[New Novel]+ [Everyday Life in the Peking Opera World]+ [Republican Era]+ [Slow-Burn Growth]+ [Love in Troubled Times]
On the morning after his master died, sixteen-year-old apprentice Xie Fang was pushed onto the stage by the troupe owner.
Drawing on memories he had brought with him when he transmigrated, he adapted one unheard-of tune after another.
“Red Makeup,” “Silken Strings,” “Peeking Through the Window,” “Mandarin Ducks at Play”...
Every song he sang spread like wildfire through Beiping.
Some accused him of forsaking his heritage.
Others called him the new voice of Peking opera.
But the opium pipe and indenture contract handed to him by the troupe owner told him the truth: no matter how beautifully he sang, he was nothing but a pawn in someone else’s hands.
“Junior Sister, come with me.”
That night, he fled Beiping with the girl who had grown up by his side.
From Beiping to Tianjin, from the opera stage to the teahouse.
He sang, and she learned.
Someone asked him, “What can an actor possibly protect?”
He glanced at the girl beside him, eating candied hawthorn.
“Protecting her is enough.”
