In the ancestral hall west of the General's Mansion, the scent of sandalwood mixed with aged wood lingered between the beams. The old butler, hunched over, his silvery beard nearly brushing the altar, held a gilded ledger in his hands. Time had worn the edges, but the inscription on the title page, "Detailed Income and Expenditure of the Weiwan Cheat School," was still clearly visible. On the mahogany altar, General Shen's memorial tablet, polished to a high shine, rested on the portrait of the general, who smiled benevolently, his gaze, as if piercing through time, resting on the old butler's trembling fingertips.
"General..." The old housekeeper's voice choked with sobs, pointing to the newly hung enrollment brochure next to the memorial tablet - it was a hand-painted one by Shen Weiwan, with a few dried flowers stuck to the corners, "Young Miss has made a lot of progress now! Just last month, she changed the key to the warehouse to nine locks, and now she has made 'cheating' into a well-known business!" He wiped the corner of his eyes with his sleeve, revealing the densely packed figures on the account book, "Look at this cash flow, last month alone, it brought in three thousand taels, more than Liu embezzled back then!"
From the copper incense burner before the ancestral tablet, curls of green smoke rose. The old butler vaguely saw the general in the portrait nodding and smiling. He recalled the morning three months ago, when Chen Weiwan, treading through the morning dew, hung the wooden sign that read "Weiwan's School of Tricks." The sign was crooked, the word "trick" even sporting a playful tail. He'd paced anxiously back and forth in front of the moon-shaped door, his rosewood cane clacking against the bricks. "Miss! This can't happen! If this gets out, how will the General's Mansion save face?"
Thinking about it now, the old housekeeper couldn't help but chuckle at himself. Three large green velvet sedan chairs were parked in front of the academy. One belonged to the Imperial Tutor's wife, whose bearers were carrying ten baskets of sweet-scented osmanthus cakes as a stipend. Another belonged to a silk shop owner in the West Market, whose arms were filled with money to enroll his son in the "Prevention of Scams for Youth" class. And finally, a plain sedan, a familiar bun peeked out from behind the curtains—it belonged to the head nanny from the laundry department, enrolling the Empress Dowager in the "Intensive Training Course for Palace Maids."
"Grandpa Housekeeper!" Chuntao ran into the ancestral hall breathlessly, her lake blue skirt sweeping over the threshold. Her twin buns were half-asked, a peach petal still stuck in her hair. "Hurry and check out the front yard! Madam Li has been tricked by the accountant again, and she's jumping around at the academy gate with someone!"
The old housekeeper hurriedly followed him out on crutches. As soon as he reached the Chuihua Gate, he heard Madam Li's shrill voice: "You dog slave! Dare you play tricks on the rouge money? I'll skin you alive without using the 'false accounting fishing method'!" Madam Li grabbed the accountant's ear. The accountant was wearing a starched blue cloth gown, but at this moment he looked like a picked-up chicken, with cold sweat on his forehead.
Chen Weiwan emerged from the moonlit gate, wielding a gilded round fan. Her pomegranate-red skirt swept across the mossy stone steps, and the glazed hairpin in her hair jingled with each step. She raised her hand to stop Madam Li, the teardrop mole at the corner of her eye trembling slightly in the morning light. "Madam Li, please be patient. Let me show you the 'tea-soaked account book technique.'" She then dipped the account book into the teacup beside her. The clear water quickly blurred the ink, and the number originally written as "10 taels" instantly became "100 taels." "Look at these ink-stained patterns. Doesn't it resemble the ripples of West Lake? I'm afraid the accountant has poured all the water from West Lake into the account book?"
The accountant knelt down with a thud, and kowtowed so hard that the bricks rang out: "Madam, please spare me! I will never dare to tamper with the money for rouge and powder again!" The students who were watching around burst into laughter. A lady who was a new student quickly took out a small notebook to make notes. The ruby pendant on her hairpin was so dazzling that it dazzled people.
The old housekeeper was stunned, remembering how Shen Weiwan had been blocked by Liu at the storeroom door on this very day last year, crying as she handed over the key to the general's mansion. Back then, she wore a plain, washed-out skirt with frayed cuffs, nothing like the radiant look she wore now. He stroked the white beard on his chin and couldn't help but run back to the ancestral hall, as if he wanted to tell the general every detail of this incident in his grave.
"General, look!" the old butler pointed at the newly hung comic strip "Thirty-Six Strategies for Tricking People." It was a comic strip drawn by Shen Weiwan with rouge and gouache. The first picture showed Liu rubbing her bloody palms, with the caption "'Wugu Qingshou' tricks Auntie, rubbing stones and mud into flowers." He pointed with his crutch at the thirty-second picture, "Croton Fountain." The exaggerated image of Liu squatting in the toilet in the picture was so funny that the ashes in the incense burner shook. "The eldest lady has compiled Liu's entire 'Kindness Trap' into a textbook! Now this case study of 'Working in the Croton Fields' has become the most expensive elective in the academy!"
Before he could finish his words, a resounding clatter of gongs and drums erupted from outside the courtyard. The old butler hurried out to see a sedan chair carried by eight men parked at the academy's gate. The bright yellow curtains parted, and the emperor, stroking his goatee, emerged, followed by Xiao Yu, who was stifling a laugh. A eunuch shrieked in a shrill voice, "Your Majesty bestows upon the 'Weiwan Cheating Academy' a golden plaque—" Four imperial guards carried a gilded plaque bearing the inscription: "Hack People with a Righteous Way"—written in the emperor's handwriting.
Shen Weiwan ran out wearing a newly made pomegranate red dress, the hem of which was embroidered with playful little pits in silver thread. Xiao Yu held up the hem of her skirt from behind, his eyes almost overflowing with doting. The emperor pointed at the plaque and laughed heartily: "Wan'er, how do you think my handwriting is? It's much better than your crooked wooden plaque, isn't it?"
The old housekeeper looked up at the imperial calligraphy on the golden plaque, then looked at Shen Weiwan's eyes narrowed with a smile, and suddenly remembered that the general had held his hand before his death: "Old brother, please keep an eye on Wan'er for me and don't let her suffer any grievances." Now it seems that this child has not only not suffered any grievances, but has turned all the suffering she has endured in those years into the wisdom of "deceiving people". Even the emperor has become her student.
"Grandpa Butler," Shen Weiwan ran over and stuffed a shiny ingot of silver into his hand. "This is this month's college dividend. You need a new cane, one made of sandalwood and inlaid with jade!"
The old steward's palms were sweaty as he clutched the silver. He recalled how Shen Weiwan had been mistreated by Liu Shi in the past, lacking even a cotton jacket in winter and crying while huddled against the stove. Now, she could stand before the emperor, chatting and laughing, even turning "deception" into a career admired throughout the capital. He could no longer contain himself and turned back to the ancestral hall, as if a moment later, the excitement would overflow from his eyes.
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