Chapter 24 Opening Night I: The Beginning

London, October 13th and 14th, 1886 Opening day, or should I say opening night, was spectacular.All the details were carefully arranged, and a large crowd gathered outside the garden as early as sunset. When they were finally allowed in, their eyes widened; and as they wandered from tent to tent, they opened still wider. All the elements of the circus are subtly integrated into one.Skills trained in different continents and countries are performed in adjacent tents, seamlessly connected with each other.Every garment, every pose, every gesture in every tent is more perfect than the last. The air itself is very pleasant, fresh, refreshing and cool, and the pervasive aroma and sound lure tourists one after another to enter.

At midnight, the campfire was ceremoniously lit, after it had stood for most of the night like a simple twisted iron statue. At the beginning, twelve flame performers stood on twelve platforms distributed along the surrounding like clock figures, and quietly entered the venue.At exactly one minute before midnight, they stepped down the platform at the same time, drawing glowing bows and arrows from their backs.Thirty seconds before midnight they ignite the arrow with a dancing little yellow flame.Those in the crowd who hadn't noticed them before all stared blankly at this moment.Ten seconds before midnight, they raised their bows and aimed their flaming arrows at the deep well shaped like a coil of iron.When the clock near the entrance began to strike, the first archer let go, and the arrow whizzed over the heads of the crowd, hitting its target in a shower of sparks.

The campfire burst into yellow flames in an instant. Immediately after the second chime, the second archer shot his arrow into the yellow flame, which turned a clear sky blue. The third sound, the third arrow, and the flames turned a warm bright pink. The fourth arrow was followed by a golden flame like a ripe pumpkin. The fifth arrow, the flame is scarlet. The sixth is a deep and shiny dark red. Seventh, the light of the fire seems to be immersed in fiery wine red. Eighth, the flame is flickering violet. Ninth, the violet turns into indigo. The tenth chime, the tenth arrow, and the campfire turned a deep midnight blue.

At the penultimate sound, the jumping flames turned from blue to black, making it difficult to distinguish the flames from the iron pot. At the last sound, the black flame was replaced by blazing white light, and a shower of sparks fell around it like snowflakes.Puffs of white smoke curled up into the night sky. The audience was thrown into an uproar.Those who had considered leaving decided to stay a little longer and comment enthusiastically on the change in firelight, and those who didn't witness it could hardly believe what they heard from others hours later. People wandered among the tents, wandering slowly along the endless paths that circled each other.Some people just go in no matter what tent they pass by; the more refined people choose to step into the tent after carefully studying the notices.Some people find a particular shed intoxicating, and spend the whole evening there.When customers stand next to each other in the square, they will give advice to each other, pointing out which wonderful tents they have visited.Suggestions are always welcome, although those who take them are often distracted by other sheds before they find the one recommended.

As the dawn comes quietly, it is really difficult to send the lingering customers out of the venue.Only by repeatedly promising to come back after the sun goes down can their hearts be appeased. All in all, opening night was a real hit. It was just a little accident, some kind of unexpected event.No customer noticed, and many of the performers didn't know until the end of the day. Just before sunset, while everyone was busy making final preparations (adjusting costumes, melting caramel), the bobcat trainer's wife was suddenly in labor.Before she was pregnant with Liujia, she had been serving as her husband's assistant.Since she was unable to attend, the performance was subtly adjusted, and Lynx seemed restless.

She is a few weeks away from expecting twins.People joked afterwards that maybe the twins just didn't want to miss opening night. They brought the doctor before the circus opened to the public, and discreetly and discreetly escorted her backstage to deliver the baby (which was much easier than sending her to the hospital). Six minutes before midnight, Winston.Ayton.Murray was born. Seven minutes after midnight, sister Penelope.Aislin.Murray then came into the world. When the news came, Chandrash.Christopher.Lefevre was slightly disappointed that they were not identical twins.He had already imagined the various roles that the identical twin children would play in the circus when they were old enough.The fraternal twins lacked the dramatic tension he had expected, but Marco still had to arrange for two large bouquets of red roses to congratulate.

The babies are small, with bright red hair with amazing volume, and a pair of big blue eyes that complement each other perfectly.They hardly cried and were always awake and alert. The baby girl was wrapped in white silk and satin cloth, and the baby boy was completely dressed in black. Taking advantage of the gap between performances, the circus performers came in one after another to visit them and hugged them in turn.Regarding the fact that they really knew how to choose the timing of their birth, everyone inevitably talked about it.Everyone said they definitely fit in with the environment, except for their hair.It was suggested that they could wear a hat to cover up their hair before they were old enough to dye it.Others said that the shocking blush was so much more vibrant than their mother's auburn hair, that the idea of ​​using dye to cover it was absurd.

This is an auspicious color.Yuezi commented, but refused to elaborate on the meaning.She kissed the twins on the forehead, then folded a string of paper cranes to hang over the cradle. As dawn approached, the circus gradually emptied out, and someone pushed the two of them around the tent and the atrium, apparently to let them sleep peacefully.Yet they stared awake at the lights, at the stripes on the costumes and tents; for a baby only a few hours old, they were surprisingly alert. Only when the morning sun rose did they finally close their eyes and fall asleep side by side in the black cast iron cradle.Despite being born prematurely, the cradle with its striped blanket was ready and waiting.The cradle had been a gift from a few weeks ago, but without a card or note.The Murrays assumed it was a gift from Chandrash, but when they thanked him, he said he had no idea what they were talking about.

Despite the dubious origin of the cradle, the twins love it. Afterwards, no one could remember who was the one who gave them the translation of Bobby and Weggy.Just like giving away the cradle, no one takes credit for the translation of the name. But those nicknames just stuck around, nicknames always do.