White Bone Demon Trail

Chapter 62 Inside and outside the play
July is scorching hot, and the weather is dry.

On the rugged mountain road, a group of men, women, and children, carrying bags and baskets, walked through the intricate mountain paths and forests for a whole day before finally standing in front of the Black Stone Village gate at nightfall.

You Junzi held a feather fan and waved it gently to cool off from the summer heat. Behind him stood several bare-necked and bare-armed men, whose eyes lit up with joy when they saw the group arrive.

He Erzhu and Bai Sanwen from Lingshan Road bowed and said, "Second Master, we have brought Master Xu with us."

"Thank you for your hard work." You Junzi nodded, stepped forward to the group of men, women, and children, and looked at the middle-aged man who was a bit overweight at the head of the group, saying, "You must be Master Xu, right? It's kind of you for your troupe to come all this way up the mountain."

Master Xu smiled and cupped his hands, saying, "Oh dear, I dare not accept the title of Second Master."

We're just lowly people trying to make a living. We're so grateful that your esteemed village thinks highly of us and is willing to give us food; you are our benefactors.

Upon hearing this, You Junzi couldn't help but smile and curl his lips. As expected of someone in this line of work, his flattery would never offend anyone, no matter where he went.

"Hehe, our village has been living deep in the mountains for a long time, and the lives of several hundred people are quite boring. So we specially invited you to watch a traditional opera, which can be considered a form of entertainment."

"You've just arrived on the mountain today, and you must be exhausted. Why don't you get some rest first? Our village has prepared food and wine for you. Eat your fill, get a good night's sleep, and tomorrow we'll put on some great operas for our village."

"Oh, thank you for your consideration, Second Master." Master Xu agreed verbally, but in his heart he was calculating. A bandit gang of this size must have plenty of gold and silver. He could have his men put in a good word with these bandits; their safety and the rewards would be plentiful!
He said a lot of things about buying skills, then followed the people into the village, leading a group of more than twenty people to rest in the village.

When it was light the next day, the villagers of Heishizhai saw a group of people busily building a high platform in the center of the village and couldn't help but watch out of curiosity.

When someone went up to ask, they found out that it was actually a group of actors hired by the owners to sing for everyone to relieve their boredom!
Hearing this, everyone cheered. In a world where even food was a problem, they had no entertainment. Listening to music, opera, and storytelling was the greatest pleasure for ordinary people.

So everyone who had gone to work in the fields had the energy to go back to the village early in the evening to watch the play.

Some children also curiously gathered around the stage, looking at it and chattering away.

As the sun set, the villagers, who usually worked in the fields until dark before returning home, unusually went home early today to start a fire and cook.

Meanwhile, the stage had already been built. The stage was three feet high, about three zhang long, and more than two zhang wide, facing west.

Many villagers had already brought their own small wooden stools and rushed to sit at the front.

At the very front were two rows of empty chairs.

The chairs in the first row were placed in the right corner, consisting of only one armchair, which few people paid attention to.

The second row has more than ten chairs, which are reserved for the heads of the household.

As the sun set over Black Mountain and the lights on both sides of the stage came on, the leaders of the group arrived.

Looking at the empty chairs in the first row, Master Xu couldn't help but ask You Junzi, "Master, who is this seat in the first row reserved for?"

"Hehe, our village worships the God of No Form, so this seat is naturally reserved for Lord No Form!" You Junzi explained with a smile.

Upon hearing that the matter involved gods and ghosts, Master Xu's expression changed slightly, and he hurriedly said, "Forgive me, forgive me, it was my ignorance, please don't take offense."

“It’s alright. Lord Wuxiang also enjoys watching plays and once told me that he was proficient in the White Bone Opera. I wonder if Master Xu knows about it?” You Junzi remembered that Wuxiang had mentioned the White Bone Opera when they played chess and discussed poetry in the past, so he asked.

"White Bone Opera? I've never heard of that." Master Xu pondered for a moment. "I've been to Shu, Jiangzhou, and Shen and Pingzhou in the Central Plains."

Our troupe knows a bit of the opera from the Sichuan and Chongqing region, including the Bianliang style. I wonder what kind of opera the leaders would like to see tonight? Here is the repertoire.

He handed a red book of opera scripts to the group.

Li Yiguang chuckled and said, "I don't know anything about these things. Second brother and third sister, you can decide on a few scenes."

Come to think of it, it's been over ten years since I last saw a play.

Zhao Lengxiang also said, "Second Brother, you should order."

You Junzi then picked up the repertoire, selected three operas, and said, "Let's have 'The Seventh-Rank Sesame Official' performed, then 'Peach Blossom Hermitage,' and finally..."

At this point, he suddenly paused and changed his words, saying, "Let's just perform 'Yao An Kills His Wife' one last time and that's it."

The group paused for a moment upon hearing the last part, and Master Xu asked, "This play, 'Yao An Kills His Wife,' is rather frightening, and it comes from Sichuan. I'm afraid not many people in our village can understand it."

"It's alright, you just keep performing." You Junzi smiled and took out a piece of broken gold from his sleeve and handed it to him.

When Master Xu saw the golden characters, his eyes lit up, and he immediately replied, "Yes, sir. Don't worry, I'll make sure they sing well!"

Master Xu ran to the back of the stage to prepare, and at this time Ah Liu and eight blind boys also arrived and sat on the side of the first row.

Ah Liu laughed and said, "It's so boring in the mountains, so I brought them out to listen to some music."

“Since we’ve invited a play to be performed, then everyone should enjoy it, and there’s nothing wrong with that,” You Junzi replied, then sat down quietly to wait for the show to begin.

Behind them, a group of villagers, some holding bowls, came to wait, while children ran around beside the adults, creating a lively and bustling scene.

A gust of wind blew by, and the chair in the front corner moved slightly. You Junzi and A Liu, who had been watching closely, both raised their eyelids when they saw it.

Not long after, after the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, a gong suddenly rang out from the stage.

"Dang~"

Master Xu, disguised as a servant, bent over slightly, smeared his face, and struck the gong three times. As soon as the sound of the gong was heard from behind the stage, the audience below fell silent.

"Dear fellow villagers, thank you for your support tonight!"

Our Meixian Opera Troupe's Huaqiang Opera Troupe is honored to perform a grand opera for you all.

Speaking of this play, the music is elegant, and the performance is incredibly diverse. There are endless tales of heroes and heroines, and countless stories of love and romance. In this world, corrupt officials, bandits, and rebels disrupt order, yet here we have a newly appointed seventh-rank official in Qingwan County…” “Clang clang clang~”

The sounds of gongs and drums rose, accompanied by the sounds of erhu, pipa, clappers, and wooden fish.

The audience below the stage all watched the various roles of male, female, painted face, and clown on stage, each with their own distinct appearance, good and evil, greed and purity. Every character was performing with great emotion and expression.

Meanwhile, the actor playing the county magistrate was engrossed in his performance when he glanced back at the audience while singing a song. He noticed a handsome young man dressed in mourning clothes sitting in a corner of the front row, watching the play with great interest.

He felt a chill run down his spine; he clearly remembered that the chair had been empty just moments before…

Sitting in his chair, Bai Wuxiang noticed that the actor playing the county magistrate on stage had seen him. The colorful costume itself wasn't anything special, but as the actors on stage earnestly performed their stories, the costumes and the audience gradually blended together, creating a certain momentum.

The content of this opera, "The Seventh-Rank Magistrate," was almost identical to what he had heard in his previous life, except that the characters originally set in the Ming Dynasty had been changed to the story of the Great Zhao Dynasty.

Bai Wuxiang observes the good and evil of humanity on stage, expressed through outward clothing and appearance. He is not looking at the story told in the opera, but rather at the spirit and rhythm, the essence and form of the play.

The first play is about human justice and fairness; the second is about a tragic love story; and the third is about love, hate, and revenge.

By the time the third play was performed, the villagers had thoroughly enjoyed it, and many, exhausted from a long day, went back to rest.

Even Ah Liu, having listened with interest, left with the children.

A play can last for more than an hour. The villagers who watched the first two plays were already watching until midnight, which is definitely considered staying up all night.

During intermission after the second play, many people had already left. Only three or five people remained, and upon hearing that it was a play about a wife-killing, they dared not listen any longer.

So when the play started, there was no one left in the audience.

The actors' cries still echoed when Master Xu, seeing that there were no more audience members, walked up from backstage and waved his sleeves to interrupt them, "That's enough, that's enough, there's no one here anymore, stop performing. It's making my head spin."

The actors hesitated for a moment, then stopped.

But the young man playing Yao An couldn't help but wave his sleeves and walk slowly, proclaiming loudly: "Once the play begins, all directions will come to listen!"
How can a play be interrupted midway?

Xu, the troupe leader, sneered after being provoked by him: "What? You're still not convinced by me?"
"You still dream that the old troupe leader will pass the position to you? No matter how well you act, no matter how much the old troupe leader favors you, now it's me, Xu Qing, who's the troupe leader. Who among these actors dares to disobey me?"

“Master, Xiao Qian is right. We still have to abide by the ancestral rules of our profession,” one of the older actors couldn’t help but advise.

"Hmph, what's there to be afraid of? I know the rules." Master Xu pointed to a yellow talisman on the stage. "This is a talisman made by Master Wang himself. Even if there are any unclean things, they won't dare to bother us."

"Are you all disobeying me, the troupe leader?"

Seeing that everyone was still hesitating, he raised his voice and shouted, coldly sweeping his eyes over them. Even if he had used some underhanded means to become the troupe leader, he was still the troupe leader recognized by the Peking Opera world, and these actors were all so lowly that they wanted to climb the ranks.

Bai Wuxiang, who was still watching the play from the audience, looked at the people on stage with great interest. The play itself had been interrupted, but the play outside the stage was still going on.

On stage, Qian Yi, dressed as a scholar, said in a cold voice, "Master Xu, how many times have you withheld our money since you became the master?"

I saw it from the stage just now; the mountain chief casually gave you a piece of gold. How much silver are we going to lose this time?

"Insolence! Qian Yi, if you spout any more nonsense, I'll have the head of the opera troupe send you to a brothel. With your delicate skin and tender flesh, you must have many men who dote on you, and you've made far more money than I, the head of the troupe, do!" Headmaster Xu warned him with a cold glint in his eyes.

"you dare!"

The scholar-like Qian Yi slammed his fist on the table in anger and drew the sword from the actor playing the official beside him. "Everyone must have a grudge against this guy, right? This Black Stone Village is in the middle of nowhere, the mountain roads are difficult to travel, and it's common for people to fall and die."

Ladies and gentlemen, don't you agree?

"What do you want to do?" Master Xu was startled and said in a cold voice, "Da Wu, Xiao Wu, you two tie him up and take him back to the opera troupe to the head master. Let him know what it means to wish he were dead!"

"This..." The two brothers, Da Wu and Xiao Wu, were the most burly men in the group. They hesitated for a moment but still got up.

Upon seeing this, Qian Yi immediately said, "If you all kill this scoundrel, I will pay you your monthly wages on time! Moreover, I will give you all the gold and silver in Xu's family property, you don't need a single penny!"

Upon hearing this, the expressions of the male, female, painted-face, and clown actors dressed in various costumes changed slightly.

"What are you trying to do? Aren't you afraid of being punished by the headmaster? You are all slaves. Even if you run away, where can you run to? If you follow me, at least you'll have a chance to live and have food and drink!" Headmaster Xu couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat as he watched the changing expressions on everyone's faces.

"Can you believe what this scoundrel Xu says? We killed him together, we're all family now. Have you forgotten the care and kindness my master showed you before he died?" Qian Yi hurriedly shouted, "After killing this man, we'll share both glory and ruin! Who would dare to bully whom? Do you want to be bullied by this scoundrel Xu for the rest of your lives?"

With a shout, Qian Yi saw the hesitation in everyone's hearts, raised his sword and said, "Even if things come to light later, I will say that it was all my doing, and that it has nothing to do with you!"

"Fine! We'll trust Xiao Qian this once! I've put up with this old dog Xu for too long!" An old man couldn't help but stand up and shout.

Immediately, one person responded, and the rest followed suit without hesitation.

Master Xu, terrified, cursed and tried to escape, but on the stage, a ghostly woman dressed in black and white mourning clothes, a county magistrate wearing a black gauze official hat, a scholar with a fair face and a sword, and a clown with a painted face and black eyes swarmed up and tied Master Xu up.

Qian Yi raised his unsharpened sword and slashed several times before finally breaking Xu's neck. Bright red blood flowed onto the stage, and the flickering firelight lengthened the shadows of the performers.

Master Xu, writhing in agony, lay on the ground, shrouded in the shadows of the crowd. The painted faces of the various characters—male, female, painted-face, and clown—swirled around him. He clutched his neck and breathed his last.

"Whoo~"

A night breeze blew by, and the yellow talisman hanging on the stage was blown down, landing right at Bai Wuxiang's feet.

He picked up the yellow talisman, held it between two fingers, and the talisman burned to ashes the moment the yin energy touched it.

Bai Wuxiang shook his head and muttered to himself, "Treasure talismans and magic scrolls can ward off evil spirits and demons, but they can't guard against the wickedness of people's hearts!"

(End of this chapter)