Heretic Doctor Zihou - Chapter 34

Chapter 34: An Astounding Performance?

Translator: Atlas Studios

Editor: Atlas Studios

Zhen Kexin felt extremely excited as she stood on stage and thought about the dance she was about to perform. It was a special classical Chinese dance that the Empress had invested many efforts to source for her, as it was already a long-lost art-form. So her dance today would definitely trump all the other performances and amaze the audience!

An elegant melody started playing, lulling everyone into a peaceful silence.

Zhen Kexin moved her body according to the music. Her strong foundation in dance, her exceptional beauty, and the extraordinary dance style immediately had the crowd entranced. They all held awestruck expressions.

Zhen Kexin was very satisfied with the audience’s reaction. If they were amazed now, then the highlight of her performance would surely astound them all! Just as Zhen Kexin was about to execute a highly-complicated movement, she suddenly felt… a terrible itch.

Her neck felt so itchy. Her arms felt so itchy. Her thighs felt so itchy. Her entire body felt so itchy. She was just dying to scratch all over…

The itch started from her neck and spread downward to the soles of her feet. Zhen Kexin broke out in a cold sweat as she desperately tried to suppress the urge to scratch.

What to do, what to do…

Zhen Kexin was in a major dilemma. On one hand, she wanted to amaze the crowd; on the other hand, she was itching so badly as there were ants crawling all over her body.

The itch grew increasingly stronger until all her hairs were already standing on end. But the dance was reaching its peak and Zhen Kexin had no choice but to grit her teeth and continue her performance. She was already on the brink of tears.

It shouldn’t be a big deal if she just gave a little scratch, right?

Zhen Kexin finally couldn’t bear the itchy feeling and decided to allow herself one scratch.

Her fair hand reached forward as part of the dance, before darting backward to give her back a quick scratch.

Ah, that felt great!

Why did it feel so great?

What if she wanted to scratch again?

Well… it shouldn’t be a major problem if she scratched just one more time, right?

After another dance movement, her lovely hand darted aside to scratch her thigh.

Ah ah, that felt really good!

For the first time in her life, Zhen Kexin realized just how blissful it was to be able to scratch an itch.

From then on, common sense completely left the building. After indulging herself in those two scratches, her classical Chinese dance became a scratching dance!

Scratch on the left, scratch on the right, scratch on the front, scratch on the back, scratch on the top, scratch on the bottom. Every single scratch was accompanied by an expression of absolute bliss on Zhen Kexin’s face.

The audience was totally puzzled. They were wondering if there was something wrong with their eyes. Otherwise, why would Zhen Kexin suddenly carry out such a… bold and unrestrained dance?

After confirming there was nothing wrong with their eyes, everyone started averting their gaze, as if the performance was too dazzling to watch.

“Zhen Kexin, you should have told me if you have an itch… I can help you scratch anytime!” Qi Shaoyang chortled loudly as he shouted across the hall.

Pffft~

The audience burst out laughing. They really applauded this Qi Shaoyang for his courage in making such a bold jibe.

The corners of Zihou’s lips twitched. She was also stunned by how mean this fellow could be, rubbing salt into others’ wounds.

Nevertheless, Qi Shaoyang’s holler brought Zhen Kexin back to reality. She surveyed the audience and noticed their bizarre expressions. Her heart sank as a sense of foreboding crept over her. Recalling her earlier movements, she was completely shocked!

What kind of dance was she performing? Wasn’t she supposed to be performing a special classical Chinese dance? What happened?

The itchiness all over her body was gradually fading away. She even suspected whether the itch had just been a hallucination on her part. But that couldn’t be right!

“Miss Zhen’s dance was really out of this world. It was truly an ‘astounding’ performance!” Zihou clapped, and her clear voice echoed through the Elegance Restaurant.

Astounding performance? There was no doubt the crowd was astounded—but not in a good way, and certainly not the way Zhen Kexin hoped for!

The young men all maintained poker faces as they were afraid of the power held by the Prime Minister’s estate, but inwardly, their hearts were filled with disdain for Zhen Kexin.

She was the Young Mistress of the Prime Minister’s estate and had always prided herself as a virtuous lady—how could she have performed such an outrageous dance! It was a complete disgrace!

“Wei Zihou, was it you? Yes, you must have done something to me!” Zhen Kexin was hopping mad as she pointed at Zihou. She was absolutely sure that Zihou was the one behind her embarrassing performance.

“What a joke! You’re the one who performed such a brazen dance in front of everyone, but now you turn around to blame me? Miss Zhen, should you be making such unfounded accusations?” Zihou refuted calmly.

“It must be you, if not why would I…” Zhen Kexin was confident it must be her. Apart from Zihou, no one else would dare to do anything to her.

“Since you’re so sure, can you provide some evidence?” Alright, it was Zihou who did it, but would there be any residual evidence of her itching powder?

Of course not.

Nevertheless, as devious as Zihou was, she didn’t realize that a certain someone had been watching her every single move and noticed her sly trick…

Zhen Kexin went blank at Zihou’s request for evidence. Where would she go to get evidence? But even though she had none, she was absolutely certain Zihou was behind this!

In the eyes of the crowd, Zhen Kexin was being unreasonable and behaving totally out of line. What had happened to her virtuous and gracious image?

In the blink of an eye, their impression of Zhen Kexin plummeted all the way down!

“She was the one who acted so shamelessly but is now trying to blame it on others. Despicable!”

“That’s right. Performing such a scandalous dance in public. She’s really shameless!”

“It’s so true that one should never judge a book by its cover. Miss Zhen looks so virtuous, but is actually so brazen!”

“…”

The crowd loudly commented amongst themselves about Zhen Kexin. She had always been a proud person and was used to hearing others sing her praises. Now, those negative comments and reprimands nearly drove her crazy…

“Someone must have played a nasty trick on my sister today. The Prime Minister’s estate will investigate and get to the bottom of this, to find the real culprit and clear my sister’s name.” Zhen Xueyan stood up. Her soft voice managed to suppress the entire audience. As she spoke, her eyes landed on Zihou.