Sharing a Pavilion With You
Chapter 74: Silk Road Dance

Chapter 74: Silk Road Dance

By the time Sofya and Meili were dressed in their outfits, with their hair done and ready for their dance, the birthday guests had been left unattended for long enough to have toasted each other many times and they could politely be described as ’very merry’.

"Sofya, are you really sure this outfit is okay for me to dance in in public?" Meili asked her friend for at least the fifth time.

"Of course, Meili! This is a traditional grasslands outfit for dancing. Who could possibly object to it? Even your mother and father could not complain, without offending my brother," said Sofya smugly, having thought all of the angles through carefully in advance.

"Anyone who has seen a grasslands dance has seen this outfit many times before. Perhaps not quite as beautiful as that one that you’re wearing," she looked at Meili admiringly.

"It is very beautiful, isn’t it?" said Meili, turning in a circle to watch her full skirt spin. "Yours is very beautiful too, Sofya."

Meili’s skirt fell to her ankles in multiple layers of a beautiful rich red fabric with a decorative gold and black pattern on the hem. The layers made the skirt very full, and it fell in graceful ruffles that swished as she walked. Decorative swags of golden bells on chains graced her hips, jingling prettily with each step.

It was the top that worried her.

Although it too was very beautiful, it stopped an inch below her bust line, leaving what felt like a vast expanse of her stomach exposed.

Little crystals that caught the light when she moved, dangled below her bust, resting on her ribcage. The sleeves were short, ending halfway down her upper arm.

This was very definitely a top that she knew her mother would not approve of. Exposing one’s belly, even inside the family, was most definitely not allowed.

The top was made to measure so it was perfectly fitted to her bosoms, which was also making her feel very uncomfortable.

Sofya had barely let her see herself in the mirror before whisking her away, but the brief glimpse she had caught on the way through, showed that her bust was far more accentuated than she had ever seen it before.

If possible, lifting her bosoms upwards like that and stitching them into a tight fabric casing, seemed to make them appear larger than they actually were, which was most definitely not a good thing!

Her hair was worn out in soft waves that fell down her back, and she wore a gold headdress with delicate gold leaves and turquoise stones on fine gold chains. The headpiece wrapped through her hair and had a single stone in a pendant at the front, which rested in the middle of her forehead.

She wore matching chandelier earrings, a choker-style necklace, gold bracelets with tiny bells, and a delicate gold chain around her bare midriff that lay nestled across her belly button.

She shuddered to think how valuable the jewellery set was, and she knew her mother would be furious that she hadn’t immediately declined the gift as far too valuable.

She knew that Sofya had hidden the headdress and jewels underneath the outfit so she wouldn’t see them until it was too late.

"Sofya, this headpiece and necklace are incredibly beautiful, but I really don’t think I can accept this jewellery, it’s far too precious," she tried again.

"Nonsense Meili. This is nothing for my brother and father; and they’ll be most offended if the Mei family tries to return it," she warned her.

"But Sofya..."

"No buts! It looks stunning on you, and it was made especially for you. Who else will it fit now? What could we even do with it if you don’t accept it? Throw it away?"

"Of course not, but..."

Sofya held up her finger reminding Meili of the ’no buts’ rule.

The girls carried sheer veils that draped across their hair and down their backs. These were to be used as props during the dance. Meili’s veils were gold and Sofya’s were forest green to match her green and gold dancing outfit. She had not wanted to upstage the birthday girl on her special day, choosing a more subtle colour than she usually would for her dancing outfit.

They were almost there now, there was no more time for conversation!

The girls raised their veils to cover their faces and outfits as they walked barefoot onto the stage, their heads bowed before the performance so as not to give anything away.

The musicians played a sheng, a mouth organ common along the Silk Road, an erhu, which was a two-stringed instrument with a very evocative tone, and the zheng, a zither that sat on the floor before the player.

Together, the music produced was exotic-sounding, quite unfamiliar to those who had not travelled outside the capital before.

For First Brother, Bai Li and the two princes, the sounds were familiar to them from their travels in the north, but for the rest of the audience, they were immediately transported to a faraway land.

"Oh ho! This is more like it," called the Second Prince as the first few bars of the emotional-sounding music kicked off and the two girls posed unmoving, shrouded in their veils.

Third and Fourth brothers clapped enthusiastically in time to the poignant tune.

"Wonderful," whispered Tan Bowen to himself, already transfixed by the alluringly foreign spectacle, which conjured up images of steppe ponies, yurts, camel caravans and mysterious foreign women.

Bai Li suddenly recalled the outfits he had seen grasslands women dance in before, and he leaned forward, trying to peer through Meili’s veil.

Sofya wouldn’t have dressed her too authentically, would she? She understood the dress standards in the capital... His heartbeat started to race with concern.

The dance began and the two girls gracefully lifted their veils.

The eyes of Bai Li, Tan Bowen and the Second Price were immediately magnetically drawn to Meili’s bare torso, which was slim, flawless and slightly toned, a siren call for the men.

From there it was scant seconds before their eyes moved up to her top, where her bust now appeared almost comically large in that grasslands-style top and was by far the most noticeable thing on the stage.

It drew the eye like a mirage in the desert, completely distracting the men from either the dance, her beautiful face, or even her delicious belly and the gentle curve of her hips.

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