✓𝐀𝐬 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐄𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭 『𝑀𝑜𝑛𝑘𝑒𝑦 𝐾𝑖𝑛𝑔』

𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 52: Lantern City

First of all, I have no hate towards the video below. Their dance is beautiful, considering that I can't even dance. I just love the song and found it as a reference❤️

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Lantern City, a prosperous metropolis that's almost as overpopulated as Megapolis. In here were thousands of lanterns scattered all over the city, emitting an orange glow throughout day and night.

Her excitement to their current location couldn't be contained, Xiu ran all over the place, checking everything that's new around the city. And while most of them were able to keep up with her, Tang and Pigsy were rolling in sweats as they heaved their breaths, thankful for their sudden stop at one of the merchandise stores as Xiu and Mei went in for a change of outfit.

Monkey King comes out of the changing room and sported a yellow hoodie and sunglasses, earning a whistle from his girlfriend who waited for him on the seats with her own bags beside her. She changed into white winter clothes with a red glove and earmuffs, perfect for the cold weather in the city.

The group explored for a bit while scouting around for the Ring of Samadhi. At one point, they stumbled upon a cotton candy eating contest. The sweet treat is as big as a wok, and the contestant have to finish it all under one minute. The woman grins, passing her bags to Monkey King and enters the contest.

"Go, Xiu!"

"You can do it, girl!"

MK and Mei cheers her on, holding three flags each. Pigsy, Sandy and Tang awkwardly stands beside them with similar props as well, watching as she's handed with a stick of the large cotton candy.

"Ready... Set... START!"

Xiu grabs the cloudy sugar off the stick and mashes it, making it into a ball with the size of a baseball in less than three seconds before shoving it all in her mouth, earning hollered cheers and laughters from those who watched the competition. Monkey King in particular was the loudest of them all.

"THAT'S MY QUEEN RIGHT THERE!" he turns to the side of a random guy beside him, earning painful grunts from the simian's strong nudges.

Her competitors took second glances at her, their mouths hanging open as they stopped sinking their teeth into the cotton candy. Xiu won first place at a city breaking record of three seconds and earned a big... lantern. No surprise there.

Afterwards, they finally focused on the important task at hand. The woman looked around aimlessly, and a little half-heartedly as she did not exactly want them to find the ring. It's a big city, surely it'll take some time before someone figures out where it is.

"Step it up, Caiwei! Lift your chin more!"

Her eyes snapped towards an alley leading to an inner district for residents of Lantern City. There, five women practiced their dance, and seems to have problems among the members' cooperation. She comes a little closer, watching their movements and the way they used the rhythm.

Xiu saw many flaws in their routine. If it were her in the 1400's, the Jīnglǐ— or better known as the group's manager— would've hit her with a two inch plank just to create a muscle memory and correct her moves.

"Again."

They started the dance again, and this time, Xiu watched every detail. Fond of her past memories as a traveling performer, she wanted to help them by noting some things they should improve and give it to their lead dancer to better their performance. It would be nice to see them grow just as her own group hundreds of years ago.

"I guess that works for now. Last practice will be backstage," the group leader handed instructions and let them all rest by the benches for a few minutes.

The woman takes that as the right cue to go confront her and taps the dancer on the shoulder, "Excuse me." Once she got her attention, she continues, "Hi, I saw you guys perform, and I just wanted to say that it's a good routine. Really, it's so great. And I wanted to help you improve it even more, if that's alright with you."

"Oh really?" she chuckles.

"Yes. I was a part of a dance performance group before, and I think I know some pretty good pointers to perfect the—"

"Before, huh? How old are you, lady?"

Xiu's smile falters a bit, "... 26? Why?"

"You're too young to retire. Or is it that you were kicked out of your group? Oh. Poor thing."

No doubt about it, this dancer has disdain written all over her poisonous smile. She doesn't know where this sudden temperament was coming from, after all she was being really nice about it.

"I can manage my group just fine. I don't need tips from someone who probably doesn't even have as much talent as me to be entered in the biggest competition of Lantern City." The volume of her voice reaches the other women by the benches, and are now looking at the two of them.

"... Okay, first of all, I do have talent." Xiu was quick to snap out of her confusion and retorts back.

If she was just Ying Xiu, she would've ended the discussion at that and apologize for trying to help them, but her perfectionist trait as Lin Xiu (her time as a performer) just can't let this get past through her without fighting for her pride as one of the best dancers of all time— or so she'd called herself.

"Your group aren't the least bit synchronized at all. Go back to 1430 and get your limbs hit by a plank to straighten them out, you look like fish who's trying to be a pigeon. You obviously lacked the discipline to even perform properly. Heck, you can barely even attract a crowd in your routine," she extends her arms around them, looking at the two peddlers nearby before turning back to the dancer, "And I bet you also choreographed it, huh? Now that would make sense."

The others whispered among themselves, silently enjoying the little squabble. Although at deeper aspects, they certainly had similar hatred to the stranger who just insulted their dance moves right to their faces. Five against one.

"Oh yeah? Why don't you zip your €£<%~ mouth and prove that you're better than us? Though I doubt you have a chance of winning against performers like us who had already traveled from city to city for competitions like these."

Her brows furrows, "Competition?"

One of the dancers tilts her head to a wall to the right where a conveniently large poster hanged with an exact picture replica of the Ring of Samadhi, making Xiu's eyes widen.

Showing the talented citizens of Lantern City as they try to win the coveted Ring of Light and bring the city to life.

The competition. And the Ring of Samadhi as its prize! Now there's two reasons for her to enter it, and she sure as hell has to win.

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