For some reason, Mu Lin felt a little sad.
Although Qin Zishu's dominance made her a little uncomfortable, after all, his senior brother who cared for her wholeheartedly was about to be snatched away by a gentle and beautiful woman...
Well, after thinking about it carefully, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages - when her senior brother gets married, no one will control her anymore! What is the air of freedom and the ultimate happiness? This is it!
Qin Zishu first took a nap for an hour, and then spent three hours helping Mu Lin finish the rest of his homework. It was just past noon.
As the sun sets, Mu Lin takes a stack of homework and checks it one by one, finding no mistakes.
"Brother, how did you manage to imitate my handwriting so closely? Not to mention that the teachers can't recognize it, I can't even tell it apart..."
Qin Zishu smiled and said, "I taught you calligraphy step by step. If you read it more, you will learn it naturally."
Mu Lin thought that this might be the difference between a genius and an ordinary person.
After all, she had practiced calligraphy for a hundred years under the pressure of her master, and had developed her own style. Although she had lost her skills when she came to the human world, she still had her memories. From unfamiliar to proficient, she practiced calligraphy over and over again. With a foundation, Mu Lin thought she wrote well, but she didn't expect that her senior brother could imitate her perfectly after watching her for a few days.
Is it so easy to imitate? Is it so easy
As he thought about it, Mu Lin lost interest in reading it. He checked it briefly to make sure it was OK, and put it on the desk, waiting to be handed in tomorrow.
"Brother, I want to go to the Lantern Festival tonight. Do you want to join me?"
"Are you really inviting me?"
"Of course." Mu Lin looked back and smiled.
"It is better to obey than to be respectful."
"When the moon was above the willows, the brothers changed into casual clothes, covered with fox fur cloaks, one black and one white, and went out together.
"Nowadays, there is no nightfall. All temples are decorated with lanterns and colorful decorations. The lot is for the ominous Ao, and the figures on the terraces are like paintings... and the lanterns are raced."
The streets were lined with small stalls, each with red lanterns hanging high above, selling Lantern Festival specialties and various small items. Mu Lin walked happily, pulling Qin Zishu along, stopping here and there, lingering here and there, and Qin Zishu just smiled and indulged her.
"The traditional customs of the Lantern Festival include going out to admire the moon, lighting lanterns and fireworks, guessing lantern riddles, eating Lantern Festival dumplings together, and pulling rabbit lanterns. Can we do them one by one?"
"It's up to you."
Qin Zishu touched Mu Lin's head lovingly, his smile was like the breeze and the bright moon, like ice and snow melting, and in an instant, spring was endless. Mu Lin was dazzled by his smile, and vaguely realized that this was the first time he showed his youthful and heroic side in front of her.
Her heart skipped a beat uncontrollably.
No matter when or where she is, she is easily seduced by beauty. Mu Lin despised himself and suppressed the strange thoughts in his heart.
No matter how approachable Qin Zishu looked, his aristocratic arrogance would not change in the slightest. Correspondingly, his dominance and control made it impossible for her, who was also strong-willed, to get along with him harmoniously, let alone the idea of treating each other with respect and harmony - it was purely a fantasy.
At the end of the sight, a hexagonal palace lantern hangs high up. It is made of carved bamboo as the frame, inlaid with colorful light-colored gauze, painted with mountains and rivers, inlaid with colored glaze and jade, and each of the six corners is adorned with a string of crystal clear white jade beads, which is elegant and gorgeous.
Mu Lin's eyes lit up slightly, and she headed towards the most crowded place under the lanterns. Qin Zishu naturally saw what she was thinking, and held her hand tightly to prevent them from being separated by the crowd.
When they came forward, they found that the six-sided palace lantern was the lucky charm of the famous Zhuangyuan Building. The owner of Zhuangyuan Building was smiling and stroking his beard on the stage, bowing to the audience.
"Thank you all for coming. I'm sure you all have seen the six-sided mountain and river palace lantern above your head. It's called 'Thousands of Mountains and Rivers' and is magnificent, exquisite and elegant. It was made by a retired master craftsman from the imperial palace. It's a gift of thousands of miles of mountains and rivers to the destined person."
As he said this, the host clapped his hands, and servants came out one after another holding eighteen lanterns, each with a row of ink characters on it.
"Everyone, for every lantern riddle you answer correctly, you will receive a piece of marigold paper. Whoever can guess all the lantern riddles first and collect all 18 pieces of marigold paper will receive the lantern of 'Ten Thousand Mountains and Rivers'!"
There was a small commotion among the crowd. Bailuzhou was a cultural state with a strong atmosphere of reading. Fengyan Town was next to Baihu Academy, and there were countless talented people. A brick fell and knocked out ten people, nine of whom were well-read in the books of sages, so many confident people came forward to guess the riddle.
Qin Zishu looked at her with a smile, "Yizhen, is it okay for Senior Brother to win the palace lantern for you?"
"No need. Yizhen will fight for what he wants. Brother, we just need to rely on our own abilities."
Mu Lin took a step forward and prepared to guess the riddle.
Qin Zishu's brows were slightly frowned, but then he thought that today was the fifteenth day of the lunar month, and making her happy was the most important thing, so he indulged her.
Suddenly, Mu Lin looked towards the west side of the stage with a sense of something, and met a pair of narrow and long phoenix eyes. The middle-aged man had a handsome appearance, wearing a light blue robe, gently waving a feather fan, with a unique leisurely and contented demeanor, and was very amiable to watch.
The man saw Mu Lin looking straight at him, smiled and nodded slightly, looking quite amiable.
Mu Lin was slightly puzzled, as she had never seen this person before. Qin Zishu followed her gaze and looked over, slightly surprised. He whispered to Mu Lin, "This is Principal Zhang, Zhang Wanli." Then he led her to perform a student salute from a distance.
Zhang Wanli nodded and then looked away.
As his name suggests, Zhang Wanli firmly believed that "reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles", and he spent most of the year traveling at public expense. He was always in charge of the academy, and his legend had been passed down, but few people had ever seen him. What's more, there was a class of unlucky students who only met Zhang Wanli once after graduation. It is said that one senior was so moved that he cried at that time.
It was obvious that Zhang Wanli was also the one who went on stage to guess the riddle. Most of the students in recent years had never seen him, so it was a surprise that Qin Zishu recognized him.
Paper and pens were already prepared on the stage. The two of them went on stage at the same time and guessed riddles together with the headmaster and other talented scholars.
"The moonlight shines in front of the window during the Lantern Festival. Guess a word."
Mu Lin wrote the word "one".
The "moonlight" and "window (roof)" of the word "Yuanxiao" fell off, leaving the "one". The first question was the simplest, and many people wrote it down after a little thought. After the servant looked at it, he also readily distributed the flower paper to those who answered correctly.
"Lantern Festival, guess an idiom."
Mu Lin and Qin Zishu smiled at each other, and everything was said without words. Just now they were discussing this idiom, "a day and a night", and wrote down their thoughts in a flourish.
"Clouds cover the Mid-Autumn moon, and rain soaks the lanterns of the Lantern Festival. Guess an idiom."
Mu Lin pondered for a moment. This proverb means that if the bright moon is blocked by clouds on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, then there will be continuous spring rain around the Lantern Festival next year, and the Lantern Festival lanterns will be soaked. The "falling" in the answer refers to the "falling rain", and the "Lantern Festival lanterns" are naturally "unknown" when they are soaked by rain.
Whereabouts unknown!
Mu Lin suddenly understood. Before she put pen to paper, she glanced at Qin Zishu and saw that he had already put down his pen. It seemed that he had guessed the riddle before her. Mu Lin felt a little nervous.
"Returning home together during the Lantern Festival, guess an idiom."
The popular choice!
This question is actually a little simpler than the previous one. Mu Lin is quick-witted and was the first to write down the answer.
…
Soon it was time for the last three lanterns to be guessed. Four people came together under the third-to-last lantern. One of them was Principal Zhang, and the other was a senior student at Tianji Academy, Zhang Zeyun, who was known as a child prodigy.
The others were still solving the previous questions. Some were thinking hard, with worried faces; some were scratching their ears and banging their heads.
Seeing all kinds of people makes you laugh until you spit out your food.
"The wedding date is set after the Lantern Festival. Guess an idiom."
Overjoyed!
"Wang" can also be interpreted as "Wangri", which means the fifteenth day of every lunar month. Mu Lin answered this kind of simple common sense question very quickly.
"Under the rustling of the endless falling leaves, type a word."
This is very difficult. Mu Lin thought about it for a long time but couldn't come up with any idea. He frowned slightly and finally decided to look at the last puzzle first.
This is a lantern riddle couplet. The first line is: A white snake crosses the river with a red sun above its head.
This is even harder than the previous one. It seems the owner has some skills.
Zhang Zeyun and Mu Lin were both clueless. They exchanged glances and smiled bitterly at the same time. At this time, Qin Zishu had already answered the second to last question and walked over to stand in front of Mu Lin, blocking Zhang Zeyun's view.
Zhang Zeyun couldn't figure out anything and turned his head back to continue thinking hard.
At this time, Zhang Wanli also finished answering the previous question and walked over. After thinking for a while, he wrote down the answer with a stroke of his pen.
Second line: The black dragon climbs up the wall, covered with thousands of golden stars.
The servant was puzzled and didn't know whether it was right or not, so he called the host to help him judge.
The owner of Zhuangyuan Building bowed and said, "I hope Mr. Zhang can give me some advice."
The host obviously knew Zhang Wanli. After hearing his words, almost everyone looked up at Zhang Wanli. Zhang Zeyun was so excited that his face flushed. He obviously regarded this headmaster as an idol. The others were either in admiration, or surprised, or fanatical... This is how celebrities are treated, Mu Lin thought thoughtfully.
Zhang Wanli stroked his beard and explained with a smile: "The answer to the first line is oil lamp, and the answer to the second line is scale."
"A white snake crosses the river, with a red sun above its head" - oil lamp. The white cotton thread is used as the wick, which is likened to the "white snake", the oil is likened to the "river", and the flame after lighting is likened to the "red sun"; "A black dragon climbs the wall, with thousands of golden stars on its body" - scale. The shape and color of the scale bar resembles a "black dragon", and the scale marks on the scale bar are likened to "stars".
Everyone then suddenly realized what was going on and were amazed at how talented the headmaster was!
The result of the competition was finally revealed. Zhang Shanzhang of Baihu Academy defeated all the other candidates and became the winner of "Ten Thousand Mountains and Rivers".
Taking the palace lantern, Zhang Wanli sighed and shook his head, "If it was twenty years ago, I would have accepted it calmly. Now that I am over fifty years old, how can I have the nerve to bully children?"
After that, he casually handed it to Qin Zishu, who was closest to him, and said with a smile: "It's great to be young. You kids... go and play with it."
"Thank you, Principal." Qin Zishu was not surprised by the praise or criticism and thanked politely.
This immediately attracted countless envious glances. Especially Zhang Zeyun, whose eyes were almost glued to the palace lantern, with a look of disappointment that could not be hidden. Why didn't he stand closer to the headmaster? Why didn't he get the palace lantern that the headmaster personally gave him
Qin Zishu, who had no idea of Zhang Zeyun's feelings, handed the palace lantern to Mu Lin as soon as he stepped down from the stage. Just like that, he gave away the treasure won by the headmaster without any reluctance and in a very natural manner.
"Yizhen, Senior Brother got it for you."