"You've been picking out night soil for six days straight, how can you not be a local?" Auntie Zhao waved her hand, turned, and walked out. "Once the tickets are issued, they have to be used; otherwise, they're invalid."
Pu Yunshan, clutching the five pieces of paper, stood amidst the manure buckets in the courtyard and suddenly understood.
Yes, if we want to find out what kind of person Prince Yi really is, we should go to a lively place.
Afternoon.
The raffle area was so crowded that there wasn't even a crack between people.
In the middle was a long table, behind which sat three bookkeepers, and on the table was a wooden box covered with red paper.
Tuoba Mang stood beside the box, his upper arms bare, as thick as two sections of roof beams. If anyone tried to push forward, he would push them back with a single finger.
Behind the wooden box, a small piglet, pink and white, with its ears perked up, was squatting in a bamboo cage, spinning around as the crowd made noise.
Pu Yunshan stood at the outermost edge of the crowd.
The blue shirt was no longer blue; the hem was gray, a dark stain on the knee couldn't be washed off, and the sleeves were rolled up to the forearms.
Her hair was tied up with a hemp rope.
Congratulations, Old Woman Liu! Two boiled eggs!
The crowd burst into laughter, and an old woman squeezed through the crowd to collect the eggs. She carried them in her sleeve and walked back, showing them off to everyone along the way.
Congratulations, Blacksmith Zhang! Half a pound of salt!
Congratulations, Wang Er! One liter of flour!
Congratulations! -- Pu Hua!
"Grand Prize: A piglet!"
The crowd fell silent for a moment.
Pu Yunshan didn't move.
I thought I had misheard.
He's been having terrible luck lately, how could he possibly have won the grand prize?
He stood there, feeling hundreds of eyes turning towards him, one after another.
Who is Pu Hua?
"That's the gentleman in the blue robe who got fined for writing on the public toilet wall!"
" The Blue-Robed King of Dung!"
"He even got an excellent grade! I saw it on the notice board this morning!"
A burst of laughter erupted, louder than ever before.
Tuoba Mang had already picked up the bamboo cage.
He gripped the cage with one hand and pushed through the crowd with the other, walking straight toward Pu Yunshan. When he got close, he lowered his head, his face blocking most of the sunlight.
"Brother Pu! You're in luck!"
"I don't want to."
"Want a smoke?" Tuoba Mang put the cage on the ground, bent down to open the cage door, "This piglet, once grown, will yield about a hundred catties of meat. You can't finish it all by yourself, remember to give me a leg."
"I said I don't want to, I won't feed the pigs."
Tuoba Mang's hand was already inside the cage; he clasped his hands together and pulled the piglet out.
The piglet let out a squeal in his arms and kicked its four legs wildly.
Tuoba Mang stuffed the pig into Pu Yunshan's arms.
"What's there to be afraid of? You're a smart person."
Throughout his life, Pu Yunshan inherited a sword, his father's halberd, and the scholar's vermilion-inked annotations, but he never inherited a live pig.
He didn't know where to put his hands for a moment. The piglet had already fallen into his arms. It was slippery, hot, and its whole body was struggling.
He instinctively pulled his arm back, and the pig kicked him hard on his blue shirt with its hind legs, sending mud splattering all over the front of his shirt.
The piglets squealed even louder.
Pu Yunshan held it, a muddy patch on his front, a red paper on his chest, his hair tied with hemp rope, standing amidst laughter.
Congratulations, Mr. Pu!
" The Blue-Robed King of Dung has drawn a baby sow!"
"If this pig follows you, it might even be able to go to school!"
Pu Yunshan looked down at the pig.
The pig looked up at him, its two little black eyes sparkling, and nuzzled his clothes with its snout.
He looked up and surveyed his surroundings.
The old man selling flatbread was smiling, his apron covered in dough.
The woman holding the child was laughing, and the child, carried on her shoulder, clapped along.
The three women wearing Hongxiu squeezed at the front, with Auntie Zhao bending over with laughter, one hand supporting Sister-in-law Wang's arm.
The streets were spotless.
The trash is all stored in the designated wooden fence.
Those carrying water, delivering urgent mail, and rushing to catch carriages each went their own way.
On his first day in Yi Prefecture, Zhao Wuxu told him that the tyranny here was like a tiger, women were officials, and fines were like robbery.
Over the past six days, he has searched through all twelve public toilets in the south of the city, walked through every back alley, entered the back door of the herbal medicine shop, and watched the group of children rushing home after school.
None of them matched.
"Brother Pu?" Tuoba Mang bent down in front of him. "Why is your face so pale? Are you having another attack?"
"No, no." Pu Yunshan hugged the pig closer. "I'm leaving now."
Across the street, a window on the second floor of the teahouse was half open.
Gu Moran sat in a round-backed chair by the window, holding a bowl of medicine in her hand, her eyes fixed on the lively scene below, her shoulders twitching.
The Son of Destiny is truly blessed; even a piglet can be drawn.
"Drink it all." Shen Ling'er stood beside him, supporting the bottom of the medicine bowl with one hand and pressing down on the back of his hand with the other. "If you laugh, I'll add a qian of Coptis chinensis."
"Stop feeding me medicine every day." Gu Moran picked up the glass and took another sip, her eyes still looking down. "Look, that guy is hugging that pig."
"I saw it."
The pig even kicked him.
"I saw it too."
"A young master from Mount Qingcheng." Gu Moran couldn't help but laugh again, but the laughter caused him to choke on his medicine, causing him to lean forward and cough so hard his shoulders trembled.
"You're supposed to be a prince, don't you know how to be more composed?" Shen Ling'er snatched the bowl away.
Yun Shuyue, who was squatting under the windowsill looking out, jumped up when she heard the noise, went behind him, and started hitting his back with both hands.
"Your Highness, Your Highness, please don't cough, let me massage you."
She threw a punch, Gu Moran forward, his forehead almost hitting the window frame.
" Yun Shuyue, what are you doing?"
"What's wrong?"
You're pounding my back, not the wall.
"I, I'll be gentle." She quickly softened her hand, placed her palm on it, and stroked it gently.
She patted him twice, then leaned forward, her chest pressed against his shoulder.
Gu Moran stopped coughing.
Yun Shuyue was still oblivious, focused intently on stroking him, murmuring, "Slow down your breathing, slow down your breathing. I've seen Old Master Sun cough in the village; when he coughs, he coughs for half the night."
Shen Ling'er placed the medicine bowl on the table.
The sound wasn't loud, but Yun Shuyue felt as if she'd been pricked by a needle. She suddenly stood up straight, took two steps back, and bumped a teacup against the corner of the table.
"I... I didn't do anything."
"You didn't do anything," Shen Ling'er said, suppressing a mischievous laugh, her voice very soft, "You just lay on the prince's back."
"I'll give him a back massage!"
"He coughed because he choked on his medicine." Shen Ling'er walked over and pulled the snowman hat off Yun Shuyue's head, covering her eyes completely. "Come on, let's beat him up together."
Outside the window, the laughter from the lottery draw area was still drifting this way.
Gu Moran looked down.
Pu Yunshan, holding the pig, was squeezing out of the crowd.
The hem of his blue robe was smudged with mud, and he walked very slowly because the thing in his arms kept struggling.
He stopped when he reached the street corner.
Across the street, a new notice was hung in front of Brocade Literature Bookshop.
The notice was written in black ink on white paper, and was very large, so it could be seen clearly even from across the street.
"Tomorrow afternoon, the head of this bureau will be in the main hall to collect manuscripts. Anyone with a manuscript, regardless of background or style, may submit it."
[Thanks to Yehuang, Zhuge for the love letter, for urging updates, for the flower for eating, for the love letter x3 from Xielao, for Xixi's character summon + inspiration capsule, for the like from Zhise, for the milk tea from Shier and 0942, for the character summon from Danxiao, for the urging update token from Xihuan, for the flower x3 from Yefan, and for everyone's love and support!]