Xu Jichun died in the winter of his thirtieth year.
His master used to say, "An actor born into a time of chaos is something anyone can trample on. Don't think too highly of yourself, or it'll hurt all the more when you fall." Xu Jichun didn't believe him. He had attended a private school and learned a few more things than his uneducated master.
Perhaps too much reading really can get you into trouble. Unlike other actors, Xu Jichun had a certain pride, an unaffected air of aloofness. That only made him all the more beloved by the upper classes with military and political connections. He had come into his own at seventeen, and his performance of The Drunken Concubine caused a sensation. Luo Xuanchuan, eldest son of the warlord Luo family, fell in love with him at first sight. Shen Zi, a government official stationed in the city, also secretly adored him. Xu Jichun was like a lamb in a pen, already theirs for the taking.
His master also said, "No one can have two opposite things at once." Xu Jichun believed him, but never took the lesson to heart. Luo Xuanchuan spent a fortune on him, while Shen Zi brought him into high society. He genuinely thought he deserved it all.
Heaven must have thought his life had been miserable enough, because it gave him a chance to start over. All Xu Jichun wants is to avoid every turning point and scrape by until he's ninety-nine.
In a nutshell: a legendary opera star, peerlessly beautiful, supremely talented, and prouder than the heavens.
