Liu Ruyan had only just raised her fan beside her shoulder when one of the lamps went out.
The phone wasn't broken.
A gust of wind blew through the window, lifting a loose corner of the curtain and sweeping it against the lampshade. The girl tending the lamp hurriedly reached out to steady it. She kept it from falling, but the flame went out.
The half of the room by the window went dark at once.
The accompaniment faltered by half a beat as well.
Liu Ruyan had already stepped forward. If she stopped now, she would freeze in front of the camera. Her fingertips tightened, and she nearly called for a retake, as she usually did when filming a video.
But the words on the screen kept scrolling up.
Those people hadn't stopped.
She swallowed the words on the tip of her tongue and followed through on her step, turning toward another lamp. Her fan swept down from her brow. Instead of trying to catch the drumbeat from before, she tapped it lightly against her palm twice.
Tap, tap.
Shen Qilan looked up.
When the fan handle came down a third time, the zither joined in again.
Liu Ruyan turned her wrist along with the music and glanced beyond the camera.
"Don't panic. Close the window first."
She hadn't spoken loudly, but her voice came through loud and clear.
Someone immediately asked at the bottom of the screen, "Why did half of it go dark?"
"Is the lady about to leave?"
"Don't turn it off, I haven't finished watching!"
Liu Ruyan saw the last comment, and laughter returned to her eyes.
"I won't. The lamp just wanted to take a rest first."
With that, she held the round fan diagonally before her and held her pose through the final beat.
Applause couldn't come through the phone, but the comments suddenly multiplied. Some said they hadn't noticed anything go wrong. Others said the way she had turned toward the light looked even better than what came before.
One person also asked if she could tap her fan twice again.
Liu Ruyan looked down at her fan handle.
She herself hadn't known so many people had noticed those taps.
Shen Qilan passed her some water from beyond the camera. Only when the bottom of the cup touched her palm did she notice that Liu Ruyan's hand was a little cold.
She had been afraid just now.
But she hadn't stopped there.
"Have a drink," Shen Qilan said softly.
Liu Ruyan took the cup and dipped into a small curtsy toward the camera. She left the phone where it was as she drank. She didn't have to keep smiling, nor did she have to cut out every moment she paused to catch her breath.
The people watching hadn't left either.
Some were still urging her to get that lamp fixed.
At the Heaven Dou Royal Academy's residence, Dugu Yan was passing by Yu Tianheng when she suddenly stepped back.
"I called you just now. Why didn't you answer?"
Yu Tianheng looked up, the phone still in his hand. After seeing Yu Feng's, he had bought one for himself, saving him the trouble of borrowing a teammate's.
Dugu Yan glanced at it.
A zither, a dress, a girl by the window.
"I thought you were still watching that demonstration by Mr. Lu."
"Yu Feng sent it to me."
"And the phone in your hand-is that Yu Feng's too?"
For a moment, Yu Tianheng had no answer.
Not far away, Yu Feng immediately looked up, intending to explain, but Dugu Yan's gaze had already swung toward him. He had no choice but to close his mouth and flip his own phone, livestream still running, face down onto his lap.
Osler watched from the side, thoroughly amused.
Dugu Yan didn't snatch the phone. She merely watched for a moment, and when she saw Liu Ruyan answering a question about her clothes, her brows twitched slightly.
"What did her earrings look like just now?"
Yu Tianheng hurriedly held the screen out in front of her.
"I didn't get a good look."
"Then what were you looking at?"
This time, Yu Tianheng didn't even want to explain.
Ye Lingling happened to come over from the doorway. Hearing the question, she looked at the screen as well.
Liu Ruyan was explaining that Master He had found someone to match the fine-chain earrings to her outfit. They weren't heavy, and only swayed gently when she danced. She took the other one off and held it beside the lamp for a while, letting everyone get a clear look at the pale bead on it.
Dugu Yan reached out and took the phone.
"These are quite tasteful."
Ye Lingling took a look and nodded.
Yu Tianheng, who had been about to ask something, silently sat back down in his chair.
After a long while, he reached out for the phone, but neither girl noticed.
On the screen, Liu Ruyan was slowly demonstrating a way to arrange a bun for her female viewers. She didn't take down all her hair, only picked up a lock at her temple, twisted it halfway back, and gently pinned it in place with a small hairpin.
It was the same face, but with a little of the side near her ear exposed, she looked strikingly crisp in a different way.
Dugu Yan looked at her, then at Ye Lingling, and suddenly said, "You could wear yours like that too."
Yu Tianheng's hand stopped in midair, then finally withdrew.
Did this mean he was off the hook?
At the Cloud Sound Workshop, Liu Ruyan glanced at the program.
The last song.
Earlier, she had worried that no one would come. Now she was beginning to worry that the people watching might be unhappy when she said it was time to end.
Shen Qilan gave her a gentle nod.
Liu Ruyan placed her round fan beside the zither and said earnestly, "I'll sing one more short piece for you all, and then we'll call it a night. I'm afraid I won't want to stop, and if my voice turns hoarse later, even my thanks won't sound pleasant tomorrow."
A flood of comments immediately appeared, asking her to stay.
"It's ending? I only just got here!"
"I bought a phone from the shop and came back, but I only caught the second half!"
"So the person who went to buy a phone really did go."
Lu Ye was sitting at his table in Soto. Seeing that comment, he remembered the two customers who had hurried out downstairs and couldn't help laughing.
Liu Ruyan laughed too, but she didn't keep pushing back the time she had promised to end.
She finished the last piece, rose, and bowed.
"If you listened to the songs tonight, just tap a red heart for Ruyan. I saw all the flowers you sent. I'll let everyone know in advance the next time I go live, so you don't have to keep watch over this profile picture all day long."
Gu Zheng had been planning to check again first thing tomorrow morning. When he heard that last sentence, his finger paused.
She had put it so specifically that it was as if she really knew he would do such a thing.
"Thank you, everyone. Good night."
The video stopped.
Gu Zheng stared at the screen for a while before slowly sitting back.
The courtyard was still his own courtyard, the tea on the table had gone cold, and half a bag of the crunchy beans his friend had brought was gone.
Yet the zither music and laughter from moments ago seemed to linger in the room.
His friend asked him, "Still going to practice swordsmanship?"
Gu Zheng looked up at the sword hanging on the wall, then checked the time.
"For a little while."
As he spoke, he got up and walked to the door, only to turn back and put the phone on the corner of the table.
This time, he really had put it down.
After Liu Ruyan ended the livestream, she didn't dare move at first.
Shen Qilan looked at the screen twice to make sure it had ended, then smiled and patted her shoulder.
"All right, no one's watching you now."
As soon as she said that, Liu Ruyan's shoulders slumped. She slipped one shoe halfway off and gently flexed her toes. She was about to laugh, but let out a long breath first.
"When the lamp went out, I nearly called a halt."
"I could tell."
"And you kept playing?"
"If I hadn't, was I supposed to wait for you to stand there and count the lamps for everyone?"
Liu Ruyan leaned back in her chair and finally laughed aloud.
Only then did the musicians in the room gather around. Some brought her water, some fetched a wrap, and one immediately leaned over the phone, wanting to see just how the flowers they had received were counted.
Lu Ye's call connected at that moment as well.
He didn't make Liu Ruyan stand up again to receive another round of praise. Instead, he opened with, "How are your feet?"
"Sore," Liu Ruyan answered honestly.
"Then stay seated. More than nine hundred people came by tonight, and at the peak, more than five hundred were listening at once. If you're still not satisfied, I don't know how to make you happy."
Liu Ruyan froze.
She had seen the viewer count at the top, but she hadn't had the attention to spare to remember it while performing. Only now did she truly put those five hundred-plus people together with the tiny space in front of her.
That was far more guests than the Cloud Sound Workshop could fit.
The musician beside her had already opened the earnings page. The next moment, she suddenly went completely still.
Shen Qilan asked, "How much?"
She turned the phone around.
The gifts totaled forty-one gold, three silver, and six copper.
Everyone fell silent at once.
Liu Ruyan sat a little straighter too.
It wasn't that she had never earned money, much less that the sight of gold coins left her at a loss. But at an ordinary banquet, there were carriages and horses, clothes, and people to manage, with everyone rushing in and out. No matter how well she sang, she still had to wait for the host to settle the bill at the end.
Tonight, she hadn't stepped outside the courtyard.
Yet the tokens of appreciation sent by those people far away had already arrived here, payment by payment.
She followed the page and tapped withdraw. A moment later, the money after settlement appeared on the table. Gold coins clinked against gold coins. The sound wasn't loud, but it jolted the others awake.
"You really can take it out!"
Someone blurted it out, then immediately felt embarrassed.
Lu Ye laughed on the other end.
"Put the money away first. Don't carry it out along with the tea. Everyone had work to do tonight, so divide it the way you agreed beforehand."
Shen Qilan had already written down the musicians' wages on a piece of paper. She hadn't taken Liu Ruyan's phone and collected it all for her.
Liu Ruyan lowered her head, her fingertip touching a gold coin that still weighed down the corner of the paper.
All she had wanted at first was for more people to see her dance.
Now those people had not only seen her, but had actually waited for her to finish dancing, giving her the confidence to step out there again.
"Young Master Lu."
She raised her head, her eyes bright.
"Next time, I want to perform a dance I haven't posted before."