Bites Anyone He Meets

Shen Hui paused, then added:

"When you pay him, ask if the Peach God has any successors."

Though Lu Huan was full of doubts, she obediently nodded.

She clenched the silver in her palm, slipped down from the chair, and trotted through the hall, down the stairs with a rapid thump-thump-thump.

Shen Hui remained where he was, looking down at the first floor from above.

Lu Huan's tiny figure squeezed and darted through the crowd like a slick little loach, slipping before the storyteller in just a few moves.

She stood on tiptoe and held the broken silver high.

The storyteller was bending over to pick up copper coins from the floor when he suddenly saw a fair little hand stretch out before him, a shining piece of broken silver resting in its palm. His eyes lit up at once.

He straightened, swiftly swept his gaze around, then bent down and accepted the silver from Lu Huan with both hands, his face heaped with smiles.

"Oh? Which family's young miss might this be? Why are you so generous?"

Lowering his head, he weighed the silver and found it to be more than two mace—actually more than all the copper coins the entire hall's guests had tossed together.

The storyteller's smile immediately widened by another three parts, the creases at the corners of his eyes squeezing into chrysanthemums.

Lu Huan raised her head and said earnestly:

"Shen Hui asked me to ask whether the Peach God has any successors."

At those words, the storyteller's smile faltered slightly.

Then he bent down, leaned close to Lu Huan's ear, and whispered a few words.

After listening, Lu Huan nodded and turned to leave.

But after thinking it over, she turned back and said to the storyteller:

"Grandpa Mo used a woodcutter's knife, not