Chapter 33: Jade Rabbit and the Priest Watch a Play: Who is the One on the Stage?
"Mr. Adrian, what is this?" Since the man took the first step, Alice was of course happy to offer him a step, and was looking forward to what he would do.
"My mother gave me two box tickets for the recently popular play 'Mirror'. I haven't seen it yet, so I'd like to invite Miss Alice to go with me tonight," the man added, "as a friend."
It turned out the old Countess had been giving him a push, but even being pushed was progress. Alice felt she couldn't expect a piece of wood to sprout new branches quickly. His half-sentence, which only served to conceal his true intentions, was rather amusing: "Oh, friend?"
"Yes, just friends." The man emphasized seriously.
Alice remained noncommittal. He kept repeating the point, "Just friends." But she didn't point it out and happily accepted the invitation.
There were certain etiquettes for going to the theatre these days; both of them needed to change clothes. Since the performance was nearby, the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, they arranged to meet at the theatre entrance.
Tonight, he rarely took off the clerical robe that seemed to grow on his body. He wore a traditional English short-tailed tuxedo, a white shirt, and a scarf of the same color around his neck. This is the dress that any middle-class English gentleman would wear when going to the theater, but it looked particularly good on him.
Alice said deliberately, "Sir, I still prefer you in your clergyman's robes."
The man tugged at his scarf lightly, but didn't respond.
Arriving at the theater's special entrance and presenting their box tickets, a servant naturally led them to a box near the center of the second floor. He lit a gas lamp fixed to the wall and welcomed them inside.
There are three levels of boxes here. On the left they are receiving an earl and his wife, and on the right is the royal box which is reserved for royal members of the theater all year round. The location has an excellent view.
The upstairs private rooms were connected in a semi-arc, requiring people in adjacent rooms to peer out of the way to see each other. Those that could see each other were too far apart to see clearly, ensuring good privacy. The rooms were separated by a thin wooden board, red velvet drapes, and curtains.
As the two sat down, the servants hung the curtains to make it easier for the guests to watch the performance. Someone else brought wine, gingerbread, hawthorns, and marzipan, and placed them on a small square table in the corner of the room for the gentlemen and ladies to take.
"Mr. Adrian, have you seen the play tonight?" Alice rested her elbow on her chin, leaned forward, and leaned on the small round table between the two of them, looking at the gentleman in front of her who had obviously dressed up. His handsomeness was enhanced to twelve points, which was really pleasing to the eye.
The man seemed a little uncomfortable with her stare. He rubbed his hands together on the table unconsciously. "Miss, it's only been a few hours, and you've already forgotten what I said when I invited you?"
"What you said to invite the lady may not be true. Now that I have come to the theater with you, there is no need to tell lies. Naturally, I have to listen to the gentleman's answer again." Her eyes were full of mischief.
There was a slight blush on his face, and he said seriously, "Miss, do you think I'm being dishonest with you?"
"A proper dose of dishonesty can also be a form of entertainment," Alice demonstrated. "For example, when I first met you outside the theater, I said something I didn't mean. You look very handsome and charming today. I like both your formal attire and your clerical robe equally."
"Ms. Alice." The man clasped his hands together, trying to say something in response to stop the lady in front of him from teasing him like that.
A metallic knocking sounded at this moment, and the entire theater was no longer noisy. He could only try his best to keep a serious face and said, "The show has begun." He turned his upper body to face the stage.
In the entire theater, only the stage and the boxes have the most and brightest lights. The seats on the first floor seem to disappear in the darkness under the lights on both sides, and the nobles in the boxes can pretend that they don't exist. This is also the reason why people who claim to be upper class like to choose boxes on the second floor and above.
Alice picked up the monocular on the table and pointed it at the stage. Her eyesight was good enough to see clearly without it, so she played with it briefly before tossing it to the man next to her.
[Why are you silent? Is it easier to be mute than to speak the truth? Unfortunately, your expression has already betrayed you.] The heroine took the handheld round mirror handed to her by the vendor, turned it over and held it in front of the hero.
Alice caught a man's cautious gaze, shielded by the tube of a telescope, from the corner of her eye. The corners of her lips curved wider as she glared at him, as if to ask, "Why are you acting like someone in a play on stage, unwilling to talk to me?"
Adrian Moran hastily averted his gaze, staring at the stage, not daring to move his eyes to the side.
[My heart is already beating wildly for you, what else do I need to prove my unwavering love?] The male protagonist picked up the mirror and took a look, but fearing that all his emotions would be reflected in it, he immediately covered his heart with the mirror.
This time she didn't need to say anything. The man's pale jaw tightened even more, and his rosy lips closed tightly without leaving a gap.
Alice casually shifted her sitting position, crossing her right leg over the other, her skirt arcing in time. The space under the table was already small, and the hem of her skirt brushed against the man's legs. He quickly stood up and looked towards the long square table in the corner where food was placed. "Miss Alice, would you like some dessert?"
"I'm a little hungry." Alice looked at him and answered.
After the man took the food, he turned around and found that the person who said he was hungry had followed him. He directly handed over a small plate of white candies the size of a coin in his hand and said, "Miss, you can try the almond candies here. They have always been well-received."
But she didn't take the candy from his hand. Instead, she grabbed the man's wrist, which was stretched out in front of her eyes, and with a pull and a push, she pushed him against the edge of the table, supported the table with one hand, and held him in her arms.
With his other hand, he caught the plate that almost fell to the ground and put it back where it came from.
Adrian Moran was a little surprised. Thinking of the decision he had made, he felt that perhaps he should take this opportunity to draw a line between friendship and that he should not let her get so overly close to him again.
He muttered to himself, "Miss Alice, please be careful about your behavior. We are friends, and friends shouldn't play so intimately. Not to mention, we are in the theater box right now..."
Having said that, Adrian Moran subconsciously turned his head to look outside, afraid that he would be seen by other viewers and ruin Miss Alice's reputation. Although he knew that she didn't care, he still wanted to do his best to protect it.
"Friends, what friends? This kind of friends?" She lowered her body and stretched out her hand to force him to turn his face back, preventing him from looking outside. Her hand slid along the man's jawline, along the collar of his tuxedo, and touched his chest.
Alice was a little annoyed. Wasn't he serious about being her friend? Was today's dessert gone just like that?
no.
Behind the curtain that was only big enough for one person to hide his body, Alice continued to lean forward, hiding the man in her arms, preparing to take a small taste.
He slipped out from the other side without warning and quickly escaped to the small area blocked by the curtain.
She straightened up calmly, glanced at the golden hook on the wall, and with a flick of her finger, loosened the cord and lowered the right half of the curtain, hiding the man behind it again. While he was stunned, Alice slowly walked over to him and pulled him back into her arms.
"Mr. Adrian." She only called him by his first name, her tone full of unconcealable pride.
"Miss, we are just friends." The man was a little flustered, trying to use this identity to dissuade the person who seemed to be determined to win.
The half curtain just covered half of the round table. Alice repeated her old trick, pressing the man onto half the table. This time, instead of just holding him loosely, she held his waist tightly with one hand and grasped his chin with the other, leaning forward again to press her lips against his tightly bitten lips.
Adrian Moran unconsciously tilted his head slightly, feeling a little eager and nervous.
But no. He had finally made up his mind to return to friendship, but if, if... it would all be in vain. He admitted that he had some romantic feelings for her, but they were tinged with the desire for marriage and nourishment, and were not pure enough. He didn't want to use selfish and despicable desires to bind a young woman who should be free.
But he was being pressed on the table and couldn't get up. The only things he could move were his hands.
Now, the only thing we can do is—
With his left hand, he lifted a corner of the curtain with great difficulty, exposing his upper body outside the curtain. He was betting that the young lady who was pressing him would not do such a thing to him in public.
Every moment he was exposed, the man's heart beat faster and faster. He tried hard to hold his breath, fearing that he would attract the slightest attention from the outside world.
Adrian Moran felt as if all the lights, all the eyes in the theater were focused on him. All around him was pitch black, except for the brightly lit box where he and Miss Alice sat. The packed stalls downstairs also seemed to be emitting a thousand, unignorable stares, making it difficult for him to ignore them.
Their box was located high up, and they looked more like actors on stage being watched than the real actors downstairs.
At this moment, if the owner of the box in the distance was curious or casually looked over here with a telescope, he might be able to guess what the two people in this box were doing. He just hoped that the drama downstairs was exciting enough to distract people from paying attention to other things.
Even the box next to theirs always felt incredibly quiet to him. He suspected that his breathing and heartbeat were heard by his "neighbor", who knew that he was being asked for a kiss by a lady in the same profession.
The anxious and frightened mood stretched on for a long time, as if waiting for a century, until finally Alice stopped moving.
The man was about to breathe a sigh of relief.
She pulled him up, hugging him and hiding behind the curtain. Under the guidance of the demonic energy at her fingertips, the drooping curtain automatically rolled up, loosely wrapping it twice, trapping the two of them in a small, private space.
Alice looked at the man in front of her, raised her eyebrows, and smiled more proudly.
"Sir, how are you going to open it now?" She was not in a hurry and reached out to touch the man's heart: "Do you want me to give you a mirror so that you can look into your heart?"
The light was dim and the man couldn't see Alice's expression, but being so close, how could he ignore the lady's presence?
His heartbeat and breathing gradually became synchronized with the lady in front of him. Her palm covered his chest, and it seemed that it was not her palm that rose and fell with his heartbeat and breathing, but that he had his heartbeat and breathing under the rise and fall of her palm.
"Miss, can we just be friends?" The man said pitifully.
"No." Alice certainly didn't care what the man in front of her thought and ordered domineeringly, "I don't allow it."
Wrapped in the curtain, even though the lighting was poor, it did not affect Alice's ability to accurately find the man's lips and the object close to her palm.
The play outside was still singing as usual: [Where are you going? Why don’t you take the round mirror I gave you? No matter where you go, you can’t escape my control.]
Just as her lips were about to cover his, the man held his breath, barely managed to regain consciousness, grasped the curtain behind him, and pulled it with all the strength he could muster. The red velvet symbolizing the noble box fell to the ground, revealing the entire figures of both of them.
The noise attracted the attention of the people in the opposite box, who were using binoculars to see what was going on.
She just wanted to eat some dessert, but she didn't have the habit of being watched. Alice lost interest, let go of her hand on the man's waist, kicked away a ball of velvet, and sat back down.
Adrian Moran picked up the curtain on the ground, folded it and put it aside. Only then did he calm down and sit down on the chair on the other side.
It was only during the intermission that Alice was about to leave, and the man hurried to follow her.
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