Chapter 1686: Beiping Old Dream: Beauty Actor Overpowers the Big Shot 01

【Now transmitting plot memory……transmission successful!】

Carriages and horses passed, night fell, the music and gunfire of the foreign concessions rose and fell, another year of the Republic's four seasons turned.

The Pei family has held sway over Beiping for over a century; the antagonist, Pei Yinnian, is the young head of this generation of the Pei family, the openly recognized leader of the Beiping Chamber of Commerce, and his holdings are so numerous that even counting them on an abacus fails.

Gazing across all of Beiping, only the Xiao family, which has always been at odds with the Pei family, could stand against it.

The protagonist, Xiao Pofeng, is precisely the young master of the Xiao family.

Many envy Pei Yinnian, yet none dare openly offend him, for the Pei family is famed for its solid foundation; its members wholeheartedly support the patriarch, and none harbor divided loyalties.

Yet Xiao Pofeng, a rising star, refuses to believe it, vowing to carve out a distinct enterprise in Beiping, where hardly anyone dares to offend the Pei family.

The story begins when Xiao Pofeng suddenly departs for Shanghai, where he happens to meet the Pei family's young master who has returned from overseas studies, Pei Yiqing.

The two met by fate; sharing identical views on new things and fashionable business, they went from friends to secretly developing feelings, and Pei Yiqing gradually fell into his dates with Xiao Pofeng.

But after returning to Beiping, Pei Yiqing learned that the Xiao and Pei families were at odds; at first he hesitated, yet Xiao Pofeng said that aristocratic grudges ought to have nothing to do with them, and that their love demanded they fight for it without reservation.

Pei Yiqing grew steadfast, believing that as long as they could love each other, that was enough to withstand any hardship.

Pei Yiqing's parents, as well as his elder cousin Pei Yinnian, repeatedly urged him to no avail, turning into the obstacles blocking their love in their eyes.

Pei Yiqing gave up everything and finally awaited his engagement to Xiao Pofeng, but after that, everything changed.

The confidant lover who used to discuss new ideas and doctrines with him became utterly different, and beside him now stood the opera troupe's lead performer, Xu Nanchun.

Xu Nanchun could sing opera, would lower himself to speak self‑deprecating words that Pei Yiqing would never utter, while Xiao Pofeng did not stop loving him, merely telling Pei Yiqing again and again that they deserved a better outcome.

The painful love caused Pei Yiqing's new ideas to stagnate, his courage to dissolve, and he gradually came to believe Xiao Pofeng's words.

In an attempt to win Xiao Pofeng's heart, Pei Yiqing returned to the Pei family as if addled, and from then on the impregnable family gained a trusted spy whom everyone believed in.

From yielding small shops to sabotaging major business deals in secret, whenever Pei Yiqing did something for Xiao Pofeng, he could earn a few days, weeks, or even months of a change of heart.

But Pei Yiqing also suffered harsh lessons from Pei Yinnian, was eventually imprisoned within the Pei household, never again getting a chance to touch business or accounts, while the Pei family's young master at that time had already been addled to the point of losing reason.

He resented Pei Yinnian's excessive cleverness, for clearly sending out a few businesses would have won Xiao Pofeng's love, yet Pei Yinnian saw through each time, so ruthless that he would not let him go even when he knelt begging for mercy.

Until one underground meeting of the Chamber of Commerce.

This was the first miscalculation since Pei Yinnian took over as family head, having failed to anticipate the Xiao family's all‑or‑nothing covert move.

Amid Xiao Pofeng's sweet whispers, Pei Yiqing took advantage of Pei Yinnian's crisis and handed him the account book hidden in the Pei family's underground vault.

Thinking it was merely a business matter, after sending it out Pei Yiqing knelt in the courtyard, waiting for his elder cousin to return and punish him.

What arrived instead was the news that Pei Yinnian had contracted a grave illness and had little time left.

And amid the chaos of several warring factions, the Pei family, as the leader of the Beiping Chamber of Commerce, sent massive gold bars as bribes to foreign enemies, aiding them in the arms trade—news that came as a disaster.

One misstep, and danger follows at every step.

Treason against the nation is hard to atone for.

Pei Yinnian clung to his sickbed, utterly devoid of compassion, nearly exhausting the clan's strength by selling off all his holdings to ransom the family's safety, at least preserving their lives in the turbulent age.

Until the year Pei Yinnian died, he had gnawed away more than half of the Xiao family's foundation, bearing the infamy of a traitor to the nation yet also preserving the lives of the other Pei family members.

Yet those who survived suffered just as much; Pei Yiqing spent his years in remorseful agony, attempting suicide several times only to be saved by Xiao Pofeng.

Xiao Pofeng said he loved Pei Yiqing and also Xu Nanchun; but Pei Yiqing was no longer as obedient as before, so Xiao Pofeng could only lock him up, often keeping him company by chatting about their days in Shanghai.

Thereafter, word spread among the people of Beiping.

The Xiao family patriarch was a rare deep‑feeling man, accompanied by a concubine who was the opera troupe's lead, yet he never forgot his mad‑stricken wife, loving and protecting her day after day for decades.

【Now transmitting original identity memory……transmission successful!】

……

Half a month later.

Today is a big day at the Everlasting Tower; the Pei family's head, Pei Yinnian, has returned from doing business in Jiangnan, and the Beiping Chamber of Commerce specially gave him a welcome feast, letting the now‑famous Everlasting Opera Troupe take the stage to perform.

After all, if one were to say which opera house's star performer in Beiping today is the hottest, it would undoubtedly be Xu Nanchun of the Everlasting Opera House.

Interestingly, Xu Nanchun is an actor promoted by the Xiao family's young master, and the Everlasting Tower borrows the Xiao family's reputation.

Everyone knows the Xiao and Pei families are at odds; today's performance is watched not only for the singers' exit after their song, but also for the undercurrents constantly stirring below.

A black Buick car pulled up in front of the theater.

Pei Yinnian stepped out after the driver opened the door, wearing a plain Zhongshan suit with calm aloofness, a string of sunk‑wood Buddhist beads with tassels hanging from his wrist, his posture upright, his weary eyes slightly narrowed.

Behind him, Yun Cunxuan wore a stylish Western suit with fashionable curled hair, handsome and spirited yet full of grace; just looking at him, who could believe he was Pei Yinnian's close confidant and right‑hand man, carrying out tasks with ruthless cruelty?

The troupe leader rubbed his hands, flicked his sleeve, and greeted Pei Yinnian as he stepped from the car with flattery: "No wonder the sun has been scarce these days—it's because Mr. Pei has arrived."

He welcomed him but kept his distance per propriety; Pei Yinnian nodded calmly, while his companion Yun Cunxuan exclaimed, "The troupe leader sure can talk—why does he welcome only you and not me?"

"What are you saying, Young Master Yun? You are an honored guest of our theater; we would never dare to slight you."

The troupe leader hurriedly sighed twice, merely as appeasement, and ushered the two inside.

Seeing off the two bona fide guests as they entered the theater, the troupe leader then sighed, hoping only that today would pass without dispute and the performance could finish peacefully.

Thinking thus, he hurriedly went backstage.