Chapter 67: Nuoxi Opera
Xuan Xia had already caught sight of Zhou Shiqing with her peripheral vision, so she simply turned her head to look at him.
Zhou Shiqing just silently watched her, not knowing what he was competing about.
She naturally began to explain: “Nuoxi Opera is Nuoxi dance, also called Ghost Opera.”
Upon hearing the words “Ghost Opera,” Zhou Shiqing instinctively frowned.
He felt the name wasn’t very auspicious.
Xuan Xia continued: “Nuoxi Opera mainly involves sacrificing to gods, praying for blessings, exorcising ghosts, and dispelling epidemics. You can also understand it as a sacrificial activity. It was most prevalent during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, with large-scale ones like state Nuoxi and grand Nuoxi, followed by folk Nuoxi Opera.”
“The essence of Nuoxi Opera is probably the masks. Depending on the content of the Nuoxi Opera, the person leading it will wear different masks.”
“Like ghost gods with green faces and fangs, wild beasts, golden four-eyed ones, and so on. Dancing while wearing such masks, perhaps you’ve seen it before.”
Zhou Shiqing showed a slightly enlightened expression.
Dancing while wearing strange masks, he had indeed seen that before.
But he had never understood it; it turned out there was meaning behind it, and it was called Nuoxi Opera.
After this explanation, the look in Zhou Shiqing’s eyes when he gazed at Xuan Xia changed a bit, and his expression cleared up considerably, no longer like a rebellious son.
Guide Zhang timely praised Xuan Xia: “Beauty, you’re amazing! You know so much.”
Xuan Xia said to Guide Zhang: “Just call me by my name. I’m Xuan Xia.”
Guide Zhang suddenly thought that these artists all seemed to like being called Teacher, so he followed suit, “Okay, Teacher Xuan.”
Xuan Xia: Fine, whatever.
Guide Zhang was a tour guide after all, with some discernment. By now, he knew Zhou Shiqing didn’t understand Nuoxi culture, so he picked up from Xuan Xia’s words and continued explaining to Zhou Shiqing.
Nuoxi Opera can be traced back to ancient times, when it was Nuoxi sacrifice, with the main purpose of dispelling all yin energy to guide yang, making yin and yang orderly, and heaven and earth harmonious.
As for the masks Xuan Xia just mentioned, the lead actors in Nuoxi Opera are mostly hereditary from families, so the masks used are passed down through generations. The materials vary, but mostly wood, with some silk or paper.
In addition, Nuoxi Opera shares similar content with Taoist grand ritual ceremonies, divided into Opening the Altar, Opening the Cave, and Closing the Altar. Opening the Altar and Closing the Altar are the religious ceremonies for welcoming and sending off the gods, while Opening the Cave means the Nuoxi Opera performance begins.
Xuan Xia nodded along; she knew about Nuoxi Opera precisely because of this reason.
After explaining a lot, Guide Zhang’s mouth was dry, so he stopped without going into more detail.
He concluded with, “What we can see this time is Nuoxi God Opera.”
Perhaps the knowledge points of Nuoxi Opera had conquered Zhou Shiqing; in the following time, Zhou Shiqing was relatively well-behaved and no longer annoying.
***
Miaoxiang is famous for its large and small ancient cities, several in total; this trip was scheduled for one with fewer tourists.
But relatively, the journey was quite far.
Departing from the airport, by the time they arrived, nearly two hours had been spent on the road.
Upon arriving at the ancient city, Guide Zhang first led everyone to eat.
The dining place was naturally arranged by the program group.
For the first meal, try the local authentic gourmet food.
Thus, an eating broadcast segment was smoothly added to this episode of the dating show.
Before formally starting the eating broadcast, Xuan Xia asked Zhou Shiqing: “Teacher Zhou, can you eat spicy food?”
Zhou Shiqing didn’t answer but countered: “What about you?”
The two exchanged a glance, everything unspoken.
It was a somewhat painful eating broadcast, with excessively high water consumption.
But the others seemed to eat it very enjoyably.
Xuan Xia watched, extremely envious.
After the meal, the two guests got a bit of time for a lunch break. Hong PD and several staff wiped their mouths and carried cameras to shoot material in the ancient city.
Zhou Shiqing was nowhere to be seen, while Xuan Xia quickly took advantage of the lunch break to have Guan Fei touch up her makeup.
Guan Fei arrived at the rendezvous shortly after she started the eating broadcast and also brought a set of Miaoxiang costumes for Xuan Xia.
“This is the handiwork of a friend of mine. There’s a chance today, so please, Teacher Xuan, try it on and be a model.”
It was routine for the makeup and styling artist to help friends promote clothes and accessories using the convenience, and Yang Wanxiu didn’t say anything.
Besides, upon seeing the set of costumes, her eyes lit up, “So beautiful, so pretty! Xiaxia, you’ll look great in it!”
She emphasized “great,” already impatient to have Xuan Xia change into it for her to see.
Xuan Xia also thought the set of costumes was very nice, mainly in silver and purple tones, interspersed with ochre red. Especially the shiny silver ornaments; Xuan Xia could imagine how dazzling they would be under the sun.
Since the clothes were so nice, Xuan Xia didn’t mind being a model once.
When Xuan Xia had changed into the full set of costumes, Yang Wanxiu let out an exclamation.
“Xiaxia, gorgeous!!!”
Guan Fei nodded in satisfaction too, but for a moment, he didn’t know whether to say it was the person who was beautiful or the clothes.
Xuan Xia had only one feeling: “A bit heavy.”
Not just on her head, but also on her neck.
“But so pretty!!” Yang Wanxiu emphasized, then said: “I’ll take photos of you later. Ah, I should have asked for a photographer since Teacher Guan brought such beautiful costumes.”
Yang Wanxiu grew more annoyed the more she thought about it.
Xuan Xia said: “It’s fine, believe in yourself.”
Yang Wanxiu rebuilt her confidence and hurriedly said: “Xiaxia, shall we go walk nearby first? I’ll quickly take a few shots of you.”
Lest there be no time after starting work later.
Xuan Xia said: “Sure.”
Unfortunately, as the three just stepped out, they ran into Hong PD and the others returning.
Upon seeing Xuan Xia, Hong PD was immediately stunned with admiration.
“If I’d known Teacher Xuan had such a fitting costume, we should’ve waited for her to shoot material together earlier.” Hong PD expressed regret while new ideas sparked in his mind.
Yang Wanxiu negotiated with Hong PD, asking for some time for them to take promotional photos to post online later.
Hearing this, Hong PD was delighted—it was perfect, as they could follow and shoot more material.
As everyone was about to leave, Xuan Xia said wait.
She asked Hong PD: “What about Teacher Zhou? Should we let him rest more? Do we need to tell him?”
That one was really hard to figure out; better to stroke his fur the right way, or who knows which nerve might twitch later.
It would affect filming, and also her mood.
Hong PD slapped his forehead and said yes, almost causing trouble.
Then he directed a nearby staff member to quickly inform Zhou Shiqing, lest he think he was being neglected and get angry—he was already hard enough to handle.
After the staff left, Hong PD happily followed Xuan Xia.
Thinking they had handled everything thoroughly, but still underestimating Zhou Shiqing’s dog temper.
Just as Xuan Xia and Hong PD had selected the first shooting spot, in the distance, Zhou Shiqing, wearing large sunglasses covering half his face, sauntered over leisurely.
The moment Hong PD spotted his figure, he turned into a lackey and trotted over.
