The morning mist in the Prince's Palace clung like a thin veil, tangling between the branches of the pomegranate tree and lingering on the braids of Kengkeng and Wawawa, forming tiny droplets of water. The two little ones rushed into the main room, their wooden clogs clacking against the blue brick floor, startling the sparrows pecking at rice in the corridor. Kengkeng clutched a grease-stained purse tied with a straw string, which shimmered with tiny silver glints as he ran. Wawawa held a broken-end peach wood hairpin, half a dried osmanthus cake still clinging to the tip.

"Mom! Dad!" Kenkeng threw the purse onto the rosewood table. The moment the rope broke, broken silver and copper coins poured down like a waterfall, piling up into a small hill on the table. A few copper coins rolled to Xiao Yu's feet and hit his shiny court boots.

Shen Weiwan was standing on tiptoe, adjusting Xiao Yu's jade belt, when she heard a noise and turned back. The jade hairpin in her hand clattered to the ground. Her pupils constricted as she stared at the silvery light on the floor. "Where did the money come from? Did you steal the jade ring your father hid under the bed and pawn it?"

Xiao Yu lowered his head to look at the edge of the ten-liang silver note sticking out of his purse. His ink-black cuffs embroidered with a golden python pattern suddenly rose up, and his knuckles tapped on the table: "Tell me! Are you out there swindling people on the street again?" He had just been impeached by the censor this morning for setting up stalls outside the private school for the young masters of the Seventh Prince's Mansion. Seeing the bag of silver now, his temples began to throb.

Wa Wa stood on tiptoe and poked the peach wood hairpin under Xiao Yu's eyelids. Her childish voice was full of pride: "I earned it with the itching powder grandma gave me! The fat boy from Minister Li's family gave me the money!" The crumbs of candy and cake on the hairpin fell on Xiao Yu's brand new brocade court robes.

At noon three days ago, the sun blazed hot against the bluestone slabs outside the private school. Keng Keng and Wawa squatted in the shade of a locust tree, setting up a small stall with a tattered mat. Next to them stood a crooked wooden sign, inscribed in cinnabar: "Keng's Itching Powder—Works Immediately." The young master of Li Shangshu's family passed by, a mournful expression on his face, a ruler mark still on his forehead. "Teacher, you're so cruel! You tore my kite yesterday..."

Kenkeng immediately pulled out an oil-paper bag from his bosom. The grass scraps inside gave off a strange fragrance. "Ten taels of silver for a bag. Sprinkle them on the cushion, sir. I guarantee he'll be so itchy that he'll jump around like a monkey!" He shook his greasy little hands, and there were traces of yesterday's mud play in the cracks of his nails.

The young master hesitated, holding his purse in his hand. "Can it really make him so itchy that he can't focus on teaching?"

Wawa raised the broken-end peach wood hairpin, which was the "scepter" she made from Chen Weiwan's old hairpin yesterday: "Ten times the compensation if it's fake! My mother said, you'll get plenty of itching powder, and if it doesn't work, I'll refund it!" She shook the hairpin, and the crumbs of candy cake fell into the pitted collar.

Yesterday evening, Master Li came to the door with a heavy purse in his hand, and with a red face, stuffed a hundred taels into Kenkeng's pocket: "It's so effective! The teacher scratched my buttocks for half the class, and my beard was scratched crooked. The whole class laughed like crazy!" The servant behind him was still holding back his laughter, and his shoulders were shaking like sieves.

Chen Weiwan clapped her hands in admiration when she heard this, and the hem of her skirt swept across the copper coins on the ground, making a crisp sound: "Great, you guys! You can even open a branch? You're even better than your mother, who cheated your aunt in the general's mansion back then!" She bent down and picked up a five-liang silver ingot, the side of which was still stained with green grass debris.

Xiao Yu picked up a piece of silver and his fingertips immediately felt itchy. He waved his hand violently and the silver fell on his purse: "Nonsense! The itchy grass in the Western Regions is as strong as poison. What if it hurts someone?" He remembered that last month Wawa had sprinkled itchy powder in his boots, causing him to jump in the Imperial Garden for a long time before being discovered by Shen Weiwan. His ears couldn't help but feel hot.

Hekeng put his hands on his hips, his chubby face wrinkled like a bun. "We've improved it! We've added three times the amount of sweet osmanthus honey! It won't itch for a long time, and I guarantee it'll just be redness, no swelling!" He pulled a small cloth bag from his sleeve pocket. Inside, there was indeed grass clippings mixed with sparkling icing sugar. "Mr. Li also said he wants wholesale. Next time, let him bring a whole box of candied haws!"

As she was speaking, Chuntao came in carrying bird's nest porridge. Seeing the silver glitter all over the floor, the tray slammed down onto the table, sending the porridge splattering over the edge of the bowl. She pointed at the purse, her tongue tangled, "My little ancestors! Have you brought the West Market Bank here?" The silver hairpin in her hair trembled with trembling.

The old housekeeper followed in, leaning on a jujube-wood cane. Seeing the silver, he blew his beard and glared: "You're so young, but you don't read the classics. Instead, you learn some unorthodox teachings..." Before he could finish his words, Henkeng tiptoed and stuffed two coins into his sleeve. The coins rubbed against his patched cuffs: "Uncle Housekeeper, I'll buy you a candy man. Don't go complain to the Emperor!"

The old housekeeper's beard trembled even more violently, but he held the copper coins tightly, and his crutch made a sound on the ground: "This will not happen again! If you dare to set up a stall again, I will tell the Empress Dowager!" He turned around and secretly put the money into the old purse at his waist.

Xiao Yu looked at his son and daughter's little faces, which were covered with grass debris, and their eyes were as bright as stars. He loosened his belt helplessly: "Give me the money, I'll deposit it in the bank for you." He reached out to take the purse, and as soon as his fingertips touched the oil paper, Kenkeng pounced on it like a hen protecting her chicks.

"No!" Kengkeng hugged the purse in his arms, the silver rubbing against his ribs. "We want to buy chariots and cannons! The ones we saw in the East Market last time, made of wood and can fire stones!"

Wawa tugged at Xiao Yu's clothes, rubbing her little head against the brocade material: "I also want to buy fireworks that explode! Fatty Wang from the West Market said that kind of fireworks can fly into the sky and explode into a phoenix when lit!" She opened her arms and gestured, and half a piece of hard cake fell out of her sleeve.

Chen Weiwan's eyes lit up, and the red gold hairpin in her hair trembled with her movements: "This is good! I saw the southern goods store selling 'Nine Dragons Flying in the Sky' yesterday. One tube can explode into nine colors!" She remembered the fireworks that the empress dowager enjoyed at the last palace banquet. They were a hundred times more exquisite than these market goods, but not as exciting as the fireworks bought with the money earned by these two children.

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