“呼……呼……”
Lin Wan felt as if she couldn’t even twitch a pinky.
“Why do I feel you’re getting stronger and stronger?”
She shifted slightly, both to make Lu Zheng’s warm hand more comfortable and to enjoy it more herself.
“I don’t want to move at all…”
“Heh heh, no helping it. Your husband is just that powerful,” Lu Zheng laughed.
His cultivation had already surpassed a thousand years, he also practised True Dragon martial arts, and he occasionally drank Scarlet Centipede Spleen Wine. His combat power had long exploded off the charts. Even when Liu Qingyan and Shen Ying teamed up, they were usually at a disadvantage and only rarely managed a draw.
Lin Wan didn’t stand a chance. Her current cultivation was roughly on par with Wang Xiaowan’s. If not for her martial training, she wouldn’t even survive Lu Zheng’s first two rounds.
So although Lin Wan often took the initiative to attack, she was almost always the first to raise the white flag.
“How about you bring your two little wives over?” Lin Wan teased. “I’m starting to feel like one person can’t handle you anymore.”
Lu Zheng raised a brow. “For real?”
Lin Wan’s eyes snapped open. “You actually have two?!”
Lu Zheng’s heart skipped. He immediately rolled over to pin her again. Lin Wan instantly called for truce. “Fine, fine, they exist! Let’s talk first.”
She swatted him. “What did you just say to me?”
At the height of battle, she vaguely remembered him saying something, but she hadn’t registered a word.
“He Feixiang. Remember him?”
“How could I forget anyone connected to you?” Lin Wan said lazily. “The magician. What about him?”
“He’s been doing well these years, performing in theatres from time to time,” Lu Zheng said. “Day after tomorrow there’s an Autumn Magic Special at Haicheng Grand Theatre. He’s participating and sent me two tickets, inviting us to watch. Want to go?”
“Day after tomorrow is Saturday.”
“Exactly!”
“Then let’s go. We’ve got nothing else anyway,” Lin Wan said.
Lu Zheng never had anything; Lin Wan’s work had been light lately. Besides cultivating, she only helped colleagues. They both had time.
They often worried every weekend about what to do. An autumn magic show solved their choice paralysis perfectly.
“Done deal, then!” Lu Zheng grinned. “Sleep!”
“Sleep?” Lin Wan’s eyes gleamed. “I’ve recovered. One more round!”
…
Saturday, 7:30 p.m., Haicheng Grand Theatre.
Lu Zheng and Lin Wan each held a high-calorie milk tea, blending perfectly into the bustling queue.
“Magic really is more down-to-earth. Remember when we watched La Traviata? Everyone in suits and gowns, and there we were with milk tea. Felt completely out of place!”
Lu Zheng glanced around. This time there were tons of couples and families, plenty clutching milk teas and drinks.
“We’re still common folk!”
“Common folk are good! Only common folk stay connected to the masses instead of floating above them,” Lin Wan said meaningfully, arm looped through his.
“Exactly,” Lu Zheng nodded. “Yet why are you always on top?”
“Cough cough cough!”
The couple turned to see two girls behind them. The one on the left was choking; the one on the right had gone bright red and was intently studying a promotional poster.
Lin Wan viciously pinched Lu Zheng. He whispered, “Reflex, couldn’t help it. I’ll watch it next time.”
Lin Wan rolled her eyes and hissed, “Tonight I’ll sort you out!”
“Yes, yes, yes! I’m waiting!” Lu Zheng replied perfunctorily.
Lin Wan, “…”
“They’re checking tickets. Move it.” She smacked him again. The force was enough that only Lu Zheng was far stronger than a Siberian tiger, so he didn’t go flying.
The tickets He Feixiang sent were excellent: third row, centre-left, very close with a great view.
“Which act is He Feixiang?”
“No idea. Maybe they’re interwoven?”
“Magic’s getting more competitive. They say once old tricks are exposed nobody watches them anymore. Everyone wants new illusions.”
“Not necessarily. Even an old trick, if performed differently, can spark curiosity,” Lu Zheng said.
“For example?”
“Like the classic sawing-a-person-in-half. What if the box was transparent?”
Lin Wan was speechless. “That would work?”
Lu Zheng shrugged. “Of course not. Just an example.”
“The host is coming out.”
They stopped talking, set down their milk teas, and watched the host take the stage. After briefly introducing the eight magicians with the usual commercial hype, the show began.
First up was a man in his thirties who had won gold at an Asian magic convention.
Magic involves props, technique, psychology, and atmosphere.
Instead of emerging from backstage, he started in the audience, performing small tricks for two lucky spectators on his way to the stage, warming up the crowd perfectly.
On stage he launched into his signature act: a large-scale illusion combining costume changes, object transformations, levitation, etc. His deadpan-to-exaggerated performance drew wave after wave of applause.
“Insane!”
“So real! Can’t tell how he did it!”
“Fake hands?”
“Assistants behind the curtain?”
“There’s a ladder?”
“How did the costume change happen?”
After the performance, the audience burst into excited discussion.
“Could you tell?” Lin Wan leaned close. Trying to figure out magic tricks is normal human behaviour.
Lu Zheng smiled and nodded. Modern magic was just misdirection; nothing escaped his divine sense.
But he wasn’t about to ruin the fun. “Magic is only interesting while it’s still a mystery. Once you know the secret, what’s the point?”
Lin Wan didn’t press. She immediately started analysing the act with him. She spotted some things, missed others, but her enthusiasm was undimmed.
Soon the second magician appeared, a female magician. More importantly, she wore 15 cm stiletto heels, black stockings, long legs, sexy leather outfit, black choker, and black bunny ears.
Under the lights, the black made every inch of exposed skin look even fairer.
*Gulp!*
*Gulp!*
Many men instantly sat up straight, faces solemn, expressions earnest, leaning slightly forward to show utmost seriousness.
In an instant, the atmosphere in the theatre grew noticeably hotter.
