There is a classic image of a hero in the stories of the Empire. They are often handsome in appearance, with round arms and thick waists, a beautiful beard on their chin, wearing fancy clothes or armor, and their temperament highlights a strong and calm temperament. Self-prestige. Just listening to the description, you can imagine a muscular man with a big and thick body, with a frightening gleam in his eyes. There is a common pronoun for this kind of strong man, which is called eight-foot man.
In ancient times, eight feet was about 2.6 meters in modern times. Captain Situ should have been this tall even if he did not have a tall hat, but he did not give Gongsun Ce any "majestic" or "mighty" look. He has thin eyebrows and long eyes, a handsome face, and a mysterious smile that looks like an invisible portrait; his skin is sickly pale, and his limbs are surprisingly slender. He is also wearing a white long robe with long sleeves, and with his tall and thin figure With his clothes held up by his height, he looked like a huge, illusory ghost floating in the air, unable to feel any real sense of existence. When you look at this person, you will wonder if you are trapped in a nightmare, allowing this absurd image to appear in reality that is not a dream.
Situ Yi bowed slightly and reached out to him. He was obviously an imperial man, but he spoke standard Common Tongue, and his words and sentences were exaggerated like a character in a kingdom drama: "Young man from the same country, why did you come here?"
(Reply truthfully and don’t be nervous.)
Alandia's voice rang in his heart. Gongsun Ce looked around and found that people were bypassing him and Situ Yi. He guessed that this might be because the other party had used some method to hide their sight. He cleared his throat and put on another tone: "So that Mr. Captain knows that I am here for a piece of business. There is a woman named Jane Diera, who is a rightful knight of the Knights. A good follower of the Dawn Knight. This woman went crazy last night. Not only did she commit the crime of theft, she also blamed innocent people for it."
Situ Yi closed his eyes and lamented: "The rivers of Superbia will become ice-cold because of her foolish actions, and the seven sacred bells will ring angrily because of her shameful frame-up. This glorious and good knight has become The evil thief despised by everyone, the world is really unpredictable, and life is full of joys and sorrows."
(I rely on him for being so professional. I can’t hold the ink in my stomach anymore.)
(Mr. Gongsun, you can communicate with him normally.)
(Do you know how to negotiate? Whoever shows cowardice first will lose.)
Gongsun Ce looked solemn and said: "Your words are correct and true, like the sun that shines forever, applicable to all eras and countries. But the sunrise and sunset in the sky have their own inner truths, and people on the earth do evil things even more There is a hidden reason. The female knight held a strange oil lamp when she did evil. It is not difficult to guess that this lamp gave her a reason to act. And following the traces hidden in the incident, we unexpectedly found the inside of your troupe .”
Situ Yi covered his face with his long sleeves and wailed: "A female knight in the inner city committed a crime, but she asked the theater troupe in the east district to pursue her? A heavy crime fell from the sky! A night-like stigma fell on my head!"
(How to say, Alandia?)
(There is a mixed bag within the Dust Order. Let’s first investigate the origin of the lamp and then consider the next step based on the situation.)
Gongsun Ce pushed up his glasses and said slowly: "Your thinking is too advanced, and your predictions are even more pessimistic. There are many capable people in such a large troupe. If everyone's actions are blamed on you, I'm afraid you will Do one hundred more good deeds and one hundred more evil deeds every day. What we want to investigate is the origin of the oil lamp. I wonder if the leader is willing to do a good deed of his own accord. Allow me to Want to ask within the troupe? I guarantee that I will abide by etiquette and protect your dignity as well as my own face."
"Your words may seem pleasant, but their hidden intentions are ulterior. Don't say that I judge the heart of a gentleman with the heart of a villain, but let me share my doubts with you..."
Situ Yi put down his sleeves, bowed suddenly, and lowered his head. The tall and thin body suddenly bent down, and the white sleeves of the robe suddenly shook open, like a huge tower reaching the sky collapsing, with a canopy hanging from the spire falling towards the heads of mortals!
His face was extremely close to Gongsun Ce, and the pressure made the young man take a step back subconsciously. The man who was smiling brightly before was expressionless now. His pale face was like an uncut mask, and his cold eyes seemed to see through the young man's heart.
"A clown who is flamboyant and eye-catching has long abandoned his face and put on a mask. He is full of hypocrisy, absurd and funny words. How can he maintain my dignity?"
Situ Yi's mouth opened and closed mechanically, like a puppet. The fierce murderous intention stabbed Gongsun Ce in the back, causing him to break out in cold sweat. He understood why the Dawn Knight was wary. This man was really moody. His thoughts and actions are completely unpredictable. Everything is like paint on an actor's face, changing with just a wave of his sleeves. Just like now, if he doesn't say something, he is really going to die!
(Promise him you won't lie.)
Alandia's voice reassured Gongsun Ce, and he hurriedly said: "No matter how exquisite the performance is, it needs to find a suitable occasion. Of course, I don't need to perform on your stage. A clown who takes off heavy makeup is just a fool. Maybe the remarks are stupid, but they must be absolutely untrue."
The murderous aura dissipated in an instant. People came and went in the troupe, and everyone behaved normally, as if all his previous feelings were illusions and his own fright. Situ Yi straightened up and smiled.
"The reasonable request and thoughtful commitment gave me no reason to refuse. But the theater company is not a square, and it cannot enter the audience who are not watching the theater."
Gongsun Ce took a long breath and said, "Please let me watch a play."
"Okay! Okay!" Situ Yi turned around and shouted, "Phyllis, where have you been? Good boy, come here quickly! There is a healthy young man here who wants to buy two theater tickets."
Gongsun Ce was a little surprised: (Your hat has been seen through.)
(So it protects you.) Airandia had expected this.
"Here we come, Mr. Leader!"
There was a response from a distance, and a little boy about the age of a junior high school student ran quickly, dressed in a rustic style and wearing a newsboy cap. A large wooden box hung around his neck, filled with small pocket books. He counted out two tickets from the box: "One for a pound, sir."
The pound is the currency of the kingdom, and one pound is approximately equal to 5 yuan of imperial currency. Gongsun Ce took out two steel coins from his pocket and handed them over. Felice gave him the ticket and stood still: "Sir, are you interested in the myths of the kingdom? There are folk legends here, two for one pound."
Gongsun Ce took a look inside the wooden box. The covers of these little books didn't look very serious. They were cartoon girls dressed in revealing clothes. The titles of the books were easy to understand: "King Morton and the Lady of the Lake", "King Morton and the Lady of the Lake" Long Hair Princess"……
He relaxed and said with a smile: "Why is this folk legend of yours still colorful?"
"I don't know either, sir." Phyllis said seriously, "You have to ask King Morton about that."
Gongsun Ce laughed loudly, took out two more steel pens, exchanged four books and left. When he was picking up the book, he glanced at a piece of brown leather pressed at the bottom of the box, like a wallet, and he wasn't too surprised - in densely populated slums, children often work part-time as pickpockets.
Gongsun Ce held back his laughter and said in his heart: (What do you want to say, Knight of Dawn?)
Alandia's response was as ordinary as explaining: (In the Kingdom, there are endless vulgar stories with King Morton as the protagonist. This is a common method used by writers to attract people's attention.)
(Can you please stop being so serious?)
Situ Yi stayed next to him. This scary leader seemed to be planning to watch the theater with his guests. They did not go to the stage, but walked to the tent together.
The seats in the tent were arranged in a circle, and in the middle was a specially vacant space. There was not a large audience for this performance, but there were about a dozen children in the front row and a few young people who were free. Gongsun Ce and Situ Yi found a seat in the back row and sat down. Not long after, the candlelight in the tent was extinguished, and a spotlight was cast, illuminating the people who walked to the center of the theater. It was a young green-haired woman, wearing neutral suspenders and a white shirt, with her shoulder-length mid-length hair showing off her knowledge. Holding a stack of parchment, she began to sing to soft accompaniment, introducing the background of the play to the audience with lyrical lyrics.
The simple props were lowered one by one on wires as she sang, with an abstract sun-like wheel at the top. Gongsun Ce understood it after a few glances and found it boring.
(The old-fashioned heavenly wheel...)
(You might as well call it a familiar traditional myth.)
The so-called heavenly wheel myth is a collective name for a type of primitive myths that are common in the cultures of various countries. What these myths have in common is the existence of a supreme god who has the power to control the world. In polytheistic religions, she is the head of the gods; in monotheistic religions, she is the only powerful person, and the rest of her followers are her apostles or followers.
The Supreme God often lives in a place isolated from humans, existing in a metaphysical way beyond the physical body, like the pure incarnation of a certain spirit or concept. In Imperial Buddhism, it is the "Pure Land" where all Buddhas live; in the traditional mythology of the Empire, it is the supreme "Three Pure Heavens" or "Great Luotian"; and in the Holy Cross Religion and the Kingdom's National Religion that are prevalent in the Northern Continent In the middle, that is the "Heavenly Wheel" controlled by the Supreme Good God.
People in the Northern Continent believe that the "Heaven Wheel" is the core of heaven. It exists higher than the sky and emits arcs of light to illuminate the world on earth, just like the real sun. If people on earth do good deeds throughout their lives, they will be able to get rid of the shackles of the flesh and ascend to heaven after death and live an eternal and beautiful life. The concept of the heavenly wheel is very representative. It combines the common concepts of "sky", "sun", "pure spirit" and "supreme authority" in primitive myths, so it was chosen as the synonym for this type of myth.
(What’s the point of a myth that’s not believed by others? Nowadays, it’s just used as a source of literary creation. No one really believes it, right?)
(Mr. Gongsun, I am very happy to see you treat myths and legends with a rational attitude.)
(Are you weird?)
(No. I hope you can keep this attitude.)
The green-haired woman in the venue was still singing a long song to praise the greatness of the Supreme Good God. Gongsun Ce listened for a while and felt bored. As he said in his heart, the myth of the heavenly wheel has long become a cultural meme rather than a real religion, because the common people are simple but not stupid: the dragon phenomenon will appear after a while, and the omnipotent supreme beings in the myth God has never walked on the earth, so what is the use of believing in this religion? If I want some psychological comfort, why don't I trust Emperor Lingyang? At least he claims to have really killed a giant dragon, and the emperor was really good during the war.
Therefore, in order to ensure its survival, the Heavenly Wheel myth had to seek the blessing of the secular government. Specific to the kingdom, King Morton became the "holy king on earth protected by the supreme good god." When the object of worship was transferred from gods to historical figures, pure religion no longer existed.
Gongsun Ce rubbed his eyes and saw that the boring opening song was finally over and the actors came on stage one by one to start the main show. This play tells about the quarrel between several angels under the heavenly wheel, because one angel insists on bringing terrible destruction to the world. Each of the angels stood in a corner of the stage, disagreeing on how to resolve the matter. The most popular angel acted as a messenger, running back and forth among colleagues, working hard to deliver the message, and was so tired that he was sweating profusely, like a clown.
Gongsun thought about the strategy and laughed: "Your Majesty, the wise and penetrating leader, I think I understand your play. This play seems to be about angels in the sky, but it is actually a satire on the politics on the earth. Those angels stick to their own words and remain unchanged. , leaving the middlemen running around wasting their time, and the situation has not changed at all despite the busy work, isn't this the current situation in Morton's officialdom?"
Situ Yi clapped his palms and said with a smile: "What you said is absolutely correct. In heaven and on earth, throughout the ages, stupid and useless events have never been different! Drama is such a wonderful thing. The actors on the stage While reciting the prescribed lines, people in the audience saw different stories. Tell me, young man, do you like drama?"
Gongsun Ce thought for a while and said: "In my eyes, drama is just ordinary entertainment, and it is not different from other things in life."
The drama in the theater gradually got better, and the Supreme Good God was dizzy by all this. She personally went to the stage to persuade everyone to cooperate, but the angels grabbed weapons to resist. For a moment, the distinguished adults in the theater were in a group, and the poor children under the stage laughed and applauded.
Situ Yi looked at the commotion in the play and said: "I especially love drama, far more than painting, divination and fighting!
First, what is performed in the play is different from what is seen in the audience. You have already understood this before. Another thing you don't know is that theater is like people's lives in this world.
Everyone plays a role in the play, so why not in reality? Everything we say and do in front of others has the flavor of a performance, just like the dialogue in the script in our hearts. Are all the concerns based on identity and environment the role we play? Only when you are alone can you feel comfortable telling the truth. But speaking truthfully at that time was useless... because no one was listening anymore, and the drama was about to end. "
When he said this, Situ Yi looked at the children in the audience, like an actor on another stage looking at the audience in the distance. It was as if the laughter and comments were noise that had nothing to do with him, and he was only focused on singing his own drama well. Gongsun Ce thought that this man should live a lonely life. No one wanted to stand next to a moody and strong man. His bad character and pessimistic world view destined him to live alone.
Sooner or later, the Dust Theater Company will be unable to recruit people, right? Situ Yi, who still wanted to act at that time, probably could only play with a few puppets behind the scenes.
"Captain, do you also act?" Gongsun Ce asked.
Situ Yi laughed and said: "I am a third-rate scriptwriter and a second-rate actor. My acting skills are too poor, so I can only play a minor role. The advantage of this role is that it always takes the stage at the climax of the story, but the disadvantage is that it takes only a few interviews. End."
"Young, your life is not easy."
A cameo is a special role in the imperial myths and legends drama, responsible for playing the "dragon". Dragon slaying heroes always kill dragons, and the legend of Ling Yang also begins with slaying the dragon. Whenever these scenes are performed, someone is asked to wear a special leather suit to play the evil dragon, who is beaten up by the hero.
No one is willing to take on this job, and the leather holster is stuffy and hot, and it’s a thankless job. In the past, a gunshot was heard from the audience in the middle of the performance, and the audience shot the dragon to death before the hero could even raise his knife. Later, when technology developed, robots were used to play the role of the dragon. As time went by, no one really played the role of the dragon anymore.
"There has to be a symbol of evil that is overthrown before the story of justice can come to a successful conclusion."
Having said this, Situ Yi asked: "Young man, what role do you play?"
Gongsun Ce thought for a while and said, "I play the clown."
"Although good clowns are funny, they bring happiness to others by telling the truth. Bad clowns just show up and tell a lot of lies, making others and themselves unhappy."
Situ Yi's big sleeves shook, he closed his hands, and his eyes slid sideways, like a natural predator discovering its prey. He looked directly into the young man's eyes and said with a smile, "Did you do a good job?"
"——!"
Gongsun Ce's face turned pale, as if struck by thunder, and he couldn't say a word for a while. Situ Yi stopped looking at him, looked at the stage again, and said leisurely: "I have no intention of watching the show, no intention of acting in the show, so what's the use of keeping it? Just take care of yourself and say goodbye."
Gongsun Ce stood up stiffly, said goodbye, and walked out of the tent. Before leaving, he turned around and saw Situ Yi still sitting there like a ghost. At the end of the play, the angels who were fighting endlessly could not accomplish anything. The disaster of destruction turned into a black sword and fell from the sky, smashing the continent where people lived into pieces of floating islands, leaving countless dead and injured on the ground.
·
(Calm down, Mr. Gongsun. Don’t think about what the man said.)
(I'm fine, don't talk to me.)
Gongsun Ce stood on the green ground outside the tent, holding his knees with his hands and breathing heavily. He didn't even understand what was wrong with him. The man's words seemed to have an inexplicable power, which destroyed his mask and made him feel an unreasonable panic.
He gradually figured out the reason. His strength in dealing with things came from the image created by his lies and acting skills, but that person's acting skills were much better than his. He couldn't tell whether what he heard was true or false, and he couldn't understand the man's emotions at all. Situ Yi tore off his disguise without any use of force... turning him back into a cowardly boy instead of a clown in black.
"Ha ha……!"
Gongsun Ce barely controlled his breathing and wiped the sweat from his head. He raised his head and saw the green-haired woman who was acting earlier standing not far away.
"Are you okay?" The green-haired woman looked at him doubtfully, "The leader asked me to help you lead the way, but I think you should go find a doctor first."
"Drinking too much tea is a bit hypoglycemic." Gongsun Ce forced a smile, "Thank you for your concern, miss. It's not a big problem, I'll just eat a piece of candy. May I ask who you are?"
"Criqui Hyde, a mage apprentice, works odd jobs in the Order when not working." Criqui stretched out her hand to him, "The lamp you are looking for was made by a craftsman in the Order, but you should know this place The custom is to hire people locally and fire them locally.”
"Ha, you are responsible for whatever happens?"
"That's right, the leader has nothing to do with it. He only cares about acting." Crikey turned around and shouted, "Phyllis! Is Douglas here?"
The little boy who bought the tickets rushed out from behind the tent, holding his big wooden box: "I just gave him tea, Miss Crikey. He sent Master Buck away in his own tent."
"Thanks, Phyllis. Go play."
Little Phyllis ran away, and Criqui brought Gongsun Ce to a small tent and shouted: "Douglas! Business is coming!"
When no one responded, Krikki shouted a few more times and said impatiently: "Old man... wait a minute, I'll go take a look."
She leaned half of her body into the tent and came out after a few seconds, with an embarrassed look on her face.
"Just...this matter is a bit troublesome, Mr. Gongsun."
Gongsun Ce sighed: "He ran away?"
"That's not true." Criqui scratched her face, "He's dead."
