Chapter 424: Beauty of the Prosperous Age

(BGM: Memories of the Forbidden City)

The entire stage first plunged into darkness. A faint melody drifted over; though the tune was indistinguishable, everyone knew it was setting the stage for something.

Soon, the lights brightened, and majestic music flooded everyone's ears, a sense of the grandeur of a prosperous age rushing toward them.

"What an atmospheric piece!" Many in the audience couldn't help but exclaim, as if they had suddenly been transported into the Forbidden City, feeling the vicissitudes of the past few hundred years.

The live stream at this moment was also submerged in a sea of astonished bullet comments:

"This music makes one's heart surge."

"The Spring Festival Gala chose this BGM well!"

"My blood is boiling in an instant."

"The song is stunning, and the person is beautiful too!"

"Simply beautiful to the point of tears..."

………………

Yes, along with the BGM came Miss Luo Quan, dressed in grand Hanfu and wearing exquisite makeup.

She was seen holding the Imperial Jade Seal in both hands, walking toward the camera with graceful, lotus-like steps.

As the former owner of the Imperial Jade Seal, Miss Luo Quan was undoubtedly the best person to bring it up.

And today's look was definitely the one that best fit the Chinese aesthetic—stunningly beautiful.

Treasures and beauties are simply a perfect match; at this moment, people didn't know whether to focus on the Imperial Jade Seal or the beauty holding it.

The host walked over and said in a magnetic voice: "Thank you, thank you Miss Luo Quan for bringing up the Imperial Jade Seal, but what we should be most grateful for is that you allowed it to reappear in the world and donated it to the country unconditionally."

Miss Luo Quan smiled: "The Jade Seal belongs to the people; I only did what I should have done."

Such cheesy lines were certainly not her own idea, but arranged by the Spring Festival Gala production team. After all, there were tasks from above, and a program watched by over a billion people was the best time to establish and consolidate values.

The appreciation of the Imperial Jade Seal lasted for more than three minutes. Amidst the enthusiastic and reluctant gazes of the audience, Miss Luo Quan carried it back to the backstage.

As soon as she reached the backstage, several old professors came up holding a box, surrounding Miss Luo Quan tightly. As if holding a fragile egg, they took the Imperial Jade Seal from Miss Luo Quan's hands and carefully placed it into the box.

Ever since the Imperial Jade Seal was sent to the Palace Museum, it hadn't traveled this far. The Louvre, the British Museum, and the Hermitage had all proposed borrowing it for exhibitions.

The result was a flat refusal from these elders.

According to their thinking, once the Imperial Jade Seal was sent to the Palace Museum, one shouldn't even think about it coming out again.

But this time, it coincided with the Spring Festival Gala, which was indeed a great opportunity to show this supreme treasure to the people of the country, so the planning team made this request to the museum.

Originally, the Spring Festival Gala planning team should have received the same treatment as those foreign museums, and might even have been scolded severely.

But they had connections from above, and the request was actually quite reasonable. Furthermore, the planning team promised repeatedly that they would only borrow it for three minutes, take it up for a spin, and bring it back down without any accidents.

After much persuasion, they finally managed to borrow this precious treasure.

Fortunately, Miss Luo Quan happened to be performing at the Spring Festival Gala, and the planning team saw that her ancient costume look was excellent, so they let her be the one to bring the Imperial Jade Seal to the stage.

Although the several old professors had been watching with bated breath below, the Imperial Jade Seal didn't have any mishaps in the end. After Miss Luo Quan brought it up, she brought it back completely intact.

During this time, no one else had touched the Imperial Jade Seal except her.

Although Miss Luo Quan had washed her hands twice and disinfected them as required before taking the seal, her pair of jade hands were white and clean, even whiter than the Heshibi on the seal.

Yet, when the old professors turned to leave with the seal, they were still muttering things like, "Must do a thorough cleaning," and "Must disinfect."

Miss Luo Quan was left between laughter and tears.

But it was understandable; after all, it was the Imperial Jade Seal. These old professors had dealt with cultural relics their whole lives, and the number of times they had come into contact with relics of this level could be counted on one hand, so being precious about it was very normal.

The appearance of the Imperial Jade Seal was clearly beyond everyone's expectations, as the Spring Festival Gala program list hadn't revealed a single bit of information, but the final effect presented was very satisfying.

Grand music, a peerless beauty, and an ancient national treasure—the combination of the three pushed the atmosphere of this Spring Festival Gala to its first small climax.

Come to think of it, this "Memories of the Forbidden City" was originally for a Forbidden City documentary crew Miss Luo Quan was working with. As a result, a certain leader at the TV station heard it and praised it highly, then recommended it to the Spring Festival Gala planning team.

And then, this song was used as the BGM without any suspense.

Miss Luo Quan's compositions were always trustworthy, but after the song appeared this time, it wouldn't have the same freshness when used in the Forbidden City documentary.

But this didn't affect its excellence.

Now, there were already five trending searches related to the Spring Festival Gala on Weibo, three of which were related to this first program: Imperial Jade Seal, BGM of the Imperial Jade Seal, and Miss Luo Quan is so beautiful!

For a time, who knows how many people were watching the Spring Festival Gala while praising Miss Luo Quan's 360-degree flawless beauty in the comment section.

In the past, she rarely wore makeup, but those who had seen the new clothing promotional photos she shot for Chanel knew that Miss Luo Quan's beauty after makeup could only be described as outrageous.

That was beauty that didn't belong to the human world.

However, Miss Luo Quan, who possessed this beauty, was now lifting her skirt, running hurriedly back to the backstage of the Spring Festival Gala, and quickly began removing her makeup with the help of a large group of staff.

Every segment of the Spring Festival Gala was strictly required to have a specific duration; when to go on and when to come off had to be precise to the second.

Although there were cases of overtime every year, the host could also compress time to make up for it.

But the director had emphasized repeatedly that if possible, there should be no overtime at all.

So from the beginning of the Spring Festival Gala, everyone had to be tense, and work had to be efficient.

Lazy and salty-fish-like as Miss Luo Quan was, she didn't dare to bring that attitude from home here.

The heavy makeup was quickly removed, the makeup artist quickly applied light makeup for Miss Luo Quan, and then she hurriedly went to the changing room to take off the Hanfu and put on the cheongsam for the next program.

At this time backstage, the others from Girls' Generation had already changed their clothes. Although there wasn't much time left before going on stage, they were still nervously practicing their dance steps in the corner.

Since their debut, they had experienced dozens of live performances on stages big and small, and this simple dance they had practiced for half a month shouldn't have had any unfamiliar parts.

But this was the live stage of the Spring Festival Gala, watched by over a billion people. Any slight mistake would be a huge blow to their entire career.

To say there wasn't much pressure would be a lie. Even Seeing Wen Xia, as the captain, was actually on edge, only able to keep chewing gum to relieve the pressure in her heart.

Among everyone, probably only Miss Luo Quan could remain steady, still in the mood to cross her legs and scroll through her phone.

Now the front stage of the Spring Festival Gala had reached the third sketch of the day. Although the stars invited were all performing sketches for the first time, the level of the editors this time was clearly much better than the previous few years.

The jokes weren't as stiff, the sentimental plots were much fewer, and there was almost no preaching, replaced by jokes that appealed to both refined and popular tastes.

Although in the eyes of the leaders, such works had no educational significance and not much nutritional value, the general public just liked to watch this.

The art form of the sketch was created to make everyone laugh; blindly pursuing nutritional value was putting the cart before the horse.

The screenwriter of this sketch didn't know if they had suddenly had a breakthrough, or if the higher-ups had finally relaxed the censorship, but in short, the scale of the work was relaxed, the jokes were sufficient, and it was really much better than before.

The sketch ended, and the crosstalk program immediately followed seamlessly.

Although they knew this crosstalk program would be very interesting during rehearsals, Miss Luo Quan didn't have time to keep watching, because after the crosstalk program, it was their turn.

Everyone touched up their makeup, checked if there were any problems with their clothes, shoes, and props, and then, just like they had practiced during rehearsals, came to the backstage to wait quietly.

Here, they could still hear the punchlines thrown by the crosstalk actors on stage, as well as the heartfelt laughter from the audience.

However, the girls all had stern expressions at this moment.

Because smiles had to be shown after getting on stage later.

Soon, enthusiastic applause came from the stage; this was the end of the crosstalk program.

After the host said a few words, Miss Luo Quan and the girls of Girls' Generation received instructions and walked to the front stage with light steps.

The audience, having just finished watching two programs that made them laugh heartily, originally wanted to listen to a song and dance to relax.

They didn't expect that as soon as they came up, they were hit with something intense.

The lethality of these ten girls gathered together was simply too terrifying.

Especially their attire today: tight plain-colored cheongsams, elegant black hair, refined makeup, exquisite oil-paper umbrellas, and small embroidered shoes.

It instantly made everyone feel as if they had returned to the last century.

Ten beauties, each with their own characteristics but all smiling like flowers and full of charm, stood still on the stage, opened the oil-paper umbrellas in their hands, and the Chinese-style song "Blue and White Porcelain" began to play:

The plain embryo outlines the blue and white, the brush tip goes from thick to thin

The peony painted on the bottle body is just like your initial makeup

The slowly rising sandalwood incense passes through the window, I understand your worries

The brush on the rice paper stops halfway

The glaze renders the beauty painting, the charm is privately hidden

And your charming smile is like a budding flower

Your beauty drifts away in a wisp

Going to a place I cannot reach

……………………

The singing was lazy and charming, and the lyrics were full of the unique charm of China.

And the most beautiful part was the ten girls dancing on the stage.

They were like fairies descending from heaven, scattering love and beauty in the human world.

Their dancing figures were so graceful, each with its own merits, and the tight cheongsams outlined this rare beautiful scenery and presented it to the audience.

The calves revealed from the slits of the cheongsams were the essence.

Although the slits of the cheongsams at the Spring Festival Gala were not high, just revealing a little was enough to arouse infinite reverie.

The audience's liking for this actually had nothing to do with lust, but was simply a beautiful yearning for beauty.

And with the arrival of the chorus of the song, the climax of the entire program also arrived.

The sky-blue color waits for the misty rain, and I am waiting for you

The cooking smoke rises, separated by thousands of miles across the river

Writing Han clerical script on the bottom of the bottle, imitating the elegance of the previous dynasty

Just treat it as my foreshadowing for meeting you

The sky-blue color waits for the misty rain, and I am waiting for you

The moonlight is salvaged, blurring the ending

Like the handed-down blue and white porcelain, beautiful on its own

Your eyes carry a smile

White flower petals filled the sky and fell from the sky, and the cheongsam girls raised and opened the oil-paper umbrellas in their hands in unison, looking up at the sky affectionately.

The petals fluttered and intertwined with their figures, forming a picture so beautiful that time stopped.

Because of this scene in the live stream room, the audience frantically brushed the bullet comments:

"My god, it's stunning!"

"Petal rain, it's really great."

"I'm crying to death, these ten sisters are too beautiful, even I, a girl, am moved."

"I swear, I won't marry anyone but these ten girls in this life!"

"This is my ideal wife, thank you Spring Festival Gala for satisfying my fantasy."

"The picture is so beautiful that I don't even dare to look at it."

"It's so beautiful that I want to cry, they dance for me, but I will never possess such beauty."

"Such a beautiful picture, but I suddenly feel a bit sad, am I too sentimental?"

"Many people won't be able to sleep tonight."

………………

Beauty of the prosperous age—it is not an exaggeration to use this to describe the ten girls on stage.

Among girls under twenty-two, they are the current peak of China.

And even if placed above twenty-two, it is highly likely to be the same result.

The emotion brought by such a group of beautiful girls dancing such a dance in such a prosperous age is extraordinary.

The meaning of this dance has actually transcended the movements themselves, containing a certain degree of spiritual factors.

Because only in a peaceful and prosperous age can one enjoy such beauty.

And those who see this beauty are undoubtedly happy.

Of course, these are conclusions drawn after the theme is sublimated. The original intention of the ten girls on stage was just to offer the best performance to the audience in the best state.

Although the song used a recording, their dance steps tried to achieve zero flaws, completely consistent with the best effect envisioned.

When the song ended, the girls were already covered with many petals. They squatted, stood, or sat, drawing a perfect period for this performance.

Surging applause rang out, and everyone was expressing their appreciation and joy for them in this way. Even when the lights disappeared, this applause still lasted for a long time.

Taking advantage of the darkness, Miss Luo Quan and the girls of Girls' Generation hurriedly left the stage, and the staff rushed onto the stage to clean up the stage for the next performers.

Returning backstage, Seeing Wen Xia and the other girls finally let out a long sigh of relief.

For them, this performance can be said to be of extraordinary significance.

This was the first time an idol girl group had stepped onto the stage of the Spring Festival Gala, and the effect was so perfect.

They could already imagine what the situation on Weibo was like.

After the spring, the spring of Chinese girl groups is also about to arrive!

Seeing Wen Xia thought to herself.

PS: Thanks to book friends An Yu Ke Yan and Jiong Jiong De Mao Mi for the book coin tips, thank you! ===== CHAPTER 425 =====