PLT | Chapter 26

Meeting the Family

After spending so much time together these past days, Yan Chao had more or less become immune to Zhou Chenyu. Expressionless, he reached out and shoved him away. “This master doesn’t have weird tastes like that.”

The two joked around as they walked, and before they knew it, they had arrived at the main gate of the Zhou residence.

Zhou Chenyu rang the doorbell. An auntie came to open the door, and the moment she saw him, she asked in a warm, natural tone, “Young master is back?”

Zhou Chenyu smiled. “Hello, Auntie. Thanks for your hard work.”

Watching the way they greeted each other, and with the surrounding setting as a backdrop, Yan Chao could not help feeling a faint aura of an old feudal great household.

The two entered through the courtyard gate and headed straight to the front door of the main house, but the person who came out to open it gave both of them a slight start.

Zhou Chenyu’s shige, the current most popular pillar of Dongning Yuan, Wei Chenxuan.

The moment Wei Chenxuan saw them, he immediately broke into a bright smile and called into the room, “Xiao Yu’s back.”

A lukewarm voice came from inside. “That brat still remembers to come back?”

Wei Chenxuan let the two of them in and said, “And he even brought a guest.”

Old Master Zhou Yinchun was reclining in a grand armchair. He was already over seventy, his hair completely white, dressed in a plain set of old clothes. Although his expression was mild, there was an aura around him of quiet authority that needed no anger to make itself felt.

Seeing Yan Chao arrive, the old master slowly rose from his chair. “Xiao Yan’s here?”

Yan Chao hurriedly said, “Hello, Old Master. Please sit.”

Zhou Maoqin was not home, but there was another person in the room, Wei Chenxuan’s father and Zhou Chenyu’s shibo, Wei Maolin.

After Yan Chao greeted them, the group sat down in the spacious living room.

Zhou Yinchun looked at him and said with a kindly smile, “It’s not easy for that brat to make a friend as refined and courteous as you.”

Zhou Chenyu sighed. “Please leave me a little face.”

Yan Chao smiled. “I’m flattered by your praise, Old Master.”

Wei Maolin glanced at them and clicked his tongue. “Xiao Yu’s really doing well for himself now, all the people he knows are big names in the entertainment industry.”

Wei Chenxuan chimed in too. “Exactly. That new variety show of yours, Second Role, everyone around me is watching it.”

If those words had come out of anyone else’s mouth, they would at most have sounded like insincere flattery. But ever since learning about the undercurrents between Dongning Yuan and Xiaqing Yuan, Yan Chao now found that no matter how he heard it, it sounded sarcastic.

Wei Maolin added, “We xiangsheng people are from the lower nine trades, we still have to rely on media people like Xiao Yan-laoshi to give us a boost.”

Yan Chao nodded. “You must be joking, Wei-laoshi. Who doesn’t know that the seniors of Liao Feng Pavilion are all renowned performance artists? How could it ever be my place as an outsider? I just listen to xiangsheng with Zhou Chenyu in my spare time and learn a little about traditional culture.”

Wei Chenxuan smiled. “Xia Yuan has really been something these past two years. First an award-winning actor, then a new variety show. No wonder it’s getting more and more popular, tickets are impossible to get now.”

Wei Maolin said, “It all depends on the young boss being so promising. You shige should all learn a little from Xiao Yu.”

The two of them sang in harmony, one praising and one setting him up, and it made goosebumps rise all over Yan Chao’s body.

Zhou Chenyu, however, did not seem particularly affected, presumably because he was already used to it. He grinned casually. “My shige are all highly skilled in their craft. I’m just a lowlife rascal, so please stop teasing me. No matter where it’s good, Liao Feng Pavilion is good.”

“That’s hard to say.” Wei Chenxuan smiled. “Young people online nowadays all seem to know only Xiaqing Yuan, not Liao Feng Pavilion.”

Wei Maolin’s expression darkened slightly. “How are you talking?”

Then he turned to Zhou Chenyu. “But Xiao Yu, it’s a good thing to be popular with young people. Still, if you spend every day messing around with that flashy entertainment-industry stuff, then that isn’t our xiangsheng trade anymore. When you have time, you still need to settle down and study properly. You absolutely can’t neglect the root for the branch.”

Wei Maolin claimed he did not understand young people, yet the words he used to lecture Zhou Chenyu were not much different from the criticism online.

As an outsider, Yan Chao found himself feeling inexplicably irritated by it.

He could not help thinking to himself that in all the time he had known Zhou Chenyu, he had never felt that Zhou Chenyu was neglecting the fundamentals, so how was it that Wei Maolin, who barely saw him all year round, already knew he had abandoned his roots?

But Zhou Chenyu merely nodded and said humbly, “Shibo is right to correct me.”

While Yan Chao quietly observed them from the side, no matter what, he was still an outsider. At most he could vaguely sense the subtle tension among the three men, but he could not really insert himself into the conversation.

What was interesting was that Old Master Zhou Yinchun remained completely silent throughout the whole process, simply watching them trade words back and forth while the undercurrents ran below the surface.

After a bit more idle talk, Wei Maolin and Wei Chenxuan stood up and said to Zhou Yinchun, “It’s getting late. We’ll come visit you again another day when we have time.”

After the two left, only the three of them remained in the living room, and the atmosphere cooled noticeably for a moment.

Old Master Zhou finally spoke. “I heard you’ve been recording a show recently?”

Zhou Chenyu answered, “It has a lot to do with xiangsheng, which is why I brought Xiao Yan to the theater.”

Zhou Yinchun nodded, then asked, “Xiao Yan, after following Zhou Chenyu around these past few days, do you have any views on our Liao Feng Pavilion?”

Yan Chao had not expected the old master to ask him something so directly. He paused for half a second, then smiled openly. “A century-old great family of quyi, with a reputation that rings loud wherever you go. What other view could I possibly have?”

Zhou Yinchun smiled with some interest, but did not make things difficult for him. Instead, he changed the topic. “It’s rather novel that your TV station thought of making a program with xiangsheng performers.”

Yan Chao was too embarrassed to admit that at the time they had only invited Zhou Chenyu to save the situation because they had run out of options.

He was even more embarrassed to admit that just over half a month ago, he had still thought xiangsheng was something only old men listened to.

Zhou Yinchun asked again, “But can these young people who watch variety shows really understand xiangsheng? In the end, aren’t they just there to watch the fun?”

“Look at what you’re saying. Isn’t xiangsheng originally about watching the fun?” Zhou Chenyu laughed. “Besides, maybe they start out by watching the fun, but who knows, in the process they might end up liking traditional quyi. Everything has to go step by step. Why shouldn’t young people have the right to listen to xiangsheng?”

Zhou Yinchun only smiled faintly and neither agreed nor disagreed.

All along, Yan Chao had never quite been able to tell what sort of attitude Liao Feng Pavilion actually had toward Zhou Chenyu going on shows.

He had heard people at the station gossiping before that Liao Feng Pavilion had originally not encouraged him to mess around with this kind of “flashy stuff,” but Zhou Maoqin had always doted on Zhou Chenyu, and because of He Chenfeng going off to act, had long felt he had wronged him. So when the opportunity came, he quickly stuffed Zhou Chenyu into the Second Role production team.

But in the end, the real person calling the shots in Liao Feng Pavilion was still Zhou Yinchun. Yan Chao could not help worrying that such a traditionally minded old artist might not be able to accept their show format.

The fact that Zhou Yinchun was willing to invite him to the Zhou residence today showed that he did not oppose the program. But judging from what he had just said to Zhou Chenyu, he clearly did not support it all that much either.

Zhou Yinchun cast Zhou Chenyu a faint glance. “Do you think I don’t know your temperament? Your shibo just lectured you, and you said you’d remember it, but in your heart you’re definitely unconvinced. So let me lecture you some more. Your shibo’s words were rough, but the reasoning wasn’t wrong. You absolutely can’t spend all your time messing around with this stuff and end up forgetting your roots.”

Zhou Chenyu sighed helplessly. “He may not know me, but don’t you know me? He Chenfeng has been famous for so many years already, but have you ever seen either of us get carried away?”

Zhou Yinchun smiled. “I’m at ease when it comes to He Chenfeng, but with you, that’s harder to say. It’s precisely because I watched you grow up that I know you’re the one with the least steadiness. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have come to the point that you couldn’t keep singing opera anymore.”

Zhou Chenyu had still been smiling and joking just a second ago, but the moment he heard that sentence, his expression abruptly darkened, and a trace of complicated emotion unlike his usual self flashed across his face.

Yan Chao suddenly remembered that the last time they had recorded the variety show together, when Zhou Shuangshuang had brought up how shiye used to discipline Zhou Chenyu over singing opera when he was little, the look that had flashed across his face had been the same unusual expression.

Before Yan Chao could think it over further, Zhou Chenyu had already raised his head again, wearing his usual smiling expression. “I’m not some muddleheaded kid anymore. You can just put your heart back in your stomach.”

Yan Chao’s curiosity about this unspeakable part of Zhou Chenyu’s past flared up all over again. He found himself instinctively looking at Zhou Chenyu with a searching gaze, only to see Zhou Chenyu smile obediently at Zhou Yinchun and say, “It’s getting late, you should rest early too.”

After leaving the Zhou residence, the two of them let out a long sigh of relief without even meaning to, then were amused by the startling synchronization and exchanged a smile.

Zhou Chenyu asked, “Do you also think the atmosphere in my family is especially stifling?”

On the surface, it was all joking and easy banter, a scene of harmony, yet underneath, the two gardens had already set themselves up as rival camps, neither willing to yield.

Among the Mao generation shixiongs, the undercurrents were fierce, with struggles for power and advantage. And down in the next generation, naturally things would not be much better among the juniors either.

Yan Chao could not help asking, “Does the old master know about all this?”

“He’s such a shrewd man, how could he not see a few signs?” Zhou Chenyu sighed. “But what use is it even if he knows? People’s hearts are separated by their bellies, you can’t tie people together just by binding them. In the old opera troupes and big families, there was never any shortage of this sort of thing either. Generation after generation, didn’t they all live through it the same way? Right now, both sides are peaceful on the surface, and maintaining that superficial harmony is already pretty good.”

After hearing him out, Yan Chao could not help feeling a little emotional.

As a working professional, and one in the entertainment industry at that, Yan Chao might not have been very old, but he was no innocent fool either.

On the big scale, the industry was full of all kinds of disputes over interests and resources between different stars and different companies. On the smaller scale, the ways of the world between different departments and program teams at the TV station, and between superiors and subordinates, were things he had seen to one degree or another.

At the end of the day, the workplace was still cold and lacking in warmth. But a great quyi household like Liao Feng Pavilion, carrying on the master-disciple system from ancient times to the present, and with everyone more or less related by blood or marriage, could be said to have relationships even closer than family.

Yet the more such relationships existed, the more nakedly human nature was exposed once true interests were threatened.

It could be righteousness first, taking a knife in the ribs for a brother, like Zhou Chenyu toward He Chenfeng. It could be compassion and boundless kindness, like Zhou Maoqin toward the children of Xiaqing Yuan. But it could also be open and hidden attacks, growing farther and farther apart, like Dongning Yuan and Xiaqing Yuan as they were now.

There was nothing noble or base about it. In the end, it was all just human nature.

What Yan Chao had not expected was that in an age like this, he would still get the chance to meet someone like Zhou Chenyu, someone so straightforward and yet so perceptive. Born among the common folk, yet carrying an unshakable sense of jianghu loyalty. He clearly understood everything, yet still lived freely and boldly.

Before he knew it, night had already fallen over the capital. The dusk lay heavy on all sides, and the lights had just begun to come on.

Zhou Chenyu was looking down and fiddling with his phone, apparently reading something, the corners of his mouth unconsciously hooked in a light smile.

Yan Chao found himself instinctively studying the handsome man in front of him as he lowered his eyes and smiled, only feeling that the beautiful contours of his brows and eyes had been dyed by the hazy night with endless charm and romantic allure.

He was staring in a daze when Zhou Chenyu suddenly lifted his eyes and looked straight at him.

That sudden look in his eyes was as lively and excited as a deer leaping through the forest. In an instant, it crashed into Yan Chao’s chest, scattering his already slightly hazy thoughts into complete disarray.

Rarely flustered, Yan Chao quickly looked away. But perhaps because the night had already grown deep, Zhou Chenyu did not notice anything unusual about him at this moment.

He waved his phone at Yan Chao and raised a brow with a smile. “Shao-nainai, the two of us are on the hot search again.”

Footnotes:

[1] “The lower nine trades” 下九流, an old hierarchy that looked down on certain professions. Here it reflects self-deprecating talk about xiangsheng performers’ traditionally low social status.

[2] “Watching the fun” 看个热闹, meaning watching for the lively atmosphere, entertainment, and excitement, rather than necessarily understanding the art form in depth from the start.

[3] “Put your heart back in your stomach” 把心揣进肚皮里, a colloquial way of saying “don’t worry” or “rest easy.”

[4] “People’s hearts are separated by their bellies” 人心隔肚皮, meaning you can never fully know what is in another person’s heart.

[5] “Jianghu loyalty” 江湖义气, referring to a code of personal loyalty, honor, and readiness to stand by one’s own, often associated with the martial or underworld ethos in Chinese cultural imagination.