The books they talk about come from two sources.

One is self-written, and the other is purchased from bookstores.

Those with talent write their own, while those without the skill either cater to what the audience likes or follow the latest popular storybooks on the market, then buy them to practice. Previously, Mr. Sanliu’s The Woodcutter was the most popular storybook on the market, so Mr. Feng told that story.

For a story like The Woodcutter, it takes about three days to complete a full cycle.

These storytellers do not pay additional fees to the bookstores beyond purchasing the books. If the bookstore is dissatisfied with them telling their storybooks, they can simply inform the storytellers, who will switch to another book on the same day.

Similar to them are theater troupes.

However, theater troupes are not only larger in scale but also more profitable, and the cost of staging a play is much higher. Therefore, when they take an interest in a book, they pay an additional fee to the bookstore to secure the rights. The bookstore then shares the proceeds with the author according to a set ratio. This additional income from adaptations relies on the bookstore’s backing for the author to receive it safely.

In this industry, those who can run a bookstore and print books are people with powerful backgrounds. Among them are local wealthy families, scholarly families, and even some with connections to the government.

Thus, theater troupes dare not easily offend them.

The two most famous storybook authors in Liuzhou City are Mr. Sanliu and Scholar Sun. Both have had their storybooks adapted by theater troupes. However, since Mr. Sanliu prefers to write tales of the supernatural and legends, most of his works are difficult to adapt, so storytellers favor his works, while theater troupes prefer Scholar Sun’s.

Tales of scholars and beauties are eternally popular themes in drama.

When Fu Wenyu learned about this, he curiously asked if anyone had taken an interest in his The True and False Young Master. Unfortunately, due to the high similarity between the story and the Tang family incident, theater troupes were still hesitating.

Fu Wenyu felt some regret that his work hadn’t been “adapted for the screen.”

However, thinking that in a few days, after both the standard and deluxe editions were sold out, he should be able to receive several dozen taels, Fu Wenyu cheered up again. Enjoying the fragrant tea eggs and soft pastries, he listened to Mr. Feng’s storytelling.

“…The honorable Magistrate Bao in the court is a great and upright official.”

“He is wise, courageous, and discerning, with a heart as clear as a mirror. Well-read and knowledgeable, he is also familiar with many unknown methods of solving cases.”

“For example, in this case, seeing Mr. Wang’s anxiety, Magistrate Bao proposed a method to determine who is truly related by blood—’blood recognition’!”

“So…”

The segment Mr. Feng was telling was the blood recognition process from The True and False Young Master, which had just been published today. Since the storybook was his own work, Fu Wenyu couldn’t help but get distracted. With one ear listening to Mr. Feng’s passionate storytelling, he kept the other ear tuned to the reactions of the other guests.

To his left were Liu Changmiao and the unnamed man.

Liu Changmiao seemed to have calmed down.

Hearing this part, he asked curiously, “Brother Hu, why do you think the blood of Mr. Wang, Zhang Gousheng, and Wang Fugui all mixed together?”

“Magistrate Bao said that blood relations cannot be changed. If they are father and son, their blood must mix. If it doesn’t, they are not related. So why is it that Wang Fugui is not Mr. Wang’s real son, but their blood still mixed?”

The ‘Brother Hu’ pondered for a moment, then suddenly said, “Perhaps Wang Fugui’s birth mother was once Mr. Wang’s maid or concubine, making Wang Fugui his illegitimate son. That way, they would still share a blood relation…”

“Cough, cough, cough…”

Hearing such an outrageous speculation, Fu Wenyu suddenly choked on his tea egg and started coughing violently. He quickly grabbed the teapot and gulped down several cups of tea.

Uh, well…

This Brother Hu’s speculation is way too explosive!

Moreover, in the story, he clearly wrote that Zhang’s mother had never been to the Wang family before. The courtroom was the first time she met Wang Fugui, her real son, and she was a tragic figure. That’s why, when the truth was revealed and the Zhang family fell from power, she broke down and hugged Wang Fugui, begging him to call her ‘mother.’

Hmm, no, that part comes later. They haven’t read it yet.

At this moment, Liu Changmiao also seemed startled by the speculation and vehemently refuted, “Impossible! Mr. Wang is not that kind of person. He is a great benefactor, a hero!”

“Wang Fugui cannot be his illegitimate son.”

“Absolutely not!”

“I, I…” He suddenly stood up and rushed toward the door, “No, I need to find Fu Wenyu. I need him to change it. Wang Fugui cannot be Mr. Wang’s illegitimate son. He can’t be!”

“Changmiao—”

The ‘Brother Hu’ frowned as he watched Liu Changmiao and his servant rush out recklessly, paying no heed to anything.

He turned his head and gave a few instructions, and a burly man immediately stood up and chased after them. Then, ‘Brother Hu’ shook his head, his gaze returning to the stage. Occasionally, when he got excited, he would cheer.

Fu Wenyu also frowned.

Young Master Liu’s reaction seemed a bit off.

He thought carefully and remembered that the Liu brothers were supposedly full brothers. When the eldest Liu brother, Liu Changyan, passed the imperial examination at the tender age of thirteen, the city buzzed with excitement for quite some time. Back then, people compared the then five- or six-year-old Liu Changmiao, who had just started studying and probably hadn’t even fully learned his characters, to his brother. If he remembered correctly, everyone said they were full brothers, sharing the same father and mother.

Because the private school, their home, and even the entire city of Liuzhou talked about it, not just for a day or two but for over half a month, and it was brought up again every time the imperial exams came around, the original owner remembered it for a long time.

Could it be that Mr. Liu has an illegitimate son?

Did the Liu family have a dramatic storyline of “the concubine is the true love, the wife is an accident”?

Fu Wenyu shook his head, feeling that he shouldn’t overthink it.

He wasn’t entirely comfortable with Liu Changmiao rushing out like that, so he borrowed paper and pen from the teahouse and wrote a note for Zhang Er. He instructed Zhang Er to tell Liu Changmiao, if he saw him today, that Wang Fugui was not Mr. Wang’s son and that the reason their blood mixed was due to another reason, not what he thought.

After writing it, he went to the door and found a young boy selling things on the street. He paid him to deliver the note to Kaiyuan Bookstore, and in return, he bought the boy’s basket of persimmons.

When he returned to his seat, Mr. Feng had already finished his storytelling.

“Huh? Why is it over already?”

A customer asked in confusion, “The last few times, it went on for a quarter of an hour. Why did it end so quickly today? Mr. Feng, are you taking a break? Is there more later?”

“Not a chance!”

Another customer, who had clearly already read the Liuzhou Tabloid, spat out a fruit shell, “That’s all for today. The Liuzhou tabloid is really something, always cutting off at the crucial moment. This time, it’s only three thousand characters.”

“Print more! Do they think I can’t afford it?!”

“Exactly, exactly,” his words sparked complaints from many customers, and someone else grumbled, “I’ve been coming here for two months just to listen to this storybook. If I had known, I would have studied harder back in the day.”

A cheeky customer chimed in, “You can have your son read it to you!”

“Hahahaha…”

“Good point, good point.”

“Go away, you’re the one who needs your son to read to you. It’s not like I can’t afford the tea…” The teased customer cursed a few times.

After a round of laughter, Mr. Feng cleared his throat, tapped the paperweight on the table, and began telling another story familiar to Fu Wenyu—Mr. Sanliu’s The Woodcutter.

Perhaps because some customers had already heard it, some more than once, low murmurs began to spread throughout the teahouse as Mr. Feng’s voice rang out.

“Hey, did you read today’s Liuzhou Tabloid? There’s a new storybook in it, really strange!”

“I did. Are you talking about The Legend of the Divine Eye?”

“Yes, yes, that’s the one!”

“A celestial being descended to the mortal world and touched the head of a boy named Li Lei, giving him a great opportunity! I wonder what it is, truly enviable.”

“Yeah, in the end, I wonder what he saw—something strange and glowing!”

“Maybe another celestial being?”

“Possibly…”

…

Since The Legend of the Divine Eye only had an opening chapter and the plot hadn’t developed yet, Fu Wenyu listened quietly for a while but didn’t gain much useful information. The good news was that most people accepted the themes of “celestial beings” and “opportunities” quite well, not finding them unbelievable or hard to understand. This might be an advantage of ancient times.

After Mr. Feng finished today’s segment of The Woodcutter, a woman in green clothes holding a pipa came on stage. Seeing that it was getting late, Fu Wenyu picked up his basket of persimmons and the packed tea eggs and left.

He needed to write the second chapter of The Legend of the Divine Eye.