Hei Deng Xia Huo
Chapter 340 Crosstalk
The crowd involuntarily cleared a space, and the bald-headed mayor looked over. "You are..."
"This is Dao-ge, a monk who traveled across the ocean from the Eastern Tang Dynasty to the Kingdom of Lorn. These behind him are his disciples."
The lumberjack Frederick hurriedly explained, "Dao-ge possesses profound wisdom and mysterious knowledge from the mystical East."
"Hmm, I recognize you. You're the lumberjack who lives in the forest."
The mayor looked at Frederick, recalling the strange lumberjack's identity, and nodded, turning to Li Ang. "This monk, you say you have a way to help us resolve the current situation?"
"That's right."
Li Ang nodded and waved his hand behind his back, signaling his teammates not to follow. "I can help the residents of Hamelin and the African residents who have come here to settle to reach an agreement, to live together in harmony in a way that is acceptable to both sides."
"Ah?"
The mayor's face fell again. He actually wanted to send all the black people away to avoid further annoyance.
However, he couldn't say such things in public.
"Alright," the mayor said reluctantly, "What is your method?"
"Hehe," Li Ang wore a somewhat mysterious smile. "Come with me."
Li Ang quickly entered the bar on the street and carried out a large pile of tables and chairs. He quickly built a makeshift stage in the middle of the road.
He then placed a table on the stage and stood outside the table himself.
Even the black residents who were looking down from the windows couldn't understand what he was trying to do.
Like a magician, Li Ang took out a traditional Chinese xiangsheng robe from his clothes, put it on, and looked down at the bewildered townspeople, calmly saying, "I need a volunteer. Who's coming?"
The townspeople looked at each other, and no one dared to step forward. The hippie sneered, crossing his arms, looking like he was waiting for a good show.
He was an expert at expelling pests. If even he couldn't solve the problem, how could an Asian monk from the East possibly have a solution?
Li Ang frowned and urged, "Hurry up, this is for the good of your town."
The townspeople shuffled, and the mayor looked around, and finding no righteous person stepping forward, put on a solemn face and quietly reached his hand behind him, abruptly pushing the back of a young townsperson standing next to him.
The unlucky young townsperson was suddenly shoved, lost his balance, and staggered forward.
The mayor, however, looked delighted and took the lead in applauding enthusiastically, "Good! Faust, I knew I wasn't wrong about you! I'll definitely have Lawn give you a raise later."
Under the mayor's lead, all the townspeople began to applaud, cheering loudly for the quarry worker named Faust.
"You..."
Faust's expression changed several times. He really wanted to return to the crowd, but looking at everyone applauding for him so enthusiastically, the young worker, who was usually active and unwilling to be mediocre, felt a little flattered.
He dazedly climbed onto the makeshift stage that Li Ang had built, his face flushed.
"Sir, what should I do?"
"Don't be nervous, young man." Li Ang smiled. "We are going to perform a traditional Eastern comedic performance called 'xiangsheng'. You just need to cooperate with me and respond appropriately."
"Okay, okay."
Faust swallowed, his mind frantically trying to figure out what 'xiangsheng' was.
Li Ang ignored the volunteer, and with a flick of his robe and a slap on the table, he loudly announced to the townspeople and the surrounding African residents, "Today, the two of us will perform a xiangsheng for everyone."
"Mm!" Faust subconsciously echoed.
Li Ang nodded and said calmly, "The content of this xiangsheng is a story about finding relatives."
"Right." Faust felt like he had grasped the trick.
"The protagonist of the story is a little nigger."
"What?!" Faust was shocked and couldn't care less about the xiangsheng performance. He hurriedly said, "Is that appropriate? Is that appropriate? Is that appropriate? How can you use such a discriminatory word?"
"Huh?" Li Ang looked blank. "What discriminatory word?"
"Ni, nigger!"
Li Ang was even more confused. "Nigger is a discriminatory word?"
"Of course!" Faust was eager to prove that he was a good resident who would not engage in any racial discrimination. "This is an insult to our dearest African brothers and sisters. How can you use this word?"
"Hey!" Li Ang waved his hand. "Misunderstanding, misunderstanding. The nigger I'm talking about doesn't refer to African brothers and sisters."
"Then who are you referring to?"
Li Ang explained, "In our Eastern Tang Dynasty, girls who wear lolita-style clothing are called lo-niang, and boys who wear Nike are also called ni-ge. You know, Nike is a clothing brand. Ni-ge refers to boys who wear this brand."
"Oh, oh, oh," Faust's high-hanging heart fell again. "I understand, I understand. You continue, but it's best not to use the word nigger, I'm worried that our dear African brothers and sisters will misunderstand. They might mistakenly think we are the kind of extreme and narrow-minded racists."
"Hey, what a hassle." Li Ang flicked his robe sleeves and curled his lips. "If you don't want to use it, then I won't use it. I'll start over."
"Mm."
"The protagonist of our story is named Nige."
"Why is it still Nige?!!!!!!" Faust felt like he was about to collapse.
"Huh?" Li Ang glanced at him. "Brother, are your ears not working properly? I didn't say Nige."
"Then what did you say?"
"Nigeng, the ni from mud, the geng from cultivation." Li Ang explained.
"Who would name their child that?!"
"You don't know," Li Ang smiled. "In this little Nigeng's hometown, it often rains, and the fields are full of mud. And their family has to cultivate the land all day long, so they named him that."
"" Faust's face was contorted with pain. This explanation was also full of malice. "Can I ask, where is this Nigeng from?"
"From the Kingdom of Lorn."
"Oh, that's good." Faust breathed a sigh of relief.
"His ancestors came from Africa," Li Ang added.
"Isn't that still a nigger?!" Faust completely collapsed, not caring that he had said the word nigger many times by this point.
"Africa isn't all black people. Egypt has white people." Li Ang was a little annoyed. "Are you going to let me finish?"
"You can say, you can say." Faust gave a weak chuckle. He didn't dare to delve any further into the skin color of the protagonist of this story.