happily in low voice, everyone else was silent and quiet.
Some people were unhappy because their limelight were robbed by Ye You, while others blamed Liu Hui in their hearts, because such a large-scale group dance with a large number of people, only those few lead dancers can have a great performance opportunities, they also can get a high score.
But such background dancer like their group dances were just to set off the existence of those people with talents, and in such a rare Special Performance, they also don’t get many points.
Now they were also being compared to Ye You and the others, and what they can get was only a little bit of hard work scores.

Although some people complained about Liu Hui in their heart, but they did not dare to speak out.
They were worried that they would offend Liu Hui, and there would not be an opportunity to performed even more in the future.

After returning to the Cultural Regiment, these team members who had complained about Liu Hui felt really uncomfortable to hold back and gathered together to complain secretly.

“This kind of rare Special Performances opportunity should have allowed more people to have the opportunity to perform.
She stubbornly just wanted to arrange two large-scale group dance performances.
We worked hard to follow the practice, just to set off those few people.
I feel unwilling just thinking about it!”

“It is estimated that in the heart of Team Leader Liu, letting us become the background board is already giving us an opportunity to perform.
Isn’t there still few people who are not even qualified to be the background board?”

“Humph! Thinking about it now, I’d rather be excluded by Team Leader Liu, just like those people, like that I can also perform with them and don’t know how many times stronger it is than the background board.”

“Yes, previously I thought that meeting someone like Team Leader Liu was their bad luck.
Now it seems that their luck is at least better than ours.”

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“How do I feel that they have such good luck because of Ye You’s presence?”

“Originally, it was because of Ye You’s presence that they had such a chance to perform.
I think that in the future, we really don’t have to worry about offending Team Leader Liu and follow her arrangements in everything.
I think Ye You is much stronger than Ye Chen.
Even Teacher Zhao had become the Deputy Team Leader because of Ye You.
Let’s choose the side as soon as possible.
Otherwise, if we remain neutral, it is not very likely to have the desire outcome on either side.

“Isn’t it because Ye You was away on the marriage vacation this time? Otherwise, if we have choose from the beginning, I will definitely perform with Ye You and the others.”

“Then…, have you all thought about it? Decided to stand by Teacher Zhao and Ye You’s side?”

“No matter what you think, I have already figured it out anyway.
Even if the final result proves that I have chosen the wrong side, then I will admit it.
Moreover, with those few trusted aide of Team Leader Liu, you think that in front of Team Leader Liu, there is room for us to speak?”

In the following practices, Liu Hui obviously felt that one part of people’s enthusiasm had dropped a lot.
She was both encouraging and veiled threatening them, but it did not has much effect.
The originally angry Liu Hui, became even more angry in her heart, so there were more names on her blacklist.

There was another Special Performance by the Dance team.
The venue for this performance was quite close to the Brigade of Du Yao and his team.
Ye You sat in the car that was leaving for the performance, thinking that this might be the first time he was the closest to Du Yao during this period of time, if Du Yao hadn’t gone on the mission.

Their performance was still wonderful, most of the attention was still on Ye You.
As long as Ye You was there, no one in the Cultural Regiment can overshadow his brilliance.
These two performances have allowed Ye You to gain a large number of fans and admirers.
Those people feel that their hearts were throbbing whenever they think that Ye You was already married.

After the performance, Ye You walked back to the temporary lounge with the others to change clothes and pack things up, ready to return.

Halfway down the road, Ye You suddenly seemed to feel something.
When he turned his head, he saw Du Yao standing in the distance looking at him.

Ye You felt it was very unexpected and pleasantly surprised, he ran directly towards Du Yao.

Ye You’s dance costumes fluttered with the wind, and he was like a beautiful butterfly, rushing into Du Yao’s arms under everyone’s gaze.

Du Yao smiled, stretched out his hand, and steadily caught Ye You.

“Why are you here?” Ye You asked, looking at Du Yao excitedly.

“I heard that there was a performance by the Cultural Regiment here today.
We just happened to be free, so I brought people over to have a look.” Du Yao said.

“Then did you saw me dancing just now?” Ye You asked, holding Du Yao’s waist tightly.

“I saw it.” Du Yao raised Ye You’s chin, looked at his face and said, “Don’t put on this kind of makeup anymore.”

Ye You froze for a while and said, “It doesn’t look good?”

“You looks too good, I don’t want others to see it.” Du Yao said seriously: “Too many people like you, and I will be jealous.”

“I was performing on the stage, and the people below can’t see it very clearly, only you could see it up close.” Ye You stood on tiptoe, and deliberately brought his face closer to let him see.

Ye You was too excited to see Du Yao and completely forgot that there were many people around, and those people were watching them right now.

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1Raw 有目共睹(yǒu mù gòng dǔ); anyone with eyes can see it (idiom); obvious to all, sth speaks for itself, is there for all to see.2Raw 你说你这人(ni shuo ni zhe ren); you said you this person.
Tbh, I’m not sure how I should phrase this in English _(:_」∠)_3There are so many 领导(ling dao); lead, leading, to lead, leadership, leader.
Author didn’t explain their rank.
But from Head Leader Wu and 302 Leader’s conversation, this leader they talk about, his rank might be above the two of them??