Day and night tour

Chapter 4 Fang Xiangshi

"Not very good!" Zhou Xuan answered truthfully.

Zhou Lingyi nodded and said, "Then I'll ask again in a few days!"

You didn't even ask me why it was not good. Is the brother-sister relationship so weak? You don't even care about being perfunctory?

Zhou Xuan has a lot of opinions about his sister, but there are many things he cannot say directly.

Although the two are siblings, they have not met each other very often since they came back to life.

Zhou Lingyi took the initiative to visit Zhou Xuan two or three times. There was not much communication. He left some medicine and said a few polite words like "take care of your health".

It seems that the relationship between the original owner and her sister was not very good.

amount……

Not surprising.

Judging from the qualities reflected in the original owner's diary, his interpersonal relationships will not be good.

Moreover, after these two or three brief contacts, Zhou Xuan realized that the people in the troupe were particularly afraid of Zhou Lingyi.

This sister who is only in her early twenties has an inexplicably powerful aura. When the five senior brothers stand in the same situation with her, they are all so overwhelmed by her that they can't even raise their heads.

In addition to her strong aura, Zhou Lingyi's every move is also dashing.

She was wearing a white shirt, black vest, black trousers, and a silver snake earring on her right ear, which matched her delicate and handsome features.
Zhou Xuan suspected that the speed at which he could find a girlfriend would be far behind his sister's.

Zhou Lingyi changed the subject and asked Zhou Xuan: "What are you doing in Luoying Hall?"

Xu Li was afraid that Zhou Lingyi would blame Zhou Xuan, so he hurriedly helped to explain the whole story: "Boss, a business suddenly came in, and I couldn't write well, so I asked Xuanzi to help me."

Zhou Lingyi expressed her understanding and said, "That's good. My brother has grown up now and it's his duty to help the family."

After saying that, she left with her umbrella. After walking a few steps, she turned around and said to Xu Li, "Sister-in-law, a few days ago, Zhou Xuan beat up Second Senior Brother?"

"Yes, that happened. It was Second Senior Brother's fault. Old Yu has already scolded him..."

"Don't try to make up for my brother. If you keep protecting him like this, how can he grow up? When you're done, go to my counter and give Second Senior Brother a thousand dollars as an apology."

After paying a large sum of money, Zhou Lingyi finally showed some expression. She glared at Zhou Xuan fiercely, but didn't say much.

Without blaming or insulting her, and even without saying a single sarcastic word, she just walked away.

However, Xu Li's mentality had undergone a slight change.

She said to Zhou Xuan with resentment,
"Xuan Zi, Second Senior Brother took a punch and a kick from you, and I got a thousand yuan for nothing. Why don't you beat me up too? You can even whip me with a whip. I'm not afraid of pain, and I want to make money too!"

Don't be like this.
Sister-in-law, please don't do this.

I am a serious person, how can I use a whip for no reason?
"Sister-in-law, I'm a gentleman. Gentlemen use words, not fists. Besides, I'm not holding back my anger, and I'm not getting carried away. My emotions haven't fully built up, so how can I just hit someone?"

"That's one thousand yuan." Xu Li couldn't help but sigh when he thought of one thousand yuan.

In Pingshui Prefecture, dock workers can only earn a little over 300 yuan in a good month, but in a bad month, they can earn less than 150 yuan.

The eldest brother is a member of the Zhou family's management. His salary is naturally not comparable to that of the dock workers, but one thousand yuan is definitely a considerable amount of money.

"Next time you get angry, be sure to ask your sister-in-law to help you relieve your anger. Let your sister-in-law earn the money, and your sister-in-law will treat you to a movie."

Zhou Xuan: “…”

……

The decoration of Luoying Hall is simple.

The floor was paved with bluestone bricks, and in the middle of the hall were two pots of oleander half a person's height, one on the left and one on the right, surrounding a two-story high-legged wooden table.

There was a shiny black hand-cranked telephone on the lower level of the wooden table, and a record player on the upper level.

"We have a telephone and a record player. We are indeed a wealthy family."

When Zhou Xuan came to Luoying Hall for the first time and saw the telephone record player, he believed that the Zhou family's business was big.

Only the well-to-do families in Pingguangfu had access to electricity. As for telephones and record players? Even if the poor could afford them, they would not use them.

Zhou Xuan's gaze quickly shifted and he looked at the pendant on the wall.

The north wall is covered with calligraphy and paintings by literati. They are not street-sale goods, and each one has a provenance.

On the south wall, there are densely packed signs of operas, covering many types of operas, including local operas, mainstream operas, and even the recently popular school operas.

The Zhou family troupe has quite a few repertoires to practice.

After Zhou Xuan admired inwardly, he looked towards the east wall. There was also a play sign hanging on this wall, but unlike the full south wall, it only had one sign.

It was a small wooden plaque made of red sandalwood, with three words engraved in seal script - Fang Xiangshi.

When Zhou Xuan saw it, he immediately tensed up.

He recalled the old man's words - "There is no hell without birth, and only the bright hall can be seen."

There must be some connection between Fang Xiang Mingtang and the Fang Xiang family, right?
But Zhou Xuan couldn't ask because of his status.

Fortunately, he was not the only one who was curious about "Fang Xiangshi".

The guests were also very interested.

The guests were a man and a woman.

The man is alive and the woman is a corpse.

The Zhou Clan Troupe is a ghost opera troupe that specializes in performing for the dead.

There is a popular custom at funerals in Jing State - inviting a ghost theater troupe to perform at the funeral.

People without money cannot afford to hire a troupe of ghost opera, so they can only find a makeshift troupe to sing casually, which is at least a token of their appreciation.

But wealthy families have more requirements, and the play needs to be performed for three to seven days.

Moreover, it is not enough for only the guests attending the funeral to listen to the opera. The deceased, as the main person, also has to listen to the opera.

The underworld troupe will dress up the deceased in lifelike form and place him in the main seat in the audience so that the deceased can listen to the play for the last time.

It sounds scary that the living and the dead sit together to watch a play, but from a certain perspective, it is very romantic.

——Let relatives and friends accompany the deceased to watch the last show, so that the last journey of life can still be lively and glorious.

The male passenger this time was named Wu Yun, the head of the tram department of the Public Utilities Bureau. The female passenger who died was named Zheng Meizhu.

Wu Yun came to see Xu Li today to pick out a play.

To hire a troupe, one must first select the play, just like ordering food at a restaurant. But Wu Yun did not understand the play, so after taking a few casual glances, he looked at the wooden signboard "Fang Xiangshi" on the east wall and asked Xu Li, "Boss Xu, what play is that?"

"Nuo opera is the golden signboard of our Zhou family troupe. It is not easy to perform this play. The troupe has to worship the Nuo god."

Xu Li was very proud, patting his chest loudly, and said: "Fang Xiangshi is the Nuo god that our Zhou family has worshipped for more than 2,000 years. In the whole Jing country, our troupe's Nuo opera is the authentic one."

Oh?
Fang Xiangshi is the god of the Zhou family's Nuo opera.

So Fangxiang Mingtang is the ancestral hall dedicated to Fangxiang clan?
Zhou Xuan listened quietly and pondered in his heart.

"What's the price for this play?" Wu Yun asked.

"Nuo opera is different from other operas. Money is just a threshold, but whether it can be performed in the end depends on whether the nine major Nuo gods are invited to perform and whether they agree.

Only if the Nuo God agrees can you sing. If the Nuo God disagrees, you cannot sing even if the price is doubled. "

Wu Yun was so shocked that he said, "Spending money is just the threshold? How much does it cost?"

"There are 15 Nuo operas in total. We will perform two every day for seven consecutive days. The last performance will be performed before the funeral procession. We cannot reduce the number of performances. The price of each performance is 18,800 yuan."

Wu Yun made a rough calculation and found that this was nearly 300,000 Jingguo banknotes. His monthly income, both open and hidden, was less than 1,000 yuan.

He simply didn't even bother to ask about inviting the Nine Great Nuo Masks. He couldn't even meet the financial threshold, so it was pointless to ask.

Wu Yun moved his gaze to the full list of play cards on the east wall and continued to choose a play.

He was indeed not good at drama. After selecting several, his eyes were dazzled and he had no idea which drama to choose.

He had no choice but to ask Xu Li for his opinion: "Boss Xu, I really don't understand operas and don't know how to choose. How about you recommend a few for me?"

"What kind of plays did your lover like to listen to when he was alive?"

"I just heard her singing, and I didn't even know her name," said Wu Yun.

Xu Li had enough business experience, so he changed the question: "Which theater does your wife like to go to the most?"

Different types of plays require different theaters to be chosen.

To listen to Beijing opera, go to Guangde Building on East Second Street. To listen to Mingjiang opera, go to Pingshui Grand Theater on Siping Road.

Wu Yun shook his head and said, "She loves to go to the Cloud Garden the most."

Garden in the Clouds is a nightclub.

There had never been a place like this to perform big plays before. It was only about ten years ago that several students from Pingjiang School borrowed the form of Western drama, added the singing tunes of the opera troupe, and integrated them into a new play, which was performed in the nightclub.

It was lukewarm at first.

Later, Ma Yin, the editor-in-chief of Pingjiang Daily, wrote a special report on the new play, praising it for its advanced ideas and much stronger expressiveness than the old play.

Ma Yin has a great influence in the cultural circle, and major newspapers have also followed suit and are promoting his new play one after another.

Gradually, this type of drama was regarded as a trendy product and was loved by many young people. Its popularity increased rapidly. Although its popularity has faded a lot in the past two years, its momentum is still strong.

Nowadays, people in Pingjiang Prefecture call this kind of drama school drama.

"Oh, school plays. Our troupe has actually rehearsed them before. They are no worse than those professional ones."

Xu Li held up a bamboo pole and picked down four opera cards in succession for Wu Yun to choose from.

“Love and Hate, Butterfly, Dream, and The Tempest are the most popular plays in the school.”

The names of these four plays sounded almost like hieroglyphics to Wu Yun.

He scratched his cheek and asked if he could find an actor to sing these four plays. Only after comparing them did he know which play to choose.

Xu Li patted the record player gently and said, "Master Wu, times have changed. Now we don't need actors to demonstrate, we use this instead."

"Xuan Zi, you come and play with this Western thing. You were the one who tinkered with it before, and it didn't work for me."

what?
Can this cue me?

Zhou Xuan was originally in the mode of watching the show and never thought that he would be needed to play the record player.

How could he have come into contact with this thing in his previous life?
Fortunately, there was a handwritten instruction manual on the cabinet where the records were placed. Zhou Xuan was looking for the corresponding record while reading the instruction manual.

When it was time to play the record, he slowly recalled the steps.

"First, turn on the anti-rotation switch.
Play a record.
Then shake the handle until it stops.

Place the tonearm of the stylus needle on the...

Ouch, what the hell."

Zhou Xuan's operation was already clumsy, and he had to recall the steps in his mind, so his concentration was not very good. He accidentally pricked his finger with the stylus.

A drop of bright red blood stuck to the needle.

He quickly sucked his finger to stop the bleeding, then endured the pain and continued the operation. After a lot of effort, he finally got the "Butterfly" play up and running.

Tsk, tsk, tsk,

When the old record player played, there was a bit of mottled noise, like the sound of snowflakes with the volume turned down.

"We want to fill the house with the fragrance of spring, and make it feel like a garden filled with spring sunshine."

The dramatic sound in the vinyl record is slightly distorted. Zhou Jiaban's records were all recorded by very small companies with relatively backward equipment, so distortion is inevitable.

But it's worth mentioning that the distortion mixed with the snowy sound, coupled with the record player's slightly weak overall sound pressure, sounded a bit ethereal to Zhou Xuan's ears.

I was used to eating "high-fidelity" fish and meat in my previous life, but now I feel fresh eating some radishes and cabbages.

Zhou Xuan leaned on the counter in the corner, closed his eyes, and enjoyed the opera sounds on the vinyl.

Xu Lizhe and Wu Yun whispered the essence of the school play "Butterfly".

None of the three noticed the drop of blood hanging on the needle of the record player.

Slowly fading on the spinning record,
Then a very thin thread of blood was pulled out.
Dye the record red,

The red light is fleeting.
at the same time,

The wooden sign with the words "Fang Xiangshi" on the east wall was buzzing, as if it sensed something.

The body that was originally lying quietly - Wu Yun's lover, Zheng Meizhu,

Her index finger flicked twice briskly, with an amplitude imperceptible to the naked eye.

(End of this chapter)