greetings from gusu! i was recently in suzhou, otherwise known as gusu, so i thought i'd share some photos of emperor's smile since it's in practically every single alcohol shop there is on the touristy streets (pingjiang and shantang):

i call this one short king lwj bc the angle of the art makes him look shorter than wwx

the text reads: "emperor's smile! here, I'll give you a jar. pretend you didn't see me, okay?" (my trans.)

this shop had an offer where you get one piece of mdzs merch if you buy emperor's smile from them. it's really not worth it lmfao. emperor's smile was made up by mxtx, so it's not a local tradition, and also it tastes nauseatingly sweet. wwx would never tolerate something like that

i have mutuals who have dnfed this book and i'm mostly sure it's because of the writing style, but i'd argue that's my favorite part of it so far. idk historically, i'm a shakespeare hater because of having to read his plays in high school, but it's been really interesting to read about some of what his life was like outside of his fame.