Changge Fortress, Theater Performance Hall.
As the audience's continuous whistles and cheers echoed, the curtain slowly fell. Mei wiped the sweat from her forehead, looked at Ailin who was looking at her with excitement and anticipation, and nodded slightly twice.
This affirmation made Ailin cheer, and as soon as the curtain landed, she couldn't help but rush forward and hugged Mei tightly.
"Hahaha, did I really perform well!"
How annoying, Mei rolled her eyes and pushed her away, "It's considered some progress, you can perform independently on stage."
"Mei xiaojie, then... what about me?" Another witch actor, Luo Xia, asked cautiously.
"You're still far behind," she said without hesitation, "Your expression is stiff, your movements are slow, your lines lack emotion, you made two mistakes in the second act, and one in the fourth act. This is typical of someone who hasn't memorized the script."
"Haha, Mei xiaojie is really strict," Gaiter said, scratching the back of his head, "But the audience's reaction seems to be very good, listen, the applause hasn't subsided yet."
"These people are mostly commoners who have never been to the theater, and drama is a novelty to them," Mei said bluntly, "If it were a normal performance, those few mistakes would have been enough to make the nobles boo." She paused, "If you want to continue on the path of acting, don't be satisfied with temporary success. Only by constantly improving yourselves can you gain a foothold on the stage."
"Yes, thank you for your guidance!" Everyone lowered their heads in unison.
Mei sighed. Here we go again. She clearly couldn't be considered a drama tutor for these people. But she was too lazy to fuss over such trivial matters, "Alright, keep working hard. *Witch's Diary* is scheduled until September, and we have several more rounds to perform. This is a rare opportunity, don't miss it."
"Yes!"
Mei received a notice from the Ministry of Education a month ago, asking the entire troupe to perform at Changge Fortress. The so-called entire troupe was precisely the several amateur actors who had gone to the border with her, plus Ailin. Hillter.
Perhaps His Highness the Prince and the agent Pei Luo reached an agreement, and the theater specifically cleared out a string of openings for the troupe to perform the *Witch's Diary Trilogy*. Thus, these unskilled actors, not even worthy of being called rookies, brazenly took to the big stage of the fortress theater. In normal times, they would hardly be chosen even for a minor role, but now they were appearing on stage as important characters, and even performing alongside herself, the Star of the Western Territory, which couldn't help but make one sigh at the impermanence of fate.
Backstage, Mei couldn't help but frown.
The resting room was noisy, with a group of people arguing about something. Seeing Mei and her group appear, more than a dozen people, led by a woman, surrounded them.
These people were all actors from the theater. Mei recognized the woman leading them, Bella. Dean, a moderately famous actress who belonged to a different troupe than her. Some nobles had considered her Mei's biggest competitor for the title of Star of the Western Territory, but in reality, Mei had always firmly surpassed her in terms of both acting skills and reputation.
"Guess what I saw?" Bella bypassed Mei and walked step by step towards Ailin, "A group of lousy actors who sneaked back from the countryside."
"What are you talking about?" Ailin looked puzzled, while Gaiter, Luo Xia and others froze and couldn't help but take two steps back.
"Pfft," Bella covered her mouth and said, "Look, she doesn't even know her own identity." This remark caused a burst of laughter from the crowd, "Then I'll be blunt, a big city like Changge Fortress is not a place for you to come, and the fortress theater also doesn't welcome such inferior and vulgar third-rate performances. *Witch's Diary* is just a struggle and wail of a few stray dogs. Who would be interested in watching such a disgusting play? You'd better roll back to Border Town as soon as possible."
"You—" Ailin's face flushed red, "What do you mean by third-rate performance? Didn't you hear the audience cheering?"
"Ha, audience?" Bella sneered disdainfully, "You call those people who deal with mud, hoes, and kilns every day the audience? Don't make me laugh! Even if you grab a few monkeys and let them walk around, they would still cheer loudly, okay! If the tickets weren't free, would they have the money to come and see you perform?"
"I..." Ailin opened her mouth, but didn't know how to refute.
"In order to arrange your three performances a week, the theater's income has been declining continuously, and even we have been affected—as long as it's scheduled with your play, the nobles simply won't come!" Bella raised her voice, "Who would be willing to sit on chairs full of mud and oil stains? If it were me, I wouldn't want to step into a theater full of mess after a group of hicks' revelry."
She was clearly looking for trouble, Mei thought. The sudden insertion of the small-town troupe had indeed squeezed out many people's performance opportunities, but Bella. Dean hadn't been affected too much. From the news she had heard from some acquaintances, after she left Changge Fortress, the theater had intended to build her into the new Star of the Western Territory, so it was naturally impossible to cancel the play she starred in.
Then Bella's actions were very obvious. She seemed to be reprimanding Ailin and others, but in reality, she was targeting herself—if these people retreated, she wouldn't be able to continue performing *Witch's Diary* alone, and could only return to Border Town in disgrace. In this way, she would have defeated her in a head-on confrontation, and also restored the other actors' chances of appearing on stage. Her prestige would inevitably rise, thereby laying the foundation for her position as the new generation of Star of the Western Territory.
But she would never allow herself to become someone else's stepping stone.
"Theater revenue is down, are you serious?" Mei turned around and said casually, "You're making such an naive argument about the theater being unable to make ends meet because of the free tickets. The theater operators have undoubtedly reached an agreement with His Highness the Prince and Lord Pei Luo, and the missing funds will naturally be supplemented by the Border Town City Hall. This is a commercial contract, not child's play. You should really use your brain, instead of yelling here based on your imagination."
"You... what nonsense are you talking about!"
"Besides, the only ones whose revenue has decreased are you bunch of lousy actors with poor acting skills," she smiled slightly, "I have performed at the Aberon Theater in the royal capital, which is an open-air theater. On the day of the performance, it happened to be drizzling, but the nobles still filled all the seats. So you say that they are unwilling to come and watch the performance because of the commoners? No, they just don't really like making a special trip to appreciate a group of monkeys performing."
"..." The scene fell into an eerie silence. Not only did no one stand up to accuse her, but even no one tried to defend themselves.
"Finally, you said that *Witch's Diary* is inferior, vulgar, and a struggle and wail of stray dogs?" Mei curled her lips, her voice icy cold, "I may have forgotten to tell you that the script for this story was written by His Highness the Prince. Are you saying that His Highness's thoughts are inferior and vulgar? Insulting the royal family is punishable by tongue cutting. Do you still intend to stick to your point of view? " She looked at the crowd behind Bella, "Or does anyone among you want to try?"
Under her gaze, more than a dozen actors retreated one after another.
"Enough!" Bella gritted her teeth, "You shouldn't have come back since you went to Border Town! Do you think I don't know, Mei! The reason you went to that broken place was not to see this idiot Ailin, but for Dawn—"
"Smack!"
Her voice stopped abruptly, and a bright red handprint appeared on her left cheek. Bella touched her face in disbelief, "You, you actually dared to hit, hit..."
Huff, she acted impulsively after all, Mei took a deep breath. This way, she might run into some trouble.
Sure enough, two male actors behind Bella stepped forward, "Mei xiaojie, you've gone a bit too far."
"You must know how important appearance is to an actor, I think you should at least apologize to her."
Apologize? Wouldn't that be proving that she was wrong? Mei sneered inwardly. Impulsive as she was, she didn't think she had anything to apologize for.
She looked at the two greasy-haired men with a sullen face, and couldn't help but recall what Carter. Lannis had said.
"Don't think that men are strong, they also have many weaknesses. Attacks on the eyes and throat can instantly cause them to lose resistance, and of course... there's also between their legs. As long as you are agile and attack decisively, it is not impossible to knock down men who are much stronger than you."
Although she wasn't quite sure how she had talked to him about this, she was ready to kick, waiting for the two men to get a little closer...
Just then, the resting room door was rudely pushed open, and a knight in armor walked in, followed by several warriors with spears. As they entered the room, they pointed their spear tips at the crowd.
"I heard that someone here slandered His Highness Roland and wanted to plot against His Highness's troupe?"
Mei couldn't help but be stunned. She blinked, thinking that what she was seeing was an illusion. But nothing had changed. She even saw the other party secretly showing her a smile—the knight in front of her was Carter. Lannis. (。)