The Crown Prince Ascends the Entertainment Throne - Chapter 10

“Learning Hanyu Pinyin?” The girl at the front desk furrowed her brows slightly. She looked up from the note, peering at Xiang Xu with a perplexed expression.

Xiang Xu thought she meant to ask if he had brought money, so he promptly handed over yesterday’s vouchers with both hands.

“No, that is not what I meant.” She immediately waved her hand, but her gaze lingered on Xiang Xu’s face with a thoughtful intensity, as if trying to figure out why he was buying books for learning phonics.

First a dictionary, now a pinyin primer.

What if he had some sort of physiological disability that prevented him from receiving an education in his youth, and now he was trying to learn from scratch?

But he could write.

Then again, his family might have written the notes for him.

A chaotic series of associations struck her mind like a lightning bolt. Looking at the boy standing there, terribly thin yet quiet and resilient, her eyes were suddenly filled with pity.

Xiang Xu did not know what she was imagining, but he saw her call out “Sister Wen” and summon a woman around thirty-five, who looked like a very seasoned staff member.

“He is the boy from yesterday. Today, he wants to find books for learning pinyin.”

“It really is you!” Sister Wen looked at him with a mix of surprise and delight. “Let me tell you, our boss was furious yesterday! Xiao Zhou has already been fired. The boss even blamed us for not handling the compensation properly. He wanted to apologize to you in person, but unfortunately, he is not here today.”

“Speaking of which…” Sister Wen signaled to the cashier at the front desk.

“Oh, right! I almost forgot!” The cashier immediately pulled five green vouchers from the cabinet and shoved them into Xiang Xu’s hand.

“The boss said the bill for you and that gentleman yesterday had to be waived. Since that gentleman refused to take them, we have to convert them into vouchers for you.”

Xiang Xu stared blankly at the five vouchers, each worth 300, in his hand. Adding the three from before, he now had eight, a massive fortune of 2,400 yuan!

To him, this was nothing short of a windfall. Although these vouchers could only be used for books, at least it would save him a significant amount.

While the boss’s taste in employees was questionable, he was quite thoughtful toward his customers. As for apologizing in person, Xiang Xu felt that was completely unnecessary; as long as the money arrived, he was satisfied.

The vouchers instantly swept away Xiang Xu’s dissatisfaction with the bookstore’s pricing and the small unpleasantness from the day before.

“Come, I will take you to find the books. Pinyin primer, right? Come, walk this way.” Sister Wen guided Xiang Xu gently. She led him up the stairs, weaving through the bookshelves. Along the way, she was considerately checking if he might trip or if he was interested in other books. Whenever she noticed his gaze lingering on something, she would immediately step forward to introduce it.

This made Xiang Xu feel somewhat embarrassed, so he tried his best to restrain his curiosity and kept his gaze fixed on his own toes.

“Do not feel embarrassed. This is what we should do. It is my honor to introduce these books, which contain human wisdom, to our customers!”

Her words were articulate, and she was very observant. Xiang Xu nodded to himself.

“This is the initial intention of our boss for opening this bookstore. He hopes these excellent works can be appreciated by more people. Even though this bookstore is the one that loses the most money among the boss’s businesses, he will continue to run it!”

But your books are really expensive.

Although what she said was admirable, Xiang Xu could not help but complain in his heart.

As if his thoughts were written all over his face, Sister Wen smiled and said, “The pricing is because the boss feels they are worth it. For most of these books, he invited the authors to rewrite the forewords and had them rebound. You could say they are unique treasures in the market. Besides, if the price is high, readers will cherish the books more!”

Xiang Xu felt her reasoning had merit, but he still had a nagging feeling that he was being brainwashed.

“Furthermore, our bookstore provides a wonderful environment for many customers. Many people do not even buy books; they just come to our shop to take photos. They gain a good mood, which is also very nice, is it not?”

Sister Wen’s circular logic was very polished; she was indeed a veteran.

Xiang Xu snapped back to reality and realized this was merely a tactic to win people over for the sake of the store’s reputation. Sister Wen’s eloquence would have made her a master strategist in their Yin Dynasty.

Seeing his gradually indifferent expression, Sister Wen laughed, though Xiang Xu did not know what she was laughing at.

He heard her voice drift over again: “Our boss is going to have a headache now…”

“By the way, this one is not bad!” Before Xiang Xu could be confused, she had already changed the subject and pulled down a sample book.

Xiang Xu flipped through it, then took out the notes he had prepared. He flipped through them one by one and showed one to Sister Wen.

“Do you want something even simpler?” Sister Wen said, while her eyes darted to try and steal a glimpse of what else was written on his other notes.

Xiang Xu noticed her little trick and immediately covered the notes with his hand against his chest.

“You are so well-prepared. It seems you have been burned before.” Sister Wen sighed with a smile, then searched the bookshelf again to find something even more basic for him.

Xiang Xu flipped through it and shook his head, then pointed to the hand Sister Wen was using to hold the note.

“You want something even simpler?!” Sister Wen was surprised, but she went to look for him anyway.

They spent a long time finding books this way. By the time Xiang Xu finally nodded and held his books with joy as if they were treasures, Sister Wen was too surprised to speak.

Even though those were for learning pinyin, but…

“Is there anything else you need?” Professionalism kept Sister Wen from showing too much surprise.

Xiang Xu shook his head. He had found the most suitable books and was already content.

When he went to the front desk to settle the bill, the cashier girl’s eyes widened as she saw what books he had bought. The sympathy and pity in her eyes deepened, and she had to struggle hard not to shed tears.

She asked nothing, silently checking out his books and deducting the vouchers. The two of them watched his back as he departed.

“Does he have little children at home? Why did he buy preschool pinyin flashcards?” Seeing the cashier girl’s moved expression, Sister Wen assumed she knew some inside story and couldn’t help asking.

The cashier girl wiped her moist eyes. “He is making up for a childhood that lacked the conditions for learning. How pitiful…”

Sister Wen’s eyes went wide. She looked at the glass door where Xiang Xu’s back had disappeared, then at the cashier girl’s touched expression, brainstorming an explanation for everything.

“It is over!” Sister Wen slapped her forehead, saying with a headache, “The boss originally said he wanted to apologize just to be polite, but now he really will come to find him to apologize.”

There were two things their boss had in abundance.

One was money.

The other was empathy.

Xiang Xu returned to the noodle shop with the lucky cat from yesterday, spent 14 yuan to eat two bowls of noodles, handed over two banknotes, received one coin in change, and returned to the park where he exercised yesterday.

Sitting on the same bench, he held the preschool pinyin flashcards and began to flip through them like a man who had discovered treasure.

The cards were made of stiff cardboard, each page featuring exquisite and easy-to-understand patterns. In the bottom left corner were large pinyin characters, and in the bottom right, children’s songs composed of those sounds.

This set of cards was too childish for elementary school students, but it was just right for Xiang Xu! He only needed to memorize them, as he could not comprehend anything too complex yet.

So, he sat on the chair and tried to read aloud.

“a—I am a, open your mouth wide aaa… o—I am o, the rooster crows ooo…”

Some passersby scanned this person with strange looks. Seeing him so earnestly immersed in the ocean of knowledge, they just glanced and walked away, feeling a bit puzzled.

Although the pinyin was quite convenient, he was still confused about the tones on the side.

Just as he was knitting his brows and struggling to figure them out, the light in front of him was blocked by something.

He looked up and saw a little girl, standing almost as tall as he was while he sat, blocking his way with a pout.

She was wearing a blue princess dress, one foot on a scooter, holding the handlebars with both hands, and looking down at him.

“Big brother, are you learning pinyin?”

That was indeed the case, so Xiang Xu nodded.

“Do you need me to teach you? Grandpa taught me when I was very little!”

Xiang Xu had once been forced to tutor young princes and princesses visiting from other countries, so he knew that children always had their own set of logic to explain things they did not understand. Perhaps his behavior seemed a bit eccentric to others, leading them to ask prying questions, but a child would only think that being able to teach an adult made them very impressive.

He nodded.

So, the little girl parked her scooter to the side, sat down next to Xiang Xu, and pointed at the cards with her small finger, leading him to read aloud.

With this teacher leading the way, Xiang Xu’s learning speed became much smoother. However, every time he memorized a page and flipped it, the little girl would mutter discontentedly, “It cannot be that fast, it cannot be that fast! If it were my grandpa, he would have hit your hand!”

Xiang Xu had an excellent memory. Furthermore, he did not recognize the pinyin, but he already knew how to speak the language; his learning was merely a process of matching the written form of the pinyin to the pronunciations he already had in his brain.

After going through it once from beginning to end, the little girl jumped off the chair in a rush and began hopping around in front of him. “Wrong! Wrong! Too fast! Grandpa! Grandpa, come quickly! This big brother is disobedient!”

This time, it was Xiang Xu’s turn to be stunned.

What does she mean? Why is she suddenly calling for backup? Just because he memorized it quickly?

Having just experienced being scammed yesterday, Xiang Xu was filled with anxiety about this situation. Especially as the girl’s shouting attracted the attention of many passersby, the scene looked exactly like the day before.

Xiang Xu grabbed his flashcards and intended to slip away, but the girl grabbed his clothes and kept shouting for “Grandpa.”

“I am coming, I am coming! Who is bullying my granddaughter?” A deep, booming voice echoed from behind, followed by the sound of vigorous, steady footsteps approaching.

Xiang Xu turned his head and saw a half-white-haired old man in a Tai Chi uniform walking toward them quickly with a face full of fury.

Although the old man looked to be nearly seventy, he was full of vigor with a steady, light gait. One could vaguely see the lean but hard muscles beneath his loose Tai Chi uniform. His imposing, charging posture left no doubt that he could kill a cow with one punch.

The old man walked up to them, full of rage. But as he lowered his head and saw the boy looking at him with an innocent and timid expression, more than half of his anger vanished.

“Huanhuan, let him go first and let Grandpa ask him…”

“Grandpa, he is not listening! Help me hit him!” The girl was still young and insisted on finding a reason for the things she believed, and she was determined to have Grandpa teach Xiang Xu a lesson.

When his granddaughter said this, the old man’s dissipated anger flared up again, almost convinced that Xiang Xu must have bullied his granddaughter.