Chapter 10 Guessing the Riddle: He Has a Sister's Vibe

The servants lifted and hung the hexagonal palace lanterns, which swayed slowly in the breeze. The candlelight illuminated the riddles written on the lampshades with a soft, moonlit glow.

Meng Shutai's parents, beaming with joy, stood under the palace lanterns and waved to them.

"Shutai, Cizhang, come quickly!"

Madam Meng laughed and said, "Last year, your father couldn't guess any of them and lost a whole set of poems from the previous dynasty to me. Don't give him any more difficult questions this year, or he'll make a scene again."

"How can you be so sure I will lose, Madam? If I do beat you this year, what will you give me?"

"The outcome is still uncertain..."

As the family chatted and laughed, Le Jin quickly walked to Yuan Jingming's side and gave him a "everything's fine" look.

Yuan Jingming blinked rapidly, immediately becoming smug. Ignoring the pain of being beaten, he pulled Le Jin along to look at the riddles.

Let's guess!

"But I don't understand..."

Le Jin muttered to herself as Yuan Jingming dragged her under a red palace lantern with cloud patterns, where she saw a poem inscribed on it:

"The joys and sorrows on stage are both real and fake, and the makeup and glamour cover up the traces of the past."

The wind and rain cannot diminish its true color; beneath the skin lies another person.

Yuan Jingming pondered, "An actor?"

He turned to Le Jin and asked, "Guess what it is?"

Le Jin shook her head. "I don't know."

She hadn't studied much, barely touched any textbooks, so how could she possibly guess the meaning behind the game poems?

Yuan Jingming repeated the riddle twice more, then clenched his fist and exclaimed, "It's 'actor'!"

"Shutai! Did I guess the answer to this riddle correctly?"

Meng Shutai was summoned by him, glanced at the poem title, and shook his head with a smile.

"Ah..." Yuan Jingming said dejectedly, "What is that?"

Meng Shutai said, "Guess."

Meng Shutai was a master of riddles. Since childhood, no riddle could stump him.

"Jiu'an, do you have an answer?"

Le Jin hadn't expected to be called on again, and honestly replied, "I can't guess. I might try if it were something from the countryside..."

Upon hearing this, Meng Shutai's long eyelashes suddenly drooped, and he looked listless, as if he were regretting something.

Le Jin heard him sigh.

What are you doing...? Le Jin suddenly felt annoyed. Being expected of someone for no reason and then letting them down made it seem like she had committed some crime.

Some sounds of playfulness came from afar. Meng Shutai turned his head and looked over, somewhat annoyed: "Li Nu, don't pull the tassels under the lamp."

"I'm not kidding, there really is a moth."

Meng Cizhang responded to him, tidied himself up, and obediently sat down beside his parents, looking up at the lamp.

Raccoon slave?

A memory was stirred by the wind. Le Jin suddenly remembered the old gold and silver cage on Meng Shutai's dressing table and the blind cat that had disappeared somewhere; he had also called it Li Nu.

Blind cat, blind younger brother...

A strange feeling welled up in Le Jin's heart.

What a coincidence?

"Young Master Meng, what's wrong with my son's eyes?"

Meng Shutai's eyelashes fluttered slightly. Le Jin wondered if she had misheard, but there was a hint of lightness in his tone, though it was hard to detect.

"Accident."

"Ci Zhang suffered an accident after birth, and his eyes were burned."

Le Jin was surprised: "Burns? That must hurt so much!" She touched her eyes and said regretfully, "...Heaven is blind."

Yuan Jingming chimed in, "That's right!"

Who would have thought that the afternoon sun in the height of summer would be reflected into the cradle by the mirror by the window!

Yuan Jingming suddenly realized he was being too loud and quickly covered his mouth, whispering, "If it weren't for the timely rescue, Cizhang would have lost both of his eyes."

Meng Cizhang is a character with very little screen time in the original book, and has no impact on the plot. Le Jin has no idea that he is disabled.

The child, with her fair complexion and delicate features, bore a striking resemblance to Meng Shutai. If her eyes were intact, she would surely grow up to be a dashing figure.

Le Jin felt a pang of heartache. "What will happen to Xiao Lang in the future? With his condition, it's impossible for him to become an official, and it will be difficult for him to go into business."

Meng Shutai said calmly, "He won't have a hard life. With me, his elder brother, around, Cizhang will have a smooth and peaceful life."

A familiar, sharp pain pierced through her like thunder. A dense, aching sensation flowed through Le Jin's meridians, converging at her heart. With each heartbeat, a sharp pain shot through her.

"With her older sister around, Erniu and Sanniu will never have to be afraid."

She hadn't seen her sister for a long time, but the face in her memory remained bright and vivid.

Before she got married, the older sister would go to the mountains to pick small sweet fruits because her two younger sisters could only wear discarded shoes. She would sell them for two pounds for one yuan to save money to buy them new shoes that their parents refused to buy.

My sister often says that with her support, Le Jin and San Niu never have to be afraid.

Later, my older sister got married and soon became pregnant.

Le Jin also took San Niu to pick fruit to sell and buy eggs for her sister.

The two of them secretly saved up a basket of eggs, and wearing the shoes their older sister had bought for them, they happily walked on their way to their sister's new home.

They were almost halfway there, and could see the poplar tree in front of their sister's new house when an old woman approached, her face full of anxiety. As soon as she saw them, she slapped her thigh hard, exclaiming, "Oh no! Le family girl, your sister had a difficult childbirth and died! She just breathed her last..."

Le Jin doesn't remember how she got home that day, only that San Niu cried loudly the whole way, and that she held San Niu's hand tightly, with one thought in her mind: I can't let go.

She only has her younger sister.

Later, she learned to love Sanniu just like her older sister did. She gathered food and clothes for her, argued with her parents to let her continue her studies, and even gave up her own education to go out and work...

Tears, as big as beans, streamed down her face uncontrollably. Le Jin raised her arm and wiped them away hastily, burying her face in her arm and crying silently for a few moments.

Yuan Jingming was at a loss: "Jiu'an, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing." Le Jin forced a smile, but it looked worse than a grimace. "I was just thinking about how kind my older sister was to me before I entered the palace."

She glanced at Meng Shutai, tears welling up again, her voice hoarse: "Someone as good as my husband."

Meng Shutai is very much like her sister; she is gentle, kind, loves her siblings, and is benevolent and reliable.

Le Jin herself didn't realize that she had been very dependent on Meng Shutai from the very beginning.

But at that moment she realized and found the reason—he had the feeling of an older sister.

A purple cotton towel, folded into a small square, was gently handed to her by a delicate hand.

“The separation from loved ones is heartbreaking.” Meng Shutai’s brows were full of pity. “If Jiu’an is willing, it wouldn’t be so bad to treat me as an elder brother.”

Le Jin took the cotton towel from him, and as soon as she put it on her face, she smelled a faint sandalwood scent.

This is his personal handkerchief.

The cotton towel was soft and dry, and in an instant it absorbed her tears, like a gentle hand stroking her cheek.

"The cotton towel is dirty. I'll return it to my husband after I wash it."

No rush.

Meng Shutai smiled faintly, pointed to the palace lantern hanging in another place, and said to Le Jin, "Why don't we try that one? It doesn't matter if we don't guess right, it's just for fun."

Under the bright lights, Meng Shutai's eyes were filled with tenderness. He only looked at her, hoping to change her mood.

"good."

As if by some strange twist of fate, or perhaps deliberately allowing herself to get close to him, Le Jin, knowing she wasn't good at riddles, still agreed.

Meng Shutai naturally took Le Jin's sleeve and led him in the direction he pointed, leaving Yuan Jingming dumbfounded.

"Huh? What have you two been up to behind my back?! You two are suddenly so close!"

Meng Shutai refers to a glass lamp with blue tassels, on which is written:

"Mossy traces and rock crevices reveal my whereabouts; water forms my water chestnut and the moon my garment."

"Only after realizing that youth's beauty fades in three days do we understand the vicissitudes of life."

As Le Jin muttered to herself, Meng Shutai stood behind her with his hands behind his back, looking at her with a very calm gaze.

It was as if he were looking at a piece of icy jadeite, something he could see right through.

Le Jin was completely unaware of the indifference in his eyes. She had a pretty good idea of ​​the answer in her mind, the first answer she had ever guessed herself.

"Is it... a water fly?"

“There is a kind of small insect that often grows by the water in my hometown. It has transparent wings and is about the length of my little finger. Unfortunately, it can only live for a few days. We call it ‘water fly’.”

Le Jin gestured as she explained to Meng Shutai, afraid that he might misunderstand and say that her answer was wrong.

“Mayfly.” Meng Shutai smiled. “You’re right. It’s that kind of insect, ‘mayfly’.”

Le Jin perked up, her eyes shining. She guessed the riddle correctly on her very first try!

"So that insect is a mayfly." She suddenly realized and started talking: "I read the word 'mayfly' in a book when I was a child, but I didn't know that living creatures were all around me."

Meng Shutai smiled serenely, listening attentively to her words. Her beauty was enhanced by a touch of docility, making her extremely endearing.

However... Yue Jin vaguely felt that his obedience was somewhat abnormal.

Like the moment before something is about to rebound after being suppressed to its limit.

Meng Shutai said, “Mayflies, the ancients said, are fleeting and never know the passing of days. But I think that if mayflies had feelings, they might be magnificent and passionate, willing to die. Devoted and worthy of death.”

A sudden thought struck Le Jin.

These words sound like they're describing her.

Small, weak, born incomplete, died without liberation.

But she also has her own hopes that she wants to realize.

Le Jin nodded, "Life, whether short or long, has its own value."

Even the passing of three days is part of the universe's trajectory.