Chen Weiwan understood, picked up the celadon teacup, and pretended to accidentally splash the warm water onto the word "rain" on the memorial. "Ouch!" she exclaimed, pointing at the smudged ink, the water stain spreading across the rice paper. "Taifu, look, this word 'rain' looks like a lotus flower after being blurred by the water!"

The Grand Tutor was about to lose his temper, but upon hearing this, he squinted his eyes and took a closer look. Sure enough, he saw the ink characters blurred into two lotus shadows leaning against each other. He suppressed his anger, his goatee twitching as he said, "It's quite... unique."

"What a brilliant 'tea-spilling-ink trick'!" the emperor clapped his hands in praise, his dragon boots tapping out a drumming beat on the blue bricks. "It's both venting and elegant. Brilliant!"

Before class ended, Shen Weiwan held out a notebook with a gilded cover. A smiley face with its tongue sticking out was painted in cinnabar on the cover, with a drop of ink at the corner of its mouth. "Your Majesty, this is a special copy of 'The Imperial Secret Book of Tricks,' which I made. It contains thirty clever tricks to avoid damaging the relationship."

The emperor flipped open the title page and saw a cartoon smiling face wearing a crown on the first page. Next to it, in crooked small characters, were the words "It's better to cheat people than to cheat fun." He grinned so hard his beard arched like a bridge. "Very good! I appoint you 'Palace Cheating Consultant,' with a monthly stipend of... ten kilograms of premium osmanthus candy!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Shen Weiwan's eyes were as bright as stars. Thinking of herself in her previous life when she couldn't even eat a piece of candy in the snow, her nose suddenly felt sore and she quickly lowered her head to cover it with the corner of her sleeve.

By the time class ended, the setting sun had dyed the window lattices red. The emperor, holding Xiao Yu's hand, walked through the moonlit gate. His dragon robe swept past the cactus in the corner, its thorns catching the bright yellow tassels. "Yu'er, you've married a treasure!" He pointed at Shen Weiwan, who was chatting and laughing with the Taifu's wife in the distance. She was gesturing with joy, the glass hairpin in her hair gleaming with colorful lights. "That brain is more useful than my entire think tank combined!"

Xiao Yu looked at Shen Weiwan and saw that her cheeks were slightly flushed with excitement, just like the newly opened peach blossoms in the corner of the courtyard: "Your Majesty is right, I also feel like I have found a treasure."

"Your Highness!" Shen Weiwan came bounding over, waving the gilded sugar jar awarded by the emperor. The aroma of sweet-scented osmanthus sugar oozing from the jar made Chuntao drool. "Your Majesty said that all the cheating jobs in the palace will be handed over to me from now on!"

Xiao Yu smoothed her wind-twisted bangs and rubbed his fingertips against the ink dot on the tip of her nose, which had been splashed when she dropped the pen. "Got it, my 'Palace Trickster Consultant.'"

"Then can you give me ten more kilograms of osmanthus candy tonight?" She tilted her face upwards, her eyelashes casting butterfly-wing-like shadows in the twilight, making the stars in her eyes shine even brighter.

"You're such a money-grubber." Xiao Yu sighed helplessly, but took her hand and walked towards Tinglan Courtyard, his fingertips tracing the calluses on her palms—marks from sword practice. "I'll make you as much sugar-coated steamed cheese as I can when I get home."

The two walked side by side on a path covered with peach blossoms. Shen Weiwan suddenly stopped and pointed at the sunset in the sky: "Your Highness, look, does that cloud look like your Majesty's goatee?"

Xiao Yu looked in the direction she pointed. The sunset glowed bright yellow, and the clouds were wispy and wispy. They really looked like the emperor's beard curling up when he laughed. "It looks more like the auspicious clouds in your painting 'Thirty-Six Strategies to Trick People.'"

"No!" Chen Weiwan stamped her feet, peach petals falling from her hair. "Tomorrow I will teach Your Majesty the 'Imperial Garden Fake Snake Strategy'. I will place a straw snake on the path that the Prime Minister must pass through—"

"Stop." Xiao Yu pinched her cheek, the skin beneath his fingertips delicate and warm. "If you think of any more crooked ideas, I'll have you thrown into the 'School of Tricksters' for self-reflection."

"I'm not afraid!" She stuck out her tongue, but shrank into his arms, inhaling the crisp cedar scent on him. "I only cheat bad people. Someone as good as His Highness... of course I'm meant to be pampered!"

Xiao Yu chuckled softly and held her tighter, his dark brocade robe draped over the hem of her moon-white skirt. The setting sun's golden glow fell on their clasped hands, stretching their shadows into two long streaks, like a pair of silhouettes painted side by side on the blue bricks. Chuntao's voice, calling for dinner, mingled with the sweet aroma of steamed cheese wafting from the kitchen, making Shen Weiwan's stomach growl.

She leaned on Xiao Yu's shoulder, watching the sun sink lower into the horizon, and mentally pondered the content of her lesson for tomorrow's lecture to the emperor. Perhaps she could try the "Imperial Kitchen Salt Pot Scheme" and add three times as much salt to the Prime Minister's ginseng soup? Or perhaps the "Beads Wrapping Hair Scheme" and get his beads tangled in the spiderwebs on the beams?

At this moment in the "Subtle School of Tricks", the wife of the Grand Tutor was practicing the "sugar hiding technique in the sleeve" in front of a bronze mirror, her jade bracelet repeatedly hitting the secret pocket of her sleeve; the Imperial Censor was sneezing wildly in the courtyard, startling the swallows nesting under the eaves; and in the direction of the palace, the Emperor was holding the "Royal Secret Book of Tricks" and laughing so hard that even the eunuchs could hear him muttering "Tomorrow I will use the 'tea and ink trick' to deal with that old Prime Minister", with his saliva splashing on the title page of "It is better to cheat people than to cheat fun".

The wind from the capital, carrying the scent of peach blossoms, swept over the eaves of the General's Mansion, spreading the bizarre story of the Emperor's admission to the school throughout the streets and alleys. A vendor selling candied haws (candied fruit) coined a new lyric: "Dean Weiwan is truly amazing. Even the Emperor wants to learn from her. Hiding candied peanuts in her sleeves, she tricks the Prime Minister into smiling!" From then on, "Weiwan School of Tricksters" became the most magical place in the Dasheng Dynasty—from the emperor to the common people, everyone was proud to receive Dean Shen's "true teachings of trickery."

And the creator of all this, Shen Weiwan, held the Seventh Prince's hand in the sunset, her smile sweeter than honey. Looking down at their intertwined shadows, she suddenly felt that this "silly sculpture" life had only just begun, and those who had once bullied her had long since become the most worthless jokes in her "School of Tricks." As for the future? She looked up at Xiao Yu, seeing the sunset and her own image reflected in his eyes, and knew that the days ahead would be full of twists and turns, fun, and sweetness.