The Three Spirit Stones

The Lantern Festival is coming soon. Men and women in Bianjing will meet up to watch the lanterns. Cao Qian plans to ask her cousin to go with her tomorrow night.

When she arrived at Cheng Mansion, she heard the maid say that the Marquis was in his own yard, so she walked in and saw Cheng Yu, Sun Yuechan, and A Cai talking about something.

Seeing that it was Cao Qian, Yuechan quickly asked Dongmei to serve tea and took out various fruits to entertain her.

Cheng Yu asked her what was the matter, and she said she hoped to go to Xuandemen Square with her cousin tomorrow night to watch the lanterns.

Cheng Yu actually didn't want to go. Over the past thousand years, he had seen the prosperity and desolation of the world.

While she was pondering, Cao Qian suddenly said angrily to Ah Cai who was sitting on the bed, "Why are you staring at me? You have been shooting knives at me with your eyes since you came in. I have not offended you!"

But Ah Cai blurted out,

"Have you ever seen a dog pee? Dogs use urine to mark their territory. This is my territory."

Cheng Yu couldn't take it anymore and scolded her, "How can you be so stupid? You use the word dog to describe yourself?"

Oh! That's right! How could I be so stupid to describe myself like this?

She scratched her head.

"Hahaha……"

Cao Qian, who had reacted, burst out laughing, pointing at her and laughing so hard that she fell backwards.

"Don't laugh! Don't laugh!"

Ah Cai stomped on the bed with her feet, pointed at Cao Qian and shouted angrily,

Cao Qian was a little afraid of her. She covered her mouth to hold back her laughter and pointed at Sun Yuechan who was sitting next to her and said, "She is laughing too."

Ah Cai looked over and saw Yuechan holding a book to cover her face, but her shaking shoulders betrayed her!

"Ah~, you are not allowed to laugh either!"

She rushed over to Yuechan,

"Haha, hey, don't bite me,"

"Bite me and I'll tickle you again,"

"a ha ha ha!"

Cheng Yu looked at the two people who were playing around, smiled and shook his head and said to Cao Qian, "I have something to do tomorrow night, so I may not have time to go."

When Cao Qian was feeling disappointed, Ah Cai and Yue Chan finished their fight, and Ah Cai hugged her neck from behind and said to Cao Qian, "I'll go, I'll go. I like reciting poems and composing couplets the most."

Cheng Yu reached out and hit her on the head, scolding her with a smile, "Still reciting poems? It's a blessing that you don't make trouble, you are just a little bad guy."

"I promise to be good and obedient this time, go ahead! Please!"

As she spoke, she rubbed her head against his face.

"I haven't seen the lanterns yet. Please, go!"

Cheng Yu was so desperate because of her pestering that he had no choice but to agree. However, he made three rules with her: no talking too much and no making trouble.

……

……

The Lantern Festival is also called the Lantern Festival.

During the Lantern Festival, a giant mountain of lights would be built in the Xuande Gate Square in the imperial city. After nightfall, the entire mountain of lights would be lit up, and the square would be as bright as day.

In addition to viewing lanterns, people can also read lantern couplets, guess lantern riddles, and watch performances in the square.

As night fell, a group of young men and women from the Cheng and Cao mansions arrived as scheduled!

Ah Cai did not wear that strange cotton clothes tonight. Yuechan helped her comb her hair into a bun, put on a gold hairpin with flowers, put on a pink dress, and also put on some makeup!

A beautiful woman with jade-like bones, icy skin, bright eyes and white teeth appeared in front of everyone.

When she met the people in Cao's house, she knelt down and bowed according to Yuechan's instruction.

Everyone's eyes lit up, wondering why there was a beauty next to Cheng Yu? After a closer look, they found out that it was Ah Cai.

Cao Xi had a quarrel with her on the first day of the first lunar month, and was later taught a lesson by Cao Wei, who told him to be more polite to her in the future, because her father was Cheng Yu's savior.

When I came here, I was thinking that I would just ignore this shrew when I saw her, but once I saw her, I couldn't help but look at her a few more times.

The crowd walked towards the Xuande Gate, where both sides were filled with various lanterns, including dragon lanterns, palace lanterns, gauze lanterns, dragon and phoenix lanterns, angular lanterns, mushroom lanterns, etc. They came in various shapes, including round, square, cylindrical, polygonal, etc.

There were crowds of people on the street, and Ah Cai discovered that many men and women actually wore lights on their heads.

The lamp was the size of a date, and was decorated with pearls, gold and jade. It was crystal clear and dazzling. When inserted into the hair, it became the most dazzling ornament. Men also had a lotus peony lamp fixed on their hair, and could only walk cautiously.

This unique sight can probably only be seen during the Lantern Festival in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Everyone was walking and watching, and suddenly someone called Cao Xi,

"Brother Cao!"

Cao Xi stopped and looked, then called out in surprise, "...Brother Zhu, Brother Xu, Brother Zhang!"

"Oh, what a coincidence!"

I met an acquaintance.

After exchanging greetings, Cao Xi learned that these people were students studying at Yingtianfu Academy. He introduced his own people to them and everyone saluted to each other!

When Cheng Yu was introduced, they actually knew his name and knew that it was he who brought potatoes, a crop that benefits all people, back to Bian Jing for planting and promotion. They all expressed their admiration for him!

Among them, there was a student named Zhu Shuo who felt he had met Cheng Yu too late. The two got along very well and even agreed to visit Cheng's house when they had time.

The crowd looked around and chatted, and soon they arrived at Panlou Street.

On the south side of the street there is a border strip that stretches as far as the eye can see, in which is placed the country’s largest “Jipen Lantern”.

The thorn basin lantern is the largest and most complex lantern. It is a long dragon made up of countless lights.

From Xuande Gate to Zhouqiao is a north-south street, commonly known as the "Imperial Street". There are also endless isolation belts on both sides of the Imperial Street.

A lamp mountain, seven zhang high, was erected in the isolation zone. On the mountain there were revolving lanterns, shadow puppet lanterns, fairy lanterns, dragon and phoenix lanterns, etc. On both sides of the mountain there was a Bodhisattva lantern, namely the statues of Manjushri Bodhisattva and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva.

Ah Cai was dazzled and couldn't help but sigh inwardly!

The Northern Song Dynasty should be the most prosperous, civilized and wealthy country in the world at that time!

Such a beautiful place was looted by the Jin Dynasty a hundred years later, leading to the fall of half of the country. What a pity!

Although Sun Yuechan was born and raised in Bian Jing, she still gets excited every time she sees such a grand scene!

She said to Ah Cai next to her, "Cai, can you recite that Lantern Festival poem again? It really fits the scene!"

Ah Cai was also shocked by this scene, nodded and chanted again:

Qingyu Case. Lantern Festival

"The east wind blows thousands of flowers at night. It blows down stars like rain. The road is filled with the fragrance of BMWs and carved carriages. The sound of phoenix flutes moves, the light of jade pots turns, fish and dragons dance all night, moths are covered with golden threads of snow willows. The smiles and fragrance are gone. I searched for him among the crowd for hundreds of times. Suddenly I turned around and found that he was there, in the dim light."

When Yuechan asked Ah Cai to recite Qingyu'an, the Cao brothers and sisters had already pricked up their ears and memorized it silently in their hearts.

When Zhu Shuo and the other three students heard it for the first time, they were all amazed!

At this moment, in this poem and this lyrics, the person is in the scenery and the scenery is in the poem!

People look for him thousands of Baidu.Looking back suddenly, the man was there, where the lights were dim.

Everyone was impressed by the last sentence!

After listening again, Yuechan also sighed!

Who on earth could have written such a quatrain that has been passed down through the ages?

She asked Ah Cai, "Who wrote this poem? Could it be you who wrote it?"

"How is that possible? How can I write?"

When Cheng Yu heard Yuechan's question, his heart couldn't help but tighten. He let go when he heard Acai didn't say that he wrote it. He thought, this guy is quite honest!

When Zhu Shuo and the others heard this, they hurried over and bowed to Ah Cai, and asked eagerly, "Madam Hou, who wrote this poem? Can you introduce it to us?"

“…Ah? An introduction?”

"But, but, ... he's dead!"

Dead?! The three of them were extremely sad when they heard this!

"Yes! ...Alas! God is jealous of talented people,"

She even added some drama to herself, pretending to be sad and saying,

"So...what's his name?"

A student named Zhang Li asked,

"Um...his name is Xin Qiji,"

She thought to herself, I didn't say that.

"Then...how did he die?" Zhang Li asked again.

She was a little impatient. She was not very good at lying, so she said unhappily, "Why do you have so many questions? How else can you die? You'll die of old age!"

After saying that, he turned around and took Yuechan to see the lanterns.

Can dying of old age be regarded as a sign of God's jealousy of talent? Zhang Li scratched his head.

Cheng Yu said to him embarrassedly, "Brother Zhang, please don't be offended. My wife is uneducated and often uses idioms incorrectly."

Oh! So that's it, Zhang Li smiled!