Chapter 558: Goodbye Li Qingshan

Upon seeing the face, Chen Ling was uncharacteristically stunned."Li Qingshan??"Face-changing had always been Chen Ling's forte. He had seen countless people shocked by his seamless "face-tearing transformation," but he never expected to be the one shocked today. With a similar skill and identical technique, Chen Ling suddenly felt as if he were looking into a mirror.

"Brother Lin, you really don't hold back..." Li Qingshan said helplessly, feeling the pressure from the dark muzzle.

"What are you doing here? Wait... how did you recognize me?"Chen Ling suddenly recalled that when he had met Li Qingshan before, he was using the "Chen Ling" face, but now he was using "Chen Yan." Logically, even if Li Qingshan were here, he shouldn't have been able to recognize him. A sense of wariness immediately rose in his heart.

"At first, I didn't recognize you either, but back in Willow Town, I noticed a small blue flower on the corner of your opera robe," Li Qingshan explained truthfully. "I make most of my own opera robes, and I've repaired them using this method when they tore, so I remember these details very clearly... Even though your face doesn't match what I remember, the robe is definitely yours. So I figured you probably changed your face...But before I could even find you to confirm, you turned around and put a gun to my head."

Li Qingshan wiped the sweat from his forehead, seemingly quite startled by Chen Ling."Brother Lin, your anti-reconnaissance skills are truly abnormal."

Chen Ling was stunned for a long moment before finally accepting that the person in front of him was indeed Li Qingshan."It's really you?" Chen Ling asked, lowering his gun in surprise. "But... how are you here?"

"That's a long story," Li Qingshan said, leaning against the wall, a reminiscent look in his eyes."Our last meeting was probably in Willow Town? Yes, I remember receiving an invitation from the Nameless Performer and then listening to a performance of 'Picking the Slipper Cart.' But as I listened, I seemed to feel a vermilion star calling to me, and then I couldn't remember anything else...When I woke up, the stage was gone, the chairs were gone, and I was just sitting on a stone block, feeling like I'd been there for a long time... Later, I tried to find you, but I searched all of Willow Town and couldn't, so I figured you must have left."

Chen Ling also recalled the scene where his senior brothers had cleared out the stage and left Li Qingshan alone in the wilderness while he was still unconscious. His expression immediately became a little awkward.

"So, in the end, you successfully embarked on the Path of the Opera God?"

"Yes... I saw a divine path extending from the vermilion star to my feet, so I stepped onto it and learned some things," Li Qingshan said, pointing to his face with a slight smile."Brother Lin, now I can do the same things you can."

Chen Ling raised an eyebrow. "...That remains to be seen."

"Anyway, after that, I kept looking for you, and then the Huadu Consortium contacted me to sign a contract and bring me to the main city for development."

Chen Ling remembered. Li Qingshan had told him about this back then. After Chen Ling disrupted the Huadu Consortium's first "audition," Zong Wen specially sent a dedicated evaluation team from the main city. Both Li Qingshan and Liu Qingyan ultimately passed. However, when Chen Ling entered the Huadu Consortium as an envoy of the Golden Society, he only saw Liu Qingyan and found no trace of Li Qingshan.

"And then?"

"Then I signed... You know, I've always wanted to go to the main city to learn and perform opera; otherwise, I wouldn't have participated in so many selections for so many years." Li Qingshan's expression grew complex. "I had always heard that the main city was flourishing with a hundred flowers blooming, and many famous senior performers were here. But after arriving, I found things weren't as I imagined...Most of those seniors no longer took apprentices, and even if I wanted to learn, the Huadu Consortium's contract constantly restricted me. They scheduled countless performances for me every day. At that time, I sang for seven or eight hours daily, from morning till night, until my voice was hoarse. I felt like I had completely become their tool for making money.Furthermore, fewer and fewer people in the main city enjoyed listening to opera. No matter how much I sang, I couldn't earn much, and what little I did earn ended up in the Huadu Consortium's pockets. Eventually, I could barely afford food."

Chen Ling had witnessed the Huadu Consortium's exploitative methods and could imagine how miserable Li Qingshan's life must have been then.Although Liu Qingyan was also bound by a contract, her appearance and dancing were widely accepted by the public in the main city of Hongchen, setting trends. Li Qingshan, however, lacked this advantage. If Liu Qingyan represented the top tier of Hongchen entertainment at the time, Li Qingshan was undoubtedly at the bottom, without fame or wealth, merely a performance tool ruthlessly exploited by capital.

"It wasn't just me being exploited; seventy to eighty percent of the artists under the Huadu Consortium were in the same situation... I also made a few friends there, and we mostly supported each other through that difficult period.Later, the Huadu Consortium collapsed. I was lucky enough to be noticed by the Huang Consortium and signed a new contract with them, and life finally became a bit easier.However, a large portion of my friends were tricked into signing with the Beidou Consortium. The Beidou Consortium was even more outrageous; before signing, they spoke beautifully about high profit shares and such. It's true that the sharing percentage was higher after they joined, but they also set targets: you only got a share if you earned a certain amount. If you didn't earn enough money, according to the contract, you would owe the consortium money...In the past six months, not only have they not earned any money, but their debts have also increased, to the point where they've been forced to sell their ancestral homes in their hometowns. Some of them appealed to the relevant departments, but the people in those departments have long been colluding with Mu Chunsheng and simply don't care about their plight."

A rare flicker of anger appeared in Li Qingshan's eyes as he spoke in a deep voice,"Although this matter doesn't directly concern me, I can't bear to see them suffer like this... Like me, they simply love opera or performing. They came here to pursue their dreams and shouldn't be treated this way...So, I want to do something for them."

Hearing this, Chen Ling finally understood the full context of the situation.

Li Qingshan was inherently warm-hearted and had his own set of principles for doing things. When Chen Ling lost all his skills and fainted in the mountains, Li Qingshan, who had never met him before, unhesitatingly rescued him, took him home, cooked for him, and provided him with lodging. Such a person, if in ancient times, would certainly be worthy of being called a "gentleman."With his friends in dire straits, Li Qingshan ultimately chose to take a risk himself, seeking a way to free them from their predicament.

"So you infiltrated the Beidou Consortium..."

Li Qingshan opened his mouth, his voice involuntarily lowering, seemingly a bit embarrassed."I... I know this isn't ideal, but I want to find those contracts from the Beidou Consortium and then burn them all."