The lighting on the banquet was very bright and they could see the face of each audience clearly --- they looked so bored and annoyed. It seemed like they didn't really like the previous performance ah~! This was really so troublesome!
They needed to lift up the mood first and this should be done by their first performer who would appear at the beginning. Thus, they started to feel nervous once again.
Fortunately, they could see Feng Yong Rui's smile which trying to comfort them and they became slightly relaxed --- they really needed to be more confident in themselves. They could easily spot where Feng Yong Rui sat down because Yao Ying and Lin Jian had gotten the seating position after they handled the two a.s.sa.s.sins.
The first one who would start the act would be Yao Ling and she would try to cheer the mood up with her music. Her qujin was placed in the middle of the room and there were beautiful lantern decorations around her which made her look like an ethereal fairy. Yao Ling wore a veil to add a mysterious effect to the audience.
When the audience saw Yao Ling, they were entranced by the beauty that she was emitted. There was no need to see her face for them to be dazzled by her prettiness. The previous solemn atmosphere changed for the better in a flash --- it really gave Yao Ying mixed feelings. People were attracted to his wife, he felt proud and at the same time, slightly uncomfortable. After all, his wife was being coveted by so many men because he could the l.u.s.t in most of those officials' faces.
He sighed and knew that he should be focused on their performance, because after Yao Ling's apperance on the stage, it would be his turn.
Once Yao Ling played the song fluently, people felt even more entranced. The song started in a low melodious tune which broke the silence after the people gazed admiringly at Yao Ling. Even though they couldn't see her face, her snow-white skin and slim figure brought a lovely image to the audience. They could see her enchanting and sharp clever eyes which looked so pure.
They could detect a slight nervousness from the woman which made Yao Ling look so frail and alluring. It made the men really wanted to protect her --- even the Han Emperor couldn't take his eyes away from her. This made Feng Yong Rui feel slightly nervous just in case the Han Emperor thought to make Yao Ling one of his women.
However, when he remembered about the plan, Feng Yong Rui noticed that there would be no time for the Han Emperor to do that. Thus, he was able to put his heart down.
Some of the women felt jealous when they saw how the men were attracted to that lowly woman by only a glance. They sneered when they thought that she was merely a commoner and at most, she could only become a lowly concubine. However, the sound of Yao Ling's qujin made them feel surprised as well.
This wasn't the type of song that could be learned easily by an ordinary woman --- they felt pretty sure that the latter wouldn't have a famous teacher to guide. After all, a famous teacher would usually teach n.o.ble ladies only. If she could learn this all alone, it meant that she was a genius.
Or... was she a n.o.ble lady?
A lof of thoughts were fleeting inside their minds. If they knew Yao Ling was able to learn this song for a few days, they would certainly vomit blood ah~!
Feng Yong Rui was quite surprised because of Yao Ling's ability. She had said that she wasn't good at it, but judging from her performance, only a few people could beat her!
"Who's the one preparing this performance?" The Han Emperor asked in a low voice to his surroundings.
It was Feng Yong Rui's cue to answer because he also accidentally heard the question, "It's this official, Emperor."
When Feng Yong Rui answered, there was a glance of distasteful and wary in the Han Emperor's eyes but the latter covered it up with a gentle smile. "Oh... where do you find such a beautiful woman?" That was the question that he had been wanting to ask.
Feng Yong Rui sweated when he heard the Han Emperor's words because it meant that he was indeed feeling iteresten in Yao Ling, but he calmly answered, "This is just the first part. There will be more surprise later." Feng Yong Rui tried to divert the Han Emperor's attention towards Yao Ling.
"Hmmm..." The Han Emperor's interest was piqued by Feng Yong Rui's words and decided to pay more attention to the performance by letting go of the woman for now. It would always be fun for him to see beautiful women. Maybe there would be more beautiful women?
The wicked concubine saw the Han Emperor's interested face and there was slight displeasure in her face. She was getting older and how could she compete with the younger ones if the Emperor's habits kept continuing like this? However, knowing that this performance was prepared by Feng Yong Rui, she had a plan to prevent that from happening.
The Empress who sat beside the Han Emperor only gazed coldly at everything that happened around her. As a husband, the Han Emperor had been trampling her feelings over and over again --- not only because his habit to add concubines to the backyard, but he even showed her favoritism to the wicked concubine and never gave her any face! Thus, she didn't bother to pretend to be docile in front of the Emperor but it made their relations.h.i.+p turn even colder.
She saw a glint inside the wicked concubine's eyes and knew that the latter was plotting something. 'Hmph! If she doesn't one this beautiful woman to become a concubine, then she will make it happen just to annoy her!" The Empress thought to herself, but she knew that she shouldn't be rash --- she should just abide her time. She just wanted the wicked concubine to be jealous and miserable, even though she knew that the latter was too clever to fall into her trap.
They continued to look at Yao Ling's performance. When the qujin's sound turned faster and showing Yao Ling's skill, even more, there were a few people slowly appeared. Two men were holding one pole each while there was a thin rope that connected both on the upper side of the tools --- those two men looked a bit muscular and when they held onto the pole, their muscle looked domineering.
The Han Emperor felt wary because he was afraid that something would go wrong, but when he remembered his plan, he calmed himself down. No one would dare to harm him.
People were curious about what that equipment for, but they didn't have to wait for too long. Yao Ying appeared with his handsome appearance which made the officials' daughters gasp in surprise when they looked at how beautiful this man was. With a flick of inner qi in his feet, he jumped up and landed at the thin rope.
The crowds gasped in surprise when they saw how bold he was --- even the Emperor was also interested. The n.o.bles and palace important figures had never been strolling down the street and even though this might be a quite common performance on the street, they had never seen this before. Besides, Xiao Fang cleverly combined the high skill of Yao Ling with the ordinary street performance show by Yao Ying.
It turned into a cla.s.sy performance.
Yao Ying did a few acrobatic jumps and he landed perfectly at the thin rope. Sometimes, he tried to find a chance to 'pretend' that he couldn't land perfectly, looking like he was going to fall down. It earned gasps and fear expression from the audience, but after knowing that Yao Ying was pretending, they became excited. Sometimes, he held onto the rope by looping one of his legs there and hang just like a monkey when he pretended to miss the rope.
Even Yao Ling's heart was jumping out of nervousness because of this!