Chapter 29: Mutually Follow Each Other On Weibo
Most of the comments of the Tik Tok video complimented how much Liu Man looked like an Ancient Chinese person. There was one comment with forty-thousand likes and was stickied to the top. It wrote:
“Why did the girl attract so many people just by showing her face for a moment, when there hadn’t even been any talking or particular talent? Except for the fact that she looked quite pretty, in my opinion, there were several reasons, if you focus on the details. First of all, please examine her hair and how she tied it. It’s the most standard way of how people during the Han Dynasty had tied their hair. It looks easy to do, yet it requires skill. Now, in the modern age, only a limited amount of people knows how to tie it, and if you look at Coco’s hairstyle, that’s the style normal hairdressers do.
Second of all, look at her posture. At the start, she sat on her knees. That’s because chairs only started to appear more often in the Song Dynasty. Before that, people sat on the ground. In the Book of Rites, it required people to ‘sit like a corpse’. Meaning that people should move as little as possible when sitting, they should seem sincere while face forward. When Coco was singing, this girl had managed to stay put and straighten her back. If she wasn’t a professional dancer, then how could she have sat on her knees and restrained from the movement for five whole minutes? I think that she definitely had some background in dancing.
Next, she stood up and walked towards Coco. Did anyone notice that when they looked like they were standing in a line, the girl was actually half a step behind Coco? This was Coco’s performance, Coco was the lead, and she was just acting as a background. This was because she knew that she shouldn’t take the spotlight from Coco and take the lead. That kind of virtue is rare these days. I’m guessing that this girl’s manners were very well taught, and at the very least, comes from a scholarly family.”
Yu Zhan read the paragraphs meticulously. As he read those comments which had complimented Liu Man, even he felt that Liu Man wasn’t just a normal person. Even if he had been there at the performance; he had never paid any attention to these details. Maybe it was because he was a straight man who didn’t know anything about females and because he had never cared much about how women put on their makeup or tied up their hair. Even so, he could feel the temperament and aura of different types of people. This was also part of the reason why Liu Man attracted him so much.
Lu Lingling sat down next to Liu Man, “Sis, are you a Hanfu person?”
“Kind of.”
Liu Man knew she couldn’t be a person living in the Han Dynasty anymore, but it was still okay to be a Hanfu person.
“Can you teach me how to tie my hair like an Ancient Chinese? I’m quite clumsy.”
“Of course. At your age, you can try learning the basic double bun. When you reach our marriageable age, I will start teaching you some more complex ways.”
“Wow, that sounds so cool,” Lu Lingling felt as if this girl watched too much Ancient Chinese TV shows. She even talked in an Ancient Chinese way, “How old is the marriageable age?”
“That would be fifteen for us.”
“Then, I would still have to wait for one year…”
At this moment, a woman walked out of the kitchen with a huge bowl of noodles. She placed the noodles on their table, then turned around to scold Lu Lingling, “Go away, don’t disturb the customers.”
Lu Lingling stuck out her tongue and followed her mother back into the kitchen.
Liu Man studied the huge bowl of noodles in front of her. There really were a lot of noodles, mixed with at least ten pieces of beef, and there were lots of coriander and chopped onions floating on the surface of the soup. The noodles sent forth steam that smelled delicious and made her automatically have a good appetite. However, nobody would be able to finish it all.
“Would you like some? I ate a bowl of Japanese ramen during dinner, and I’m definitely not going to be able to finish this bowl of noodles,” Liu Man looked at Yu Zhan with embarrassment. She was afraid Yu Zhan would frown upon her statement.
Yu Zhan didn’t say anything but went straight up to the disinfection cabinet to fetch a pair of chopsticks and another bowl. He took some noodles from the big bowl and pushed the big bowl back to Liu Man.
“I’m feeling a bit hungry anyway. You can eat from the big bowl, and I’ll eat from the small bowl. I will leave you with this much, is it enough?”
“Yes, it’s definitely enough.”
Yu Zhan only took some noodles out; he didn’t touch the beef or the vegetables.
Paul sensed the food. He stuck out his tongue and went closer to the table, but didn’t show any means to come even closer. Yu Zhan had trained the dog very well. Even if he felt hungry, he would never disobey his master.
Yu Zhan petted his head, “I’ll give you some snacks when we go back.”
Paul understood what he was saying, and his mouth formed some sort of a smile.
The duo was very quiet as they consumed the noodles. There was no conversation between them, nor was there any sound of chewing or inelegant sounds of the bumping between bowls and chopsticks.
Lu Lingling, squatting in front of the kitchen, watched as they ate. They had welcomed so many customers every day, but she had never seen anyone ate so gracefully. After they finished their meal, she ran over, holding a clean chopstick in her hand.
“Sis, please teach me how to tie my hair now. Just like how you were in the video, by simply using a chopstick.”
“Lingling,” Her mother was getting a bit angry, “It’s getting late, and the customers need to rest. We’re closing too. We still have to wake up early tomorrow to get to work.”
Lu Lingling was very scared of her mother, for her neck shrank back.
Liu Man said, “I’ll teach you on another day. Let’s friend each other on WeChat, so we can make an arrangement.”
“I don’t use WeChat; I usually use Weibo. Sis, what’s your Weibo ID? Let’s mutually follow each other.”
“Sure!” Liu Man nodded.
Yu Zhan remembered that he had signed up for an account on Weibo a long time ago. When he just signed up, he browsed through it briefly, and never used it again because he felt it was boring. He turned on his phone and found Weibo’s icon after searching. It was automatically installed by the system, and he didn’t delete it. He told Liu Man, “Let’s mutually follow each other as well.”
At last, Liu Man’s ‘Princess Man’ account had followed two more accounts.
The first one was called ‘Me, me, me, little Lu Ban.” Her profile picture was a picture of Lu Ban, a hero from the Glory of the Kings.
TL’s Note: Glory of the Kings is a game that USED to be very popular in China, I guess? Lu Ban isn’t only a hero in Glory of the Kings, but is also a famous technician back in Ancient China, honored as the god of carpentry.
The second account she followed back was named ‘yuzhan.’ His profile picture was a picture of a landscape that couldn’t be more countrified.
The next day, Lawyer Sun came to pick up Liu Man and Zhang Pei during the early morning. This time, they would be negotiating at a teahouse. Zhang Pei talked to Sun Yiyi the entire time, while Liu Man stared at the landscape outside the window. She did not speak at all.
Zhang Pei, right now, wanted nothing more than to successfully sign the letter of forgiveness, so that her husband could avoid being trapped in jail, and make sure that her daughter could still work in the government. They were only a normal family and weren’t any special. This was all she could do for her daughter. As for the compensation they had to make, they would be able to pay it off at the end.
When they came to the designated location, they entered the room with Lawyer Sun at the front with his huge suitcase, and Zhang Pei and her daughter walking behind him.
The Wang family were early this time. This time, Mrs. Wang, the old lady, and her youngest son Wang Zhihua were there. They were still with that young lawyer. Wang Chunhua’s wife was, however, absent.
TL’s Note: In case y’all forgot, Wang Chunhua was the one who died from the car crash.
It was probably because Lawyer Zhao told them something beforehand, the Wang family was aware of the situation. They didn’t cause a farce, nor did they scream as they did last time.
The two members of the Wang family looked at Zhang Pei and her daughter with a subtle expression.
Zhang Pei spoke first, “Where’s the wife?”
“She’s back home, taking care of the three children,” The old lady replied.
“You two can manage without her?”
As a mother, Zhang Pei felt as if a wife’s position should be the most important one. She was the first guardian to the three kids, and Zhang Pei would feel much better to compensate money for the children.
Mrs. Wang, however, said impatiently, “She can’t even talk smoothly, what does she know? She would be better off taking care of the children. I’m the mother of my son. Why can’t I be in charge? I’m the supreme of this family, would she dare to not listen to me?”
The old lady’s tone was coldly dominative, rendering Zhang Pei speechless. But it was business in someone else’s family. She could say nothing else.
Liu Man tried to remember that woman whose husband had died. Except for a pair of eyes that were red from weeping, she couldn’t remember how she had looked. That day, her presence felt too weak. She was cowering in a corner and had spoken not a single sentence.