By the time they arrived, the streets were packed with a jostling throng of people.

Originally, Wei Luo was worried that it would get too cold at night, so she had worn an extra layer of clothing. At the moment, it seemed that she had worried for nothing. With such a lively atmosphere, she wouldn’t be cold here. She took off her marten cloak inside the carriage and revealed a moon white and sky blue sleeved silk top underneath, a honey colored skirt, and a silk sash was tied around her slender waist. It caused even Wei Zheng to looking at her twice.

After they came out of the carriage, Wei Zheng suggested, “How about going to look at the lanterns with the riddles first? It’ll be very interesting.”

Song Hui nodded. It could be counted as approval. He looked at Wei Luo, “Where does Ah Luo want to go?”

Wei Luo curved her eyes in a smile, “I’ll listen to older brother Song Hui.”

Song Hui’s eyes softened. Underneath the light of a thousand colorful lanterns, the warmth in his eyes seemed overflowing. “Then, let’s go look at the lanterns with riddles first. After we’re done there, we’ll go look at the puppet shows and the lanterns being let go.”

(T/N: Just in case its confusing, there’s areas with lanterns that have written riddles tied underneath them for people to guess, and there’s another area with different, lighter lanterns that will be let go into the sky. Here’s a picture of the lanterns being released.)

Wei Luo said okay and walked with him in the front.

Chang Hong and Wei Zheng followed behind them. Chang Hong’s line of sight was fixed on the back of Song Hui’s head. He fell just short of drilling a hole into Song Hui’s head. In the end, Chang Hong only pursed his lips. When he turned his head, he saw stalls selling fried pastries balls and went to buy a bag of them. He brought the bag to Wei Luo, “Ah Luo, try some of this.”

Wei Luo accepted the bag and used a bamboo stick to bring a piece to her mouth. The small snack ball was fried to a crisp golden yellow, covered with a layer of sugar, and filled with red bean paste. The red bean filling was sweet and very hot. This was the first time she saw an eating method like this. Her eyebrows pinched and she complained, “Too hot.”

When Chang Hong heard her words, his expression became guilty. He had given her the snack as soon as he bought them without trying it first. He didn’t know what the snack would be like. Hearing her say it was too hot, he quickly put his hand next to her mouth, “Spit it out. Don’t eat it anymore.”

It would be too impolite to spit something out on the street. Although Wei Luo thought it was too hot, she still forced herself to swallow it. She clutched her mouth and had tears in her eyes, “My tongue feels burned.”

After she said this, Chang Hong felt even worse. He didn’t even pay attention to rest of the snacks in the bag. He wanted to look at Wei Luo’s tongue, but Wei Luo wouldn’t let him. The two of them of them nosily quarreled over this and ended up ignoring Song Hui who was at their side.

——–

They would pass-through a stone bridge to get to the area with the lanterns that had riddles written underneath.

Standing at the top of the bridge and surveying the scene below, they could see that the entire street had dazzling lanterns that stretched from one end to there other. It was as bright as the Milky Way. It was if the stars in the sky had spilled out onto the ground. When the lights were shined into their eyes, it took their breath away.

There were red, pink, yellow, and white lanterns, and there were also rabbit, lotus, octagon-shaped, and other various lanterns. There were also fish and dragon lanterns from the myth of the dragon gate where a carp could transform into a dragon. There were so many lanterns that the sight stunned their eyes.

(T/N: Here’s a picture of just the fish lanterns.)

There were various kinds of riddles written underneath the lanterns. When people figured out the answer, they would step forward to tell their answer. If they were right, they would get a prize. There were many people surrounding each lantern. Everyone was in high spirits and was guessing the riddles with keen interest and pleasure.

Wei Zheng also wanted to go and guess the riddles written below the lanterns. She wanted Song Hui to go with her.

Song Hui looked at Wei Luo who was eating the Lantern Festival snacks next to him and shook his head, “You can go. We’ll wait here.”

He paused, and then said, “I’ll have Du Yu follow you. There are too many people there. Don’t go too far away.”

Du Yu was his personal servant. He had been with him for three or four years.

Wei Zheng blew out her cheeks. Why would she want Du Yu? She didn’t want to go there with Du Yu. She wanted to go with him.

But it couldn’t be helped. Song Hui was insensitive to her feelings. No matter what she said, he wouldn’t agree to go with her. And so, in a fit of pique, she didn’t go either. She reluctantly stayed with them.

Wei Luo fed Chang Hong the last piece of the Lantern Festival snack, then she turned her head to look at Wei Zheng and questioningly asked, “Weren’t you going to go guess the lantern riddles?”

Wei Zheng didn’t look at her as she coldly said, “I don’t want to go anymore.”

Wei Luo slowly said, “Oh.” Then, she pointed to the front and said, “Let’s go there to watch puppet shows and shadow plays. I also saw people performing magic and juggling swords over there. Do you want to go?” Her question was directed toward Chang Hong and Song Hui.

Chang Hong naturally didn’t have an opinion. He always listened to her. As long as she wanted to look, he would accompany her without a doubt.

Song Hui was the same. He nodded and said, “Let’s go there then.”

Wei Zheng pursed her lips and was even unhappier.

Why was it that when she said she wanted to go guess the riddles, no one would go, but when Wei Luo said she wanted to go watch the puppet show, everyone would go? Her face was calm as she followed behind the three of them. She looked at Wei Luo’s back. Something strange flashed in her eyes, but it quickly disappeared.

The place that Wei Luo mentioned was livelier than the guessing riddles area. It was bustling with activity. There were people everywhere watching the exciting shows, especially the area with magical tricks being performed. It was completely packed with ring upon ring of people. Even if they squeezed, they wouldn’t be able to get closer.

Wei Luo was slightly regretful, “We won’t be able to see that magical transformation…”

Song Hui suggested going to the balcony of a teahouse that was directly in front of that area, but Wei Luo shook her head. The reason for watching these types of things was for the noise and excitement. Watching the show from the balcony wouldn’t have much meaning. But, this was okay. Other than the magic show, there were also other shows to watch.

As she was preparing to pull Chang Hong with her to watch the show with people breathing out fire, she suddenly saw two lines of people walking on stilts behind them. These people on stilts that seemed as if they were as tall as mountains were walking towards their side.

These people were waving their shui sleeves. Although they were clearly swinging and swaying as they walked, their footing was very stable. They didn’t look like slightest bit as if they were going to fall down. There was even a person holding another person while twirling around.

(T/N: Shui sleeves are really long sleeves that are normally used in dancing. Below are people with shui sleeves.)

As the people walking on the stilts came closer, the numerous people on the street retreated. The street became more boisterous and more chaotic than before. People were crowded against one another from the chaos.

The crowd pushed Wei Luo forward. When she turned her head to look, she had already been separated from Chang Hong and Song Hui by a fair distance. Just as she was going to walk back, someone pushed her from behind. By chance, she bumped into the back of a person in front of her.

When the man turned around, she was in the middle of looking behind her and showed a slender neck and a delicate side profile of her face. The other person’s movement came to a stop as he stared at her face and forgot how to walk.

Chang Hong and Song Hui had already seen where she was and were walking towards her spot.

The man that she had bumped into was motionless. The mob of people crowded around them and pushed him closer to her. In the end, he was almost half sticking to her. His arm was pushing the wall behind her. He lowered his head to look her in the eyes. He bit his lip and called out, “Wei Luo?”

She looked back in surprise and met his eyes. Next to the colorful lanterns, she finally saw his face clearly.