The Mid-Autumn Festival of the Cui family started with a bland family banquet and ended with an assignment and a study plan looking forward to the future. Those wealthy officials and eunuchs, not only on August 15th, but also in the days before and after they invited their relatives and friends, put on a stage to sing operas, and put on a big feast.
The five troupes who sang for Ju Anzhai's Three Kingdoms opera troupe were invited the most, and the trick girl who pretended to be a beauty of the Three Kingdoms during the night canvassing was even more beautiful, and countless people scrambled to invite them to sing at home. The worth of the five people has risen to more than one hundred taels of silver a day, and the host has to light incense cloth candles and prepare four beautiful screens before they are willing to appear.
- The incense can't be the poor Sihe incense made by the Cui family, but a good incense block such as sandalwood, which can burn dozens of taels of silver in a single feast.
Even if it is so expensive, there are people in Beijing who are willing to spend a lot of money to buy this limelight, and those who can't be invited have to sacrifice face to go to someone else's house to celebrate the festival.
Only Eunuch Gao’s mansion could hold on, and invited a Qiuxi class who had just arrived from Zhending to hold a banquet at noon and sing opera for six days in a row. Not only did his family not use the famous team, but they also sang "Journey to the West" instead of the currently popular Three Kingdoms.
Gao Su is also helpless—
His family received many posts, all of which invited him to listen to "Three Kingdoms" at night. They used either a team that had a one-day ticket in the Huang Family Garden, or that they had played the role of the Three Kingdoms and Five Beauties at night. If the banquet is held at night, and the famous "the first beauty of the Three Kingdoms" is invited, and their family is invited by an unknown country team, who will the person who receives the post go to
Gao Su only hated that he was late and couldn't get a good team, and he was afraid that someone would listen to his own play at noon and listen to someone else's play at night. If he compared the two, if he felt that his family lost to others, he simply called Qiu Xiban. Sing your own good play, don't compare the Three Kingdoms with others.
What Qiu Xiban is good at is "Journey to the West" written by Yang Jingxian at the beginning of the country.
Gao Su was watching this fairy show with nothing but smoky smoke, and then someone asked Ji Zhang how to make cigarettes, how to make the gods hide in the smoke, and exit the stage flutteringly. The shopkeeper Ji was arranging for a night show at the beginning, but he didn’t know much about it during the day, and he didn’t dare to perfunctory him.
Cui Xie has a lot of experience in this area, and he wanted to tell him about the stage set in detail. But at that time, it was almost Mid-Autumn Festival, and it was too late to arrange the background and rockery trees.
Before the performance, hang several layers of gauze curtains on the stage to make curtains, and use thick ropes to tie the curtains to the pillars on both sides. The veil gradually disappeared from thin to thick, and some cigarettes were placed outside to cover it up, which would have a somewhat elegant effect.
In a hurry, I couldn't think of a better idea, so I had to do this.
In the Gaofu, there are spun yarns woven with gold and colorful embroidery, which are picked up in rolls of white and azure. At the curtain call, it was no longer the actors who retreated into the small door at the back, but lowered the curtains, obscuring the figures a little bit so that they could not be seen clearly, but there was a bit of an artistic conception hidden in the depths of the smoke and clouds.
Qiu Xiban first tried to sing at Gao's house, and played the first "God and Buddha Descends Grandson" in the third book. This play is the scene of King Li Tianwang and the Crown Prince subduing Sun Xingzhe and returning the king and daughter of the golden tripod he took to the middle school.
Li Tianwang was dressed in golden clothes and armor, and the crown prince had a face like a beautiful woman, while Sun Xingzhe wore bright red armor and a silver crown. The king's daughter Jinding is dressed as Xiao Yuegui, and what is depicted is the eye makeup of the characters of the Three Kingdoms created by Cui Xie.
The appearance of all the immortals, and King Li's ordering of the Four Heavenly Kings to send Jin Ding's daughter back to their hometown are all smoldering with cigarettes, like stepping on a cloud. In the scene where all the heavenly soldiers are led by Prince Nezha to search the mountain and capture the Monkey King, the curtains are first lowered, leaving only Li Tianwang on the field, and then Guanyin comes out through the curtain layer by layer from the center of the curtain, as if piercing through the fairy mist. , sure enough, it looks better than playing from behind the curtain.
Gao Su personally sat under the stage to monitor the effect. At first, he wanted to find faults, but later he was dazzled and full of praise, and exclaimed: "Good! Good! Good! Isn't this Journey to the West better than the Three Kingdoms? I just hate it. No one Luo Guanzhong will come and write it into a novel, otherwise Ju Anzhai will be asked to write a book of Journey to the West, I'm afraid I won't have to buy him ten sets or eight sets!"
invite! Write a few more posts to invite people! For such a good show, not only did you have to invite the nobles and guilds you want to make friends with, but of course you also had to invite your acquaintances and colleagues to watch it.
He posted the post all over the Fusi Division of the Second North and South Towns. After August 15th, Jin Yiwei didn't need to be on duty in the palace, and all those who could spare time went to his house to listen to it.
Xie Ying helped Eunuch Gao to find a picture of the immortals in the "Antian Conference", but he did not take credit afterward, and even made them father and son as if they were people, and no one had to invite him. On August 20th, he happened to be off duty, so he asked the Gao family steward to personally drag him into the Gao mansion, and listened to his family's new play with several invited honorables, commander Zhu Ji and others.
"Journey to the West" has a total of six books and twenty-four books, and it happens to be the sixth book on August 20th. It sings "Hu Ma Po asks about the heart seal, Sun Xingzhe answers empty Zen, Lingyu Mountain and Guang Gathering, Tang Sanzang Great Dynasty Yuan "It's all a monk's play.
As soon as the "Appreciation of Buddhist Sutras" came out, the three disciples said goodbye to Master in a stanza, and hid behind a thin single-layer veil, but did not leave the stage, but sat behind the veil and sat in meditation. When Sanzang recited "The three monks have passed away, and the poor monk will make a fire with him", he slowly pulled up a gauze curtain painted with flames from the ground in front of the three people, and it rose into the air and fell.
After the gauze curtain fell, the three of them stood up by themselves, their hands tied together with their fist marks, fearless marks, and teaching marks, and performed a picture of burning off their old bodies and freeing themselves from right and wrong.
The audience immediately burst into applause, and one of the guests said happily: "So I was most afraid of hearing this paragraph when I listened to "Journey to the West". The three apprentices came out one by one, and sang "When they die, they cut their heads off, and even their tails are sold for five pieces." ', the old monk waits for another fire, doesn't it really become a pig? It's just like this in your house, and I can see that Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Shahe have not yet died, but they have become Buddhas!"
Especially when the flames fell together, people changed from the image of sitting and dying to standing. With Tang Sanzang's recitation of "Going forward and going forward, people and I jump out of the pool", it really gives a feeling of letting go and liberation. .
Xie Ying chanted the Buddha's name in a low voice and sighed, "I don't know where Brother Gao hired a troupe to sing such a good show. I have also heard a few troupes sing Journey to the West, but I have never seen such a delicate arrangement. "
Gao Su leaned towards him and smiled smugly: "How can the people in the Zaju troupe understand this, it would be good if they can perform it. The people who really made these exquisite sets must be those who are ingenious and incense with books. ."
He leaned closer to Xie Ying's ear, put on a gesture of whispering, and said in a low voice, "Look at that stove, isn't it the same as when Ju Anzhai held the five-beauty election?"
He took a look at the incense burner under the stage, and after Xie Ying showed a look of sudden realization, he smiled and said, "I found the former owner of the owner of Juzhai, and he ordered that the owner of that house, The shopkeeper, as well as a rouge seller in the owner's family, Jin Rongtang, did their best to prepare this play for me."
He shook his head with some pity and said, "This book has to be asked by a poor woman to ask the Heart Sutra, and there are no beauties to come out, otherwise I will show you the makeup made by Jin Rongtang, which looks better than their troupes who are familiar with the Three Kingdoms opera. It's pretty good!"
Xie Ying held the venue and pointed to the stage and said, "Then Master Xuanzang's appearance is better than other people's. Just by looking at the fair and handsome appearance of these monks, I know that Danjiao must be better-looking. If there is one in the future. If you have the opportunity, you must come back to the house to disturb a play."
Gao Su said generously: "Brother Xie wants to see the beauty, you really don't have to wait to listen to my family's drama. Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Jinrongtang released an eyeliner, and these actors in my family are all dressed up with eye ointment. It makes your eyes look big and bright. When you look back, just take a few boxes from my house and ask the ladies at home to paint them, and ask them to sing 'Jin Yuntang Beauty Series' to you at night. Wouldn't it be better than going to someone's house to listen to a play? Are you strong?"
His face was full of aftertaste, obviously he sang this play a lot, and he didn't know if he wore an armor to play Lu Bu when he sang.
Xie Ying waved his hand and declined: "I don't have that person to like. It's useless to come. Brother Gao should leave it to some beautiful woman."
Gao Su raised his eyebrows: "How do you say this. You don't have one at home, don't you know one or two people outside? Now all those sisters are willing to wear half black eyelids, they look pretty at night, but they don't know each other during the day. It's a bit annoying, if you like it, give her a good box of eye ointment, it's comfortable to look at yourself, right?"
That's not necessary... This eyeliner is sold in the family I know from outside.
Xie Ying didn't say anything for a while, but Gao Su clapped his hands and called for two boxes of eyeliner to be delivered, and said to him: "This eyeliner only sells 20 boxes a day, and it's not easy to buy it if you want to buy it. I have a few in my family. I don't have any concubines yet. If it wasn't for you, Brother Xie, I'd rather give them snails."
Xie Ying was stuffed with two boxes of eyeliner that he couldn't use, and it was inappropriate to return it, so he had to thank him for his kindness and brought two boxes of eyeliner home. Although others didn't get the gift of Gao Su's heart, but this Journey to the West itself was well sung, and the stage layout was novel, not inferior to the Three Kingdoms at night, and they all went away satisfied.
With this "Journey to the West", the Gao family's Mid-Autumn Festival banquet took a third of the limelight from those who ordered the original Three Kingdoms Five Beauty troupe. Although Eunuch Gao couldn't come out in the palace, he heard that the banquet was beautiful and gave him a face, and he was very happy. Even Liang Fang flattered in front of Concubine Wan and offered some eyeliner, which was praised by the concubine. , he didn't care.
When he came home from a break, Gao Su asked people to reopen the feast and invited the troupe to sing "Journey to the West".
The opening scene was that Chen Guangrui and his wife were robbed, and Mrs. Chen let go of Jiang Liuer's role. Eunuch Gao met so many beauties in the palace, and when he saw Danjiao who was playing Mrs. Chen, he couldn't help but praised: "What a beauty, this is so beautiful. If the team has such a danjiao, it will become popular in Beijing in the future."
Gao Su happily talked about how to find a theater troupe and how to ask Cui Xie to help set up the stage, so that he made this western game exquisitely exquisite, and he said everything about getting the limelight in Beijing.
Mrs. Gao listened to the word "eyeliner", her eyelids jumped twice and asked, "Eyeliner? This is, this is sold by Cui Gongzi's store? Why didn't you spread the news earlier and enter the palace! "
Knowing that it was his own shop, how could he have called Liang Fang to steal the limelight from something that only smacks of beards! He dedicated himself to Lao Niangniang, Wan Niangniang, and Queen Niangniang, Bai Niangniang and the others, isn't it good!
He paused in hatred, pointed at his son and said, "What's the use of marrying a wife early? You are not as caring as Eunuch Liang. Why don't you know how to give it away when you get eyeliner!"
I gave it to... I gave it to Xie Ying, so that he could give it to someone outside.
Gao Su kept his mouth shut and did not dare to speak, so he told him that he had scolded enough before saying: "Although Eunuch Liang put on eyeliner, the ointment was sold by the Cui family we know well, so we are close to him. Or we can also Looking for some eye ointment from him? Eunuch Liang has to ask someone to buy it in the store, where can I get how much? We can order it from him, and let him not be someone else, but only for it... "
"Specially for the palace? Let's take care of the purchase? If you can really persuade the emperor to buy eyeliner from outside the palace, it would be a good job, but the purchase is a big deal, and there are not sure how many people will compete with us. Liang Fang, Wei Xing and the others must be staring at this piece of meat, and they have to plan again..." Eunuch Gao sighed: "Forget it, he has already taken the chance to please Wan Niangniang, let's see if Niangniang likes it first. I like this thing, and the days to come are still long.”
This time, Gao Su knew that he had done a bad job, and when the play on stage was over, he asked Dan Jiao to come out to kowtow to his foster father and show him how he was dressed up.
The Gao family is researching eyeliner, and the Xie family is also researching eyeliner.
Xie Ying took a thin eyeliner and traced a pair of eyes according to the eye shape in the instruction manual, then dipped it in the ointment and traced an isolated line on the paper. The line was drawn a little longer, and the arch in the middle was a line higher than that of the eyes. It was painted with eyeliner, and the end of the eye was lifted a little bit upwards after receiving the bottom. A fan-shaped fine fold is drawn on it, and a pair of long and straight sword eyebrows are more like the eyes in his heart.
He stroked the painted eyes with his fingertips, but a pair of brighter and more lively eyes appeared in his heart. The eyelids trembled slightly, and the eyes flowed, as if there were thousands of words waiting to be revealed to him. He couldn't help but smile slightly, folded the piece of paper, put it in the eyeliner box instead of the instruction manual, and received the top of the treasure shelf with his own hands.
It's a pity that he doesn't know how to draw, so he can only mess around like this. It would be nice if he could draw more like it.