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Dengyun’s Actor
T/N: Translated by Jen on Broken Jinsei! Please do not repost my translations! All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
The opera on stage had just started not long ago, yet Lu Qi Yang already lifted the curtains and started running along Dengyun Pavilion’s corridors.
Just, unfortunately, after going around three circles, he directly bumped into an angry Shen Lan Chi with her sleeves pulled up when turning the corner.
“Stop right there!”
This shout although wasn’t intimidating, it was still more than enough to make the little heir stop in his desire to escape.
He stood against the wall, slowing turning around, carrying a helpless look, “Lan Lan, listen to me explain…….”
Shen Lan Chi had her sleeve pulled even higher, revealing a section of her lotus-like porcelain wrist. She slowly approach Lu Qi Yang, deliberately putting on a mean look on her beautiful face, “Lord heir, I finally understand now. No wonder you’ve been avoiding me everyday. Turns out, it’s because you’ve become infatuated with a maiden here in this Dengyun Pavilion.”
Lu Qi Yang slightly blanked, his gaze secretly glancing at her forearm under her sleeve, while saying, “What nonsense are you saying? Who’s infatuated with the opera singer in Dengyun Pavilion?”
“A hundred taels of silver, enough for me to buy a hairpin, yet you still say that you’re not infatuated with them?” Shen Lan Chi lifted her brow and said, “I thought that you were hiding from me because you’re like those coy young girls, feeling shy inside, who knew that you actually secretly became infatuated with an opera singer!”
Getting such a big accusation pinned on him head-on, Lu Qi Yang remained silent.
The two of them were in a stalemate for a while, just hearing the huadan[1] on stage finish singing their lines and come down from the stage. Shen Lan Chi’s eyes turned, saying, “Fine, you won’t talk, right? Then, today, I will just go see where that huadan is better than me!”
———Sigh, even though she and Lu Qi Yang still weren’t in a relationship yet, she just couldn’t help but get angry.
After saying this, she charged towards the theatrical troupe’s backstage that was separated by a screen.
“Wait!” Lu Qi Yang extended his arm to block her, “No! You’re not allowed to go! That guy is definitely changing right now! You’re not allowed to go!”
“?” Shen Lan Chi shockingly felt that there was something wrong, “You even know whether or not they are changing?!”
Lu Qi Yang’s attempt to stop her made her even more unwilling to comply. Bending her waist, she directly pass through under Lu Qi Yang’s arm, and without a second word, just charged behind that screen.
There were quite a few busy people in this troupe. At this time, behind the screen, there were only a total of two to three people. One of them was precisely that dan actor that was on-stage just now. At this very moment, she’d just removed her head ornament, currently undoing her stage costume.
“Miss…..” Shen Lan Chi charged towards her in large strides.
TN: All translations outside of Broken Jinsei are stolen and reposted without permission!
“En?” That dan actor blanked and stopped undoing their clothes halfway, turning their head over.
What reflected in Shen Lan Chi’s eyes was a flat chest that belonged to a man, not having the slightest curves. Perhaps because of having trained on stage for a long time, this person’s figure was built and well-proportioned, extremely attractive.
Shen Lan Chi blankly froze in place.
This half-undressed dan actor although was in heavy makeup, their face in bright colors, but judging from the Adam’s apple and chest, he was a hundred percent a man. Moreover, at this time, when no longer singing in a high-pitched voice, his speaking voice all became somewhat deeper and hoarser, clearly masculine.
“This young miss, what brings you here?” The dan actor revealed a smile and said, “This humble one still need to go on-stage in a bit. If here to give a tip……..”
“You, you, you’re male?!” Shen Lan Chi backed away several steps in complete disbelief.
“Miss didn’t know?” That dan actor instead revealed a surprised look, “Those singing in our plays have always just been men, not having any women. It’s not that I look down on women, but the ten skills of singing, striking[2], stretching, and reciting in opera are truly too torturous for delicate women.”
Shen Lan Chi’s gaze repeatedly swept back and forth over that man’s untidied collar. She still wanted to take a closer look, but her eyes instead got covered by someone’s palm.
“Quickly put your clothes on!” Lu Qi Yang said in annoyance while covering her eyes, “To be this unkempt, how inappropriate!”
That dan actor hurriedly bowed to apologize, while Lu Qi Yang dragged Shen Lan Chi out from behind the screen, returning to the nearby corridor again.
He let go of his hand that was covering her eyes, saying in a displeased tone, “This young master already told you to not go, yet you still insisted on going!”
Shen Lan Chi rubbed her eyes and shot him a glare, saying, “Why didn’t you say so earlier that the other party was a man?”
“In the entire capital city, who doesn’t know that the Dengyun Pavilion’s theatrical troupe only have men?” Lu Qi Yang retorted back, “How could I’ve known that you were actually this uninformed?”
“You better save it!” Shen Lan Chi said in annoyance, “Someone like me who doesn’t go out, how could I be the same as you all, this bunch of wastrels, knowing everything about these theatrical troupes!”
She paused for a moment, lowering her head and softly saying, “I really thought that…….thought that you liked that opera singer, that’s why you were avoiding.”
Outside the slits of the window, there was a patch of green bamboo. The sunlight sprinkled down from the thin bamboo leaves, shining on her fair cheeks, causing her cheeks to slightly reflect with the light green color of the bamboo leaves. Her long lashes lightly fluttered from time to time, actually making this noble young lady that has always been relentless with her mouth also display a bit of delicateness.
Seeing her like this, Lu Qi Yang didn’t speak for a long time.
After a while, Shen Lan Chi finally heard a low sigh from him.
“The reason why I was avoiding you was because………I know that you will certainly regret in the future.” He said, “Rather than making things awkward when times comes, it’s better for me to back away, pretending that nothing had ever happened. You be your An Duke Manor’s second miss, while I be my Zhennan Wang Manor’s heir.”
He said these words rather indifferently, as if completely not taking it to heart. Hearing this, Shen Lan Chi suddenly had a ball of anger inside. She immediately lifted her head, staring at him and asking, “Why do you say that I will definitely regret in the future?”
——How come Lu Qi Yang was always like this?
That night in Cien Palace, he clearly appeared as if unable to let go, but not long after, he just shrank back again, just wanting to have her yielded to someone else.
“I grew up together with you, would I not know you?” Lu Qi Yang said. Raising his head, he swept a glance around, saying, “This is just like if I say that after a period of time, I will think of a way to go to the borders to take over my father’s job, making accomplishments and establishing myself, becoming a victorious general, would you believe?”
Shen Lan Chi nearly burst out into laughter.
“Don’t joke with me!” She stood on her tiptoe and poked Lu Qi Yang’s forehead, “You go make accomplishments and establish yourself? If you go, who will take those sons from Jiangbei Wang’s family to watch plays and shoot birds?”
“Right?” Lu Qi Yang rubbed his forehead that got poked, saying, “You don’t believe that I will go be a serious person, and I don’t believe that you can bear to give up your paternal aunt’s crown and the crown princess position to come marry me, this useless idiot.”
Pausing for a moment, he suddenly chuckled and said, “However, I know that you just want that phoenix crown. As for who the crown prince is, you’ve never cared. What you want…….is just to become the crown princess, and then the empress. Am I right?”
The smile on his lips was very shallow, and the sound of his voice made one’s throat itch, like as if about to sprout a flower.
Shen Lan Chi inwardly answered in her heart, ‘In the past, it was like this.’
——–The past her was precisely this way. She wanted to be superior to others, thus wanted to be the crown princess. Regardless who the crown prince was, whether it was Lu Zhao Ye or Lu Zi Xiang. For the sake of power, she will marry all the same.
Lu Qi Yang really understood her very well.
Shen Lan Chi didn’t answer. Lu Qi Yang was already prepared to beg for mercy, playfully gesturing with his eyes and brows, “Miss Shen, Boss Lan, what happened that night in the palace, just treat it as a dream, quickly forget it! I did something wrong, so I will first give you an apology. Later, when you ascend onto the empress position, I will send you some good gifts, so as to express my sincere feelings, how about it?”
He was all smiles, a look of trying to please her, but the girl before him didn’t move in the slightest.
She looked at him. In her eyes, there was mockery, and also irritation. Getting stared at by that pair of eyes of hers that were like the autumn pond, Lu Qi Yang gradually was unable to smile. That frivolous smiling face, like the ripples on the lake surface, slowly faded, just leaving behind uneasy eyes darting around, like as if avoiding something.
“Do you also think that you are a really good person?” Shen Lan Chi lightly turned her head, the corner of her mouth hooking with a mocking smile, “I wanted to be the crown princess in the past, so you will just send me to be the crown princess, helping me fulfill my dream——-really a kind person!”
Lu Qi Yang wanted to laugh, but he was unable to. He straightened his back and gazed towards the stage. That dan actor had returned to the stage in a new attire, his delicate voice singing so beautifully that no one could tell he was a man.
“I believe you.” Suddenly, Shen Lan Chi said this.
“What?” Lu Qi Yang was somewhat confused, “You believe what?”
“I said, I believe you. After a period of time, you will go establish yourself.” Shen Lan Chi said, “That’s why, you also have to believe me——-I already said, the current me doesn’t want to marry the crown prince at all. Regardless whether that crown prince is Lu Zhao Ye or Lu Zi Xiang, I all don’t want to marry.”
Lu Qi Yang was slightly stunned.
“Lan Lan, what are you…….”
“I know you want to ask me what happened.” Shen Lan Chi interrupted him, softly muttering, “Just pretend that I had a dream, and in the dream, I had gone through more than half my life. As for what I dreamt of, don’t ask, I also won’t mention. All in all, I don’t want to be the crown princess anymore.”
She said this line extremely seriously, yet on the inside, it was like boiling water, rising and falling endlessly.
She indeed had a dream——–
She dreamt of Lu Qi Yang wanting to take her to elope the night before her wedding. She dreamt of Lu Qi Yang handing over the military power just for the sake of coming to see her once in the Eastern Palace. She dreamt of Lu Qi Yang’s kiss that was like an old man with one foot in the grave.
These scenes that endlessly lingered in her mind made her heart slightly moved.
Thus, she leaned in towards the heir in brocade and jade, standing on her tiptoes again, amateurishly and clumsily having a light kiss planted on his lips.
This kiss was like a heavenly cloud, also like slightly spread cicada wings, fluttery and fleeting, soft and light.
On the stage, that dan actor was still singing, his voice trailing out long and thin, making the oriole that sang the first sound also feel inferior. The entire hall was full of cheers. Just, mixed among the cheers were the shouts of tipping, but it was no longer able to reach a hundred taels.
She closed her eyes, slowly pinning down Lu Qi Yang’s arms. She suddenly sensed that the shoulders of the man before her were lightly trembling———He must be extremely astonished and extremely shocked, thus would reveal such a laughable appearance.
Even his palm that held her back was all shaking nonstop.
Shen Lan Chi inwardly laughed.
——-It was just kissing you, yet this stunned, what will you do in the future?
[1] Huadan is the vivacious young female role in chinese opera
[2] According to what I found in my research, in chinese opera, there’s only the saying of the ‘four skills and five methods’ (四功五法). Part of this line ups with what the author wrote. The four skills refer to singing, reciting/narrating, performing, and striking (martial arts). The stretching the author mentioned probably refers to the acrobatics part of chinese opera. The five methods refers to the hand, eyes, body, step, and mouth, which are the various ways used to express emotions and set the scene.
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