Miscellaneous matters of the opera troupe

As dawn broke, a few white lights began to appear on the horizon.

Yan Dan hummed a little tune as she pushed open the gate to the courtyard. She walked past Min Liu, who was sitting on the steps rubbing her eyes, and reached out to pat her head repeatedly. It felt really good to pat someone's head from above like this: "If you're sleepy, go to sleep. Why are you sitting here waiting for me?"

Min Liu stared at her wide-eyed: "You...you seem quite happy?"

Yan smiled and said, "It's alright."

"You...you haven't been possessed by some kind of demon, have you? You were...you, shouldn't you be crying?" Min Liu stammered for a moment, then blurted out incoherently.

"Cry? Why are you crying?" Yan Dan pushed her from behind. "Go to sleep. You have a play to perform tonight. Aren't you supposed to sing a couple of lines on stage?"

"Did that bully Wang let you go last night? That's impossible! He's known for never missing a chance, from ten to eighty years old!"

"Sigh, he'll definitely lose that interest when he's eighty, but from now on, he won't bully men or women anymore. Okay, go to sleep..."

Min Liu screamed, pressed against the wall: "You, you...did you kill him? Murder is punishable by death! So many people saw you being taken away by him last night! You, you'd better pack your things and run!"

Yan Dan still smiled and said, "Murder? How could I do such a bad thing? I just made sure he couldn't do that kind of thing in the future."

Min Liu thought and thought, and finally realized what was happening. Her eyes almost popped out of her head: "You...you...castrated...?"

Yan Dan opened the door and pushed her inside: "Be good, go to sleep."

Min Liu held her hand tightly: "Are you crazy? If he reports this to the authorities and convicts you, how much torture will you suffer?"

Yan Dan sighed. Why couldn't she understand this? She held Min Liu's shoulder, looked into her eyes, and said clearly, word by word, "If it were you, would you report it to the authorities?"

Min Liu let go of her hand and leaned against the door. She heard Yan Dan humming a tune that was completely out of tune, and then walked away with light and cheerful steps.

If she were the bully Wang...

"Of course I'm going to report this to the authorities, and I'll secretly spend money to have him imprisoned and tortured. How dare he castrate... castrate... wait, that's right, the charge for reporting to the authorities is that someone castrated him, ha!" Min Liu muttered to himself, "Why didn't anyone think of this before? Now it's all good, what a blessing for Tongcheng..."

Apart from the fact that the troupe leader was extremely stingy, which made Yan Dan somewhat resentful, everything else was fine.

Yan Dan spent some time in the mortal realm, paying close attention to everything and gradually learning about its customs. The most important thing was that money was a very important thing in the mortal realm, just like magic was in the Nine Heavens.

Yan Dan was very poor. After deducting the money she owed for recovering from her injuries, she only had three or four coins a month, enough to occasionally buy some snacks to treat herself. Every time she saw Hua Hanjing buying boxes of face powder and rouge, she couldn't help but think that if she had that money, she could sit in a restaurant or teahouse instead of buying steamed buns on the roadside.

In late spring, opera troupes would perform several shows in a row for several nights in a row.

Every few nights, the young man in black robes that Min Liu was thinking about would come to sit down. It seemed that he preferred quiet and didn't like crowding with others, so he always sat at the table in the far corner.

According to the troupe leader, after late spring, they will be going to Nandu for a performance, and tonight's show is the last one they will be performing in Tongcheng.

Yan Dan couldn't help but tease Min Liu: "Hey, we're going to Nandu tomorrow, aren't you going to tell that young master?"

Min Liu stroked her flowing sleeves, the colorful embroidery on them dazzling and vibrant: "Do you think I don't know? That young master, with his looks and demeanor, must come from a good family. Who am I? How could I be worthy of him? Besides, the last time, he was with a girl by his side. That girl was tall and charming. He didn't even look at me."

She said listlessly, "You did the right thing. You never went over to watch. What good would it do? I'm still just an actor. An actor is just an actor, and I can never turn my life around."

Yan Dan couldn't help but laugh. She had liked someone before, but after watching so many dramas and getting used to their joys and sorrows, she felt that it wasn't really something worth holding onto.

Uncle Zhao Qi, who performed martial arts scenes, often told them stories. He told a story about an old immortal in heaven who carried long red threads in his bag, binding the ankles of two destined lovers together. No matter where they went, the two bound by the red thread would always meet, and then fall in love.

Yan Dan yawned, thinking that the old immortal was actually quite lazy. He would often tie one person's ankle and then forget about the other person's, so the red thread would become a tangled mess. Her thread, along with the one she was holding from afar, was probably so tangled that the threads couldn't be untangled anymore.

They dismantled the stage overnight, and everyone quickly washed up and prepared for bed, as they needed to leave before the city gates opened the next morning. Yan Dan, carrying a pile of costumes, hurried along when a clear, melodious female voice suddenly rang out in the cool night breeze: "Mountain Lord, I really don't understand what's so interesting about this play..."

Mountain Lord?

Yan Dan paused slightly, and in a flash, she passed by someone. A faint scent of lotus and wood filled the air, which she wouldn't have been able to detect unless she was exceptionally sensitive to it.

A deep, gentle voice drifted on the wind, but the speaker couldn't make out what they were saying. Yan Dan turned around and saw that it was indeed the young man in black robes. He stood in the dark night, gently tapping the girl beside him on the forehead with his folding fan, and then said something with a smile.

It was getting dark, and they were standing far apart, yet she was so certain that the other person was smiling—how strange.

The next day, before dawn, Yan Dan, still half-asleep, followed the group out of the city. She had read in books before that horses were the primary mode of transportation in the mortal realm, and wealthier families even had carriages, naturally drawn by fine horses. Yan Dan couldn't help but sigh; the celestial beings in heaven must have made a fortune descending to the mortal world. Aside from walking, her best experience was riding in an oxcart, which was practically just a plank of wood, and was incredibly bumpy under the wind and sun.

Traveling day and night, they finally arrived in the territory of Nandu a month later.

Yan Dan was baffled by everyone's assumptions. They all thought she came from a good family but had run away and ended up in this state. Later, she learned that in the mortal realm, only wealthy families had the opportunity for their daughters to study and learn to read and write. And she happened to have beautiful handwriting. Compared to her off-key singing, the troupe leader shook his head and sighed, "It's a pity your family didn't think to find someone to teach you music."

Yan Dan actually wanted to say that she had studied music, but her master got angry and refused to teach her anymore. As for her beautiful handwriting, it was something her master forced her to develop. If she was often punished by copying scriptures a hundred or more times, her handwriting would naturally improve over time.

Lately, Yan Dan hasn't been able to sleep well.

A bruise inexplicably appeared on her arm, and it seemed to be spreading. When Min Liu saw it, she was startled, thinking that Yan Dan had bumped into something. Yan Dan pursed her lips and remained silent. This bruise was not from a scrape, but from corpse spots. After all, she had spent too long in the Netherworld, losing half of her heart, and her body had not recovered in time. It was not surprising that she had been tainted by the Yin energy.

When she couldn't sleep at night and woke up, she would doodle in her notebook to pass the time. Later, she started learning to write opera excerpts. After listening to many operas, she could piece together her own. Once, an old man playing the erhu saw her and read the last line, "The elegance is like the ten-mile lotus pavilion, with carved cages nearby, the embroidered doors slanting low, moss covering the steps, swallows carrying jade, lightly covering the embroidered curtains of the Xiang River Goddess," several times. He smiled and said, "This can be used as lyrics to accompany the music. The lyrics to your story are quite good. The troupe leader has a good eye."

Hua Hanjing stood to the side, dressed in a thin blue robe, and said in a very calm tone: "I think it doesn't sound very smooth when read aloud. I'm afraid I can't sing it. If I force myself to sing it, it won't sound pleasant."

Min Liu immediately retorted, "It's not that you can't sing it! There are no lyrics in this world that can't be sung, only people who can't sing them!"

Hua Hanjing's face darkened.

Yan Dan pressed Min Liu down and said with a smile, "The lyrics are not in sync, but you are so talented that you can sing even the most uneven lyrics in a unique way."

Hua Hanjing's tense expression relaxed slightly. She picked up the book, turned around, and walked away, saying, "Let me take a look first."

Min Liu pouted: "Ugh, you can actually say something so insincere. I'm not talking to you anymore."

Yan Dan thought to herself, even her master, such an extraordinary figure in the Heavenly Court, liked to hear kind words, so mortals naturally loved to hear them too.

The first play the opera troupe performed after settling in Nandu was the one written by Yan Dan. They performed the same play for three consecutive nights. Because several noble young men from Nandu came to support them, the audience was unusually large. The troupe leader was very pleased and even gave her an extra three qian of silver per month. Although Yan Dan knew the troupe leader was really stingy, she was surprisingly happy, even though three qian of silver could actually buy quite a few small things.

Yan Dan moved a ladder over, placed it on the side of the stage, stepped on it, and took down the lanterns hanging on the stage.

Uncle Zhao gave a warning from behind, "Be careful not to fall," and then carried the props away.

Yan Dan barely managed to reach the lantern's hanging rope when suddenly her foot slipped, and a series of cracking sounds filled the air as she tumbled down the wooden ladder. The fall wouldn't kill her, but whether she'd twisted her back was uncertain. Yan Dan was quite puzzled. She'd been getting up early and busy lately; she'd probably only lost weight, not become so fat that she'd broken the ladder, right?

Yan Dan didn't fall to the ground as she expected. Instead, someone reached out, put their arm around her waist, and picked her up, chuckling, "How can we let a young lady do such rough work? It would be a waste if she fell and hurt herself."

What a waste of resources...

Yan Dan felt a chill run down her spine: Could it be that she had been harassed?

She glanced at the man with his arm around her waist, then at the gilded folding fan in his hand, and finally at the broken ladder beside him. In an instant, she understood two things: First, this lecherous young master was very wealthy; his fan could fetch a good price if pawned. Second, the ladder wasn't broken by her, but by this young master—the force of his blows suggested he knew martial arts.

The man snapped open his folding fan, gently shook it twice, and asked with a slight smile, "What, don't you have anything to say?"

Yan Dan asked expressionlessly, "Who are you?"

The man seemed somewhat surprised, grunted, closed his folding fan, and tapped his chin: "You don't recognize me?"

Yan Dan slapped his hand away: "Should I recognize you?" She hated people with dirty hands the most.

He chuckled softly, "I thought all the girls in the city knew me, but... it's alright. My surname is Lin, and my given name is Weiyan. I hope you won't laugh at me."

Lin Weiyan? Yan Dan thought for a moment, then immediately remembered: "You're 'that' Prince Lin." Nandu is the capital of Southern Chu, where most high-ranking officials, nobles, and royal relatives reside. Lin Weiyan is the heir of a prince, holding the official position of Inspector General, and also possesses academic honors; he's a prodigy. There's also Pei Luo, the son of the current prime minister, who is also the Inspector General. Both are quite famous in Nandu, but their fame is all about their romantic escapades.

"That person? What do you mean?"

Yan Dan hurriedly said, "It's nothing, it's nothing, I just said it offhand." She couldn't very well say, "Young Master Lin, you are really famous. Who in this Southern Capital City doesn't know that you are known as 'charming but not vulgar, leaving affection but not offspring'?"

Lin Weiyan stepped closer and smiled slightly, "I read the play you wrote the other day. It was very good. Even Brother Pei Luo praised it."

Yan Dan quickly took a step back: "Th-thank you..."

"Now you know who I am, is there anything else you want to say to me?" He took another step closer.

“Oh, right,” Yan Dan pointed to the ladder on the side, “this ladder is still half new. It was bought for one qian of silver. You’ll have to pay for it.”