The dusk was as dark as ink, smudged the capital's eaves and brackets into varying shades of indigo. On the second floor of the Yuelai Teahouse in the west of the city, however, the lights were ablaze. Twenty eight-person tables were packed to the brim. Tea drinkers cracked melon seeds, and the clatter of their tea bowls against the tabletops mingled with the cacophony of chatter, echoing through the carved wooden beams. The blue-robed storyteller, Blind Wang, spat on the wake-up block. His bony fingers tapped the mottled pearwood podium, and the clamor in the room suddenly froze in mid-air.

"Let's tell a new story today!" Blind Wang opened his folding fan with a "swish". On the fan were written the four words "Thief in the Boudoir" in cinnabar. The ink was smudged and crooked, just like a child's scribbles.

"Which young lady is Blind Wang going to gossip about next?" The porter in the front row, wearing a coarse cloth jacket, knocked his pipe against the table leg, revealing his yellow and black teeth.

Blind Wang rolled his eyes—his left eye was already covered with a black cloth, making the action seem particularly comical. "I'll scare you to death if I tell you! The second young lady of the General's Mansion, Shen Ruorou!"

In the corner, Chuntao's fingers gripping the handkerchief suddenly tightened, twisting the edges into a knot. Across from her, Shen Weiwan used the lid of her teacup to scoop up the foam. The celadon bowl reflected the corners of her eyes in the twilight. She tapped the tea stains on the edge of the table with her fingertips. "What are you panicking about? Let's see what he says."

"That Second Miss Shen," Blind Wang thrust his folding fan at his waist, gesturing with his hands, "she had willow-shaped eyebrows and cherry lips, and the wind would blow her down as she walked down the street, but who knew she was so full of twists and turns! The other day at noon, she spotted her eldest sister, Shen Weiwan, going to burn incense, and then she tiptoed into the west wing like a thief!"

"You're lying!" the old man selling candied haws in the back row leaned his shoulder pole against the wall. "How could a princess from the General's Mansion do such a dirty thing?"

"Don't be so anxious, old man!" Blind Wang slammed the podium so hard it startled the sparrows nesting on the beams. "When Miss Shen came back looking for the jade bracelet, she'd rummaged through the yard, crying in desperation—and guess what? Her big yellow dog," he deliberately lowered his voice, then suddenly raised it an octave, "ran out of the woodshed with the bracelet in its mouth! It was still covered in golden dog hair, exactly the same as the one that fell out of the second young lady's trunk!"

"Hahaha!" The whole place erupted in laughter. One tea drinker slammed his hands on the table, spilling the tea from his bowl onto his neighbor's collar. A young man in a satin jacket was laughing so hard he collapsed back and forth: "So, to catch thieves in the general's mansion, we need a dog?"

"That's right!" Blind Wang spat. "The second young lady was blocked in the courtyard, her face redder than the Kitchen God, and she tried to argue, 'I kept her because I was afraid my sister would learn bad things.' But then the eldest young lady produced the jade contract with the word 'Wan' engraved on it, and the third elder was so angry that he pounded the ground with his cane! In the end, she was dragged away, beaten with twenty boards, and thrown into the woodshed to feed the mosquitoes!"

Chuntao burst out laughing, startling the cat at the next table onto the windowsill. Chen Weiwan covered her mouth with the teacup lid, her knuckles turning white from stifling laughter. She had deliberately asked Chuntao to give her two extra coins, and indeed, Blind Wang had recounted the details of the "dog carrying stolen goods" incident with vividness, even down to the way the big yellow dog wagged its tail.

"There's something even more outrageous!" Blind Wang became even more excited when he saw the copper coins thrown by the tea guests piled up on the podium. "The second young lady is locked up in the woodshed and still not being honest. She secretly asked her maid Xiaolian to slip money to the gatekeeper, hoping to make up a lie to accuse the eldest young lady - hey! As soon as she handed the small change over, she was caught red-handed by the eldest young lady's personal maid Chuntao!" He suddenly imitated Chuntao's gesture of putting her hands on her hips, "Miss Chuntao said: 'The second young lady wants to hire someone to throw dirty water? First ask the account book in our young lady's hand if it agrees!'"

"Great!" the tea drinkers clapped their hands on the table and cheered. One man in shorts laughed so hard he slapped his thigh: "This Miss Chuntao is amazing! She's a hundred times better than the second young lady!"

Blind Wang wiped his sweat with pride and put away the wake-up stick: "To know what happened next, wait and see tomorrow!"

Chen Weiwan winked at Chuntao, who immediately stepped forward and slipped two ingots of silver, each weighing five taels, into the purse at Blind Wang's waist. Blind Wang weighed the weight, his eyes rolling beneath the black cloth as his wrinkled face smirked. "Don't worry, young lady! Tomorrow I'll definitely add a segment about 'The Second Young Lady Steals Chickens and Loses Rice,' and compose a jingle for the children to sing!"

As they stepped out of the teahouse, the night breeze, carrying the aroma of sugar-roasted chestnuts, wafted towards them. Seventh Prince Xiao Yu leaned against the vermilion pillar of the tavern across the street, his moon-white robe lifted in the breeze, the jade belt buckle at his waist gleaming faintly in the lantern light. "Miss Shen's 'marketplace hype' is even more powerful than the memorials from the throne room," he said.

Shen Weiwan kicked the stone at her feet, and the stone rolled into the gutter: "Your Highness, please forgive me for laughing. I just want to let the people know some 'truth'."

"The truth?" Xiao Yu took two steps closer, the aroma of cedar mixed with a hint of wine. "This prince is curious, how was the scene with the big yellow dog holding the bracelet choreographed?"

"It's just a hungry dog, holding the bracelet in its mouth to look for food." Shen Weiwan blinked, her eyelashes casting fan-shaped shadows under the lantern. "What's important is the result - she stole something, didn't she?"

Before she finished speaking, a cry suddenly erupted from the alley next to her. Shen Weiwan raised her eyebrows and looked over to see four rough servants surrounding and kicking a little maid with disheveled hair. It was Shen Ruorou's personal maid, Xiaolian.

"Little bitch! How dare you steal the master's monthly salary!"

"Are you trying to bribe the storyteller for the second young lady? You're throwing dirty water on the eldest young lady!"

Chuntao recognized the maid from the General's Mansion and hurried in to ask. When she returned, she had a half-smile on her face: "Miss, Xiaolian took the small change that the Second Miss had saved and tried to bribe Blind Wang to speak ill of you. But just as she handed over the money, she was caught by the maid who was patrolling the courtyard."

Shen Weiwan chuckled at the words, and her fingertips gently stroked the cracks on the corridor column: "Oh? She is persistent."

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