Shen Jiujiu stayed by his benefactor’s side as he washed up and took his breakfast, watching Pei Du depart to handle official business. Then he whirled around and flung himself into Zhong Bo’s arms, acting all spoiled and adorable. Only after devouring a whole piece of chestnut cake did he finally feel satisfied, snatching the storeroom key in his beak before darting away.
A servant boy was waiting at the courtyard gate.
From the very start, Pei Du had assigned the boy to Shen Jiujiu, and whenever Shen Jiujiu was in the mansion, he was the one trailing behind him.
Shen Jiujiu swooped down and alighted in the servant boy’s outstretched palm, setting the storeroom key there before tilting his head back and letting out two crisp chirps.
All the dark guards in the mansion had been notified ahead of time. Seeing the Little Bird Dumpling so curious, the servant boy answered, “This subordinate is Jia Shisan.”
Shen Jiujiu, who hadn’t expected an answer: “!”
Jia Shisan smiled, revealing shallow dimples on both cheeks that made his already baby-faced, endearing look even more approachable.
“The young master said you would definitely ask our names.”
“If you can track down any of the other dark guards in the mansion, they’ll answer you too.”
Shen Jiujiu, still a bit groggy from his early wake-up, suddenly popped his eyes wide open.
What bird could turn down a treasure hunt Easter egg game like this?
Especially one that could go on indefinitely.
Little Bird loved it.
Hee hee.
Glazed lamps might be rare, but they were only tricky to fire. A few made their way to the capital every year, fetching high prices, though they hardly qualified as tribute items.
Shen Jiujiu did indeed find a glazed lamp in the storeroom that closely matched the one from Shen Xinian’s memory.
In that memory, Shen Yuan had once “accidentally” chipped two petals off it, leaving it imperfect.
Shen Yuan would say that the sickly Shen Xinian only deserved such damaged junk, but every time his eyes landed on the lamp, they betrayed an unconcealed mix of jealousy and fear.
By rights, after Shen Xinian’s death, that glazed lamp from the Zhenguo Marquis Mansion should have ended up in the hands of Shen Yuan, the one he had always coveted so badly. But…
Hee hee.
In high spirits, Shen Jiujiu hopped back and forth across the flawless glazed lamp, curling up into a plump little bird ball right in its floral center.
Truth be told, Shen Xinian hadn’t cared much about the thing, so if Shen Yuan smashed it, fine—it could still be used anyway.
Indeed, Shen Xinian had placed the glazed lamp boldly in the most prominent spot on his desk, casually dipping his brushes in it every day.
Whenever Shen Yuan came looking for trouble, the sight of that brush-rinsing glazed lamp on Shen Xinian’s desk would twist his face into a grotesque mask. His cheeks would flush beet red, and he’d storm off in a huff.
So even after Shen Xinian died and Shen Yuan finally claimed the lamp, it wasn’t the pristine original he had so desperately wanted.
That glazed lamp he never truly possessed—along with the heir’s title he was never properly granted—had become an insurmountable obsession in Shen Yuan’s heart.
Baiting him with something like this was guaranteed to work every time.
With everything in place, Shen Jiujiu carried his plan and the glazed lamp straight to Zhong Bo.
Pei Du had washed his hands of the bet entirely; the mansion’s staff were at Shen Jiujiu’s command, and he would only judge the outcome in the end.
Zhong Bo pondered for a moment. “The West Market would be best. Plenty of nobles there—perfect for this sort of venture.”
“And the mansion has a shop right there, so no need to pay for a stall.”
Blind boxes were made for selling to pampered nobles and merchants with money to burn, so the location had to be spot-on.
Burning with ambition to pull off something grand and drop Sui Ziming’s jaw, Shen Jiujiu perched on Jia Shisan’s shoulder as he was led all the way to the Pei Mansion’s shop that Zhong Bo had mentioned.
A familiar shopfront. A familiar signboard.
A familiar signboard bearing a shop name that had seared itself into Shen Jiujiu’s memory.
Shen Jiujiu clamped down hard on his sharp little beak, his gaze locked onto the Woodware Shop. He itched to race home right that instant and peck furiously at his benefactor a dozen times over for all the secret bullying Little Bird had endured.
Jia Shisan noticed Shen Jiujiu staring at the shop and explained, “The Duke’s Consort used to love carving wood, so the duke bought this place in the West Market. The two of them would occasionally disguise themselves and drop by, playing at being an ordinary couple.”
“Not many people know it’s connected to the mansion.”
Exactly!
So Shen Xinian hadn’t known.
And neither had Little Bird!
Remembering those endless days and nights spent slaving over that policy essay, Shen Jiujiu let out an indignant chirp.
Fine, fine, fine.
Fifty taels turning into a hundred was bad enough, but this shell game—passing money from one hand to the other? It wasn’t just for cooking the books on military pay; he’d pulled it on Little Bird too!
How could anyone be that wicked?
His benefactor was a scheming mastermind of a villain!
Jia Shisan flashed his token to the Woodware Shop’s manager, and soon the shop hands came out to help set up the stall.
Shen Jiujiu directed Jia Shisan in arranging the blind box display while simmering with resentment, vowing to demand answers from Pei Du that very night.
If the explanation didn’t satisfy Little Bird, then tonight Little Bird would… would…
He mulled it over at length, but Shen Jiujiu couldn’t come up with any real way to get even with Pei Du.
Refusing to sleep beside his benefactor was out of the question. Health came first no matter what, and keeping him company was Little Bird’s duty.
Beyond that, though, Shen Jiujiu realized with frustration that he truly had no leverage over Pei Du.
Oh well.
This called for a long game.
Ever the optimist, Shen Jiujiu decided to table his grudge against Pei Du for bullying him until the right moment came.
Blind box stalls were a breeze to set up: stack some wooden boxes on the table with tantalizing prizes inside, then let the fresh-faced, quick-witted Jia Shisan belt out his sales pitch.
For extra flair with this novel gimmick, Shen Jiujiu had even planted shills up front to put on a show—a frenzy of ten draws that reeled them in hook, line, and sinker, pocketing a full tael of silver in moments.
It wasn’t long before passersby clustered around the stall.
Perched atop a tall wooden pole, Shen Jiujiu kept a straight-faced chirp-watch over the whole affair.
The crowd in front of the stall kept swelling, with plenty of servants dispatched on errands by their young masters and misses to make purchases.
It wasn’t the rarity of the glazed lamp drawing them in—no one had drawn one yet. That was the real hook.
The thrill of blind boxes lay not in the prize itself, but in shelling out your coin and coming up empty while you, under every eye in the crowd, emerged as the one and only winner.
That rush of one-upmanship and stealing the spotlight? That was what these young nobles and ladies craved deep down.
Shen Jiujiu watched for a good half hour. He saw Jia Shisan and the woodware shop clerks running themselves ragged, tripping over their own feet in the frenzy. After roughly tallying up the earnings, he nodded sagely in satisfaction and paced back and forth a couple of times along the long bamboo pole.
This approach was admittedly a bit gimmicky and only viable in the short term, but it got the job done.
More importantly, Shen Jiujiu’s real aim wasn’t just making money. It was making money from the Zhenguo Marquis Mansion.
To put it bluntly, it was about fleecing Shen Yuan.
The tip of Shen Jiujiu’s wing gently stroked his little beak.
Should he send someone to hawk the stall near the Zhenguo Marquis Mansion?
Or drop a hint to Shen Yuan somehow…
There were just too many people clamoring to draw blind boxes. Each one was priced low, and some young masters and ladies were dropping coin on fifty or even a hundred draws at a go. If that Glazed Lamp never turned up, it would start looking suspicious.
Before long, some hotheaded bully might show up and flip Little Bird’s whole stall.
What if he slapped on some purchase limits?
Hmm… not a bad idea.
Shen Jiujiu was lost in thought when the corner of his eye caught a familiar silhouette.
Shen Jiujiu: “!!!”
Little Bird Dumpling rocketed toward that retreating back in a diving rush, every single feather quivering with explosive joy and desperate longing.
Mother!!
