"What dances do you know?" Cui Zhaoye plucked out a few exquisite notes.
"I know thirty-seven dances, including some Hu, Tang, and southern dances."
"Good. Then I'll accompany you. Whatever tune I play, you dance to it. How about that?"
The dancing girl smiled beautifully. "As my honored guest commands."
With that, she traced a graceful dance step and drifted back onto the jade platform. Cui Zhaoye plucked twice, and the next instant, pipa music and dancing figures soared together.
Pei Ye watched, dumbfounded. The girl's superb pipa playing was no longer enough to astonish him-the dancing girl before him was actually changing dance styles with the shifts in the tune!
Flying skirts and sashes, swirling silk-all blended seamlessly into the music.
A little later, Cui Zhaoye stopped playing. A fine sheen of sweat had appeared on the dancing girl's bare skin.
"My honored guest plays the pipa wonderfully." The dancer gave a lovely smile.
Pei Ye froze, then suddenly pointed in realization. "She took the medicine to come in too!"
"Hahaha." Cui Zhaoye laughed, then turned to ask, "Xiao Zhang, what reign year is it?"
The dancer looked startled. "My honored guest... this should be the tenth year of Phoenix-Riding."
"Hahahahaha."
Pei Ye was utterly stunned. Cui Zhaoye took his wrist again and pulled him onward.
After that, they toured almost the entire garden outside the tower, watching dancers sing and dance and composing poetry with poets. Pei Ye even watched Cui Zhaoye spend ages discussing sword manuals and Daoist scriptures with two swordsmen and Daoists.
"I was halfway through a conversation with them last time I came, but they've forgotten it all again." Cui Zhaoye looked back with a smile.
Pei Ye scrutinized everything with the most exacting eye and still found not the slightest flaw. Soon, they