Chapter 2008 Shopping
The prince followed them to the Fire Phoenix, and when they arrived at the crowded place before, the injured had been carried to various medical clinics by the people from the yamen, but there were still many people here. However, in the past while, people coming from all directions filled the vacancies here, so it became lively again.
County Magistrate Tang learned his lesson this time and placed two yamen runners at each intersection to control the flow of people. If there were too many people, he would stop some of them and force them to either turn back or wait until someone left before entering.
But Bai Shan knew the tragic situation here before, especially the two people who were most severely trampled. They were only breathing their last breath when they were carried out.
So he has been somewhat silent.
Manbao noticed that he was in a bad mood, so he slowly fell behind and walked beside him, "What's wrong with you?"
Bai Shan smiled at her, reached out and took her hand and walked together, "It's okay, I was just lost in thought."
He knew that Manbao and the others had gone out early and definitely didn't see it. The thing had already happened, so he decided to let her have a good Mid-Autumn Festival tonight and talk about it tomorrow.
Manbao looked at him twice, and seeing that he had no intention of saying anything, he shook his hand and walked forward.
The lamp holder and the fire phoenix at the inner city gate were made by the Ministry of Industry. The lanterns on the wings can also rotate. Because the lanterns have different colors and are very layered, when they rotate, it looks like it is about to spread its wings and fly high, which is particularly beautiful.
Not to mention country bumpkins like Manbao, even Princess Mingda and Princess Changyu were stunned, exclaiming, "It wasn't noticeable from the palace, but seeing it from here, it's so beautiful."
The prince couldn't help but nodded.
Bai Shan, feeling heavy-hearted, stared blankly for a long time.
There are large open spaces under the Fire Phoenix and the lamp stands. Stalls are not allowed here, and there are soldiers guarding the area. It is only for tourists to enjoy. After viewing, everyone follows the direction of the crowd and walks out and returns to the main street, but it is different from the place they entered just now.
It seems that the county government has divided the roads in advance to prevent people from wandering around.
And emerging from the fire phoenix are a series of lighthouses.
There are many lanterns hanging on the lantern shed, some of which have riddles on them, and those who guess the riddles will receive a reward.
For families like the Bai family and the Yin family, their lantern tent prizes are lanterns with riddles and a bag of gifts, which can be either lucky rice or lucky cakes.
In addition to the wealthy families who would set up lantern tents here to have fun with the people and pray for their families, the major shops would also set up lantern tents here.
Jishidiang also set up a light tent here, and the gifts were some packaged medicines, which were also very popular.
But Manbao and his friends did not go to the lantern stand of Jishidiang, but specifically went to the lantern stand of the dim sum shop.
The dim sum shop’s lantern stand not only has prizes, but also merchandise. It doesn’t matter if you can’t guess the riddle, you can just buy it with money.
Manbao and his friends squeezed to the front and found that there were only a dozen lanterns hanging there, and they all had very difficult riddles.
Several people were whispering to each other, "Zhirong Ai Chong Qiaoqiao? What is this?"
Manbao also scratched his head and asked the most knowledgeable prince among them, "Your Highness, do you know?"
The Crown Prince: "...Does it look to me like someone who knows?"
Why ask him about literature when there are no other questions to ask him?
Manbao said, "But aren't you the one who has eaten the most dim sum among us?"
The prince glanced at her, swung the purse in his hand around his fingers, and said, "Want to eat? Just buy it."
For him, why bother thinking about something that can be bought with money?
Bai Shan said thoughtfully: "Is it Xue Mei Niang?"
The stall owner, who was collecting money from dim sum, looked up at Bai Shan and said with a smile, "Why did this gentleman say it was Xue Mei Niang?"
When Bai Shan heard him ask this, he knew he had guessed correctly. He smiled and said, "The word 'Mei' should be used for 'Zirong Aizhong'. This whole sentence sounds like a pretty woman, so I guess it's Xue Mei Niang. I wonder if I'm right?"
"Right, right," he said with a smile, "Originally, this riddle shouldn't have been asked like this, but my boy was naughty and said that my riddles were easy for people to guess, so I just wrote this one down. I didn't expect that you could actually guess it."
Changyu and the others had a bad feeling. "Could these remaining ten or so lanterns all be riddles created by your son?"
The stall owner nodded sheepishly, "Yes, so, in fact, the snacks left behind are all common. People can figure out the riddles I gave at a glance, so my son changed it."
He said so, but everyone still guessed it with great interest.
But the person who sets the questions obviously wants to make things difficult for people. Sometimes the riddles are only vaguely related to the answers, making them particularly difficult to guess.
Bai Shan and Man Bao read the most books, and they racked their brains to come up with another one. Mingda and Bai Er could also think of one, and even the prince could chime in. Only Chang Yu didn't even know which sentence the word they said came from, and she had no idea which book that sentence came from.
Who would remember the sentences in a book when reading it? Shouldn't they forget them as soon as they put the book down?
Why bother remembering which book it came from?
She stared at the riddles on the lantern and simply started to read out the names of the pastries she knew, "Osmanthus cake, Jade bean cake, chestnut cake, two-color bean cake, red bean paste roll, golden cake roll, lotus seed cake..."
The stall owner was stunned for a moment and couldn't help but exclaimed "Ouch!" and quickly stopped her, "Young lady, that's not the answer."
He said with a mixture of laughter and tears, "If everyone guesses like you, then no lantern riddle would be difficult for them. Even if we have new products in our shop, most of the snacks are already known to everyone."
Mingda and the others couldn't help but smile, so they simply gave up guessing and asked the store owner to give them the snow meringue and walnut cake they guessed.
The stall owner breathed a sigh of relief and quickly took down the two lanterns they had guessed and gave them to them. He then took out two boxes and gave them to them. He smiled and said, "These are all fresh snacks made today. They are just a little cold. Fortunately, Xue Mei Niang can eat them cold. The young ladies and gentlemen can try them."
A box of snacks is not a lot, after all, it is just for good luck, and there are only six of them.
Manbao and the others shared it and found it was just the right size, so they took a bite while covering their mouths with their sleeves. It was refreshing and cool, and when they chewed it, it was sticky, sweet and delicious.
Manbao liked it very much, and Baishan thought it was good too. They simply went over to look at the snacks on the stall and said, "Let's buy some other ones to try. Hmm, do you have any new mooncake styles this year?"
"Yes, my dear, please look at this box of mooncakes. They contain egg yolks."
Chang Yu said, "I ate the egg yolk version last year, and I also ate the venison version."
Stall owner: ...That's incomparable. Who can afford to use venison to make mooncakes?
He said, "There are two egg yolks in this mooncake of mine."
Everyone looked at the mooncakes that were as big as round plates and thought, wouldn’t they have to squeeze two in since they were so big?
Bai Shan said, "Buy one."
It’s just right. I’ll cut one and eat it myself, which can be considered as a celebration of reunion.
See you tomorrow
(End of this chapter)
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