Old man Liu originally told stories in Dongqian Lane, and he also read books when he was young, but it happened to be in the troubled times at the end of the Sui Dynasty, a poor scholar who was stupid, couldn't even eat, and he was depressed for most of his life, not to mention fame and fortune, even his daughter-in-law couldn't get it, and he lost his mind even more when he was older.

Because I have read books, I have been crawling and rolling for a few years, and I can barely make ends meet every day by telling books, and I took in two children during the famine a few years ago, and my sister and brother were thrown by my parents in Dongqian Lane and didn't know what was going on.

Old man Liu took pity on them and took them in, the girl was named Liu Yuanyuan, and the boy was named Liu Baoer.

Old man Liu would take them with him when he told the book, Liu Yuanyuan was playing the pipa on the side, and Liu Baoer held a tray around the crowd listening to the book to thank them one by one. Running five or six teahouses in a day can also earn more than ten or twenty yuan, and when you are lucky, you can also have thirty yuan.

Liu Yuanyuan's skill in playing the pipa was learned from a kind person, and the pipa was an old thing that the old man Liu bought from a thrift dealer with all his savings.

Because Old Man Liu said that good storytelling can also bring a lot of business to the teahouse, there is no teahouse to coax them away, and every time he comes to the book, he will give them a pot of tea for free.

One day half a month ago, Old Man Liu was telling stories in a small teahouse in Dongqian Lane as usual, Liu Baoer dragged his snot and walked around the crowd with a tray one by one, and suddenly felt the tray in his hand sink, and after a closer look, a large string of copper coins occupied most of the tray, which was a whole hanging of money!

Liu Bao'er raised her head and saw a young man looking at her with a smile.

Since then, Old Man Liu has taken Liu Yuanyuan and Liu Bao'er to a restaurant called Dengxian Tower, and Liu Bao'er feels that Dengxian Tower is the most magnificent restaurant he has ever seen.

When you get here, you don't need Liu Bao'er to walk around with a tray, Old Man Liu will have a fixed income of two hundred Wen every day, if you meet a generous guest, the reward money is more than the income of the past month combined, and the guests here are very rich.

Old man Liu is a scholar, that was a long time ago, even if he is still a scholar now, he has to support himself and his two children, so he has no reason to refuse Wang Gongzi's invitation.

As a reader, Old Man Liu is a failure, but he has deep experience and knowledge, otherwise he would not be the best storyteller in Dongqian Lane, and he has always been very confident that his story is the best story, until Wang Gongzi handed him a manuscript that he didn't know what kind of paper it was.

White Fox, A Chinese Ghost Story, Journey to the West, Liang Zhu, Liaozhai......

Wang Gongzi is naturally Wang Xiang, he was keen to promote stage plays not only because of Ning Xiang them, but also for the development of noble ideas such as culture, he just purely felt that the entertainment projects of the Tang Dynasty were too scarce, as a modern person, Wang Xiang felt very bored with nothing to do after eating early every night, and he was not the previous prince who stayed in Yicui Lou day and night, so he didn't mind doing some children's games with Li Zhi and Xiao Loli from time to time.

When rebuilding the Dengxian Tower, he considered another traditional entertainment project - shadow puppetry.

It is unrealistic to move the stage play to the third floor of the Dengxian Tower, first of all, the place is not spacious enough, and secondly, it is not easy to perform the stage play, and it is impossible to perform it for a long time.

Shadow puppetry does not have these problems, it does not take up space, it is very easy to perform, and the most important thing is that no matter what the story is, two people can get it, so Wang Xiang invited Old Man Liu to come over, and also offered a salary of 200 Wen a day, and all the rewards of the guests also belonged to Old Man Liu.

There are not many guests who go to the third floor of Dengxian Building to eat on weekdays, so Old Man Liu does not perform much every day, and he carves some paper figures for spare time or teaches Liu Baoer how to play a good shadow puppet play, Liu Yuanyuan still plays the pipa, Liu Baoer has become Old Man Liu's partner, and Old Man Liu feels that the craft of shadow puppetry can be passed down from generation to generation as an ancestral craft.

"Welcome."

Old man Liu was concentrating on carving a paper figure with the image of Monkey King, and suddenly heard the sweet voice of the welcome girl and knew that a guest was coming, so he hurriedly put away the tools and asked Liu Yuanyuan and Liu Bao'er who were gathered next to him to get ready, and the guests who could go up to the third floor to eat were not ordinary people.

Ju Yiya took Aqinu up to the third floor, she felt that Dengxian Tower was full of magic, the outside was hot, but the inside was cool and pleasant, and the two beautiful girls standing at the top of the stairs said words she didn't understand when she saw herself coming up, and only after Akinu explained that she was welcoming herself.

Youli took them to sit down at a large round table, and Ju Yiya asked curiously: "Aqinu, are all restaurants in the Central Plains like this?" ”

Aqinu shook his head suspiciously: "This restaurant seems to be very different from other restaurants, maybe it is because of the new changes in Datang in recent years." After all, the last time she came to Datang was a few years ago.

It's no wonder she feels this way, not to mention in Gaochang, even in Datang, it is rare to see such a big round table, the general restaurant is a small table, everyone kneels on the ground to eat, how can there be a big round table in the middle like this, surrounded by exquisite back chairs.

But it's really comfortable to sit on.

The Tang Dynasty is the country of Shangbang, merchants from the Western Regions, and orchids and others are not uncommon in Chang'an City.

The etiquette did not show anything unusual because Ju Yiya and Aqinu were dressed strangely, smiled and served two glasses of cold juice, and then handed over the menu and program list unique to Dengxian Tower.

Although Ju Yiya can understand a little bit of the Central Plains language and can speak a little, but the text is completely incomprehensible, throwing the menu and program list to Aqinu and tasting the iced juice curiously, it is the first time she has seen such a thing as iced juice, is the white flower on top of it crushed ice? How can there be ice this season?

"It's ice! Akinu, try it, it's so sweet, it's so icy! ”

Akinu was looking at the menu, and when she heard Ju Yiya's exclamation, she also put down the menu and tasted a sip of cold juice, her eyes full of surprise.

"Datang is such a magical place." Ju Yiya exclaimed.

"Akinu, what's written on this?"

"One is the menu, one is the ...... Programme. ”

"What's the program?" Ju Yiya asked curiously.

"Princess, don't you want to hear stories, there are different stories on this list, it seems that we can order them."

Ju Yiya's eyes lit up: "Is it the same as the performance downstairs?" ”

Aqinu called the etiquette who was waiting on the side and asked Ju Yiya to explain: "The performance downstairs is called a stage play, and the performance here is called a shadow puppet show. ”

"What is a shadow puppetry?"

"I don't know." Akinu shook her head, whether it was a stage play or a shadow puppet play, she had never heard of it.

"Why don't we order one?"

Listening to Aqinu's suggestion, Ju Yiya nodded again and again: "Okay, okay!" Tell me about the story, Akinu. ”