Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 29
>Chapter Title: Setting Up the Stage
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“Out of the question, out of the question. May I ask, old sir, are there any famous sects around here? Something like mine, for example.”
“There are! Of course there are. There’s a monk temple in Xijing City. They say the Buddha there is really effective for seeking children!”
A monk temple? Li Huowang recalled Danyangzi mentioning once that he’d been chased by monks. He wasn’t sure if it was this one.
Li Huowang made a mental note of it. No matter what, anyone opposing Danyangzi and his cannibalism of humans and beasts had to be good people.
“But, young Taoist, you’re a Daoist. Doesn’t seem quite right for you to go to a monk temple, does it?”
Li Huowang looked down at the Daoist robes on his body. The old man had a point—this outfit really ought to be changed. He wasn’t a real Daoist, after all.
“How’s business been lately for you, old sir? Not bad, I hope?”
Sensing Li Huowang changing the subject, Lv Zhuangyuan jumped right in.
“Bah, what business? We had a big drought here, followed by a big flood. Folks have no money this year, so even fewer are willing to watch plays and toss rewards. Rich folks won’t splurge on opera troupes for funerals anymore—they just stuff you with a meal and call it done. Bah! Filial piety, my ass!”
“It’ll pass. Just tough it out for a few years.”
“Yeah, tough it out. Gotta keep living somehow.”
“I keep thinking, if times get better, I’ll run a few hundred more tours hard. Once this old man saves up enough, I’ll buy a theater in Xijing City for the Lv family. Heh, then I could die with my eyes closed.”
“With a theater, my sons and grandsons won’t have to go out suffering like me. They can stay home studying properly. Who knows, maybe in a few years, blue smoke’ll rise from our Lv family ancestral grave, and we’ll produce a top scholar! When that happens... heh heh heh.” Lv Zhuangyuan chuckled foolishly around his pipe.
Li Huowang listened quietly to Lv Zhuangyuan’s dreams for the future. He actually envied the man—living to such an age and still having a goal worth striving for.
Under Li Huowang and Lv Zhuangyuan’s lead, the mood between both sides eased considerably.
At the very least, Lv Juren and Lv Xiucai stopped treating Gouwa and the others like monsters. They knew now—they were just people who’d fallen gravely ill.
Who doesn’t get sick? No way around it. Everyone’s got it rough.
By the time they reached Wuli Gang, Luo Jinhua was already familiar enough to let Bai Lingmiao hold her daughter.
Standing on the flat ground where rice was threshed, Lv Zhuangyuan looked toward the villagers under the eaves, holding bowls as they ate their evening meal. “Alright, Wuli Gang’s got a crowd. We’ll set up here and paint the pots. Lv Family Troupe, unpack! Raise the stage!”
They were going to perform opera, but Li Huowang wasn’t in a rush to leave. Everyone was worn out from all the traveling. This was a good chance for the others to rest.
Li Huowang had no interest in this ancient form of entertainment, but the others were clearly very curious and rushed over to lend a hand.
Tall-cut bamboo poles propped up several large red cloths, and the stage was starting to take shape.
As Li Huowang dozed atop a pile of golden rice stalks in the fields, he felt someone poking his nose. He opened his eyes to see Bai Lingmiao beaming at him.
She held her hands up high, and a shiny golden object appeared before Li Huowang. She said excitedly, “Senior Brother Li, look! Such a bright copper mirror! It shows your face crystal clear! This is what they use to do makeup for opera!”
“It’s not even dark yet—why’d you take off your eyepatch? Aren’t you afraid of—”
Li Huowang’s words cut off abruptly. He stared at himself in the mirror, stunned. The face in the mirror was so unfamiliar.
“Senior Brother Li, what’s wrong?” Bai Lingmiao sensed something off.
“Junior Sister Bai, back at Clear Wind Temple... did I always look like this?” Li Huowang hesitantly touched his face.
“Yeah, you’ve always looked like that. What’s up? Is the you in the mirror any different?”
Li Huowang lowered his hand from his face and reached toward his reflection in the copper mirror. His face was still the same face.
But he was no longer a youth. He hadn’t just arrived in this world—he’d been here for some time.
“If the hospital was real, then I must’ve been seventeen at most back then. So how old am I now?”
Li Huowang could ask the question, but he couldn’t answer it. Beyond his jumbled memories, he’d also lost track of his own age.
He could only roughly guess from his appearance that he was still under thirty.
Li Huowang rummaged desperately through his chaotic memories, but found nothing.
“Senior Brother Li, what’s wrong? Are you okay? Don’t scare me.” Seeing his reaction, Bai Lingmiao looked nervous.
“I’m fine. Just remembered something. Hurry and give the copper mirror back—they’ll need it for the opera soon.”
“Mm.” Bai Lingmiao hugged the mirror and ran toward the back of the now-raised stage.
“Yiyiyi~~ Ah~~” Watching Lv Juren warming up his voice in the distance, Li Huowang smiled self-mockingly and lay back down on the rice stalks. “Sigh... I really live like a joke.”
He’d thought he’d feel more intensely about it, but surprisingly, he was very calm. He just had one more goal now: find out his age.
Night fell, cloudless skies with a bright moon overhead. The crude stage was lit clear as day.
Word of an opera troupe had spread, and nearly everyone from Wuli Gang had come.
For farming folk whose days were nothing but plowing and sleeping, an opera troupe was a huge draw—no other entertainment around.
The Lv family troupe was small. Excluding the two-year-old who couldn’t talk yet, there were only six performers.
They had to handle music, singing, makeup, and acting all at once, so they could only cut some acts.
Luckily, the farm folk weren’t picky. They sat on stools they’d brought and watched with relish.
Li Huowang lay with the others atop the rice stalk piles, watching from afar as they sang their yiyiyahs. He’d never heard opera before and had no idea what play it was.
He only recognized Lv Zhuangyuan, painted black-faced with a beard, wielding a guan dao. Advanced in years, yet still singing and slashing energetically on stage.
“Good!!!” Cheers erupted suddenly, startling Li Huowang.
Act after act, the threshing ground filled to the brim. The Lv family sweated buckets on stage; the audience beamed with delight below. Only Li Huowang seemed like a mere spectator.
Unnoticed, the moon had reached its zenith, and the Lv Family Troupe’s show neared its end.
Just then, Li Huowang saw Lv Zhuangyuan’s daughter-in-law, in ragged clothes and full makeup, carrying her daughter and a basket as she took the stage with a mournful face.
“Ruthless great-uncle drove me out~~”
“Like a lone wild goose adrift~~ Ahhh~~”
“Like roadside weeds trampled underfoot~~ Ahh~~”
“My daughter and I starve and freeze—we can’t endure~~ Can’t... endure~~”
“We can only beg our meals on the street~~”
At that line, Luo Jinhua pinched her daughter’s bottom lightly. The two-year-old wailed right on cue.
(End of Chapter)