After finishing Bai Yingxuan's puppet, Gu Wen made one for Cang Yuan too.
The second puppet looked even more delicate than the first. Gu Wen had plainly put more care into it.
Bai Yingxuan saw the puppet and smiled. "Young Master Chang, it seems the old gentleman likes you very much."
Love might have dulled Cang Yuan's wits, but he was still a clever man. He looked at the two puppets and said, "Perhaps it's a case of loving the house and its crow."
Bai Yingxuan burst out laughing, and Pan Long nodded to himself.
This fellow still knew how to talk!
Of course, Pan Long understood why Gu Wen had made Cang Yuan's puppet more delicate than Bai Yingxuan's. Gu Wen belonged to the Mohist School, which had always defended commoners and opposed the powerful. The Reform carried out by Cang Yuan and Di Luonan had harmed the powerful and benefited commoners. Naturally, Gu Wen admired him for it.
But Gu Wen explained, "My hands had warmed up, that's all... I haven't made many puppets with this sort of fine detail. Before this, I only made them for my older brother and two nephews. I'm more practiced at making men than women."
Cang Yuan smiled. "Your nephews didn't learn the craft from you? I think your work is quite good. If they'd learned to make puppets like you, they'd never have gone hungry."
Gu Wen lowered his head. "I'm from Baixi Commandery in Jingnan. Twenty years ago, I was away learning a craft... Since then, every year on the anniversary of their deaths, I've made puppets of my brother and two nephews and paid my respects before them."
He had left much unsaid, but anyone who knew about the storm of blood twenty years ago understood what he meant.