Chapter 27 The Bookworm

  "This is the Peach Garden Oath, with a thin cloud in the sky and a cold blade of the Green Dragon Crescent Moon Knife. A lone rider travels thousands of miles, beheading generals at the five passes, shaking the universe. To know what happens next, listen to the next chapter! The storyteller slammed his hand on the wooden case, and the audience in the teahouse applauded without realizing it. This part of the book tells the story of Guan Yu passing through the five passes and beheading the six generals."

  Sitting by the window, Ye Zhaoyao smiled and lightly applauded. When she first came to this world, she naturally felt that entertainment was scarce, especially without computers to use, which made her extremely uncomfortable. But as time passed, she discovered that the entertainment of over a hundred years ago had its own unique charm, which couldn't be compared to the fun brought by high technology.

  This is a tea house on Tianqiao, and the surrounding area of Tianqiao is also where the "lower class" people of Beijing are active nowadays. The nobles in the inner city wouldn't deign to come to this place, but Ye Zhao has liked coming to Tianqiao to listen to storytelling and watch acrobatics since he was a child.

  All he had done was change into a plain green robe and put away the jade ring on his hand, and now Ye Zhaoye, fanning himself with a folding fan, looked no different from the ordinary people who made a living in the Tianqiao area.

  Tomorrow is the big wedding day, Ye Zhao couldn't help but take out the photo from his pocket again to look at it. It was a photo of him and Su Hongniang together. The imaging technology of this era was really not commendable. Su Hongniang looked good, stunningly beautiful, while he himself had a dull expression, looking like a zombie. Who knows if people in the future would scold him to death for it. As for himself, shouldn't he have some charm too?

  Perhaps because he had been in this world for twenty years, the customs of this world had gradually influenced him. For example, marrying Rong'er, Ye Zhaung felt guilty towards Su Hongniang every time he thought about it, but firstly, Rong'er was young and he would never have any romantic or emotional entanglements with her; secondly, his special identity made it impossible for him to follow his own desires in the matter of marriage; thirdly, in this world, taking a wife and concubines was a common practice. Although Ye Zhaung felt that thinking this way was somewhat shameless, every time he thought about being able to enjoy the blessings of multiple women in this world, his heart would flutter with excitement.

  But thinking about being affectionate with other women in front of Su Hongniang, Ye Zhaos neck felt a bit chilly. It's better to just forget about it and not get beheaded by that little girl.

  "Grandfather!" A clean and slender young man stood beside him, greeting with a bow. His robe was patched up in many places, but it was spotlessly clean.

  It was just Ma San, the storyteller who had been narrating on stage, but his real name remained unknown to everyone.

  "Sit!" Ye Zhao made a gesture, tomorrow they would be married, and who knows if they could still come to Tianqiao to listen to books in the future? If not, then he would bring Rong'er, that little maid, to play instead.

  "Hey, give Ma San-ge a bowl of braised pork noodles with extra toppings!" Ye Zhaosaid, tapping the table with his fan. The waiter immediately shouted loudly: "One bowl of braised pork noodles! With extra toppings!" As for the so-called extra toppings, it was naturally to add more fatty and lean meat.

  "Thank you, Master Ma!" Ma San was so moved that he burst into tears and kowtowed again. This young master Ye had always been very kind to him, but unfortunately, he couldn't help much with the task Master Ye had entrusted to him.

  As expected, Ye Zhaoduan picked up his teacup and took a sip before asking, "Will that thing work?"

  Ma San's face suddenly turned bright red, and he felt that what he had done was quite unjustifiable. Now he didn't have the qualifications to eat the noodles invited by Ye Gongzi.

  Ye Zhaosaw Ma San's expression and knew the answer, smiling: "I reckon it's not easy, so let's do it this way." After returning from Shanghai, Ye Zhao found Ma San, hoping that Ma San would use the form of pingshu to talk about the foreign situation. Ye Zhao even wrote tens of thousands of words of pingshu himself, telling the story of a Qing dynasty man's strange encounters overseas, and of course, introducing the current technological level of Western countries, although this technology might seem like magic to the Chinese people.

  Ma San muttered: "Your storytelling, I showed it to a few experts and they all said that your kind of supernatural storytelling is..." He stopped here, probably because those experts had criticized it as being completely useless.

  Ye Zhaosheng smiled slightly and said: "Let's eat noodles first."

  "Ma San didn't complete the task entrusted by his grandfather, so Ma San doesn't dare eat."

  Ye Zhaos uses his fan to knock on his head, "I told you to eat, just eat yours, don't be stingy with this bowl of noodles! Do I look like a petty person to you?"

  Ma San smiled and immediately picked up his chopsticks, gobbling down the food. The added ingredients of rotten meat noodles cost 15 more yuan, which he usually couldn't afford to eat.

  Ye Zhaowang is now thinking about it and also feels that his idea is a bit fanciful, but just a sudden thought.

  "But, Master, honestly, the story you told Ma San is true? Foreigners really don't understand etiquette? Men and women hugging together to dance?" Ma San pulled his noodles, but couldn't help asking Ye Zhao, with disdain in his mouth, but a hint of yearning on his face. For this young man who had never touched a woman's hand since he grew up, the customs of foreigners were apparently quite interesting to him.

  Jian Ma San, this down-and-out scholar, was only being "absurd" and "shameless" in his interactions with foreigners, asking one question after another, without even noticing the content he originally wanted to proclaim. Ye Zhao felt that her idea had failed even more.

  "Eat your noodles!" Ye Zhaolazily ignored him and picked up her teacup to drink tea.

  Ma San swept the noodles in the bowl clean with a swoosh, and then gulped down the remaining soup with a series of loud slurps. He wiped his mouth and turned around to see Ye Zhaofeng sipping tea with an air of elegance, which suddenly sparked an idea in him. He patted his chest and said: "Sir, I've got a plan! If you really want Ma San to tell your jokes, that's fine, but there's one condition - Ma San has to have food in his belly!"

  Ye Zhao just smiled and said: "It turns out you also know there's no audience, so what's the point of telling this joke? Just to amuse yourself!"

  Ma San's awkward smile, didn't dare make a sound.

  "Never mind, let's just have some fun and try it out?" Ye Zhaoshao smiled at Ma San.

  "Go on, try it!" Ma San agreed readily, and as he had expected, a ten-tael silver note appeared before him. Ma San's throat went dry, and he quickly clutched the note tightly in his hand.

  "This is a half-month's pay, and there's more as a reward." Upon hearing Ye Zhao's words, Ma San naturally expressed his gratitude and loyalty once again.

  Ye Zhaoyang gently shook her folding fan and simply smiled.

  Ye Zhaung didn't think that this folk art should be used as a means to introduce the Western world, but it can make some noise, no matter what the masses think, spreading Western things earlier is not a bad thing.