[Alternate Universe] [Collection of Snippets] Out of Tune [Iron/Chase/No Cold]

In terms of length, these are just a few short pieces. Apart from the birthday one, I posted them all on LFT before. I had a setting where everyone went into the performing arts, but the people I mainly wrote about were the Four Greats, so this is only about them. The troupe is called Zizai Society. Zhuge is the proprietor, responsible for funding and writing the scripts, while Geshu Lancan is the troupe leader. Dashigong plays the old woman roles, and Master Shu plays the painted-face roles. The eldest mainly plays old male roles, but can also sing female roles; the fourth is a martial role, the second plays the drum, and the third plays the fiddle. I adjusted the age gaps among the Four Greats, mainly by making the eldest older: third (+5), second (0), eldest (-3), fourth (-8). I probably won't pursue any more ideas for this series. I'm an everyday-life kind of writer, and if I wanted to write about performers' daily lives, I'd have to research them. After enough research, I wouldn't even know whose fan fiction I was writing anymore, so I stopped right away. For example, the third was inspired by Yang Baozhong, the eldest's vocal style was copied from Yu Shuyan, and the fourth's stagecraft was based on Gai Jiaotian. I'm not from Beijing, and even among my close relatives, you have to go back three generations to find anyone who grew up there. It's exhausting trying to cobble together an old Beijing from books and documentaries. To sum up the outline: later, war breaks out. The four endure humiliation and struggle to survive, all so they can preserve some opera, but they also fight in their own way. Later, when the war is over, all four are still alive. Then come ten difficult years. The third dies before then, the second dies midway through, and the eldest and the fourth persevere for two more years before dying of illness, one at the beginning and one at the end of the same year. I can't write any more because I can't take other people's lives, twist them around, and assign them to these four. It would be disrespectful to everyone. Theme: