Chapter 39: The Chinese Magician

"Darling, I've managed to secure tickets for tomorrow's performance by Cheng Liansu's magic show. Let's go watch it together!" On that day, Nicole excitedly held two tickets and said to Monet.

Before his time-travel, Monet had watched a movie titled "The Prestige," which incorporated elements of the story and background from the experiences of Cheng Liansu. Therefore, he had some knowledge about him.

Cheng Liansu was a truly intriguing individual. Firstly, he was a "Chinese magician." The reason for the quotation marks was that he wasn't actually Chinese. However, he had consistently presented himself as a Chinese man. He not only claimed to be the child of a Scottish missionary residing in China and a Cantonese woman, but he also apprenticed under a Chinese magician named "A He," which led him to learn Chinese magic tricks.

What was most interesting was that he rarely spoke, both on stage and during interviews. Even when he did speak, it was with a heavy foreign accent and limited vocabulary (imagine the awkward accent of a foreigner just beginning to learn Chinese). Whenever he needed to communicate, he relied on an interpreter, though this was less about translation and more about assisting in his deceitful acts.

Additionally, he had a Chinese wife named "SUEE" who served as his assistant during performances. However, in reality, "SUEE" wasn't his wife, nor was she Chinese. (She was his mistress.)

In truth, Cheng Liansu's real name was William Robinson. He was an American, but he had started learning magic from a young age, studying under renowned magicians like Harry Keller and Alexander Herrmann.

When he first started his career, he was inspired by an Arabian-style German magician named Maximilian Oching. He adopted an Arabian-sounding stage name, "Akhmed bin Ali," but it didn't lead to success.

Later, upon seeing Zhu Liankui rise to fame, Cheng Liansu decided to carve his own path. He shaved his beard, changed his hairstyle, grew a braid, constructed a new persona, and returned to the stage. This move propelled him to stardom, even surpassing Zhu Liankui, becoming the most renowned magician in all of Europe and America, commanding the highest performance fees.

However, Zhu Liankui was indeed a legitimate Chinese magician. He had even performed for Empress Dowager Cixi, so his promotional materials in the West referred to him as the "Royal Magician." In the midst of the rampant Chinese Exclusion Act and discrimination against Chinese people in 1898, after Zhu Liankui's performance tour in the United States, he managed to stay in the country with the help of Colonel Hopkins from the American vaudeville organization. He secured the status of a performer rather than a laborer, a rare privilege at the time. He was also one of the few Chinese individuals selected for the official publication of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, "LINKING RING."

In 1905, as both of them were performing in London, Zhu Liankui saw through Cheng Liansu's identity. To expose him, Zhu challenged him. However, on the day of the challenge, Zhu didn't appear, leading to Cheng Liansu's victory without a fight and boosting his reputation further.

During the late 19th to early 20th centuries, it was a period of coexistence between science and superstition. People enjoyed the conveniences brought by technological advancements while still believing in the existence of souls and magic. Various performances related to mysticism, such as mind-reading, hypnosis, and seances, were highly popular.

In this context, Westerners developed a keen interest in Eastern philosophies and religions. The popularity of Chinese magicians, or performances with Chinese elements, during this time was due to this growing fascination.

Similarly, Western audiences of that era held various biases and stereotypes about Asians. Therefore, to convince them that you were genuinely Chinese, you needed to align your appearance with their standards.

Robinson accomplished this perfectly. He didn't care if the image he portrayed truly matched that of a Chinese person. He only aimed to present the version of a "Chinese person" that resonated with the Western perception.

For instance, his theatrical entrance involved descending onto the stage from above, a method known as the traditional "suspension." While the descending method itself wasn't unusual, he made sure his queue was raised upward, as if an invisible force from above was gripping his queue, pulling him downward. This kind of act, which might carry an insulting undertone for Chinese individuals, was something Zhu Liankui would never do. However, for impostors like Cheng Liansu, there was no psychological burden in performing it.

Just as Monet's mind was wandering, Nicole suddenly tugged at his sleeve and exclaimed excitedly, "Tony, look quickly! Cheng Liansu is about to perform his most incredible trick of catching a bullet with his mouth!"

The so-called "catching a bullet with the mouth" is actually quite simple in principle. His gun is modified; although the bullet is real, and the chamber is real, the gunpowder ignited by the trigger is situated in a different part of the gun, ensuring that the explosion doesn't affect the actual bullet.

The volunteer shooting the gun and the audience below can't perceive that the bullet wasn't fired. They only hear the explosion and see the flash of fire. Cheng Liansu then spits out a bullet from his mouth, which he had concealed beforehand, into a plate. This completes the miraculous "catching a bullet with the mouth" act, which indeed earned him a considerable sum of money. However, this act eventually became the cause of his demise. Unfortunately, Monet couldn't recall the exact year of this incident.

To enhance the exoticism and mystique, Cheng Liansu's performance incorporated a storyline. This time, he portrayed a prisoner wrongly sentenced to execution, while his assistant acted as a Boxer Rebellion member scorned for killing white people.

Normally, after the audience inspects the bullet, the gun, and even loads the bullet into the gun themselves, the assistant, in this case the "Boxer," shoots at Cheng Liansu. Subsequently, Cheng Liansu would catch the "fired" bullet with his mouth.

However, this time, Cheng Liansu didn't catch the bullet in his mouth. Instead, he spat out blood and cried out in standard American English, "Oh God, something's gone wrong! Lower the curtain, quickly!" Chaos ensued on the stage.

Witnessing this, Nicole exclaimed with surprise, "Huh? Is this Cheng Liansu's new trick?"

Monet immediately recalled the scene from his memories and stood up, shouting, "Quick, rush him to the hospital!"