Chapter 418: Final Mistake
When the Qin Anbo Mansion was holding a grand water and land ceremony for the murdered Qin Anbo, a short opera called "The End of the Wrong Thing" swept the entire capital.
This excerpt seemed to appear out of nowhere, but once it was released, almost everyone on the street was talking about it and the actor who performed it.
An unknown opera troupe in the capital called Meimu performed this play and the theater was packed with people.
This excerpt tells a very common theme in excerpts, the story of a poor scholar who went to Beijing to take an imperial examination and was rescued by the daughter of a wealthy family.
However, unlike those excerpts with common themes, the plot of this excerpt does not focus much on the lingering love between the poor scholar and the daughter of a wealthy family. Instead, it progresses rapidly like a wild horse that has broken free from its reins. Not long after the performance begins, the poor scholar who went to Beijing to take the imperial examination becomes the top scorer and asks to marry the rich daughter.
When the rich young lady entered the bridal chamber with a shy face and wearing a tiara and a bridal gown, the whole audience was stunned.
Is this a marriage?
What happens next?
What the audience didn't expect was that what was to be performed next was some real-life cruelty.
After the poor scholar became successful, his heart gradually changed and he even kept a mistress outside.
In this room, he and his delicate mistress are in the warm and fragrant tent, smiling sweetly and being affectionate with each other. In that room, the young lady who has become a mistress is crying alone on a railing under the moonlight on a cold night, and the sound of the flute is mournful and beautiful.
The comparison between the two compartments is as cruel as it can be.
The actors in the Mei Xin Opera Troupe performed very well. The male and female actors portrayed the absurdity of the poor scholar and the deep affection of the rich lady to perfection.
Seeing the comparison between the two compartments here, the audience felt so excited that they could only clench their fists.
Although it is quite common for a man to have three wives and four concubines, this is in a play. You just made a vow to be faithful to the daughter of a rich family, but then you secretly kept a mistress outside without telling your wife, making your beautiful, pitiful and infatuated wife cry for you. You are simply - not a human being!
Afterwards, the plot took a sharp turn for the worse. A few years later, the poor scholar was hacked to death in the brothel while competing with someone for the most beautiful girl.
For a moment, the stage was filled with the sound of grief and sobbing. It was the rich lady and the poor scholar's concubines and maids crying bitterly.
The poor scholar's relatives jumped out and wanted to take over all the wealth that the poor scholar had accumulated over the years as an official.
The daughter of a wealthy family who became a mistress gave birth to only a daughter and not a son, and was surrounded by her troublesome poor relatives, who pointed fingers at her and insulted her, saying that the daughter of a wealthy family had brought bad luck to the poor scholar.
The daughter of a wealthy family, who had lived a respectable life, had never suffered such an injustice before, and she covered her face and cried.
At this time, the concubine came with her son. The concubine's son was four years old this year, chubby and strong, and when he saw her, he called the daughter "mother" sweetly.
The mother-in-law, who had been claiming to be ill, also showed up and said that this was the last child in their family and someone had to inherit their family fortune.
The rich young lady adopted the son of her concubine, registered him as her own legitimate son, and took care of everything for him herself, raising him seriously.
The concubine died of illness in the mansion a few years later.
Many years passed, and the rich lady, who had worked hard for the whole family, gradually grew older and raised the son of her concubine, who was registered under her name, into a new top scholar.
However, when the son of the concubine became the top scholar, he personally served the young lady a bowl of rice porridge mixed with poison.
The young lady's face was already old. She fell on the bed and asked the son of the concubine why he did this.
The concubine's son, however, dragged out the words and sang: "You took the mistress's place and took me away by force, causing my mother to die of depression! I have accepted her as my mother and endured humiliation for so many years, just to avenge my mother with my own hands today!"
The rich young lady was so shocked and surprised that she was speechless.
Before she died, the rich young lady sang in a hoarse voice, "After all these years, it was all wrong."
However, before the young lady died, she knocked over the oil lamp during the struggle, causing a huge fire to engulf the entire house and burn to death the vicious son of the concubine.
The spectators were stunned by the lifelike fire effect, and an inexplicable melancholy arose in their hearts.
They thought that was the end, but in the mist, the rich girl who had originally left the stage came back to life and appeared on stage wearing the clothes of her youth.
The young lady looked at her own hands and feet in disbelief, and sang with tears in her eyes: "The gods must have taken pity on my stupidity and sent me back to thirty years ago."
Then, the scene changed. When the rich young lady and her maid were traveling, they met the poor scholar who had been robbed by bandits on the way to the capital and was dying in a ruined temple.
This time, the rich young lady walked past the poor scholar without looking back, without stopping or looking back. She walked away into the distance to the cheerful accompaniment of music that symbolized new life.
After the audience was stunned, they burst into thunderous applause, almost breaking their hands!
Meimu Opera Troupe became famous in one battle!
On the streets and alleys, almost everyone who has watched this final mistake is discussing its plot.
Many men who had mistresses were touched and secretly decided to be nicer to their wives in the future.
Some ladies also felt that it was a relief to finally return to the rich lady of thirty years ago, not paying any more attention to the poor scholar and leaving him to fend for himself in the dilapidated temple.
Of course, some scholars were so angry that their faces turned red: "This is slander!... How can you use such lascivious music to smear..."
Others laughed at them. Why didn't you say anything lascivious or slanderous when there were so many poor scholars and rich ladies secretly making lifelong commitments in the past? Why can't you stand it when they changed the plot? Are you sympathizing with the poor scholar who is so heartless?
After some laughter, the scholars whose faces turned red with anger did not dare to say anything anymore - it was because as soon as they objected, others would say that this was just an opera, and they should not take it seriously out of guilt.
Who dares to object to this?
Some scholars and officials heard of this play by chance and were so impressed that they wanted their daughters to go and see it!
Don't just think about talented men and beautiful women, and don't be blinded by the false emotions in the previous excerpts. Look at the final failure of the Meimu Opera Troupe, it's so real!
In the future, when you meet those poor scholars who only have a lot of talk left, the most important thing is to keep a distance from them!
Under such a wave, the impact of the final mistake is getting bigger and bigger.
Even Mrs. Qin Anbo, who was busy preparing a water and land ritual for the late Qin Anbo, occasionally learned about the existence of this short opera from her servants.
When she heard the servant's synopsis of the play, her brows twitched heavily, and she almost immediately thought of Hao Ge'er who was imprisoned in the backyard.