216 Untitled (2/2)
Covered from head to toe in black fur—a disguise, wearing a red robe—from her own bag, four short legs—they were Lord Yuan Bao's.
The ”Magic Rabbit” gracefully leaped onto a large red painted crate on the stage, flashing an appropriate smile that revealed its four shiny front teeth and well-manneredly waving its paws at the audience.
If the original owner of this ”rabbit” were here, he would probably end up spitting out blood—a precious mythological pet, a rare, treasured rodent with intelligence on par with humans, after landing in Meng Fuyao's hands has fallen so far that it would have to make a living by selling skills in a third rate marketplace.
The ”mythological pet” itself did not have much awareness of its lineage, instead enjoying the feeling of being the center of attention, taking its time to turn around to smile, showing off its teeth charmingly…
”Ah! Small black rabbit!”
”Rat!”
”Raccoon!”
”Weasel!”
Lord Yuan Bao's face darkened as it glared at Meng Fuyao hatefully. 'Who let you dye my fur black? It's ruining my dashing image!'
”Fellow countrymen, come and look!” Meng Fuyao hit on the gong hard and continued, ”A magical rabbit that can recognize words…”
”Able to recognize words?”
”That's not possible, stop boasting.”
”This lad is spouting nonsense! Careful not to get tricked!”
Meng Fuyao waved her hand and laughed. ”True gold fears no fire. Whether it's a donkey or a horse, a rabbit or a weasel, you will know once we take it out for a spin!”
She continued to strike the gong, successfully attracting the attention of the crowd around. She watched as a few plainly dressed, but calm-looking men made their way over, her eyes gleaming as she smiled and said, ”Speaking of this magical rabbit of mine, there's nothing particularly special, just that it is able to recognize couplets.”
There was a wild outburst in the crowd – the ability to recognize words was rare enough, much less the ability match couplets! Immediately someone yelled out excitedly, ”And what if it can't?”
”I will send my Big Brother to be your slave!” The black-hearted Meng Fuyao pointed at her poor ”Big Brother” Tie Cheng and said, ”After treating his illness, he's still a considerably well-built man who can do hard work!”
”Fine, I'll come up with one first, Red Flower!”
Lord Yuan Bao glared at the man with despise, ignoring him—this man was clearly belittling its intelligence.
”Come on, can we have something with more than five words?” Meng Fuyao sighed. ”Don't insult my Lord Magical Rabbit's intelligence.”
The crowd started to think hard for a couplet, a truly difficult task for the less educated lower class. One of the men scratched the back of his ear as he pondered, catching a flea and then biting on it in his mouth. The flea was bigger than usual, and it caught on his teeth. While regretting the early aging of his teeth, a sudden inspiration struck him, and he yelled out, ”This rabbit's front teeth are very big!”
Lord Yuan Bao was immediately enraged and spat out a sequence of phrases.
”Your mother has fat thighs!”
”Your father strikes luck when he leaves the house.”
”Your mother deserted you at birth.”
”This place is outstanding with beautiful mountains and waters,” said a poor man excitedly, rocking his head back and forth.
”Your mother's steps create valleys and sand flies everywhere; she creates miracles of nature.”
”Utter rubbish! How can a rodent's intelligence compare with a human's!” exclaimed the poor man angrily.
”Utter rubbish! Your mother's dumber than a mouse!”
Aunty Li dimly asked Meng Fuyao, ”Why is it scolding your mother in every sentence?”
Meng Fuyao replied with deep sentiment, ”Because it lacks motherly affection…”
Aunty Li continued dimly, ”It… it… it really is a rabbit?”
”Actually…” Meng Fuyao dragged her sentence meaningfully as Aunty Li and the surrounding crowd strained their ears to listen.
”It's just a rabbit.”
”Amazing!”
Instantly there was an outburst of exclamations and everyone wandering about the Nation Protecting Temple made their way over and copper coins showered through the air—magical rabbit, truly a magical rabbit!
Lord Yuan Bao puffed out its chest proudly and smiled, fully immersing into its character while biting a copper coin it personally picked out and throwing it into the bamboo basket—it was truly an honorable feeling to earn money with its own labor, even though these copper coins wouldn't even be able to pay for a single button on its robes…