This time, only ten days had passed since Chen Cui sent the letter when she received a reply.
This reply letter was much more concise. The old dean expressed his gratitude and gave an approximate date, saying that the representative students of their college had already set off when the letter was sent and would arrive around August. As for other specific arrangements, he will ask the students to bring a separate letter of divorce themselves.
After reading the letter, Chen Cui couldn't help but wonder, "The letter was probably sent by the old headmaster to the escort agency. They traveled day and night to deliver it, and walked ahead of the student. But the distance from Hongle Academy to our village should not take a month. I thought that the student should come in July."
Lao Buyu guessed, "Maybe he needs to visit other academies first and then come to our place?"
Cuiwei Academy was established late, and Lao Buyu had studied with his husband several decades ago. They were not very clear about the procedures, and since it was only a month later than expected, they did not think much about it.
There was no need to make any arrangements for Chen Cui. The student dormitory had a large dormitory bed, and now only Wei Shu and Wei Xi were living there, so there was plenty of room for one more person. Just hang out a quilt for the student to dry in the sun.
In the classroom in the main hall, the desk that Chen Cui used on a daily basis was moved to the outer corridor, and Wei Shu asked the servant to buy a new one as a small gift to his new classmate.
The daily life of the academy went on as usual, and until the Mid-Autumn Festival, they still hadn't waited for the students from Hongle Academy.
This is a bit worrying, maybe something went wrong along the way.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival last year, no one in Cuiwei was in the mood to celebrate because of the academy competition.
We had planned to have a great time this year, and even go into the city to watch the Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival, but when we thought of the new student who didn't come on time, no one was very interested.
Shen Cui said, "Don't think too much about it. What if he was just delayed by something? It's better to think that things will go wrong."
The three young men were all very hardworking. The scorching heat could not dampen their fighting spirit. As it was a rare major festival, Chen Cui still encouraged them to go out and exercise.
Lao Buyu also said: "Yes, there are lantern riddles at the Lantern Festival, so it's a good opportunity for me to see how well you have learned recently!"
So the original plan remained unchanged. On the Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone had a delicious meal with fish and meat. In the evening, when the day's study time was over, they went into the city together to participate in the Lantern Festival.
Normally there is a curfew in the city. If you stay outside without reason after the curfew, you will be arrested by patrolling police.
Festivals and holidays are special exceptions. Not only are there no curfews, but people are also encouraged to go out.
The city was decorated with lights and lanterns, and vendors and performers could be seen everywhere. It was bustling with music and singing.
Lao Buyu walked in front with the three young men, while Zhou walked behind holding Chen Cui's arm. They agreed to meet at the city gate if they got separated, and then started walking and strolling.
They came out on purpose without having dinner, so they went to the snack stall first.
Sweet and salty biscuits, pea yellow, fried sugar biscuits, glutinous rice strips... Buy a bag of various snacks and share them among several people.
Chen Cui also brought a purse with her, but Wei Shu, Zhou, and Lao Buyu all rushed to give money, so it was not her turn as the head of the mountain to pay.
Next came the activity that the teenagers valued the most - guessing lantern riddles.
The small stalls for guessing lantern riddles have gathered together to form an entire lantern riddle street. If you guess a riddle correctly and give a penny to the stall owner, you can get a red cloth strip.
The red ribbons are similar to the ticket papers used in video game arcades in later generations. You can save them and redeem them for gifts at the stalls set up by a group of stall owners at the end of the street.
The one who gets the most red ribbons can get the King of Lanterns, or directly exchange them for ten taels of silver.
There is no limit on the number of people who can participate in this kind of entertainment activity. People can do it alone or in a team. Many literary friends gathered here, eager to try it out.
The riddles at this time were much more elegant and sophisticated than those of later generations. They were all based on the six types of riddles, namely pictographic, ideographic, phono-semantic, indicative, loan, and transliteration.
Shen Cui didn't know this at first, thinking that she had read a lot of books recently, she followed the boys.
The first riddle is "the marriage between them is just right".
Lao Buyu did not stop. At his age, getting involved was like an adult bullying a child. Just let them guess for themselves.
Chen Cui held the paper in her hand and thought for a long while, then asked tentatively, "The word 'yin' and 'yuan' are similar in meaning, so this is the word 'yun'?"
The stall owner smiled and handed over a red cloth: "Madam is smart!"
Shen Cui's face lit up with joy, and she turned to look at Mu Erpang and the others... None of the young men showed any surprise on their faces, and it was obvious that they had already thought of it.
She waved her hand and smiled, "Guess yours, don't let me."
After saying that, she went on to guess the second riddle, which was 'A solitary boat across the world, shooting a line from the Book of Songs'.
Chen Cui was completely clueless about this kind of question. Seeing that she was in a dilemma, Mu Erpang said, "The world is dark yellow. There is only one boat between the world, carrying the sky and the earth. So the answer is 'carrying dark yellow'."
Fortunately, they won the second red ribbon.
The riddles became more and more difficult, and Chen Cui failed to guess any of them, so Mu Erpang and Wei Shu stepped forward. They guessed the riddles one after another, and explained them to Chen Cui, who was confused, and guessed them all.
At this time, in another part of the Lantern Riddle Street, a young man started guessing at a very fast speed on the street.
"'The Book of Chu. A line from the Book of Songs.' The answer is 'The Records of the Southern Kingdom.'"
"'When will the moon be full in the west tower?' The answer is 'Three or five in the east.'"
"'He drank a little and got drunk, only to wake up in the afternoon.' The answer is 'He was not drunk yet.'"
Soon, Chen Cui and the others all knew that a talented person who was very good at guessing riddles appeared on the other side of the street.
His literary talent was truly remarkable, so many people gathered around him and followed him to watch his performance. Therefore, Chen Cui and the others could only vaguely hear his voice but could not see his appearance through other people.
"Then shall we continue guessing?" Compared with others, their speed was obviously not as fast as theirs, and it became impossible for them to compete for the King of Lanterns or the reward of ten taels of silver.
Chen Cui, who usually wanted to spend every penny as much as possible, said it was okay, "We are just here to have fun. Besides, the cloth strips can be exchanged for other things. We can exchange them for some other food and daily necessities!"
Mu Erpang smiled and nodded, but when he turned around he heard Wei Xi already guessing the next riddle -
"'Lu Su is not careless in his dealings with others', the answer is 'A gentleman is respectful but makes no mistakes'."
"'After the rain, the mountains look as though they were asleep.' The answer is 'snow.'"
Wei Xi guessed the answer almost as soon as he saw the riddle.
He had been silent at first, so Chen Cui and the others thought he was not good at this. They didn't expect that Wei Xi was actually giving in to them, just like Mu Erpang and Wei Shu in front of him were deliberately giving in to Chen Cui.
Now that he knew he had a strong opponent, he began to spare no effort to show his true level.
"This brat!" Wei Shu turned around and hooked his arm around Wei Xi's neck, "He's quite good at hiding his weaknesses."
Wei Xi's face turned red after hearing what he said, but he didn't slow down in guessing the riddles.
Gradually, more and more people came to watch the fun.
They waited until the two groups met at the end of the street. The flow of people was so large that the gift exchange stall was completely blocked by crowds.
Wei Shu, who was in the best physical condition, stood up, squeezed to the front to hand over the red ribbon, and then returned with great effort.
Someone from the other group also helped pass on the cloth strips.
After the final count, there were exactly fifty red strips on both sides!
There were less than 200 riddles in the entire Lantern Riddle Street. While the two of them were competing, other people on the street were also guessing riddles, but now there were no more riddles to guess.
The two sides fought to a draw, but there was only one King of Lights.
Chen Cui thought that the two sides could actually split the ten taels of silver equally, but the riddle was not hers to guess, so it was not appropriate for her to decide it casually.
Not to mention that scholars are very elegant. If they really bring this up, people will not feel that their own academy is full of the smell of money.
So she didn't say anything and just waited to see how the stall owner decided.
The stall owner who was in charge of the gift shop was busy running around, and finally found a piece of paper from somewhere. He wiped the big man's hair and said, "Fortunately, fortunately, there is one more question, which can be used as an additional test!"
After asking everyone nearby to be quiet and not to help indiscriminately, the stall owner soon read out the riddle: "'Why don't you want to turn around?', a Chinese idiom. This question is simple, so it depends on who can speak faster."
The stall owner said that this question was simple, but the boy who was guessing the riddle quickly and Wei Xi, who was no longer hiding his incompetence, were both silent and did not give the answer immediately.
Chen Cui felt the riddle sounded familiar, and thought of the passage in "Romance of the West Chamber" that she had read recently - 'I unbuttoned your buttons, I untied your belt; the orchid and musk spread in the secluded room, the bad association brought harm to people, ha, why don't you turn around? '.
So it’s no wonder that Wei Xi couldn’t guess it, he usually doesn’t read such love stories. I think the young man over there is probably the same.
She said aloud: "The answer is 'topless'!"
"The answer is correct, we win!" The stall owner let out a long breath and asked loudly across the crowd, "What prize do you want?"
Chen Cui still wanted cash, but with so many eyes staring at her, she was a little embarrassed to say it out loud, so she just shouted across the air: "Let's discuss it, and we'll go choose after the people leave!"
There was nothing much to see at the end of the street where gifts were exchanged. After the excitement ended, everyone slowly dispersed.
Once the others left, Shen Cui and the others were able to go up and talk to the stall owner.
The one who moved faster than them was a tall and thin boy who finally squeezed to the front.
He looked extremely miserable, with ragged clothes, crooked hair, black face, and one of his shoes was stepped on. He was barefoot and asked the stall owner pitifully, "Can I exchange all these cloth strips for writing brushes, inkstones, and other things? I don't have any extra money. Can you give me some red paper on credit so I can wrap things up like gifts? I want to give them as gifts."
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