Chapter 35 The Silent Sorcerer - Lu Shi

Shaw kept his word and took Lu Shi to see a play the next day.

The two went to the Royal Opera House.

As they rode in the carriage, they heard the newsboy shouting outside, "Reissue of 'And Then There Were None'! Six chapters for one issue, great value for money!"

Only then did Lu Shi recall his previous discussion with Cooper about the reissue, but he had no idea which publishing house Cooper had contacted.

He asked the carriage to stop and pulled back the curtain.

"Kid, let me have a look."

To his dismay, the newsboy guarded the book tightly and said, "Sir, are your hands clean? Don't dirty my book! 'And Then There Were None' is being sold on consignment from the bookstore to me. If it gets dirty or damaged, I'll be heartbroken."

Lu Shi felt a bit frustrated. He was being looked down upon by the newsboy, a situation he found quite embarrassing.

Beside him, Shaw couldn't help but laugh and asked the newsboy, "How much for one issue?"

The newsboy replied, "Five pounds."

Six chapters for five pounds, more expensive than many textbooks. It was definitely a sky-high price.

Shaw looked slightly surprised as he took out money from his pocket.

The newsboy handed over the book.

"Here you go."

Shaw took the book, then suddenly realized, "Oh, it's from the Royal Publishing House. No wonder the price..."

Shaw was shocked.

The Royal Publishing House, also known as the Queen's Press, was clearly of official nature just from its name.

Indeed, the Royal Publishing House mainly published government official documents, reports, parliamentary papers, as well as books on agriculture, forestry, archaeology, history, art, education, industry, commerce, and medicine.

In short, the Royal Publishing House was a "legitimate" publishing house, almost never involved in novels or popular literature unless it was for collectors' editions, hardcover, embossed, and gilded, naturally priced high.

Shaw carefully handed the book to Lu Shi and then asked the newsboy, "You said this book sells well?"

The newsboy nodded.

"Very well. Better than 'Seaside Magazine.'"

Obviously, this was an exaggeration, but exaggeration had its power. If Dahl heard this, he would probably spit blood on the spot.

Shaw waved his hand, signaling the newsboy to leave. Then, turning to Lu Shi, he said, "Lu, my 'Widower's Estates' and 'The Profession of Mrs. Warren' were very popular and were even performed at the Royal Opera House."

This was said out of the blue, and Lu Shi didn't react for a moment.

"What?"

Shaw continued, "The Royal Opera House is London's most famous and one of the world's leading opera houses. Artists or troupes performing there are internationally renowned."

Lu Shi became even more puzzled.

After a while, he finally understood Shaw's underlying tone. Shaw was expecting 'And Then There Were None' to rely on the Royal Publishing House's reissue for great sales, so he boasted about his own glorious history for literary prestige.

Lu Shi couldn't help but recall a joke about Shaw:

Once, Shaw visited Soviet Russia and met a clever little girl on the street, playing with her. When they parted, Shaw said to her, "Tell your mother that you played with the world-famous Shaw today."

Unexpectedly, the little girl imitated Shaw's tone and said, "Tell your mother that you played with little girl Kaja today."

From this joke, it was easy to see that Shaw was quite vain.

Lu Shi suppressed his laughter and said, "So, are we going to watch 'Widower's Estates' or 'The Profession of Mrs. Warren' today?"

This sentence silenced Shaw for the second time today.

"..."

"..."

"..."

The carriage was quiet.

Lu Shi wanted to slap himself a few times. He felt like he had turned into "little girl Kaja."

Fortunately, the Royal Opera House wasn't far away, and the embarrassment didn't last long. The carriage soon arrived at its destination.

Shaw had bought box seats, and the two went up to the best seats on the second floor.

The play for today was 'Lady Windermere's Fan,' which told the story of Lady Windermere being unaware that her husband secretly supported and persistently invited Mrs. Erlynne, who turned out to be her divorced mother, to attend her birthday ball, triggering a series of chain reactions.

As soon as they sat down, Shaw began to analyze the play.

"Lu, that line was completely out of character. 'If you pretend to be a good person, others will take you seriously; if you pretend to be a bad person, others won't take you seriously.' Children wouldn't say something like that, would they?"

Lu Shi scratched his head. Shaw's attitude seemed unusually sharp.

He smiled and asked, "Shaw, isn't today's play by Mr. Wilde?"

Because Lu Shi knew that Shaw always opposed Wilde's "art for art's sake" viewpoint, he deliberately made this remark as a joke.

As a result...

Shaw: "..."

For the second time today, Shaw fell silent.

Was it really a play by Wilde!?

Lu Shi felt extremely depressed.

Onstage, the actress recited her lines in a translation tone, "Oh, my dear..."

It was a stark contrast to the quietness in the box.

After a while, Shaw said, "Although Wilde advocates aestheticism, he shows a critical attitude toward realism in his plays. There are many similarities between his plays and mine."

Shaw turned to Lu Shi.

"Lu, you probably know that you're also good at literary criticism and are likely adept at satire and criticism. If it were you writing, how would you approach it?"

Lu Shi pondered for a moment and asked Shaw, "Shaw, what do you think the purpose of the British government's defense policy is?"

Shaw was taken aback.

Weren't they discussing literature?

How did they suddenly switch to political topics?

He lowered his head and thought for a while before saying, "Of course, it's to defend Britain."

Lu Shi waved his hand.

"No, Shaw. The purpose of the defense policy is to make people 'believe' that the government is defending Britain."

Shaw looked puzzled.

"People? Who? The Germans?"

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Germany's strong threat seriously endangered British interests on the European continent and globally, making the Anglo-German contradiction the main contradiction in Europe, which was why Shaw mentioned Germany.

Lu Shi shook his head.

"Not the Germans! It's the British people! The Germans certainly know that Britain isn't being protected."

"Ha!"

Shaw burst into laughter.

"Brilliant satire! I didn't expect you, Lu Shi, to be able to write plays..."

Before he could finish, Shaw looked at Lu Shi with a shocked expression, as if he were seeing an alien.

"..."

For the third time today, Shaw fell silent.