Inviting the Ghost to Choose the Opera
"You're back!"
From the girl's thoughts alone, Zhou Yang could sense her delight.
He smiled silently, then thought of the scenes that had come to mind when he immersed himself in the Knife Credit Ledger, and his mood grew heavy again.
A ghost seemed only one level above a puppet, but Zhou Yang clearly remembered Chang Dafeng saying that if it were a puppet, they still had a chance of escaping by using Opera Communion with Spirits.
But if it were a ghost, all Chang Dafeng had said was that they could simply wait to die!
For the opera troupe, there was no way to deal with a ghost!
The crushing pressure struck Zhou Yang's heart like a stone, but for the moment he could not pass that burden on to Ding Ling, lest he unsettle her.
He composed himself and said to her, "Yes. I told you before that although I might leave without warning, I would certainly come back.
"Our fortunes are bound together, in life and death."
Through Ding Ling's eyes, Zhou Yang saw the first faint light of morning, and his heart sank again.
It was already dark in Guan Village, yet the sun was rising over Daliang Village.
This was no longer something a "time difference" could explain.
After all, the last time his consciousness had descended on Daliang Village, it had only recently turned night there and in Guan Village.
As things stood, either the relative flow of time in Guan Village and Daliang Village was completely chaotic, without any discernible pattern, or the two were not in the same world.
But if they were not in the same world, the language Ding Ling and the others spoke was plainly the same as that of the people in Guan Village.
There were also all sorts of connections between the two.
What was going on?
As Zhou Yang pondered this, Ding Ling spoke up in a cheerful voice:
"I know. I believe you!
"You'll keep your word. You're a man of your word!"
"Then what's happening now?
"You're carrying a hatchet. Are you going out to gather firewood?" Zhou Yang asked Ding Ling as he observed the situation.
Ding Ling answered at once, "The troupe is running short of food, and there isn't much firewood left either. The troupe leader sent Qian Heng, the martial actor, and Shitouzi to dig up wild vegetables;
"he told me to gather firewood with Li Yichun and Gao Hongbo!"
"At a critical time like this, why are you doing those things-" Zhou Yang frowned inwardly. Suddenly, something occurred to him, and he asked Ding Ling, "How long has it been since I suddenly left?
"Before I left, I told you to make sure you explained to the troupe leader what you saw in the mirror.
"What did you tell him?"
Hearing Zhou Yang's serious tone, Ding Ling grew nervous too. "When you left, it was about an hour after midnight last night. A whole night has passed since then.
"I told the troupe leader everything exactly as it happened. There wasn't just one puppet in the mirror, but a whole group of them.
"The Puppet Threads were like a net.
"I trust you. Don't you believe me?"
Her voice sounded a little hesitant and anxious.
Zhou Yang softened his voice and said slowly, "What reason do I have not to believe you?
"It's just that this matter is extremely important, so I have to handle it carefully.
"And I happened to leave right then, so I can only hear about it from you-Ding Ling, our lives are at stake here!
"Think carefully. How did Chang Dafeng react when you told him what was in the mirror?"
"He told me not to spread word that there was a group of puppets in the village, and not to tell anyone else in the troupe," Ding Ling said earnestly to Zhou Yang, recalling what had happened. "He really did act strangely...
"I thought that although he'd been pressing me urgently, asking again and again what I'd seen, when I actually told him, he didn't seem quite so concerned anymore.
"It was as if, as if... he actually knew what would be in the mirror!"
"He knew..." Zhou Yang murmured.
If Chang Dafeng had known all along what would be in the mirror, why had he asked Ding Ling to perform 'Grooming Before the Mirror' again?
As that question flashed through Zhou Yang's mind, a voice that had long been waiting in his heart gave a cold reply: Even if the troupe leader knew what was in the mirror and told everyone in the troupe, they wouldn't necessarily believe him.
Though they're all grasshoppers tied to the same rope, each kicks its own legs and fights the others. They can never unite and pull together.
Now that Ding Ling has performed Grooming Before the Mirror for everyone to see, they naturally won't doubt the result.
Chang Dafeng can use this to make everyone follow his orders and pull in the same direction!
But...
The human heart is hard to fathom. He may have thought and acted that way, but the result won't necessarily be what he wanted...
In only a moment, Zhou Yang understood the crux of the matter.
This made him even more certain that Chang Dafeng, the troupe leader, must be cruel and vicious to the extreme.
After all, for the sake of his own ends, the man could casually send others to their deaths without batting an eye.
If Ding Ling had not been chosen as Zhou Yang's Karmic Retribution Body, her death would have been all but certain.
"Do you think there's something wrong with Chang Dafeng?" Ding Ling asked cautiously. "He told me to go see him alone every night for the next two days. He wants to teach me how to practice the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting..."
He wanted a young woman to go see him at night to practice the Draft of Divine Makeup and Ghost Painting?
Ding Ling's words immediately put Zhou Yang on guard.
"He must have bad intentions," he said.
"If I'm not here, you must never be alone with him at night!"
Ding Ling giggled at that. "The troupe leader is different from the others in the troupe..."
At this point, her voice turned soft again:
"But since that's what you want, I'll do as you say.
"When you're not here, I definitely won't be alone with him."
In Zhou Yang's mind, Chang Dafeng was already a sinister man.
Before Ding Ling performed Grooming Before the Mirror, Chang Dafeng had very likely already known what was in it.
Following that line of reasoning, might he also know that there were no puppets in Daliang Village, but that a real "ghost" had appeared here?
If so, what was he plotting by keeping everyone in the dark and having them perform here?
Though his mind was full of doubts, Zhou Yang patiently asked Ding Ling, "Since you've seen the ghost in the mirror, shouldn't the troupe be preparing a grand opera to fool it?
"At such a critical moment, why is Chang Dafeng sending you all off to do odd jobs?"
If they were going to use an opera to fool the ghost, and their lives depended on the performance, then surely nothing mattered more than the opera.
Why, then, had the troupe relaxed at a time like this?
They were even "free" enough to send people out to gather firewood and dig up wild vegetables?
"The ghost in Daliang Village is the only audience for this grand opera, so we have to treat it with particular care.
"Usually, the troupe has to choose an auspicious day to put on an opera, so this time we have to be even more careful about choosing the date... The troupe cast a divination this morning and chose just after noon, three days from now, to begin.
"There really isn't much food left in the troupe, so the leader sent everyone out to gather firewood and dig up wild vegetables. Performing opera takes strength, after all.
"Tonight, when everyone gathers, the troupe leader will perform 'Inviting Ghosts to Choose an Opera.'"
"Whichever one the ghost chooses, that's the opera we'll perform in three days."
"Inviting Ghosts to Choose an Opera?"
Zhou Yang's interest stirred. "How does that work?"
Ding Ling answered readily, "We write the titles of the supernatural operas our troupe performs well on wooden plaques and stand them up in white sand.
"Whichever plaque the ghost knocks over is the opera it's chosen.
"The supernatural operas our troupe performs well include Three Battles with the White Bone Demon, Zhong Kui Marries Off His Sister, and The Boy Passes the Trial. The troupe leader also has a face-changing specialty: he can change into twenty-seven faces in just a few breaths..."