In the eleventh year of the Republic of China, Chongyang.

Heung Kong City, Shek Tong Tsui, west side of Des Voeux Road, Taiping Theatre.

In the late autumn season, if you are in the northern part of China, the grass and trees are already withered and yellow, and the coolness hits people, but here is still a warm southern atmosphere, and the fashionable women on the street are even wearing short-sleeved cheongsams.

In total, it has been a full 80 years since the Manchu government ceded this land to the British.

From time to time, a long line of swarthy A-San patrol policemen walked in a procession, reminding everyone here that this was a British colony.

And these Ah San, who are full of curry-flavored English, are naturally transferred from the "British East India Company" - like Xiangjiang, at this time, India is also a British colony, these Ah San servants have a sense of superiority, and every patrol officer walks with his chest high and looks at the Xiangjiang people who come and go around him, as if he can breathe the same air with these people, as if it is the honor of these colonized natives.

Of course, 80 years of colonial rule has also made enough differences between the people of Xiangjiang and the Chinese people in the interior, not to mention that at this moment, in the hinterland, the warlords are fighting in a scuffle, and the people are displaced and suffering, but now Xiangjiang, in comparison, has been quite stable and prosperous.

In the eyes of many of them, the people in the inland are mud-legged, poor and barbaric, like them, they have entered a "civilized" society.

Of course, they don't look down on all the Chinese people from the interior, for example, if Mr. Sun takes a break from his Northern Expedition at this moment, most of the people in Xiangjiang will welcome it.

Or, there are some people in the literary and artistic circles who are both virtuous and artistic, and they will also be given preferential treatment, such as today, the tickets for the Taiping Theater were sold out again within half an hour after the tickets were opened.

"Which one is Mr. Mei singing today?" In the streets and alleys, people who didn't buy tickets inquired with some interest, and some of them even chased them from the mainland to listen to the play, using the official dialect of Beiping City.

"Don't you know? Farewell to my concubine, the overlord. (Won't you read it yourself?) It's Farewell My Concubine)" The Xiangjiang man who had bought the ticket pointed impatiently in the direction of the theater, where tonight's repertoire had already been announced on the outer wall in the morning.

"Farewell concubine? Ah! I have long heard that this song is a new play co-performed by Mr. Mei and Yang at the beginning of the year, and everyone says that this song is wonderful, but today it is still not heard, which is really a pity! He heard that Mr. Mei was invited to perform by the Xiangjiang Taiping Theater, and he put down his business and chased him, but unfortunately he came in a hurry, and he didn't bring enough money.

At this moment, 3 Ford cars stopped at the entrance of the theater.

The first one belonged to Sir Edward, the 16th Governor of Hong Kong, and his wife; The third belonged to the Governor's sons and daughters, and although the Governor's family did not often appear on the streets, the citizens knew them, and they usually went out in these two cars, or simply in English carriages.

But today there was a third car, which was sandwiched between the two cars of the Governor's house, and the whole car was very new, it should be a new Ford model, and the car in which the Governor's family was sitting looked a little shabby in comparison.

The most amazing thing was that the car was not occupied by some British minister, but by a lady with an oriental face, and although the white veil under her top hat covered the upper half of her face, it was enough for the citizens on both sides of the street to distinguish her Asian face.

"Could it be some noble lady from Japan?" The people around were talking, in this land, the person who could be treated like a guest by the governor of Xiangjiang was definitely not an ordinary person, let alone a woman with a yellow face.

In the eyes of the Hong Kong people at this time, those who can have this qualification must be the Japanese, who are also "great powers."

There were many people around the theater waiting for the manager of the theater to open the door and let them go in to watch the play, the governor and his guests naturally did not have to wait in line at the door, and the 3 cars drove in directly through the side door - of course they were in the VIP box, and it was normal to enter in advance or something, the governor, it was the emperor of the soil here.

………………

The Taiping Theater can accommodate nearly 1,000 spectators, divided into front, middle and rear seats, two-storey super "attic seats", and luxury boxes with the best line of sight.

At this moment, the Governor Sir Edward's family and his guests were already seated in the box, and the director of the theater personally brought vegetables, fruits, tea and wine, and entertained them.

The Taiping Theater performs Cantonese opera most of the time, and the arrogant Sir Edward has no interest in Chinese culture at all, let alone running to the theater to listen to the play, and I don't know what's going on.

Mr. Mei is a master of Peking Opera, and although some people still call him a "dramatist", his reputation is really great, and it is said that many people in Japan and Russia like his opera, and he is a real "everyone".

But even so, the theater director did not think that the governor, who could neither speak Mandarin or understand Cantonese, would be interested in Peking Opera.

It has been almost a month since Mr. May came, and the Governor received Mr. May in a perfunctory manner when he first came, and he came to listen to the play in a serious manner, which was the first time.

Moreover, what surprised the theater director the most was that sitting in the main seat of the box was actually the woman with an oriental face who had not spoken all the time.

The woman took off her top hat and gray felt cape.

The director of the theater finally saw her face clearly, and was stunned for a while:

What a perfect face!

I saw her: the head of the mantis and the eyebrows, the eyes with stars, the jade nose and red lips, the teeth like a rhinoceros, the collar like a grub, the skin like clotted fat, and the hands like soft wattles.

The director of the theater is also fifty-three this year, and he can be regarded as well-informed in his life, but he has never seen anyone who can be so beautiful, and at this moment, he suddenly has a feeling that he has lived in vain for more than 50 years.

stared blankly at this woman who had captivated the country and the city, and the director's chin with a slight white beard was almost closed.

"Strategize!"

"Cangchangchang~"

"Palm Talisman!"

"Cangchangchang~"

On the stage, Farewell My Concubine had already begun to be staged, and it was only at this time that the sound of playing and singing made the supervisor wake up, and he suddenly felt that he was too out of shape, more than half a hundred years old, and he was still staring at other women's eyes without blinking, which made him so ashamed that he wanted to jump out of the private room - this is the third floor.

Fortunately, people didn't seem to blame him, and they didn't even look at him, but after the Peking Opera began, they sat up straight, frowned slightly, and listened quietly.

………………

on stage.

[Yu Ji: "Since I fought with the king in the east and west, I have suffered from wind and frost and toiling year after year. When will this war be eliminated, and the people will not be troubled and ......"]

Mr. Mei's voice was truly contemporary, and everyone present was fascinated.

Hearing this, the woman's eyes in the private room flashed slightly, and she seemed to fall into some kind of memory with Yu Ji played by Mr. Mei.

…………

[Yu Ji: I wish to use the sword on the king's waist to kill myself before the king, oops! In return for the gratitude! 】

When she heard this, the woman in the private room pursed her lips, and her beautiful eyes flashed, as if there were tears in them.

…………

[Yu Ji: The Han soldiers have been slighted, and they are embattled with singing. The king is exhausted, how can the concubine survive? 】

With a loud sound, Yu Ji on the stage drew her sword, and the horizontal sword slashed herself in front of the overlord of Chu, while the woman in the private room was shocked, and finally like the person who had lost her memory for many years, she suddenly remembered everything, clutched her skirt, and stood up.

"Big ...... Wang ...... "The woman's eyes were red, her long supple hair was windless, and the people around her, whether it was the governor of Xiangjiang, his family, or the theater director standing not far away, all felt a strange cold snap, and their whole bodies trembled.

This cold current does not blow from the outside, but seems to emanate from the deepest part of one's own flesh, from the inside out!

It's fear, it's confusion, it's a shudder from the soul.

…………

"Has Spirit 398 awakened on its own, captured or destroyed? Please instruct! "On the roof of the Taiping Theater, there is a triangular flying machine, this flying machine is very strange, from the top down, it is an equilateral triangle with a side length of 3.5 meters, but from the side, it is thinner than the sharpest blade in the world - it seems that it has no [thickness] at all.

The "request" just now came from this strange flying machine.

"The capture command has been confirmed, the task number γ-3900235b, and the highest permission to enable: level C." After another emotionless sound, the fuselage of the aircraft trembled slightly, and the tiles and ridges under it quickly disappeared like melting snow, directly revealing the theater private room below - that's right, the aircraft was directly above the box on the third floor where the Governor of Xiangjiang was located.

A dark blue glow shone down from the triangular belly of the ship, illuminating the entire box.

In the box, except for the family of the Governor of Xiangjiang who looked confused, only the theater director who was over half a hundred years old remained.

The woman who captivated the country and the city is gone.

On the chair she was sitting on before, only a piece of paper was left, and on the paper was a line of Juan Xiu's calligraphy:

"Want to catch me? Let's go 100 years from now! ”