ECG -Chapter 189 Yu Deshui

The ticket price was very cheap, only twenty yuan each. He took out the money, bought a ticket, and walked inside.

It was a small theater, and there wasn’t a single person inside.

The theater was a little old, but it had an antique charm to it. At most, it could seat a little over a hundred people.

Carrying his bag, he sat down in the very center seat in front of the stage. He took out his phone and glanced at the time—it was exactly 6:30.

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He felt puzzled. There was only him in the theater, and he wondered if the performance would even happen.

The curtain opened.

There was no announcer or anything. An old, thin, and tall man wearing a gray traditional robe calmly walked onto the stage. He stood behind a small table, adjusted the microphone, and then began:

“Wood bent into a straight shape will eventually curve again,
Raise a wolf as a dog to guard your home, and it will be difficult,
Ink-stained cormorants won’t stay black forever,
Whitewashed crows won’t remain white for long,
Candied lotus roots will still taste bitter in the end,
Fruit picked before it’s ripe can never become sweet,
Good deeds must always be done by kind-hearted people,
How could ordinary people—”

“Pa!”

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The old man slapped the wooden clapper.

“—become immortals!”

Lin Hao began clapping. He was extremely familiar with this opening verse. In a daze, it felt as if he had traveled through time and returned to his previous life.

Perhaps he had already become accustomed to poor attendance. The old man was completely relaxed and wasn’t affected at all by the fact that there was only one audience member below. His solo comedy performance was excellent, and Lin Hao burst into laughter from time to time.

About ten minutes later.

“Ring—”

Lin Hao’s phone suddenly rang.

At this moment, he was the only person in the audience, and the small theater was very empty, making the ringtone sound especially abrupt.

The old man on stage hadn’t expected this interruption either, so he could only stop and wait for him to finish the call before continuing.

Lin Hao hurriedly took out his phone. Without even checking who it was, he answered and covered the microphone, lowering his voice.

“I’m listening to a crosstalk performance. I’ll call you back after it’s over!”

After saying that, he quickly hung up and casually turned off his phone. He had forgotten to put it on silent mode, and doing this to a performer on stage was really disrespectful.

Lin Hao’s face was full of embarrassment. He repeatedly cupped his hands toward the old man on stage.

“Sorry, sorry. Please continue.”

The old man finished his act and went backstage.

The bald man who had spoken to him outside earlier and a thin partner walked onto the stage.

The two were around the same age, both appearing to be about twenty-five or twenty-six years old.

The short, chubby one was at most 165 centimeters tall. Although he couldn’t be called handsome, his face carried a righteous expression. He had two very noticeable “eight-shaped” eyebrows, which somehow added a festive and cheerful feeling to his face.

The skinny man beside him was slightly taller, but he was extremely thin.

After getting on stage, the two introduced themselves.

The chubby one was called Yu Deshui, and the thin one was called Sun Liang.

After the introductions, Yu Deshui pointed at Lin Hao below the stage.

“This gentleman is an extraordinary person!”

Lin Hao was stunned, not understanding why he said that.

“You’re too wealthy. You actually booked the entire theater today!”

Lin Hao laughed.

“But you’re alone. I’m not trying to scare you, but you’d better listen carefully. If you need to go to the restroom, you have to tell me beforehand. Otherwise, once we get started, you won’t be able to escape. There are dozens of people backstage with us!”

When Lin Hao heard this, his mind suddenly became dazed.

He was too familiar with this routine.

How was it that after changing worlds, changing groups of people, this exact thing was happening to him?

And even the words were exactly the same!

His scalp tingled, and he couldn’t help but sigh at how mysterious life was.

After that, Lin Hao was somewhat distracted during the performance.

Whenever he heard a familiar joke, he began doubting the reality of everything before him. He even wondered whether there was a “Teacher Yu who smoked, drank, and had his hair permed” backstage.

Reality and fragments from his previous life began intertwining and blending together.

One moment, the bald Yu Deshui in front of him turned into Tao Xin’er. It felt as if he could see the entire theater packed full, with everyone laughing loudly, waves of heckling sounds filling the air.

Sitting beside him was Zhang Yuchun from Beiwai, smiling beautifully…

That year, Lin Hao was thirty-four years old, and he had once gone to watch one of Teacher Guo’s performances with her.

At this moment, a familiar old song seemed to echo in Lin Hao’s ears:

“Don’t mention the past again,
Life has already seen too many storms;
Even if memories cannot be erased,
Love and hatred still remain in my heart…”

“Really cut off the past,

and let tomorrow continue on peacefully…”

In an instant, tears burst from Lin Hao’s eyes.

After a long while, Lin Hao finally came back to his senses from the illusion. At some point, the two young actors on stage had already been replaced. The male comic was a chubby man, and the two of them were performing the traditional crosstalk piece Yellow Crane Tower.

The two actors on stage were obviously lacking experience. They had no idea how they had made the audience member below them cry, and afterward, the two of them lost their rhythm.

Yu Deshui and Sun Liang were watching anxiously from backstage. Finally, when the two finished their act, the two of them hurriedly went onstage to save the performance.

Lin Hao had already realized that his own loss of composure had caused the two actors to mess up. He quickly stood up and apologized.

The performances afterward became much more normal.

This Yu Deshui was very similar to the one from Lin Hao’s previous life in terms of performance style. His articulation, stage presence, and basic skills were extremely solid. His timing with jokes was mature, and he also had considerable skill in shaping characters.

The supporting performer, Sun Liang, didn’t talk much. He was calm and steady, adding just the right amount without overdoing it. However, he didn’t have many distinctive traits that would make people remember him. Compared to the “smoking, drinking, and perming hair” performer from his previous life, he was still far behind.

At exactly nine o’clock, the performance ended.

Although Lin Hao was the only audience member, Yu Deshui still brought all the actors out to take their curtain call. Every movement was done properly and seriously, just as if there had been a full house below.

Lin Hao stood up and applauded them. He truly admired these people. For the art they loved, even if they had to endure such loneliness, they still treated it with absolute dedication.

All the actors were heading backstage when Lin Hao called out to Yu Deshui, who was walking at the very back.

“Teacher Yu!”

Yu Deshui froze and looked at Lin Hao below the stage with a surprised expression. He didn’t understand what the only audience member tonight wanted.

Lin Hao waved at him, and Yu Deshui walked down from the stage with a confused look.

“Sir, is there something you need?”

The young man in front of him was very young, but he still respectfully called him “sir.”

Lin Hao extended his hand and introduced himself with a smile.

“My name is Lin Hao!”

“Hello!”

The two shook hands.

“I didn’t expect I’d be the only person here tonight. You’ve really worked hard.”

“Ah…” Yu Deshui sighed. “When it’s windy, attendance is cut in half. When it rains, it’s completely over. Our line of work depends on the heavens giving us food to eat. But sir, don’t worry about us. No matter how many people come, as long as they bought a ticket, we have to live up to our audience.”

Lin Hao thought of the person from his previous life again—the one who had “walked through countless hardships, and therefore was bound to hate evil with all his heart.”

His nose stung, and he immediately took out all the money in his pocket.

It was a thick stack, probably more than two thousand yuan. He pulled out two bills to keep for meals and transportation, then stuffed the rest into Yu Deshui’s hands.

“Mr. Lin, what are you doing?”

Yu Deshui’s face turned red. They performed for a living, but they weren’t beggars. How could they accept money from an audience member for no reason?

Lin Hao’s expression turned serious, and he spoke earnestly.

“Teacher Yu, this isn’t charity. This is just a small gesture from someone who loves crosstalk. I hope you can keep going.”

Yu Deshui’s eyes reddened. He clasped his hands together and thanked him repeatedly.

Taking advantage of the moment, Lin Hao lifted Yu Deshui’s long robe and forcibly stuffed the money into his trouser pocket.

“Teacher Yu, could you leave me your phone number?”

Lin Hao was thinking about how he could help them.

“No problem!”

Yu Deshui quickly took out a business card and handed it to him.

Yu Deshui walked him all the way out of the small theater. It was raining outside, and Yu Deshui wanted to go back to get an umbrella, but Lin Hao refused.

The two shook hands goodbye. Lin Hao held several plastic bags over his head and rushed into the rain.

After running out of Dashilan, he finally managed to catch a taxi. By then, Lin Hao was completely soaked.

The taxi headed east…

Sitting inside the car, Lin Hao blankly stared out the window. Through the glass and the rain, the neon lights became strangely distorted.

Today, he revisited Yanjing City. He went to Tiantongyuan, Dongdan, then Dashilan, and even watched a crosstalk performance where he was the only audience member.

The memories of his previous life and the events of this life had collided countless times, making him understand even more the wonder of creation.

Buddhism says there are three thousand great worlds, and each sun-moon system is a small world.

In his previous life, whenever he watched science fiction movies, he always felt that there should be countless versions of himself existing in different parallel worlds.

But at this moment, he understood.

It turned out that countless small worlds truly did exist, but the people in them were different.

Things changed, and people were no longer the same.

“Sir, we’re here!”

The driver’s voice pulled Lin Hao out of his wandering thoughts.

After paying, he got out of the car carrying his bags. He first stood at the entrance, looking at the endless drizzle, and smoked a cigarette. Once he went inside, he wouldn’t have anywhere to smoke.

After finishing the cigarette, he greedily took several deep breaths of the damp Yanjing air before turning around and entering the airport.

He first changed his ticket, then lined up for security.

By the time everything was finished and he sat down waiting for the plane, it was already past eleven at night.

He took out his phone and only then remembered that he had forgotten to turn it on. He quickly switched it on.

As soon as the signal connected, several text messages came in.

He checked them one by one. There were messages from Wu Xiaozhou, as well as Yang Qianyi, Qin Ruoyun, Han Ying, and Shen Zizhe.

He opened Wu Xiaozhou’s message first.

It said:

“Haizi, something big happened. Call me back immediately!”