(Hey, at this point, some readers might ask: Why didn't you, the author, write out the preceding and subsequent events? Because Shen He, the older brother of Shen Lian from the Imperial City Envoy, exerted his influence, and this humble young woman is truly powerless against it! Oh, the absolute power of imperial authority!)
This morning in Jiangning City revealed a bizarre atmosphere. Before the fog had completely dispersed, a polarized spectacle appeared on the streets.
The noble lords and wealthy merchants who used to strut around with their heads held high were all sporting dark circles under their eyes today, looking completely dejected.
Their faces were deathly pale, their footsteps unsteady, and their eyes vacant, clearly having suffered a heavy blow.
On the contrary, the ladies who usually never stepped out of their front doors were all glowing with health and full of energy today.
Even through the sedan curtains, one could hear them humming little tunes. Their jubilant spirit showed just how delighted they were.
"This world has changed..."
In the Hao Zailai Teahouse, the waiter shook his head as he wiped the tables and watched the scene on the street.
The main hall was already packed with people. All the tea drinkers stretched their necks, looking at the storyteller behind the desk with eyes full of anticipation.
Smack! The gavel struck the desk heavily.
The storyteller, who just yesterday was holding a folding fan and mocking the Xu family for being money-crazy, wore a completely shaken expression today.
He didn't dare wave his fan. Instead, he cupped his tea bowl with both hands and took a large gulp, finally managing to suppress his trembling voice.
"Everyone! Honored guests!"
The storyteller wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. His voice was kept very low, revealing a sense of awe.
"Yesterday, this old man was blind. That wasn't the opening of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion; it was clearly the consecration of a Spider Demon Cave! That Scholar Xu is no jade-faced gentleman; he is the Black and White Guards of Death sent specifically to Jiangning City to steal souls!"
Someone in the audience couldn't help but jeer, "Old Man Zhang, stop keeping us in suspense! What exactly happened last night? I heard that Scholar Xu stripped off his clothes in public?"
"Stripped off his clothes?"
The storyteller sneered, his eyes full of worldly weariness.
"If he had actually taken them off, it would have just been a low-class display of lust. But his brilliance lies in the fact that he didn't take them off!"
"Ah? He didn't take them off?"
The audience was in an uproar; someone even almost threw their melon seed shells at him.
"If he didn't take them off, what were those women screaming about?"
"That's what you call a tactic!"
The storyteller stood up, mimicking Xu Zijin's actions from last night. He placed one hand on his waist, leaned back slightly, and put on an expression of half-hearted refusal.
"Right at the moment the lights went out, Young Master Xu's fingers lightly rested on the buckle of his belt. He didn't even unfasten it; he just loosened it by about an inch!"
He held out two fingers, gesturing a very small distance.
"Just this one inch! Do you all know how much silver this one inch is worth?"
The entire hall was dead silent.
The storyteller held up five fingers and waved them vigorously in the air.
"Fifty thousand taels! In that single moment, the gold and silver jewelry, bank notes, and land deeds thrown onto the stage added up to a full fifty thousand taels! That's several lifetimes of blood, sweat, and tears from the men of Jiangning!"
"Hiss!"
The sound of sharp intakes of breath echoed through the teahouse. A few tea-drinking men trembled so much that they spilled boiling hot tea all over their crotches and forgot to even cry out.
Fifty thousand taels? Just to watch a man loosen his belt? Were these women crazy?!
"But that wasn't the end of it!"
The storyteller looked at everyone's horrified expressions with satisfaction. He changed the subject, a wicked smile appearing on his face.
"After this madness came the reckoning. Early this morning, the famously pedantic retainer of the Zhao family, leading a bunch of old scholars who consider themselves saints, blocked the entrance of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion, their beards trembling with anger."
"They demanded that County Princess Xu give them an explanation, cursing her for inciting lust and theft, disrupting the moral order, and corrupting all the female family members in Jiangning!"
Someone in the audience clapped and cheered, "Well said! Such a wicked woman should be drowned in a pig cage!"
"Hehe, drowned in a pig cage?"
The storyteller shot a glance at the waiter nearby.
The waiter had clearly rehearsed this beforehand. He immediately tossed his rag over his shoulder, put his hands on his hips with fingers pinched delicately, and pitched his voice high to play the part of the troublemaking pedantic scholar.
Meanwhile, the storyteller snapped his folding fan open, leaned back, and put on a rogue's expression, looking exactly like Xu Qinghuan possessed him.
Right in the middle of the main hall, the two publicly reenacted the shouting match that had occurred at the entrance of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion earlier that morning.
The waiter hopped forward a step, pointed at the storyteller's nose, and trembled with rage:
"You shameless wicked woman! Using such despicable methods to bewitch people's minds, causing women from good families to stay out all night and squander their money! Today, I must represent the sages and the elders of Jiangning to condemn you to death!"
The storyteller, however, looked completely indifferent.
He slowly stuck his pinky finger in his ear to clean it, then blew on his finger and gave the pedantic scholar a sidelong glance and a sneer.
"Heh, wicked woman?"
The waiter became even more energetic: "What? You still dare to argue? Look at how the morals of this entire city have been ruined by you!"
The storyteller's face suddenly darkened, a rogueish aura bursting forth instantly. He stepped forward, getting right up to the tip of the waiter's nose.
"I am your mother!"
The main hall instantly fell silent. Everyone was dumbfounded. What kind of insult was this?
The waiter also looked bewildered. According to the script, he had to show extreme shock at this moment.
"What?! This is simply an insult to decency! An insult to decency!"
The waiter jumped up and down, yelling, "You are clearly a woman, and so young at that, how could you be my mother?! Are you crazy!"
The storyteller lifted his chin, righteously pointed at his own nose, and spoke with a voice loud enough to shake the roof beams:
"If I say I am your mother, then I am your mother!"
"You're talking nonsense! Where is the evidence? Where is the proof?"
The waiter was red in the face and thick in the neck with anger.
The storyteller spread his hands, revealing an extremely punchable smile.
"This is the Hundred Flowers Pavilion, my territory."
"Once you enter the Hundred Flowers Pavilion, everyone wears a mask, and no one knows anyone else. All beings are equal, gender is determined by the heart, and identity is whatever you please."
"Here, if I say I am your mother, then I am your mother."
"You say I'm not?"
The storyteller pressed forward step by step, his eyes full of contempt.
"Fine, show me the evidence! How can you prove I'm not your mother!?"
"Do you have a blood test certificate? Can you dig your long-buried biological mother out of her grave and confront me face-to-face?"
The waiter was left speechless, his face flushed red as he stammered for a long time: "This... this... is absurd! He who asserts must prove, this principle..."
"Bullshit principle!"
The storyteller waved his sleeve, directly interrupting him.
"Here, if I say you are a grandson, you are a grandson. Can't prove otherwise? If you can't prove it, how dare you talk back to your mother?"
"Unfilial descendant, get lost!"
"Pfft, hahaha!"
The teahouse instantly erupted into roars of laughter.
The tea drinkers laughed until they bent forward and backward, some slapping the tables, others clutching their stomachs.
This completely unreasonable rogue logic, which reversed the burden of proof, had actually smashed that entire defensive line of traditional etiquette to pieces.
"Brilliant! County Princess Xu's mouth could probably anger a dead person back to life!"
"I'm your mother? Hahaha, from now on, I'll use that to scold those pedantic scholars too!"
However, just as the crowd was still savoring that domineering word "mother," the expression of the shop assistant playing the pedantic scholar suddenly changed.
He didn't exit the stage. Instead, he pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his chest, instantly switching from the role of a pedantic scholar to a panicked steward.
He dropped to his knees with a thud. This time, it wasn't acting. He let out a miserable wail directed at a fat, wealthy merchant who was laughing heartily in the audience.
"Master! Disaster! It's a disaster!"
The fat merchant was in the middle of a good laugh, having not even spat out the melon seed shells in his mouth, when he was startled by this shout.
"You bastard! Can't you see your master is listening to a story? What are you panicking for? Is the house on fire? Or is the Madam ill?"
The assistant cried, his face covered in snot and tears, holding up the piece of paper with both hands.
"The Madam isn't ill! She's full of energy! When she came back last night, her face was flushed, even more energetic than on your wedding night!"
Hearing this, the fat merchant's heart instantly skipped a beat.
"It's just..."
The assistant swallowed hard, his voice trembling.
"It's just that when Young Master Xu took his curtain call last night, in order to beg him for one more look and smile, the Madam took the deed to our largest silk shop in the south of the city..."
"Along with the three thousand taels of silver you hid in the secret compartment under the bed, and threw it all on stage as a reward!!"
"Now the people from the Xu family are taking the deed to the magistrate's office to transfer the ownership! Just now, this humble one saw Steward Li leading people to take down the signboard of our shop! Please go and take a look quickly!!"
With that shout, the teahouse fell into a dead silence.
The thunderous laughter from moments ago came to an abrupt halt.
The teacup in the fat merchant's hand crashed to the ground, shattering into pieces.
His mouth hung wide open, his eyes practically bulging out of their sockets, and a strange gurgling sound came from his throat.
"My... my shop?"
"My secret stash of money?!"
Immediately after, not knowing who reacted first, someone shouted:
"Oh no! My wife wasn't home last night either!!"
"My pawn ticket is still under my pillow!!"
"My house deed!!!"
In an instant, the men who had been watching the fun turned deathly pale.
The teahouse descended into chaos; tables were overturned, and stools were kicked aside.
Those usually respectable gentlemen were now rushing madly toward the door.
"Quick! Go home! Hurry home and check!"
"You spendthrift woman! That was my coffin money!"
Overnight, the Hundred Flowers Pavilion was no longer a post-dinner joke.
It had become a place that swallowed the wealth of the men of Jiangning, while driving the women crazy.
What was a hundred taels for an entrance fee?
Compared to the deeds and secret stashes of money flying everywhere, it was simply a drop in the bucket!
Just as the whole city was in chaos and the men were wailing to the heavens.
A blue cloth carriage was parked quietly at the back door of the Hundred Flowers Pavilion.
The Second Prince still wore that comical smiling mask, holding a glazed invitation card that hadn't been sent out last night.
Through the gap in the carriage curtains, he looked at the chaotic streets outside and the men going crazy over silver.
"I am your mother?"
The Second Prince muttered these words softly, the light in his eyes growing brighter.
"Heh, this woman truly has no taboos. She can even say such outrageous things and leave those old pedants speechless."
"Interesting, too interesting."
Twirling the glazed invitation in his hand, he ordered the guard beside him:
"Go and find out for me exactly which rock this Xu Qinghuan popped out from. This is the first time in my life someone has taken such verbal advantage of me, and I couldn't even refute it."
"It seems I'll have to go and acknowledge some family ties too."
(So happy! I finally finished today's chapter, still a massive update as usual. I hope you darlings will urge for more updates, leave lots of comments, and write reviews!
Also, we might hit the top 3 on the ranking tomorrow!
Goodnight~)
