After a few moments, the waiter walked into the private room with a teapot and a tea tray. He slowly placed it on the tea table and said with a smile: "This year's new spring rain in Dongting, the early buds have been fried with jasmine, hawthorn and wheat kernels." "Sir, it tastes fragrant and fragrant, and is the best way to relieve tiredness. In addition, there are cloud cakes, rice cakes, melon seed cakes, nut cakes, pork jerky and other fruit cakes. Please try them." These are not expensive cakes. , but the advantage is that it is famous and tastes good, and many teahouses prepare it. Yue Guanchao picked up the cloud cake. It was soft and crispy, with a rich rice flavor. It also had dried dried fruits and sweet and sour taste, which was very comfortable. He also drank a sip of tea, which was just right. Wash away the greasy taste.
"Second uncle, you don't want to eat?" Yue Guanchao took a few bites and looked at Yue Qingshan. He just stared at the stage without even stretching out his hands.
"My eldest nephew, who came to the theater to watch the show just for these three walnuts and two dates? Your second uncle didn't care about eating them either." Sun Daqiao seemed to have a lot of knowledge about opera. He drank tea and continued: "This Kunqu opera It is the famous drama "The Injustice of Dou E" written by Guan Hanqing, a famous poet in the Yuan Dynasty... "In the late Yuan Dynasty, the government was unable to manage the world's prefectures, and because foreigners dominated the world and did not make decisions for the people, it was not known how many greedy and mediocre people were indulged. Generations, let them exploit the people and plunder the people's anointing.
Dou Tianzhang, a poor scholar, wanted to go to Beijing to take the exam, but he didn't have the money. After some embarrassment, he sold his daughter Dou E to Granny Cai as a child bride. After that, Dou Tianzhang took the money and set off, and the father and daughter said goodbye.
More than ten years have passed since then. When the young Dou E was seventeen, she was already tall and graceful. She and Granny Cai's son got married as promised. Little did she know that her new husband-in-law was also a short-lived ghost. He only lasted two years after the marriage. She passed away at the age of 20. Unfortunately, Dou E was still a widow when she was only twenty years old.
After her husband died, Dou E wanted to live with her mother-in-law Cai Po, but little did she know that in the dark world, there was no man in the family to work hard.
Youdao is a widow with a lot of disputes in front of her. Not long after, Zhang Luer, who settled in a poor house, bullied them and brought her father Zhang Laoer to live in the house. Not only did Cai Po marry Zhang Laoer, he even wanted to Get involved with Dou E.
Tsk tsk tsk, the toad wants to eat the whole family, Zhang Lv'er is not good in appearance and has evil heart. Dou E is in her youth, how can she look down on such a frog in the well, so she immediately scolded Zhang Lv'er.
The scoundrel was insulted and angry, so he decided to poison Granny Cai first, and then force Dou E to marry him. One day, Granny Cai fell ill and wanted to eat sheep tripe soup. Dou E took pity on her sick mother-in-law and made it for her in the kitchen. I got a bowl of sheep tripe soup, but before I could bring it over, Zhang Luer was poisoned with poison that pierced the intestines and rotted the belly.
Dou E was ignorant and gave the bowl of sheep tripe soup to Granny Cai. By God's coincidence, the old lady suddenly vomited, so she pushed the soup to Mr. Zhang. After the old man finished drinking the soup, the bowl was still empty. After sucking it clean, he immediately died and went to the west.
Zhang Luer was self-defeating. He originally thought he was going to poison Cai Po, but unexpectedly he poisoned his own father. Seeing that it was a dead end, he had no choice but to resort to his plan, and instead framed Dou E for poisoning his father.
The local officials arrested Dou E indiscriminately. These gentlemen originally wanted to try the case according to law, but after being bribed by Zhang Luer, they had no choice but to close the case as soon as possible.
In the court, the officials ignored the legal principles and were ignorant. Not only did they favor Zhang Luer, they also beat Granny Cai to force Dou E to confess. This woman was extremely filial to her relatives. Unfortunately, Granny Cai was old and frail and had just recovered from a serious illness, so she could not bear the punishment. , she had no choice but to plead guilty and admit that she poisoned Zhang Luer.
When the government saw that the lawsuit was settled, they were satisfied and immediately sentenced Dou E to beheaded and taken to the execution ground to beheaded.
When rushing to the execution place, Dou E believed that she was filial and sincere and never harmed anyone, but now she ended up being harmed by an adulterer. The more she thought about it, the more she felt aggrieved, so she prayed to the sky that she had three wishes before the execution.
I wish that the sword would fall through the head, and the blood would be wasted. Secondly, I hope that there will be heavy snowfall in June and that the bodies will be buried in deep snowdrifts. The third wish is that God will show mercy and there will be a severe drought for three years.
After saying those words, the official immediately sprayed Bai Lian according to her request. As expected, the knife hit the head, and not a drop of the bright blood was spilled. It was all sprayed on Bai Lian. After that, in the hot June, there was a strong wind and snowflakes covered the ground. The streets directly covered the bodies.
In the next three years, there was a severe drought in the state capital for three years, with no harvest. Only then did the people know that Dou E had really died unjustly.
At this time, Dou E's father, Dou Tianzhang, returned to his hometown from the capital as an official. Only then did he find out that his daughter had been killed by an adulterer. He had no choice but to reopen the case and arrest the donkey and put him to death according to law. Officials were also dismissed and investigated.
I don’t know if Luo Shiniang did this Kunqu opera deliberately, but it also fits the past of the Luo family. Like Dou E, Miss Luo was forced by corrupt officials and murdered by traitors. However, Dou E E died unjustly, but Luo Shiniang was reborn from the ashes, struggling to move forward in this dark world and carving out a future for herself.
In the tea room, a Kunqu opera actor is slim and graceful, holding orchids in his hand and slowly swinging a folding fan, and babbling in his mouth and singing: "I believe~~ that the sun and moon hang in the morning and evening, there are ghosts and gods who hold the power of life and death. Heaven and earth, Only by distinguishing the pure from the turbid, how can the robber Zhi Yanyuan be confused? Those who do good will suffer poverty and their life will be shortened, and those who do evil will enjoy wealth and longevity! Heaven and earth are made to be afraid of the strong and the weak, but it turns out that this is also the case Go with the flow. Earth, what is earth if you don't distinguish between good and evil? Heaven, you are wrong about the wise and foolish, and you are in vain for heaven! Alas, only two tears fell." After the song ended, silver light and white practice fluttered from the stage left and right, waiting for Wu When the officer stepped forward for execution, Dou E immediately fell down with stiff limbs, and red ink was sprinkled on Bai Lian like blood. Then, cotton debris floated on the stage, covering the corpse in the white.
"Okay~~" The cheers in the theater were enthusiastic and thunderous, and the cheers continued. Even Yue Guanchao, who didn't like to listen to operas very much, could tell that the last play was extremely sophisticated.
After the curtain call, I looked at the flower window of the theater in the opposite corner, and my expression was obviously stagnant. Yue Guanchao looked at his second uncle carefully, and his eyes were shocked. After thinking about it for a while, he knew what was going on.
The theater floor creaked, and someone was seen pushing in from the door curtain. Yue Guanchao looked back and saw that the actor was standing in front of them. He had not even taken off his makeup. Even with oily hair and powdered face, he could see that the charm was still there.
"Second brother, third brother, you're fine." This person was undoubtedly Luo Shiniang. She blessed the two of them and immediately went backstage to change out of her clothes.
When she came out again, Luo Shiniang had put on a peony flower jacket and a horse-face embroidered skirt. Her black hair was tied up in a bun with gold and silver hairpins. Even though she was fifty or sixty years old, her oval face only had slight wrinkles, which showed that her skin was fair and delicate. , The eyebrows and eyes are gentle, with the tranquility cultivated by years of calmness, but the eyebrows and eyes are always cold and sharp, as if they are hiding a sharp dagger.
"Miss Luo, after thirty or forty years of separation, you really haven't changed at all. You are still as handsome as ever." Sun Daqiao was usually a sweet-talking person. Seeing that Yue Qingshan was silent, he quickly came out to smooth things over.
