Chapter 261
Chapter 261
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 261
>Chapter Title: Woman
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 261: Woman
It seemed like they were trying to show just how fierce the battlefield was. With a few soldiers blocking his way, the red-faced general leaped straight onto a table with only three legs and started spinning around the edge nonstop.
“Clang clang clang clang~” Accompanied by the music, he spun like that for several minutes—and all while balanced on that three-legged table. His skills were truly impressive.
The scene on stage even made Li Huowang open his eyes in surprise. “Do they have such high standards for opera in Great Liang?”
“Clang~ Clang~ Stage~” The general on stage, covered in flags, did a backflip and landed steadily.
As the surrounding soldiers cooperatively toppled to the ground, the general struck a pose and made a grand appearance. Cheers and applause erupted instantly from the audience below.
Li Huowang’s applause was part of it too. He realized he’d been wrong; he hadn’t expected such a huge difference between one opera troupe and another.
Even someone like him, who didn’t know much about opera, could see how brilliant it was.
Just as Li Huowang was getting absorbed in the show, the general on stage froze. The two long pheasant tail feathers on his head started fluttering rapidly with a whooshing sound as he shook his head. “Hmm~? Who goes there~?”
The moment the general finished speaking, the lanterns on stage went out in an instant, plunging everything into pitch blackness.
Just as a flicker of doubt rose in Li Huowang’s mind, the lanterns suddenly lit up again. But this time, the light inside wasn’t red anymore—it had turned an eerie green.
The stage, which had held only the general moments before, abruptly gained another figure.
It was a woman. Her back was to the audience, and her long water sleeves dangled from her hands, shaking like waterfalls.
The music had stopped at some point. The only sound on stage now was a growing, heavy panting.
“Heh heh.” A chilling whisper suddenly sounded right by Li Huowang’s ear, making every hair on his body stand on end.
“What kind of damn thing is that! Can’t this place stay quiet for once?!” Li Huowang’s face twisted savagely as he gripped his sword with one hand. His feet pressed against the tiles beneath him, ready to charge toward the stage.
At that moment, Bai Lingmiao threw her arms around him, shouting anxiously, “Senior Brother Li, it’s fake! It’s just acting!”
“Fake??” Li Huowang hesitated as he watched the general on stage take square steps, circling the faceless woman warily again and again.
Suddenly, the woman whipped her head around. At the same moment, two bronze mirrors were raised on either side of the stage. The bright candlelight reflecting off them shone straight onto the woman’s featureless face.
The horrifying sight startled everyone in the audience. Plenty of children burst into frightened cries.
Li Huowang, on the other hand, let out a breath of relief. It really was fake. His sharp eyesight caught that the head was just a prop—her real head was tucked inside her clothes right now.
Li Huowang slowly released his sword and sat back down on the rooftop. “You people in Great Liang play opera so fancy? Adding horror elements to it?”
“Senior Brother Li, what do you mean ‘horror elements’? This is how they’ve always performed it—for over a hundred years. Legend has it that General Yue actually encountered one of those things on the battlefield back in the day.”
Looking at the shadowy, terrifying stage in the distance, Li Huowang thought that if this was based on truth, the real event must have been far more brutal—and far more horrifying.
Just then, Li Huowang saw the general swing his mace and smash down, easily cleaving the woman’s head off. She toppled stiffly onto the stage like she was really dead.
But no sooner had she fallen than a black-faced man with copper coin papers stuck to his cheeks came shambling onstage, head thrown back and swaying.
“Woo ha ha ha~~~”
Sharp fangs spiraled in and out of his mouth. With the piercing clang of gongs, sparks sprayed from his mouth—strikingly visible in the pitch-black night.
“Heh.” Bai Lingmiao turned toward the darkness, puzzled by Li Huowang’s chuckle. “Senior Brother Li, what are you laughing at? Isn’t the play good?”
“It’s great. I’m not laughing at the performers on stage—I’m laughing at Troupe Leader Lv. His little scheme’s backfired. With his amateur tricks, he won’t earn a single coin in Great Liang.” Li Huowang said, eyeing Lv Zhuangyuan’s increasingly sour face in the distance.
“Speaking of which, Great Liang really is different from everywhere else. Whether it’s material comforts or entertainment, it’s leagues ahead. No wonder it’s the strongest power around.”
Everyone enjoyed the show thoroughly that night—including Li Huowang.
The troupe earned plenty of tips. They’d chosen this time deliberately: it was harvest season, so the landlords had money to burn and were generous with their spending.
Lv Zhuangyuan slunk back dejectedly. Gone was his earlier bravado—decades of pride in his opera skills lay shattered.
Unlike the others, who were animatedly discussing the performance, he came in with his two sons, huddled in the corner, and said nothing to anyone.
“Dad, they can spit fire from their mouths! What do we have to compete with that?” Lv Xiucai broke the silence.
“How can we not compete? That old sheng at the end didn’t sing half as well as me!” Lv Zhuangyuan stuck out his neck, defending himself stubbornly.
But as soon as he finished, he deflated like a punctured bladder. He could boast all he wanted, but it didn’t bridge the gap between their troupes.
He jammed his pipe into his mouth, hunched further, and shuffled toward Bai Lingmiao, who was laying out bedding in the corner.
“Heh heh heh~ Miss Bai, can this old man ask you something? Plays like the one tonight—can all Great Liang troupes perform them?”
“Yeah! And not just this one—they do all kinds. Tonight’s wasn’t even their best!”
Lv Zhuangyuan hunched even more and staggered over to his two worthless sons.
That night, Lv Zhuangyuan barely slept a wink, tossing and turning as he worried. “If the Lv Family Troupe can’t set up our stage, won’t I just be a freeloader again?”
But he wasn’t the only one who slept poorly. When the roosters in the village crowed, Lv Xiucai—up early—saw Gouwa emerge from a small grove, grinning sleazily as he groped Hong’er.
The two were wrapped up in each other, giggling and whispering sweet nothings.
When Gouwa spotted Lv Xiucai drawing water at the well, his eyes lit up. He sent Hong’er off and sidled over to him, smug as could be.
“Hey hey hey~ Kid, guess what I was up to last night? Hey hey hey~”
Lv Xiucai said nothing and carried his bucket of water inside, but Gouwa wouldn’t let up, trailing him and chattering on.
“Oh man~ That feeling, oh man~ That feeling~ Hey hey hey~”
With that expression on Gouwa’s shifty face, he couldn’t have looked more lecherous.
(End of chapter)