Chapter 299: Lantern Festival
By the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, not only was the Chen Family bustling with activity, but even the nearby Rongxiang Alley and the outer Zaozi Quarter were lively. Every household had hung up red crepe silk lanterns, and some had even hired people to specially construct lantern archways and lantern pavilions. A single lantern pavilion displayed hundreds of various lanterns, and along the riverside street of Zaozi Quarter, lantern riddles were hung, drawing crowds to admire them.
Chen Xuanyue came to pay his respects to Jinchao while carrying a rabbit lantern.
His rabbit lantern featured a mother rabbit in the center, flanked by two smaller rabbits, with a bowl of white rice soaked in tea oil placed in the middle, embedded with rush wicks.
Chen Xuanyue showed it to her excitedly, saying, "...I'll float it on the lake tonight!"
Granny Sun smiled as she looked at it. "This rabbit lantern is well-made. I heard that in Ningdu, Jiangxi, they celebrate with lanterns like this—the whole county crafts these rabbit lanterns. Ninth Young Master's lantern looks just like them. Where did this lantern come from?"
Mama Song quickly replied, "Ninth Young Master picked it out himself from the Affairs Office. He liked it very much."
Gu Jinzhao set down the ledger in her hands and beckoned him over, patting his head. "Xuanyue, do you want to go see the lantern festival?"
He looked at her blankly. "What's a lantern festival?"
Chen Xuanyue had never once stepped outside the Chen Family gates in all his years, so naturally, he had no idea what a lantern festival was.
Gu Jinzhao explained, "The lantern festival is very lively, with all kinds of lanterns. If you want to see it, I can have a servant carry you to the gate to watch for a while. But you can't go out." He was simple-minded and easily bullied—if he got lost, he might not even know how to return.
Chen Xuanyue let out an "Oh" and shook his head. "No, I don't want to."
Gu Jinzhao was surprised. She had thought Chen Xuanyue would like such things. He had always shown great interest in handmade crafts.
Instead, Chen Xuanyue climbed onto the Arhat bed like a monkey and began flipping through her ledger.
"Auntie, what's this?" He pointed at the ledger and asked Gu Jinzhao, as he did with everything.
Gu Jinzhao patiently explained it to him. Then she asked softly, "Why don't you want to see the lantern festival?"
Chen Xuanyue just shook his head without answering and continued flipping through the ledger.
Gu Jinzhao remembered that he was afraid of crowded places. He was also terrified of loud noises. The last time Chen Xi had played with a waist drum, the sound had frightened him so much that he hid under the bed and refused to come out. When the maids finally pulled him out, he was covered in dust, looking as disheveled as a little mouse, muttering repeatedly, "Thunder... thunder..."
Chen Xuanyue had been scared for a long time after that. From then on, he would take detours whenever he saw Chen Xi.
Mama Tong came in to speak with Gu Jinzhao. While discussing matters about the Villa, Gu Jinzhao momentarily lost track of Chen Xuanyue.
Chen Xuanyue picked up a brush, examined it, and then made a few strokes on the ledger.
When Gu Jinzhao turned back, she saw that the ledger had been scribbled all over. Amused and exasperated, she snatched the brush from his hand. "What are you doing?" Chen Xuanyue turned to look at her, his face smeared with ink, his expression both bewildered and innocent. Gu Jinzhao instructed Mama Song to quickly take him away to play. She picked up the ledger to review it again. This was a report from one of her Rice Shops in Baodi, and she hadn't gone through it yet.
The part Chen Xuanyue had scribbled on was now illegible. Gu Jinzhao had to ask Granny Sun to bring her some paper so she could cross-check each entry with the calculations at the back.
But when she tallied them up, the numbers didn't match the earlier entries.
There was something wrong with these accounts! Gu Jinzhao was startled. If she hadn't gone through them carefully, she wouldn't have noticed.Gu Jinzhao recalculated the accounts once more before confirming the discrepancies. She summoned Mama Tong and instructed, "Take these ledgers to Luo Yongping and have him question the manager of this Rice Shop. This certainly isn't the first time he's cooked the books. He must have embezzled quite a sum. Once the truth is verified, make him repay all the stolen money... and he needn't remain as manager any longer."
Mama Tong examined the accounts Gu Jinzhao had prepared. The Rice Shop manager's bookkeeping was clever—line by line, everything appeared normal. But when calculated in reverse, the numbers didn't add up... a full two hundred taels were missing from the income! Taking the ledger, she immediately set off for Luo Yongping's office at Guixiang Workshop.
These managers had all been brought over from the Ji family... Gu Jinzhao sighed inwardly. She had trusted those from the Ji family the most, promoting and relying on them heavily. Never had she imagined their hearts would change, now lining their own pockets behind her back.
Had Chen Xuanyue not scribbled on that ledger page, she wouldn't have thought to recalculate the figures backwards...
At this thought, Gu Jinzhao found it strange. What an odd coincidence that he happened to flip to that exact page and scribble over the problematic entries. She glanced at Chen Xuanyue, only to find him playing with his chick.
He had tied a string around the chick's leg to prevent it from standing. Whenever the chick tried to walk, he'd tug the string, making the little creature flap its wings helplessly. After amusing himself sufficiently, he cradled the chick in his arms and fed it buckwheat grains.
A suspicion surfaced in Gu Jinzhao's mind.
Third Master Chen had said Chen Xuanyue's mental impairment was incurable... but what if he wasn't impaired at all? What if his condition was merely an act to lull Madam Qin into complacency—to prevent her from eliminating him as she had the previous two concubine-born sons? So when he reached Shaanxi, where no one would harm him, he ceased the pretense and began showcasing his remarkable talents?
These ledgers had all been reviewed by either Luo Yongping or Cao Ziheng before reaching her. Luo Yongping had been an accountant for years, while Cao Ziheng possessed exceptional knowledge and strategic acumen—yet neither had spotted the discrepancies. Chen Xuanyue had merely flipped through casually and identified them?
If he were feigning impairment, deceiving all the shrewd observers in the Chen Family, then not only was his intellect formidable, but his patience and strategic thinking were extraordinary. Yet Chen Xuanyue was only ten years old. That seemed impossible.
Perhaps her initial assumption about Chen Xuanyue's martial prowess was mistaken. Maybe his true strength lay not in physical ability, but in intelligence and strategy.
As Gu Jinzhao pondered this, Chen Xi came looking to play with Chen Xuanyue.
Chen Xuanyue immediately shrank behind Gu Jinzhao, clutching his little yellow chick tightly, eyes wide with fear.
Chen Xi stamped her foot in frustration. "Ninth Brother, Xi Jie'er didn't bring the drum! I won't scare you this time."
Chen Xuanyue didn't believe her and quickly tucked the chick into his robe. The chick squirmed visibly beneath the fabric. He then covered Gu Jinzhao's ears with his hands, as if protecting her from some imagined noise.
Gu Jinzhao pulled Chen Xuanyue in front of her and said with a smile, "If you keep tormenting that chick like this, it won't survive many more days."
After much coaxing—assuring him Chen Xi wouldn't frighten him with the waist drum—Chen Xuanyue finally retrieved the long-suffering chick and soothingly stroked its feathers. Children play with animals purely for amusement, without malice, yet often don't realize their own strength.When Gu Jinzhao was a child, she had a beautiful Persian cat. Its fur was snow-white, a gift from Ji Can. Back then, she would play with the kitten, wrapping it in a bamboo mat. But when she finally let it out, the cat was already in bad shape. She cried desperately, but the cat couldn’t be saved.
Chen Xuanyue was playing like this—sooner or later, he’d end up killing it.
Thinking this, Gu Jinzhao felt that Chen Xuanyue might not be pretending to be foolish. If he was, he was doing it too well.
Whether he was pretending or not, she would treat him as usual. If he was truly simple-minded, then so be it; if he was acting, he must have his reasons.
Logically, now that he wasn’t being threatened by Madam Qin, there was no need for him to feign foolishness. But who knew what was going on in his mind?
Gu Jinzhao harbored doubts but saw no need to dig deeper. In truth, she genuinely hoped Chen Xuanyue was pretending—this child had suffered far too much in the past.
That afternoon, she took Chen Xuanyue and Chen Xi to make tangyuan. They prepared fillings like osmanthus red bean paste, sesame sugar, hawthorn, and peanuts, crafting many different kinds. Worried that Chen Xuanyue might swallow them whole, she used larger silver bullion instead of golden beans.
The two children helped her mix the fillings and wrap the tangyuan, thoroughly enjoying themselves.
Chen Xi carefully dotted sesame seeds on the tangyuan containing silver bullion and earnestly told Chen Xuanyue, "Ninth Brother, these are the lucky tangyuan. If you eat them, you’ll have good fortune all year. Remember, the ones with sesame seeds are the ones—"
Chen Xuanyue nodded seriously in response, making the maids giggle.
Gu Jinzhao didn’t bother stopping their little trick—as long as they were happy.
Third Master Chen returned in the afternoon. That evening, after paying respects to Madam Chen, he came back and ate a bowl of peanut tangyuan.
Chen Xuanyue and Chen Xi had already been taken by the servants to the front courtyard to see the lantern festival.
Gu Jinzhao sat with him as he ate the tangyuan. Third Master Chen finished them slowly, then took out the Śūraṅgama Sūtra that Madam Chen had given him and began reading.
Outside, it was lively and bustling, but the room remained quiet.
Gu Jinzhao had thought he might go to see the lantern festival, but instead, he sat by her lamp, reading Buddhist scriptures. His prayer beads rested on the page as he lowered his gaze, absorbed in the text.
She recalled Madam Chen mentioning that the front courtyard would have lantern riddles… Outside Huaixiang Alley, lion and dragon lanterns would parade by. When the dragon lantern passed, everyone would walk beneath it to catch the dragon’s auspicious energy. The common folk would carry lanterns along the river… She hadn’t seen such a grand lantern festival in years.
He had invested so much silver into it—wasn’t he going to take a look?
Gu Jinzhao watched as Third Master Chen turned a page of the scripture. She set down her embroidery hoop and picked up the scissors to trim the lamp wick— snap —a crisp sound.
As he read, he lowered his head slightly, a faint smile appearing.
Seizing the moment, Gu Jinzhao tugged at his hand. "You should go outside and see the lantern festival too! Staying cooped up isn’t good." He wasn’t fond of crowds, so he usually avoided such occasions.
Without looking up, Third Master Chen replied, "...You and Granny Sun can go. Win a few extra lanterns for me."
Gu Jinzhao felt a pang of disappointment. Well, she wouldn’t disturb his reading then. She had promised Madam Chen she would take a look anyway. A maid brought over her cloak—though she had just switched to spring attire a few days ago, the evening was likely still chilly.
After fastening the cloak, Caifu lifted the lantern, ready to escort her out.
Gu Jinzhao glanced back at Third Master Chen one last time.Third Master Chen then said, "It just occurred to me that I have a few more words to say to Mother... I'll go with you." He set down his book and walked over to Gu Jinzhao, who couldn't help but smile at him, realizing he intended to accompany her. Yet she heard him sigh softly and murmur, "Couldn't you have pleaded with me a little more?"
The grand lantern festival had been arranged entirely for her amusement—merely to tease her.
She had given up after just one request.
How could Gu Jinzhao have known whether he truly wanted to go?
Outside, the lantern riddle contest had already begun. The clamor from Huaixiang Alley was so lively it reached the inner courtyard. Madam Chen had announced beforehand that solving riddles would earn Golden Beans. Members from every household had come to participate, adding to the festive atmosphere.
When Chen Yanyun appeared, Madam Chen beckoned him over. "...It's rare for you to attend the lantern festival. Sit here and keep me company."
Chen Yanyun took a seat beside his mother to chat, while Gu Jinzhao wandered around with Wang Shi, solving several riddles. Whenever she encountered one she couldn't answer, she brought it to Chen Yanyun. Between conversations, he would glance at it and immediately provide the solution. After he had solved over a dozen this way, Madam Chen protested with a laugh, "If this keeps up, even two bags of Golden Beans won't be enough for his guesses. Third Son is hereby banned from participating!"
Everyone burst into laughter.
The full moon rose into the night sky, and the lanterns of Rongxiang Alley shimmered like a sea of stars. The crowd gradually drifted toward the riverside.
Yu Wanxue glanced again toward the moon gate. Chen Xuanqing still hadn't arrived.
Madam Zhuang reassured her, "Perhaps something delayed him. Let's enjoy ourselves regardless." She handed her a cup of plum wine.
Meanwhile, Chen Xuanqing stood beneath the corridor on the opposite side of the pond, gazing distantly at the lively scene.
After lingering for a long while, he gave a faint smile and turned to leave.
What did any of this merriment have to do with him?
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