Chapter 462: Can I Dance With You?
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Lu Zhou thought he would get completely wasted, but in reality, it was the opposite.
Not only did he not get wasted, but he didn’t even get to eat enough food.
Although the banquet served many courses, each dish was only half the size of a palm.
Also, other than the bottle of champagne at the beginning and the dessert at the end, three of the meal courses contained alcohol. This was quite different than what Lu Zhou was accustomed to.
Lu Zhuo wasn’t the only one still hungry; Xiao Tong was the same.
No matter how much food or alcohol the Lu family consumed, they couldn’t gain weight.
Xiao Tong was wearing an evening gown, and she wasn’t even 50% full. She licked her lips in an unladylike manner and looked around; she seemed to be looking for a server.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to find one. In the end, she could only look at her all-powerful brother with pitiful eyes.
However, Lu Zhou didn’t have a solution either.
He looked at Xiao Tong’s pitiful eyes and replied with a helpless look.
“It’s fine. I can’t do anything. It’s not like we can get the chef to give you another full course meal.”
After the dinner ended, the guests followed the Nobel Prize winners and royal family to the Gold Hall.
The extravagant golden hall and painting of Goddess Mälaren on the wall looked especially familiar to Lu Zhou.
Because he stood here for the Crafoord Prize.
Back then, he had a feeling that he would stand here again one day.
Now, it seemed that day finally came.
And it arrived sooner than what he had expected.
Academician Claes noticed Lu Zhou was standing motionless on the side of the dance floor. He walked over and asked cheerfully, “Do you need help with anything?”
Lu Zhou had a brief moment of eye contact with Claes at the award ceremony.
Although Lu Zhou didn’t know what he looked like, he could tell from the award ceremony standing positions that he was the chairman of the chemistry prize review committee.
Lu Zhou looked helpless as he asked, “Do I have to dance?”
When Academician Claes heard his question, he laughed. “Of course you do! This is a custom. Not to mention, you’re one of the main characters on stage; the media all over the world is waiting for your dance.”
Lu Zhou coughed and said, “I promise, my report is more exhilarating than my dance.”
“It’s not about the dance, it’s about who is dancing.”
Seeing that Lu Zhou looked a little embarrassed, Academician Claes smiled and said, “Don’t worry. Even if your shoe flies out, no one will laugh. At most…”
“At most?”
Academician Claes smiled and said, “At most, people will remember it. Just like you winning that medal, it’ll be written in history books or something.”
Lu Zhou: “…”
F*ck sake!
I guess he’s f*cking with me.
This isn’t good…
Lu Zhou tried to find an excuse, and he said, “You should have told me earlier. This is too sudden; I don’t even have a partner.”
Unfortunately, his plan didn’t succeed.
Because right as the words came out of his mouth, a beautiful voice came from the side.
“Do you mind dancing with me?”
Lu Zhou looked over and saw a woman in a light blue evening gown.
Lu Zhou had a brief exchange with her. She was none other than Princess Madeleine, daughter of Carl XVI.
Even though the European media didn’t have a good opinion of this beautiful lady with countless affairs, this was a ceremonious dance party. It had nothing to do with the lady’s personal life.
“There’s no need to prepare for a dance partner in advance,” Academician Claes said as he raised his eyebrows and patted Lu Zhou’s shoulder. He then smiled and said, “The dance is about to start, I won’t bother you two.”
Even though Lu Zhou still wasn’t interested in dancing, Princess Madeleine’s invitation was in good faith, and it would be somewhat rude to refuse it.
Not to mention, at that moment, he represented more than just himself.
The two stood on the dance floor and moved rhythmically to music while chatting.
Madeleine: “Do you remember the small card on the table?”
Lu Zhou, who was gradually getting used to the rhythm of the music, said, “I kind of remember it, why?”
Madeleine grinned and said, “Before the Nobel Banquet, the Nobel Foundation ceremonial secretary would consult the opinions of the guests and try to satisfy their banquet requests. The requests would be written on the card.”
“So?”
“So we’re always able to see a lot of interesting requests, like ‘I want to sit next to Professor Lu Zhou’.”
Lu Zhou said, “What kind of strange request is that?”
Princess Madeleine replied, “It’s not strange since there are similar requests every year. However, there’s a lot more this year. As far as I know, the Nobel Foundation received more than 50 similar requests. Some of them were from academia while the other 70% or so were probably from people that didn’t exactly admire your academic achievements.”
Lu Zhou asked, “Why?”
“Because this 70% came from a young woman,” Princess Madeleine said as she grinned and looked at Lu Zhou. She said in a teasing manner: “I’ve always been curious, what kind of scholar can attract so many women.”
Lu Zhou coughed and tried to change the question. ” Unfortunately, I can’t be split into 50 copies.”
Princess Madeleine paused for a second and smiled as she said, “You’re funny.”
The song quickly ended.
Princess Madeleine let go of Lu Zhou’s hand and gently adjusted her dress as she cheerfully asked, “What do you think?”
Lu Zhou had accidentally stepped on her foot a few times, so he felt awkward and said, “I just got the hang of it but it’s over.”
Princess Madeleine smiled and said, “Then, do you want me to teach you again?”
Lu Zhou: “… I’d rather not.”
For him, dancing was much more difficult than sprinting around Lake Carnegie.
Thankfully, his shoe didn’t fly off.
Seeing that Lu Zhou was slightly uncomfortable, Princess Madeleine smiled and teased.
“Actually there’s plenty of beautiful ladies that want to dance with you. There’s still a lot of time left, so enjoy this night to the fullest.”
She gently bowed toward Lu Zhou. She then inadvertently looked to the side before she walked away gracefully.
Lu Zhou was stunned, and he looked at the direction she was staring at. He then saw Vera in a black evening dress gown.
Vera squeezed the frill on her dress and blushed. She then said nervously, “I borrowed this dress from a friend… Does it fit?”
Actually, Lu Zhou wanted to say the dress was slightly too big as the hem was nearly touching the ground.
However, he didn’t want to hurt her self-esteem.
After all, height was a sensitive topic for both boys and girls.
However, Lu Zhou certainly wasn’t lacking in the height department.
“It doesn’t fit perfectly… But it’s beautiful.”
Vera was somewhat sad when she heard the first half of that sentence, but she burst into a grin when she heard the second half.
“Then… Can I dance with you?”
Perhaps Vera’s smile was too bright, as it caused Lu Zhou to be stunned for half a second.
A thought emerged in his head.
Is this appropriate?
Lu Zhou looked at Vera’s hopeful eyes and paused for a second.
There didn’t seem to be a Princeton rule against dancing with students.
After a brief moment of hesitation, he nodded with a smile.
“Of course you can.”