Chapter 30: The Lantern Festival night is brightly lit and the festive scene is grand.
"How did my elder sister make you unhappy?" Chu Yufu asked with a smile.
Lu Jiaan shook his arms without saying anything. Chu Yufu did not ask any further questions. She was fiddling with the mortar slowly at the table. She was grinding the medicine powder she had just prepared. She was going to give the puppy a medicinal bath and deworm it after it was in better condition.
After a while, a muffled voice came from the side of the couch: "What's going on? She's like a ghost that won't go away. As long as I'm with Brother Zhao, she will definitely appear!" This "she" naturally refers to Chu Jinhe.
"We ran into her on the way to the back hall, and then we went to draw divination together. After that, Brother Zhao left, and she said..."
Chu Yufu raised her eyes: "What did she say?"
Lu Jiaan raised his head, his slightly chubby face wrinkled into a bun shape, his lips stretched into a line. "She said I was just a bumpkin from the countryside, not worthy of Brother Zhao, and told me not to have such wishful thinking!"
She clenched her hand into a fist on top of the puppy's head.
"This..." Chu Yufu frowned slightly, stopped pounding the medicine, and thought carefully.
Calculating the time, it was time for the two of them to officially break up, but she remembered that the first time her elder sister belittled her cousin in person in the book was on the Lantern Festival more than ten days later.
Since I became a variable in the book, many plots have changed. For example, the original character in the book repeatedly made things difficult for her cousin, but she did not do it. Perhaps because of the lack of those plots, the eldest sister had to fight herself, and it was normal for her to go to war with her cousin in advance due to the intensified conflicts.
After a long while without hearing Chu Yufu's reply, Lu Jiaan murmured, "I know I'm different from the young ladies in the capital. I'm not well-read, nor am I elegant enough. Chu Jinhe is indeed more..."
"But," Chu Yufu interrupted her with a smile, "how do you know that Prince Zhao will definitely like a lady who is well-read and elegant?"
"Besides, in love, sincerity is the most important thing."
"Sincerely? She is sincere too. I can see that she likes Brother Zhao." Lu Jiaan said.
Chu Yufu shook her head secretly. The sincerity of her elder sister was different from that of her cousin.
In the Chu family, besides her third brother, Chu Jinhe had the best resources. She had lived a life of luxury since childhood, and was doted on by her parents. But all this came at a price: she had to marry into a wealthy family, bring glory to the Chu family, and make the Wu family proud.
When Lu Jiaan first met Prince Zhao, he didn't know his identity. The two of them had a spark of affection when they were sharing hardships outside the capital. Chu Jinhe's admiration was more after weighing the pros and cons, and she thought that the other party was a good branch worth climbing. Prince Zhao had seen too many people like the latter who had no foundation at all.
Chu Yufu didn't intend to explain this too clearly. She just smiled and said, "What about Prince Zhao's sincerity? He gave you a golden hairpin and personally cut plum blossoms for you. Have you forgotten everything? Has he ever given the same thing to you, big sister?"
"That's true!" Lu Jia'an felt instantly comforted. He let out a long sigh, grinning and revealing a row of small white teeth. "Come to think of it, I've never given Brother Zhao any gifts before. How about I give him a sachet during the Lantern Festival?"
"sure."
Then they began to chatter about what patterns to embroider, what needlework to use, and what kind of perfume to put in them. The puppy snored softly amidst their whispers.
The next afternoon, Chu Linglan brought a basket of needles, thread, and scraps of cloth, saying she was worried the puppy would be cold and wanted to make clothes for it. A moment after she arrived, Lu Jiaan also arrived, also with needles and thread, saying he wanted to sew a sachet.
The three girls squatted down, heads touching, to look at the puppy that was sleeping again.
Chu Yufu: "You can't keep calling me puppy, you need to give me a name."
Lu Jiaan: "Huang Huang? Xiao Huang?"
Chu Yufu: "Just shout in the whole alley and there will be a lot of little yellows."
Chu Linglan: "How about calling it Kang Kang? God bless it to be healthy."
Lu Jiaan: "My cousin's name is Kang Kang."
Chu Yufu: "We found it on the first day of the Lunar New Year, so why not call it Chuyi?"
The other two said in unison: "That's great!"
Chu Linglan reached out to touch its head: "Xiao Chuyi."
The puppy licked his mouth in his sleep with his tongue and stretched out his body.
Chu Jinhe listened to her mother's words today and asked the kitchen to stew a nourishing soup, which she personally delivered to her grandmother. She also chatted with her for a while before coming out. When she passed by Zhuyu Courtyard, she heard a burst of laughter coming from inside. She tilted her head slightly and looked inside through the open courtyard door, and saw Lu Jiaan's maid Sang Lu waiting in the corridor.
Qingxian, who was beside her, followed her master's gaze, took a look, and said with a smile, "The maidservant beside the fourth lady is here too! I heard that the second lady brought a puppy back from the temple yesterday. I guess they are all here to see the puppy."
Chu Jinhe frowned slightly in disdain and snorted, "What's so good about a local dog?"
After she finished speaking, she suddenly paused, then she covered her mouth with her handkerchief and laughed out loud, shaking her head as she laughed: "Oh, a local dog!"
-
Cousin Lu’s handicraft skills were not very good. She embroidered and then took apart a sachet, and then embroidered it again, over and over again many times, and finally finished it before the Lantern Festival.
The Lantern Festival is one of the most important festivals in the Yan Dynasty and is also a rare day when the curfew is lifted.
When dusk falls and lanterns are lit, people from all over the capital will flock to the streets to participate in the celebration and sing all night long.
Before leaving, Wu called the younger generation of the family over and told the servants, "Take good care of your daughters and sons. Keep alert and follow up!"
"Yes." Everyone responded.
Lu Jiaan and Chu Yufu walked hand in hand, took their maids, and walked out of the house and headed straight for Suzaku Street.
"Oh my God, everyone in the capital has come here!" Lu Jiaan exclaimed as he stood in front of the street.
Looking at the scene in front of her, Chu Yufu was also shocked and speechless for a moment.
The entire Suzaku Street was bustling with people, and colorful lanterns hung everywhere, illuminating the area like daylight. The long corridors on both sides of the street were filled with a variety of performances. Just from a glance, she could see people singing operas with long sleeves waving, fire-breathing performances, magic tricks, acrobatics, and even someone playing the pipa with the windows open on the second floor of a teahouse to attract customers.
The lights are bright and the festival is grand.
Lu Jiaan grabbed her hand tightly and plunged into the crowd. "Come on, let's walk around first. Around the hour of Xu, we'll go to Yanchunlou. Brother Zhao and I have an appointment to meet there. He said there will be fireworks by the Imperial River at midnight. Yanchunlou has a great location, perfect for watching the fireworks!"
After walking a few steps, the two were attracted by the fragrant roasted rabbit meat on the roadside. Chu Yufu took out a copper coin and bought six skewers, one for herself, one for Lu Jiaan, one each for Sanglu, Lanzhu and Yunsui. The extra one was bought for Yinsuo. She asked the stall owner to wrap it in dry lotus leaves and gave it to Yunsui.
The atmosphere was truly joyous, and the two, disregarding any formalities, ate with sticks in hand while watching the street performances. Lu Jiaan was celebrating Lantern Festival in Beijing for the first time, and Chu Yufu was even more delighted. The diverse and even unprecedented performances were a feast for the eyes.
Chu Yufu found the most interesting thing to be the "ant summoning technique" performed by a short man. Under the candlelight, a group of ants followed his instructions, sometimes forming a V-shape, sometimes gathering in a circle, and he could also make them carry tree leaves and pebbles.
The two of them were delighted to see this and kept taking out copper coins from their sleeves to give tips.
After walking with the crowd for a while, they felt a little tired, so they casually walked into a teahouse, ordered a pot of scented tea and sat down to rest. There was also a show in the teahouse. An old man over 50 years old was sitting in the middle of the teahouse, holding a gavel and telling a story.
"... Let's talk about Young Master Yan of the Duke of Xin's mansion. He was born into a wealthy family, but was marked in the Book of Life and Death by the King of Hell. His fate was to be taken from birth, but he was forcibly kept alive by the Duke's wife using rare treasures. Twelve years later, on New Year's Eve, a jackdaw suddenly flew up in the Duke's mansion! Four medical masters rushed to..."
"...Just as everyone was in despair, a cry of 'Wait!' suddenly came from outside the door! The door flew open, a howling wind roared! A figure appeared, stepping on the moon and slowly speaking fourteen words: A golden needle can break the Yin-Yang paper, a skilled hand can renew the life-giving lantern! If only this one person can be found, the young master will be saved!"
Everyone was listening with great interest when the storyteller suddenly stopped talking and said, "Dear readers, if you want to know what happens next, please listen to the next chapter..."
Suddenly there was an uproar all around.
Lu Jiaan put down the teacup and said loudly, "Hey, is what you said true or false?"
The storyteller closed his fan and said with a smile, "I, Zhang, never fabricate stories. These are all secrets I painstakingly dug out. I hope you will have a good laugh!"
At this time, someone stood up and said, "It's true. My cousin's brother's uncle is a clerk in the Jinma Street medicine shop. I heard that the Xin Guogong Mansion recently bought a lot of ginseng, all for Master Yan!"
Everyone's eyes immediately turned to him, and someone said nonchalantly, "I heard that Duke Xin has many children. If this one doesn't work out, then so do they. Why do we have to save him?"
Immediately, many people cast condemning glances at him.
"What are you talking about!"
"If we can save him, we must. The feelings are there!"
"What parent would abandon their children?"
At this time, the storyteller spoke up, saying slowly, "What you all don't know is that although there are many children in the Xinguo Mansion, the only legitimate child of the Duke's wife is the eldest son, Yan! Even if the Duke is willing to give up, the Duke's wife won't!"
"I see." Lu Jiaan shook his head and sighed.
Chu Yufu smiled and poured her another cup of tea, saying, "You really believe it. Storytelling, storytelling, after all, is just telling stories. It's really good if you can get a little bit of it."
"That's right." Lu Jiaan nodded. Just as he was about to say something else, he sneezed twice in succession.
Chu Yu reached out and felt her pulse, frowning: "You caught a cold."
Lu Jiaan rubbed his nose and asked, "Do you have any medicine in your room?"
"Not all." Chu Yufu thought for a moment, "I just saw a medicine shop across from the teahouse. You guys wait here, I'll be back soon."
As she said this, she took Lanzhu with her, stood up and walked towards the shop opposite. She calculated the time and decided that it was just the right time to get the medicine before going to Yanchunlou.
Chu Yufu walked through the crowd and into the medicine shop. She stopped in front of the counter, looked up at it carefully for a while, and said to the clerk behind the counter: "Cinnamon twig, forsythia, ephedra, dried ginger... Take one ounce of each of these and pack them separately."
"Please wait a moment." The waiter replied.
While waiting for the clerk to prepare the medicine, Chu Yufu looked around the pharmacy.
The court doctors of the Great Yan Dynasty were also allowed to open shops outside the palace. These medicine shops were called medical officer medicine shops. The shop she entered had a plaque with large words engraved on it - Zhang Taicheng's House, which happened to be a medical officer's shop.
It certainly looked larger than the drugstore she'd frequented. A wooden staircase divided the shop into two levels: the lower level was the lobby, and the upper level was what appeared to be a consulting room for patients. The entire shop was empty except for a dispenser and a doctor.
Compared to outside, it's really quiet in here.
As she was thinking, the shop door was suddenly pushed open with a clanging sound!
"Young doctor, my son has been taking the medicine you prescribed for three days, but it doesn't help at all!" A short and fat man walked in with a boy about ten years old.
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