"That's exactly why I came."
Qin Manjiang spoke gravely.
He was growing anxious too. The night was almost over, and things were taking an increasingly bizarre turn, yet they still knew nothing about what had actually happened.
Now, with Miss Lin's help, they were finally about to make some progress.
Miss Lin casually pointed, and a pavilion appeared at the silent, chilly bottom of the well. It simply looked far too new, without a speck of dust.
"Let's talk over there."
Qin Manjiang nodded in agreement and followed her toward the pavilion.
Even then, he kept looking back, but apart from the two paper figures holding white lanterns, no one else from the troupe appeared along the way.
Had they entered different spaces despite coming down through the same well opening...?
Qin Manjiang pondered this.
Just then, Lin Yanqing suddenly asked, "Do you know what a yin-yang person is?"
Qin Manjiang froze, instinctively thinking Miss Lin was saying something strange.
But on second thought, in this era, and even in much earlier times, that term seemed to refer specifically to... intersex people?
He nodded. "I do."
Seeing nothing amiss in his expression, Lin Yanqing continued, "He was a yin-yang person."
He?
Qin Manjiang knew that the person Lin Yanqing meant was the opera performer who had supposedly "thrown himself down the well."
"His name was Li Yunxiu. He was a man, but his body wasn't entirely male."
Qin Manjiang nodded, already beginning to understand.
Never mind a hundred years ago-even in modern society, certain beliefs still circulated in more remote areas. With their limited understanding of medicine, people readily associated those with both male and female characteristics with ghosts and gods, believing their abnormalities were divine punishment.
Having both male and female characteristics was a condition that drew terrifying condemnation