Card Room

Chapter 192 – Shangyuan Lantern Festival 03

Facing Xiao Lou’s smiling eyes, Yu Hanjiang had to step forward and take the lanterns from his hand, continuing to turn toward the stone bridge.

Yu Hanjiang acted like the wind. Although there were many tourists in the lantern market, he was able to cope with this crowded scene. He held the lanterns up high and ran through the lantern market while shouting, “Excuse me.”

On the road, many pedestrians recognized him and couldn’t help talking about him.

“What is Yu daren doing?”

”It seems he is helping his wife hang lanterns?”

”I just saw him hanging two lanterns on the tree. Perhaps his wife wants to pray!”

”Yu daren and his wife truly have a good relationship!”

Everyone sighed emotionally. Yu Hanjiang was the prime minister yet this job of ‘running errands’ wasn’t left to the servants. He was actually helping his wife hang lanterns. This was really a model husband and wife of Daqi and people were envious.

***

At the same time, Ye Qi also made progress.

The riddle he got wasn’t difficult. Drawing the circle of time, writing the square of time, a short winter and a long summer, it was the word ‘day’.

Ye Qi quickly thought of the answer but he couldn’t give the answer directly after reading the question like Xiao Lou. He thought about it for 10 seconds before guessing this riddle.

The second lantern puzzle was also a word riddle. The riddle was ‘water on the left, mountain on the right.’ Ye Qi thought about it for only three seconds before exclaiming excitedly, “It is the character ’Shan’!

The boss smiled. “This girl guessed correctly. I’ll give the lantern to you.”

Shao Qingge waved his hand and smiled. “Girl Ye is quite smart.”

Ye Qi ignored his teasing and handed the two lanterns to Shao Qingge. “Run quickly. Hurry up!”

Shao Qingge might love to joke around but he wouldn’t drop the ball in major events. He immediately put the fan away and took the lantern with both hands. He had the help of the teleportation card and wasn’t tired at all. In the blink of an eye, Shao Qingge brought two lanterns to the tree.

The people all saw him move quickly and exclaimed, “This young man has a good light footwork skill!”

Shao Qingge, “......”

Shao Qingge pretended to have a light footwork skill and teleported all the way to the tree near the stone bridge, only to see Yu Hanjiang.

Shao Qingge thought that Yu Hanjiang had just finished hanging the lanterns. Unexpectedly, Yu Hanjiang extended his long arms to hang up two lanterns. Shao Qingge couldn’t help crying out with surprise, “You’re on your second round?”

Yu Hanjiang nodded calmly. “Yes, Xiao Lou guessed four correctly.”

Shao Qingge felt helpless. “He is ridiculously hard. It seems that Yu daren will have to work hard today.”

Yu Hanjiang muttered, “...It isn’t hard.”

He was happy to run errands for Xiao Lou.

The acceleration shoes had reached the full level and could last for 30 minutes. During this time, Xiao Lou would guess while Yu Hanjiang would run back and forth to hang lanterns for him. Once the skill of the acceleration shoes ended, it wasn’t too late to find the teammates to help.

Yu Hanjiang made up his mind and didn’t talk much with Shao Qingge. He stated, “I’m going back. It isn’t good to make him wait for a long time.”

***

By the time Yu Hanjiang returned to the west street, Xiao Lou was standing in the crowd and holding two lanterns.

Yu Hanjiang had already guessed this result.

Xiao Lou was a bit embarrassed when he saw Yu Hanjiang running quickly and asked softly, “Are you tired from running back and forth like this?”

Yu Hanjiang looked calm. “I’m not tired. I have the acceleration shoes.”

Xiao Lou put the lanterns in his hand. “You worked hard.”

Yu Hanjiang nodded. “It’s fine. You continue to guess while I’ll hang the lanterns.”

The people saw that Yu Hanjiang was running with lanterns again and voluntarily gave way. They wondered how many lanterns Yu daren would help his wife hang. In addition, this Madam Yu was too powerful at guessing riddles. Did she plan to win all the lanterns on this road?

***

At this time, a corner of the lantern market.

Liu Qiao thought for half a minute and realized that the mystery of a ‘group of wild goose chasing boats’ was actually a pictograph that meant the character ‘巡 (patrol)’. The shape of this character looked like a group of swallows chasing a boat.

Liu Qiao looked at the boss. “Is it patrol?”

The boss smiled and handed her the lantern. “You guessed it right.”

Old Mo couldn’t help lamenting, “If I was the one guessing, I would break my head and still couldn’t think of this word.”

Liu Qiao told him, “If Professor Xiao came to guess, he might’ve guessed it after reading the question. Let’s go to the next one.”

The street where she was located was full of similar word puzzles.

The second puzzle stumped Liu Qiao again. This time, the puzzle was ‘second young lady. Old Mo and Liu Qiao looked at each other. Old Mo scratched his head. “What would second young lady be?”

Liu Qiao thought about it. “The second young lady of the prince’s mansion seemed to be called Qi Yian? Princess Sukan? Is it the word ‘An’?”

Old Mo shook his head. “This is the capital, not Jiangzhou. The lantern riddle should have nothing to do with the second young lady.”

After a moment of thinking, Mo Xuemin made a decision. “Xiao Liu, you wait here for me. I’ll go and ask for help.”

It was the Diamonds room and there was no rule that he couldn’t ask for help from his teammates. Instead of being stuck here for a long time, it was faster to go directly to Xiao Lou!

The road where the two of them was located was on the northernmost side. Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang were guessing the riddle from far to near. Mo Xuemin walked around the corner and met Xiao Lou waiting in the crowd.

At this time, Yu Hanjiang wasn’t around and Xiao Lou was holding two lanterns in his hand. Just then, a prompt appeared in the floating boxes above their heads. [Number of lantern riddles that have been collected: 8.]

Old Mo quickly walked to Xiao Lou and quipped. “The speed of your guessing is much faster than Yu daren’s running. He is running quickly enough to break his legs but he is still too late to help you hang the lanterns!”

Xiao Lou smiled. “The riddles on this street are guessing idioms and characters through graphics. It is too simple. I can’t grab so many lanterns so I can only wait for him to come over and get it.”

Old Mo suggested, “It is like this. Xiao Liu is guessing slowly so I’ll also help you hang the lanterns.”

Xiao Lou was surprised. “Will this affect your progress?”

“Of course not. You have guessed four while Xiao Liu is still guessing her second one!”

Xiao Lou coughed and explained, “Cough, this is actually the sixth one.”

Mo Xuemin, “......”

Xiao Lou handed the lanterns in his hand to Old Mo. “I have to trouble you.”

“It is no trouble. By the way, Xiao Liu is stuck on a question. The riddle is ‘second young lady.’ What should be guessed?”

Xiao Lou didn’t have to think about it. “Beauty. Second young lady simply means the second daughter.”

Mo Xuemin, “......”

The two of them struggled for a long time and could only come up with the name of the second young lady of the prince’s mansion. Yet it was originally like this!

Second young lady = second daughter = beauty! (二小姐=次女=姿. TL: My guess is that it is combining the two characters of second daughter 次女 together to get 姿. Looking closely, it is like they are stacked on top of each other)

Professor Xiao’s brain turned really quickly. He got an answer immediately after listening to the question. Mo Xuemin admired it as he took the lantern in Xiao Lou’s hand. “I’ll hang these two lanterns, help Liu Qiao hang hers and then come back to help you!”

In this case, Mo’s route was an upside down ‘U’. However, Old Mo had a strong sense of direction and wouldn’t get lost. He first went to the northernmost street to find Liu Qiao and told her the answer. Liu Qiao successfully won the ‘second young lady’ lantern. Old Mo helped hang Xiao Lou’s lanterns and then helped hang Liu Qiao’s lanterns.

At this point, Yu Hanjiang was on his fourth round.

Xiao Lou guessed the riddles too quickly. Even if Yu Hanjiang ran constantly, he couldn’t keep up with Xiao Lou’s puzzle solving speed. After all, Xiao Lou had to look for the riddles and then solve them. He could solve two of them in around 30 seconds. Even if Yu Hanjiang was wearing the acceleration shoes, he couldn’t run back and forth in the crowd in 30 seconds.

In order to save time, Yu Hanjiang suggested. “I will call a few more people and let Shao Qingge, Long Sen and Old Mo also hang lanterns for them. Some of them are too slow. At present, there are the eight graphic riddles you’ve guessed hanging on the lantern tree and only two lanterns that the others have got.”

Xiao Lou, “...”

It seemed that Xiao Ye, Xiao Liu and Teacher Qu weren’t very good at this type of riddle game. Xiao Lou thought for a while and replied, “Okay, if you meet them, tell them to come and find me when they have spare time to help me send the lanterns.”

Yu Hanjiang nodded, took the lanterns from Xiao Lou’s hand and turned around to hurry out of the lantern market.

***

Qu Wanyue didn’t understand what to guess at first.

The mountain and water was heavy, the willow trees make the shade, the flowers give the light.

She remembered that this poem was written by Lu You and guessed Lu You at first, but the answer was wrong. After carefully thinking about it, Qu Wanyue’s eyes suddenly widened. “Is it an idiom? Come back from death’s door, unexpected rescue from danger?”

In the absence of a road, suddenly there was hope. Wasn’t this the meaning of desperately living?

The boss smiled. “This man guessed correctly. The lantern will be given to you!”

Qu Wanyue was wearing men’s clothing and the boss mistakenly thought she was a handsome young man. Long Sen felt complicated as he took the lantern from Qu Wanyue’s hand and said, “Guess the next one.”

The two of them walked to the next riddle.

The street was full of poetry riddles. Qu Wanyue had experience after the first one and could guess the next one. This time, the riddle was ‘Why did we meet but there was no need to get to know each other?’ and Qu Wanyue smiled. “Familiarity at first sight!”

The boss gave her a lantern. Long Sen held the two lanterns and quickly ran to hang it on the tree.

At this time, there were already 16 lanterns hanging on the lantern tree. 8 of them were palace lanterns with various images drawn on them that were obtained by Xiao Lou. Four were word riddles guessed by Ye Qi. Two were poetry and idiom related that were obtained by Qu Wanyue and two were pictographs that were guessed by Liu Qiao.

The four people hanging the lanterns happened to meet.

Everyone looked at the lanterns on the tree and were speechless.

Yu Hanjiang declared lightly, “You are too slow.”

Everyone, “......”

What are you proud of? Isn’t it great to have an excellent wife?

...It was really great.

This couldn’t be accepted! In just a few minutes, eight lanterns were already obtained?

Shao Qingge smiled and touched his nose. “Ye Qi is fast. He guessed four of them correctly. If it was me, I wouldn’t be able to guess any of them. There is also Madam Yu, who is very powerful. Hasn’t it been less than five minutes? Getting rid of the time it takes to find the riddles, he can get eight lanterns. Doesn’t this mean that he guessed the answer immediately after reading the question?”

Old Mo exclaimed, “Yes! His brain turns too quickly. There was a question about the second young lady. Xiao Liu and I struggled over it for a long time. As a result, the moment I told him the question, he answered it straight away.”

Long Sen simply stated, “Compared with Professor Xiao, I seem to have no brains!”

Yu Hanjiang, “...”

He could understand everyone’s questions. Xiao Lou said the answer every time after reading the question. His brain turned faster than the CPU of a supercomputer. Obviously, Xiao Lou wasn’t just smart. He liked this type of puzzle game.

What else could be said after being crushed by a top student?

If normal people guessed the riddle, Ye Qi taking 10 seconds to answer was already quite powerful.

Yet Xiao Lou answered in seconds! Others hadn’t finished reading the question while he already guessed the answer. It was as if he bought a question bank plug-in!

Looking at the complicated emotions on his teammates’ faces, Yu Hanjiang felt very proud. This was the great feeling of lying down to win. He wanted to help his teammates experience it as well so Yu Hanjiang simply ordered, “All of you should also go to help Xiao Lou deliver the lanterns.”

Shao Qingge wondered, “What about the lanterns of the others?”

Yu Hanjiang thought about it and arranged it. “In this way, everyone will send their partner’s lanterns once then Xiao Lou’s lanterns once alternately. The time should almost be the same. Xiao Lou’s guessing speed is actually faster than we think. He can’t hold the lanterns so every time he guesses two correctly, he has to wait for me to get back and get it. This actually wastes a lot of time. If we help him deliver it together then the efficiency will be faster.”

Everyone, “......”

Yu Hanjiang raised his eyebrows and looked at everyone. “What? Don’t you believe in Xiao Lou’s strength?”

Shao Qingge smiled. “Of course not. Then I will help Xiao Ye send it once and then go and find the madam. After that, I will continue to send lanterns for Xiao Ye. In this case, it is estimated that Xiao Ye would have solved the riddles smoothly.”

Old Mo laughed. “The four of us acting as couriers should be able to keep up with Professor Xiao’s speed!”

Long Sen cried out, “Let’s do it!”