The book starts off with a boy that ran away from his family named Rendi. He left without getting caught by sneaking into a merchant’s moving cart wagon. As he got off, he got caught by an innkeeper that decided to make him a chore boy to keep him safe. Innkeeper Master Chao introduces Rendi to his daughter, Peiyi, who is the first friend he makes as a chore boy. Rendi questions her at first, asking her why she has the “Wang” symbol painted on her forehead. She tells him she has it to protect herself during the Day of Five Poisons. It is usually on the fifth day of the fifth month in the lunar year when diseases would spread quickly and the five noxious animals, the centipede, toad, scorpion, snake, and spider would come to terrorize the people. People would drink wine to protect themselves, but people underage like Peiyi have to have the “Wang” symbol drawn on their forehead. As the book goes on, he meets the regulars that stay at the inn and he learns about Peiyi’s family through the many stories told by Peiyi. Throughout the whole book, he is told stories with the fair exchange that he tells his own stories as well. He was forced to tell stories after losing a bet with one of Peiyi’s friends, Meilan. Meilan was able to make Rendi laugh with one of her own stories, winning the bet. Rendi noticed and mourned the disappearance of the moon when he was there. He was told many stories about the moon and sun and tried to figure out why the moon disappeared through those stories. Later on, he was doing chores outside of the inn when two travelers kidnapped him because of his resemblance to the Magistrate. They decided to stay at the inn for a bit until the regulars and owners of the inn scared them away, saving Rendi. Rendi goes out during the night and he sees what appears to be the noxious toad, but he sees that the toad is in pain more than anything because of something in his stomach. He gives something to the toad which made him change into a human that also made the moon appear. After some time Rendi realized the human was Peiyi’s brother and they showed the moon that had been missing to the people at the inn. Everyone reconciles and Madame Chang, one of the customers, puts the moon back. I liked the overall plot of the book but I did not like all of the storytelling. Something to keep in mind while reading it is that the stories help foreshadow what will happen next. Overall, it was a pleasant read for me.
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