Chapter 41: The Fish-Slapping Song Transporter
Rising Sun Theater.
The puppet master welcomed her favorite audience with open arms.
Night Star spent an entire afternoon watching Lotus perform puppet shows, thoroughly enjoying herself.
She instantly filled the gap in Lotus energy she had been missing all this time.
Lotus’s new adaptation of the puppet show was absolutely fantastic, her skills increasingly refined—no wonder she was the puppet master of the Rising Sun Theater Group.
As the day slipped unnoticed into dusk, Night Star, under the empathy from Night Lan, knew it was very late.
Just as Lotus finished a puppet show, Night Star gave her a round of applause.
Clap clap clap—
“The puppet master’s shows keep getting more and more exciting—the stories and performances have improved by leaps and bounds.”
“Heh heh, thank you for the praise. Actually, the last few puppet plays were adapted from scripts written by the playwright. If it weren’t for her solid story foundations, my puppets wouldn’t be nearly as captivating.”
From what Lotus said, she clearly enjoyed the scripts written by Book Yao.
With that, she wouldn’t need to spend so much time crafting her own stories anymore.
For someone without talent, making up stories was pure torture. Without inspiration, her tales would lack both substance and flair.
Good thing Lotus wasn’t great at storytelling either, so having a playwright to rely on saved them from running out of material for their puppet shows.
Except now, aside from puppet plays based on stories from her favorite Audience Performer, she didn’t want to repeat any others too often.
It wasn’t that she was fickle or anything; she just wanted Night Star to always see something new.
Repeating a show over and over would be so lazy and uncreative.
Even if Night Star didn’t mind, Lotus still wanted to keep things fresh for her, being responsible to her audience.
At this moment, Book Yao came back from the library with a book.
For some time now, Night Star had been studying drawing, leaving Book Yao to go to the library alone.
Seeing Book Yao return with a book, Night Star suddenly felt a bit guilty, like she had abandoned someone.
Book Yao saw Night Star in the audience and asked, “Feeling better?”
“Mmmhmm, I am.”
After releasing her emotions through painting, Night Star felt much better inside.
At least her sorrow had dissipated, and she was no longer stuck in the shadows.
As long as she looked at the portraits of the old theater members, Night Star’s heart could find solace.
For everyone else, it was ancient history, but for her, it was recent, something she had moved past. She grew because she faced it, let it go.
Book Yao noticed Night Star’s improvement and confirmed she was returning to her usual self.
“Is that so? That’s great! So, every night, we can go read together, right?”
“Yeah yeah!”
Watching Night Star and Book Yao chatting happily, Lotus pouted.
“Hmm… Playwright, taking away the audience while someone is performing is not nice.”
Even though Book Yao wrote many puppet scripts, this was one boundary she wouldn’t cross lightly.
Book Yao giggled.
“But isn’t the puppet master hogging the audience for the whole afternoon? We should share more fairly, seeing as the audience is for everyone, after all.”
Lotus found logic in Book Yao’s words.
She was a good kid and wouldn’t be so selfish as to take the audience all to herself.
“Alright then,” Lotus put away her puppets.
Without Book Yao’s reminder or Night Star’s intervention, Lotus might have just kept performing forever.
Fortunately, she was energetic enough to sustain it, though her stamina was impressive.
Then, Empty Rain White came back.
Seeing everyone there, she smiled and said, “I wrote a few new songs recently. Want to hear them?”
“New songs!”
Night Star’s eyes lit up with excitement, eager to hear them.
Especially someone as talented as Singing Songstress.
A world songstress’s new song? It had to be amazing!
Aside from Night Star, Lotus and Book Yao were also excited. Anyone with ears would enjoy a good tune.
Singing could evoke emotions strongly, providing comforting relief. A brand-new song was truly rare.
In the theater’s daily routine, it went like this: Lotus practiced puppet shows during the day, while Songstress performed at night, and Playwright mostly stayed in the library. Night Star did as she pleased, usually found around the theater.
Other members rarely showed up, appearing mostly only on weekends.
Or Playwright would present a new script, prompting Theater Leader to prepare for weekend performances.
This was the cyclical life of the theater.
The Songstress then ascended the stage, her voice ringing beautifully throughout the theater, ethereal and mesmerizing.
Night Star and company listened quietly, soon captivated by the haunting melody.
After a while, her voice ceased, followed immediately by a distinctly different song, another original composition.
That night, Singing Songstress was inspired, creating high-quality music for Night Star and her friends.
Hours passed, and finally, she stopped singing.
Night Star came back to her senses, still feeling awash in song.
“These songs are amazing!”
Songstress smiled gently at Night Star’s excited expression.
“These are all your songs, Night Star. Release them online for everyone to enjoy.”
“Huh? Again?”
“Who else can do it? The Starry Sky Songstress~”
“Hmm… alright then. Though I probably need some practice before mastering them…”
“No rush, I’m patient. Once these are posted online, the name ‘Starry Sky Songstress’ will definitely gain more traction. Maybe soon, you’ll be neck-and-neck with the current World Songstress in terms of popularity.”
“Hmmm… the current World Songstress…”
Night Star’s mind drifted to Qing Liao.
She wondered how her friend was doing.
World Songstress seemed incredibly busy, touring across countries—truly a superstar.
Despite her massive fanbase, the pressure must be immense.
While Night Star trusted Empty Rain White’s quality, comparing her to Qing Liao was premature.
After all, a web singer couldn’t match the global popularity of someone like Qing Liao.
So dreaming of catching up was pointless.
All Night Star wanted was to be a simple song remixer, casually posting covers, living her quiet life.
