The early summer sun was as scorching as fire, baking the bluestone slabs in front of the General's Mansion until they were hot enough to fry an egg. The cicadas' chirping on the branches of the locust tree ripped into a continuous, tangled thread, tangling and irritating. The doorman, Old Zhou, leaned on a thickly patinated jujube wood cane and slumped over the bluestone doorpost. His cloudy eyes glared at the sea of people before him, making him feel dizzy. From noon to noon, the line of people trying to solve the puzzles stretched from the vermilion lacquered gate to the old locust tree at the alley's entrance. Scholars in lake blue brocade rolled up their sleeves and argued fiercely. Wang Ermaizi, a Hu pancake vendor, dumped his load on the stone pier and sat on the millstone, cracking melon seeds and watching the fun. Even Mrs. Wang from the next alley brought a small stool to claim a seat, saying it was more enjoyable than the storytelling in the teahouse.
"Make way! Everyone, make way! My young lady is going to give a quiz!" Chun Tao, holding a delicate round silk fan, pushed her way into the crowd. Her moon-white skirt swept across the ground covered with melon seed shells, and the newly replaced jasmine hairpin on her temple trembled and was about to fall off. "Listen carefully—my young lady said, anyone who answers the quiz incorrectly today will be punished by copying "The Instructions for Women" a hundred times!"
These words were like pouring a bucket of cold water into a frying pan, and the crowd erupted in a clamor. Chen, the editor of the Hanlin Academy, leaped to his feet, his goatee quivering like dry grass in the autumn wind, his voice rising above the cicadas' chirping in the treetops: "I foolishly thought the chicken came first! The I Ching says, 'Tai Chi gives birth to two opposites.' The chicken is yang, the egg is yin. Yang transforms into qi, yin into form. This is the natural cycle of nature. How could yin come before yang?"
"Bullshit!" Zhang, the butcher selling pork, banged his greasy shoulder pole on the ground, startling the old hen pecking at rice nearby and causing it to flutter its wings and run around. "Where did the chicken come from if there are no eggs? My hen laid three eggs yesterday. Could it have popped out from between the rocks?"
"You know nothing!" Editor Chen fumed, his beard puffing and his eyes glaring, his ivory ring rubbing against his palm. "In ancient times, when chaos first began to form, pure air rose to become the sky, and turbid air sank to become the earth. Only when the first divine chicken broke through the chaos did eggs begin to be laid!"
"A magical chicken?" Old Man Wang, the candied haws seller, heaved his carrying pole onto his shoulder and banged his bamboo clappers loudly. "So, the chicken is Sun Wukong's second uncle? I think the egg must have come first! Otherwise, where would the chicken come from?"
On the second-floor window couch of Tinglan Courtyard, Chen Weiwan sat with her legs crossed, munching on freshly roasted five-spice melon seeds. She listened to the quarrel downstairs and laughed so hard she was rolling on the floor, throwing melon seed shells out the window like snowflakes. "Chuntao, look at that fat guy in the purple robe," she pointed at the bloated, middle-aged man downstairs, her shoulders shaking with laughter. "Yesterday he was quoting scriptures and saying the phoenix came first, and today he's saying the tortoise came first! I'm afraid his wife kicked him out of bed last night and he must have had a brain injury, right?"
Chuntao laughed so hard she couldn't straighten her back, clutching her belly. The silk embroidered with twin lotus flowers slid to the floor. "Miss, look at that blind fortune teller!" She pointed at the old blind man in the corner, shaking his head. "He just took out a compass and spun it around for a long time, saying things like, 'The chicken is the egg's past life, and the egg is the chicken's future life.' He even said your destined marriage is hidden in the eggshell!"
Shen Weiwan puffed the melon seeds she'd just cracked into her mouth. She pounded her chest and looked out the window, only to find Xiefang Courtyard unusually quiet; even the normally chirping sparrows were silent. "Something's wrong," she said, crushing a plump melon seed, her fingertips stained with fine grains of salt. "Can that old, wicked woman Liu hold back? Is she up to something bad again?"
Before she could finish her words, Chuntao suddenly pointed at the alley entrance and exclaimed, her nails almost digging into the carvings on the window frame: "Miss! Look who's coming! His Royal Highness the Seventh Prince's black carriage!"
On the bluestone road, the dark-colored carriage of the Seventh Prince, Xiao Yu, rolled past the mottled shadows of trees. The driver gently pulled the reins, and the snow-white horse's hooves made a crisp "clatter" sound on the scorching stone. The curtain of the carriage opened, and Xiao Yu dismounted. The corner of his moon-white brocade robe fluttered in the hot wind, and the black jade inlaid on the jade belt buckle at his waist gleamed coldly in the sunlight. In his left hand, he carried a gilded food box, the sweet fragrance of osmanthus emanating from the cracks in the lid. He walked straight to the front of the general's mansion. The surrounding people automatically made way for him like Moses parting the sea, and whispers suddenly surged in like a tide:
"Look! It's His Royal Highness the Seventh Prince!"
"Why did His Highness come here in person? Are you here to solve the chicken and egg puzzle as well?"
"Didn't you see His Highness carrying a food box? I'm afraid he's giving Miss Shen her favorite sweet-scented osmanthus cake!"
Shen Weiwan leaned against the carved window sill, watching him approach step by step. Her heart skipped a beat for no apparent reason, and her fingertips unconsciously twisted the hem of her skirt. Chuntao chuckled mischievously, "Miss, your mouth is almost grinning from ear to ear. Be careful that His Highness sees you and laughs at you."
Xiao Yu looked up at the second floor, meeting Shen Weiwan's hurriedly averted gaze. A playful smile played on his lips. He raised the food box in his hand and spoke in a clear voice like the clink of jade: "I heard that Miss Shen has posed a difficult question for the ages, so I came here... to bring you some freshly made osmanthus cakes to cheer you up." He deliberately emphasized the word "freshly made," causing the few young men around him who knew some foreign languages to chuckle softly.
Shen Weiwan's cheeks flushed, and she deliberately put on a stern face, leaning out half of her body: "Oh, Your Highness is busy with all kinds of affairs, and you are also interested in this trivial matter of chickens laying eggs and eggs laying chickens?"
Xiao Yu walked forward and handed the food box to Chun Tao beside him. His eyes fell on Shen Weiwan's red earlobe, and with a hint of cunning, he said, "Of course." He paused, looked around at the people craning their necks, and deliberately dragged out his tone, "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"
Downstairs, a sudden silence descended, a pin drop audible. Everyone pricked up their ears; even the chirping of the cicadas in the trees seemed to pause for a moment. Editor Chen stroked his beard, preparing to chime in with a quote from the classics. Butcher Zhang also paused his shove with the scholar, his eyes wide open, awaiting His Highness's eloquent remarks.
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