Chapter 134: Extra 1 Lantern Riddles on Yuanxiao Night

’TIS THE FESTIVE Shangyuan holiday, a joyous night.

Although spring had begun, the brisk winds of winter hadn’t yet departed. Xie Lian trudged along the roadside hauling a large sack on his back, his face slightly flushed from the gales.

The sack held a huge assortment of things he’d just collected. He didn’t know whether any of it was useful, but regardless, this was all he could count on to make a living going forward.

Not long after, he came upon a stall on the side of the street.

The stall was called “He Family Snacks,” and it sold simple fare. A family of three was sitting around a small table further inside, likely the owner of the establishment with his wife and child. There was another woman bustling about the tables, slender in figure and lovely in looks. The owner called out to her to stop working and come sit with them inside, but she wouldn’t listen; she simply trilled “Coming,” with a voice like a yellow warbler’s. A few scattered customers sat at the other tables, and it seemed they’d come specifically for this young woman. There was casual conversation here and there, but before long, they all went home. After all, today was the Shangyuan Festival.

Ah, it’s Yuanxiao,3 Xie Lian remarked inwardly.

When he was little, the king and queen of Xianle ate yuanxiao with him every Shangyuan. Young Xie Lian had been a very picky eater—he didn’t like yuanxiao, and still didn’t like it even when the imperial chef served him the best of the best ladled into the finest bowls. It was too sweet, and the stickiness made his teeth itch. He’d refuse every type of filling on offer, gulp all the balls down in a couple of swallows, and be done with it.

When he was a little older, he ran off on his own to cultivate on Mount Taicang. Sometimes he’d go home when Yuanxiao rolled around, sometimes he wouldn’t. He hadn’t had yuanxiao that many times overall. When he thought about it now, he was surprised to discover he no longer remembered what it tasted like.

Xie Lian stopped next to the stall and glanced at it cautiously, then cautiously lowered the big, ugly sack on his shoulder to the ground. Finally, he cautiously entered.

He removed his bamboo hat and held it in his hands as he voiced his request. “Boss, one bowl of yuanxiao, please, if you have any?”

The owner, a rather old man, glanced at him. Before he could answer, the young woman beckoned him to sit.

“Yes, sir,” she responded with a smile. “Come in and have a seat!”

She immediately went to work. Xie Lian sat down, but he was puzzled when he saw the owner shake his head. He wondered if he was dirty and had thus incurred the man’s displeasure, so he immediately checked his sleeves; he only relaxed a little when he was certain they were clean.

“Is something the matter?” Xie Lian asked.

If the owner didn’t like his bag inside the stall, he would take it outside. But the owner took another look at him and shook his head.

“Tragic. Real tragic.”

“Huh? What is?” Xie Lian asked.

“You’re eating yuanxiao at some street stall outside in the cold on this perfectly good Yuanxiao evening. How tragic is that?”

Xie Lian was rendered speechless for a moment. “…Don’t say that. Do you want my business or not…?”

The owner didn’t respond; he turned away to retrieve the bowl and end the conversation with Xie Lian.

After sitting there for a bit, Xie Lian sensed someone was eyeing him. Or rather, eyeing him and his abnormally gigantic bag.

The owner’s daughter had snuck over and was now crouching on the ground and poking at the bag. She seemed very curious about what was stuffed inside, and it took several calls from her mother before she went back inside. This was a time before Xie Lian had developed his impenetrably thick skin, so he couldn’t help but give his giant bag a kick in the hope of stuffing it under the table where no one could see. Unfortunately, this was a small stall, and the tables and benches were similarly tiny. Nothing could be hidden. Left with no other choice, Xie Lian cleared his throat quietly a few times and did his best to ignore the eyes of others.

He would get used to it eventually. It was no big deal.

Suddenly, a thought struck him. He hurriedly reached into his breast pocket, and his face changed. Now it’s an even worse tragedy! he thought. Not only am I eating yuanxiao all alone in the cold at a street stall—I don’t have enough money!

He planned to make a quick getaway then and there, but of course the owner just had to come over with a large porcelain bowl before he could.

“Five pennies,” the owner said as he set the bowl in front of him.

“…” Xie Lian was at a loss for words. “Uh…I…”

He cleared his throat a few times, his fist pressed against his mouth.

“Do you not have the money?” the owner asked. Still stricken, Xie Lian couldn’t reply, but the owner simply said, “Forget it. I’ll give it to you for free, considering how tragic you look. I’ll be packing up once you’re done, so hurry home. Today is Yuanxiao, the day for family reunions!”

“…”

Xie Lian sat back down. He didn’t have anywhere or anyone to return to after finishing this bowl of yuanxiao, but he didn’t voice that aloud. He simply mumbled a soft “Thank you.”

The owner left as soon as he set down the bowl. He served up the remaining yuanxiao in the small pot at the front of the stall to a different table.

The little girl was biting on her spoon with her head tilted. “When is gege coming home? I wanna wait until he’s back before digging in.”

“He’s so late,” the owner chimed in. “Coming home so late on Yuanxiao; how outrageous!”

“He’s working hard. He’ll be home soon,” the old woman chided. “Don’t scold him when he comes back. Miao-er! Miao-er, stop working. I feel awful always needing you to help out. Come here, and let’s eat together.”

“Not at all!” the young woman replied. She cleaned the last table before sitting down with them to share yuanxiao.

They seemed to be waiting for another member of the family to join them, and the four of them chatted and laughed all the while. Xie Lian watched them, then picked up his own bowl. He delivered one yuanxiao to his mouth and sipped a mouthful of the sweet soup.

He still couldn’t tell what it tasted like.

***

“Gege, gege?”

Xie Lian snapped out of it and noticed that Hua Cheng was gazing at him. The red of Hua Cheng’s clothes was even more vibrant against his skin as the lantern lights gave a gentle hue to his pale, lifeless complexion. Xie Lian lost himself for a moment watching him before he could answer.

“What?”

“Gege, are you tired? Do you need a break from walking?” Hua Cheng asked.

Xie Lian nodded absentmindedly.

“Sorry, I went overboard last night,” Hua Cheng apologized.

It took a moment for Xie Lian to realize what he meant, and he quickly waved his hands. “Wh-what are you saying? That’s not it at all—everything’s fine!”

Hua Cheng arched an eyebrow. “Is that so? If everything is fine even after that, does that mean I didn’t go overboard last night? Does that mean I can…?”

“…”

Suddenly, Xie Lian remembered that they were still strolling along the main street of Ghost City! This jolted him back to the present, and he scanned the area in alarm. Sure enough, without him realizing it, they had been surrounded by a dense crowd of strange, oddly shaped creatures. The ones with long ears had them perked, the ones with short ears stretched their necks, and almost all of them were staring at them with unblinking eyes as wide as saucers.

Xie Lian was shocked to speechlessness. At last, he admonished, “Gosh, San Lang!”

Hua Cheng smiled in response and folded his hands behind his back. “All right, all right. I was wrong. I’ll stop.”

By then, Xie Lian had moved his eyes away from the yuanxiao monster’s stall on the streetside. Countless vibrant red lanterns lined both sides of Ghost City’s main street, bearing riddles just waiting to be solved.

“Solve a riddle! Solve a riddle!” the ghosts hollered. “There’s a prize if you get it right! A great prize!”

Hua Cheng turned to Xie Lian. “Gege, wanna try? There are prizes to win.”

Xie Lian walked over. “Let me give it a shot.”

The crowd of ghosts erupted with excitement, pushing and shoving one another in the chaos.

“Shh! Shh! Granduncle is about to solve riddles! Granduncle is about to solve riddles!”

“…”

Xie Lian was left a little speechless by the overwhelming wave of enthusiastic shouting—they made it sound like he was about to put on a grand spectacle, like a great shaman dance. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Xie Lian moved to pick a random lantern, but instead, a tentacle carefully delivered one to his hands directly.

“Please, go ahead! Go ahead!”It didn’t matter to Xie Lian which lantern he started with, so he accepted this one and gave it a look.

The riddle was: Sought until the head of white.4

“‘Wo,’ as in ‘Me,’” Xie Lian answered without much thought. “‘Sought until the head of white,’ or ‘sought until old age.’ Take the dash on top of ‘white,’ 白, and add it to ‘seek,’ 找, and it makes the character 我 for ‘me.’”

Hua Cheng clapped. “Gege, you’re amazing,” he praised.

The ghosts clapped as well, their applause as loud as thunder. They also howled and hollered, and some strange black shadow creature even started doing flips into the air as it cheered—it was incredibly over the top.

Xie Lian sweatdropped. “This is actually…really easy, you know.”

The tentacle handed over a second lantern and beckoned him. “Please, go ahead! Go ahead!”

Xie Lian took it. This time, the riddle was: One day of the Spring Festival.

Again, without thinking, he gave his answer. “‘Fu,’ for ‘Husband.’ ‘Festival,’ 节, is a homonym for the word ‘snipe.’ And so, one ‘day,’ 日, sniped from ‘spring,’ 春, makes the character 夫, which means ‘man’ or ‘husband’—depending on context.”

Hua Cheng was about to clap again, but Xie Lian stopped him. “Don’t. This one was easy too.”

“Really?” Hua Cheng grinned happily at him. “But, gege, I really do think you’re amazing.”

Such a flatterer, as always, Xie Lian thought. If I solved a lantern riddle you devised, that would be amazing…

The tentacle gave him a third lantern and hollered, “Please, go ahead! Go ahead!”

When he looked down at it, Xie Lian frowned a little.

“Whoa! This one’s hard!” the crowd chimed in.

Xie Lian nodded. Sure enough, the answer to this riddle wasn’t as easy to figure out as the others.

The riddle was: Bashfully do I lower my head to express my admiring heart.

It wasn’t that difficult, though. Xie Lian had the solution only a moment later.

“‘Bashful,’ 羞, refers to the touch-me-not plant, so we take the character’s plant radical, 艹. ‘Lower head,’ 低头, indicates that one is to take the head, or the first part, of the word ‘lower,’ giving us亻. Finally, we take the heart, or middle, of the phrase ‘admiring heart,’倾心, which is ‘匕’. All three parts, when pieced together, make the word…‘flower,’ 花. The answer to this riddle is ‘hua,’ for ‘flower.’”

As soon as he finished and announced the answer, he covered his ears. Sure enough, it set off pandemonium again; the crowd praised him with boundless abandon, their hype comically over the top. It made him cringe.

Wearing a toothy grin, Hua Cheng gazed at him. “Gege, this time you really were amazing.”

The tentacle surreptitiously slunk over with another lantern.

Xie Lian returned the grin. “I’ve got another trick that’s even more amazing. This time, I can guess the answer without even seeing the riddle. Do you believe me?”

“Oh,” said Hua Cheng, his eye widening at his proclamation. “Is that right? Does gege really know such an astonishing trick?”

Xie Lian took the lantern. “Of course. Let me guess—the answer is ‘city.’ That is, the ‘cheng’ in Hua Cheng. Right?”

He raised the lantern, and sure enough, the riddle said: One move of armed forces stabilizes the south.

“‘One,’ 一, moved on ‘armed forces,’ 干戈, changes the 干 to 土 and leaves the 戈,” Xie Lian explained. “As for ‘stabilizes the south,’ 南方定, the south, or the bottom, of the word 方 remains in place, which changes it to 万. When combined, it forms the word 城, ‘cheng,’ for ‘city.’ This should’ve been the hardest of the riddles, but unfortunately…”

Unfortunately, he had guessed the pattern beforehand. And what phrase did the four answers form when strung together? Wo fu Hua Cheng—My husband, Hua Cheng.

With their scheme exposed, the ghosts stopped cheering. Instead, they turned their gazes skyward and began to cough awkwardly. Hua Cheng’s eye swept slowly across the crowd. As if that look had terrified them out of their wits, some ghosts scurried into random lanterns while others burrowed underground. The ones remaining clutched their heads as they cried out for forgiveness.

“Don’t be angry, Chengzhu! It wasn’t my idea!”

“It wasn’t mine either, quack!”

“Yeah, right! You were the loudest of all when agreeing to it!”

“Beat it,” Hua Cheng said mildly.

In an instant, everyone on the street—humans and ghosts alike—scattered and disappeared like clouds in the wind.

Xie Lian grinned as he hung the lantern onto its rack. “Let’s head back.”

The two walked toward Thousand Lights Temple side by side.

Along the way, Hua Cheng also pleaded for mercy in a deadpan tone. “Don’t look at me like that, gege. I really didn’t tell them to do that.”

“I know,” Xie Lian replied with a smile. “You wouldn’t have constructed the riddles like that.”

“Oh? And how does gege suppose I would’ve constructed them?” Hua Cheng asked.

“It would’ve been ‘My husband, San Lang,’ of course…” Xie Lian replied.

He hadn’t suspected anything until that moment, but he suddenly trailed off as he remembered that “a loose tongue causes trouble.” But it was too late—Hua Cheng had already burst out laughing.

“Got you, gege! Nice one!”

“You sly thing…”

The two arrived at Thousand Lights Temple. As soon as they entered the great hall, Xie Lian noticed that a table had been set up on the jade platform. He blinked. As he approached it, he noticed two bowls of yuanxiao.

When he looked back, he saw that Hua Cheng had approached as well.

“This was what gege was looking at on the street, right?” he asked.

Xie Lian nodded.

“Sit down, gege,” Hua Cheng beckoned. “Let’s eat together.”

“…”

Instead of taking a seat, Xie Lian flung himself into Hua Cheng’s arms and buried his face in his chest. He hugged Hua Cheng tightly, refusing to let go, and Hua Cheng returned the embrace.

After so many years, Xie Lian could finally recall the taste of Yuanxiao.

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