Regrets of the Republic: A Performer’s Deep Love

[Gender disguise + revenge]

When I was ten, I was sold to an opera troupe. The troupe owner named me Bai Lu, saying my eyes and brows looked just like those of his younger sister, who had gone missing during the war.

By seventeen, I had become the most popular dan-role performer in Beiping, until one day, while I was singing Farewell My Concubine, the warlord in the audience suddenly crushed his teacup.

His eyes bloodshot, he asked me, “Who are you, really?”

Only later did I learn that my face was identical to that of his first love, who had been killed along with her entire family ten years ago.

But when he noticed the faint scar at my Adam's apple, the muzzle of his gun was already pressed against my forehead.

“Tell me, are you a man or a woman?”