Chapter 260 Chu Xin's Sandbag
With the liveliness of the storytelling, the people waiting in the long queue finally felt that time was passing faster.
Zhu Lan and Zhu Qingyan finally got what they wanted and bought the steamed dumplings from Xinfeng Steamed Bun Shop. They were steaming hot and very appetizing.
It was already evening, and the sky over the capital was gradually covered by a layer of pink clouds. The flow of people on the street finally became sparse, and the storyteller had left at some point.
Zhu Lan and his companion were holding buns and walking towards the rented house. When they passed a narrow alley, they suddenly caught a glimpse of a figure in the alley, who was busy with something.
"It seems... to be the storyteller?" Zhu Qingyan said after identifying it with the help of the light.
She remembered the exaggerated description the man had given when he talked about himself and Zhu Lan, and couldn't help but walk up to him and pat him on the back.
"Hello--"
"ah."
The storyteller seemed to be startled and turned around abruptly. Half of the beard on his lips had just been torn off and was hanging by his lips, trembling with his breathing.
Zhu Qingyan's eyes widened. The other party was frightened and screamed, and the voice was clearly that of a woman!
"Ahem!" The storyteller coughed twice and regained his masculine voice. "Today's story has ended. If you two guests still want to listen, please come to Yuelai Teahouse early tomorrow!"
Zhu Qingyan, however, curiously reached out to pull the other person's beard.
"What are you doing? Men and women shouldn't touch each other. Hey, hey——!"
Before he could finish his words, the fake beard had already fallen into Zhu Qingyan's hands.
"She is obviously a woman, why does she dress up as a man to tell stories?" Zhu Qingyan looked at the fake beard in his hand and felt it was a bit strange.
"Give it back to me!" The storyteller snatched the beard back, and when he spoke again, his voice had returned to that of a young girl, his tone full of displeasure.
She snorted, "We are all wandering performers. If others knew I was a woman, who would come to listen to my story?"
"Why?" Zhu Qingyan didn't understand.
"It's all those stinky guys at Yue Lai Teahouse who insist that listening to a woman tell a story is boring and that there are no women who would tell stories. Humph, then I'll pretend to be a man to fool them and make some money from them!"
The storyteller counted the tips he received for his storytelling today, and muttered, "It's good to pretend to be a man. I don't know martial arts, so pretending to be a man can save me a lot of trouble."
Zhu Qingyan nodded, this was indeed true.
"May I ask this lady's name?" Zhu Lan stepped forward and bowed to her, with a hint of curiosity in his eyes. "Do you know how to change your voice?"
"My name is Chu Xin." She snorted with a bit of pride, "How difficult is it to change my voice?"
When Chu Xin spoke the second half of the sentence, it was as if he had spoken a man's voice. If he hadn't known she was a girl when they met face to face, he would have been unable to hear any flaws.
"I followed my father around the country performing arts since I was a kid. I met a lot of people and I loved to learn how to talk to them. As I learned, I figured out some tricks."
When saying this, Chu Xin changed his voice into several different voices in succession, some were that of an elderly person, some were that of a young child, some were male and some were female, but he imitated them all vividly.
Zhu Qingyan widened her eyes in surprise. It was the first time she had seen such a magical skill.
Chu Xin looked young, even younger than Zhu Lan and the others, and he was inevitably childish. Seeing Zhu Qingyan's amazement, he couldn't help but continue to show off: "Not to mention imitating people, even the flying birds and running animals, the sound of wind and water are no problem!"
As he spoke, he puffed up his cheeks and performed a piece of mountain stream bird singing, which made Zhu Qingyan's eyes pop out.
Zhu Lan had only read about such superb ventriloquist performances in books before, but he did not expect to encounter a master by chance today, which really opened his eyes.
"You look quite young, why do you come out to perform alone? Where is your father?" Zhu Lan asked curiously.
Chu Xin was about to speak when his eyes suddenly turned and said, "My father is performing in the street next door. Okay, I won't talk to you anymore. I'm going to find my father!"
After saying this, Chu Xin turned around, holding the silver he had earned from storytelling today, and skipped away.
Zhu Lan originally wanted to ask her about the imperial examination case, but Chu Xin had already walked away, so he had to give up.
Zhu Lan and the other two were about to leave when Zhu Qingyan suddenly felt something kicked under her feet. She bent down and felt around in the dark, picking up a small sandbag with a neatly embroidered "辛" character on it in black thread.
"She said her name was Chu Xin, so it should be hers, right?" Zhu Qingyan said.
Zhu Lan nodded. "She must have accidentally dropped the coins when she was sorting them here. It's dim here, so she didn't notice it."
Zhu Qingyan hurriedly ran out of the alley with the sandbag and wanted to return it to Chu Xin, but she was nowhere to be found.
"Hey, didn't she say she was going to the next street to look for her father? How come she disappeared in the blink of an eye..."
"She must have lied to us." Zhu Lan looked around and said in a deep voice, "She is so young and living outside. It's normal for her to be wary of two strangers like us. I think she's afraid that we'll know she's alone and have bad intentions."
"…Do we look like bad guys?"
"It's always good to be on guard against others."
After Zhu Lan finished speaking, he took the sandbag again and looked at it carefully in the light of the lantern.
"The thread of this sandbag has fallen off and the fabric is worn. It looks quite old, but she still carries it with her. It must be something she values very much. She would be very worried if she lost it."
"What should we do then?"
Zhu Qingyan estimated the time and soon a street sweeper would come to clean the road. If the sandbags were left here, they would definitely be taken away as garbage. He frowned and said, "Who knows when she will find out that the sandbags are missing? Are we supposed to wait here forever?"
"Do you remember what she just said - if you still want to listen to stories, please come to Yuelai Teahouse early tomorrow. Storytellers like this usually have a permanent place for storytelling. They will come out to continue telling stories in another place when there are fewer people in the teahouse." Zhu Lan said thoughtfully.
"You mean, we should go directly to Yuelai Teahouse to return it to her?" Zhu Qingyan thought for a moment and said that she knew where the teahouse was, but she had to go to the post station tomorrow morning to ask someone to send a letter to Ajing, which was not in the same direction as Yuelai Teahouse.
"No problem. Just tell me the location of the teahouse and I'll drop it off on my way to work tomorrow."
Zhu Lan put the sandbag in his arms, and the two of them walked towards home.
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