A Book Dedicated to Our Youth - Tong Hua

Chapter 6: Related To Culture

1. My First Dance.

In ancient times, when a teenage girl is fourteen, her father will hold a ceremony to signify her coming of age; in the West, at a girl's wedding, her father will hold his daughter's hand and walk down the last journey of her girlhood with her. A father is the first important male in a girl's life.

My dad's department organized dance tutorials for the middle aged workers to prepare a dance group to compete with another department before New Year's. In the daytime, dad practiced in his department, in the evening, he pulled mom along to the park to dance.

In the summer holidays, my little sister and I didn't have much on so sometimes, we would also go to the park to watch everyone's outdoor dancing.

Once, dad thought mom was stupid, after teaching her many times, she still didn't get it. Mom got angry and refused to dance. The people dancing around them all started laughing. Dad laughed dryly then found little sister, "My wife refuses to learn so I can only teach my daughter to dance."

Little sister happily learned dancing from dad. Dad grasped her hands and they danced to the music while laughing. The knotted bow on little sister's waist also fluttered beautifully along.

The old people around them kept praising my little sister for dancing so well. Mom who was standing on the side also started smiling and dad was even more satisfied.

After finishing a song, they came back to rest. Seeing me watch them the whole time, dad laughed and asked, "Qi Qi, do you also want dad to teach you dancing next?"

I restrained my inner excitement and tried hard to nod calmly.

Not a while after, the music started again. Just as I was getting nervous, dad hurriedly put down his cup, grabbed little sister who was beside him and rushed out to dance.

I was like a stretched rubber band, originally nervously preparing to be flicked with full energy but I was not flicked, only slowly, slowly, loosening my energy,

I watched for a while smiling then said to mom, "I'm going to find friends to play with" then left the park alone.

Some people say that a daughter is her father's lover from his past life but if he has two daughters then does that mean one of them aren't? A person has two hands but only one heart.

I wandered around on the streets for a while as I thought about who to find to play with. Xiao Fei's mom didn't let Xiao Fei outside, I had already gone to find Xiao Fei today so if I go find her again, it clearly wasn't suitable. I remembered that after the holidays, I hadn't seen Xiao Bo thus I went off to find him.

The karaoke bar was loud and noisy yet the door to Xiao Bo's room was firmly shut as he worked hard under the lamp light.

Only then did I remember, he was already in his final year of high school, the last stop of the carp jumping over the Dragon's Gate.

I asked how his exams went, Xiao Bo smiled and said he was in the top hundred of his year then confidently told me his grades will continue improving, that his goal was to be in the top fifty.

According to No.1's past gaokao results, if Xiao Bo really achieves this goal then he had a good chance of getting into a famous university.

He suddenly asked, "Next term you guys will be divided into different classes again, how did you do in your exams?"

"Guess."

He laughed, "It should be pretty good, you'll definitely be able to get into the fast class, what do you want as a congratulatory gift?"