ZuoMeng: To Dream

Banquet

The extravagant banquet had finally started. City Lord Meng was extremely pleased with his own idea. It was him that had given birth to this banquet.

The red lanterns were all lit, illuminating the stage with an exotic atmosphere. The dancers began to appear one by one.

They were all dressed in red as the city lord preferred and wore dazzling and beautiful accessories in their hair. It was over the top, but it suited his taste, therefore DanFoong had no choice to obey as he was the paying customer.

It was due to her relationship with the city lord that had landed her the job. She was one of her best customers, and with the ability of the brothel, she had managed to convince him to let her be in charge of the banquet. "With the help from the Dancing merchants, the task had been simpler," thought DanFoong.

The city lord would often change his request and his demands grew bigger every time. "Luckily I have that sly man with me," thought DanFoong. Even though it was hard for her to admit, but without ShiBa from the Dancing Merchants persuading that fat City Lord Meng, the event wouldn't be successful. She remembered one of the great deeds he did.

"I want exotic wine from the north," said Lord Meng to DanFoong one afternoon.

"Last time he said he wanted from the west and I bought a lot of them. He is changing again," thought DanFoong. Even though she was the boss, the lord is the customer. She can't refuse his demands but how would she procure wine from the north within such a short time.

"North win... they are..."

Like a hero, ShiBa stepped in.

"City Lord Meng, north wine is not very popular anymore. Nowadays, west wine is the most talk about wine," said ShiBa.

"You think I do not know about that," replied the angry lord.

"No, I believe that city lord is as informed as I am. There must be a reason that city lord would like to use north wine. However, there is news that this year west wine produced this year is the best out of ten years and had fetched the highest price."

"I see then we will be going with west wine. I know that west wine is better than north wine, but I thought that most of our guest will prefer north wine. However, seeing how the harvest is especially good, we will use west wine instead," said Lord Meng who wants to save a little bit of his pride.

"Yes, as you wished my lord," said ShiBa.

Part of her really wanted to thank the merchants for their wonderful help, although her mouth constantly rejected their help.

However, it's her personality to be stubborn. Like today, if it was not for that girl, Su YanRong she would have insisted on performing even if she was limping.

"Oh, here they come," thought DanFoong, already watching the dancers going up the square stage they built.

The dancers took their own respective positions. The drums started, coordinating their movement. Their hands up in the air, their long sleeves hanging down, one struck on the drum, they moved to the left, a second struck, they hands placed together, a third stuck, they dragged their hands down their arm, slowly revealing their seducing smile all except for one, who wore a mask instead.

All eyes were on her as the beat on the drums grew faster like the sound of the beating hooves of the horses. It grew faster and faster. All the girls were spinning, but one by one they stopped and began dancing.

It began from the outside slowly until they reached the girl in the middle, until there was only one left.

Only she, the masked girl was continuing twirling around the longest of time, causing all, from the servants to the guests who were watching to hold their breaths. All eyes fixated on her to see how much longer she will be able to withstand this demanding dance.