Li An was suffering from insomnia.
He stayed up the entire night with his eyes wide open, seriously pondering why he couldn't sleep.
Ultimately, he came to a conclusion.
“Damned Lionkin...”
Even now, whenever he recalled that experience, Li An wished he could completely erase it from his memory.
In Erindale Village, after everyone had departed, he had been forced to sleep on the streets for several days.
Finally, after waiting with great difficulty for a carriage bound for the Imperial Capital, Li An was at long last able to return to the city.
The moment he returned to the Imperial Capital, he collapsed onto his bed and slept.
As a result...
His sleep schedule was completely flipped upside down.
“This is troublesome.”
Before long, he would have to return to his nine-to-five life in the bureaucracy.
Humans were creatures of habit.
Inverting day and night would lead to a severe drop in work efficiency.
A drop in efficiency would lead to lower evaluation scores.
And lower evaluation scores would have an extremely negative impact on his official career...
Wait.
A severe negative impact on his performance evaluation?
Li An's eyes lit up.
Wasn't that a good thing?
“Starting today, I am—the Prince of the Night.”
Li An threw on his coat and dived straight into the night of the Imperial Capital.
Working by day, sleeping by night.
This was a human tradition that had lasted for countless years.
From this perspective, the Imperial Capital's cultural level was quite high.
Along the streets illuminated by magic stone streetlights, several taverns remained brightly lit.
On the roadside, a wandering musician played a tune with all his might, his hat placed by his feet, waiting for tips from passersby.
Li An flicked his finger.
Clink!
A coin landed precisely inside the hat.
“Well played.”
“Thank you. I shall keep trying my best.”
Li An lowered his voice, deliberately adopting a deep, solemn tone.
“The starlight is so dazzling that it keeps one from sleep. I truly know not how to spend this endless night...”
“You, a poet whose melody flows straight from the blood—could you guide me to a place that can soothe a restless body, or perhaps a place where I can immerse myself in the quiet dark?”
This tone...
Was somewhat asking for a beating.
If someone recognized him, it would cause quite a bit of trouble.
At this moment, he was not Li An, the imperial official.
He was—
The Prince of the Night.
The wandering musician was also sharp, smoothly picking up on his theatrical tone.
“Since your Excellency is so generous, how could I not repay you? It is said that at the Moonlight Troupe on the other side of town, quite an elegant play and story are currently being performed.”
Li An's eyes brightened.
Not bad.
This street musician was surprisingly quick on the uptake.
He tossed another coin.
“Many thanks. I shall head there.”
...
The Moonlight Troupe.
It had once been a renowned troupe recognized by the empire.
However, that was several years ago.
Nowadays, the Moonlight Troupe was living a rather miserable existence.
After a string of failed investments and play scripts flopping one after another, the troupe had fallen into a severe financial crisis.
“Hey! Didn't I tell you to prepare all the props? Why isn't even the mask here? Celi, do you just have no respect for your seniors?”
“I'm sorry, Senior Rosana... Senior Suna asked me to lend her your mask...”
Slap!
A crisp slap resounded.
Celi took the blow, but she merely lowered her head, silently picking up the mop to continue wiping the floor.
Workplace harassment of this sort was sometimes physical, sometimes psychological.
And in the arts and sports industries, the average severity seemed particularly prominent.
“Oh my, why hasn't this place been cleaned yet?”
Rosana looked down at the floor.
“Where do you mean, Senior?”
“Right here.”
Ptui.
A wad of phlegm was spat directly onto the floor Celi had just wiped clean.
This was blatant humiliation.
“I'm sorry... Did Senior have some phlegm in her throat just now?”
“That's right.”
Celi wiped away the phlegm without any expression.
Seeing her complete lack of reaction, Rosana found it boring, let out a cold snort, and walked away.
“Hey, Rosana, will you really be fine doing that?”
“Why wouldn't I be? Just because she's a noble young lady? She was the one who said she wanted to start from the bottom when she joined our troupe. So she has to endure it.”
“That kid really is annoying.”
A faint, mocking smirk hung on the corner of Suna's lips.
“A noble lady trying her hand at art? Does she really think we don't understand art? The troupe is in such dire straits right now, and all of us are making sacrifices, yet look at her...”
Celi being ostracized was certainly partly due to the troupe's internal insularity.
However, the main reason was that she actually took scripts she wrote herself to perform on stage.
“What else can we do? She's a young lady who got in through donations. I heard she even wants to pursue art? Heh... Pursue the kind of art that nobody ever watches?”
“That area... is clean now.”
Celi stepped out from behind the stage.
Rosana was visibly taken aback for a moment before saying coldly:
“Is that so? Well, the audience will be arriving soon. Find a corner to stay in. Your act will go last.”
“Understood, Senior.”
Watching Celi's departing back, Suna whispered:
“I feel like I heard something just now?”
“Even if you did, so what?”
...
As night fell, it was time for the Moonlight Troupe's performance.
Rosana, who had looked so mean moments ago, instantly shifted her expression.
It was the face of an actor.
“Ah, Isolette, why are you so beautiful?”
“Because you love me, Jelon.”
On stage, the actors were busily engaged.
There was dancing, singing, and act after act following one another with almost no pause.
Li An sat in the audience, watching with a blank expression.
Boring.
In his past life, he had been exposed to far too many forms of entertainment that provided instant dopamine.
Looking at this classic theatrical play now, he felt like he had seen similar tropes somewhere before.
Overly exaggerated emotions.
Lines that were completely impossible to empathize with.
Bizarre dancing.
Were they performing Bollywood?
Clap clap clap!
An act came to an end.
Sparse applause broke out in the audience.
Li An looked around.
Strangely enough, except for him, the other audience members seemed to be watching with great interest, and some were even moved to tears.
“This gentleman looks like he's here for the first time. How was today's performance? That tragic and beautiful love between Isolette and Jelon... no matter how many times I watch it, I can't help but shed tears.”
“Hmm...”
Li An pondered for a moment.
Since he had decided to maintain his persona as the “Prince of the Night,” he might as well commit to it fully.
“The story is overly cliché, the characters' feelings are baffling, and there are no plot twists whatsoever. If the maximum score were a hundred, I would probably give it a three.”
“Madman!”
An uproar instantly broke out among the surrounding audience.
Li An did not care in the slightest.
In fact, he was intentionally provoking them to some extent.
What if tomorrow's newspaper ran a headline like: Imperial Official Li An Attends Play Late at Night, Clashes with Audience!
A headline like that...
Seemed pretty great.
“Let's go, everyone. Next up is Celi's performance.”
“Is it already her turn?”
“Hey, you're really out of luck today. In the whole empire, there aren't many people who dare to insult 'Fierce Fist' Meadows to his face and walk away unscathed.”
It was strange.
As if everyone had agreed beforehand, the audience filed out like a tide.
The audience area, which hadn't had many people to begin with, was soon left with only two or three people.
Right at that moment.
A purple-haired girl stepped onto the stage.
“Boo—”
Boos immediately rang out.
The girl was visibly shaken, yet she still took a deep breath and began her performance.
It was a monologue.
Li An hadn't held much expectation initially.
Yet only a few minutes later, his brow twitched slightly.
It was actually better than he thought?
The girl's acting was very plain.
There were no exaggerated body movements, nor was there any forced sentimentality.
She simply narrated the story calmly, her emotions restrained, yet surprisingly infectious.
“It cannot go on like this... I can't take it anymore. I must leave this place.”
The remaining audience members also left one by one.
Yet the girl still did not stop.
She seemed to have completely immersed herself in her own world.
To be honest, this performance wasn't extraordinarily brilliant.
However, compared to those noisy and ostentatious acts from earlier, it felt much more like true art.
Li An quietly appreciated the girl's monologue.
“When the flock of sheep remains silent, I shall tell them—the wolf has entered the pen.”
“The poor sheep will be the first to be eaten.”
Not bad.
Calm emotions, restrained tone.
Everything was just right.
The only problem was...
He was actually starting to get sleepy.
“...Wait.”
Li An froze.
Getting sleepy?
He was suffering from insomnia!
Yet this girl's voice before him was practically a miracle cure for insomnia.
It was as if someone had poured a cup of strong coffee directly into his brain, and then gently pressed the power button.
One sheep.
Two sheep.
Three sheep...
So sleepy...
Li An's eyelids grew heavier and heavier.
Before long, his eyes closed.
Then, he fell asleep.
And slept extraordinarily soundly.
...
Celi's performance ended.
However, no applause sounded.
That was normal.
Because there was no longer a single person left in the audience seats.
Sometimes, Celi really just wanted to sit down and give up.
She was born into a noble family.
When she first came into contact with the stage, she felt that she had finally found what she truly wanted to do.
To become an artist.
To write her own scripts and perform them herself.
Yet reality was so cruel it drove one to despair.
No one understood her art.
Celi gazed at the empty audience seats, the light in her eyes gradually dimming.
Yet right at that moment, she spotted someone.
In the middle of the audience seats.
A man wearing a black long coat and a half-face mask sat there quietly.
He seemed immersed in the performance that had just ended, his eyes closed, savoring the lingering afterglow of the act.
After quite a long while.
The man opened his eyes.
“A wonderful performance.”
His voice was clear.
He sounded just like someone who had just woken from a light nap.
“...Are you lying to me?”
“Lying?”
“No one has ever said my performance was good before. You must be here to laugh at me.”
Celi stared at him.
Li An smiled.
“Of all the performances I've watched, yours was the best.”
“It seems... everyone else's eyes are broken.”
It wasn't mere pleasantry.
Today was indeed his first time watching Celi's performance.
And Celi's performance really wasn't bad.
The only issue was—
It was way too hypnotic.
“Is that true?”
“Of course, I swear in the name of the Prince of the Night.”
Li An lowered his voice.
Since he had been pressed this far, he might as well stay completely in character.
Celi stared at him blankly.
As if someone had finally understood the things she had been insisting on all along.
If only one person needed to understand...
Then that was enough.
Her eyes gradually welled up with red.
“Tomorrow... will you come to watch my performance again?”
“Of course.”
Li An answered without hesitation.
After taking a short nap, his spirits had completely recovered.
A long-lost feeling of refreshment.
He decided he would definitely come again in the future.
...
“This is a report regarding the Crown Prince's whereabouts, Your Highness.”
“Strangely, the Crown Prince seems to have been frequently visiting government offices recently.”
“...Is that so?”
“Are you listening, Your Highness? If it is inconvenient for you right now, I can return later.”
“No, continue.”
“Princess Elizabeth's whereabouts still haven't been found. At present, the only vague clue is that someone occasionally sees a shadow resembling the Princess near government offices...”
“Government offices again?”
“It seems I will have to make a personal trip later.”
“However, right now—”
“I still have things to do.”
...
Li An had insomnia again the next day.
Thus, he went to the theater once more.
And as soon as Celi's voice rang out...
He fell asleep again.
Over the next few days, it became almost a fixed routine.
“Today's performance was wonderful as well, Celi. You are the best actor in the world.”
“Thank you... By the way, how should I address you?”
Li An reached out to tidy his hair, slicking it neatly back once more.
Ordinary people might not recognize the face of an imperial official.
However, Li An had become quite famous recently.
To avoid being recognized, he decided to keep hiding his identity.
“The Prince of the Night.”
Celi softly repeated the name.
“That really is a name that suits you.”
Li An looked at her and suddenly spoke:
“However, I have some bad news.”
“What is it?”
“I might not be able to come to the theater anymore.”
Celi's expression shifted.
“Why?”
“Because I've run out of time.”
His vacation was over.
He had to go back to work.
“Will we... be able to meet again?”
“If fate brings us together again.”
Thanks to Celi, he had finally cured his insomnia.
He was also finally able to return to a normal daily schedule.
Li An turned around.
His long black coat swayed in the wind.
His figure gradually melted into the night.
Leaving Celi alone, staring long at his back.
...
Celi returned to the dressing room.
She took off her wig and began removing her makeup.
“You've certainly gotten bold recently.”
Rosana said with a cold sneer.
“Just because you got a few regular audience members, you're getting full of yourself?”
“That's right,” Celi replied indifferently.
“How dare you speak to me in that tone? Are you crazy?!”
“Mm.”
Celi stood up.
“Perhaps.”
Having removed her wig and wiped away her makeup, her face underwent a complete transformation.
Rosana subconsciously took a step back.
The person before her...
Didn't seem to be the Celi she knew at all.
“It was quite interesting for a while.”
Celi smiled faintly.
“I was quite satisfied.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Actually, I originally planned to leave quietly.”
“It's just that there's one thing that made me very uncomfortable.”
Snap.
She snapped her fingers.
In the next moment, Rosana's body abruptly froze.
As if bound tightly by an invisible rope.
Celi slowly stepped closer.
“Your acting... was way too boring.”
“W-What are you trying to do?! Stay away from me!”
“However, I'm in a good mood today.”
Celi revealed a gentle smile.
“So I'll only pull out one fingernail.”
“AAAAAAHHHHH!”
A blood-curdling scream instantly filled the dressing room.
...
“Did you enjoy today's outing, Your Highness Serena?”
“Outing?”
Second Princess Serena raised her eyes indifferently.
“What are you saying? I was serious.”
“Ah, my slip of the tongue.”
“In any case, help me find someone.”
“Who?”
“Among the foreigners who recently entered the empire, there is a black-haired man.”
Serena narrowed her eyes.
“He might be the prince of some unknown small country.”
“Once found, how do you intend to handle him?”
“Well...”
Serena fell silent for a moment.
Then, she flashed a meaningful smile.
“I don't know either.”
“However, I think...”
“That person is probably my first love.”
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