A live-streamed Chinese language lesson under the sky—the ancients were taken aback.

The sky lit up again at dusk on the second day.

On the ridge of the field, everyone hurriedly finished their work and gathered together.

The old farmer had already sat down on the spot, surrounded by a group of people: his son, the old man next door, several farm women, and a few young men who hadn't come last time. No one spoke; everyone was waiting.

"This is the third act," Liu Bang said, rubbing his hands together. "Shouldn't it explode today?"

On the backdrop, Shen Moyan stands on the podium, with five words written on the blackboard behind him: Act Three: Coercion.

She picked up the chalk again and added the location to the blackboard: Lu Gui's house.

"The setting for the third act has changed. The first two acts took place in the living room of the Zhou mansion, with its ornate furniture, tightly closed windows, and a suffocating sense of order."

In the third act, Cao Yu changed the stage to Lu Gui's house. Note this change; it went from "above" to "below".

The Zhou residence was "above," orderly and where everyone maintained a respectable air. The Lu family home was "below," cramped, damp, and dilapidated. Everything that couldn't be said at the Zhou residence was said here.

She opened her textbook.

"This scene took place at 10 p.m. that night, during a thunderstorm with strong winds and heavy rain, which was the most intense moment in the entire play."

Lu Gui's house was small, crammed with four people: Lu Gui, Shiping, Sifeng, and Lu Dahai. Then Zhou Chong arrived, and Fanyi also came.

One by one, people from the Zhou mansion burst into this space belonging to the lower classes, like secrets flooding into the night.

She picked up the chalk and wrote a line on the blackboard: Deathly silence—an eruption—an even greater deathly silence.

"The emotional structure of this scene is wave-like. It doesn't stay high all the time, but starts from a dead silence, pushes to a breaking point, then falls into a deeper dead silence, and then pushes to the next higher breaking point."

Shen Moyan picked up her textbook.

"At the beginning of this scene, Lu Gui and Si Feng had already been dismissed by the Zhou family. Lu Gui was dismissed because Zhou Puyuan saw through his trick of asking for money. Si Feng was dismissed because Fan Yi had already discovered her affair with Zhou Ping and could no longer tolerate her."

When the father and daughter returned home, their reactions were completely different. Lu Gui was drinking, cursing the Zhou family for betraying him and lamenting his own misfortune. Si Feng sat silently in a corner; she wasn't upset about losing her job, but rather she was thinking about someone.

"She's waiting for Zhou Ping. Zhou Ping promised her that he would come to her tonight and take her away."

Shen Moyan put down his textbook and wrote a line on the blackboard: The last person who was unaware: Sifeng.

"The core suspense of this scene lies here."

The audience knows that Sifeng and Zhou Ping are siblings.

The audience knows that Shiping has already discovered it.

The audience knows that Fanyi will not let Zhou Ping go.

The audience knew that Lu Dahai was on his way here.

Everyone knew that disaster was coming.

Only Sifeng, harboring a beautiful dream of eloping and starting a new life, remained completely unaware.

"Shi Ping, who was standing to the side, saw everything clearly. She watched helplessly as her daughter stood on the edge of the cliff, unable to bear the torment. In order to stop her daughter, she forced Si Feng to make a poisonous oath."

Shen Moyan opened the original script.

"Shi Ping: Si Feng, come here. I have a question for you. In the Zhou family... has anyone bullied you?"

Sifeng: No, Mom, don't overthink it.

Shiping: Look at me and tell Mom the truth, that young master... did he do anything inappropriate to you?

Shen Moyan closed his textbook.

"Sifeng dared not confess and could only deliberately conceal it. Shiping stopped asking and used the most resolute method to force her daughter to give up her thoughts. She made Sifeng kneel down and swear to heaven."

She gestured for the girl with a ponytail in the front row to stand up.

"You read Sifeng's vows slowly and savor the weight of each word."

The girl with the ponytail took the textbook, her fingertips trembling slightly, and took a deep breath after finding the right paragraph.

"Mom, what's wrong...?"

"Kneel down, kneel down, and swear to heaven."

"Mom... what oath do you want me to make?"

"Tell your mother... that you will never see anyone from the Zhou family again."

The girl's hands trembled slightly as she held the textbook. The classroom was so quiet that only the faint hum of the fluorescent lights could be heard.

"I... I will never see anyone from the Zhou family again."

"What if we meet again?"

The girl stared down at her lines, her lips trembling repeatedly, before she managed to utter the fatal vow with difficulty:

"Then... let the lightning strike me."

Shen Moyan raised his hand to stop her reading, his voice becoming deep.

"Sifeng made the most vicious oath of thunder and rain, but she simply couldn't keep it."

At this moment, she was already pregnant with Zhou Ping's child.

In the classroom, everyone under the canopy gasped in unison.

She turned a page of her textbook.

"After Sifeng finished making her oath, Zhou Chong arrived."

Shen Moyan wrote two words on the blackboard: disillusionment.

"Zhou Chong came specifically to find Sifeng. He is the cleanest person in the Zhou family, but also the one who understands the world the least."

He didn't know that Sifeng didn't like him at all, nor did he know about Sifeng and his brother.

He brought money and books to support Sifeng's schooling and to take her to see the sea.

"Every word Zhou Chong said was sincere, but the more sincere he was, the more anxious the audience became."

Because the audience knows that Sifeng doesn't need him. He thought that liking someone meant giving her his best, but he didn't realize that some things, once given, are simply not needed by the other person.

She paused for a moment.

"Zhou Chong hasn't left yet, but Lu Dahai is back."

"In the second act, Lu Dahai barged into the Zhou mansion, argued with the capitalist, and was slapped by the eldest son."

Now that he's back home, he's seething with anger. He never agreed to his sister working for the Zhou family in the first place, and now that he's heard she's been fired and sees the Zhou family's second young master come to their house looking for her, he feels that this family has ulterior motives. He tries to drive Zhou Chong away, but Zhou Chong tries to explain that he genuinely likes Sifeng, and Lu Dahai won't listen.

In his world, rich young masters like poor girls, but there's no genuine affection, only manipulation.

Zhou Chong left, placing the books he had brought on the table and saying, "These books are for you; keep them."

Then he pushed open the door and stepped into the thunderstorm.

Shen Moyan turned a page of her textbook.

"Shortly after Zhou Chong left, Zhou Ping arrived."

"Zhou Ping climbed in through the window. He had arranged to come to Sifeng tonight to confirm their elopement tomorrow."

But he didn't know that there was someone else standing outside the window, Fanyi.

Fanyi had followed Zhou Ping. She stood in the thunderstorm for a long time, soaked to the bone, looking at the people inside through the glass.

She didn't rush in; she just stood in the rain, water streaming down her hair, while the thunder behind her grew louder and louder.

"Zhou Ping and Si Feng were talking inside when Lu Dahai noticed the noise, pushed the door open, and saw Zhou Ping holding Si Feng."

He rushed forward and started hitting them. The two of them wrestled together. In the chaos, Zhou Ping pulled Si Feng out of the window and they escaped back to the Zhou Mansion, thinking that they would be safe once they were back there.

Unbeknownst to them, everyone was converging on that mansion. Fanyi was walking back, Shiping chased after her, Zhou Chong was still in the rain, and Lu Dahai chased after her out of the house.

From that moment on, everyone's steps were directed in the same direction: the Zhou Mansion. It wasn't that they chose that direction; it was the karma of thirty years that pushed them there.