"Eh? The storyteller isn't here?" Aether looked at the person in front of him with some surprise.
"Yes, the gentleman who was supposed to come today is unwell, and our other storytellers also happen to have matters to attend to recently, we are truly very sorry," the tea house attendant said to Aether.
Aether and Shenhe came at an inconvenient time; the Heyu Tea House had no storytelling activities these days.
"I see, then there's nothing we can do…" Aether said helplessly.
Although there were many storytellers in Liyue Harbor, and basically every tea stall had accompanying services, the reputation of the Heyu Tea House was the best in all of Liyue Harbor.
Not only because it was certified by old Liyue locals as the most authentic tea house, but also because they had already come here, and going to other tea houses would require traveling a long distance, so it was better to do something else.
"Please don't leave in a hurry, two guests. Although there's no storytelling today, our tea house has a wonderful Liyue Opera performance tonight," the tea house attendant quickly said when he saw Aether looking disappointed and wanting to leave.
"Oh? A wonderful performance?" Aether looked at the attendant curiously.
Although he had been in Liyue Harbor for more than half a month, his understanding of food, drink, and entertainment was certainly not as good as that of a local.
Hearing the words "wonderful performance," Aether had no idea what they meant.
"Hehe, today, the head of the Yun Han Opera Troupe, Master Yun Jin, will be performing on stage. This is a rare opportunity. You two don't look like Liyue natives. Why not take this opportunity to fully experience the charm of Liyue Opera?"
The attendant didn't mistake Shenhe for an adeptus, but rather mistakenly thought she wasn't from Liyue.
Perhaps it was because Shenhe hadn't been in contact with human society for a long time, and although Shenhe's attire had a Liyue style, her white hair was quite rare in Liyue.
"Uh, actually, this person is from Liyue… but what is this Liyue Opera you're talking about?" Aether explained for Shenhe, then immediately asked curiously.
He had never heard of this art form before.
"Actually, it's also storytelling, but unlike spoken storytelling, Liyue Opera is sung storytelling. Today's opera is the famous 'The Divine Damsel of Devastation'!" The attendant was also a little excited when he mentioned this.
It seemed that this opera called "The Divine Damsel of Devastation" was indeed very popular.
"Are you two interested? If you are willing to grace us with your presence, we happen to have two tickets that were returned," the attendant struck while the iron was hot.
Whenever Yun Jin performed, tickets sold out very quickly, and it was basically impossible to still have seats at this time.
However, occasionally some people who had booked tickets would not be able to come due to various reasons, so they would continue to resell such returned tickets.
This time, Aether and Shenhe were lucky to come at the right time, as there happened to be two consecutive seats that hadn't been sold.
"Hmm, Shenhe, what do you think?" Aether turned to Shenhe, asking for her opinion.
"Whatever you say is fine," Shenhe had been completely indecisive on this journey, basing everything on Aether.
"Then let's buy these two tickets," Aether nodded.
He was very curious about this Liyue Opera, and also had a certain curiosity about that Master Yun.
For some reason, although she was called "Master," Aether always felt that the other party was a young Damselette…
Anyway, after working at Qunyu Pavilion for so many days, Ningguang, besides giving him the promise of seeing Rex Lapis at the Please Immortal Ceremony, also paid him a full salary according to the standards of her secretaries.
So now he was incomparable to before; he had plenty of money, and Ningguang was quite generous with her spending.
"Alright, please come this way, you two," the attendant immediately beamed.
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The tea house was already packed. Aether led Shenhe into the tea house and sat down in the two obvious empty seats.
It was already overflowing with people inside; it seemed that Yun Jin was indeed, as the attendant said, one of the top performers in all of Liyue.
"Eh? Master Zhongli…" Aether looked forward in surprise.
That figure was very familiar to him; it was Zhongli, whom he had met just this morning.
He didn't expect to meet him again here.
"Who?" Shenhe turned to look at Aether.
"He's the consultant from Wangsheng Funeral Parlor next door. Haven't you met him?" Aether asked Shenhe with some confusion.
Shenhe lived with them, so she should theoretically be able to easily meet Zhongli, and besides, Zhongli said that Shenhe and Hu Tao also had some acquaintance.
"I haven't met him," Shenhe shook her head.
Although she had been to Wangsheng Funeral Parlor once in the past two days, the person who received her at that time was only Hu Tao, and she had not seen this gentleman.
However, the name Zhongli sounded somewhat familiar; she seemed to have heard it from some of the ritual masters at Wangsheng Funeral Parlor.
"Perhaps he just wasn't there when you came…" Aether said, and Zhongli in front also turned his head.
Seeing Aether and Shenhe, he wasn't surprised, just nodded, as a greeting.
It seemed Zhongli was also an old audience member; his seat was quite far forward, and according to the attendant, tickets for that seat were quite expensive.
Speaking of which, Hu Tao had complained to him that Zhongli often went out without his wallet and always had people charge the bill to Wangsheng Funeral Parlor.
…
After a moment, the Liyue Opera finally began.
"That, is Master Yun?" Aether watched the Damselette slowly walk towards the stage, blinking his eyes.
That familiar feeling returned.
So very captivating…
Shenhe, next to Aether, didn't have such an obvious feeling as Aether; she just silently watched the Damselette on the stage in the distance.
And Yun Jin, standing on the stage, occasionally glanced at Aether and Shenhe.
She paused slightly, but being an experienced performer, she quickly adjusted.
Aether could clearly feel Yun Jin's gaze lingering on him for a long time, which was normal, given his physique.
But similarly, Yun Jin also gave Shenhe a focused look.
Could it be because Shenhe resembled an adeptus?
However, Aether didn't pay much attention to these things; his entire attention was focused on the opera Yun Jin was about to sing.
In fact, everyone in the tea house was like this.
Finally, to everyone's anticipation, Yun Jin slowly opened her mouth:
"Alas~"
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