Fang Zhi, Princess Danyang, Feng Xiao, Zhao Yanke...
The top second - generation aristocrats of the Great Sheng Dynasty were all gathered in her inn now.
Li Wanming stood in the corner with her arms folded. Her eyebrows were slightly raised, and there was a glint in her eyes as she watched everything in front of her with great interest.
She was in a rather strange mood at the moment.
Nervous, terrified, uneasy, puzzled, excited... but most of all, a wave of excitement welled up in her!
This was a grand occasion!
A once - in - a - century grand occasion!
The emperor, the general, the daughter of the prime minister, and the craziest woman of the highest status in the world... now all standing in the hall of an inn, vying to perform her Play of the Peony Pavilion!
Even if all the storytellers and pedantic scholars in the capital were gathered together, they couldn't come up with such a plot.
She really should have asked Qinglan to bring those scriptwriters over to see what it meant that art came from life!
Xiao Jingnan stood beside her, frowning and looking completely dejected.
The moment Fang Zhi stepped through the door, he gave up.
Headache.
Terrible headache.
He had just managed to calm Zhao Yanke down when the princess came, and just as he managed to deal with the princess, Fang Zhi showed up...
It was like trying to manage the monks but not the temple, or like pushing down a gourd only to have another one pop up.
Let these four do whatever they wanted. He simply couldn't manage them anymore!
As long as they didn't reveal his identity and didn't hinder his pursuit of his wife, he didn't care even if they were to tear the roof off the place on the spot and fight each other to a pulp.
As this thought flashed through his mind, he suddenly felt completely at ease and extremely relaxed.
Once the thought of giving up took root, the world seemed suddenly wide.
Fang Zhi was still angry when she entered the door. Then, she widened her eyes in disbelief, looking at the people in the room.
The other three in the room also looked at her in unison, their expressions complex.
The four of them looked at each other for a long while without saying a word.
The atmosphere was a bit too awkward, and Zhao Yanke couldn't stand it anymore.
He walked to the middle of the hall, spreading his hands. "Come on, let's all talk."
Fang Zhi stared blankly. "About what?"
Zhao Yanke said, "Your purpose for coming here, the reason, your feelings... Oh, we're all so familiar with each other. Don't be so reserved. Just speak your mind!"
"Okay."
Fang Zhi replied and then said blankly, "I'm here to play the Play of the Peony Pavilion."
Suddenly, she pointed at Li Wanming. "She wouldn't let me play Du Liniang, saying the lines were too many and I couldn't memorize them. After I got home, I thought about it and decided that maybe I could do a lip - synced performance, so I came back."
Li Wanming was stunned. "What?"
She didn't understand what Fang Zhi meant. What did "lip - synced performance" mean?
Fang Zhi said, "It means I'll stand in the front and someone behind me will provide the voice."
...
Sure enough, as one of the most well - known second - generation aristocrats of the Great Sheng Dynasty, she really had some ideas!
She even came up with the idea of "lip - synced performance"!
Feng Xiao asked cautiously, "Who do you plan to play?"
"Of course... Du, Du Liniang..."
Fang Zhi's first half of the sentence was full of confidence, but the second half faded away. She timidly glanced at Princess Danyang, and her voice immediately became as soft as a cat's meow.
Fang Zhi was afraid of nothing in the world, except Princess Danyang, who was even crazier than her... Oh, now she could add half of Pei Yanqi to the list.
After hearing her words, before Princess Danyang could say anything, Zhao Yanke protested first.
"You play Du Liniang? No way! No way!"
"Your figure is as stiff as an iron pestle. How can you play the gentle and charming Du Liniang?"
"I'm going to play Liu Mengmei. How can you play Du Liniang?"
Fang Zhi stamped her foot. "Your Majesty! How can you talk like that!"
Zhao Yanke puffed out his chest. "I am the Son of Heaven. My words are always as good as gold and carry great weight. What's the problem?"
"But you can't humiliate this subject's daughter like this..."
"I'm just telling the truth. Where is the humiliation!"
...
Behind the corridor pillar, Li Wanming nudged Xiao Jingnan. "Aren't you going to stop them?"
Xiao Jingnan leaned against the corridor pillar, holding a plate of sunflower seeds that he'd somehow produced. "You know your husband's identity. He's just a poor scholar with nothing. How can he stop them?"
"Then, just watch?"
"Watch then."
Xiao Jingnan handed the sunflower seeds to her. "This kind of scene is a once - in - a - millennium occurrence."
That was true.
This complex quadrangular relationship was too complicated for ordinary people like them to solve.
They could only let them rub against each other first. After the frictions were enough and the anger in their hearts was fully released, there might be a turn for the better.
Having figured this out, Li Wanming also grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds from the plate and watched with great interest.
The friction in the middle of the hall continued.
"Why? If this subject's daughter plays Du Liniang, why can't Your Majesty play Liu Mengmei?"
"Your singing is bad, your dancing skills are even worse, and you even have to lip - sync your lines... I won't act opposite someone with no professional ethics."
"Your Majesty!"
Fang Zhi let out a roar, so angry that it seemed steam was about to come out of her head.
"Your Majesty, if you talk like this, don't blame this subject's daughter for being rude!"
Originally, she had wanted to save some face for Zhao Yanke because he was the emperor, but now it seemed there was no need.
"I have no morals? Your Majesty, have you forgotten that when you were a child and came to our Fang Mansion, you went to the toilet without bringing any paper, and it was me who brought it to you..."
"Feng Xiao!"
Seeing that she was speaking without restraint and revealing childhood matters, Zhao Yanke quickly shouted, "Um, Minister Feng... If she wants to play Du Liniang, I can give you the opportunity to play Liu Mengmei..."
"I won't play."
Feng Xiao refused simply and neatly.
"Why?" Fang Zhi was stunned and asked.
Feng Xiao had an even more sufficient reason. "Du Liniang and Liu Mengmei are a couple in the Play of the Peony Pavilion. I don't want to be a couple with Fang Zhi. I'm afraid it'll be too inauspicious and I won't be able to marry a wife in the future..."
Fang Zhi let out a scream and rushed at him, trying to beat him.
Zhao Yanke was the emperor, so she didn't dare to do much to him.
But Feng Xiao was just a royal guard... She'd scratch his face!
Feng Xiao didn't dare to fight back for fear of hurting Fang Zhi, so he could only run around the room.
The two of them chased each other back and forth, reenacting the scene of the King of Qin running around the pillar in the inn.
Unfortunately, the ones they used as pillars were the current emperor and the princess.
The more Princess Danyang watched, the darker her face became.
She had come today intending to give Xiao Jingnan a warning and to probe into Li Wanming's background.
Although Li Wanming had almost died at her hands, they had never really interacted with each other.
The children of a fourth - rank general had done one astonishing thing after another in the past year, stirring up a storm in the entire capital.
This piqued her curiosity.
She wanted to see what kind of person Li Wanming was.
Since it was the opening day of the Changxing Inn today, she wanted to take this opportunity to find out the truth.
Unexpectedly, except for her who had come for business, the other three had really come just for fun!
They were seriously discussing who to play and even running around in circles...
Princess Danyang gritted her teeth, trying hard to suppress her discomfort, and rubbed her throbbing temples. "That's enough!"
The two who had been chasing each other finally stopped.
Danyang's fingertips trembled slightly as she pointed at the three in front of her. "If you want to act, do it properly. If you keep making such a ruckus, this princess will tie you all up and take you back to be punished!"
Zhao Yanke weakly raised his hand. "Um... I'm the emperor..."
There was a murderous look in Danyang's eyes. "What? Who said the emperor can't be tied up!"
Zhao Yanke swallowed hard and decided to avoid the crazy woman's edge for the moment. He pulled the other two to one side and buried their heads in discussion.
A moment later, the three finished their discussion.
With a one - to - two vote against her, Fang Zhi was forced to give up the role of Du Liniang and play Du Liniang's close friend in the boudoir, a role she had just forcibly added.
Zhao Yanke would play Liu Mengmei.
Feng Xiao would play the young general, another newly added role.
After the decision was made, they officially informed Li Wanming. "Madam Cheng, we can start now!"