The Duke House's Ideal Daughter-in-law
Chapter 80
The steward lit an incense stick in front of everyone and initiated the Fei Yue Ling: “The Moon (night) is dark, and the wind is high.”
Someone quickly responded: “The pine moon tree brings coolness at night.”
“Play the third tune as the moon rises.”
“Through the jade-green window, the slanted moon casts a deep glow.”
“The misty moon over the vast river is beautiful.”
…
At the beginning, the lines were short, and anyone who had read poetry or literature could easily come up with a line or two to continue.
Once the lines exceeded ten characters, Qian Ming and his team were the first to falter, while Xu Moxiu’s side began to gain momentum.
By the time they reached the fifteenth ‘月’ character, no one could continue. At that moment, only about a third of the incense stick had burned (one incense is 15-25 minutes).
The onlookers began to discuss it animatedly.
“They truly live up to being students of Canglan Academy, each of them brimming with literary talent and knowledge.”
“Yes, indeed!”
As Xu Moxiu’s side seemed poised to win, Qingxiang Junzhu exclaimed loudly, “Whoever helps me win the Lantern King, I’ll reward them with a thousand taels of silver!”
The crowd erupted in uproar.
Someone asked loudly, “Is this promise genuine?”
Qingxiang Junzhu replied haughtily, “A mere thousand taels of silver, is it worth Ben Junzhu’s effort to deceive anyone?”
Now, some people were energized and started racking their brains to continue the Fei Yue Ling. After all, being the capital city under the Emperor’s rule, there were quite a few literati. After a fierce competition, astonishingly, the Fei Yue Ling was extended to a remarkable sixty-eight characters.
The spectators were stunned, never having seen the Fei Yue Ling extended to such a length. The few students from Canglan Academy, under attack from a dozen opponents, surprisingly managed to hold their ground until now!
As the incense neared its end, no one from Xu Moxiu’s side could continue. Winning wasn’t just about memorizing poetry and literature; it also required swiftly organizing the perfect sixty-ninth character to be “月” in such a short time.
Zhao Huanxi really wanted to help Xu Nian’an win the Lantern King, but the current situation clearly exceeded his abilities. In his anxiety, he even considered offering a reward of two thousand taels of silver to anyone who could help him win the lantern. However, he quickly realized that Xu Moxiu’s classmates were helping out of friendship and loyalty, and making such an offer might offend them. Thus, he reluctantly decided against it.
Qingxiang Junzhu was delighted to see Zhao Huanxi’s side struggling. She secretly planned that if she were to win the Lantern King later, she would definitely humiliate them!
Zhao Shuxian was also pleased. She would rather see the lantern go to the disliked Junzhu than end up in Xu Nian’an’s hands.
Just as the incense was about to burn out completely, and everyone thought the Junzhu had surely won, Lu Feng, who had been silent all along, spoke up.
He recited Xie Zhan’s 《Ode to the Moon》,starting from “When King Chen first mourned for Ying and Liu, he was deeply sorrowful and often idle”, and continued until “The white dew warmed the empty sky, and the pure moon flowed through the heavens.” He was tall and handsome, exuding an aristocratic and noble air. His recitation had a melodious rhythm, with ups and downs that were pleasing to the ears, truly captivating the audience. Men couldn’t help but sway to his rhythm, while women were mesmerized by his performance.
After he finished reciting, the incense burned out.
Those who knew the poem were counting with their heads down, using their fingers and even borrowing from family and friends because they didn’t have enough fingers. After a moment, someone finally counted correctly and exclaimed excitedly, “It’s the sixty-ninth character! The sixty-ninth character is ‘moon’! That Gongzi has won!”
The steward struck a gong once, announcing the end of the event and Lu Feng’s victory.
Lu Feng gracefully bowed to his opponents, saying, “You’ve let me win.”
Xu Moxiu, Qiu Tong, and others began to praise Lu Feng, who, rarely, showed a hint of embarrassment on his face.
Amidst the admiring and envious gazes of the crowd, Lu Feng received the Lantern King from the steward’s hands and handed it over to Xu Moxiu.
Xu Moxiu thanked him and then passed the lantern to Xu Nian’an.
Xu Nian’an held the lantern and gracefully bowed to Lu Feng, Qiu Tong, and others, smiling brightly. “Thank you all for your assistance,” she said warmly. Then, she turned to the onlookers and added, “Thank you all for your graciousness.”
The crowd congratulated them and then dispersed.
Qingxiang Junzhu, still displeased with Zhao Huanxi’s side, left angrily.
Zhao Shuxian felt aggrieved, her eyes reddening. Her fiancé had clearly won the Lantern King, yet he hadn’t given it to her, but to another woman instead. She blamed her older brother for not being there; if he had come, she could have approached Lu Feng and he would surely have given her the lantern. Then, she would be the centre of everyone’s attention.
Before she could finish her internal complaint, Zhao Shuxian saw Xu Nian’an giving the Lantern King to her younger sister!
“Take it back and show it to Mother,” Xu Nian’an said to Xu Hui’an.
Xu Hui’an took the lantern, nodding happily.
Lu Feng’s winning lantern ended up in the hands of Xu Hui’an, that little hussy who had seduced him at Zhaohua Temple last time!
Unable to bear it any longer, Zhao Shuxian was about to rush forward to question. Zhao Shutong, seeing this, quickly pulled her back and asked in a low voice, “What do you want to do?”
“I’m going to ask him why he, someone engaged, gave the lantern he won to another woman!” Zhao Shuxian said angrily.
“He didn’t give the lantern to another woman! He only gave it to Xu Moxiu. As for who Xu Moxiu decided to pass it on to, that’s not his concern anymore. What right do you have to question him?” Zhao Shutong replied.
Zhao Shuxian realized it made sense. It was clearly Xu Nian’an, that wretched woman, whether intentionally or unintentionally trying to pair Lu Feng with Xu Hui’an. One was cunningly scheming to elevate her sister’s marriage prospects, while the other shamelessly flirted with someone else’s fiancé. They were all a nest of vipers and rats, not a single decent person in that family!
Frustrated, Zhao Shuxian realized she was powerless in the situation. She decided to return to her grandmother and mother for advice, so she took Zhao Shutong and the maidservants back to the residence.
Having won the Lantern King, Xu Hui’an was overjoyed but felt a bit awkward knowing it was won by Lu Feng. She said to Xu Nian’an, “Jiejie, I want to go home.”
“It’s getting late, and we still have a long way to go home, so it’s better to head home early,” Xu Nian’an instructed Mingli to hand over the items they had bought along the way to Baokang, the servant who had come with Xu Moxiu, and asked Xu Moxiu to take Xu Hui’an home.
With Xu Moxiu’s departure, everyone naturally dispersed. They bid farewell at the entrance of the Yuxian Pavilion. Zhao Huanxi took Xu Nian’an home.
After walking for a while, Xu Nian’an noticed he was silent. She turned her head and softly asked him, “What’s wrong? Are you unhappy?”
“I’m really useless. If it weren’t for Wenlin and Lu Gongzi today, we wouldn’t have been able to get the Lantern King,” Zhao Huanxi said gloomily.
Xu Nian’an couldn’t help but laugh, “Is this really something to be so downcast about? The Lantern King event is meant for those scholarly talents, just for fun. Why would I want you to be full of poetry and literature? If you start reciting poems and verses to me, I wouldn’t even know how to respond.”
Zhao Huanxi couldn’t help but laugh, and most of the gloom in his eyes disappeared.
“And there’s one thing you did extremely well tonight, and I must praise you for it,” Xu Nian’an said.
“What is it?” Zhao Huanxi asked, his eyes sparkling as he looked at her.
“When that Junzhu offered a thousand taels of silver to buy someone to win the lantern for her, before Lu Gongzi could win the Fei Yue Ling, I was really afraid you would loudly do the same and spend money to buy someone to win the lantern. But you didn’t do that, and that’s very good,” Xu Nian’an said softly, looking at him.
Zhao Huanxi, feeling embarrassed, looked away and said, “I really wanted to do that at the time. But then I thought, if I spent money to buy help after Wenlin, Qiu Gongzi and others had worked so hard to assist, wouldn’t that make their efforts in vain? So I held back.”
Xu Nian’an muttered, “So that’s what you were thinking ah?”
Zhao Huanxi surprisedly responded, “So you didn’t think like that? Then why did you praise me for doing well?”
Xu Nian’an replied, “Of course, because I thought that broken lantern wasn’t worth over a thousand taels of silver. Anyone who buys it is a fool. Besides, you don’t even have over a thousand taels of silver. If you had shown off like that, you would have had to borrow money from me afterwards, and wouldn’t it be like cutting my own flesh with a knife?”
Zhao Huanxi stood still, staring at her in astonishment.
Each time Xu Nian’an saw him like this, she found him silly but adorable. Unable to resist, she lightly tapped his forehead with her round fan and said, “Silly boy!” Then she turned around with a smile and walked away.
Zhao Huanxi caught up with her, a mix of joy and reproach in his expression. “You always say nonsense just to tease me!”
“Why? Are you unwilling to be teased by me?” Xu Nian’an glanced at him.
Blushing, Zhao Huanxi lowered his gaze bashfully and whispered, “I am willing.”
After speaking, he became embarrassed himself, looking around and asking, “Aiya, where’s my Biao Ge? Could he really have been lost?”
Xu Nian’an also stopped to help him look around, but they couldn’t see Yin Luochen. Instead, they noticed several disheveled young gentlemen coming out of a nearby alley, each with one or two heavily made-up women in their arms, flirting and joking as they walked along.
Zhao Huanxi stared fixedly at one of them, his fists slowly clenched.
“What’s wrong? Do you know him?” Xu Nian’an followed his gaze and asked.
Zhao Huanxi turned his face away. “I don’t know him.”
At that moment, Yin Luochen caught up from behind, running and saying, “You guys walked so fast! I just went to buy an instant crab, and when I turned around, you were all gone.”
When the group returned to the Guogong Residence, it was already early of the Hai hour (9-11 p.m.). Yin Furen was still waiting for them.
Xu Nian’an took Zhao Huanxi and Yin Luoshen to Yin Furen first to report their safe return. They hung two lanterns they bought under her corridor, and then went back to Yifang Courtyard.
“Dong’er, I’m going to play in Biao Ge’s room for a while,” Zhao Huanxi said outside the window while Xu Nian’an was bathing.
“Come back early, you have to go to the academy tomorrow,” Xu Nian’an said.
“Got it.”
After Xu Nian’an finished bathing and her hair was almost dry, Zhao Huanxi still hadn’t returned. She then said to Songyun, “Go to Biao Shaoyé’s room and call San Yé back. It’s time for his bath.”
Songyun went and returned shortly, saying, “Nainai, San Yé and Biao Shaoyé are not in the room. Huaxi, who was attending them over there, said they went out more than half an hour ago.”
Xu Nian’an’s eyes flickered, and she nodded, “Got it. Tell the maids to leave the door and water ready for Biao Shaoyé and San Yé.”
In the middle of the night, Zhao Huanxi quietly climbed into bed from the foot of the bed. Moving gently, he lay flat on his back. Just as he slightly relaxed, the person beside him turned over, faced him, and opened her eyes, asking, “Where did you go?”
“Dong… Dong Jiejie?” Zhao Huanxi, nervous, instinctively called her Jiejie. Then, he immediately regretted it and wanted to slap himself. Trying to remain calm, he said, “Biao Ge and I were walking around the garden.”
“If you were just walking around the garden, why are you so nervous that you blurted out Dong Jiejie?” Xu Nian’an looked at him calmly. “Could it be that you saw some young lady on the street tonight? Did you secretly go meet her?”
Zhao Huanxi hurriedly said, “You know I wouldn’t do such a thing, so why say that?”
Xu Nian’an replied, “If you’re hiding something from me and not telling me, I naturally start to imagine things. Since it’s just my imagination, do I need to be reasonable?”
Zhao Huanxi hesitated, then looked away at the canopy and said, “Biao Ge and I went and gave my San Jiefu a good beating with a sack.”
“Among the Gongzis you saw coming out of the alley today, was your San Jiefu one of them?” Xu Nian’an asked.
Zhao Huanxi nodded.
“What’s the point of doing this?” Xu Nian’an asked. “You beat him up, he gets hurt, and then your San Jie will have to take care of him when he returns. Isn’t this causing unnecessary trouble?”
Zhao Huanxi: “……”
He sat up from the bed, troubled, saying, “What should I do? I just wanted to stand up for my San Jie, but I forgot about this.”
Xu Nian’an also sat up and asked him, “Does your San Jiefu have a favored concubine at home?”
Zhao Huanxi sneered as he said, “There are dozens of concubines in his side chambers.”
“Then perhaps your San Jie doesn’t need to care for him,” Xu Nian’an remarked.
Zhao Huanxi looked disheartened. “What does it matter? My San Jie still has to spend her life with such a disgusting and dirty person.”
“Can’t they just get a divorce?” Xu Nian’an asked.
Zhao Huanxi shook his head. “My father won’t agree to her divorcing.”
“Tell me more about your San Jie’s situation,” Xu Nian’an said, pulling his sleeve and lying back down.
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