1928: The rise of giant merchants

Ye Luo really wanted to go to the opera this afternoon, and it was not a lie.

After he said that, Chu Minyi had no choice but to swallow his anger and pretended to be generous and said to them: "Then I won't disturb the second young master to go to the opera."

After dinner, Ye Luo took the Yang sisters to the World Theater. Bai Xiuzhu, Meng Xiaodong and others had been waiting for a long time.

"Dad!" Ye Zhuohua threw himself into Ye Luo's arms, looking at Yang Xiuqiong with his eyes rolling, and said in surprise, "This is the mermaid sister!"

Bai Xiuzhu deliberately looked at the Yang sisters for a few more times, stretched out her hand and smiled, "Hello, both of you, my name is Bai Xiuzhu."

Sisters Yang Xiuzhen and Yang Xiuqiong hurriedly said, "Hello, Second Young Madam!"

Fearing that Bai Xiuzhu would be jealous, Ye Luo quickly told her the story in a simple way, saying, "They were entangled by Chu Minyi, so I had to bring them here."

Bai Xiuzhu was quite angry after hearing this: "The Secretary-General of the Executive Yuan could actually do such a thing, it's simply outrageous."

Ye Luo smiled and said, "Okay, everyone sit down and wait to watch the show."

In Jinling, the scale of the World Theater is second only to the Capital Theater. As for the more magnificent Dahua Theater and Xindu Theater, they have not yet been built and opened.

These theaters are different from those in later generations. They are multifunctional. They can show movies, traditional dramas, and even Western dramas.

Although Peking opera originated in the north, it was also popular in the south during the Republic of China period.

Shanghai even surpassed Beiping and Tianjin to become the largest consumer market for Peking opera in the Republic of China, often gathering Peking opera masters from all over the country.

Jinling is relatively close to Shanghai and has also been greatly influenced. The citizens of Jinling love Peking opera as much as those in Tianjin.

As soon as the news came out that Meng Xiaodong came to Jinling with her husband Ye Luo to watch the sports meeting, she immediately received countless performance invitations. The owner of the World Theater even paid a huge sum of money to invite her to sing a special show.

Ye Luo and his friends waited for about 20 minutes, and the more than 900 seats in the venue were basically full.

With the sound of gongs and drums, the performance officially began.

The first play was the famous Yu School play "Fishing and Killing the Family". The actors of Li Jun and Ni Rong were both famous actors in Jinling. A few lines of monologues welcomed the audience's applause.

Soon the first show ended, Li Jun and Ni Rong left at the same time, and Xiao Guiying and Xiao En were ready to go on stage.

The sound of the Xipi board sounded, and Xiao Guiying's female voice sang from the backstage: "Rowing the oars, the boat is like an arrow!"

"Huh?"

"This Xiao Guiying is not good."

"Who plays it?"

"What's going on?"

"."

Experienced drama fans heard Xiao Guiying's singing and felt something was wrong, because her basic skills were not good enough.

At this moment, Xiao En and Xiao Guiying chanted "Hold the rudder steadily" at the same time, and then the "father and daughter" rowed the "boat" together.

The whole audience became dead silent in an instant, and no one made a sound. Some audience members who were eating melon seeds were stunned, and they didn't even notice the melon seeds falling from their hands.

It turned out that the Huadan actress who played Xiao Guiying had no oil paint on her face. It can be seen at a glance that she is a foreign beauty, which made the audience feel incredible - foreigners can also sing Peking opera?

The foreign beauty on the stage continued to sing: "The rolling river water is rolling waves!"

"Good!"

"Well sung!"

"Watch and enjoy!"

"."

The audience responded with a roar, and countless audiences cheered loudly, as if it was really a famous actor who was singing.

This foreign woman only learned Peking Opera for half a year, so of course her singing was not very good. Fans with a little appreciation of the opera could hear the flaws.

But she is a foreigner. She actually came to sing our Peking Opera, which instantly satisfied the vanity of the audience.

The foreign woman sang two more sentences, and the whole audience was boiling, and the cheers and applause lasted for a long time.

"Son!"

Xiao En, played by Meng Xiaodong, recited a line, and then sang: "Father and daughter are fishing in the river, even if people laugh at us for being poor! Guiying steers the rudder steadily, and the father casts the net"

"Good!"

An expert can tell whether it is good or not with just one move.

If the performance of the foreign woman just now can be rated 60 points, then Meng Xiaodong's performance can be rated 120 points, and the on-site infectiousness is directly bursting.

Many senior drama fans were so excited that they stood up and clapped their hands after hearing Meng Xiaodong's singing. This caused the audience behind them who could not see the performance to stand up, and more than half of the more than 900 audience members stood up.

Many audience members simply stood to watch the whole play, their voices were hoarse, and their palms were sore from clapping.

When Meng Xiaodong left the stage, the audience spontaneously shouted: "Winter Queen! Winter Queen! Winter Queen!"

The second play was performed soon, and Meng Xiaodong did not appear. She was backstage to gather her strength and prepare for the performance of the third play.

Basically, every time she appeared, she could cause the whole audience to boil. After all, since Meng Xiaodong became Ye Luo's concubine, she basically never performed on stage again.

It was almost evening, and the finale ended, leaving only the last big play.

At this time, the theater manager suddenly ran out and personally acted as the MC and said: "Today's main attraction is a new play, written independently by the famous old actor Meng Xiaodong. Please enjoy the new play "Lady Huarui"!"

When everyone heard that it was a new play, and it was a new play written by Meng Xiaodong herself, everyone immediately became excited.

The new play "Lady Huarui" currently being performed was actually provided by Ye Luo with the general plot, and Meng Xiaodong was responsible for writing the lines and singing.

The plot of this play is as follows: The emperor of the Later Shu Kingdom worked hard to establish the kingdom of Shu, but died suddenly a few months after becoming emperor, and the throne was passed to the later emperor Meng Chang. Meng Chang enjoyed music and wine every day, and favored singing girls and poets in the imperial music academy. Shu Kingdom did not fight for ten years, giving the illusion of peace and happiness. Suddenly one day, Zhao Kuangyin led his troops to attack, and the whole country of Shu was terrified. More than 100,000 Shu troops surrendered without a fight, and Meng Xu and the imperial concubine Lady Huarui were both imprisoned. Zhao Kuangyin quickly poisoned Meng Chang to death because he fell in love with Lady Huarui. Meng Chang's mother (the Queen Mother of Shu Kingdom) starved herself to death, and Lady Huarui also committed suicide by drinking poison.

The plot is basically taken from real history, but many private goods are added, alluding to the current Nationalist government and its bureaucrats. As the heroine, Lady Huarui's ending was greatly changed. In history, Lady Huarui died because she was involved in the dispute over the throne, but Ye Luo changed it to follow her deceased husband.

In this play, Meng Xiaodong personally played Meng Chang, the last emperor of Shu.

At the beginning, the fans cheered, but as the play went on, many people began to curse. Because the plot of Shu indulging in pleasure and not striving for progress was too similar to the situation during the Republic of China, it was easy for the audience to associate it with reality.

Especially in the face of Zhao Kuangyin's attack, more than 100,000 Shu troops surrendered without a fight, which was obviously an allusion to the loss of the north and the policy of non-resistance.

"The king raised the flag on the city, how could I know in the deep palace? 140,000 people took off their armor, and not one of them was a man." When Lady Huarui sang the suicide poem in a tone, the angry patriots stood up and shouted a variety of slogans.

"Down with the traitors!"

"Fight against Japan and save the country, return our land to us!"

"140,000 people took off their armor, and not one of them is a man. The Northern Army is a coward without balls, go out and kill the enemy!"

"Long live China!"

"Kill all the Japanese dogs!"

"."

The whole theater was in chaos, and the audience's patriotic sentiment was completely aroused.

Ye Luo couldn't help thinking: Once this play becomes popular, I hope it will arouse the anti-Japanese sentiment across the country, and people will no longer be afraid to face it. (End of this chapter)