"I understand."
Down in the well, Qin Manjiang and Mei Sijun spoke at the same time.
They exchanged a glance, and Mei Sijun spoke first. "The gravel forms a path. There's something strange about where those two performers bleeding from all seven orifices are standing."
"Both of them have a larger stone beneath their feet. There seems to be something on it," Qin Manjiang added.
"It's the character for clown," Mei Sijun said without hesitation. "Those two are wearing clown-role face paint. That's clearly clown makeup, yet they're singing a Dan role's lines. They've taken the wrong path."
Qin Manjiang knew the five operatic role types-Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo, and Chou-but he knew nothing about their specific differences.
He had merely noticed that the blood dripping from the two performers' seven orifices kept falling around the same patch of ground. They also only "performed" within that patch, not daring to step outside it. That had aroused his suspicion, and only upon closer inspection had he noticed something unusual about the gravel beneath their feet.
Some stones were larger, and the markings on them were indeed written characters, just as Mei Sijun had said.
"There are four larger stones on the gravel path ahead of us. Come and look." Mei Sijun crouched down and explained to Qin Manjiang with great enthusiasm, "This is the character sheng, referring to the Sheng role, generally the male lead in an opera. It later developed branches such as the older male, young male, and martial male roles."
Qin Manjiang followed his finger. The markings on that larger stone were crooked, but they did indeed form the character sheng.
Next, Mei Sijun pointed to another stone. "This is jing, referring to the Jing role. Guan Yu and Bao Zheng both have fully painted faces in opera,