Then, with a touch of concern, she asked, “By the way, my songs are mostly in Chinese, are you okay with that?”
“Totally!” Tawanna grinned, “I’ve been listening to your stuff too, as musicians, we pick up melodies fast, lyrics might be a slight challenge, but no biggie, we’ll memorize them, and don’t forget, we’ve got teleprompters onsite, I can mark your Chinese pronunciations with similar-sounding English words, that’ll get me about 70-80% there!”
Ye Chen, sitting nearby, chuckled, “I’ve seen that trick used by singers everywhere, lots of Chinese artists mark English lyrics with Chinese phonetics when they sing in English.”
He paused, then grinned, “I remember this old internet meme that got huge, something about ‘nao tai tao.’”
Tawanna looked clueless, but Gu Qiuyi burst out laughing, “Brother Ye Chen still remembers that one…”
Ye Chen smirked, “It was pretty famous back then, right?”
Gu Qiuyi nodded, giggling behind her hand, “Oh yeah, super famous, tons of local singers decided then and there to buckle down and work on their English pronunciation.”
Not wanting to leave Tawanna out, she smiled and moved on, “Let’s keep going, how many songs should I sing?”
Tawanna replied with a smile, “Up to you, five to eight’s fine, too many and the show might run over.”
Gu Qiuyi smiled back, “Five then, too many would steal the spotlight, people are here for you, I shouldn’t hog the stage.”
Tawanna suggested, “If it’s five, how about this, when you come on, I won’t rush off, I’ll introduce you to the crowd first, then you take the stage, we sing one of my songs together, I step off for a break, you do three solo, and for the last one, I join you for one of yours, sound good?”
“Perfect!” Gu Qiuyi laughed, “That’s a great setup! Let’s lock it in!”
Then she turned to Ye Chen, “Brother Ye Chen, will you be backstage then?”
“Of course,” Ye Chen nodded with a smile, “I’m the feng shui director, gotta be onsite.”
“Awesome!” Gu Qiuyi clapped happily, “Brother Ye Chen, I’ve got this song with an ancient assassin theme, it needs a masked assassin to dance alongside, how about you wear a mask and help me out?”
Ye Chen waved her off, “Me? Dance? No way, I can’t, you’d better find a pro!”
Gu Qiuyi got serious, “It’s not real dancing, it’s for stage effect, the character doesn’t have dance moves, just martial arts stuff, Brother Ye Chen, you’re great at that, right? Just whip out some slick martial arts moves, that’s plenty, otherwise, you only need to pop up next to me at a few key parts for some interaction, the rest of the time you can freestyle onstage.”
Ye Chen shook his head, “Nah, I’m no pro, if I mess it up, won’t I embarrass you?”
Gu Qiuyi grabbed his arm, pleading in a sweet tone, “Brother Ye Chen, even if you mess up, it’s not embarrassing, and with your skills, there’s no way you’d flop! There’s even a wire stunt part, you’d wear an ancient assassin outfit, mask, holding a sword, flying around on wires, it’s super cool! No face reveal either, the mask covers everything, even my parents in the audience wouldn’t recognise you!”
Tawanna’s eyes lit up beside them, “Is that the song called ‘Assassin’? I love it too, how about we duet it, and let Mr. Ye dance for us!”
