The firecrackers rang continuously, and the lights were like dragons. According to the custom of the Wu Dynasty, the lanterns will be on in the city on the thirteenth day of the first lunar month. On the seventeenth of the first lunar month, the lights will be lit for five days. The city dances with dragons and lions. Various lantern festivals and poetry festivals have begun to be active again, which are still larger than the scale of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The liveliness of this night was not like the fireworks of the Poetry Festival on the Mid-Autumn Festival night, but more of the party atmosphere that has not been completed since the end of the New Year. If it is said that on the Mid-Autumn Festival night, people prefer to appreciate the book atmosphere of the literati, and they are more happy. Seen in the style of many idol competitions. On the first night of the Yuan Dynasty, people paid more attention to the celebration of themselves, their families, relatives and friends, eating Lantern Festival, guessing lantern riddles, and visiting the night market. Then, they paid attention to the Yanyu Tower where the literati were.
The reasons for this situation are complicated. Heavy snow blocks roads, fewer merchants and pedestrians in the past, and some students who traveled to study returned to their hometowns a few years ago... There are still various gatherings about poetry, but they are not as clear-cut as the Mid-Autumn Festival every year. Puyuan Poetry Festival and Zhishui Poetry Festival are not officially held in Shangyuan. This night is usually performed by students from Lichuan Academy. Lichuan is actually the official school in Jiangning. If it weren’t for the influence of Pan House’s holding of Zhishui Poetry Festival on the Mid-Autumn Festival, The quality of their students should be the highest.
Of course, even if many formal poetry festivals are not held, there are still plenty of banquets for the literati to go to to exchange some masterpieces of the new year. Poetry and classmates are stealing the limelight. In short, this night is more about the festive atmosphere since the end of the year.
After the night fell, it was bustling. When the bell rang at Hai Shi (9 o'clock in the evening), Ning Yi and Xiao Chan were eating dumplings at the food stall near Zhuque Street, surrounded by lanterns with various lantern riddles, which illuminated the entire market. like daytime.
In the evening, Ning Yi and Su Tan'er accompanied Su Boyong to a dinner party at the Shijiao family's house in the Yisu Mansion. After the basic etiquette was done, Su Tan'er and Ning Yi said goodbye, saying that the young couple went to Zhuque Street for a walk. Of course it's not all about that.
Several shopkeepers under Su Tan'er were discussing business in the nearby Mingxiu Building this evening. Su Tan'er was concerned about the result, so after a little play on the road, she went to a small teahouse opposite Mingxiu Building to find a table and sat down. Listening to the singing in the teahouse while waiting for the result. Ning Yi listened to her for a while, and when the young shopkeeper named Xi Junyu came to report the preliminary results, he also got up and prepared to walk around for a while.
"Wander around Suzaku Street to see what's delicious, and try a little of each."
"Remember to bring back some for your concubine."
Su Tan'er smiled sweetly and told him this, and then Xiao Chan followed, and when she went downstairs, she looked back, Su Tan'er had turned into a calm look, and the young shopkeeper talking. Since Su Tan'er also led him to various shops in the Su family around the New Year, Ning Yi, the shopkeeper of the Xi family, has also met several times. He has ambition and ability, but he is sharp and not restrained enough, but he is also quite outstanding. . This reminded Ning Yi that when he was young many years ago, he had also seen many such young people, who had friends and rivals, but in the end, what surprised him the most was Tang Mingyuan, who had always been indecisive and followed behind him. When you think about it, it's a bit ironic.
Not long after, he and Xiaochan tasted it near Suzaku Street along the route of the food stalls. There is still unmelted snow on both sides of the road, and there is wind blowing near the Qinhuai River, but it is not cold. The whole street is full of heat, with dragon and lion dances, lanterns juggling, and the heat rising from the stoves of various vendors. Xiaochan couldn't eat much, so she bought a small lantern and carried it in her hand. On the lantern was a pattern of a cat. Of course, the cat had the word "King" painted on its forehead, so it was assumed that it was a tiger.
"Uncle, how do you solve the lantern riddle of the candied Huanglian?"
"Could it be that we share weal and woe?"
"Uncle and uncle, young woman with yellow silk, what is the grandson Jiujiu?"
"Oh, it's difficult if you don't know it. Cao Cao asked Yang Xiu, and the answer is a wonderful answer."
"Uncle, there's something very difficult here, one shape and one body, four branches and eight heads. One-eighth-five-eight, Feiquan Yangliu... What is this..."
"… how could I know."
"So uncle doesn't know either..."
"Did you guess the first two correctly? Did you ask?"
"Grandpa is right."
"...Come and eat glutinous rice balls... After eating glutinous rice balls, I will tell you it's a tic tac toe."
"Oh, it turned out to be tic tac toe."
I can't really lose my temper towards Xiaochan. I ate a few glutinous rice balls and then moved to the next stall. The spiced beans in this stall is Xiaochan's favorite. I bought a half-porcelain cup and ate it slowly. , said thoughtlessly: "Miss is actually very tired."
"Um?"
"Just now... The young lady was in the teahouse just now, and my uncle was about to leave. Actually, my uncle knows a lot of things, right?"
That little face was a little serious, Ning Yi thought about it, and nodded with a smile: "If you don't talk well over there, it's still up to your lady to decide. I'm actually useless over there, and sometimes it's just the opposite."
"Sure enough, the uncle knows..." Xiaochan nodded, looked at Ning Yi a few times, and hesitated, but finally said, "Why doesn't the uncle help the young lady?"
"Your lady is very powerful, don't worry."
Xiaochan thought about it, and then laughed again: "Miss is very happy recently."
"Um?"
"Because Uncle, I used to talk to people very rarely... Er, I did, but I didn't talk about business, but I had a good time talking, and Uncle told stories, played chess... So Xiaochan thought about it. , if the uncle is willing to help the young lady, the young lady will definitely be happier. The uncle also knows that the young lady... After all, the young lady is a girl's family just like Xiao Chan. When she goes out to work, there will always be people gossiping. There are many things on my mind…”
Xiaochan was really thinking about Su Tan'er, so she mustered up a lot of courage to say this, but she was afraid that she might overstep her duty as a servant girl, making Ning Yi a little unhappy, and looked at Ning Yi in embarrassment from time to time, and then got the reaction. , but Ning Yi stretched out his hand and grabbed his entire face into a pie.
"How old was Chan'er when she entered the Su Mansion?"
"The world is broken." Chan'er hesitated for a moment, then she muttered and made a gesture, and when Ning Yi let go of her cheek and turned to walk forward, she trotted to catch up, adding, "Chan'er was sold at the age of four. of."
"Four years, so young..."
"Juan'er too, Sister Xing'er is one year older than us, she was five years old at the time. Miss was eight years old at the time." Xiaochan didn't shy away from this, but smiled sweetly, "It was really too young at that time, I don't want to be a human being. Yes, but it just so happened that Su Mansion wanted a few little girls, and Xiao Chan chose it, and the family originally wanted to sell my brother."
"I don't usually hear you mention your family."
"Xiaochan was sold to Su Mansion, so she is from Su Mansion, how can I mention them all day long." Xiaochan lowered her head and thought, "Actually, Xiaochan can't remember too much of what happened when she was a child, she is just hungry. I heard that he originally had a younger brother, but he was starved to death soon after he was born. At that time, the family wanted to sell the elder brother, but the elder brother could always do something. Later, he sold Xiaochan for twenty-five years. With thirty-five taels of silver, in fact, following the young lady is considered to be a girl in the house. This is a blessing, and it doesn't matter how many years. Now Xiaochan sends her family ten taels of silver every year. My brother got married last year, and he also wrote a letter to Xiaochan, who said she married the most beautiful girl in the neighboring village, is ugly... Well, Xiaochan went back a year ago, and she can go home to see her sister-in-law in March this year..."
Many things are the norm in today's society. Xiaochan didn't feel much sadness when she said it. After speaking, she became happy, and then she felt a little guilty and pursed her lips: "Uncle..."
Ning Yi smiled and said, "So Tan'er is just like your sister, right?"
"Yeah." The little girl nodded quickly, then shook her head again, "Little Chan is just a maid, I don't dare to think like that."
"Then she also often tells you about business matters, and often tells those shopkeepers, even if I help her, why is it different for me?"
"But, but... Uncle is different... "
"Oh, don't think too much, the reason why your lady can tell me that is because I don't understand, and I don't do business. If I can really help, it will indeed become a business talk. "Although she is pure in front of Su Tan'er, Xiaochan is not stupid, on the contrary she is very smart. Ning Yi doesn't care about her scheming for Su Tan'er's sake, it's human nature. At this moment, the two of them were walking forward in the crowd, Ning Yi smiled: "Your young lady is much more powerful than you think, if she is not so powerful, it would be useless if the gang doesn't help her, she would be better off as soon as possible. .Although I'm very happy when you think I'm good, but don't... uh... "
Ning Yi's voice stopped, and Xiaochan said from the back: "Young master is very powerful." Under the bright lantern light, Ning Yi frowned slightly, looked at his left hand doubtfully, and the outside of the thumb was bright red color, sticky and not yet dry, this is... blood.
Where did it get...
Looking back in doubt, the street market was brightly lit, crowds came and went, and all kinds of noisy sounds were endless. On the other side of Suzaku Street, a yellow dragon flew along with the sound of gongs and drums, and Shangyuan was as lively as usual. In the scenery, several yamen were mixed, as if they were looking for something.
The next moment, the blood light bloomed suddenly...