"Sure, as long as you keep me company this afternoon and make me happy, I'll give it to you!" The old man shook the palm-leaf fan in his hand, swatting away the mosquitoes around Yu Qiuchi.
He pointed at Song Yaozhuo with a strong voice: "That quiet kid, eat more! Is this enough to feed the birds? You look big, but you eat less than Chiwazi!"
After they finished eating, the old man led them to a small room.
The room had no windows and was very dark. The old man seemed to be very familiar with the room, as he found the light switch immediately.
The light flickered, and Yu Qiuchi saw a small bed in the room with a dirty rag doll missing an eye on it. The old man pulled out a box from under the bed.
The box has an old design and is carved from mahogany.
"This box was part of my wife's dowry..."
The old man opened the box with trembling hands. Inside was a set of shadow puppets that he had heard of but never actually seen. They looked very old and had been around for many years.
The old man usually looked robust, but his hair was already completely white, and his cheeks were deeply wrinkled. His face was full of the vicissitudes left by time, and his cloudy eyes were bloodshot.
"This is for my youngest daughter. When she was little, my performances were her favorite, especially the scene where I fight the White Bone Demon three times... She always begged me to do it... but I was busy back then... I was often not home... Later, she grew up... and I wasn't so busy anymore... but she will never see it again..."
The old man's usually straight back collapsed at this moment. He was now just an old father who had lost his daughter and suffered for many years. The dim light elongated his faltering figure.
Yu Qiuchi helped the old man up. He looked at the exquisite shadow puppets inside, which had faded a bit due to the passage of time.
“I promoted this culture everywhere, hoping to find an audience for myself… But I was young then and forgot about the people around me. The person who most wanted to see my performance was my daughter, and she was my best audience… But the person I left behind was also my daughter…”
The old man touched the old figures: "These shadow puppets have accompanied me to many places. I'm eighty years old, I won't live for many more years. I'm getting old, and they're getting old too... I really regret not performing for my daughter when she left home..."
"I can't sing anymore..."
Yu Qiuchi understood; the old man was still troubled...
"Then let's put on one last show!"
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