Chapter 1260: The founder imparts his moves!
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
Back at home.
His parents were also dumbfounded!
His mother turned to the side and asked, "Since when did you become the father of plaza dancing?"
Zhang Ye nearly vomited a mouthful of blood. "How would I know?"
His father: "…"
A phone call arrived at the next moment.
It was Yao Jiancai who called first.
The moment Zhang Ye answered it, he heard a guffaw from the other end.
"Hahahahaha!"
Zhang Ye was annoyed. "What is it, Old Yao?"
"Did you watch News Simulcast just now? Hahahaha! You're great, you're really great, kid! Aiyo, you're killing me. Let me laugh a little more!"
Zhang Ye rolled his eyes. "You better not go overboard."
"I can't, this is really too funny!"
Soon after, another call came in.
It was from his university classmate, Yu Yingyi. "Hello, father of plaza dancing."
Zhang Ye was speechless. "Go away!"
Yu Yingyi laughed loudly. "Your popularity amongst the middle-aged and elderly women is skyrocketing. My mother even called me today to ask me to get an autograph from you. She said that the aunties in her neighborhood have become your diehard fans. Keep this in mind. When I'm a little less busy, I'll be looking for you, so don't forget to sign a few more autographs for me!"
Zhang Ye said in spite: "No, I'm not giving you any."
The calls kept coming one after another.
His old friends and old classmates were all calling to mock him.
But there was nothing that Zhang Ye could do about it. He was completely speechless. Plaza dancing had also gained notoriety back in his previous world and its reputation was really bad. Zhang Ye didn't mind joking around or singing a song or two for others, but if he had to get linked to the legacy of plaza dancing, this fellow would definitely try to get away as far from it as possible. This was not something that he wanted to get blamed for! But out of nowhere, someone bestowed the title of the founder upon him. This left Zhang Ye with no place to hide. He had really been wrongfully given this title!
Abracadabra!
Please let this matter blow over quickly!
Hopefully, no one will take this joke seriously!
…
However, the development of this matter went precisely the opposite of how Zhang Ye hoped it would turn out!
What was News Simulcast?
It was the show with the highest viewership ratings without counting the Spring Festival Gala. If the total viewership ratings were combined, no other shows would dare to claim that they were number one if News Simulcast said that they were number two. The Central TV Spring Festival Gala only happened once a year, but News Simulcast was broadcast every day. And it was even a mandatory broadcast that played on all the satellite channels across the country. Comparing viewership ratings? Comparing viewership numbers? Even I Am a Singer or King of Masked Singers would have to step aside. The gap was simply too wide!
That part of the interview spread like wildfire in the blink of an eye!
On Weibo, the netizens were all laughing like mad!
"Quickly go and watch News Simulcast!"
"The interview segment today was so lit! It was lit af!"
"Hahahahaha!"
"Aiyah, I can't take it anymore!"
"Founder?"
"I somehow got tickled by that!"
"That auntie is such a comedian!"
"Teacher Zhang has created a new industry! This is cause for a nationwide celebration!"
"Pfft, but thinking about it, those two songs of Zhang Ye's have indeed gloriously spread the name of plaza dancing. Even my mother who doesn't usually go out went out to dance, so just think of how great his influence is. Calling Zhang Ye the father of plaza dancing? I don't find anything wrong with that at all!"
"Teacher Zhang has gained yet another nickname!"
"A founder has to be offered joss sticks by future generations, right?"
"That's right. A hundred years from now, every neighborhood's plaza dance groups will have to offer three joss sticks to Zhang Ye's photograph to remember him before they start their dance routine."
"Rofl!"
"Hahaha, you guys, that's enough!"
"I really have to take my hat off to him. Why is it that when anything involves Zhang Ye, it always somehow becomes a joke of some sort. Just this morning, 'Small Apple' and 'The Hottest Ethnic Trend' were playing below my place. I got woken up by it and was feeling quite angry about it, but when I saw that interview on News Simulcast, all my anger fucking disappeared. I laughed for such a long time at it. In all of showbiz, only Zhang Ye can make me feel that way!"
"He's the biggest joker in the entertainment industry, after all, so the people and issues surrounding him would naturally become funny as well. Perhaps this is what Zhang Ye's personal charm is. Based on looks, he can't compare with Huo Dongfang or the others. Comparing age, he isn't like those pretty boy celebs out there. About his physique, Jiang Hanwei could easily fling him several streets. But when it comes to being funny, even if all the other celebrities in the entertainment industry combined forces, they wouldn't be a match for him!"
"Congratulations to Zhang Ye on his promotion to the father of plaza dancing!"
"Congratulations to Teacher Zhang on becoming the spiritual leader of the aunties!"
"Where's the applause?"
"Tossing flowers!"
The netizens were all gloating and laughing like mad!
Just a simple news interview had firmly placed the label of "father of plaza dancing" onto Zhang Ye. Even the media was using this title for their headlines.
…
The next day.
In the morning.
When Zhang Ye got up, he could already hear his mother playing "Small Apple" on the computer. He couldn't help but get annoyed at that, so he pushed the door open and said, "Mom, can you please stop playing that?"
His mother smacked her lips. "Why?"
Zhang Ye said, "I get a headache whenever I hear that song."
"Did you get possessed?" His mother sneered.
Zhang Ye harrumphed. "In the future, don't ever mention plaza dancing to me again."
His father said, "But you're already looked upon as the founder by so many people."
"Whoa!" Zhang Ye reacted as though his tail had been stepped on. He said startled, "Just stop mentioning those words! Don't ever bring it up again! I've contracted a disease. If I hear those words, my entire body will start trembling. So don't ever mention them to my face again. Dad, Mom, I'm off to work now. Bye!"
But Zhang Ye could not have expected that the moment he got downstairs, he would immediately be surrounded by his neighbors!
"Little Ye!"
"You've finally come out!"
"We've been waiting for you for so long."
"Quick, give us some pointers."
"Yeah, everyone's moves are not uniform at all."
"What are the standard moves for 'Small Apple'?"
"Can you teach us the moves for 'The Hottest Ethnic Trend' as well?"
A group of aunties had completely surrounded Zhang Ye. There was no way out for him.
Standard moves?
Whoever said that there were any standard moves!
Zhang Ye said dumbfoundedly, "Auntie Liu, Auntie Sun, Grandma Zhou, what are you all talking about? How would I know how to plaza dance? I can't possibly teach you all anything."
Auntie Sun said with a straight face, "But you're the founder of this industry. If you don't teach us, who'll teach us?"
Auntie!
My dearest auntie!
Can you not bring up the fact of who the founder is?
Zhang Ye really did not want anything to do with this. He just wanted to get out of here.
But the group of aunties was not going to allow him to get past them. They all had their hands on their hips as they stared at him.
"Little Ye, Auntie really has to lecture you!"
"Little Ye, everyone is feeling so excited now. We're all so happy that we can come out every day to dance. It's a different world these days, with things like the Internet, cell phones, and computers. We don't know how to use any of them. We're just a group of middle-aged and elderly people with few leisure activities to keep us occupied. There's really too little that we can do. But now that plaza dancing has been popularized despite the difficulties, it has helped to enrich the lives of us old folk. This is great, and if the others don't wish to support it, then so be it. But you're the creator of it and our spiritual leader, so how can you not show your support?"
"That's right, Little Ye."
Who's your spiritual leader?
What spiritual leader!
Zhang Ye raised his hands in surrender. "It's not that I don't support it. I'm actually especially supportive of this cause. I even have both my hands up in support of it, but I'm only a small-time host and at most an amateur singer. What could I know about dancing!"
But nobody was having it.
"You've even flown a plane before!"
"And gotten the highest award in mathematics too!"
"You can play Go and even Xiang Rong is no match for you!"
"So what would you not know?"
They were all saying things.
Zhang Ye couldn't rebuke any of them!
His mother probably heard the ruckus from upstairs and came down looking cheerful too.
Zhang Ye really didn't know whether to laugh or cry. These were not just any people, they were all decades-old neighbors, and many of these aunties saw Zhang Ye grow up. Some of them had cooked for him, and some of them even brought him home from school when his parents couldn't. What kind of relationship was that? It was close to the point of being relatives! No matter how thick Zhang Ye's skin was, he couldn't just ignore these neighbors.
Finally, he gave in. "Alright, but I'll only teach it once for both songs. I still have a load of things to do at the TV station, so I have to get going as soon as possible."
"No problem!"
"We learn really fast!"
The aunties were in high spirits!
But Zhang Ye appeared despondent with a listless expression.
If he really didn't know how, then it wouldn't have been so bad. He could still come up with an excuse and push this off. But the problem was that Zhang Ye really knew the dance routine of the songs. In his previous world, the State General Administration of Sports had pushed out 20 standard plaza dance moves. Zhang Ye did not learn them, but that didn't stop him from seeing it almost every day, for months and even years. Just bringing up "The Hottest Ethnic Trend" and "Small Apple," he could remember the moves to these two songs even with his eyes closed. There wasn't even a need to use the Memory Search Capsules!
Search it from his memories?
Are you kidding?
This would be the greatest insult that you could give to the people living in his previous world!
The coaching began.
"For the first move, do it this way."
"Right, that's very good."
"The second move will be like this."
"No, that's not it, Auntie Sun."
"Auntie Zhang, that's really good. Everyone, please learn from Auntie Zhang."
"When it gets to this part of the song, you must all remember to turn around."
"Aiya, Auntie Zhou, you've gotten it wrong again."
"Auntie Chen, this move that you did was wrong. It's totally unlike what I taught you. Can you be please concentrate?"
"Yo, you all did pretty well this time. Auntie Chen and Auntie Zhou, you both deserve praise!"
"Dancing is the most beautiful activity in the world, so you must learn how to relax your movements. Yes, just imagine that you're surrounded by blue sky and are dancing within the fluffy, white clouds. Don't relax your standards just because this is plaza dancing. That would be the greatest mistake of all! You have to treat it like art. Who says that plaza dancing cannot be beautiful? The dance of the people is always the most beautiful! The efforts of the people, that's what art is! Right, this is it. Very good, everyone is doing quite well!"
His mother was learning as well.
Zhang Ye always took things very seriously. Coupled with the fact that he was also a university teacher, he lost track of time as he taught everyone the dance moves. An hour passed, but he was still teaching the steps for those two songs to everyone. Further, he was beginning to teach them in much greater detail, and he was even giving everyone a lot of attention. For some of the moves, when some people just could not get them right no matter how they tried, he would give them a hard stare. He turned into a professional dance teacher!
Time went by very quickly.
They finally finished learning the moves for the two songs.
The aunties were all celebrating.
"It's awesome!"
"I still prefer the moves that Little Ye taught us!"
"That's right, they're logical and look good as well!"
"He's very professional!"
"That's true. Our Little Ye is the father of plaza dancing, after all!"
All of a sudden, Zhang Ye had a realization. He got stunned for several seconds before he looked up into the sky and nearly burst into tears!
Oh my God!
What the fuck am I doing!