111 Strange Spring Rain
◎On Lantern Festival night, the river lights flow, candlelight shatters thousands of stars; the sound of rain begins, washing away old sorrows, and we share a long day together.◎
"What?" Ye Yunzhao seemed to be unable to believe his ears, and asked doubtfully, "What did you just say?"
Chen Jingshan sighed deeply and then remembered the appointment he had made with the servant yesterday.
There were three other servants from Ruyi Tower who came with him on the boat. The three of them only needed to go to the sauce shop to buy spices for the whole year.
On the second day after arriving in the capital, the matter was already settled. However, Chen Jingshan was busy trying out the "Pearl Crystal Sashimi" and lost some time.
At first he thought that Ye Yunzhao's matter would not be delayed for too long, and since his family was in urgent need of some of the spices, he agreed with the servant to set off at 3:30 pm on the 14th day of the first lunar month. If he had not arrived, it meant that the matter had not been completed, and they should just set off.
I was still thinking about this matter early this morning, but I never expected that after guessing the riddles and eating Yuanxiao, it was already 2:15 in the evening before Chen Jingshan remembered this important matter.
Seeing the slight worry between his brows, Ye Yunzhao's heart skipped a beat. He asked again, unconvinced, "They've set off? You didn't lie to me?"
Chen Jingshan forced a smile and said, "Now that things have come to this, let's have some fun today. We can take the next boat back tomorrow."
"But..." Ye Yunzhao took a bite of Yuanxiao and said with some resentment, "I haven't told Uncle Daniu about this yet. I'm afraid he'll be worried."
"Don't worry, he'll know." Seeing she was almost done eating, Chen Jingshan naturally changed the subject. "Why don't we go release river lanterns? Didn't the vendor just say the River Lantern Goddess is very powerful?"
"become."
Ye Yunzhao carried her beloved crab lantern, and the two of them walked side by side in the bustling capital city under the moonlight.
Along the way, I saw many restaurants offering lantern riddle games, and there were many strange artists on the streets, some swallowing wine and spitting fire, and some performing puppet shows. It was very lively.
Walking towards Luoshui in the east of the city, she would pass by the palace wall. Before Ye Yunzhao noticed, there was a "bang" and something hard hit her shoulder.
"Ouch, who hit me?" She rubbed her shoulder with one hand and turned around suddenly.
Before she could finish her words, something hit her again with a "bang".
"Who hit me?" The previous helplessness turned into anger.
"What's going on?" Chen Jingshan asked hurriedly, "Does it hurt? Do you want to go to the clinic?"
Cheers came from behind him. Ye Yunzhao looked in the direction of the sound and saw many men and women bending down to pick up things and cheering to the sky.
She looked up following their gaze and discovered that someone was throwing copper coins and fruits down from the high vermilion wall.
What just hit Ye Yunzhao was not a stone, but a thrown copper coin!
"Hurry up and pick them up!" She patted Chen Jingshan's arm fiercely, squatted down quickly, picked up two or three copper coins, and said with a smile, "I didn't expect there is such an activity in the capital. I like it."
He squatted aside and picked up a lot of them in the cover of night and poured them all into her hands.
"This is the 'buying market.' After we leave, there will be girls and boys looking for lost items. This is called 'picking up lost items.' I've only encountered them once, though." Chen Jingshan suddenly remembered her household registration and asked curiously, "Don't you know? I remember you originally lived in the capital."
She was startled when she heard the words and explained, "I didn't live in the capital at all. In the final analysis, I just lived there for a while, two months before the imperial examination."
Ye Yunzhao weighed the copper coins in her hand, which amounted to more than twenty. She put them into her purse contentedly and said, "Let's go and release the river lanterns."
Countless lanterns floated above the Luo River, their dim glow like a thousand stars, enveloping the entire capital's beauty. Beneath the gently swaying candlelight, the mirror-like Luo River rippled like wrinkled silk, drifting ever further away.
The two stood by the river and looked into the distance. It seemed that the prosperity and noise of the capital had faded away, and all that remained on the river bank were the soft moonlight and the starry sky.
Ye Yunzhao followed the example of others and carefully placed the river lantern with lit candle into the Luo River. The river lantern swayed as if it was about to capsize.
"Ah!" she couldn't help but exclaim.
A pair of large, bony hands gently moved the river lanterns, and the candlelight, which had been drifting in the wind, gradually stabilized. Chen Jingshan said in a deep voice, "It's okay."
Seeing that her river lantern was going farther and farther away, Chen Jingshan hurriedly put his own river lantern in the water and gently stirred the water a few times. The speed of the river lantern gradually increased and slowly caught up with the previous one.
The ripples on the Luo River suddenly increased, and cool raindrops fell on Ye Yunzhao's face.
"It's raining."
At first the rain was hazy, but soon it turned into bean-sized raindrops, falling into the river with "patter" and "patter" sounds.
The two of them had no time to care about the river lanterns. They quickly got up and ran to the inn in the rain.
On the Lantern Festival night, the river lanterns are flowing, and the candlelight shatters thousands of stars; the sound of rain begins, washing away the old sorrows, and we share the long day together.
*
The next morning, Ye Yunzhao was awakened by the sound of rain.
There was already some warmth of early spring in the past two days, but today it seemed like there was a hole in the sky, and the rain was pouring down without stopping, with no sign of slowing down, but getting more and more intense.
She had a slightly sad look on her face as she looked out through the slightly open window.
Chen Jingshan's voice came from behind: "A Zhao, have you packed everything?"
Ye Yunzhao turned around and nodded, then asked anxiously, "Can we still take a boat when it's raining so hard?"
If the Ruyi Tower's ship was still there, he would definitely feel confident. The old helmsman had traveled with him all over the country and had seen weather worse than this.
But the ship wasn't there. As for the ships at the capital's docks, he really didn't know much about them. However, with such a large dock, there must be a few skilled people there...
Chen Jingshan said in a gentle voice, "The spring rain won't last long. I think it's nothing serious."
Ye Yunzhao looked out the window quietly. The sky was covered with dark clouds and the rain was pouring down. He felt a little uneasy. Is it really not a big deal?
After the two of them hurriedly finished their breakfast, Chen Jingshan went out in the rain to buy an oil-paper umbrella and brought back two raincoats.
By then, Ye Yunzhao had already packed her belongings and tied the small cloth bag around her body. As she put on her straw raincoat, she muttered, "Why did you buy both an umbrella and a straw raincoat? Are all rich people like this, buying one and taking one?"
"What did you say?" Chen Jingshan had already put away his things and stood in front of her, handing her the hat with a smile.
"I say..." She took the hat and put it over her head, "Didn't you say that spring rains don't last long? Why did you buy so many rain gears?"
Chen Jingshan was slightly stunned. Seeing her wearing the straw raincoat so skillfully, he didn't dare to say that he was worried that she wouldn't be used to it, so he bought an oil-paper umbrella. He could only prevaricate and say, "The shopkeeper said this umbrella is good, so I bought it just in case. Okay, let's go."
Ye Yunzhao had already seen his extravagant ways during their trip to the capital, so she didn't think much about his explanation. She pulled at the collar of her raincoat to make sure it was still secure and said, "Let's go."
When she went out, she found that the rain was heavier than she had imagined. There were countless vendors on both sides of the street yesterday, but today it seemed as if it had been washed clean by the rain and looked a little deserted.
Ye Yunzhao looked down at his slightly wet shoes and felt incredibly thankful for the neatly paved stone roads. If it had rained so heavily in Lingnan County, he'd have been walking on muddy roads, with one foot deep and one foot shallow, and he'd have been stepping on three to five pounds of mud.
There were only a handful of people on the street, and the two hurried towards the pier.
The dock in the rain wasn't as bustling as the day they first arrived. Only a few dozen boatmen in straw raincoats were moving things back and forth in the pouring rain. The two men found the boat captain's cabin and hurriedly asked:
"I wonder if there's a boat going to Yuezhou City today?"
The captain looked them up and down, then glanced at the rain outside and said, "The boat to Yuezhou is gone, why do you insist on going there?"
Ye Yunzhao nodded hurriedly, thinking of the weaving of the mushrooms, and said anxiously, "I have to go. Please think of a way. Money is not a problem."
"Alas..." the captain sighed, his face full of worry. "Girl, who can resist money? But right now there's really no other way. It seemed like there was a heavy rain in Yuezhou last night, and the river water rose rapidly. I heard... I heard that many people died..."
"What?!" The two said in unison, then looked at each other, thinking of the ship they had just left last night, with worry in their eyes.
"If you really want to go to Yuezhou, wait a little longer until the rain stops." The captain made a move to leave, looked up at the gloomy sky, and sighed, "Why is the weather so strange this year..."
"Is there no other way?" Chen Jingshan knew that her matter was important, so he stepped forward to stop her.
The captain thought for a moment and asked, "There will be a ship to Liangzhou later. Would you like to take it? Liangzhou is right next to Yuezhou. If you are in a hurry, once you get there, traveling overland to Yuezhou is also an option..."
Before he finished speaking, Ye Yunzhao quickly responded: "Let's sit down!"
"Don't worry," the captain explained. "I heard the mountain road from Liangzhou to Yuezhou is quite steep and difficult to travel. Seeing how heavy the rain is, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for it to stop even after you get to Liangzhou."
After hearing this, Ye Yunzhao felt a little unsure. Not only had she never been to Liangzhou, she had never even heard of it before. If the mountain road was difficult to walk on, wouldn't she have to stay in Liangzhou? The mushroom business couldn't wait for anyone... The more she thought about it, the more her brows twisted together, and even the heavy rain couldn't wash away her melancholy.
"Okay, please let us discuss it." Chen Jingshan said.
"Come find me when you've made up your mind. It will take at most half a quarter of an hour. Merchant ships don't wait for anyone."
"good."
He saw Ye Yunzhao's confusion and pulled her aside, speaking softly, "Don't worry, I've been to Liangzhou before. It's not far from Yuezhou City, and it's very close to Lingnan County. If we go to Liangzhou first and take the mountain road to Lingnan County, I think it will save time than going directly to Yuezhou City."
The captain just mentioned that the cliffs in Liangzhou are steep and the mountain roads are not easy to walk on. I have been there before and I still remember the general route.
He paused, and his gentle voice, accompanied by the soothing sound of rain, entered Ye Yunzhao's ears:
"A Zhao, if you're not afraid, I think this suggestion is better than waiting for the rain to stop in the capital. What do you think?"
【Author’s words】
I was too busy in the past two days, so this chapter was delayed for a few days. I am very very sorry [burst crying][burst crying] The comments on this chapter will drop chicken legs, thank you all the county magistrates [poor]
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