Chapter 108: Stage Performance
After Qianhuan and Mr. Cai left Mr. Fan's house, Mr. Cai said, "Qianhuan, let me take you home."
Qianhuan was thinking that she was going to Xunfang Pavilion to perform on stage tonight and also had to rent a carriage from the carriage shop, so she politely declined Mr. Cai's kindness.
"Brother Yunlong, I won't bother you anymore. I need to go to the city to buy some pens, inkstones, and paper to take home. After I finish shopping, I can rent a car to go back by myself."
"Okay then, take the bus back early after you finish shopping, and I'll go back to the cabin first."
"OK, all right."
Mr. Cai went back to the cabin to continue making the wooden sword, while Qianhuan went to the shop to pick out pens, ink, paper and inkstone. She planned to buy a set for Wenjie.
Pens, ink, paper and inkstones are indeed expensive. A decent set would cost more than ten taels of silver. No wonder people in ancient times could not afford to go to school. Ordinary people only earned a dozen taels of silver a year.
Qianhuan thought that Wenjie had just started school and there was no need to buy him something too good, so she picked out a worse set. This worse set cost her almost five taels of silver.
She didn't buy it for herself because she didn't plan to spend too much time learning to read. For a college student who has been studying for more than ten years, learning to read again from a teacher would feel like someone asking her a childish question like "one plus one equals what". She felt painful just thinking about it.
This is also the reason why she suddenly told her parents that she wanted Wenjie to study with her. She needed a teacher as a shield, but she didn't want to spend a lot of time learning something she already knew.
So this is why she just said to Mr. Fan that it was mainly her brother who was studying, and she was just a foil. After becoming a disciple, she would spend at most half an hour a day studying with the master, and she planned to practice sword with Brother Yunlong for the rest of the time.
With Wenjie staying with Mr. Fan to continue studying, even if she leaves, it won't be too embarrassing for Mr. Fan.
After buying pens, ink, paper and inkstone, Qianhuan went to the carriage rental company she had rented before. After paying the carriage fee in advance, Qianhuan told the boss to ask Ji Feng to pick her up at the old place at 2:15 pm, and then she took a ox cart back to Yunfeng Village.
Because the Liang family's old house was relatively close to the village entrance, Qianhuan had to go to her aunt's house to inform Wenjie to go to meet the master together tomorrow morning. When they arrived at the village entrance, Qianhuan got off the ox cart and went straight to her aunt's house.
Chen had already hurriedly made a new set of cotton-padded jacket and trousers for her son. Qianhuan gave the writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone to Wenjie. Wenjie was deeply moved as he held the writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone. He had always envied his cousin Wenzhi for being able to go to school, and now he could finally study with a teacher.
He knew that all this was given to him by Sister Qianhuan. He secretly swore in his heart that he would study hard, and when he grew up and achieved something in college, he would repay Sister Qianhuan's family for their kindness.
In the evening, after the family of three finished dinner, Liu washed the dishes, and the young couple washed themselves and went to bed.
Qianhuan waited for about quarter of an hour, and probably thought her parents were asleep, so she disguised herself as a man and went out.
This time she didn't go out through the back door. The wooden door in the backyard always made a creaking sound, and it would be bad if it woke up her parents.
She was afraid that Liu would wake up at night and launch a surprise attack. She would be doomed if she went to her bedroom and found that she was not at home. So she locked the door of her bedroom, stuffed a thick cotton coat on the bed, covered it with a quilt, and lowered the gauze curtain. After preparing all these, she climbed out of the bedroom window to the eaves outside, and then gently closed the window.
She tiptoed to the corner of the earthen wall in the front yard, where there was a high bench she had placed there in the evening. The wall was not particularly high, so she stepped on the bench and easily climbed out of the yard.
By the time she ran along the path to the fork in the road, it was almost three quarters past the hour of the twilight, and Ji Feng was already waiting there.
"Ji Feng, I'm sorry for coming out a little late and keeping you waiting." She walked to the carriage and apologized to Ji Feng.
"It's okay, I didn't wait long." Seeing that she didn't come out for a long time, Ji Feng kept staring at the direction of the intersection. Only when he saw her figure did he breathe a sigh of relief.
Qianhuan climbed onto the carriage and the two of them set off for the county town.
In less than two quarters of an hour, the carriage entered the city. Qianhuan got off the carriage next to Liu's Noodle House. Before leaving, she told Ji Feng, "Ji Feng, you can come back to pick me up in an hour. If I haven't come in an hour, please wait for me here."
The young man nodded in agreement and drove the carriage back to the dealership.
Qianhuan entered from the alley next to Liuji Noodle House. She had found out last time that by entering from the alley next to Liuji Noodle House, she could go directly to the back door of Xunfang Pavilion.
Qianhuan arrived at the back door and explained her purpose to the servant guarding the gate. The servant went to report to Mother Yang, who then sent a maid to take her to a private room upstairs.
The maid brought her a dancing costume and shoes. After Qianhuan put them on, she put on makeup to imitate Hongyu.
After completing the preparations, Qianhuan went on stage to perform.
She asked Master Qin to play one of his best songs at random. After she heard the song Master Qin played last time, she already had a general understanding of his style, so the dance she choreographed on the back mountain was all based on Master Qin's style.
Of course, Qianhuan was also very good at improvising dances to the rhythm of the music, but after all, this was her first time performing on stage at Xunfang Pavilion. In order to perform better, she specially choreographed a dance in advance.
The sound of the piano started, and Qianhuan began to dance to the rhythm of the music.
Today she was wearing a scarlet dance costume, with bird feathers in her hair, a long veil covering her face, and silver bracelets on her bare feet. She danced to the rhythm of the musicians, her jade-like hands lingering gracefully, her skirt fluttering...
When the dance was over, the audience burst into thunderous applause, and the men shouted, "Miss Hongyu, dance one more, dance one more..."
Some generous young men even threw silver coins onto the stage excitedly.
Mother Yang thought that inviting Feiyan to dance would definitely get a good response, but she didn't expect the effect to be so good. The 10 taels of silver were really worth it.
The wrinkles on Mother Yang's face were all revealed with laughter. She told the maid to go on stage quickly to pick up the silver, while she went to the center of the stage to appease the male guests.
After Qianhuan finished her dance, she returned directly to the private room upstairs. When everyone saw that the beauty on the stage had disappeared, they kept cheering, "Miss Hongyu, one more song, one more song..."
"My dear gentlemen, Miss Hongyu will only perform one dance each time. This rule is well known to everyone. Please be patient. Now Miss Luying will perform for you."
When Mother Yang said this, her face was almost smiling like a flower.
Normally, when she soothed them, everyone would calm down. But today, everyone seemed particularly excited, and kept shouting that they hadn't seen enough and asked Miss Hongyu to come out and dance again.
Mother Yang hurried to the private room upstairs, "Miss Feiyan, the guests downstairs are almost going crazy, and mother can't stand it anymore. Can you go down and dance for one more time? Mother will give you another ten taels of silver."