Liu Man looked again at the waitress, then at the custors who were trying to take a look at her through the green plants. She had no choice but to stand up from her chair.
“Miss, follow please.”
“Coco will be preparing with this lucky girl backstage, and it’ll take a mont. Everyone, eat and drink as normal, then we can continue to watch their performance,” The host said.
Liu Man followed the waitress through the staff passage into the backstage area. She was led into a room where she was given a bag, “Please, change into the clothing in this bag.”
Liu Man took the clothing out from the bag. It was a white Hanfu. She felt the texture and knew instantly that it was a “costu” Yu Zhan was talking about, “Here, let help you with that,” The waitress offered.
“It’s alright, I can do it by myself.”
“This type of clothing would be a bit complicated to put on, since it’s divided into different parts,” The waitress said with a tone of persistence. She did not believe that Liu Man would be able to put on this kind of Hanfu with such a complex design.
Liu Man, however, laughed, “The real Hanfu would be much more difficult to wear than this, actually. I’ve worn it tons of tis.”
The waitress had to back out of the room so that she could change.
After five minutes, Liu Man opened the door and ca out with one hand lifting the hem. All the staff mbers in the corridor turned to stare at her. So of them were so shocked that their eyes enlarged.
Coco, who ca out of a different room, exclaid, “So pretty.”
“Oh my god. You are the best person for Hanfus, nobody else looks better in a Hanfu than you!” She walked around Liu Man to examine her costu, then lifted her head, “You look so glorious even without makeup on. Sis, you can’t be a superstar, can you?”
Liu Man couldn’t help but laugh, “I’m just a normal person here to have dinner. You’re the super star.”
Coco pouted, “I’m just this cyber singer who sells my singing for a living. What kind of super star am I?”
To be honest, Coco had already beco very famous at the ti, just from how the audience mbers had reacted when she sang her ‘The Untramled Traveler.’ She had already been taken in by an album company and could now publish her own albums in the future, just like professional singers.
Liu Man thought Coco’s personality was very cute. Her tone was always a bit self-deprecating. It wasn’t strange that she could co up with a song which used lines from Zhuang Zhou’s work and inject her own thoughts into it.
The waitress, staring at Liu Man’s loosened hair which reached her shoulders, spoke to another staff mber, “Didn’t I tell you to go get a hair pin? Where’s the hair pin?”
The other staff mber was in an awkward position, “The hairpins are all gone,” Since their the was ancient custod, every waitress had changed into a Hanfu, and they all had needed a uniford hair pin.
Liu Man said, “Just give a clean chopstick, if that’s alright.”
Restaurants were never out of chopsticks. In less than a minute, a staff mber had delivered a wooden chopstick to Liu Man. Under everyone’s watch, Liu Man had deftly tied her hair with the chopstick at the back of her head. She looked elegant and demure, no matter which side she was observed from. All the girls watching felt as if their hands were useless compared to hers.
Coco asked the restaurant manager beside her, “Are you sure she’s really a custor you guys picked randomly and not an actor you pre-arranged for?”
The restaurant manager had a talent for talking and said humorously, “We restaurant companies have a limited funding for activities. Wouldn’t we have to spend an extra-large amount of money if we were to invite such a beautiful actor?”
Coco was going to perform her new song, “Thinking of You,” for her second performance. The song hadn’t been posted yet on the internet, and she was here, partially, to advertise her song. “Thinking of You” was about a girl back in Ancient China, thinking of her husband who had gone to war. It symbolized a yearn for her husband to return, and how she prayed to the gods every day.
All Liu Man needed to do while Coco was performing was to be a background. She only needed to sit. Yes, her sole job was to sit. There wouldn’t be a light directed at Liu Man, and all the audience would be able to see was a woman’s dark silhouette. It was like shadow play. She would pretend to be the main character of the song. As she sat there, looking at sowhere far away and only showing the audience the right side of her face, it would look as if she was thinking about her husband.
Since this was all about the interactions between the custors and the singer, the restaurant’s planning team ca up with a perfect plan. It was impossible for all the female custors to be beauties and all look good in a Hanfu. So of them fat, so skinny; so tall, so short; so young, so more elderly… It couldn’t be guaranteed that all of them would look good onstage. And so, the restaurant decided to blur their outline and their face. The Hanfu they had was wide anyways, so the shadows casted would be about the sa shape. This was a great plan for any random custor to perfectly bond in with the stage and not feel embarrassed.
While the custors were not paying attention to the dark stage, Liu Man went onstage. Then at that mont, one of the staff mbers whispered, “Oh no. We forgot to take a chair.”
“It’s okay. I can sit on the ground.”
She then lifted her sleeves and kneeled straight onto the ground. Her moves were smooth and natural, and her temperant seed elegant. She didn’t seem prominent at all on this slightly small and narrow stage.
That staff mber gazed at her, absent-mindedly, for so ti, lost in her world. It wasn’t until a few monts later before he pulled himself back and signaled the lighting technician to put on the spotlights.
And then, the light hit sowhere in front of Liu Man. Coco got onstage with her guitar. From the audience’s perspective, Liu Man was only a blob of shadow at that mont.
“Sorry for postponing my performance for a few minutes, it was because I was lucky enough to enjoy a short conversation with a rare beauty backstage,” Coco joked.
The audience knew that Coco ant the female custor who was chosen earlier as that ‘rare beauty.’ They didn’t take it seriously, for they thought Coco was just being nice. Of course, it was normal because Liu Man was just a dark background at that mont. She didn’t look attractive at all, and perhaps Yu Zhan was the only one paying attention to her.
Coco finally sat down after she made her speech. Her right-hand proficiently made a chord on her guitar strings and started to sing, “The autumn wind is blowing, I see fallen leaves all over the garden. I was in a trance, for my husband has left for many years now…”
This song did not have any other instrunts as an accompanint, and it all depended on Coco’s guitar. The gruffness and laziness of the guitar added onto the sentintal style of the song, quickly made everyone feel emotional.
Such a good performance.
That was everyone’s thoughts toward Coco’s song.
All of the young audience mbers, including both the custors and the waitresses, all raised a phone to film the performance. None of them wanted to miss a single mont of this aweso stage performance.
Coco finally went to the last line, “I’m feeling nostalgic and recalling our good old mories, hoping for the return of you.”
As the last note ended, all of the lights were turned back on. Liu Man, who sat as straight as a statue from start to end, was exposed to everyone as well.
All the custors, who were going to applaud, as if being paused by soone, were stuck in their positions. Their eyes glanced from Coco to Liu Man, and they never managed to look away.
Liu Man got up and re-organized her hem, then walked gracefully towards Coco with her white Hanfu. Every step she took seed light but steady. Every move she made and her smile she put on, all seed elegant. Everyone was absent-minded, as if a beautiful scenery from Ancient China ca alive.
Coco turned around, smiled, then winked. She put one hand out for Liu Man to take. The two girls who were wearing different styles of clothing stood in front of everyone, hand-in-hand.
“This is why I said I was the lucky one. I actually t the character from my song,” As Coco spoke, she turned around to look at Liu Man.
“Thank you for ‘dancing’ to my song.”
“Thank you for singing this aweso song for .”
The duo said at the sa ti. They then looked at each other and laughed, astonishing everyone.
“Record it, record it. This will be a famous mont.”
“I almost forgot that we’re here to have dinner! I might faint.”
“If I knew that this was going to happen, I would’ve called for my friends to co along too!”
“Does anyone know who this girl is?”
…
Just as everyone asked each other about who Liu Man was, Yu Zhan had already been done with the bills. A waitress guided him backstage respectfully.
Credits: Sydney, Dora, Kathrien
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