The Seventh Performer

Once every ten years, one of the opera troupe’s leading performers dies. It isn’t a curse. Someone is “cultivating faces.” The faces of all six previous leading performers were actually the same person’s: Bai Henian, a dan performer from the late Qing dynasty. Back then, to bring Consort Yu to life onstage, he made a deal with something. Every ten years, he borrows a face to perform a full show of Farewell My Concubine, extending his life by another decade. But a borrowed face rots if he uses it for too long, so he has to replace it every ten years. Chen Jiu is the seventh face. But this time is different. Bai Henian’s face has rotted so badly it can no longer hold up. He needs Chen Jiu to willingly give him his face. Otherwise, the deal will turn against them, and they’ll both die.