(CC) Chapter 2

I really wish to know who ranks a novel 1 star after the first chapter. Was it a problem with my translation? I wasn’t born a native english-speaker, pardon me. If you see any mistakes, please take your time to correct me, please!

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Prologue: Kinky Boots

With the rising volume on the stage, Xian Cai supported himself with one hand on the ground and his waist rose high into the air. His legs formed a beautiful fan in the air and, then, he landed steadily, finishing the first half of the show with a stunning front flip.

The legs wrapped with the high boots were really long and slim. Xiang Cai rested one hand on his waist while the other was raised above his head in the air. All lights on stage were focused on him, making him the central focus of the audience.

Xian Cai’s exaggerated makeup consisted of red lips and purple eyeshadow. He had a layer of sweat on his forehead, dripping down his temple and diluting his foundation at it slid down his face, but not even that could wash his bright smile away.

The applause sounded like thunders—

As soon as the curtain closed, the impeccable smile on Xiang Cai’s face instantly collapsed.

“Ss..!” He supported his leg, daring to move his feet gently. He felt pain every time he took a step.

Seeing him in such pain, the other actor in the play, the male student who played the show factory heir, rushed up to support him with one arm.

The other students surrounded him quickly to help him loose the straps behind his boots. When the boots were taken off, a faint smell of blood could be smelled in the air while Xiang Cai’s socks were soaked with blood. Everyone carefully took off his socks and saw his feet all read and swollen, dripping with blood.

Just now, on stage, Xiang Cai used that pair of feet to dance around for an hour and half, performing a bloody dance to an audience.

In the musical “Kinky Boots”, the actor who plays Lola naturally has a lot of dance moments. Broadway can spend thousands of dollars to tailor a pair of high heel boots suitable for dancing, but their small theater company could only afford to buy a cheap large size of women’s boots through Taobao*. The oversized shoes could not support an adult male jumping up and down on stage.

Taobao: Chinese online store.

“It’s serious!” The logistics student looked worried as he hurried to find a medical box. “Leader, I think it’s better to have a substitution in the second half!”

“Substitution? With who exactly can I change places with, we don’t have a plan B Lola, right?!” Xiang Cai sprayed disinfectant on the wound while sweating cold. He mumbled, “There’s just the straight macho men from our class who alwaysjoke about being gay, or pretended to be a transsexual calling out for men. Everyday going all ‘Gege, I want to eat your pee pee, ya~’, ‘Husband, buy me a skirt, ya~’!! And in the end, when we were told about a musical where the protagonist was a Drag Queen, all of them went into hiding!”

Several ‘straight macho men’ who were scolded like chicken looked down, looking pitiful.

“Or let the ‘Angel’s replace you,” one of the chickens spoke boldly. “The dances are almost the same.”

Angel, Lola’s dancers in the play.

“No, no” as soon as the proposal was spoken out, the classmates who acted as angels quickly refused. “Although there’s no difference in the dances, we don’t know Lola’s lines! And Xiang Cai has a high voice, I’m just a boy, I can’t sing at all!”

…What can be done, then?”

While they chatted loudly, Xiang Cai wiped the blood off his feet and covered his wound with gauze and band-aids.

If you look closely, you’ll be able to find numerous scars on both of his feet. The biggest one had nearly ten centimeters while the shortest one has around three or four centimeters. Like ugly cormorants, they are entangled around his pale ankles and feet.

“Okay, don’t worry about it. Don’t worry. The second half starts in fifteen minutes, shouldn’t the props group go up and change the scene? And you guys, help me out so I can go change clothes” Xiang Cai’s wounded feet stepped inside the boots, his tone very calm as he spoke. “I just hurt my feet, it’s not broken. You think I can’t jump?”

Even if his feet were broken, he would still continue to jump.

With their leader’s powerful sentences, an order was issued and the whole backstage went busy.

Two girls who were in charge of makeup and styling greeted him, one ready to do his makeup while the other held a fishtail dress in her hands, hurrying him to change.

“Wait, wait!” Xiang Cai protected his chest with both hands, embarrassed. “I can change alone.”

“Leader, an adult worrying about this kind of thing!” The female classmate said. “Unless you aren’t wearing underwear!”

“…” The problem was precisely him wearing underwear. In order to wear a mini skirt without showing traces of it, he decided to wear a thong.

He took the fishtail skirt directly from her and hurried down to the men’s locker room. However, the men’s locker room was packed with the people from his class. Most of the actors played more than one role: for example, Lola’s dancers, the Angels, one was Lola’s father in the second half…

Xiang Cai didn’t really want to squeeze his way in so he could only bring the tight fishtail skirt and run to the public toilet outside.

There was a long line outside the women’s toilet and the audience greeted him with enthusiasm when they saw Lola coming. There were even girls who took the initiative to give up their places in line so he could use the bathroom first.

Xiang Cai didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: “Thank you for the kindness, but I want to use the men’s toilet…”

“Oh, of course!” The female audience blushed. “Then use it as you want!”

“…”

Alright, use as you want.

The men’s bathroom was empty and Xiang Cai had no other choice. He took off his minidress and placed it on the washstand.

He would be naked if it wasn’t for that pair of over-the-knee boots. The person is the mirror was very curvy, it was Xiang Cai, but at the same time it wasn’t Xiang Cai.

He blushed a little and quickly dressed himself.

…..

When Tan Yiming pushed open the bathroom door, he saw a slender ‘girl’ standing in front of the mirror with a tight fishtail skirt covering ‘her’ body while ‘she’ had her hands behind her back, fighting against the skirt’s zipper.

‘She’ had very fair skin and, though the bathroom’s lights are dim, he can still see two scapulae bones shaped like butterflies. When ‘she’ moves ‘her’ arms, the thin layers of muscles all move.

Tan Yiming froze. He stepped back unconsciously and checked the sign outside the bathroom — it was indeed the men’s toilet.

However, he thought quickly. The high-heeled beauty inside the men’s toilet was probably the boot queen on the stage.

Remembering how that man sounded on stage, Tan Yiming really wanted to say something.

But before he even had the chance to speak, Xiang Cai spotted him on the mirror.

“Brother!” Xiang Cai’s reflex on the mirror raised his chin towards him. “Help me!”

“…?”

Xiang Cai: “Look at the skirt’s zipper for me, I don’t know why it’s stuck!”

Tan Yiming nodded and walked over.

Approaching, Tan Yiming discovered that Xiang Cai’s long golden wig was stuck in the zipper, so the more Xiang Cai pulled, the more it tangled around the zipper.

“Then help me pull it off” Xiang Cai sighed in relief. “What a scare, I thought I was too fat to wear it.”

In fact, Xiang Cai’s very thin. Really, really slim. Tan Yiming even suspected than Xiang Cai weighted less that sixty-five kilograms. However, than thinness was not in a morbid way, but a slender figure capable of dancing lightly and beautifully.

Even relaxed, Xiang Cai’s posture kept upright, with his two straight clavicles stretched out to the sides.

Since he was wearing high heeled boots, the two had a similar height in the mirror. Xiang Cai glanced at the mirror to look at the man behind him, who was busy with the zipper, and asked curiously, “Dude, you also came to see the musical?”

“Yes.” Tan Yiming answered briefly.

“You came with your girlfriend?”

Tan Yiming shook his head.

“That’s kinda rare,” Xiang Cai was embarrassed for getting someone from the audience to help him with his skirts. With such short distance, he could even feel the man’s temperature. And, even though the man was careful with his movement, he still touched his waist and back sometimes. The man’s hands were warm and dry and his occasional touches brought a strange feeling that couldn’t be described.

The more embarrassed he becomes, the more unable to shut up he gets. He can only divert his attention by talking non-stop: “You know, the professional companies made statistics. Whether if it’s a musical, drama, ballet or any kind of performance, female audience is always several times bigger than the male audience. Even if it’s a free for men, there’re always more women.”

He talked for a long time and, from the beginning to the end, only his voice was heard in the empty bathroom, echoing. All the man answered was with a short, “hm.”

Fortunately, that one man show was finally over.

After a long time, the hair was finally separated from the zipper by Tan Yiming.

The zipper then slides down all the way to the its lowest and the waistband of the skirts falls.

Xiang Cai’s spirit almost flew away and he turned around in a panic, facing Tan Yiming while he zipped his skirt behind.

“…Thank you!” Xiang Cai gave two awkward laughs. “I’m going back to stage now, the second half is about to start… By the way, how do you think I sang in the first half?”

He thought he would only get an affirmative hum from the man and didn’t expect him to not only speak, but answer with a very familiar voice.

— It’s the one that has been appearing on his dreams for years, the voice that he falls asleep to every night.

“You sing very well” Tan Yiming said softly. “CaiCai, I finally found you.”

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