Chapter 519, Encounter
As soon as Daohua and Dong Yuanyao jumped off the wall, they saw a thin man wearing only a white undershirt kneeling in the yard.
Seeing that person turned around and looked at them, they both made a gesture to keep quiet.
At this time, the voices of patrolling officers and soldiers came from the alley across the wall.
"I clearly saw those two maids running in here, why is there no one here?"
"Could it have run to another alley?"
"Impossible, I can't be wrong."
"Will it go over into the yard?"
Upon hearing this, Daohua and Dong Yuanyao's expressions changed.
After taking a look at the people kneeling on the ground, she turned her head away, with no intention of paying any attention to them. Daohua pulled Dong Yuanyao and took her to hide in the ear room next door.
Soon, a patrol officer appeared on the wall.
The patrolling officer saw a person kneeling in the yard, was stunned for a moment, and then asked loudly: "Brother, have you seen the two maids?"
In the ear room, Daohua and Dong Yuanyao were very nervous and stared at the man closely, fearing that he would betray them.
The man turned to look at the soldiers on the wall, shook his head, and then turned back.
The patrol officers wanted to say something, but at this time a middle-aged man entered the yard.
Recognizing the middle-aged man as the owner of Shuangxi Troupe, the patrolling officers said nothing and quickly got down from the wall.
Master Jia glanced at the wall, frowned, and walked over to the kneeling man. "What's going on?"
The kneeling man shook his head silently.
When Master Jia saw him like this, he immediately became angry: "It seems that you are very dissatisfied with the punishment given to you by your master." After saying that, he snorted, walked to the side and pulled out a thumb-thick, polished and very smooth bramble.
“Snap, snap, snap!”
The whip kept whipping the man, and soon, traces of red blood seeped out of his white inner clothes.
In the ear room, Daohua and Dong Yuanyao watched silently, and couldn't help but feel pain for the man.
After about a cup of tea, the band leader Jia grew tired and dropped the whip in his hand with a 'pop'. He looked at the kneeling man expressionlessly and said, "We opera singers are just there for those dignitaries to laugh at and amuse ourselves."
"You have integrity and self-respect. You're not afraid of offending others and would rather die than surrender. But there are so many other people in the troupe. Are you going to let them die with you?"
"Think carefully about what I'm saying. When you enter our industry, dignity and integrity will no longer matter to us."
"People like us can only live peacefully in this world if we endure what ordinary people cannot endure."
Master Jia spoke for a while, looked at his apprentice with his head down, sighed, and left with his hands behind his back.
As soon as he left, Daohua and Dong Yuanyao, who were hiding in the ear room, slowly came out.
The two men came to the kneeling man and wanted to thank him, but as they got closer, they saw that the ground was getting wet.
Daohua and Dong Yuanyao looked at each other silently.
After a moment of silence, Daohua took out a bottle of medicine from her purse and handed it to the man: "Thank you for helping us just now."
Dong Yuanyao also spoke up, "Get up quickly. It's still very cold in the first month of the year. You'll get sick if you kneel like this. Go back to the house and ask someone to give you some medicine."
Only then did An Xi slowly turn her head to look at the two of them, tears still on her face.
Seeing the two looking at him with sympathy, An Xi let out a sneer: "With a worthless life like mine, I'd be nothing but a walking corpse even if I were still alive."
Daohua frowned. "It stands to reason that we shouldn't make irresponsible comments since we don't understand your situation, but I don't quite agree with what you just said."
"We may not be able to choose the environment, but we can change ourselves and adapt to it. Every environment has its own rules of survival and its own difficulties. If everyone is as self-deprecating as you, I'm afraid few people would survive."
Dong Yuanyao: "That's right. If you are not satisfied with reality, then resist. Don't abuse your body like this. This trick of yours is only useful to those who care about you. It is completely useless to those who don't care about you."
Seeing that he didn't say anything, Daohua put down the medicine, said nothing more, and pulled Dong Yuanyao out through the back door.
Hearing the sound of the back door closing, An Xi turned around and looked over. He was silent for a while, then looked at the golden wound medicine on the ground and picked up the bottle.
After leaving the alley, Daohua and Dong Yuanyao walked on the street cautiously. They breathed a sigh of relief when they didn't see any patrolling officers or soldiers.
"Let's go, let's go back quickly, so as not to make Man'er and the others wait too long and cause trouble."
The two of them walked quickly towards the Sihai Restaurant.
On the way, Daohua and Dong Yuanyao talked about the man they had just met: "You seem to know that man?"
Dong Yuanyao: "How could I not recognize him? That guy is the mainstay of the Shuangxi Troupe. Almost all the officials and their wives who love opera in the provincial government know him."
Daohua was puzzled and asked, "Since he is already a pillar of the stage, why is he being beaten?"
Dong Yuanyao curled her lips and said, "Why else? He must have had a conflict with a customer." Then, she lowered her voice and asked, "Did you see what he looked like just now?"
Rice Flower nodded.
Dong Yuanyao: "What do you think of her appearance?"
Daohua pondered for a moment and said, "She's very pretty, with good skin, big eyes, white teeth and red lips."
Dong Yuanyao: "A lot of people say he's more feminine than women. Most people who invite the Shuangxi Troupe to perform at temple fairs do so because of him. Just think about it, a man with that appearance, how can he avoid trouble?"
Daohua sighed and was about to say something when she saw patrolling officers walking past from the street ahead. Without saying a word, they grabbed Dong Yuanyao and ran back.
"They're there!"
When they saw that the patrolling officers had discovered them, Daohua and Dong Yuanyao both cried out in bad luck.
The two of them moved quickly through the crowd, looking back from time to time as they ran forward. Seeing the patrolling officers and soldiers getting closer and closer, they were becoming extremely anxious when suddenly a figure appeared in front of Daohua and stopped her.
Daohua failed to stop its momentum and crashed directly into the man.
The impact was so strong that Daohua was knocked backwards. Seeing this, Xiao Yeyang suddenly appeared and quickly reached out to grab the person.
Dong Yuanyao also collided with Daohua and fell to the side.
Xiao Yeyang was only concerned with the rice flowers and ignored Dong Yuanyao. Just when Dong Yuanyao thought she was about to have an intimate contact with the earth, a pair of hands supported her.
"It's you!"
Dong Yuanyao widened his eyes as he looked at the person who was holding him.
Sun Changze helped Dong Yuanyao stand up, then immediately let go of her hand: "Miss Dong, are you okay?"
Dong Yuanyao shook her head and was about to say something when she heard Daohua exclaim in surprise, "Xiao Yeyang!"
Seeing Daohua's surprised expression, Xiao Yeyang smiled and asked, "Are you so happy to see me?"
Daohua didn't waste any time talking to him and said anxiously, "Xiao Yeyang, there are patrolling officers chasing us."
Xiao Yeyang glanced at Defu, motioning him to take care of it, and then reluctantly took her into the shop next door: "Tell me, how come you are so good at causing trouble?"
Daohua retorted, "It's not me who causes trouble, it's trouble that causes me."
Seeing Daohua following Xiao Yeyang without even calling her, the ignored Dong Yuanyao took a deep breath and waved her hands at Daohua's back.
Seeing Dong Yuanyao's playful expression while gritting her teeth, Sun Changze on the side couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Dong Yuanyao turned around when she heard the voice and saw Sun Changze clenching his fists and laughing softly. She felt a little uncomfortable, snorted, and walked into the shop with her head held high.
(End of this chapter)
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