Lucid Dreaming
Bai Roushuang was still brooding over the fact that she “killed three people”. When she saw Xu Shulou killing the giant shadow monster, she glanced at the crowd that followed her senior sister. Oh, this was her kind-hearted senior sister. When had her senior sister ever ignored other people’s screams and requests for help when they were in danger?
There was no warmth here for the senior sister. She was about to throw herself into the arms of her classmates, but she paused. Wait...
Bai Roushuang carefully scanned the faces of the group of people: "Master, Senior Sister, how come there are people who look exactly the same among the people you brought here?"
"It's a monster pretending to be one." Xu Shulou answered casually.
Bai Roushuang shuddered: "So many..."
"Everyone couldn't tell who was real and who was fake at the moment, so they brought them together."
Bai Roushuang looked at the couple who were already fighting and calling each other little bastards and said, "Isn't this number 33?"
"Yes, originally his friend No. 29 helped to identify them, but," Xu Shulou pointed at the crowd, "Look, there are three No. 29s, and each of them has their own opinion."
Bai Roushuang looked in the direction she pointed, and sure enough, she saw three No. 29s, one with a sullen face, one with his arms folded, and one with his head held high. She felt that all three were quite similar to this person's usual demeanor, and it was indeed difficult to tell the real from the fake except for those who were familiar with them.
She thought for a moment, "It seems that this assessment is to see if we can distinguish right from wrong."
Xu Shulou had already chopped the giant into pieces, leaving behind a scene that looked like a dismemberment scene. He walked into the brightly lit room, dragged a chair and sat down: "Let them do whatever they want."
This was everyone’s assessment content, and Xu Shulou had no intention of intervening to help identify it.
Bai Roushuang followed obediently: "By the way, Senior Sister..."
She pulled the bitten female cultivator in front of her senior sister. The female cultivator's entire arm had turned black, and she was trembling as she waited for her next fate.
"Don't be afraid," Xu Shulou approached her and pressed her neck, knocking her unconscious. He then said to his junior sister, "It will be fine."
Bai Roushuang opened her mouth. This female cultivator had been knocked unconscious by a giant monster before. She had just woken her up, but she was knocked unconscious again by her senior sister.
However, the person in front of her was her real senior sister, and when she said it was okay, Bai Roushuang felt relieved about the situation of this female cultivator.
Xu Shulou looked at her with a smile: "How did you know that the fake one was not mine?"
Bai Roushuang cleared her throat: "Sister, do you want to eat lotus leaf and lotus seed soup?"
"want."
“…”
"how?"
"Nothing," Bai Roushuang suppressed her smile, "I'll make it for you right away."
She took out a small stove from her Qiankun bag and started to light a fire, then asked her senior sister, "Then how did you recognize me?"
“The fake ones look smarter.”
“…”
Seeing his junior sister glaring at him, Xu Shulou smiled and explained, "It's a shrewd look of calculating others. You haven't shown that expression for a long time."
Really? Bai Roushuang was stunned, thinking about their first encounter... In the past few years, she had changed a lot. She calmed down and asked, "How do we deal with those scattered shadow monsters outside the door?"
"It seems useless. It's not like the Snow Girl can make snowflake ice," Xu Shulou thought, "At most, I can let them perform a shadow play."
“…”
"Which play do you want to see?" Xu Shulou asked, "I'll go talk to them."
Bai Roushuang thought for a moment and said, "Well, let's just go with The West Chamber."
She thoughtfully picked a common folk play, fearing that it would confuse the shadow monsters.
"I happen to have this storybook," Xu Shulou took out a book from his Qiankun bracelet and handed it to the shadow monster, "I'll give you half an hour to rehearse."
The shadow monsters looked at the giant's body and could only take it with tears. One of them resisted, holding up the book, revealing his features, cross-eyed, and sticking out his tongue, looking like a person who was not very smart and could not read.
But soon, after Xu Shulou's violent communication with it, it was able to understand and apply what he had learned to other situations, and it even extended a part of its shadow and performed a sleeve-waving gesture for her to see. It was truly a genius in opera.
Bai Roushuang rested her chin on her hand and said, "They can't talk. Isn't this a bit too much to ask of them?"
"Don't you have someone who can tell the difference?" Xu Shulou instructed his junior sister, "Go and see if the two thirty-three outside have decided the winner, and bring the loser in to play Zhang Sheng."
“…”
"By the way, please invite your third brother in. He always likes to watch mortal operas."
Not long after, Feng Yi came in with a smile: "Good idea, I don't know how long those people outside will continue to make trouble, we can just watch the show while waiting."
Xu Shulou analyzed: "Probably the assessment will not end until all the disguised people are identified."
Bai Roushuang moved quickly and brought back three monsters disguised as human beings for her senior sister. These three monsters, which had been beaten badly by their classmates, were used to play Cui Yingying, Zhang Sheng and Hong Niang respectively. As for other characters with few lines, they were played by shadow monsters that could not speak.
In this way, under the supervision of Xu Shulou, the shadow monsters contributed their own strength to the opera industry.
The performance of Romance of the West Chamber started like this. Although the main actors spoke their lines haltingly, their singing was recited, and they often forgot the next plot, their works were simple and natural, their movements were flexible, and they could even bend their waists and swing their sleeves with ease.
The shadow monster is a very dedicated monster. When it wants to bite people, it will bite people wholeheartedly. When it is forced to perform, it will perform wholeheartedly.
The three audience members in the audience cheered from time to time. Especially in the section where Madam Cui interrogated Hongniang, the shadow monster who played the Madam was too into the play, and transformed into several whips and whipped Hongniang, which made the actress who played Hongniang so angry that she directly tore off one of Madam Cui's arms and stuffed it into her mouth and swallowed it. It was very exciting. When it came to the section about the marriage fraud, there was a fight on the stage, you devour me and I devour you, and Zhang Sheng and Yingying finally fell into the mouth of Zheng Heng who came to deceive the marriage. There has never been such an innovative adaptation in the history of drama, which caused the three audience members to exclaim in amazement.
The identification process outside was also vigorous, with the light of magical weapons filling the sky from time to time, and a fierce battle ensued.
It was a really lively night.
After the performance of Romance of the West Chamber, Feng Yi wanted to watch the Peony Pavilion, but there were not enough shadow monsters on the stage, so he had to give up.
Xu Shulou also shook his head: "Don't let them continue to ruin opera."
The few remaining shadow monsters on the stage were burping and looking quite dissatisfied. We were so devoted to the performance, how could it be ruined?
Xu Shulou ignored him and blocked the light in front of him with his folding fan: "I'll take a break. Call me when you're done."
"good."
Xu Shulou closed his eyes, leaned back in his chair and rested. Bai Roushuang looked at her, knowing that they might not see each other for several years after today, and sighed softly.
Feng Yi also sighed.
Bai Roushuang looked at him and said, "By the way, Senior Brother, are you still worried about raising those spirit pets? I saw a cultivator doing a spirit pet fostering business outside a while ago. Third Senior Brother, maybe you can go and look for him?"
Feng Yi shook his head: "I don't feel comfortable letting a stranger take over."
"That's right," Bai Roushuang thought about it carefully, "I am a little worried. Others' care is not as thorough as mine. Brother, have you ever asked anyone else to take care of your pet?"
"Not really. Senior Sister helped me look after the snow leopard," Feng Yi said with a complicated expression. "She took good care of it. But when I brought it back, the snow leopard had gained ten pounds. I almost thought it was a snow pig."
Bai Roushuang laughed.
The two chatted casually, and during this short break, Xu Shulou had a dream, a long-lost dream. In the dream, she stood in front of a life-size prism, and in the mirror was another Xu Shulou, the Xu Shulou from the storybook world.
She looked through the prism, wondering if Xu Shulou in the storybook world was poisoned by love, which led to the wild horse-like plot. But through the mirror, she couldn't see it at all, all she could see was the hatred in Xu Shulou's eyes.
She blinked, seeming to realize something in this brief lucid dream.
That Xu Shulou...his brows were filled with hatred and resentment, and he was filled with a resentful mood.
She recognized this expression. After the country was destroyed, whenever she happened to pass by a bronze mirror, she would see herself with a frown on her face.
It turns out that Xu Shulou, who belongs to the world of storytelling, has never truly let go of the pain of her family being destroyed. She has only been suppressing herself from seeking revenge. In the tug of war between family feuds and the world, she will go crazy sooner or later, even if not for Lu Beichen, then for something else.
Perhaps Lu Beichen and Bai Roushuang were just outlets for her to vent her anger and unwillingness.
The real Xu Shulou only felt sad for her.
The person in the prism was also looking at her with surprise in his eyes. He moved closer and put his hand on the mirror. Just when she was about to touch that hand subconsciously, a loud noise woke her up from her dream.
Bai Roushuang caught a glimpse of sadness in her eyes: "Senior Sister, what's wrong with you?"
"I'm fine, what's going on outside?"
"They're fighting again. Originally, the two No. 33s were fighting, and the winner had already been decided. Everyone assumed that the winner was the real one," Bai Roushuang shook her head. "But now the three No. 29s are fighting each other, and one of them is dead. Of the remaining two, one insists that the current No. 33 is fake, and the other says he's talking nonsense, so it's turned into a melee again."
"It's quite a mess." Xu Shulou commented.
"The remaining thirty-three had better be the real one," Bai Roushuang said in fear, "because the thirty-three who lost the fight was dragged by me to play Zhang Sheng, and now he is in the shadow monster's stomach."
"...I'll go out and take a look." Seeing that his junior sister was worried, Xu Shulou got up and went out.
Bai Roushuang paused, then hurriedly followed. The moment she stepped out of the door, she saw Xu Shulou kicking No. 33 away with a whirlwind kick, hitting No. 29: "These two are fake."
"I said he was fake!" The real Twenty-Nine felt a sense of relief that his injustice had been vindicated. "These bastards don't believe me!"
Bai Roushuang was stunned: "Could it be that the thirty-three I brought in is the real one?"
Xu Shulou comforted his junior sister: "It's all fake. When that man was swallowed just now, didn't you see the black air oozing out of his broken mouth when he was bitten in two?"
Bai Roushuang breathed a sigh of relief.
"Yes, both of them are fake. Miss Xu is really good at judging people," Twenty-Nine was very excited. "She is worthy of being the woman I have chosen!"
Bai Roushuang glanced sideways: "You haven't given up pursuing my senior sister yet?"
Twenty-Nine pretended to be affectionate: "Who can resist a woman who can do a tornado kick?"
"...Be more normal," Bai Roushuang reminded, "Be careful or my senior sister will chop you up as if you were a fake."
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