Under the candlelight, the four sides of the lampshade each showed the silhouettes of four women dressed in palace attire. They appeared to be standing or lying down, each in a different pose. However, no one found this strange, because the same scene could have appeared if paper cutouts of palace maids had been pasted inside.
But when they had moved the lantern just now, everyone had clearly seen no paper cutouts inside. So what was going on?
Just as Wu Ke and the others were wondering about this, a shocking scene appeared before their eyes. As the revolving lantern began spinning from the heat, those palace maids actually began to dance gracefully as well.
The palace maid in the east had her head buried beneath her long water sleeves. When the inside of the revolving lantern began to turn, she seemed to hear music. Her sleeves suddenly flung open, as if revealing her bewitching face before everyone. Then she retreated several steps on nimble feet and began spinning rapidly. Her sleeves danced with her, slowly rising as she turned until they froze in midair, making her seem like an ethereal fairy and leaving everyone enchanted.
The palace maid in the south danced with the liveliness of an Apsara holding a pipa, as light and graceful as illusory smoke, and as elegant as a fairy who made lotuses bloom with every step. Singing and dancing lightly, she truly seemed to be dancing beneath the clear moonlight—how could such a scene exist in the mortal world?
The palace maid in the west had a beautiful dance as graceful as drifting silk in the heavens and as gentle as willows swaying in the spring breeze, making people lose themselves in intoxication.
As for the palace maid in the north, when she danced,