Volume 7: Doing Business with the World Chapter 204: Cinderella Premiere
As the saying goes, the head follows the buttocks. The four disciples Xiao Yun accepted, except Evelin, were all "feudal landlords" who were to be overthrown. If Xiao Yun talked about democracy, human rights, and equality with these disciples who were landlords, then there would basically be no master-disciple relationship between them...
But you said that we should just take the feudal route frankly - that won't work either.
Why? Because the feudal system itself guarantees the interests of a small group of people. If the masters at the top of the pyramid want to live an easy and happy life, the labor force at the bottom cannot be liberated... This conflicts with what Xiao Yun needs, "the basic progress and development of the disciples"~
Any historical progress in social productivity comes from the liberation of the whole society's thoughts and labor. If you want to drag social development by relying on just one or two heroes, you can't do it...
Can Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Hawkgirl, Hawkman and Martian kill the American arms dealers by combining them together?
Haha, even the editor doesn’t dare to edit it.
Then if Xiao Yun wants to build up the base of his disciples, he naturally has to find another way - let's not talk about democracy and human rights. There are too many meat-eating people in our nest, and the exploitation group is too bloated. But these useless people who ride on the people's heads and shit and piss are not only unable to do good things, but also do bad things. What do you think, should we kill them, or kill them, or kill them?
This multiple choice question is easy to answer...
Two weeks later.
Harris, who was conscripted, sat on the back of a swaying Chocobo with dead eyes, and followed the large group into the Bolton territory.
Well... this team is indeed quite "large". In addition to the old butler of Philip's family, six family knights, a family army of 200 people (sent by Grand Duke Pope), and twelve former Valentine bureaucrats who followed old Earl Philip, there are also the snake elder Gregor and more than 30 snake warriors and 16 cat magicians.
"Is this what the human territory looks like?" Black Panther Xiao Rui jumped back and forth at the front of the team with brisk steps. In order to avoid scaring the peasants in Bolton County, she did not show her beast form, but a black-skinned girl with beast ears... uh... a black-skinned handsome boy with beast ears jumping around with amazing jumping ability was also scary to watch...
"Harris, this place is so desolate, are there really humans living here?" Xiao Rui jumped to the side of the Chocobo Harris was riding, chirping, "We've been walking for so long, and we haven't seen any humans, let alone any decent farmland. Look, such a large area is just wasteland, what a waste!"
Harris did not say anything, but the old butler who was riding beside him wiped his sweat and said awkwardly: "Well, that's not a wasteland, it's a red fruit field..."
"Red fruit? The sweet red fruit used to make candy?" Xiao Rui opened her eyes wide.
"Uh, yes." The old butler nodded.
"You are lying! There are far more weeds than red fruit seedlings!" Xiao Rui shouted, pointing to the area beside the road that looked more like wasteland than a red fruit field, and tapped her finger hard.
The old butler lowered his head.
The family knights who had originally held their heads high either tilted their heads to think about life, or pretended not to hear anything and stared into the distance silently.
The farmlands that the cats have seen are either the fields of the Tauren tribe or the fields of the Snow Wolf tribe; the former is the wild Yuan Longping of this world, the ancestor who taught people how to farm, and the latter... there is a devil who wants to do everything to the best of his ability, so of course he cannot understand the basic agricultural situation of "thick grass and sparse seedlings"...
Xiao Rui didn't realize at this moment that she was poking someone in the heart, and she even argued: "Not to mention that it's all weeds, there's no canal around. How can crops grow well without water? And I saw stones in it. The stones haven't been cleared away. You call this farmland? What a joke, the raspberries that Niu Jiao and his friends secretly planted outside the tribe are much better than those here~"
The family knights rode their horses silently to the other side of the road, leaving the old butler alone here...
Greg, the elder of the snake clan, looked at Harris silently.
Harris had no choice but to speak: "Well... the situation in Bolton Territory is different from our grassland. The entire Bolton Territory has only tens of thousands of people and limited labor, so they can only concentrate on carefully tending a small number of fields. For remote areas like this, the people of Bolton Territory can't take care of them, so they can only spread the seeds and harvest little."
"Is that so?" Xiao Rui finally accepted it. "That's what I thought. Most humans are as weak as Thrall. If all the farmers were people like Thrall, they really wouldn't be able to manage the farmland well."
Sal, who was working diligently in the MSG factory, suddenly sneezed repeatedly.
"That's right, that's right." Harris agreed with his dead eyes.
Xiao Rui had no doubts, so another cat magician spoke up, "Since we can only sow seeds and have no energy to take care of the land, why not sow grass and raise some cattle and sheep? The land here looks good, and if we grow grass, we should be able to raise tens of thousands of sheep, right? Anyway, the harvest from growing red fruits won't be much better."
Harris looked at the old butler silently and said, "I really can't help you with this."
The snake tribe had been in the human kingdom for more than a decade, so how could they not know the agricultural situation here? But the elders and warriors of the snake tribe were arranged by Xiao Yun to come to help Lord Bolton, so they had to consider the face of the Lord Bolton.
The old butler was so embarrassed that his facial muscles twitched. He reluctantly said, "Well... thieves are rampant in Bolton Territory, and free-range cattle and sheep... are easily robbed..."
This is not entirely an excuse, there are indeed bandits and thieves in Bolton County.
However, if the lord paid to raise cattle and sheep, those bandits would definitely not be able to steal a few bites of mutton...
To the cats, these words have another meaning.
"Hiss—" The cat magicians all gasped and started discussing:
"Is what Ayun said in the story true? There are so many bandits and robbers in the human kingdom?"
"It must be true. They even snatched other people's cattle and sheep, making them afraid to raise them. This is too much!"
"Can those thieves survive by just robbing others? What if they can't rob? Won't they starve to death?"
"They can't think of that. If they were that smart, they wouldn't trade the females of their own species for money."
"That's right. Which race would be willing to sell out its own people?"
"Ayun asked us to help get rid of those people who would sell out their own people. These people even sell out their own people, so what's the big deal about stealing cattle and sheep?"
The old butler couldn't stand it anymore, so he rode his horse quietly towards the family knights...
The old butler who had served the old earl for many years had seen all the secrets of the nobles. These "bandits and robbers" despised by the orcs were actually all despised by the nobles - the pornography industry, human trafficking and other such businesses could not be carried out by people without background!
It is simply impossible for a "vibrant armed group" in the private sector to independently run the pornography business in a lord's territory. Any random lord can make you close down.
When the Lord of Valentine was still named Philip, the old butler often collected tributes from this kind of property on behalf of Philip's family...
The old butler sighed softly, feeling mixed emotions.
Miss Lola took office as Lord Bolton. Although the petty nobles were respectful on the surface, they did not take the young countess seriously in private, so the lady had no contact with the private affairs of this kind.
Upon hearing that the young lady wanted to clean up the pornography industry and slave market in Bolton County, the old butler tried to dissuade her in vain and had to take the task himself... He believed that if he was keeping an eye on it, at least the situation would not deteriorate to a too serious level.
"I hope the situation doesn't get out of control." The old butler sighed inwardly and shook his head secretly.
Miss Lola's growth is gratifying, but she is growing too fast, which makes people worry.
——What the old housekeeper could not have imagined was that Laura herself was hiding in Isaac's knight territory and borrowing soldiers from foreign tribes, with the intention of eliminating all other "carnivores" in Bolton Territory except herself...
When the old steward of Philip's family led the family army and foreign reinforcements into Bolton County, Robbins' knight's territory was filled with many nobles in luxurious attire, carriages, horses, and servants.
In the luxurious hall of the high-end hotel surrounded by a group of small villas, which serves as the front of the territory, the forest elves, sea nobles, officials of the Adventurer's Association, and nobles of the Kingdom of Kronin brought by Viscount Pope who came from afar were toasting and chatting happily to the sound of music played by the Robbins Troupe.
Needless to say, the Adventurer's Association would return the favor to Isaac just as the Fire Tribe had given them on the grassland. They were a vibrant civilian group that relied on reputation to make a living, and they were more particular about moral integrity than the human nobles.
Viscount Pope came to support his family knights. He not only brought the nobles of Valentine, but also invited many new generations from the aristocratic circles of the Kingdom of Kroning, such as the cousin of this Grand Duke, the young master of that Earl's family, and even Master Eddie, the head of the Valentine branch of the Lamia Chamber of Commerce, became a guest of honor of Knight Robins. Eddie Roger Berkeley's teacher was the First Court Mage of Kroning. Not to mention his authority in the Lamia Chamber of Commerce, Master Eddie also had a certain status in the aristocratic circle.
With so many distinguished nobles present, Isaac, who was born in a minor noble family of the Osmond Kingdom (and was kicked out of his home), seemed inferior... Fortunately, Countess Lola Philip, as a senior, stood beside Isaac with a smile on her face, thus avoiding the embarrassment of Isaac, the host, being looked down upon in such a public occasion.
After greeting the human nobles with the help of Viscount Pope and Countess Philip, Isaac had no time to wipe the sweat off his face before running to the alien circle to entertain them.
As for the aliens, Viscount Pope and Laura don't have enough face, but fortunately, there is Evelyn to support Isaac... After all, Evelyn is also Ananas's backup elder, and the sea people and forest elves have to give Isaac some face for her and the sage Ayun.
"Thank you for your time, General Kleist."
Accompanied by senior Evelyn, Isaac respectfully toasted General Crest.
"Don't be so polite, Isaac. You are Ayun's disciple, and a friend of our forest elves." General Crest, with a slightly round chin, was very polite. He smiled, raised the glass and drank it all.
In order to invite this big guy to support Isaac, Xiao Yun spent a lot of money... The elf general is still very honest. He will do his job after receiving the money. Not only did he come to support Isaac himself, he also brought more than a hundred elf warriors (the travel expenses and all other expenses were covered by the Fire Department).
The elf general drank so readily that the representative of the sea nobles, Earl Winston, who jointly established a MSG factory with the Fire Department, and the young master and his son naturally would not offend Isaac. They even exchanged a few words with him warmly when clinking glasses with Isaac. The sea nobles were relatively approachable, and it was not uncommon to hear that princesses would go to common people's homes to sing. They were not like the human nobles who liked to put on airs.
On the other side of the hall, Master Eddie followed Isaac Robbins, who was talking and laughing among the forest elves and sea people, with the corner of his eye, and raised his wine glass to cover the lower half of his face.
"Master." Barrit, who was dressed as a butler, came over and said in a low voice, "Brothers have seen it outside. That elf general is the real deal. He brought real elf warriors with him."
Master Eddie narrowed his eyes and nodded slightly: "Give the order... No one can act rashly tonight without orders."
"Yes, sir." Barrett bowed and quietly left the venue.
After exiting the side door and feeling the sea breeze blowing on his face, the Berkeley family's top thug exhaled softly, his neck and back covered in sweat...
Isaac Robbins, an unknown little man, is nothing. As long as you put up the Lamia sign and find an excuse to smash Robbins' theater in front of everyone, even Viscount Pope will have nothing to say.
But Lamia's swagger may not work on the forest elves - these pointy-eared ones are really stubborn and difficult to deal with, and once you provoke them, you will never stop fighting!
"We should have come earlier to destroy this damn place!" Barrett looked angrily at the towering theater not far away and gritted his teeth.
Of course, he did not dare to complain to Master Eddie... After all, his master had been planning to prepare his strength for a powerful blow after the theater was completed and opened, so as to knock Robbins down to the ground and make him lose all his money.
In the hall, Viscount Pope watched the Berkeley family's "butler" leave through the side door and smiled imperceptibly.
The Berkeley family, who had the backing of Lamia, did not buy into the account of the new Lord Valentine, nor did they take his uncle the Grand Duke seriously. It was not quite true that Viscount Pope had no temper... Not to mention the benefits Knight Robbins had brought him, even if it was all in vain, Viscount Pope was happy to see Master Eddie suffer - why could the Lamia Chamber of Commerce make a fortune from the war, but he, who got the title of Lord of the City, had to suffer in poverty!
Master Eddie quietly spent the first half of the banquet, and it was not until the second half when Isaac introduced the plays to be performed at the Grand Theater tonight that Master Eddie winked at a minor noble, signaling the cannon fodder to come on stage.
The little nobleman immediately jumped out professionally, raised his head proudly, and looked down at the Pheasant Knight who was lower in status than him: "Knight Robbins, how come I heard that the actors in your troupe are all third-rate actors who have fallen into the population market in the lower city? Now that so many distinguished guests have come, are you planning to use those actors who are worse than low-class prostitutes to fool people?"
Isaac paused.
General Kleist, who was talking to Helin in a low voice, suddenly had a sharp look in his eyes.
The Elf General was rude to the Earl of the Sea Tribe and Prince Carlisle, and it was even more impossible for him to be nice to the human nobles. He immediately said in a cold voice: "Drama is an elegant form of artistic expression, and the actors are part of the art. Comparing actors to prostitutes, is this your understanding of drama?"
Kleist's blow was fatal, and the young nobleman retreated in embarrassment - no matter whether he really loved art or was just pretending to be cultured, if a nobleman said in public that he did not understand art, he basically had no chance of staying in the aristocratic circle.
Master Eddie remained expressionless and turned his gaze to the other cannon fodder.
Another young noble stood up firmly and laughed, "Someone actually questioned the casting of the Robbins Knight Troupe. This is really inappropriate. Robbins Knight, who was once the leader of the adventurer team, was able to create a four-hour drama script. This alone is enough to inspire admiration."
This is to question whether Robbins, a rough guy who used to be an adventurer, has literary talent... This point of attack is indeed a good one. After all, Isaac's team has been in Valentine for quite some time, and several of the nobles present were once Isaac's employers.
Isaac remained calm and nodded with a smile, saying with dignity and pride: "To be honest, I have only average talent in drama creation. If I hadn't been lucky enough to receive the guidance and instruction from Teacher Ayun, I would have found it extremely difficult to even complete a short play."
The young nobleman was immediately choked up - those two travelogues were too impressive, and when Isaac brought up his teacher, he really had nothing to say...
Master Eddie rolled his eyes slightly, what a bunch of rubbish!
Earl Winston, a noble of the sea race, was not happy about the constant disruption and said, "What is the difference between the human drama and our sea opera? I am quite interested in this. Knight Robbins, please continue to introduce it."
"As you wish, Your Excellency." Isaac followed suit and continued to introduce his troupe...
Laura came close to Evelin and secretly acted coquettishly to this beautiful elf senior. When she heard Isaac introduce the troupe members, she whispered to Evelin, "Senior, look how stingy he is. He refused to tell me what the story of Cinderella is about. When the troupe was rehearsing, he even asked the knight brothers to guard the gate to prevent people from sneaking in and watching."
Evelyn: “Uh…”
She had heard the story of "Cinderella" many times in the Fire Department, and she had heard both versions. But even if these two versions were put together, they couldn't make up a four-hour play, which made her unsure whether to spoil the story with Laura...
"We'll be able to see it soon anyway, so there's no need to rush." That was all Evelyn could say.
“Senior Evelin, you know the plot, right?” Lola was so smart that she immediately squeezed into Evelin’s arms with a sharp look in her eyes.
"Hmm..." Evelyn looked around, leaned close to Laura and whispered the two versions of Cinderella she knew. "The story circulated in the Fire Department is roughly like this, but since it was adapted into a drama, many changes must have been made. I'm not sure what the story has been changed into."
Laura's eyes widened, and she said angrily, "You can actually hear such an interesting story... Teacher Ayun never told me such a story in her letter!"
"Aren't the letters that the teacher writes to you always very thick? What did he mention in the letter?" Evelyn asked curiously.
"They're all about Carlisle. Carlisle did this, did that, and why he did it. Carlisle's name is all over the article." Laura held her head in pain. "They also asked me to put myself in Carlisle's shoes and how I would handle the government affairs of St. Bridge if I were Carlisle. Each article must be no less than 30,000 words - the names of all the ministers of St. Bridge, the family history, the main sources of gray income, the number of private soldiers in the family and where the manors are, etc. I'm almost memorizing them!"
“…” Evelin tried hard not to laugh.
The scope of her studies did not include territory management, but she could imagine what it felt like to be supervised by the teacher using "other people's children"... Xiao Yun often used her to supervise Balke.
Until the banquet ended and they entered the theater, Laura was still beside Evelyn, mumbling about her resentment towards Carlisle...
The Robbins Theatre imitates the style of the Cronin Royal Theatre. Of course, it is much smaller in scale, with only 30 VIP seats on the second floor and 2,600 seats on the first floor... It was built in just half a year, and it was quite good to be able to build it to this scale.
After the distinguished guests took their seats, the knight brothers guarding the main entrance opened the door and allowed the first batch of ordinary audiences - mainly families of workers from the MSG factory and woolen mill, and amusement park workers and their families - to take their seats.
That's right, the premiere was free. The theater hadn't become well-known yet, so we couldn't expect the residents of Valentine to travel more than 20 miles to such a remote place to watch a play.
"Not enough seats?" Edward found that the first floor was almost full and there were still hundreds of people queuing to enter the theater. He had no choice but to quickly ask people to move the stools over and squeeze them into the aisles.
"Why are there so many people here? There weren't so many when we counted them before." Brother Wayne was sweating.
"Maybe those who didn't want to come before came because they saw how lively it is here. You know, people always like to join in the fun. There is still room for an extra row of seats in front of the first row. Hurry up!" Edward urged.
Nearly 300 seats were added to the lobby on the first floor to accommodate the ordinary audiences queuing at the entrance of the theater. The adventurers were exhausted from collecting stools and chairs, and when they were about to take a seat, they found that there were no seats for them.
By the time they managed to find a space under the wall in the last row and sit cross-legged, the first act was already halfway through.
"Let me know which guys said they wouldn't come but still show up, and make sure they're in good hands!" Ali, who was sitting at the wall in frustration, gnashed his teeth in hatred.
On the bench in the row in front of Alex, which was temporarily squeezed in, a man with ordinary looks, who would not be found in a crowd of shameful people, raised the corners of his mouth slightly.
Next to this audience member who looked nothing special was a boy of about seventeen or eighteen years old. He also heard Alex's muttering and glanced at the man next to him guiltily.
The man gave the young man a soothing look, squinted his eyes, tapped rhythm with his fingers on his knees, and listened comfortably to the actors singing on the stage.
The human race's drama learning imitates the opera performance style of the sea people, but the human actors cannot sing for hours without taking a breath like the sea people, so they cunningly use dialogues instead of lyrics... In a drama, the singing parts that need to be sung usually do not exceed one-third.
The last part of the first act is an important aria that serves as a transition segment. The actress playing the protagonist of "Cinderella" wears a gray patched long dress and stands on the stage singing and lamenting Cinderella's fate.
The actress who played Cinderella was named Sandra, only seventeen years old, with pretty face and thin figure. The first half of "Cinderella" can be regarded as the true character of this girl who was not loved by her family. She was rejected by her stepmother and stepsister, neglected by her father, and despised by her grandmother. She acted vividly. When the first act ended, sparse applause broke out in the theater.
What follows is the tragic drama played out in this small town's aristocratic family... As the eldest daughter, she is forced to do the work of a maid, is mistreated by her stepmother, and has to pick up bread from the ashes while eating. Such plots make the ordinary audience on the first floor feel heartbroken.
"That's too much!" In the VIP room on the second floor, Laura clenched her fists angrily.
Evelyn yawned lazily... The quality of the actors in the Robbins Troupe was indeed average. Although they were jointly trained by Isaac and Harris, two literary youths, their acting skills were still a little lacking in the eyes of the forest elves.
Evelyn only cheered up a little when Cinderella stopped complaining about herself, instigating her grandmother and stepmother to fight for survival, and tried every means to improve her living conditions during the fights among the women in the family.
Isaac has a limited budget and is bound to be unable to buy actors with superb acting skills, but as the saying goes, the acting is not good enough but the plot makes up for it. As long as the plot moves fast enough, the audience will not have time to complain... ahem!
The wars between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, mother-daughter quarrels, and sisters fighting are piled up in front of the audience like a horse racing. The war between a group of women not only attracts Evelyn, but also the male elves such as General Crest, Helin, Kai and others in the VIP room, as well as the father and son Winston, the sea nobles who were originally quite picky about acting and singing, are also watching with great interest - even if it is trivial family matters, as long as the pace is fast enough, the audience will not be limited to female audiences. The once popular "Story of Yanxi Palace" is ironclad proof of this!
In the middle of the plot, foreign enemies invaded, and the family feud was interrupted because Cinderella's father was found dead on the battlefield. The male audience in the theater even felt a little regretful... The family feud plot showed the hidden side of women, and men are still interested in this aspect.
When Cinderella used her wisdom in house fighting to balance the power of the town and mobilized the townspeople to fight the enemy in the name of her father, no one cared about the interruption of the house fighting - the "human fighting" theme of the play was continued, and the dramatic pattern was cleverly expanded from within the family to the entire town, using Cinderella's undefeated record to continue to expand the audience's excitement, and using new enemies to maintain the audience's expectations. In the words of online literature, change the map!
In order to keep the audience excited and expectant, Cinderella's father didn't even attend the funeral... He didn't do any of the literary and artistic scenes that are bound to be made a fuss in regular dramas, such as crying at a funeral and lamenting the impermanence of life - it's only a four-hour play, where is the time for moaning and groaning!
After defeating the enemy easily, Cinderella returned with a great victory. The audience thought that Cinderella would win the battle and there would be a happy ending. However, new enemies quickly emerged - the uncles plotted to take the title of Cinderella's father, colluded with the priest, and falsely accused Cinderella of being possessed by the devil!
Cinderella's stepmother and grandmother felt guilty and testified for Cinderella, but her two stepsisters betrayed the revolution!
The townspeople who were originally grateful to Cinderella gradually changed their attitude and used the town being attacked by the enemy, Cinderella's father being killed, and even someone's dog not giving birth as the crime that Cinderella must die...
Laura in the VIP room was so angry that she leaned against the window and gasped, and even Evelin couldn’t help but stand up and walk to the windowsill, looking down nervously.
"Rational" viewers like Evelyn all think: Cinderella is the protagonist after all, and she has never lost in previous fights with others, so she should be able to pass this time smoothly... right?
In the last row of temporary seats in the first floor ordinary audience seats, the young man who had been nervous about sneaking in was nervously grabbing his trouser legs and kept tilting his head to ask the man sitting next to him: "Teacher, Cinderella should be fine, right? When that priest pretended to be sick and refused to go to the battlefield, no one would believe him, right?"
The man said nothing, his brows furrowed, his eyes fixed on the performance on the stage.
In the last scene, the actress playing the stepmother sang painfully about her regret for having treated her stepdaughter harshly, and begged the townspeople to speak for Cinderella because of her efforts to fight the enemy... However, the staff in black bent over and trotted to remove the scenery of the previous scene, and what appeared on the stage was Cinderella tied to the stake.
Then came the townspeople, who lined up solemnly in rows, holding torches...
"Stop it, you idiots! You actually believed the words of those shameless priests! Are you still from the Federation?!"
Viscount Pope stood up and rushed to the VIP room window, pointing at the stage below and cursing.
Isaac, who was drinking water from a cup, twisted his neck stiffly and looked blankly at Viscount Pope, who was so angry that he jumped to his feet.
Isaac couldn't help but think of the teacher's teasing at that time...
"What's wrong with blackening your old rival in a work of art? It's politically correct, stupid apprentice!"
“…” Isaac swallowed silently.
Viscount Pope, who is extremely careful about his manners, always reacts in this way. This wave is stable...
Amid the emotional scolding from a small number of audience members, the actors playing the townspeople professionally set Cinderella on fire...
Cinderella in "The Flame" sang the last aria painfully and out of tune - this was not entirely acting, after four hours the actors' voices had long been hoarse, and even the stepmother actor in the chorus had a slurred voice.
Most of the audience burst into tears during the sad and hoarse female chorus, and a few of the audience sitting on the first floor jumped up and rushed to the stage angrily...
"What the hell?!" Edward jumped up in shock, "Stop those guys!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Alex, who was the fastest, rushed out and ran towards the stage by stepping on the shoulders of the audience.
Edward was just about to breathe a sigh of relief, but the next moment he almost suffocated himself - that idiot Alex didn't care about the disruptive audience at all, he just rushed to the stage!
