Chapter 781 Help
Of course it is not difficult. Luojiang County is a lower county with not many educated people and not many literate people. On this day, many shops will hang up lanterns for people to guess riddles in order to have a festive occasion.
There are already many lanterns but few people, and if the difficulty of the riddles is increased, there will be no point in playing tonight.
Therefore, the riddles on Lantern Mountain are all progressive. The riddles on the lanterns at the foot of the mountain are not difficult, and many of them are colloquialisms. Even if you are illiterate, they can be guessed by others after they are read out.
Bai Erlang naturally looked down on such lanterns, and the lanterns he chose were those with three or four layers or more and that looked better.
The three of them guessed as they went along, and with so many lanterns in their hands that they could not hold them all, they stuffed them all to Daji who was walking behind them, and jumped happily in front.
Daji: ...
After visiting the mountain of lights at the back, the three of them finally figured out the riddle. There were many people gathered around the mountain of lights to watch, but few were trying to guess the riddle.
The few that were there were dressed like scholars.
Manbao took a closer look and understood. He rolled his eyes and simply stopped in front of the lantern mountain. He pointed at a lantern at the bottom of the mountain and asked loudly, "Who wants to guess the lantern riddle? I'll read it to him."
From the crowd surrounding the lantern came the immediate response of "I, I, I", and there were quite a few people listening.
Manbao smiled slightly and recited, "Fluffy and loose, flying in the air in March, from a distance it looks like snowflakes, up close it looks like a ball of fluff."
As soon as she finished speaking, someone in the crowd raised his hand and shouted, "Catkins, catkins—"
Manbao smiled slightly, took down the lantern and handed it to him. The young man squeezed to the front, his eyes narrowed with laughter, and went to the person guarding the mountain of lanterns with the lantern to get the answer to the riddle. As long as the answer was correct, he could take the lantern and leave.
If not, he has to hang it back.
Everyone followed to join in the fun, and when they saw that the answer to the riddle was correct, the young man happily ran away with the lantern, not knowing who to give it to.
Manbao was immediately surrounded by people, "Young lady, read this."
“Read this too…”
Bai Shan stepped forward to help, "I'll help you read..."
The three of them would read the riddles to everyone, and if they could guess them, they would be allowed to guess. If they couldn't, they would look at the face of the person who was to guess the riddle. If they looked pleasing to the eye, they would remind them. If they didn't, the three of them would skip that person.
The people guarding the mountain of lanterns obviously didn't expect that there was someone specifically guarding the mountain of lanterns to read riddles to people. You know, although there were literate people who helped read riddles in previous years, they would only read one or two riddles when someone who particularly wanted to guess the riddles asked them to.
How could there be someone who stands in front of a mountain of lanterns and recites riddles to people?
But he couldn't stop them because they didn't break the rules.
However, he would occasionally get stuck. For example, if someone clearly didn't guess the answer, but they saw that the other person was good-looking or young, and pointed out that person to guess the answer, he would then reject the answer as being against the rules.
Seeing that they had guessed away all the lanterns on the first and second layers of the lantern mountain, and that many lanterns were missing from the third and fourth layers, the originally beautiful lantern mountain became scattered. The people guarding the lantern mountain were sweating profusely. The night was still long. If all the lanterns were really guessed away, it would be too embarrassing. If the master knew...
The lamp keeper hurried forward and said to Manbao, "Young lady, there is another mountain of lamps further down. There is one further down here as well. Why don't you all go and take a look?"
Manbao thought about it and felt that this was a good idea. After all, the county town was so small and the night was so long, so everyone might as well do some good deeds.
Manbao pulled Baishan and Bai Erlang and headed towards the last mountain of lights. Everyone immediately followed and surrounded them as they headed towards the last mountain of lights.
The originally spacious street suddenly became crowded. The patrolling yamen officers noticed the change and quickly grabbed a person who was pushing forward with the crowd and asked, "Where are you going?"
"Let's go to the next mountain of lights and guess the riddle."
"Isn't there a mountain of lights up there? Why are you all coming here?" People are crowding together. What if something happens?
"The mountain of lights above has been guessed almost completely, let's guess this one."
The bailiff looked at him suspiciously, "Can you read?"
"I can't read, but there's a literate young lady and two young men who read out lantern riddles for everyone to guess. At the previous lantern mountain, they guessed over twenty lanterns. It's a pity that I'm too slow to speak and can't beat them."
Bailiff: "...Is it because you're slow-witted?"
He let go of the man and squeezed into the crowd. With the power of his clothes and his own efforts, he finally squeezed to the front and saw three very familiar people surrounded by the crowd.
For some reason, even though he knew they were friends of the county magistrate, he still had a bad feeling.
He glanced at the three of them, turned around, and squeezed out. He found his colleague on duty and said, "Hurry up and tell the county magistrate that his three children are causing trouble."
This is the most lively street in Luojiang County. The restaurant is located in the middle of the street. It is not close, but not far away either. It only takes half a minute to run there.
County Magistrate Yang was silent for a moment after receiving the news, then asked, "Are there many people guessing the riddle?"
"There are so many of them that they've blocked the street. People on this side can't get through, and people on the other side can't get through either."
County Magistrate Yang nodded and said approvingly, "Not bad! These lanterns are finally being put to good use. Go, take a few more people with you, and clear a passage wide enough for one person to pass through where they're guessing the riddle. Don't crowd in the rest of the area, or people might fall or knock over the lanterns. As for the rest, let them do what they want."
However, there are only so many people in the county town, so it is impossible to squeeze out Dengshan.
Most people are crowded.
The yamen runners responded and transferred half of the security forces there. After they guessed the lantern, they moved back to the lantern above. The crowd moved with them, and the yamen runners followed suit.
Cheers and laughter could be heard from the crowd from time to time. The yamen runners who were trying to block off a passage for pedestrians felt that this year's Lantern Festival was noisier and more lively than in previous years...
After Manbao and his companions walked around all the lantern mountains again and helped people read out countless riddles, and made sure that no one could guess the riddles above them and they could no longer see them, they picked up their lanterns and said goodbye and left.
Everyone looked carefully at the mountain of lights that was missing some limbs, and then left with laughter.
Many people got lanterns, but more people didn’t.
After all, there are only so many riddles, and if you are slow to react, they will be snatched away.
But it is undeniable that there are many more people holding lanterns on the streets. Some children see other children have lanterns, but they don’t, so they ask to buy them...
The adults had no choice but to spend money to buy it for them.
As a result, more and more people carrying lanterns appeared on the street. Looking around, the whole street was filled with flowing lights, which was extremely beautiful.
The next update will be around 6:00 PM
(End of this chapter)
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