Sir James Cook scratched his itchy wig.
With a pinch of his two fingernails, he killed a louse.
"Miss!" He raised his orchid fingers and pinched his throat.
White flour rustled down from his face. "Work? That's great! "
He turned around.
She walked up eagerly and said, "We're looking for a beautiful Oriental actress! Miss, you know, the audience pursues the original taste. We asked a black-haired southern actress to play an Oriental lady.
Her deep eyebrows were always met with boos. If it's you... I'm not worried about the acting problem. "He looked her up and down.
"Beauty and nobility are universal currencies."
"Sir." Lin Daiyu faintly raised her hazy and melancholy eyebrows and took a step back quietly. "I'm here to submit a manuscript."
This was after a month of thinking.
She finally came up with a solution to her current livelihood.
There were more literate people in Luster than in the Central Plains. They relied on the reading and writing schools opened by the Church in various parishes. But they would send their children to reading and writing schools.
At least they had a certain amount of family property, enough to provide for their children to not participate in labor for a period of time.
And those who had the habit of reading novels and poems.
Most of them were nobles, merchants, rich citizens, and other people with property.
She didn't have so much time to study Luster's literature. At least in the past few months.
She had to get a sum of money.
To provide for her own living expenses.
Novels took a long time.
The audience was small in Abat.
The reward was in a short time.
It was relatively low.
Not to mention poetry. As far as she knew, most of the poets in Lushite were poor and destitute. They were only waiting for some aristocrat or rich person to become an appreciator of their poems and receive financial support. How was this different from the poet jesters who wrote poems for the emperor and wrote poems for the local tyrants and evil gentry?
Not to mention.
Poems and novels were pastimes.
It was the children of the rich and powerful who participated in them.
Only the theater.
The technical content was relatively low. It was mainly dialogue-based. The audience was the widest. Even the illiterate knew how to listen to the theater. The money was the fastest. The script could be performed the next day, but the novel still needed to be published in print.
Because of its popularity, even children saved money to go to the theater on holidays. Because of its audience, this was also one of the most profitable businesses.
Sir James Cook's voice went up an octave. "Submit?"
The porter only said that a lady had arrived, with a letter of introduction from Madame Langer, and was looking for work.
These days, there were not many female talents who were willing to go against the church's accusations and come out to write plays in public.
Sir James Cook dropped his pretentious posture and sat back in his chair. He took the script she handed him and flipped through a few pages with his eyes half-closed.
"Oh. A gifted scholar, a beautiful girl from a small family, and a love that would live and die together. Before you came to submit your manuscript, did you inquire about what kind of dramas are popular here? "
Sir James Cook sat up and wagged his finger. "Have you ever come here to watch a play?"
"I've seen a few." She saw the disapproval on Cook's face, so she frowned and answered.
"Then, I'll be frank. This script is not suitable for us. "
"A cheap comedy. No reason prevailed over emotion. No wise monarch, no restrained aristocrat, no great and tragic hero. " The theater's scriptwriter, actor, and part-time theater owner, Sir James Cook, shook his head. "Here, no gentleman would like to watch such a play."
She had written a script based on the most popular plot in the Central Plains, and for the third time, she had encountered the same treatment as a novel.
Fine.
Lin Daiyu was slightly disappointed and was about to leave when Sir James Cook stopped her. "Miss, I still have a theater under me. You can try your luck."
Going out the back door of the theater, through the dirty alleys, beggars and street children lying in the corners, they arrived at a small, low, and narrow building.
The people coming in and out were civilians wearing trousers and headscarves.
The hunchbacked porter said, "This is a civic theater under the jurisdiction of the master."
He asked Lin Daiyu to wait at the door for a while while he went in to call the person in charge of the civic theater.
A stench of sweat, smoke, and damp decay wafted out from the door. It was crowded inside, and many men were bare-chested. Bursts of thunderous cheers were mixed with the teasing laughter of women.
Such an environment … Lin Daiyu stood at the door, suppressed her inner emotions, and waited quietly.
After a while, a short, middle-aged man who was sweating and barely dressed up jumped out. He was like a dwarf, and his voice was sharp, reminding Lin Daiyu of the eunuchs in the imperial court. "Who is it? Coming to submit a manuscript? "
Lin Daiyu was a little stiff, letting the porter take the manuscript in her hand and hand it to the dwarf.
The person in charge glanced at the manuscript and muttered, "No. No … no crime of passion … no violence … in short, it's not exciting. Hey, it's so genteel. Which citizen would want to read it? "
The porter glanced at Lin Daiyu, who was standing there, and helplessly whispered a few words to the person in charge.
The person in charge wiped his face with a towel and cleared his throat, "How about this. Since the master introduced you. If you're willing to modify the script according to what I said, you can perform it in the fourth class. If it's just a gifted scholar and a beautiful woman, it's not interesting at all. You can add some exciting things appropriately. "
Lin Daiyu said indifferently, "For example?"
"For example, the process of the robber killing people can be written in more detail." The eunuch-like dwarf's sharp voice was endless.
"For example, the details of the midnight rendezvous between this gifted scholar and this beautiful woman — every step must be written clearly."
Lin Daiyu listened to a long list of "modification suggestions", but she just endured it and didn't say anything. When he finished, she said, "May I ask, what is the 'fourth class'?"
The person in charge didn't care, "Miss, you're standing here? Why are you still pretending to be a lady in front of me? " As he spoke, he sized up the woman who was dressed in a simple dress. Although she was of a different race, she still had an outstanding appearance. He smiled a little obscenely and pointed at the few tents that were connected to a small door in the Civic Theater. "All men like that. The kind where the performers don't wear clothes … "
As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a chill all over his body.
Her eyes, which were like quiet pools of water, had a moment of sudden turmoil.
Her appearance, which was as noble and lonely as the moon, had a moment of sudden thunder.
Lin Daiyu looked down at him condescendingly, frowned, and stared at him with dark clouds in her eyes.
The short person in charge had also stayed in the old aristocratic family and was used to hanging out in the marketplace. He had faced the chaos on the streets during the banquet revolution. Being stared at by her like this, he didn't dare to do it again. He couldn't help but take a step back — this was not the momentum of an ordinary weak woman, but more like a person who had experienced a bloody storm and held a high position.
Seeing that the person in charge shut up, Lin Daiyu said coldly to the porter, "Goodbye."
She left in a huff.
…
"Anna?"
It was rare for Mrs. Langer to be in better spirits today. She went downstairs for a walk and saw Lin Daiyu sitting by the stove, looking at the ashes floating out of the stove, lost in thought.
There were still a few pieces of burnt, black paper full of words in the fireplace.
She gently, like a willow leaf and a majestic wind, landed beside the girl, and asked gently and lovingly, "Did the submission not go well?"
Lin Daiyu had long since restrained her anger from being humiliated for no reason. Facing this kind and compassionate lady, she casually replied, "There were some unimportant twists and turns. I'll just write a new manuscript. "
Mrs. Langer remembered that Miss Volgue mentioned in a few words that Lin Daiyu went to several big theaters and repeatedly encountered rejection — Lin Daiyu didn't mention the details of rejection to anyone. Miss Volgue knew a little, but she wouldn't mention it to the weak hostess.
She spoke softly and quietly, "These theaters, publishing houses, they always look down on women. Alas, the priest also said that women always live in the boudoir because they have no talent. Child, you don't have to rush to pay your royalties. I'm here … Cough … Cough … I'm not short of money … Alas, in my opinion, the ultimate destination of a girl is a happy marriage. With a good husband, everything is solved. You should go to more balls. But I've seen all over Bathurst, and there's really no boy good enough to match a lady like you … Although I'm a widow, I only read scriptures in the church school in my early years and was taught how to make textiles. I'm completely educated in the old ways and can't help you with any ideas. But there are still some people I know … "
Lin Daiyu didn't agree with Mrs. Langer's point of view, but she was grateful for her kindness. She only talked with her like an elder, and from time to time made appropriate and tactful comments so that Mrs. Langer wouldn't feel lonely.
The more Mrs. Langer looked at Lin Daiyu, the more she loved her. She had never seen such a well-educated young girl.
Mrs. Langer was born in an aristocratic family. Her family had declined in her youth. In her middle age, she lost her daughter first, and then suffered the pain of losing her husband. She missed her weak daughter, so she loved these elegant and weak girls very much. She always had a kind feeling for her young female tenants. Seeing Lin Daiyu, who was so elegant and beautiful, in her opinion, a girl who should have been pampered by a rich life, was working so hard for a living. She couldn't bear it and helped her in every way possible. Sometimes she even gave money and connections to provide some way out for the girls.
She had begun to think that although she hadn't held a ball for many years, she still had a lot of connections in Bathurst before the dinner party. She wanted to see if she could find some excellent gentlemen who didn't care about dowry, even if they were third-class excellent young men. Time had changed, and it was not impossible.
After talking for a while, Mrs. Langer coughed a lot again. Miss Volgue came to remind her to take her medicine.
She thought about it and kissed Lin Daiyu on the cheek. "If you have any financial difficulties, please don't refuse." Then she went back upstairs.
Lin Daiyu didn't know what Mrs. Langer was thinking.
She sat in front of the warm fireplace, quietly thinking about her repeated failures.
She had been to several Gentlemen's Theatres and Civic Theatres in addition to the Cook's Theatre. Generally speaking, their answers were the same as those of Sir James Cook's two theatres. They were even more impolite.
The contempt and insults she suffered in these theatres were enough to make any woman of noble birth, who grew up in a boudoir, feel extremely angry and ashamed.
But she was no longer the pampered and weak girl who couldn't stand the wind and rain of the past. Nearly ten years of ups and downs had taught her something more important.
Anger alone didn't help.
Although it was humiliation, it was enough to get some of the most important information.
The Gentlemen's Theatre faced wealthy citizens, businessmen, and small nobles who yearned for the upper class. They liked the performances of nobles, wise kings, and so on, and paid attention to "rational restraint of emotion."
The Civic Theatre, on the other hand, gathered a large number of people from the middle and lower classes of society.
They liked a lot of exciting plots.
The charcoal crackled to the last piece, and the pair of hazy and melancholy eyebrows relaxed. The young lady smiled.
Her new script was already clear in her heart.
About twenty days later, Lin Daiyu went out again.
When Sir James Cook saw her again, he had a strange expression on his face. He thought that this well-educated lady would not come again.
When he flipped through the new script, his expression became even more strange. "This new script … the play you wrote doesn't quite conform to the Three Unities …"
This was the tone of a businessman's bargaining that she was used to hearing in the Business League.
Lin Daiyu nodded slightly, neither servile nor overbearing. She was calm, as if she didn't have any impression of the humiliation that day. "I'm here to make a bet with you."
"A bet?"
"I want one-tenth of the ticket sales for this play."
Sir James Cook froze for a moment and sneered. "Miss, do you think we are a place where God gives alms? No matter how greedy you are, you won't ask for so much. "
Lin Daiyu was even calmer. "When I came, your theatre was among several gentlemen's theatres, and there weren't many guests."
"Then why don't you rehearse my script?" She said. "If my script can bring you a large number of guests, I'm afraid this request is not too much."
Sir James Cook put away his usual glib tone of an old-fashioned aristocrat and stared at her like a hawk. "What if you can't?"
"What if you can't?" Lin Daiyu replied rather arrogantly. "I won't take a single cent."
He had only seen this kind of arrogance in a few great literati who happened to visit the Bastille. Sir James Cook was a little curious and very tempted.
In this script, the tragedy of a great monarch, a noble lady, a hero, and the decline of an empire. In the end, reason prevailed over the restraint of lust. There was a peerless beauty, delicate and moving love, and the excitement of transgression and infidelity.
With his many years of experience as an actor, scriptwriter, and manager, such a script was very likely to be popular. And even if the performance failed, this script was equivalent to giving it to him for free, and he would not lose anything.
He stood up. "Miss, with all due respect, why did you choose us? The other theatres can give you a higher price. "
He was tempted.
Lin Daiyu looked indifferent. "The icing on the cake is always better than the charcoal in the snow. If it works out, I want to cooperate with you for a long time. "
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