65 Lantern
Meimei saw the queen move slightly on the couch, and several maids came forward to serve her. She simply climbed up and saw Yu'er bring a maid over, bringing warm water and hot tea, helping her wash her face and rinse her mouth. Another maid brought a mirror to help her adjust her clothes and makeup. After a while, a eunuch went to the outer room to report:
"Your Majesty: The Queen is up!"
"Well, what about the other one?"
"The wife of Marquis Weiyuan has also woken up and is dressing up..."
"Please ask the Queen and the wife of Marquis Weiyuan to come out. I and Marquis Weiyuan have been waiting for them for a long time! The children are all outside. After dinner, we will go to the garden to enjoy the lanterns and guess lantern riddles. Then we will go out of the palace and climb up to Shenghua Tower to enjoy the lights all over the city. I want to bring the Queen and the prince to have fun with all the people!"
After coming out of Kunning Palace, Meimei stayed with Xu Junying and they were not separated. When they walked out of the Imperial Garden, they saw the King of Qi, the Queen of Qi, Princess Sude and a group of people waiting there with the Queen Mother. The royal family members greeted each other, and then the ministers greeted the Emperor, Empress and Queen Mother. The Emperor smiled and waved his hand:
"I said that today the emperor, his subjects and his subjects should all have fun together. No need to be formal, let's have fun together!"
Amid the laughter of the ministers and ladies of the imperial court, Xu Junying and Meimei greeted the King of Qi and his wife. The King of Qi said nothing, did not smile, and did not look at Xu Junying, but raised his hand to touch the pink face of Heng'er in his arms. Heng'er had learned some etiquette when he entered the palace, and knew to greet people, so he called out, "My lord!"
Lin Runan chuckled and teased him: "Heng'er, what about me? How do you call me?"
Heng'er said: "Auntie..."
"Stop!" King Qi pinched Heng'er's face and turned her to look at him: "Call her mother from now on, understand? I am the father!"
"Your Highness the Prince of Qi! Please don't teach my son a lesson!" Meimei glared at the Prince of Qi.
The King of Qi laughed and said, "Go ask Lord Xu - I have three conditions, this is only the first one!"
He waved his hand at Heng'er and said, "My dear son, I've found the right person. I'll give you a lantern to play with later!"
After saying this, he walked towards the Queen Mother with his hands behind his back and head raised. Halfway through, he found that Lin Runan had not followed him, so he said coldly:
"Why don't you come over here soon?"
Lin Runan rolled her eyes at him, and Meimei asked worriedly, "Are you guys still fighting?"
"I don't fight when I'm awake, but sometimes I fight when I'm dreaming!"
Lin Runan took the opportunity to talk to Meimei, not caring about Xu Junying anymore, her eyes slightly red: "It's already like this, I don't care about anything else, I'll just do as you say..."
The King of Qi refused to let Lin Runan and Meimei talk any more, and turned back. Lin Runan flicked his sleeves and went to meet them: "Here we go, Your Majesty, let's go!"
Meimei stared at the two of them pretending to be a loving couple as Lin Runan tried to help them walk away. Xu Junying unhappily reached out and turned her face back:
"I told you not to bother with them anymore, and stop giving them random ideas!"
"I didn't!" Meimei turned around and settled the score with him: "Did you really give Heng'er to him as your son?"
"I didn't agree! I told you I had to ask, but he made the decision. What if Meimei really wants it? Those three conditions..."
Meimei thought for a moment and said, "Let's just leave it like this! He recognizes his son, and we won't say we will give him to him or not. Our son is ours, and he will be raised in our family. When he grows up, he will know who is close to him and who is distant from him. We can all pretend to be confused, and it will be a mess. No one will lose out anyway!"
Xu Junying smiled and said, "Okay, I'll listen to you!"
The family accompanied the emperor, empress, princess, prince, concubines, ministers and ladies of honor to visit the garden to enjoy the lanterns and guess riddles. The lanterns in the palace were truly exquisite, and each one was breathtakingly beautiful. No matter whether they were auspicious beasts, colorful birds, or people, they were all made to be lifelike. When hung up, the colors were bright and gorgeous. When lit, they made the surroundings as bright as day. Some of them even rotated non-stop. Meimei was dazzled by the sight. A jade rabbit lantern that jumped up and down leisurely attracted Heng'er's attention, and he insisted on moving it back home. Xu Junying said, "If we move it back home, this place will be empty. What will others see?" Heng'er scratched his head and said nothing, and didn't let them go. As a result, the whole family stayed guarding the rabbit lantern, with two adults accompanying the child, and looked at it enough. The emperor looked back and sent someone to urge them to leave.
Meimei has enjoyed the modern Lantern Festival. The lanterns that were crudely made in factory workshops, put together in groups, and controlled by fire and electricity to light up and show their effects are really incomparable to the exquisite antique lanterns in front of her, which can be called true works of art. Not to mention Heng'er, even she wanted to take one home and put it in the yard. They are really beautiful!
Meimei was quite good at guessing riddles, at least better than Xu Junying. Every time she guessed a riddle, she would get an exquisite item made in the palace as a reward. The most common items were small ornaments from Sizhenfang. Later, Meimei found a place where she could take the lantern away if she guessed the riddle on it. She was excited for a long time, but her brain got hot and it didn't work. She couldn't think of the answer no matter how hard she tried. The riddles were written in ancient poetry, and the meanings of the words were profound and difficult to understand. She didn't choose the Chinese department when she went to college, but she attended Chinese classes for some purpose. At that time, the professor taught classical Chinese. It was all thanks to that period of forced learning that people who couldn't understand traditional Chinese characters could learn to read account books and some simpler books in this world by guessing. It's really too difficult to guess riddles now. Simple ones are fine, but it's really hard to get a palace lantern!
Said to Heng'er: "Just take a look, let's go!"
Unexpectedly, Heng'er saw someone taking away the bright and beautiful lanterns. He was extremely envious and unwilling to leave, pointing at the lanterns and complaining.
Meimei was at a loss, Xu Junying touched Heng'er's head and said with a smile: "This lamp is not worth the money, why don't you give it up? Let's go out of the palace and pick one on the street later?"
Meimei turned her head around to look at the people around her. Xu Junying asked, "What are you looking at?"
"Find out where my brother is and ask him to come over and get a lamp for Heng'er!"
Xu Junying pulled her closer and said, "You saw it on her face! Do you want people to misunderstand you?"
"Go! I'm not that boring!"
Xu Junying smiled and leaned close to her ear: "Let's guess seriously? If husband and wife are of one mind, maybe we can guess it right, and it will make Heng'er happy!"
"All right!"
The two of them calmed down, and Meimei asked Heng'er to pick one. The little guy still picked the rabbit lantern. Meimei took a look and took a breath: she didn't recognize all the traditional Chinese characters, and the riddle on the rabbit lantern was written in cursive script. She couldn't understand it no matter how she looked at it. She had to ask Xu Junying to read the riddle, and read it twice. Xu Junying suddenly thought of this question while reading. Knowing that Meimei didn't recognize many characters correctly, she smiled and asked her: "You didn't only understand half of the letter I wrote to you a while ago?"
Meimei looked at him twice and glared at him: "Look down on me! As long as the handwriting is good and clear, I can always recognize it. Your handwriting looks like it was carved with a knife, who can't read it? As for the words on this lantern, I don't know what kind of calligraphy master wrote it, I can't guess it!"
Seeing Meimei's half-embarrassed and uncomfortable expression, Xu Junying wanted to reach out and hug her to comfort her. Seeing that the emperor, empress, and a large group of people were standing there guessing riddles, he just squeezed her hand and said softly:
"That's all right! I'll read a few more for you, and we can guess slowly. Just treat it as a game. It doesn't matter if you can't guess it right. If you meet the champion scholar later, you can ask him to bring a lamp to Heng'er!"
Meimei smiled and nodded, and the two of them lingered in front of the row of lanterns like shadows. Xu Junying was still holding Heng'er's hand. After relaxing, Meimei's brain worked better again, and Xu Junying was not stupid either. The couple analyzed the riddle one after another, and actually guessed the answer at the same time. Heng'er finally got the rabbit lantern that he liked. He was so happy that he jumped and laughed, which attracted the little prince who was held in the palace maid's arms to look over. When he saw Heng'er's excitement, he stared and shouted non-stop.
The emperor was not convinced. He had seen Xu Junying and his wife refusing to move and insisting on guessing the lantern riddle. They actually got a lantern for Heng'er. The emperor also asked the queen to guess together. He was bound to win a lantern for the prince and the two princesses. It was very easy for the children of the royal family to get lanterns. But for the sake of fairness, the emperor had to make a show of it, both to share the joy with the people and to set rules. It would only take a while, and he would let his family members insist on it. When the occasion was over, they could get any lantern they wanted. At this time, seeing Xu Junying and his wife guessing the lantern for their son, he was jealous of them and wanted to get the lantern for the prince with his own ability.
When the emperor spoke, everyone cheered and waited. The emperor and empress were in front, followed by the virtuous concubine, the beautiful concubine, the chaste concubine, and a dozen other concubines. How could anyone guess what was going on? In addition to the little emperor's cries, the two little princesses were also shouting:
"Father, I want the Eagle Lamp!"
"Mother, I want the lamb lantern!"
"I don't want an eagle lantern anymore. I want a lotus lantern that can spin!"
The emperor was overwhelmed. He turned around and frowned at the group of beautiful girls around him. Then he glanced sideways at Xu Junying and his family of three, who were leaning on each other and quietly enjoying the rabbit lanterns. They looked relaxed and comfortable, and indescribably sweet and warm. Xu Junying would glance in their direction from time to time, as if he was watching the fun. The emperor felt so angry that his teeth were itching: There has been nothing to do recently. Xu Junying, you are living too comfortably, aren't you
The Queen had seen all the answers to the lantern riddles. She was a smart woman who could remember everything she read, let alone hundreds of lantern riddles. In order to pretend to be more convincing, she deliberately took a long time to guess one and got the lotus lantern that the Grand Princess wanted. The Emperor was overjoyed and picked up the Grand Princess, holding her hand to take the lantern:
"My dear daughter, take it! Are you satisfied? Thank you, mother!"
Then he guessed the eagle lantern. The emperor smiled from ear to ear and stepped forward to hold the queen's shoulders: "My queen is so smart!"
The last guess was the buffalo lantern that the prince pointed at casually. The queen said, "This riddle, in my opinion, is related to this lantern!"
The emperor said, "It's just a cow!"
The eunuch in charge of the riddles bowed and said, "Congratulations, Your Majesty! You guessed it right!"
The emperor thought to himself: Congratulations! Instead of hanging a dragon lantern, my prince actually specifically asked for a cow!
Seeing the prince getting the lantern was also a happy moment. He just felt happy when he saw the King of Qi standing beside him with a half-smile. Thinking of his childhood experience of raising cattle, he felt annoyed and left in anger. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets on Qidian. Your support is my greatest motivation.) (To be continued)