Hualian AU ~ 3. A Trip to Ghost City

Part 2

It was late afternoon when they got there, but it was getting dark earlier these days; the pop-up market, called 'Ghost City', had red and green lights all over, looking truly spooky and supernatural. 'That's San Lang's skills as a filmmaker for you', Xie Lian though. He was playing it cool, but he was looking forward to seeing Hua Cheng.

He met Shi Qingxuan on the previous days to talk about the research, look at the online marketing campaign and run some analytics reports. Shi Qingxuan's PhD was in content marketing and social media; he was friendly and easy-going, popular in The Heavens, his brother was its finance director after all. All about him said 'rich kid'.

He didn't care about Xie Lian being #mostlikelytobeexpelled at all, and enjoyed his company.

"I won't lie to you", he was saying, "I like pushing myself out of my comfort zone. But that rap battle and now this market... how should I put it..."

Xie Lian just laughed; he's been to way much worse places himself so he was totally at ease. He looked cute on a white t-shirt with a beige bomber jacket, light jeans and trainers; these colours made his slightly tanned skin glow and lit his eyes. He looked healthy and happy.

Ghost City was in a huge warehouse by the canal, an area exactly as Jun Wu described; its public scruffy-looking, but in a stylish way, with carefully messy hair and designer worn-out-looking clothes. The market catered for that kind of audience, everything being of course overpriced.

The food stalls were above your average street food, offering delicacies like ceviche or lobster sandwiches or very premium Chinese dumplings. The drinks were varied, classy and up-market.

"Look, a gin parlour", Shi Qingxuan smiled brightly, "What, why didn't you say so before?", and he dragged Xie Lian along to try a few types of very exclusive and very pricey gin cocktails.

"Anyway. I'm meeting a student I'm mentoring; he's a bit too literal, don't mind him. We're meeting...", then he looked down on his phone, "On the Cabaret. Wait, what?", Shi Qingxuan blinked.

"Lang Qianqiu doesn't seem the type to enjoy cabarets, but what do you know..."

They made their way into a big tent, with huge speakers playing electro swing; red lights setting the mood for a full-on cabaret, even though it wasn't 6pm yet. It was crowded but still comfortable to walk around, and people were drinking and chatting, building the excitement up.

"Ah! There he is", Shi Qingxuan said, waving to a guy who was looking around, holding on to his pint. He was young, had a round boyish face, short black hair and bright innocent eyes. He was dressed as a rocker, with a battered leather jacket, old jeans and boots, but he was clearly a gullible, good-natured guy.

"Xie Lian, this is Lang Qianqiu, a graduate student I'm mentored on social media. Lang Qianqiu, Xie Lian is studying music production on digital media, but we can say he's multi-talented", and he smiled and winked at Xie Lian. Xie Lian smiled back.

The lights were dimmed, the show was about to start; suddenly a bright light shone on the audience, and Xie Lian was on the front row with Shi Qingxuan and Lang Qianqiu. That's when he saw Hua Cheng; from the stage, he looked at Xie Lian but showed no sign of recognition, and announced,

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to The Ghost City's Cabaret!"

He was wearing his red jacket, with black t-shirt and jeans, and white Converses; he smiled at the audience, totally confident and at ease. He just looked good, model-like even, and many girls around cheered and shouted shamelessly at him.

Hua Cheng announced the night's attractions, and electro swing music was played again, louder. The stage was filled with pale women scantily dressed in white gauzy outfits, wearing weird masks; a stunning cabaret with a Halloween twist.

"Xie Lian", Shi Qingxuan shouted, in order to be heard, "I thought you were friends with Hua Cheng?"

Xie Lian was used to people acting weird with him, starting with his childhood friends, Feng Xin and Mu Qing, so he didn't think much of it. Maybe in that environment, it wasn't convenient for Hua Cheng to show he was friends with #mostlikelytobeexpelled.

He smiled and nodded, pretending not being able to hear, looking back at the show; why was everyone making a fuss of him being 'friends' with Hua Cheng anyway? He sipped his pink gin tonic again, and felt his phone vibrating on his pocket.

It glowed, "Gege, meet me at 8pm at the main bar😉".

Thanks for reading! The next parts are coming soon so watch this space! 😄

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Here's the part 1 of this Hualian AU series:

https://www.wattpad.com/1182223776-hualian-au-~-the-ghost-groom-part-1

Here's the part 2:

https://www.wattpad.com/1188378424-hualian-au-~-tales-of-the-half-moon-pass-part-1