Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 23 Night Watch Performance
The clock struck eight.

In the dim light, Huang Songhua was reading a letter.

"What did Shouzhongxin say?"

Sitting next to her, her brother Huang Jianhua, who was wearing reading glasses and trying to insert a thread into the eye of a needle, asked, "Have you found a job yet?"

“They said they’re still looking. I’ll send him some more money. No matter what, he absolutely cannot come back to our village.”

"It must have been tough for you. After you got pregnant, you gave birth to Shouzhong in a hospital outside the village, and then he was adopted by your relatives."

“Only by preventing him from being born in the village can we avoid having to live and die here like us.” Huang Songhua held the letter tightly in his hand. “By the way, I heard that the village committee is considering adding a new rule for tourists and a new rule for villagers: food with blue patterns should be discarded in designated trash cans and collected by the village committee. The village chief’s idea is to observe for a while before making a decision, as this phenomenon may not last long. He said he is worried about causing panic among the villagers.”

"The nighttime performances weren't as frequent as they are now; it's only in recent years that the rules have been changed to every night..."

"Could it be related to what that outsider named Xiaoming or Aming said? And, brother, don't you think what your sister-in-law said today was a bit strange..." Huang Songhua put down the letter and said, "When she was looking at the ancestral hall gate, she said something like, 'There has never been an ancestral hall in the village before?'"

When Huang Jianhua heard his sister mention this, he glanced at his wife sitting by the window and said, "She was just confused."

"But then something even stranger happened. After she said that, she suddenly fell silent, and then... she was whispering something..."

"You heard that? I didn't hear it clearly at the time."

"Oh, right, she meant... I'm mistaken, the village wasn't abandoned, and the village isn't..."

At this moment, Huang Jianhua's wife, sitting by the window with a full head of white hair and looking very old, turned her head and said as if reciting a memorized text, "Yes... I was wrong. The village was not abandoned, and the village did have an ancestral hall when we were born..."

As she spoke, drool began to trickle from the corner of her mouth.

Huang Jianhua went up to his wife and took a tissue to wipe her mouth.

"Alright, Songhua, let's not talk about this anymore. Let's get ready to watch tonight's night parade."

Let's pray that 'she' doesn't show up tonight.

"Even if she doesn't appear tonight, she'll still show up the night after tomorrow in 'Picking Up the Jade Bracelet'...

……

The bronze mirrors in the village gleamed coldly in the twilight, like countless eyes slowly opening.

The evening routine parade is about to begin.

At 8:59 p.m., the area around the ancestral hall was already packed with people. Huang Jianhua, along with his wife Azhi and sister Songhua, found a place to stand. Every villager was holding a red lantern.

A large number of village committee members wearing armbands maintained order in the crowd.

"Hey? Look, isn't that..." Huang Songhua suddenly pointed to the opposite side of the line: "The young man who was almost beaten up by the woman during the day?"

Huang Jianhua looked over, nodded, and said, "It seems so... Hey, why should outsiders get involved in this?"

"Never mind, if we haven't drunk the water from the pool before, watching the performance should be fine."

Opposite the Huang family of three, Jiang Jin had changed his clothes. He had a boning knife tucked into his waistband, which was covered with resentment moss ointment.

The death knell bowed at his feet, ready at any moment. Suddenly, it pricked up its ears and turned toward the path at the east end of the village.

Jiang Jin immediately followed its gaze...

Suddenly, the sound of gongs and drums rang out in the village.

At first, there were only a few scattered sounds, as if they were coming from a very distant place.

But soon, the drumbeats became more intense, and the sound of gongs echoed in the night sky, mixed with some kind of stringed instrument.

Several scarlet lanterns emerged from the distant mist, floating eerily in mid-air, as if carried slowly towards them by an invisible hand. The sound of gongs and drums grew closer.

Jiang Jin's temples throbbed, and an indescribable unease spread through his chest.

Suddenly, Mr. Chen appeared beside him.

"Guess, is this night patrol... for the living, or for the dead?"

Jiang Jin gripped the hilt of his knife tightly and said, "I only care about who will survive after this performance."

The patrol team finally appeared in front of us.

There were no floats, no modern lights, only a group of figures in theatrical costumes slowly walking along the street. Their faces were covered with thick greasepaint, with exaggerated eyeliner and lip color drawn on a pale background, making them look as eerie as paper dolls in the moonlight.

Leading the group was a woman dressed in a phoenix coronet and embroidered robe, with a gold hairpin in her hair and long sleeves that reached the ground; she seemed to float forward with every step.

Her face was covered by makeup, her lips maintained an upward curve, but her eyes were empty and lifeless, like two glass beads.

Behind her followed several men dressed as martial arts performers, their faces painted with ferocious masks, wielding long spears and short knives, their movements stiff and awkward, the blades cutting through the air with sharp, whistling sounds.

Behind them was a group of musicians playing mournful tunes. The shrill whistling of the suona sounded like the wail of some dying animal, while the strings of the erhu sounded like a woman's suppressed sobs.

The shopkeeper introduced the story to Jiang Jin: "This is the Cantonese opera 'The Princess Changping,' which tells the story of Princess Changping of the fallen Ming Dynasty who died with her husband, and whose spirits linger on.

Jiang Jin was taken aback: "Princess Changping...Master Jiunan?"

"This isn't The Sword Stained with Royal Blood or The Deer and the Cauldron. There's no Yuan Chengzhi or Wei Xiaobao," the shopkeeper continued. "Princess Changping pleaded with the Qing emperor to spare the Ming crown prince so that Emperor Chongzhen could be buried. The Qing emperor went back on his word, and in the end, the princess and her husband, Zhou Shixian, both died in the line of duty."

The patrol team moved slowly forward, and the villagers on both sides of the street watched the opera troupe performing. No one applauded, and no one spoke.

Jiang Jin's gaze swept over the villagers, and he noticed—

The villagers' eyes were filled with fear as they looked at the procession. Many of them were trembling as they held their lanterns. Some even clasped their hands together and chanted incessantly, as if praying for something.

The patrol team stopped in the middle of the street.

Three gongs were struck, and a dozen musicians stepped forward, each with a red rope tied around their neck.

The leading actress playing Princess Changping wore three-inch-high platform boots, yet walked as lightly as a cat.

Her water sleeves were seven feet long, making a rustling sound as they dragged across the bluestone slabs.

She then began to sing the first act of "The Princess Changping," titled "The Tree Alliance":
"Red ivory softly plays, cold fragrance permeates the Phoenix Pavilion."

Content to watch the fleeting years slip away in solitude.

Jiang Jin didn't understand Cantonese opera, but as soon as the female lead started singing, he couldn't help but admire her singing skills, which were completely unlike those of an amateur Cantonese opera performer from the countryside.

Next to sing was a martial arts actor playing the role of the imperial son-in-law, Zhou Shixian:

"The peacock lantern illuminates the Five Phoenix Tower"
A light robe, a warm hat, and a brocade sable fur coat.

As the group moved forward, Jiang Jin followed suit, remaining vigilant at all times.

As time went by, he even began to immerse himself in the plot of the Cantonese opera. After the first act came the second act, the Incense Robbery, in which Emperor Chongzhen ordered Changping to be executed.

Suddenly, Jiang Jin received a notification from his right eye, saying that the cooldown for the rule-altering event had passed!

He can now use the ability to tamper with the rules again!
Jiang Jin was immediately excited; he had finally waited for this moment!
Now he needs to consider...

Should we amend the first or the second rule of the visitor guidelines?
　Please read it! Please collect it!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)