Liaozhai: A scholar should draw a sword

Chapter 49 Lantern Festival Guessing Lantern Riddles

"My lords, watch carefully, I will start to sow seeds..."

The middle-aged man took his time and buried a few orange seeds in the soil.

Then, while pouring water, he muttered words.

After a while, some green shoots really came out of the ground...

"Amazing!"

Lu Zhengwen couldn't help but exclaimed.

At this time, the middle-aged man poured a little more water, and continued to mutter.

The small green shoots soared so fast that even the people in the audience could see them, and they were all amazed.

Compared with the previous tricks, this one is more realistic. After all, it is close to the lives of ordinary people and it is easier to resonate.

But after a cup of tea, the seeds turned into an orange tree about two feet high, and it was full of small, light yellow flowers.

The few officials around also smelled a faint scent of flowers.

"Look, bee!"

Master Dong suddenly exclaimed.

Sure enough, more than a dozen bees flew from nowhere, flying back and forth among the flowers to gather nectar.

The bee flew away quickly.

The flowers also withered and were replaced by small fruits.

When a gust of wind blew, most of the fruit fell off, and the rest changed from small to large, yellow, and red at a speed visible to the naked eye...

Chang Fugui couldn't help clapping his hands and applauding: "Wonderful! It's really wonderful!"

"Thank you for your compliment!"

The middle-aged man smiled and cupped his hands in thanks.

Then he raised his finger and pointed at the biggest and reddest orange: "My lord, why don't you taste it yourself, and at the same time, I wish you a prosperous life like this orange."

"Hahaha, well said, well said, come here and reward me with 20 taels of silver."

Chang Fugui was extraordinarily generous today, and once again tipped 20 taels.

Then I couldn't wait to pick off the biggest orange on the tree, tore open the skin and tasted it... Not to mention, it was really sweet to my heart.

The people below were also very surprised.

After all, this is a bit beyond their cognition, is it really the legendary fairy art?

"Hehe, I wish Master Chang a long life!"

The middle-aged man accepted the money, said something cheerfully, and then jumped off the high platform and floated away.

As soon as he left, the orange tree suddenly disappeared.

However, Chang Fugui was still eating oranges with relish.

"Pfft~"

Suddenly, Chang Fugui's expression changed, and he spurted out a big mouthful of blood...

"My lord, my lord!"

"No, this orange is poisonous..."

Finally someone came back to his senses and let out a loud shout.

"Quick, grab those three jugglers..."

There was chaos on and off the stage.

Unfortunately, the three jugglers were all gone.

When Lang Zhong rushed over, Chang Fugui was already dead.

However, a letter was found on him, which was left by the middle-aged man who played tricks.

After reading the letter, Lu Zhengwen and his party knew the whole story.

It turns out that the old man, the young man, and the middle-aged man belong to the same family.

The old man has two sons and a daughter under his knees. The middle-aged man is the elder brother, and a younger sister has been married for several years.

The younger sister and brother-in-law have no fixed place to live, and they like to wander in the rivers and lakes, making a living as street performers.

About three months ago, the husband and wife came to Guobei County, had conflicts with some gangsters while performing arts, and were taken to the county government.

Originally it was just a trivial matter, the big deal would be closed for a few days and punished slightly.

But Chang Fugui saw that the woman was quite pretty, and he was fascinated by sex for a while, and insisted that the husband and wife were thieves.

Afterwards, he went to talk about the conditions, saying that as long as the woman obeyed him obediently, he could forgive her.

Unexpectedly, both the husband and wife were very staunch... In the end, both died tragically in prison.

There are no impervious walls in the world.

After the old man learned the truth about his daughter's tragic death, he was naturally extremely sad and angry.

So taking advantage of Yanchun's opportunity, the father and son joined hands to successfully eliminate the enemy and avenge their great revenge by playing tricks.

The county magistrate was murdered, and the whole Guobei County was suddenly panicked, and the four gates were blocked, only entry was allowed, no exit was allowed.

All the servants in the county government were on the move, searching for suspicious people all over the street.

In particular, inns, restaurants, teahouses, brothels and other places are the key search targets.

However, this has no effect on Zhou Mansion.

No matter how the outside world is precarious, once the gate is closed, it is time to eat, drink, and set off fireworks.

In fact, the people in the city applauded Chang Fugui's death, and took advantage of the opportunity of the Spring Festival to set off a few more firecrackers to celebrate.

The government searched continuously for two days, but found nothing. Presumably, the father and son had already left.

In addition to the New Year's Eve, who among the officials and servants of the county government would not want to have a good New Year's Eve?

Even if they don't want to, the common people have to.Therefore, the four gates were reopened to facilitate the common people to visit relatives and friends.

After Chang Fugui's death, the post of county magistrate was vacant, so Lu Zhengwen, the county magistrate, temporarily took over the post of county magistrate.

This is also a common practice. After all, it will take a while to re-appoint a county magistrate, and someone must come forward to preside over the official duties of the county government.

If you're lucky, you might have a chance to get rid of the word "agent" if you do some research up and down.

In a blink of an eye, the Lantern Festival is ushered in again.

The Lantern Festival is also known as "Yuanxi", "Shangyuan Festival", "Little New Year's Day" and "Lantern Festival".

To some extent, it was more lively than those few days during the Spring Festival.

Because there are too many things to be busy during the Spring Festival, such as clearing accounts, cleaning, red envelopes, worshiping ancestors, visiting friends... and so on.

But the Lantern Festival is a day for real fun.

All kinds of folk activities are held in various places, such as releasing river lanterns, eating glutinous rice balls, guessing lantern riddles, setting off fireworks, lion dances, walking on stilts, and singing operas...

Even ladies who seldom go out on weekdays will take this opportunity to go to the streets to enjoy lanterns or put lanterns or something.

On that day, Zhou Yu generously distributed red envelopes of two taels of silver to each of the servants in the mansion.

As soon as they got the red envelope, Qiuxiang and other maidservants happily met to go shopping together, and planned to put the river lanterns at night.

Of course Ying Ning would not miss the excitement, and went shopping a lot.

As soon as it got dark, the city began to liven up.

The lights are brilliant and the fireworks are brilliant.

Ying Ning was very self-conscious, and went to join in the fun with Qiuxiang and others to set off the river lanterns.

Because she knew that her husband was going to take Miss Mochou out for a stroll tonight.

Mo Chou can't appear during the day, and it doesn't matter when it gets dark.

The rare Lantern Festival, Zhou Yu naturally wanted to take Mo Chou out for a stroll, so that she could see the prosperity of the world that she had not seen for a long time.

When going out, Zhou Yu didn't forget to bring the painting scroll with him, otherwise, Mo Chou wouldn't be able to go far.

As soon as she went to the street, Mo Chou seemed extremely excited, after all, she hadn't been shopping as freely as she is now for a long time.

"It's great, it feels like I'm alive again."

Mo Chou raised her arms, felt the night wind blowing on her face, and admired the bright fireworks in the night sky.

Zhou Yu smiled, hugged her slender waist tightly and said, "It's not a feeling, you are already alive."

"But... after all, I still can't act like a normal person."

"Don't worry, there will always be a way."

While talking, the two walked together to a place where lantern riddles were guessed.

Among them, there was a lantern riddle that baffled many people. The face of the puzzle was "99", and it was typed.

Mo Chou stepped forward to have a look, and said with a smile, "The answer to the riddle is white, white is white."

"Oh? Why?" Someone asked in surprise.

Someone had a flash of inspiration and shouted: "I finally know, 99 is one hundred minus one, and the one hundred minus one, isn't it just white white?"

"Yes, yes, why didn't I think of it before..."

"This girl is still amazing..."

Everyone was amazed...

(End of this chapter)