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Just across the street from the Imperial palace lay a quaint little teahouse. Though small, its interior decorations seemed elegant and refined. After attending to state affairs, many Ministers liked to come here to savor tea and listen to music, dispelling the fatigue of the day. However, the cost of tea here was firmly three times higher than at other teahouses.
What surprised Mo Yan most was that the Shopkeeper and the few Waiters all had a determined look, and they moved with a robust vigor, hardly resembling a Shopkeeper or Waiters at all. Moreover, each of them had some form of disability; the Shopkeeper lacked legs below the knee and could only walk with crutches, the tea master who brewed the tea was missing a right leg and had lost his left eye, and even the Waiter who served the tea could only carry a tray with his left hand while a loose sleeve dangled emptily where his right hand should have been.