“Good-looking?”
“Nowhere near as good as you!” Lu Zheng replied with perfect seriousness. “She’s dressed like that on purpose to draw everyone’s eyes and make them miss the real trick. I came to watch magic, not fall for basic misdirection.”
Several admiring glances and discreet thumbs-up came from nearby men, who immediately turned to their partners with earnest explanations.
“Hmph!”
Lin Wan gave a soft snort, leaned back slightly, and crossed her long legs. The motion made those legs even more eye-catching. Lu Zheng couldn’t help sneaking a downward glance.
Yep. Definitely more tempting than the magician on stage, especially when she wore the Tifa or 2B outfits at home.
*Slurp—*
“Cough cough! Magic! Watch the magic!”
…
Despite the bunny-girl magician’s provocative outfit, she actually revealed very little; there were children in the audience, after all.
And though the men had high hopes, her act was perfectly respectable: mainly grand illusions of people appearing and disappearing, mixed with acrobatics. Quite distinctive.
…
Third up: He Feixiang.
“Here he comes, here he comes!” Lu Zheng and Lin Wan sat up straight and clapped enthusiastically.
They were here on his complimentary tickets, so they had to give proper fan-club energy and warm the place up after the sexy bunny cooling it down.
He Feixiang scanned the crowd as he walked out; his gaze lingered for a split second when he spotted them.
Then the performance began.
Compared to the first young magician’s technical mastery or the second’s natural stage presence, He Feixiang’s strength was his livestream experience and endless jokes.
He never stopped talking from the moment he stepped on stage, firing off one-liners that kept the audience hooked, laughing, and clapping.
Then, right in the middle of the laughter, bam, a trick. Cue even louder applause and gasps.
“Not bad. His technique’s improved, and he’s clearly comfortable on a big stage now,” Lu Zheng nodded.
Lin Wan was still giggling from his last joke. “He’s gotten way better than the first time we met him!”
“Anyone who makes it to this stage has at least one killer routine,” Lu Zheng said with a smile.
Coming from street magic, He Feixiang stuck mostly to close-up and mid-scale tricks even in the theatre, but he varied them cleverly and tied them to his comedy bits. It wasn’t as flashy as the first two acts, but it never went cold either.
“Awesome!”
“This guy should join Deyun Society, crosstalk plus magic would explode!”
“Or go do stand-up. He’s got real flavour, total breakout potential!”
“In this day and age, you’ve got to go cross-genre!”
Lu Zheng nodded. These days it was all stock market; mastering one niche rarely made you big. Crossing boundaries and creating a gimmick gave ordinary folks a real shot.
Like those authors who couldn’t crack xianxia or urban, but the moment they wrote a double-world urban-xianxia story, they actually made a living. Wild, right?
…
He Feixiang finished and left the stage. The host came out to bridge, then introduced the next magician.
The remaining performers each had their own style. The later ones were already famous names, and their illusions were spectacular.
Since a single magician couldn’t sustain a two-plus-hour show, big theatre magic evenings were usually shared by several performers.
Eight magicians, fifteen minutes each, plus host segments and atmosphere-building, the whole thing wrapped up near ten o’clock.
The final magician was someone Lu Zheng often saw on short-video platforms. When he performed a levitation and heavenly-maiden flower-scattering illusion, he earned the loudest applause of the night.
“Really amazing! Super fun!” Lin Wan clapped enthusiastically.
Lu Zheng was clapping too when his phone buzzed.
He unlocked it, smiled at Lin Wan, and said, “He Feixiang and the others are still busy, but they invited us backstage for a quick hello.”
“Sounds good!” Lin Wan nodded happily.
The show had ended; people were streaming toward the exits. They had just reached the aisle when the text arrived, so they turned and headed toward the stage instead.
“God Lu! Sister Lin!”
He Feixiang was waiting at the stage door with his wife and assistant, Zhang Fei.
“Congratulations! You’ve hit the big stage, financial freedom is just around the corner!” Lu Zheng laughed.
“You’re teasing me, God Lu!” He Feixiang grinned and led them backstage. “I’m just messing around. I’m already happy with where I am.”
He was being modest, but the expectation in his eyes was obvious. He was barely over thirty; there was still plenty of room to grow.
“Whoa! So much stuff!” Lu Zheng stepped backstage and saw piles of every kind of prop used that night.
Most of them, naturally, had hidden mechanisms.
“Hm?” Lu Zheng glanced ahead and spotted the final magician, Sun Yao, chatting with a couple while their two kids poked curiously at the props.
“Deng Paopao and Sun Niangniang?” Lin Wan couldn’t help asking.
“Yeah, big celebrities. Teacher Sun invited them,” He Feixiang confirmed, unable to hide his envy.
Magicians were technically part of the entertainment industry, and Deng Paopao and Sun Niangniang were at the very top of it.
Being friends with them was proof of Sun Yao’s status.
Lu Zheng nodded. “So Sun Yao and Sun Niangniang are relatives?”
He Feixiang nearly tripped. “No, no! Teacher Sun has clarified that many times. Can’t ride those coattails.”
Lu Zheng laughed and patted his shoulder. “Just a joke.”
He Feixiang gave a strained smile. Joke or not, better not let Sun Yao or the celebrity couple overhear.
As they walked through the prop jungle, Lu Zheng noticed several pieces carelessly placed, mechanisms openly exposed.
He shook his head. That really wasn’t professional. Though maybe those mechanisms were so common in the industry that there was no need to hide them.
Just then, an annoyed voice rang out nearby.
“He Feixiang, why did you bring random people backstage? Do you even understand the rules of the magic circle?”
