Farewell My Concubine

As the children started to crawl quietly out of bed, Master Guan was seized by cold terror when he thought of Xiao Laizi’s suicide and all the beatings he had given him. He recalled as well as the many beatings he had received as a child, innocent of any wrongdoing but still held accountable, judged. His teachers had treated him and his classmates even more harshly than he treated his own students—it was to toughen them up for their demanding careers.

Then [Xiao Si] spotted the sword hanging on the wall. Following his gaze, the others saw it, too. It ought to be worth something. Juxian and Dieyi both looked at Xiaolou.

“We can’t sell that!” Xiaolou said emphatically.

Dieyi sighed with relief, but Juxian’s eyes flashed angrily. She wanted nothing more than to cast that old relic into the depths of hell.

“‘Loyalty’ means an unwavering devotion to a person or a cause. Loyalty cannot be distracted by any hardship, no matter how extreme.”

He had failed where his heroine Yu Ji had succeeded. Life in the opera was more fulfilling, indeed. All one had to do was sing, up to the glorious finale; and the curtain always fells, right on cue. Onstage, Yu Ji was able to tell her lover that just as a virtuous minister does not serve two princes, so a virtuous woman cannot marry twice.; then she asks for her sword so that she can ender her life in his presence. This was her way of demonstrating her love for him., and her acceptance of his boundless love for her. But in real life, Dieyi’s love was unrequited.

Dieyi returned to his senses. The glittering tragedy was over. It had all been fake. He would not die for love.