My hometown is far away in Moscow.

Chapter 118 Couplets and Performances

Hu Yi led Xia Yan and Caihua to look at this and touch that at the booths of various countries, but they didn't find anything particularly noteworthy. Most small countries with similar geographical locations have highly similar historical and cultural origins, so most of their so-called specialties are also quite similar, and after seeing them many times, they felt uninteresting.

Chinese students set up a slightly larger booth to showcase their calligraphy to foreign friends. One student, who had some basic knowledge of calligraphy, stood in front of the table, dressed in a gray cloth robe and mandarin jacket, wielding his brush with great skill, exuding the air of a talented scholar from the Republican era.

The Shandong boy and HLJ lad, who were under Sixth Brother's command, stood guard on either side of the table like two guardian generals, grinding ink and laying out paper for the foreign friends who were passing by. They guided them in raising their wrists and holding the brush with great skill, and then watched them write their names in various crooked characters as if they were brushing sauce on barbecue meat. Then everyone laughed heartily.

A talented scholar from the Republic of China era had just finished writing a couplet and was explaining it word by word to the foreigners around him. Hu Yi and the others, looking from afar, saw that the two lines were:

High mountains and distant waters, three skin colors come from multiple countries.

With boundless horizons and diverse perspectives, friends from all corners of the world gather at one university.

Horizontal scroll: Long live friendship.

"Great! That's great!" Cauliflower clapped her hands happily.

Xia Yan stroked his chin thoughtfully for a moment: "These few characters are written quite beautifully, but the artistic conception of the couplet..."

"The artistic conception is a bit lacking," Hu Yi interjected, his hands behind his back. "It doesn't capture the atmosphere of a university; it looks more like the couplets pasted on the entrance of a restaurant."

"Yes, Brother Hu is right!" Xia Yan nodded in agreement, "It just lacks artistic conception."

"Tch, you two, stop standing there making sarcastic remarks. I think their couplet is quite nice." Caihua curled her lip dismissively. "Why don't you two write one too?"

"No way. It's too easy, boring." Hu Yi glanced at Caihua: "Unless—you give me the first line of a couplet, and I'll give you the second, how about that?"

"I can't." Caihua nudged Xia Yan with her finger: "Didn't you also think that other people's couplets were bad? Why don't you give Brother Hu a first line and let him come up with a second line?"

Xia Yan seemed somewhat interested in the suggestion. He tilted his head and pondered for a moment before giving Hu Yi a simple, honest smile: "So, Brother Hu, do you dare to accept the challenge?"

"Come on! Who's afraid of who?" Hu Yi raised the corner of his mouth. He had seen many obscure couplets in various books before, and he had memorized many of them, such as "Heaven against Earth, Rain against Wind, Continent against Sky". He was confident that he would not be stumped by them easily.

"Okay, my first line is—" Xia Yan cleared his throat: "Studying in Russia, all utilities are free, the Soviet people are so generous."

"Hey, what is this!" Cauliflower grinned. "You call this artistic conception? Your level is not as good as others, it's all plain language."

Hu Yi frowned with a wry smile. He had thought Xia Yan would choose an obscure couplet from ancient times to test his knowledge, but he hadn't expected Xia Yan to create one on the spot. Although the first line sounded like plain language and didn't really have any artistic conception, it was not easy to match it.

For a moment, he was at a loss for words. Hu Yi habitually pulled out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, suddenly feeling his lips were cold and dry. A sudden inspiration struck him. Pointing at the grinning cauliflower, he said, "I've got it! My second line is—'Visiting the cultural festival, no cigarettes, no alcohol, no tea—the school leaders are so stingy!'"

"That's right, so stingy!" Xia Yan and Caihua burst into laughter.

Although the second line wasn't perfectly matched, it was still quite remarkable that it was coherent enough to be done in such a hurry. Hu Yi lit a cigarette and took a few puffs, then snapped his fingers at the two of them: "Let's go, let's go to the main building to watch Nan Nan dance."

Compared to the enthusiastic, outgoing, and talented African and Latin American students, most Chinese students are more reserved and not very good at performing in public. Out of several hundred Chinese students in the entire school, only two were willing to perform on stage: Xiang Nan, who had dance training, and Fang Qing, who never missed such an opportunity.

Xiang Nan performed a folk dance. She wore traditional clothing that Hu Yi couldn't identify as belonging to any particular ethnic group, and she danced gracefully in front of a large audience from various countries. Her figure was lithe and graceful, her movements swaying and her steps quickening and slowing in time with the music, dazzling the audience.

After the dance ended, Xiang Nan bowed and stepped off the stage, greeted by applause and cheers. Old Jiang even took the lead, sucking his fingers and whistling, drawing the attention of everyone around him.

Xiang Nan changed into casual clothes and came to Hu Yi's side, excitedly asking, "Brother! Did you watch me just now? Was my dancing good?"

"Great! Of course it's great!" Hu Yi said seriously, "Although I don't know anything about dance, your performance was definitely the best of the day! The best of the whole show!"

Xia Yan and Caihua also praised it. Xiang Nan smiled and said, "Don't talk nonsense, Teacher Fang is still on stage. Listen, how well he sang—wait, why did everyone leave?"

Fang Qing was well-prepared today, starting her makeup and dressing up early. Her performance was much better than when she performed at the embassy last time; at least her voice was much louder and no longer sounded like a mosquito's buzz.

But Hu Yi still couldn't quite understand his lyrics and wasn't interested in listening carefully. He was only standing in the audience to support his older brother.

The other audience members around them had been drawn in by Xiang Nan's dance, but now, listening to Fang Qing's slow, incoherent babbling on stage, they were all losing interest and looking around at the other stages.

The crowd quickly dispersed, leaving only a dozen or so people standing nearby, including a few foreign students who stayed to find out whether the big guy on stage was male or female.

Hu Yi looked around and saw that Anna was the most focused person in the crowd. Although she couldn't understand the lyrics at all, she swayed her head slightly in sync with Fang Qing's singing, clearly very engrossed.

After patiently listening to a segment, Hu Yi and Xia Yan led the applause and cheers. Anna picked up a bouquet of flowers and quickly stepped forward to present it to Fang Qing. She then gently kissed his pale face, and the two walked off the stage hand in hand, sweetly embracing each other.

Hu Yi and other Chinese students gathered around and offered a few uninformed compliments. Although none of them hit the nail on the head, Fang Qing was still very happy and kept thanking everyone with great joy.

"I personally think I sang quite well today. It's a pity that Peking Opera doesn't suit the tastes of young people; fewer and fewer people like to listen to it!" Fang Qing smiled as she looked at Xiang Nan. "Xiang's dancing is much more appealing to young people—not just young people, I think it's excellent!"

Xiang Nan smiled sweetly: "I was just dancing around randomly, how could I compare to you, Brother Fang? Besides, Peking Opera is a national treasure, it's not something you can just sing whenever you want. You must have practiced hard for many years to have such skill."

"Wow! This little girl knows how to talk!" Fang Qing beamed, gently placing one hand on Anna's waist and patting Hu Yi's back with the other, saying, "Our restaurant with Xiao Hu is almost ready, and we'll be opening in a few days. We'd like to invite you to the opening ceremony, you absolutely must come!"

(End of this chapter)