Tang Dynasty Bandits

Chapter 136 Like a dream
"The grasses of Yan are like green silk, the mulberry trees of Qin droop with green branches. When you long to return home, it is when my heart breaks. The spring breeze is unfamiliar, why does it enter my silken bedchamber?"

Zhang Haohao was already old; although her pipa skills had become more refined with age, her singing voice was not as good as it had been in her youth. Therefore, beside the curtain, there was a singing girl with a head full of green feathers and bright earrings, singing sweetly.

They were singing Li Bai's poem "Spring Thoughts." The slender girls, with light silk ribbons tied around their waists and swaying in the palm of their hands, looked as light as gossamer.

The singing grew increasingly melancholic and poignant. What was clearly a delightful palm dance caused the audience to sigh, sob, and even shed tears.

Zhang Haohao's self-composed pipa piece infuses the sorrow and suffering of a woman of the night into its composition. Human sorrow is universal; how can one not feel its pain?

"A beautiful day and a lovely scene, yet it stirs people's hearts with sorrow and joy, which is quite unique."

Zhu Wen commented in a low voice.

Sorrow is often more impactful and more memorable than joy.

But Zhu Wen didn't like to think about sad things. There was already too much suffering in the world, and he preferred to look forward.

He's only in his early twenties; he has a long life ahead of him.

After the music ended, the hall was silent except for soft sobs. After a while, thunderous applause erupted and lasted for a long time.

“I heard from Sister Zhuoying that most of the outstanding establishments that run the so-called ‘Yangzhou Slender Horses’ are businesses from Hengzhou located in Huaidong. Hunan is a barren land with poor people, and parents often have no choice but to sell their daughters to brothels. Hunan women are also more petite than the local women of Wu and Yue, which suits the preference of the wealthy people in Jiangdong for their light and delicate figures.”

Lan Suting sighed softly nearby.

She was already very slender, but those girls who could dance on the palm of your hand were even more thin and petite than her.

Delicate and petite girls always arouse men's desire to hold them on their laps and cherish them tenderly.

Zhu Wen said, "I also know that the people of Hunan are fierce and like to kill people to sacrifice to ghosts. If merchants from the southeast do not go through local forces like the Hengzhou faction, but go directly to Hunan to buy young girls, they may accidentally have their heads cut off by the locals and used to sacrifice to ghosts."

“Fortunately, Zhizhen wasn’t born in such a place. Fortunately, after Grandpa passed away, Zhizhen was able to meet people like Du.” Lan Suting said softly, looking at Zhu Wen with grateful eyes.

Lan Suting was born with a compassionate nature, and her feelings of relief and gratitude were genuine.

Zhu Wen's heart stirred slightly, but Tian Jun grabbed his hand with force.

"You bastard, you can't control yourself when you see Zhizhen looking so pitiful," Tian Jun whispered in Zhu Wen's ear. "Do you want to hug her again?"

Zhu Wen said helplessly, "No way."

“I know she didn’t do it on purpose,” Tian Jun said in a low voice. “My fifth sister likes to pretend to be pitiful on purpose to make people feel sorry for her.”

Zhu Wen couldn't help but chuckle: "You're not stupid, are you? You told me before that your little sister wasn't a bad person, she just didn't know how to speak properly."

Tian Jun pouted her red lips: "Commander Kou taught me to think of people in a positive light."

Her spontaneity and Lan Suting's innocence each have their own charm; when she reveals her girlish side, the feeling that stirs the heart is quite different.

Driven by instinct, Zhu Wen instantly wanted to embrace both girls, one on each side.

But he also knew that in life, it was necessary to restrain one's desires, otherwise one would become like the corrupt people in the imperial court that he despised the most.

After the Hengzhou school finished their performance, it was finally the turn of the Taishan school, as the host, to take the stage.

The lights inside the Moon Palace went out all at once, plunging the area into complete darkness.

"what happened?"

"It's so cold!"

The audience in the hall, already somewhat disoriented by the dimming lights, suddenly felt a chilling coldness permeate the entire hall. The early autumn heat of Mount Tai, which still held a hint of warmth, suddenly felt as if it had plunged into the dead of winter.

The cold air spread rapidly, causing many guests in the room to shiver.

Suddenly, patches of purple-blue flames leaped up all around, hazy and ethereal, like heavenly fire descending from a celestial palace.

The pretty maids moved through the hall, handing out down-filled cloaks to the guests so they could put them on to keep warm.

By the flickering purple-blue lamplight, the guests looked around and saw large urns placed around the hall. The water in the urns had frozen completely, which explained why the hall had become so cold and chilly in an instant.

"How amazing is this?"

"Could it be that there really are supernatural powers at work?"

A low murmur of discussion arose from the crowd.

Tian Jun's big, dark eyes surveyed the scene, and she was completely stunned.

She was not unfamiliar with the use of ice chests to cool off at banquets.

In winter, ice and snow are stored in ice cellars. In summer, they are taken out and placed in ice chests shaped like four-legged square cauldrons. When placed indoors, even in the hottest days of summer, one can feel the chill and coolness penetrating to the bone.

The ice in those earthenware jars was frozen solid, not in pieces.

Tian Jun had exceptional eyesight and noticed that inside a side door, there was initially a lot of clear water in a ceramic urn, but the ice was visibly spreading and soon froze completely.

"How did you do that?" Tian Jun asked Zhu Wen curiously.

"The Shadow Lady is about to appear on stage," Zhu Wen said without replying, telling her to enjoy the dance.

Suddenly, a surge of mist erupted from the floor, instantly enveloping the stage. Illuminated by the purple and blue lamplight, the swirling mist shifted and changed, and the chill of the hall made it seem as if one had entered a fairyland, a celestial realm.

As the mist dissipated, a group of figures, their robes fluttering, graceful as immortals, descended from the top of the main hall, landing on the singing stage, resembling celestial beings riding the wind!
They didn't even land; instead, they hovered in mid-air, nearly ten feet above the stage, as if floating.

The room was completely silent.

Such a dreamlike spectacle and atmosphere captivated everyone in the audience even before the dance began.

They could hardly believe that this was a scene from the human world.

Zhu Wen's lips curled up slightly. He felt that if this method were used to deceive people and make them believe that gods and immortals had descended to earth, even the most foolish men and women would surely believe it.

Lan Suting looked on with a sudden realization.

Silk is a material with extremely high toughness.

Zhang Haohao used silk threads to make those petite women dance back and forth on the palms of the men dressed as beauties.

Zhu Wen then had Zhuoying and others descend from the palace rooftop like fairies, aided by silk threads.

This is what Zhu Wen meant by the vastly different usage.

The female Taoist priests of the Taishan School are heavier, so they need thicker silk threads. That's why all the lights in the venue were extinguished and replaced with a much dimmer, purplish-blue flame, and a misty fog was used to obscure their vision so that the audience couldn't see the silk threads.

Judging from the stunned expressions of the entire audience, the victory seemed to have been secured even before the music and dance began.

But Lan Suting still couldn't understand how the purple-blue flames, the billowing white mist, and the large urn where clear water instantly turned into ice were all achieved.
Since Lan Suting met Zhu Wen, Zhu Wen's extraordinary talent and wisdom have continuously exceeded her expectations.

(End of this chapter)