SEVEN DANCERS, EIGHT DANCERS

["Mother, will it be okay if we leave Father alone in the palace?" The black-haired young girl asked the woman sitting next to her, but her head kept looking back through the window of the carriage as if she didn't want to be carried by it to leave the place where she was born and growing up.

There were only two people inside the carriage, and they were a mother and daughter pair. At a glance, it seemed that the two of them were traveling together as usual, but the young girl knew that today was different.

Instead of wearing a nice green outfit that represented the colors of her clan, she was now wearing a dull white outfit that didn't even have any motifs on it. Not to mention the clothes were made of cheap cotton instead of silk and felt uncomfortable on her smooth skin.

The mother wore the same clothes, and her sad eyes continued to stare at the back of the black head because her daughter was still busy looking out of the window instead of facing her.

"That's not our choice, Yueyue," she muttered sadly. "If possible, I would also like to take your father with us, but we can't because those people want to punish your father in the prison instead of letting him go with us."

Hearing how sad her mother was, the young girl finally left the window and turned to the older woman.

She was not a naive girl. She was already nineteen years old, and she knew what happened in the palace before she and her mother were forced to leave the place she used to call home.

The carriage continued to drift away from her home, and she felt lost knowing that she might never be able to return to her home again.

Not only did she have to lose her home, but she also had to part with her father today, and she didn't even know what would happen to her and her mother after this.

The punishment for her and her mother might be different from the punishment her father received in the palace, but she somehow thought that the ending for the three of them would be the same.

Clenching her fists on her lap, her pair of green eyes couldn't even look at her mother anymore, knowing that her mother was hurt more than what she felt at the moment.

She had a question in her heart, and she could probably guess the answer, but she still voiced it amidst the turmoil in her heart, "Mother, do you think we can still return to the palace?"]

"I don't understand why the representatives from the Imperial Palace would want to have our dance performances in the palace even if they didn't see the dance performances in this hall last night. There was only Xia Qiao's performance last night, but the representatives still prefer to see the dancers."

Xia Qiao's reverie was broken by a whisper that came from the person standing in front of her. She did hear the soft voice, but she knew that the person was not directing the whisper at her.

No one wanted to talk to her if it wasn't necessary, and she knew that it would still be the same even if they were currently on the same ship after Duan Shuchun surprised them with information related to the Imperial Palace's request.

From the whispers she had just heard, it was clear that the people in the hall were blaming her for the sudden decision taken by the Imperial Palace.

"I can hear your whisper, Lei Wen," Duan Shuchun suddenly spoke again, and the person who had just whispered to the other girl next to her gasped in surprise after hearing the boss's words.

The person who had just whispered in front of Xia Qiao was indeed Lei Wen, the girl who came to her last night after she finished her performance only to tell her that a middle-aged man wanted to buy her.

After their interaction last night, Xia Qiao didn't talk to the girl anymore, and only now did she hear the girl's voice again.

"As Lei Wen just said, I also don't understand why the Imperial Palace would want us to do a dance performance even if they didn't see any dancers performing at Tiantang last night. They don't even know our dancers' talent, but they still want to just invite our dancers to the event," Duan Shuchun spoke again, and surprisingly, she shared the same opinion as Lei Wen.

Knowing that the boss had the same thoughts as her, Lei Wen could heave a sigh of relief. At least she knew that she was not wrong with her honest opinion.

On the other hand, Xia Qiao was more troubled after hearing Duan Shuchun's statement. The Imperial Palace wanted to see a dance performance without knowing their dancer's talent, and it seemed that the people in the palace just wanted to avoid having her perform in the palace.

It was easy to tell that she was a troublemaker last night, and the people from the Imperial Palace probably wouldn't take the risk of inviting a scoundrel.

What's more, the people in the Imperial Palace probably wanted to do 'more' with the courtesans, so they would definitely choose girls who would easily say yes to their every wish.

Xia Qiao suddenly regretted her behavior last night. If she had known that people from the Imperial Palace would come to Tiantang, she would have pretended to be an obedient girl to avoid being labeled a troublemaker.

Now even the palace did not want to invite her, and it seemed that she no longer had any hope of entering the Imperial Palace now.

Just as she was ready to give up on her hopes now, she suddenly heard her boss speak again, "I know that we don't have to worry about the request because we have good dancers here, but the thing is, we only have seven dancers here, while the palace wants eight dancers to perform there. So, we still need another dancer now."