Melodic Tale (BL)

Chapter 8

Chapter 8
The waiter slid the door open, bowed and introduced the guests as presences without appointment.

The scantily-clad boss raised her flirtatious eyebrows at the unexpected guests and asked them, "What do you want?"

The reply she received was the last thing she expected. It wasn't a profound love confession or a requests to buy one of her girls, but instead a request to work as a musician in her store for a colossal two silvers a day.

The boss declined stating that two silvers a day was far too expensive. At this Tian Lan used his final weapon.
"You won't regret letting me sing. You'll make much more than two silvers each day," he claimed.
With that, he slowly removed the veil that hid his face. The boss took one look and understood his confidence in being hired. His face as beyond any prostitute she'd ever seen and what was more, he had his hair up. The implicit meaning of trying the hair up was an easy sign to recognize. 'She' was virgin*.
[a/n] obviously if your hair was down you were married. It was actually a thing.

The boss reconsidered for a moment, asking him to sing and dance a single song. Tian Lan did so, twirling and dancing with Jin weaving in and out of 'her' arms. Tian Lan's brother stood to the side watching the slightly masculine movements that held a level of charm and grace to it. In fear of his family being recognized, Tian Lan had disguised his brother with a veil and jin with a little bit of dirt to hide his colour. Anything that made his family stand out had to be covered up to ensure their safety. If they couldn't be tracked, they'd be safe.

The boss watched the beautiful intertwining of human and animal dancing together. The dance itself was still sub-par and need a lot of work, but nonetheless it was a beautiful dance. The combination of animal and human made for a strange dance as the bird's large body spread its glorious wings to circle around the dancer. The dance held an attractive force that made it hard to look away. There was an element of masculinity in the dance as well the boss noted as she scrutinized as the large movements that held both power and force.

After the dance, Tian Lan approached the boss again in hopes that she would receive the position that she desired for the amount which she requested. The boss agreed to hire him, so Tian Lan moved to the terms and conditions which needed to be said. The most important term being not having to sell 'her' body while others include pay once at the end of the day, and the freedom of choice to attend to drinking customers.

Thus was the beginning of Tian Lan's work as a 'Tian' the female singer in the red light district.
On that very night, Tian Lan sang and danced on the stage in the bar. It was called a bar, but it was closer to a large building housing four levels. One floor was designated to customers to drink and spend time chatting and getting the scantily clad servers to pour wine into their cups. The other three floors were for overnight guests or guests which came to have fun with the shop's man girls. During his short stay at the bar for a few hours, he sung a few songs which seemed familiar to him. Within those few hours, already many customers had asked about him and requested him join them for the night. Tian Lan's popularity skyrocketed in a single night when customers watched him gracefully sing and dance. The requests which came flooding in put the shop in chaotic state, and everywhere in the red light district the name Tian* was being spread.
[a/n] tian means sky, it's not an English pun.

By morning, his throat was dry and sore from singing in a strange high-pitched female voice for just a few hours yesterday. After his performance was concluded, the boss came over and praised him for his singing and dancing. Afterwards, she passed two silver coins into his hand. Tian Lan bowed and requested to borrow a set of male clothing and a room to change. Knowing all too well the dangers that came with a pretty face, the boss readily agreed to the strange request. She lent Tian a blue cotton middle garment before ushering him into a private room. Just as he had requested the room wasn't one with simple paper doors, but had thin walls made of planks of wood nailed together. Even though it wasn't ideal, it was still better than a room with paper door. Tian Lan took off his sister's clothing and carefully placed it into a box that he intended to leave it at the shop. He then pulled on a simple, male garment and his veil back on, and escaped the shop by passing as off as a waiter.