Chapter 268: The Dancer’s Final Bow

Lu Xin stood on the street beneath the Red Moon, silently observing the bizarre scene unfolding before him.

He had never encountered anything like this and wasn’t sure who he should even help.

What caught his eye was the woman dancing in the village street.

Lu Xin had previously accompanied the Old Director to appreciate what he called “high art.” Back then Lu Xin and his friends hadn’t quite understood what was so captivating about watching a group of women in white miniskirts dancing on tiptoe.

He’d even inwardly scorned the Old Director for it.

But now watching this woman dance Lu Xin slowly began to understand something.

This woman’s dance seemed to be telling a story.

Through her body she conveyed a message to Lu Xin who was watching this performance.

…

She was a girl born into the post-cataclysm world yet still full of passion.

Obsessed with dancing she dreamed of one day becoming a star in High-wall City.

So she joined a troupe of performers who traveled between the major High-wall Cities. Taking advantage of the relatively stable situation they set out together traveling in large covered wagons from one High-wall City to the next ready for performance after performance…

Life in the Wasteland was full of hardship tiring and paid little.

But this group of people was happy dreaming of becoming the next generation of superstars adored by countless fans.

However this dream was shattered one night.

A Knight Order attacked their song and dance troupe camped in the Wasteland just to rob them of their meager supplies.

When they first set up camp they had inquired and were told there were no Knight Orders nearby.

Of course they hadn’t considered that a Knight Order could be anyone.

Their troupe leader and everyone else were killed. She herself because she was beautiful was lucky or unlucky enough to be taken back by this Knight Order to this village or rather their den becoming the spoil of one of the men.

…

Her dance became twisted and grotesque filled with a sense of agony.

Through her movements Lu Xin seemed to see her being abused and beaten day and night feeling the pain constantly surging within her. He saw her desperately trying to escape only to be caught again and subjected to even greater suffering.

Her leg twisted at an unnatural angle someone had broken it fearing she would run away.

Her clothes slipped off with her movements revealing a slender and captivating body.

But that body was covered in cigarette burns along with scars from fire and needles.

That was the punishment inflicted for her disobedience.

Her messy hair whipped upwards revealing a face covered in knife scars inflicted by someone afraid others would desire her and take her away.

Utterly hideous.

…

Her dance began to warp becoming eerie. From within the pain a kind of ferocity brewed.

She had decided on revenge.

Even with a broken leg she had to dance enduring pain beyond limits. She knew she had to be captivating because her face was ruined and her body defiled. All she had left was her dance.

It felt as though a lifetime’s passion burned brighter now than ever before. Amidst the agony she learned this strange dance.

Everyone became mesmerized by her.

Through this dance she became the biggest star in the village.

Some men trying to please her went raiding for more spoils provoking stronger settlements and ended up getting killed.

Some fought and killed their own brothers over the right to possess her.

Men died continuously because of her while she was constantly taken by other men.

She watched their despicable behavior with cold eyes letting them fight letting them kill letting them commit those inhuman acts.

It was the only thing she could do.

…

“Huu…”

Lu Xin let out a soft sigh rubbing his face.

He now understood what had happened in this village.

The dancer continued to pour out her story her form under the Red Moon pushing the emotions higher and higher.

The old lady was already hoarse even pleading desperately for her little grandson to stop.

The dancer was suffering and so was she.

She hated the woman who caused the deaths of her four sons. In her eyes her sons had treated the dancer well enough. As for robbing the troupe and breaking the woman’s leg what did it matter? Didn’t other places do the same?

Hadn’t she herself ended up in this village the same way when she was young?

Especially now all she wanted was to save her little grandson…

…

However Lu Xin understood that no one influenced by this woman was innocent.

The little child’s dance seemed to imitate the dancer yet it expressed a different kind of emotion.

Those lost in the dance were honest.

It turned out that even this little grandson barely thirteen or fourteen had also been obsessed with her body and had snuck into her shack countless times.

The only reason he was still alive was because he was too weak in this village lacking the qualification to possess her yet.

His desire and greed were no less than his father’s uncles’ or anyone else’s in the village.

Perhaps the dancer hated him the most.

It was this little child who liked to squat on the hilltop watching everything around.

Back then it was he who saw the song and dance troupe camping nearby. When he dragged his already somewhat disabled body to the troupe this dancer had kindly given him some food watching him leave with fear in his eyes.

At that time sitting on the lounge chair her hair cascading like a waterfall.

She didn’t know that in the nearby grass those greedy eyes couldn’t bear to look away.

As for this old woman she was determined to live determined to save her little grandson. She was convinced that once his illness was cured and his body grew strong he would become even more capable than her four sons and become the village chief again.

Her only hope was her little grandson.

So when the entire village began to be bewitched by that woman she also protected her little grandson.

When that woman received offerings from the whole village who had looted all the grain the old lady found ways to feed him herself.

She gritted her teeth holding her breath refusing to give in.

That’s why even though she had starved to death the flesh on the lower half of her body gone she was still alive.

…Or rather she believed herself to be alive.

Whenever the Red Moon rose and this woman conquered the entire village with her dance she would come out to stop it.

They fought over the ownership of this village…

It was a complete mess.

…

“Brother what are you going to do?”

Sister’s voice sounded unusually subdued.

She reached out her little hand wiped her eyes and looked down at Lu Xin.

“I don’t want to do anything.”

After a long pause Lu Xin replied softly “Interrupting someone’s performance is impolite.”

Having said that he silently turned gathered his things in front of the house pushed the car to the middle of the road. Just as he was about to start the engine and drive away from this dance he felt something was missing.

So he stopped turned his head towards the dancer and applauded softly.

“Clap clap clap…”

It was the proper courtesy for an audience member.

…

“Vroom…”

The engine roared two beams of white light shot out from the front and Lu Xin rode forward.

Behind him the eerie and grotesque dance continued.

The old lady’s hoarse curses had turned into pleas her spine almost completely torn apart.

Actually from the changes in the villagers and her little grandson it was clear she was losing this struggle losing more ground each day pushed to the brink at the village edge. She just refused to admit defeat.

Tonight their struggle finally reached its end.

The woman’s dance neared perfection… a grotesque perfection.

But she the old lady was already exhausted.

“Snap” “Snap” “Snap”

The dance under the Red Moon once again moved towards perfect unity.

Her spine had been snapped piece by piece by the countless frantically twisting villagers falling away section by section.

Her arms also split open revealing bloody gashes.

But she still couldn’t stop her little grandson’s dance from gradually synchronizing with the dancer’s gradually becoming one of her people. This synchronized dance seemed to possess a strange power like invisible knives carving her body leaving it drenched in blood.

Finally the dancer’s movements suddenly achieved a bizarre coordinated perfection reaching their peak.

At that exact moment the little grandson’s dance caught up. An obsessed fanatical expression appeared on his ugly face.

This expression froze permanently on his face his movements stopping as if turned to stone.

A twisted statue.

“Crack” “Crack” “Crack”

Throughout the village everyone’s movements halted freezing in place.

If one had to describe it it was as if everyone had bloomed like flowers and then paused.

They all maintained their elegant dance postures forever fixed in that state.

Beauty henceforth submerged this village.

The dancer her long hair covering her face quietly watched Lu Xin ride away bright tears rolling down.

He was the only one who had killed her current man but hadn’t sought to possess her afterward.

He was also the only one who had appreciated her performance and applauded her.

…

“Crrrack…”

Her movements slowly ceased the bones in her body emitting a scalp-numbing sound.

Her body slightly crouched her hands extended to the sides as if lifting an invisible skirt.

She slowly bowed her head in the direction Lu Xin had left.

With an elegant motion she took her final bow for her sole audience member.