The lights on the stage in Qiyuan were lit again, and the curtain was raised.
The Japanese entered the garden openly, as if they were entering their own back garden. They walked around the house, shouting and yelling, without encountering any objection from the garden owner.
A large gramophone was moved from the side hall, and a record of opera was played. The prelude was very long. All the wine barrels in the cellar were moved out. Everyone laughed loudly. Kuromiya Naniwa took a sip and waited for the main character to come out.
In the dressing room behind the stage, Xu Hang was already made up. Applying opera makeup is very meticulous, involving powdering the face, drawing the eyebrows, tightening the headwear, and putting on the costume… each step takes an hour or two. Coin-shaped hairpieces were pasted on his forehead, rouge color spread across the corners of his eyes, and powder and ink adhered to his pale skin, a beauty that felt unreal, a beauty that was exquisitely gorgeous.
Xu Hang had never looked at his stage makeup seriously. He was forced to do so before, and he would not even look at it for a second. But today, he looked at the diamond-shaped mirror carefully for a while, reached out to the lip balm box and dipped it, and his lips were bright red, with a touch of blood.
He has a stunning appearance but has a sickly body.
Chan Yi walked forward, combed Xu Hang’s long hair, and her sigh was even longer than his hair.
“Chan Yi, you go ahead, I’ll do it myself.”
Xu Hang stood up, walked slowly behind the scenes, took the mud-gold fan from Chan Yi’s hand, unfolded it, and saw a pair of peonies on the fan. He stroked it with his slender fingers, lifted the curtain, and went on stage to the music.
The Japanese whistled.
The first play was “The Drunken Concubine”. The ice wheel on the island began to turn, and the Jade Rabbit appeared. The Jade Rabbit rose in the east, and the ice wheel left the island, and the world was particularly bright.
Xu Hang can sing any kind of opera. He has mastered Peking Opera, Yue Opera, and Kunqu Opera. Duan Yelin obviously loves to listen to him sing, but he didn’t get to hear him sing that many times.
He can’t hear him anymore. There is no chance.
The sleeves flipped, and Kuromiya Naniwa squinted his eyes and shouted, “good”. He was familiar with the rules of opera, and he knew when to cheer and when to applaud. It was a blessing from God that such a wonderful performer did not die in the war. If possible, he would definitely bring him back to the other side of the ocean to have him sing and dance with the geishas for him to watch.
It was really enjoyable, from the ‘drunken concubine’ to the ‘dream in the garden’ and then to ‘Su San’s execution’. These soldiers from neighboring countries were deeply attracted by the mysterious and beautiful Chinese charm. The smell of wine filled their visions, they shook their heads, and they were glad to be alive.
Kuromiya Naniwa threw his wine jug onto the stage, landing right at Xu Hang’s feet: “You sing well. Come, try our Japanese wine, and sing me ‘Butterfly Lovers’ after you finish drinking it.”
Kuromiya Naniwa had been thinking about this play for many years already, and the only thing left to listen to is the last part of crying at the grave.
Xu Hang leaned over to pick up the wine flask, opened the lid, and took a sip. It was not as sweet as Chinese liquor. Then he nodded with a faint smile on his face.
The record was changed, this time it was a Yue Opera, and the tune was very sad.
On the stage, Xu Hang turned into Zhu Yingtai, with sad and empty eyes, staring into the distance, slowly kneeling on the ground, pulling out a mud-gold fan from his sleeve, like a butterfly with broken wings.
“Father is forcing me to marry him. The grand red bridal sedan is already at the door. Brother Liang has gone ahead for my sake, how can I go to the Ma family dressed in this wedding dress?”
The water in the Xipi River sped up. Xu Hang trembled slightly and waved the fan in his hand like butterfly wings. He nodded slightly. “Brother Liang, I will grow old by your side. I’ll hold your hand for all eternity. Beside the black tombstone, I will place a red one. Until the seas run dry and the stones decay, I will follow Liang Shanbo through life and death—”
The last shout was high-pitched and extremely loud, and the penetrating power of the sound was astonishing, as if a heart full of emotions would only be so powerful if there was only a small outlet for them to vent.
Kuromiya Naniwa clapped his hands and became distracted. He was thinking, It would be wonderful if such a graceful person, wearing a gorgeous costume, could sing in his arms.
As he was thinking this, he sat up straight and was about to call Xu Hang down when he suddenly saw the mud-gold fan in front of Xu Hang slowly close, and a black muzzle of a gun appeared behind it!
It was an assassination! Kuromiya Naniwa immediately pulled out the gun from his pocket and fired a shot while falling to the side.
The sounds of the two bullets intertwined, seeming extremely abrupt in Qiyuan. Kuromiya Naniwa looked down and saw that the bullet had hit his feet, just by a little bit. It was a close call.
Xu Hang quickly rolled over, then jumped off the stage and stood in an open area about ten steps in front of Kuromiya Naniwa. He reached out, ripped off the kingfisher crown on his head, and smashed it hard on the ground. His long hair was messy, and his eyes were sharp.
This incident made the people who were listening to the opera perk up. Some of them smashed the wine glasses to the ground, some overturned the tables, some crushed the chairs, and some soldiers raised their bayonets. At this moment, the Japanese soldiers outside the garden also came in with bayonets, protecting Kuromiya Naniwa, with the tips of their swords pointed at Xu Hang.
After Kuromiya Naniwa dodged a bullet, he looked around for a while. There was no one behind Xu Hang. He was actually alone.
“Assh*le! How dare you attack me? Are you tired of living?” Kuromiya Naniwa raised his eyebrows.
Xu Hang’s answer was another shot. This time, Kuromiya Naniwa grabbed a soldier to block him, splashed blood all over his face, and then threw the soldier away.
At the same time, Xu Hang had also thrown away his gun. His gun only had three bullets in total, and he had used up all of them with these two shots plus the previous killing of a deserter. He knew very well that he was outnumbered.
There was no need to play psychological warfare in front of an unbeatable enemy. Hand-to-hand combat was the most direct. If it were in the past, this cunning Young Master Xu might have carefully calculated and planned how to defeat the enemy with the remaining weapons. But today, he didn’t care.
He had never expected to survive tonight.
Kuromiya Naniwa was completely annoyed by Xu Hang: “You, you are here to avenge Duan Yelin?!”
Xu Hang looked at Kuromiya Naniwa and grimly said, “If anyone offends Hezhou, he will be killed. Although I think you guys have polluted Qiyuan, but it’s a pity… I have no better choice.”
Kuromiya Naniwa looked at his thin and pitiful body and ordered, “You are disrespectful to the Japanese general. It would be a waste of bullets to kill such a man with a gun! Go ahead, nail him to the ground with your knives, I want to chop him into pieces!”
“Yes!”
The Japanese soldiers encircled Xu Hang, their bayonets glinting with a cold light that pierced the onlookers’ eyes.
A knife stabbed from behind, but Xu Hang grabbed it with his bare hands and resisted hard. He opened the mud-gold fan, turned around, and slashed the throat of the Japanese soldier, and blood plasma shot out several feet high!
The edge of the fan had actually been honed into a blade. What was just a plaything moments ago had now become deadly and menacing.
The Japanese soldiers swarmed over. Xu Hang touched the ground with his toes, jumped into the air, and stabbed the knife he had snatched into the chest of another soldier!
He fought desperately and seemed brave, but in a moment, he looked like a bloody man, with blood all over his face and body.
Not only that, many bayonets fell on him, left and right, making him feel helpless and was stabbed several times.
The blood drops from the tip of the knives dyed the flowers, plants, and trees in Qiyuan red, and soon Xu Hang showed signs of defeat.
