Chapter 95 - Guess the Riddle
Although it was night, the streets of the royal capital were bustling with activity today, and the teahouses and restaurants were lit up like daylight.
Lanterns of various shapes are placed on the stalls of the hawkers. Some of them are painted with twelve zodiac signs, some are painted with various flower branches. There are some pavilions, terraces and pavilions, and there are beautiful and peerless beauties, whose lifelike shapes make people applaud.
There were also those on stilts, lion dancers, dragon lanterns and fire-breathers ...... making it a sight to behold.
The girls of the Nangong House rarely went out of the house, so they were already dazzled.
During the journey, Nangong Yue was the busiest one, she had promised her brother that she would bring him good food and fun things to eat. Therefore, when Nangong Yue saw a good snack, she immediately sent Yimei to buy it; when she saw a street stall with delicate gadgets, she also did not hesitate to send Que’er to buy it.
The group walked around until they reached the entrance of the famous Shenghua Restaurant in Wangdu, and only then did Nangong Yue stop before she was done.
Today is the Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival, and naturally, there are many magnificent and chic lanterns hanging in front of Sheng Hua Restaurant and under the eaves of the first floor. In front of the restaurant, there was a large crowd of people.
Nangong Sheng was so curious that he asked the boy to go up and inquire about the situation.
In a short while, the boy came back to report, "Young master, Sheng Hua Restaurant will soon hold a riddle-guessing contest, saying that if anyone can win the final riddle champion, he or she will receive a painting by the talented girl Jin Lan."
Jin Lan was one of the most famous and talented women of the previous dynasty, whose calligraphy and painting could be called a masterpiece, and many literary figures of the previous dynasty admired her, but Jin Lan only loved the former Prime Minister Liu.
Rumor has it that Prime Minister Liu of the previous dynasty was amazingly talented and had already become prime minister at a young age. Prime Minister Liu was usually not very feminine, but he was alone with Jin Lan. At that time, the affair between the two of them was widely spread, and everyone knew about it, but just when people thought that this pair would hold hands for a hundred years, Jin Lan's family was beheaded by everyone, and the person who supervised the beheading was Liu. prime minister.
In the end, it is said that Chancellor Liu never married and died during the change of dynasty.
The truth of the love/hate relationship between Sumeru and the Chancellor is unknown with the change of dynasties and the passage of time. ......
The only thing left behind was the world lamenting the love of Jin Lan, but it was entrusted to the wrong person!
Nangong Yue suddenly remembered that her mother, Lin, was very fond of this talented girl, and had collected several of her paintings and calligraphy, which she took out from time to time to admire. If she could get one of her paintings, her mother would be delighted.
"Yue Jie Er, do you want to participate?" Nangong Hang had always been very observant, and since Nangong Yue's performance was so obvious, how could she not notice it?
Nangong Yue nodded her head and said, "Yes, big sister, I want to try out."
When she heard that Nangong Yue wanted to participate in the quiz, Su Qingping, Nangong Yan and Nangong Lin were also interested in it.
However, Nangong Zheng frowned with difficulty, as she felt that as a daughter of a house, she should not show her face on such an occasion. But her sisters were all excited, and she didn't want to be the bad guy by throwing cold water on them.
Nangong Sheng also felt that there was something wrong, but when he thought of his sisters' rare trips out of the house, it was unbearable to refuse their request like this.
At this moment, a young man in white wearing a pig's head mask passed by them in a hurry.
Nangong Sheng's eyes lingered on each other for a moment, then his eyes lit up and he proposed, "Ping BiaoGu, and a few sisters, if you also want to go to the competition, then why don't you all put on masks before you go."
The girls also thought it was a very elegant idea, and it suited the mood of the lantern festival, so they all got excited and hurriedly found a stall selling masks, and each chose a mask.
Nangong Sheng chose a monkey mask, Nangong Cheng a cat mask, Nangong Yue a fox mask for herself and a tiger mask for Nangong Xin.
Nangong Lin and Su Qingping each picked a Ghost Face Mask and a Heavenly Fairy Mask. Nangong Yan picked out a rabbit mask.
After putting on their respective masks, they entered the Shenghua Restaurant together.
The lobby on the ground floor of the restaurant was filled with people, most of whom had come to watch the fun, a few had come to participate in the competition, and some had come to cheer on the contestants.
A high platform had been built in the middle of the hall on the ground floor, with several long rows of cases with ink, paper and inkstones already on them.
At this moment, a middle-aged man in a long navy blue shirt appeared on the first floor. He slowly walked down the stairs and then walked up to the high platform in the middle of the hall, looking at the crowd from above with a strong smile on his lips.
"Uncle Fan, why haven't you started yet? We've been waiting for ages." A young man dressed in a light blue satin robe said impatiently. From the tone of his voice, it was obvious that he was a regular customer of the restaurant.
Immediately, someone next to him echoed loudly, "Yes, yes, let's get started, we've been waiting for half a day."
The middle-aged man called Uncle Fan smiled and arched his hand at the young man who had spoken first and said, "It's Mr. Zhang, don't be in a hurry, the annual Mid-Autumn riddle-guessing contest will start soon."
As soon as the words were spoken, the hall on the ground floor immediately resounded with clamour, applause and shouting ......
" Everyone, please be quiet for a moment." Uncle Fan raised his hand and raised his voice, and the hall soon fell silent.
Uncle Fan added: "Friends, this riddle-guessing competition is temporarily set at ten questions, and the winner will be the one who has answered ten questions correctly in a row, and will receive a painting of the talented girl Jin Lan. If anyone gets one question wrong during the competition, then I'm sorry, but you will have to withdraw from the competition."
When this was said, someone immediately said, "What if two people get ten questions right?"
"Then whoever has the fastest answer will be the final winner." Uncle Fan replied without hesitation.
After that, no one asked any more questions.
Uncle Fan stretched out his hand in an inviting gesture and said, "Next, we will ask all the participants to come up to the stage, each of you will pick a long table seat. After I give the questions in a moment, you will write down the answers on the paper. Attention, the answer time for each question is twenty breaths, if you do not answer it within the time limit, you will be considered eliminated from the competition."
At these words, the hall erupted in a chorus of complaints that the time was too short. But despite the complaints, no one dared to make a scene.
"Then, please come to the stage as soon as possible, and in one teatime, the competition will officially begin."
Within a cup of tea, a number of people came behind the long table on the stage, including Nangong Sheng, Nangong Sheng, Nangong Yue, Nangong Yan, Nangong Lin and Su Qingping, and the maids and guards accompanying them were waiting on the stage.
Once the participants were in place, a gong was struck from the right side of the hall and someone shouted aloud, "The competition has officially begun!"
After the words fell, the hall on the ground floor was silent, Uncle Fan took out a note, but heard a clear voice from the stage: "Wait! There's me!"
Everyone looked at the voice and saw a young man in a silver shirt with white jade skin and bright starry eyes striding towards the stage, if it were anyone else, he might not be able to hold up in a silver shirt, but this young man was not only handsome, but also had an extraordinary bearing, a proud and confident aura emanating from his steps.
He was followed by a slightly shorter yellow-shirted boy and four sturdy guards. Naturally, the guards did not go up to the stage, only the boy in white and the boy in yellow went up to the stage.
Nangong Yue froze for a moment, these two were actually old acquaintances, and she could not help but glance at each other and Nangong Cheng.
Nangong Zheng nodded his head in understanding.
These two people are none other than Qu Jiayue, the county princess of Mingyue, and Zhang Yusheng, the lady of the Zhang family whom Nangong Yue had met before at the En Guo Gong Mansion. Frankly speaking, this county princess of Ming Yue still has a bit of a look when she dresses up as a man, but this Zhang Yusheng looks like a sissy who can't be hidden from the discerning eye.
Nangong Zheng immediately whispered a few words in his brother Nangong Sheng's ear, so that he would know what to expect, so that he would not accidentally offend the noble person.
Su Qingping also recognized the County Princess Mingyue, on the one hand, she wanted to get in touch with her, but on the other hand, she was afraid that the County Princess would forget about her and lose face.
Looking at Qu Jiayue and Zhang Yusheng, Uncle Fan frowned slightly. According to the rules of previous years, after the gong had been sounded, they were no longer allowed to go on stage. But he had been in the royal capital for so many years that he could see that these two were not ordinary people, so he immediately began to ask questions with a smile on his face: "Gentlemen, this first question is very simple, but it is going to get harder and harder. Now listen up. All the pearls and onyx are there, guess the word."
After thinking about it, Nangong Yue came up with an answer and wrote it down on her paper. This "pearl and onyx" all have the radical "Wang", so the answer is - "Wang".
The question was so easy that only three people went off the stage with their heads down.
After the gong was struck again, Uncle Fan began to ask the second question: "The second question, we still need to listen carefully, each question is only said once. The wind begins to rise before and after the farewell, guess a word."
Nangong Yue again quickly put pen to paper - "scrape".
Another five or six people left the stage in desperation, including Zhang Yusheng. She walked by Qu Jiayue, whispered something in her ear, and then left the stage.
Qu Jiayue looked back in the direction of Nangong Sheng and asked in a lofty manner, "Are you the Gongzi of the Nangong family?"
Nangong Sheng originally did not want to be high-profile, but there was no reason to avoid it, so he nodded: "Exactly, my name is Nangong Sheng."
The Nangong family is indeed well-known among the literati, and a few people nearby heard their voices, and immediately exchanged pleasantries.
Qu Jiayue's sharp gaze wandered over a few masked girls near Nangong Sheng and said, "Then these must be the girls of the Nangong family." She removed the ones whose ages didn't match, and she placed her gaze mainly on Nangong Sheng, Nangong Yue and Nangong Yan, with an inquisitive look.
Nangong Sheng had also heard that this County Princess Mingyue seemed to have a problem with her younger sister Nangong Zheng, so he was afraid that the other party would target her, so he only said vaguely, "It's a rare occasion for the Mid-Autumn Lantern Festival, so I bought a few of my sisters out to have some fun."
The competition continued, and like Uncle Fan said, each question was harder than the previous one, and more and more people were stepping down after each question ......
