CH 17.1

Chapter 17.1 – First Act of the Play

Generals were usually accompanied by officers, especially in public places, and this time was no exception. Lu Tinghan was accompanied by two officers, both of whom could be counted as the audience attracted by Shi Yuan, and his performance directly tripled.

At this time, it was not yet time for the performance, and there was no one at the entrance of the theater. Shi Yuan wandered around and led Lu Tinghan to find Qin Luoluo.

Qin Luoluo was fighting against a mop in the corridor outside the utility room. The mop was just bought three days ago, and the quality was really not good. The mop head was bald and it was almost broken in the middle. She held it up, wrinkled her delicate brow in disgust, and looked for the manufacturer’s logo.

Shi Yuan shouted: “Miss Qin.”

Qin Luoluo didn’t raise his head: “Hurry up and help me call Xia Fang over. This is his chore. I don’t want to do it for him.”

“I brought the audience here,” Shi Yuan said.

“You came so early? First, go to the second floor to find Xia Fang and ask him to register.” Qin Luoluo turned her head and put on a standard business smile. “This gentleman…”

She met Lu Tinghan’s eyes.

Qin Luoluo: “…” The mop in her hand snapped in two sections and was completely scrapped.

No words could describe her state, shock, doubt, and confusion, they all blended together. Because it was too complicated, her facial muscles failed to express it, she opened her mouth wide, her expression resembling the famous painting “The Scream”.

Qin Luoluo.exe had lost response.

Shi Yuan didn’t notice that Qin Luoluo’s mind crashed, so he took Lu Tinghan to the second floor.

The place Xia Fang was in was the office area, and outsiders were not allowed to enter, so Shi Yuan could only find him alone. Before leaving, he seriously said to Lu Tinghan, “I will help you get a fake identity.”

Lu Tinghan said, “Fake identity?”

“It may be able to fool people,” Shi Yuan said. “I still think, revealing your identity is not good.”

Lu Tinghan looked at him for two seconds, and Shi Yuan didn’t know if it was his illusion. He saw a bit of… interest in Lu Tinghan’s eyes?

Lu Tinghan: “Then try it.”

Shi Yuan went to find Xia Fang.

Xia Fang was sorting out the audience list for tonight, when Shi Yuan said to him, “I have brought the audience here, so I need to register.”

Xia Fang looked up in surprise: “You really brought someone here! I bet five yuan with Old Cheng, I said you can definitely bring someone. He said you can’t. I’ll go to him for money later. Come, come, what’s the audience’s name?”

It wasn’t the first time that Xia Fang fell into a money hole. In the morning, he would say that the troupe’s salary was low and there were too many things to do. In the afternoon, he would say that it was better to accompany men. As for the evening, he probably spent time at the bar to develop clients – Shi Yuan had long been used to his set of procedures and had to listen to them every day.

He planned to make up a pseudonym for Lu Tinghan, but he didn’t think about it. After a while, he said, “His name is…Uh, uh, Lu Tingting.”

“Lu Tingting?” Xia Fang was taken aback, “I thought…” He shook his head. “Forget it, which character is it? Is it Lu of Way?”

Shi Yuan thought for a while: “Lu Tinghan’s Lu.”

“What kind of vocabulary do you have?” Xia Fang wrote her name and took out a light blue ticket. “Lu Tingting, right? You give her the ticket, and it will be checked when you enter the performance hall.”

“There’s more than one person,” Shi Yuan said. “There are also two of his friends.”

“There are two more?” Xia Fang opened his eyes wide. “Okay, Shiyuan, I didn’t see that you are so efficient. Awesome, this time I have to take 15 yuan from Old Cheng. What’s his friends’ name?”

This time, Shi Yuan couldn’t make it up, so he replied: “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know, how could you not know?” Xia Fang took two more tickets. “Tell me after you ask, anyway, we’re going backstage later.”

Shi Yuan agreed and went back to find Lu Tinghan with three tickets.

Lu Tinghan asked, “Did you use a fake identity?”

Shi Yuan: “Well, they definitely won’t recognize you.”

“Really?”

“Really,” Shi Yuan swore.

Shi Yuan asked the names of the two officers and was about to leave. Before leaving, he said to Lu Tinghan, “There is a place to rest on the first floor. You can see it when you step on this staircase. I’m going backstage, you will be able to see me on stage later.”

Lu Tinghan let out a sigh and touched his head.

Shi Yuan’s eyes lit up and he smiled.

After that, Shi Yuan went backstage. There were only 6 core members of the Wild Rose Troupe plus him. Although there was part-time staff to help, the work was still very stressful.

There were still three hours before the start of the performance. Cheng Youwen leaned on crutches and was really unable to do anything, so he directed everyone to work. Xia Fang tossed the set, while Shi Yuan and Tracy were in charge of the props. Tracy hung up the clothes one by one, he put the fake knife away, set up the tables and chairs, sofas, and cups, and together with Wolfgang, sorted out the wine bottles to be used in the bar scene.

Qin Luoluo came halfway.

She said: “Let’s take a break, and come back to put on makeup in half an hour.”

Tracy disappeared in an instant, Shi Yuan wanted to leave too but Qin Luoluo grabbed his shoulder.

Shi Yuan: ?

Qin Luoluo stared at him closely, her face was full of desire to speak but she hesitated, wanted to speak but stopped, wanted to speak but stopped: “You…”

Shi Yuan watched her hesitate several times, and finally asked, “What’s the matter?”

“…it’s nothing.” Qin Luoluo patted him on the shoulder. “Xia Fang doesn’t know who you brought here yet?”

Xia Fang really didn’t see Lu Tinghan, Shi Yuan said, “He doesn’t know.”

Qin Luoluo suddenly narrowed her eyes and showed her iconic fox smile: “Hurry up and let him meet.” She encouraged, “He was just preparing a gift for the audience, so you can tell him if you can give the gift to the person you brought first – don’t say I told you, make sure he goes in person, ah.”

Shi Yuan had always been very obedient and went to Xia Fang to talk about it.

Gifts were only sent out after the audience entered, so there was no need to send them in person. Qin Luoluo was no less deceptive. If she came to talk to Xia Fang about this, Xia Fang would definitely suspect that she was playing a trick again. But the problem is that it was Shi Yuan who told him about it.

Xia Fang didn’t have any doubts at all: “Okay, I’ll take the gift with you, let me look for it.”

The gift was actually a greeting card, stamped with the commemorative medal of the Garcia Grand Theater, and a beautiful commemorative ticket was sandwiched in the middle.

Before the end of the world began, the Grand Theater would change commemorative tickets every year. The heavy and delicate material, bronze fonts, and exquisite patterns like works of art were issued in limited quantities and were always in short supply. Thirty years ago, the Grand Theater issued the last commemorative ticket. The difference was that there were no longer enthusiastic audiences. To this day, that batch of commemorative tickets has not been used up.

They went to the lounge on the first floor, and Xia Fang knocked on the door with three greeting cards.

Cheng Youwen’s handwriting was good and just filled in the audience’s names on the greeting cards. Xia Fang looked at the name, the door opened, and he said, “Excuse me, it’s Lu Tingting…”

The shadow fell on Xia Fang’s body. He thought to himself that Tingting was quite tall, she had to be one meter nine, so he looked up.—

“Lu Tingting” lowered his head and glanced at the name on the greeting card, his eyes swept past him and looked at Shi Yuan, and raised his eyebrows.

Xia Fang: “……”

Xia Fang: “…Ga!！！”

Shi Yuan didn’t understand what kind of experience it was for a person to be scared enough to release a duck’s quack. The greeting card in Xia Fang’s hand was like a timed bomb, he couldn’t give it or let it go, and his eyes were bigger than a copper bell.

Lu Tinghan took the greeting card and said, “Yes, I am Lu Tingting, thank you for your gift.”

Xia Fang’s hand was shaking, he looked at Lu Tinghan, and then at Shi Yuan, his stiff brain finally sorted out a trace of logic. He knocked his head and said, “Lu…Lu…” General Lu.

Lu Tinghan looked at him: “I am Lu Tingting.”

Xia Fang: “……”

What the hell is this aaaaahhhhh?!

It took Xia Fang a lifetime of training to swallow the words “General Lu” back abruptly, and said with a dry smile: “Haha I, I still have something to do, so I’ll go back and go back first. You guys take your time, take your time.” He ran away, running faster than a rabbit, and almost tripped and fell.

Shi Yuan followed Lu Tinghan into the lounge and said, “Did he find out who you are?”

“He didn’t.” Lu Tinghan lowered his eyes, looked at the thin golden characters “Lu Tingting” like flying dragon and dancing phoenix on the greeting card, and replied, “Very well done.”

Shi Yuan was very happy: “See, I told you I could fool them.”

For the next half an hour, he stayed with Lu Tinghan.

He didn’t feel busy in the backstage just now, but now that he was free, he started to get nervous, his heartbeat was very fast, and he couldn’t calm down no matter what.

Everyone loves free stuff, and there were over thirty people in the audience. He was already nervous just standing on the stage before, looking at the empty audience. Now he had to perform in front of so many people for the first time, and his fear of people was sure to kick in.

Lu Tinghan sensed his nervousness and said before Shi Yuan returned to the backstage, “I’ll be right in the audience.”

Shi Yuan asked Lu Tinghan: “Do you like watching stage plays?”

“It’s okay, I’ve seen it live two or three times.” Lu Tinghan paused for a moment. “I’m looking forward to your performance.”

“Mm.” Shi Yuan emphasized, “You have to keep watching me, oh.”

“I will,” Lu Tinghan promised.

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**TN

flying dragon and dancing phoenix – Chinese idiom meaning that things are done in a beautiful and artful way, very powerful and invigorating.