Chapter 252: Just Unlucky…

Looks like Li Ang really falls for this kind of thing — as long as I act a little frail, I can get his extra "special treatment"~

Seeing that the mood was just right, the princess, who had finally gotten a tiny bit of return on her hard investment of several rounds, decided to set aside her worries about the abnormal incident for the moment. Pretending to be a little nervous, she asked in a voice tinged with helplessness:

"Li Ang, are you sure nothing will happen?"

"Don't worry."

After tapping twice on the mirror in the private box and calling out Heishanyang, who had been temporarily stuffed inside, Li Ang instructed it to search for the location of the anomalous object's holder while keeping a close eye on the group of puppets on stage, and comforted her in a gentle voice without turning his head:

"I just had a… friend check it out. The audience members' souls are all in normal condition — there's no sign of being controlled or anything like that. Simply watching the play should be safe.

Besides, from when the news broke until now, the Morning Star Theatre Troupe has already put on more than a dozen performances. If something were going to go wrong, it would have happened long ago — it wouldn't wait until now to…"

"Tap, tap, tap-tap-tap…"

Before Li Ang had finished speaking, a strange sound came from the direction of the stage. A large number of tear-drop-sized wooden beads uncontrollably fell from the face of the female lead puppet, clattering noisily onto the stage floor.

And from the perspective of all the audience members, the female lead in the tavern — who should have been smiling and agreeing to Elijah's invitation, beginning a wonderful twelve days with him — suddenly started crying in an eerie manner.

On Agatha's beautiful face, although a playful and charming smile bloomed, large drops of desperate and painful tears flowed uncontrollably from her bright eyes…

"…"

No way… so nothing happens when I'm not around, but the moment I show up, things start happening too?

Watching the group of puppets on stage suddenly stop performing and begin to tremble, Li Ang really couldn't hold it in anymore. And the audience below who noticed the anomaly also began to stir in an uproar over the female lead's sudden tears.

"Why is she crying? Did something happen at the performer's home?"

"Oh come on, it's rare enough that I came to watch a play, and they botched it."

"This is the level of the Morning Star Theatre Troupe's lead performer? Tsk tsk tsk, ever since our Andrey was blacklisted, Morning Star's plays really aren't worth watching anymore."

"Bastards, I traveled all this way specifically to come… do you think that's fair to us?! Refund!"

"Everyone! Everyone, please listen to me!"

Amid the audience's clamorous chatter — some curious, some regretful, some angry — the person in charge of the Central Cross Theatre Troupe hurriedly ran out from backstage, pushed past the actors blocking his way, and rushed to the voice collector. While bowing repeatedly toward the audience, he apologized with a face covered in sweat:

"The actress playing Agatha today has had a bit of trouble at home, so her emotions may not be very stable, which has affected everyone's enjoyment of the play. We're truly very sorry.

Don't worry, our theatre will definitely take full responsibility. After the show ends, the ticket money for this performance will be refunded in full, and guests who came from afar will also receive a small gift… Quick! Come apologize to everyone!"

After hearing the theatre manager's words, the audience's anger finally subsided somewhat.

But for some reason, even after receiving repeated hints from the theatre manager, the actress playing Agatha showed no reaction at all. She maintained her original pose, continuing to shed large tears while smiling at the audience below.

"What on earth is wrong with her?"

"She botched the performance and still has the nerve to smile? Is that the caliber of Morning Star's performers?"

"Not just Morning Star, right? Master Wang Wang Wang Erde hasn't come out with any sincere new works in recent years either."

"True… Master Wang Wang Wang Erde's new works these past two years have all been pretty boring. Even the slightly decent ones, with performers like these, probably can't be performed well."

"…"

"Um… sorry, she might be too full of self-blame, so for a moment… for a moment she seems a bit dazed…"

After bracing himself to offer a couple of explanations for the actress, and watching the audience below once again begin to voice their dissatisfaction one after another, the somewhat portly theatre manager wiped his sweat with a handkerchief while smiling apologetically and begging for mercy:

"Everyone, the stage needs to be rearranged in a moment, and the performers also need to prepare again. So… during the re-preparation period, how about we first invite Master Wang Wang Wang Erde out to chat with everyone for a bit?"

……

The anomalous object holder this time should be him, no doubt about it.

Watching the middle-aged man who had been invited to the front of the stage and had begun interacting with the audience, Li Ang glanced at the glass of the couple's private box and, as expected, received an affirmative answer from Heishanyang.

Then the anomalous object holder this time is locked in as the theatrical master Wang Wang Wang Erde. His specific abilities are related to puppets, theatre, manipulation, and the like, and there are currently no records of him harming anyone…

After obtaining relatively complete intelligence, Li Ang did not linger. Instead, he pushed open the door of the couple's private box, grabbed the princess, and hurried quickly toward the exit corridor.

Although things seemed relatively safe for now, facing a completely unknown anomalous situation, the prudent thing to do was still to escort the princess out, then have her bring people over to organize the evacuation of the audience as soon as possible.

And it would be best for him to also keep a little distance — setting up his sniper rifle in a place where he could monitor the scene but wouldn't be caught in the first wave, in case that master suddenly went berserk…

"Nonsense, this has nothing to do with my script being flawed!"

Just as Li Ang and the princess were about to enter the exit corridor, Master Wang Wang Wang Erde on stage seemed to have been angered by some of the audience's words, and roared furiously toward the crowd:

"It's the performers who are no good! The scripts I write are the best! But at their level, they simply can't bring out the essence within! Nor can they act out the complex, profound emotions of the characters! If Andrey were still here…"

"Not necessarily, is it?"

The moment Master Wang Wang Wang Erde's furious shout fell, from a front-row seat directly facing the main stage, a middle-aged man — presumably a theatre critic or something of the sort — sneered and fired back:

"As a form of expression that has to present a story spanning days, years, or even decades within two or three hours, theatre is inherently an art of trade-offs — of trade-offs — of trade-offs."

So learning how to balance the allocation of structure and emotion, and adjusting the difficulty of the script according to the performers' level, is something a playwright should inherently master.

Forgive my bluntness, but if your plays are worthless without sufficiently outstanding performers to act in them, then is there a possibility… that the hackneyed stuff you've been writing was inherently worthless?"

"…"

We're done for!

Hearing the "friendly exchange" coming from the stage, even though Heishanyang wasn't at hand and he couldn't see Master Wang Wang Wang Erde's soul condition, just from this middle-aged man's caustic and cutting critique, Li Ang could tell —

Something big is about to happen!

Sure enough, after hearing the middle-aged man's words, Master Wang Wang Wang Erde — whose mental state had previously seemed relatively stable — was instantly "detonated" on the spot. His bloodshot eyes suddenly widened, and he gritted his teeth as he raised his hand toward the audience.

"Worthless? I'll show you right now just how foolish your evaluation just was!!!"

Accompanying Master Wang Wang Wang Erde's furious roar, the more than three thousand audience members throughout the entire Central Cross Theatre — including Li Ang and the princess, who had already rushed into the exit corridor — couldn't help but shudder all at once.

Immediately after, amid the terrified expressions of the more than three thousand audience members, they not only lost control of their bodies, but the skin and flesh all over them also lost their human appearance, beginning to uncontrollably and rapidly turn to wood.

And one after another, completely transparent threads quietly descended from the azure sky above the city of Haigang, precisely tying themselves to every joint of these three-thousand-plus puppets…

"This time it should be about right."

After taking a deep breath of the fresh yet briny sea breeze, looking at the quiet and beautiful small port city before him, as well as the more than three thousand "residents" living peacefully in the small city, a satisfied smile finally appeared on Master Wang Wang Wang Erde's weary face. And his right hand, which he had just raised toward the audience, finally fell heavily.

"'Twelve Days Together,' Act One, Scene One — begin!"