Chapter 198
Chapter 198
He was a genius.
Or rather, his physical abilities were absurdly good. He could pull off even the most difficult movements.
Huo Dieyi cleared her throat twice. “Mm… passable. Average, I suppose. You missed some of the finer details, but I’ll teach you when the time comes. You also need to memorize the fundamentals. You can’t perform opposite someone without even understanding the role they’re playing.”
Xiao Huai nodded, and Huo Dieyi handed him several books.
She said, “Even though I can’t read them anymore, I’ve memorized everything in these books. Learn the material properly, and ask me if there’s anything you don’t understand.”
Then, to Huo Dieyi’s surprise, it happened again: Xiao Huai memorized every one of those books in a single morning.
Huo Dieyi had only been resting in her office for a few hours when Xiao Huai knocked on her door.
“Teacher, I’ve memorized them.”
Huo Dieyi quizzed him on several points from the books. Not only did he answer every question, his answers were precise and thorough, and he even offered insights of his own.
The corner of Huo Dieyi’s eye twitched several times. Forcing her expression back under control, she said evenly, “N-not bad. You have a decent memory.”
She remembered what Xiao Huai had told her before.
“I’m not a particularly bright student.”
Just how humble could one person be?!
As they made their way to the stage to begin practice, Xiao Huai suddenly asked a question.
“Miss Dieyi, what comes to mind when you think of mandarin ducks?”
Huo Dieyi noticed his choice of words. He was not asking as her apprentice.
She thought for a moment. “‘Gladly we’d be mandarin ducks, not envious of immortals.’ When people speak of mandarin ducks, don’t they usually associate them with love?”
Something else occurred to her, and she added, “Jinlemen Club once created a play called Mandarin Ducks, but later, because…”
She abruptly fell silent. After a long while, she said, “It was never successfully staged.”
“Can you tell me what Mandarin Ducks was about?” Xiao Huai asked softly.
Huo Dieyi hesitated, not having expected him to show an interest in a play that had never reached the stage.
Since she would be teaching him how to perform shortly anyway, she took the opportunity to tell him the story of Mandarin Ducks.
“Although we called the play Mandarin Ducks, it actually had little to do with romantic love.”
The leads in Mandarin Ducks were two men who had grown up together. Kindred spirits, they were the best of friends as well as partners.
They eventually went their separate ways, each striving desperately to fulfill his dream. Yet they both fell in love with the same woman.
What followed was no more than a conventional love triangle, and it did not end well.
One of the men died for the woman he loved.
Only then did the survivor realize that losing his dearest friend hurt as though one of his own arms had been severed. In the end, he did not stay with the woman either.
When Jinlemen Club first held a trial performance of the play, everyone had been dissatisfied with the ending.
Most endings were either happy or tragic, but this play had an open ending.
The survivor spoke just one line before the performance came to an end.
“Live well.”
Huo Dieyi folded her arms across her chest and said calmly,
“Some of Jinlemen Club’s seniors said they couldn’t understand what the line meant. If even they didn’t understand it, the audience might not either. But Yang… ahem. But our lead insisted that the line had to be included, so we ultimately kept it. Unfortunately, the play never made it before an audience. For certain reasons, the lead temporarily left Jinlemen Club.”
Xiao Huai lowered his eyes and remained silent for a long time.
He understood exactly what that line meant.
Yang Nanqing had wanted Huo Lanxu to see the play, to see the words “Live well.”
Perhaps even then, he had wanted to tell Huo Lanxu that he no longer cared what anyone else thought.
But it had already been too late.
Their world had been marked.
“What’s wrong? Why ask me about this all of a sudden?” Huo Dieyi turned to look at Xiao Huai.
Xiao Huai lifted his gaze to the stage ahead. “It’s nothing. Someone invited us to watch a performance of Mandarin Ducks, so I was curious about the story.”
On the first day, Butler Yang had asked them for their invitations. The words Mandarin Ducks had been written on them.
Huo Dieyi said nothing when she heard that. She merely gave a soft hum of acknowledgment.
Xiao Huai did not know how far the game would have to progress before they, the so-called honored guests, could watch Mandarin Ducks.
But if that moment truly came, Xiao Huai now had a new plan.
The corners of his lips curved upward. “Miss Dieyi, do you remember the script I mentioned yesterday?”
Huo Dieyi’s lashes trembled slightly as she nodded.
Xiao Huai took out the script he had stayed up all night writing. “I’ve finished it. After practice today, I’ll read it to you. How does that sound?”
Huo Dieyi smiled faintly. “You wrote something that quickly? A script is judged by quality, not speed. I’d certainly like to see what you’ve come up with.”
“Then wait and see.”
Xiao Huai walked toward the stage, where several of Jinlemen Club’s performers were already waiting.
Huo Dieyi looked up at the stage. It had been a long time since she had organized any Peking opera performance with the members of Jinlemen Club.
In the blink of an eye, six years had passed.
Now she could see only the outlines of the performers and the stage. Yet as she stood among the audience seats, the music and the cheers of the crowd remained as vivid in her memory as ever.
Yang Nanqing most of all.
She lowered her eyes. After all these years, she still had not forgotten him.
“Today, the veterans of Jinlemen Club will give you your first lesson.”
Head held high, she walked slowly onto the stage.
…
Sweat ran from Xiao Huai’s brow, slid along the bridge of his nose, and fell to the floor. The light took on form and motion as he trained.
Light intertwined with shadow, every drop of sweat a testament to his effort.
They did not finish training until nearly eight that night.
During the breaks, Xiao Huai nodded off several times the moment he closed his eyes.
The senior performers of Jinlemen Club could scarcely bring themselves to wake him.
But the instant each allotted break ended, Xiao Huai woke on his own. No one ever needed to call him.
Huo Dieyi watched him. What kind of person possessed such determination?
Without realizing it, she had genuinely begun to wonder what sort of story Xiao Huai had written.
When practice ended, everyone else dispersed, leaving Huo Dieyi and Xiao Huai alone onstage.
Xiao Huai sat on the edge of the stage, head bowed, the script in his hands.
In the end, however, he glanced at it only a few times before putting it away.
He had spent the entire night writing so he could arrange every plot point in order. Now that it was on paper, it was already committed to his memory.
“You probably won’t enjoy the beginning of this story. Some of what comes later may confuse you. But perhaps… you’ll like it.”
That day, Xiao Huai recounted the contents of the script to Huo Dieyi.
Just as he had predicted, she was unhappy at first. But then anger gave way to pain, then helpless bewilderment, and finally shock.