Chapter 71 Lantern Viewing (2) The Noise Died Amidst the Lush Greenery (Second Update)...
Ah Cai and her two entourage finally met up with their master under the lamp.
The itinerant vendors, eloquent and persuasive, began hawking river lanterns among the crowd.
Changsun Qingjing chose a lacquered wooden Bodhi leaf lamp for his father, and a peony-patterned gauze lamp for each of his elder brothers, Xingbu and Heng'an. Li Shimin chose a gilded silver thousand-petal lotus lamp for his mother, and a revolving egret lamp for his younger brother, Xuanba. The two of them spent lavishly and casually, spending a total of six hundred coins.
The lantern vendor listened to the five men, master and servants, chattering about which deceased relatives they would give the river lanterns to, and marveled at how he had just made a big sale.
He repeatedly weighed the five-zhu coin in disbelief, and then leaned closer to the lamplight to check whether it was privately minted or had its edges cut off.
After confirming that the young customers were both extravagant and foolish, the lantern vendor said, "Young master and lady, wouldn't you like to buy yourselves a celadon carved lantern? It'll only cost five hundred coins."
"Do you like it?" Li Shimin asked Changsun Qingjing, and then beckoned his men to come forward and pay.
"I don't want it," Changsun Qingjing said firmly. "It's too expensive."
A-Cai curiously shone closer to the lamp, only to hear Changsun Qingjing mutter softly, "Ugly."
Only A-Cai heard this rude complaint. She covered her mouth and chuckled, then lowered her head and stepped back behind Changsun Qingjing.
The lamp vendor paused for a moment, then said, "It's always been women who choose the expensive ones and men who refuse to buy them because they think they're too pricey; I've never heard of the other way around."
“I think this lamp is quite elegant and refined, to your liking. Why don’t you buy it?” Li Shimin said, stroking the twin lotus flower pattern.
"I'm not buying." Changsun Qingjing pointed at Li Shimin and teased, "You're always flying high and flying around in front of me, perfectly healthy and without any problems. Why should I pray for you?"
A-Cai and her entourage smiled as they held their respective river lanterns.
The lantern vendor said sullenly, "Madam, you truly have a strong sense of right and wrong, a person of character. Then I shall take my leave."
Crowds carrying river lanterns surged toward the dock as they made their prayers.
The water murmurs softly, its undercurrents seeming to tell a story.
River lanterns of different sizes, shapes, and social statuses, each carrying a flickering flame, gradually leave the riverbank and surge toward the unknown other side.
The boats on the night transport route were also adorned with lanterns, their dim yellow lights swaying and reflecting on the water like gold.
River lanterns, boat lanterns, and starlight instantly blended together.
Prayers and blessings filled the air...
The long river, like a ribbon, meanders down from the horizon, carrying with it human aspirations and leading to another world.
Luoyang truly lives up to its reputation as the center of the world, a place imbued with imperial aura. Even the connection between the realms of Yin and Yang and the Heavenly Kingdom is so magnificent, enigmatic, and beyond question.
Changsun Qingjing, Li Shimin, and the other four watched as eight river lanterns drifted away with the tide, hoping that their loved ones on the other side would receive news from the human world.
The rapid sound of horses' hooves approached from afar. The crowd stirred into a commotion at the sudden passage of the street official and cavalry.
"Is it on fire?" someone asked curiously as Hou Chang led a small team of several people, repeatedly searching and questioning people in the crowd. The people of Luoyang were well aware of the side effects of not imposing the Golden Guard, but this was something unexpected.
"It's worse than a fire; the Hanjia granary has been robbed," Hou Chang replied. "The thief was intercepted by the granary supervisor's men, but managed to escape. Witnesses say the thief swaggered into the city under cover of darkness..."
"Oh!" came a strange sound from the crowd.
"Was it done by people from Hedong?" a busybody asked.
Hou Chang nodded and summoned the foot soldiers and patrolmen to leave the dock.
The crowd buzzed with discussion. As they watched the river lanterns drift away, they pieced together the strange things they had recently heard.
"The people of Hedong are starving. I heard they came here carrying the floating ice from Pujindu."
"Stop talking nonsense! Hungry ghosts don't have the strength to swim; they probably hijacked a ferry to cross the river."
“Remember, don’t go to the East Gate.” An elder warned the children, “The starving people are so hungry they’re like wild beasts, they’ll even boil mud to fill their stomachs. If you go to the East Gate, they’ll surely eat you up.”
"Don't go to Beiman either, the corpse carriers on the Mangban Road are too busy to handle it all." Someone else came closer to share the tragedy of Beiman being filled with starving corpses.
"The dead have clogged the well. The officials say the corpse carriers are only willing to pull people out of the water after receiving three times their usual wages. The price of alum in Luoyang has increased tenfold. There's a shortage. The nearby villages are having young, strong men guard the wells day and night." Someone added, "My relative from Beiman told me this himself when he came to the city to see the lanterns."
"Many also committed suicide by hanging."
"Whoever hangs themselves at their doorstep will suffer misfortune. Are there really people watching over the trees at the village entrance?"
"Wild dogs eat human flesh every day and are fatter than pigs."
"Hey, hey, hey, I'm eating a sesame flatbread, please keep quiet..."
"Nonsense! I just rode my horse into the city from the northern suburbs this afternoon, and there were no corpses, stray dogs, or spirit banners as rumored..."
"Don't you know how many officials and soldiers Luoyang mobilized to drive away refugees and clear official roads in preparation for the Lantern Festival these past two days?"
"I heard that all the corpses were thrown into the mass grave in Beishan. The bones of those from the eighth year of the Daye era were placed under the new bodies..."
More and more people gathered to talk about the starving people. At first, it was out of curiosity, then it was out of pity, and finally it became a feeling of sorrow for the dead.
In the once bustling and magnificent Eastern Capital, some real, discordant sounds suddenly appeared.
"It all came down to nothing more than having a handful of chestnuts to fill our stomachs."
"Who would want to come to Henan to beg if they could barely get enough to eat?"
"The country doesn't lack food..."
Changsun Qingjing lowered his head: "Alas, I should have released a river lantern for that poor mother and child on the Mangban Road. That poor woman was calling for Guanyin before she died... I wonder if there is anyone in this world who cares about them?"
Frustrated, she pushed through the crowd, searching for the lantern vendor, but to no avail.
"I really have a bad temper," Changsun Qingjing complained to Acai, who was following closely behind, looking at the starry river. "My mother always said I was a competitive person who liked to argue with others, and it seems she was right. If only I had bought one more lamp earlier..."
“My lady gave the shawl to the dying mother and child, so they can leave with some dignity. My lady, please don’t blame yourself anymore,” A-Cai gently comforted Changsun Qingjing.
After repeated attempts, the vortex that had been engulfing them finally made way for the ward officials, street officials, garrison commanders, patrolmen, cavalrymen, and infantrymen, allowing these officials, both high and low, who had been arresting fugitives who had stolen grain from the Hanjia Granary, to escape.
The thin man accompanying the palace official stared at Changsun Qingjing and his four servants for a moment, making the others feel extremely uncomfortable. This man didn't look like a soldier; he was more like an eyewitness.
Just as Changsun Qingjing was about to reprimand him for his rudeness, the foot soldiers dragged away the strange witness who seemed hesitant to speak.
"Wow, look!" A clear shout suddenly rang out from the bustling crowd.
As Changsun Qingjing looked toward the direction where young scholars and courtesans were eagerly anticipating their arrival, the orderly rows of giant lanterns on Zhuque Street suddenly burst forth with dazzling light. Crimson flames and jade-green flames shot into the sky first, followed by indigo, pale yellow, and crimson flames, which dyed the entire sky into flowing ribbons of color, reflecting the golden Tongji Canal.
May all obstacles be removed, and may we enjoy lasting happiness and peace.
"Let us drink together in peace and happiness."
"May the beginning of the year bring good fortune and freedom from all illnesses."
Men and women, young and old, lovers and couples, acquaintances and strangers alike exchange blessings on this Lantern Festival night.
As midnight approached, the flames and smoke dissipated, and the crimson clouds in the sky took on an eerie red hue. It was not the gentle, faint crimson of dawn, nor the golden-red of the blazing sunrise, but an indescribable, stagnant, and solidified dark red, like the bloody sinews left after a layer of skin had been viciously torn off.
Li Shimin remained silent for a long time, then said thoughtfully, "I have also seen such blood in the Ziwei Palace. Right above the Jiuzhou Pond, the flames of hell were burning. That night I was exhausted, both physically and mentally."
The uneven junction between the sky and the buildings of Suzaku Street resembled a torn wound, from which oozed dark yellow pus, streaked with blood, slowly spreading and enveloping every city wall and every building in sight. Wherever the pus flowed, the stars went out one by one.
Changsun Qingjing dared not look up, for she was afraid that the rotting flesh and pus covering her head would press down on her; she also dared not look down, for if she were soaked in the sunlight for too long, she would sometimes see the blood dripping from her skirt; she only dared to look at Li Shimin's still clear and bright face.
That Luoyang, belonging to the era of the sage king whose virtue moved heaven and whose influence reached far and wide, that Luoyang, with the fragrance of bamboo slips, the antiquity of bronze, and the brilliance of jade cong, collapsed in the hearts of the two young people.
They just wanted to escape. To escape the blazing fires and splattering pus under the sky of Luoyang.
“Let’s go back,” Changsun Qingjing said to Li Shimin. “I still need to write a letter to Wuji. I’m extremely upset and I have to get it off my chest.”
Luoyang is the projection of Tian Shu in the Central Plains, the molten blood-red coral, the burning crimson silk, the blooming and dimming flames on the branches of the lamp wheel, the bubbles rising and bursting in the hot spring, the rotting and festering flesh hidden under the gorgeous clothes, and the clamor that died prematurely in the lush greenery.
Author's Note: Two parallel storylines, one of sorrow and one of joy.
I can't have a proper relationship.
The next chapter is about farming in the countryside!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
