Chapter 113

Chapter 113

The premiere of "Snow Disaster" sent shockwaves through the nobility.

Those who hadn't seen it listened to the fascinating accounts of those who had, finding it novel and intriguing, and resolved to fight their way in for a look the next day no matter what.

With winter days being short, the theater closed early as well.

Currently, with a limited number of actors, two performances a day was the maximum.

Shen Yuan was going to the palace that night to report the theater's first-day earnings to Emperor Wu. The opening day held special significance; after this, he would only need to submit the accounts monthly.

Stepping outside, a carriage was already waiting.

Luo Yun stepped forward, holding up an umbrella to shield Shen Yuan from the light snowfall.

Everything was prepared: the seat cushions, hand warmers, the cloak for when he dismounted, hot tea, and pastries. The clothes and accessories were in styles, colors, and fits that Shen Yuan preferred; the food and drink were his favorites.

Shen Yuan ate a little and took a sip of tea, the faint aroma of jasmine lingering between his lips and teeth.

He looked at Xie Yulin. "Why are you keeping your distance from me today?"

Usually when they met, Xie Yulin was always eager to kiss and hug him, but today, for some reason, there was enough space between them for another person to sit.

Xie Yulin replied calmly, "My hands are too cold."

"Huh?" Shen Yuan made a sound of surprise, moved closer to Xie Yulin's side, and immediately seized his hands.

The slender fingers were like cold jade, beautiful yet icy cold.

They were indeed very cold.

"A little cold like this is nothing," Shen Yuan said, wrapping Xie Yulin's hands with his own warm, soft palms, sharing his warmth. "Xie Yulin, don't always treat me like a child, shielding me as a father would. Even if you're afraid you can't control yourself from touching me, I won't get sick from just this bit of cold."

"I was worried it would make you uncomfortable," Xie Yulin said softly.

Shen Yuan leaned in, gently nudging his nose against Xie Yulin's, and teased, "Are you really going to keep this up?"

Xie Yulin remained still for a moment. Shen Yuan didn't move either, just beamed at him.

"A-Yuan, tell me if you can't stand the cold."

Xie Yulin couldn't maintain his composure. He withdrew his hand, cupped the back of Shen Yuan's neck to pull him forward, and lowered his head for a kiss.

The sudden, slight coolness made Shen Yuan shiver. He wrapped his arms around Xie Yulin's neck. "Tsk," he clicked his tongue. "Hypocrite."

Xie Yulin's hands were truly cold, or perhaps the carriage was too warm, making his hands feel even colder.

Shen Yuan felt as if ice cubes were tracing from his waist up his spine, making him shiver. Yet it wasn't quite the same as the cold of ice; Shen Yuan couldn't quite describe it—a chill that was somehow pleasurable. His toes curled unconsciously, and his fingers threaded through Xie Yulin's black silk-like hair, tugging lightly.

Alarm bells rang in his mind; Shen Yuan was half-conscious, half in a daze.

In his haze, he sensed danger at the small of his back, jolting him fully awake.

"Xie Yulin, stop. If this continues, I won't be able to face His Majesty," Shen Yuan whispered a plea.

"Alright."

Xie Yulin planted a gentle kiss at the corner of Shen Yuan's mouth and tidied his disheveled clothes for him.

Once dressed, Shen Yuan sat close to Xie Yulin and took his hand.

Xie Yulin, who had thought Shen Yuan would move away, was slightly taken aback. He turned to see Shen Yuan beaming at him. "Warming your hands for you."

Xie Yulin chuckled softly. "You're too good to me, A-Yuan."

"No trouble at all. I like you," Shen Yuan declared his affection for Xie Yulin.

Xie Yulin's dark eyes gazed quietly at Shen Yuan. Even without words, the joy and love in his eyes were unmistakable.

Upon reaching the palace, they had to walk the rest of the way. Xie Yulin helped Shen Yuan into the heavy cloak and held up a sturdy oil-paper umbrella to shield them from the wind and snow.

The two walked close together at a leisurely pace, their tall figures stretching long shadows in the snow.

At their destination, Shen Yuan removed his cloak, which was dusted with snow. A palace attendant took it away to be shaken out and dried. The Emperor's bedchamber was equipped with a large warming brazier, but only the area near it was warm.

The room was rather chilly. Fearing they might catch cold, the attendant quickly led them into the inner room.

Li Xing was already waiting. Seeing Shen Yuan, he couldn't help but smile. "Finally, you're here! Have a seat. How did the theater do today?"

Shen Yuan guided Xie Yulin to a seat closer to the brazier, taking a seat beside him, and handed the day's account book to Li Xing.

The theater's account book was made of paper, much lighter and more convenient to flip through than bamboo slips.

Li Xing eagerly looked through it, growing more astonished as he read.

He pointed to the final total and asked, "In one day, the theater brought in a net profit of five thousand six hundred taels?"

Shen Yuan nodded.

Li Xing exclaimed, "Huo!" He continued scanning the accounts while saying, "Although the tips are high, you received substantial tips from storytelling before, so two thousand four hundred taels in tips for the play in one day is plausible. But the rest... it's all from the steamed sugar pastry sales? How much do they love eating that?"

The emperor fell into a moment of bewildered silence, asking his subject, "How much of that expensive stuff did they eat to reach this number?"

Li Xing lamented, "Had I known they could eat so much and were that wealthy, I—this emperor—should have set the price even higher. A miscalculation, a true miscalculation. Still underestimated their financial power."

Li Xing could guarantee that any noble who entered the theater today was far wealthier than he, the emperor.

His pockets were emptier than his face.

Just yesterday, when he wanted a taste of steamed sugar pastry, it was his buddy Xie who paid for his whole family to have some.

A loss, a real loss.

Li Xing looked as pained as if his own money had been stolen.

"How about we make the theater's steamed sugar pastry unlimited from now on?"

Shen Yuan shook his head. "Scarcity increases value. Too much availability makes it less special. Although making steamed pastry is simple, without the recipe, it won't be learned by others for several years. Even if someone learns it, we'll still be the original, the established name; it won't hurt our sales much. Your Majesty can rest assured, this dessert will keep earning us money."

Li Xing heeded the advice, finding it reasonable. "Alright!"

The first batch of foreign traders heading to Youyang City arrived in succession on the third day of the playhouse's opening.

It wasn't just Lu Yuan who thought of arriving early; many others shared the same idea, hoping to catch the spring rush and move a lot of inventory. When the merchants encountered each other outside the city, they were not surprised; they greeted each other as usual and entered the city.

The foreign traders all entered through the South City Gate, so that area had always been very lively.

Even in winter, there were more people doing business there than in other districts. Most were local vendors selling goods they had previously stockpiled from the traders.

During the merchants' stay in Youyang City, they would carry their goods through streets and alleys or go out to the suburbs, villages, and manors to hawk their wares.

The outskirts of the city were more dangerous in winter. Since the traders were gone, the vendors could sell inside the city; it was just a matter of paying a small stall fee, which was better than going outside and losing one's life to mountain bandits.

Seeing the traders arrive now, the vendors were all stunned, as they were usually absent for the entire winter.

"Trader Lu, come over for a drink of hot water?"

A vendor who frequently sourced his goods from Lu Yuan greeted him, casually taking out his own bamboo canteen from a tightly wrapped ragged cloth bag.

Lu Yuan glanced at the faint steam rising from the bamboo tube and asked curiously, "This bamboo canteen of yours is quite impressive; it can keep the water hot for such a long time."

Vendors usually set up their stalls before dawn; otherwise, the good spots would be taken.

It was nearly noon now, and Lu Yuan was surprised that the water was still hot.

The vendor poured the water from the bamboo tube into its lid, handed it to Lu Yuan, and pointed with a smile toward a small shack not far diagonally across from them. "Trader Lu, look at that little shack."

Drinking the water, which was at just the right temperature, Lu Yuan felt a warmth spread through his body. He looked in the direction pointed; the small shack was built in front of a pastry shop.

A small clay stove was heating a ceramic pot, which was emitting steam. It was tended by an elderly couple; the old man was ladling water for those passing by, while the old woman occasionally added firewood to the stove.

It was freezing cold outside, but the tiny world within the small shack was undoubtedly warm.

"In this kind of weather, can the money from selling hot water even cover the cost of the firewood?" Lu Yuan asked while drinking, then realized something was wrong—it seemed no one was paying.

The vendor laughed and said, "Those are people from State Preceptor Shen's Storytellers' Guild. Their hot water is free; it's just to give people passing by who need a sip of hot water a way to warm up."

"That includes us," the vendor said, raising his bamboo canteen and asking Lu Yuan if he wanted more.

Lu Yuan nodded and drank another cup.

His gaze remained fixed on the elderly couple nearby.

In the first twenty years of his life, the elderly people he had seen—dressed in tattered clothes, struggling financially, and moving slowly—never had smiles on their faces during winter.

Today, however, he saw them.

The old man smiled as he served hot water to those in need, and the old woman had a smile on her face as she tended the fire.

"They are so old; isn't it dangerous for them to go out in this freezing weather to fetch water to boil?" Lu Yuan asked.

He was quite familiar with the South City area; the nearest public well was four miles away.

The vendor pointed toward the pastry shop. "State Preceptor Shen's playhouse, the Storytellers' Guild, and this pastry shop have business dealings. Their workers fetch water for the elderly couple from the backyard."

He then held up three fingers. "I've even counted; they carry three buckets of water every day."

Lu Yuan was stunned; they had even thought of the difficulty the elderly would have fetching water in winter. He couldn't understand why the State Preceptor of Wu would do this, so he asked the vendor if he knew the reason.

"Ah, speaking of which, those two elderly folks have had a hard life," the vendor said, pouring Lu Yuan another cup of hot water as Lu Yuan listened.

"The two of them are from the West City. They have no sons and only one daughter who married out long ago. Their daughter moved to a village outside the city, and they don't see each other all year round. Their two sons both fell in battle before they could even marry, let alone leave any descendants."

"When I was a peddler, I saw the two of them as well. No one wanted them for manual labor. Every day after they finished hauling waste, they would go to the vegetable market to scramble for rotten leaves on the ground with others. To be honest, I don't know how they survived all these years."

The vendor's lament was only natural; elderly people with no one to care for them, without enough food or warmth, were the most susceptible to illness.

It was truly not easy for them to have held on until now.

"Later, they heard the Storytellers' Guild was hiring and went to apply. They were both selected, but then they were harassed by local thugs in the West City who tried to stop them from going."

The chance at life they had finally obtained was being suppressed by a group of people. The two elderly folks were so miserable then that they couldn't sleep, and they even contemplated death.

If they had never been given the opportunity, if they hadn't seen the possibility of working to earn money to support themselves—and even helping their only daughter or building memorial graves for their two deceased sons—they wouldn't have had such thoughts.

But they clearly had that chance; they had even secured it. Yet, due to the threats of the thugs, they were forced to give it up.

Such overwhelming bitterness and despair could swallow a person whole.

The vendor continued, "The old couple knows me. After they came here to boil water, they told me a lot during their spare time. They said back then they wanted to seek death, but unexpectedly, people from the Storytellers' Guild went to find them and asked if they were willing to do the job of boiling water for people to drink. It was just a bit far, as they had to come to the South City."

"Walking from the West City to the South City via the small paths takes over half an hour. Since the two of them walk slowly, they get up early. In the South City, they aren't afraid of being threatened by the thugs from the West City, and they receive a monthly salary."

What the old couple didn't mention was that they were provided with two meals a day. Since they couldn't go back home to eat, the meals could be converted into copper coins. The manager called this a "meal allowance."

They didn't know what a meal allowance was; they only knew that State Preceptor Shen was their benefactor and a godsend who allowed them to survive.

There was no one as kind as State Preceptor Shen.

The vendor sighed. "The two of them told me that State Preceptor Shen did this because he learned that their sons had all died on the battlefield. The Emperor loves the people and the soldiers; he couldn't bear to see the parents of the warriors who died defending the country suffer so much, so he insisted that State Preceptor Shen provide them with a way to make a living."

Lu Yuan had drunk enough water, or he would have choked. "When did your Emperor of Wu become so compassionate?"

Besides, the Emperor of Wu hadn't just ascended the throne a few days ago, such elderly people hadn't just appeared, and the soldiers had died in battle a long time ago.

It wasn't that he was thinking the worst of people, but the Emperor of Wu truly didn't seem like that kind of person.

The vendor recalled how their Emperor had kicked two envoys back in the spring and heard that he was currently keeping people under house arrest—refusing to see them but not letting them leave.

This left the envoys and the court of the North Country unable to gauge the Emperor's intentions, so for the time being, they stayed their hand, only testing the waters with words.

The vendor cleared his throat. "Our Emperor is actually very good."

After that dry sentence, the vendor had nothing more to say.

Lu Yuan chuckled. "What's the deal with the playhouse you mentioned?"

"Oh, that. That is currently the hottest place in Youyang City. It has the most incredible wonders in this world!" When the vendor mentioned the playhouse, his eyes lit up.

He would carry his goods to sell to the servants of various families waiting outside, and he had heard them discussing a lot about the play "Winter's Calamity."

Some servants heard it from their masters' conversations, while others were told by those serving inside.

Hearing their descriptions, the vendor felt that everything in the playhouse was so novel and desirable.

Lu Yuan hadn't expected that during his trip back, Guildmaster Shen would have come up with something new again.

He developed a strong interest in the playhouse.

"By the way, Trader Lu, why did you come at this time?" The vendor felt they had chatted long enough to ask the question he had wanted to ask from the beginning.

Lu Yuan didn't hide anything, putting the vendor's mind at ease. "I'm mainly here to stock up on goods, and I brought some things to sell along the way. Do you still want goods? I'll be heading back to Xiyue at the start of spring. If you want them, you'll be able to peddle them on your rounds then."

The vendor immediately said, "I do!"