Transmigration of the Famous Cyber Star
chapter-22

Liu Man looked again at the waitress, then at the customers 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 me please.”

“Coco will be preparing with this lucky girl backstage, and it’ll take a moment. 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 “costume” Yu Zhan was talking about, “Here, let me 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 times.”

The waitress had to back out of the room so that she could change.

After five minutes, Liu Man opened the door and came out with one hand lifting the hem. All the staff members in the corridor turned to stare at her. Some of them were so shocked that their eyes enlarged.

Coco, who came out of a different room, exclaimed, “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 costume, 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 become very famous at the time, just from how the audience members had reacted when she sang her ‘The Untrammeled 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 come 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 member, “Didn’t I tell you to go get a hair pin? Where’s the hair pin?”

The other staff member was in an awkward position, “The hairpins are all gone,” Since their theme was ancient customed, every waitress had changed into a Hanfu, and they all had needed a uniformed hair pin.

Liu Man said, “Just give me a clean chopstick, if that’s alright.”

Restaurants were never out of chopsticks. In less than a minute, a staff member 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 customer 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 somewhere 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 customers and the singer, the restaurant’s planning team came up with a perfect plan. It was impossible for all the female customers to be beauties and all look good in a Hanfu. Some of them fat, some skinny; some tall, some short; some young, some 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 same shape. This was a great plan for any random customer to perfectly bond in with the stage and not feel embarrassed.

While the customers were not paying attention to the dark stage, Liu Man went onstage. Then at that moment, one of the staff members 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 temperament seemed elegant. She didn’t seem prominent at all on this slightly small and narrow stage.

That staff member gazed at her, absent-mindedly, for some time, lost in her world. It wasn’t until a few moments later before he pulled himself back and signaled the lighting technician to put on the spotlights.

And then, the light hit somewhere 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 moment.

“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 meant the female customer 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 moment. 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 instruments as an accompaniment, and it all depended on Coco’s guitar. The gruffness and laziness of the guitar added onto the sentimental 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 members, including both the customers and the waitresses, all raised a phone to film the performance. None of them wanted to miss a single moment of this awesome stage performance.

Coco finally went to the last line, “I’m feeling nostalgic and recalling our good old memories, 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 customers, who were going to applaud, as if being paused by someone, 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 seemed light but steady. Every move she made and her smile she put on, all seemed elegant. Everyone was absent-minded, as if a beautiful scenery from Ancient China came 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 met 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 awesome song for me.”

The duo said at the same time. They then looked at each other and laughed, astonishing everyone.

“Record it, record it. This will be a famous moment.”

“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 come 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