The next day, West Street was still the same West Street, brimming with the bustle of everyday life.
Liu Niang's wonton stall was set up as usual, Blacksmith Zhao's forge burned red-hot as always, and Aunt Chen stood at the street entrance with a basket, cursing the neighbors' chickens for stealing the beans she had laid out to dry.
Ye Hui wore freshly washed grayish-white clothes that day, his cuffs neatly cinched.
At that moment, he stood behind the counter with an air of cold menace, expressionlessly guarding Shopkeeper Yun's "magnificent" shop, which earned zero copper coins a day.
And where was the great Shopkeeper Yun?
He was at the wonton stall next door... drinking and playing finger-guessing games.
"Five takes the crown! Six, six, six!"
Through the open shop door, Ye Hui watched helplessly as his shopkeeper, dressed in robes whiter than snow, sat carelessly on a bench with his sleeves rolled up, holding a coarse pottery wine bowl between his fingers as he drank with another man.
He might not have been utterly unrestrained, but he certainly looked nothing like a respectable shopkeeper.
Yun Qing propped one leg on the bench's crossbar and leaned back slightly, his eyes and brows relaxed in a smile, looking for all the world like a rake who had spent years roaming the streets.
Ye Hui muttered under his breath, "Do you realize how wildly contradictory you are, old man?"
Outside, Yun Qing's ears twitched as he chatted and laughed with his companion. Without turning around, he gave a soft chuckle and tossed something behind him-
A yellow blur cut through the air at a tricky angle and struck the boy squarely in the forehead.
"Oof!"
Ye Hui's head jerked back, and he silently caught the thing as it slid down the bridge