Category: The Big Landlord

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Chapter 111.2 – Number One Merchant

Concerning Fu Yuan Jian’s decision to be Da Ya’s number one merchant, Zhao Gang and Yun fei were not in agreement, but on the contrary, Zhao Yi was supportive of Fu Yuan Jian’s decision, because he knew that Fu Yuan Jian was not suited to being an emperor.

“To be able to subdue Fu Yuan Jian and Zhao Yi, Fu Yuan Cheng does indeed have skill!”

After hearing what Fu Wu Tian said, An Zi Ran nodded in agreement. Then he remembered another thing and suddenly raised his head. “Based on what you’re saying, shouldn’t it be Fu Yuan Jian behind Bao Hua Gambling House?”

Fu Wu Tian was a little surprised by his keenness.

When An Zi Ran saw Fu Wu Tian’s expression, he knew that his guess was most likely correct. Fu Yuan Jian and Fu Yuan Cheng were both on the same boat, no matter which one he was up against, it was the same.

Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

……

Early the next morning, Li Zhen personally brought someone with him to deliver the playing cards to the casino. They went through the back door, so not many people saw them going in. No one knew that the first batch of playing cards have been prepared until the casino advertised them.

An Zi Ran’s plan was to temporarily sell the first batch of playing cards at the casino, because the gamblers themselves were the best publicity. With their help, through word of mouth, news of the new playing cards should spread within half a day. However, the results were even better than he had expected.

In less than a day, four thousand decks of playing cards were sold. After learning that the price for a deck of cards was one hundred and fifty coins, some of the gamblers felt a little sore, but at the thought of the rarity of this thing, they steeled themselves and bought it.

Some people even bought five decks. If the casino did not limit them to five decks per a customer, then they probably would have bought more. And for those who hesitated for too long, when they finally made up their minds to buy it, the decks were all sold out. One by one they all immediately regretted their hesitation.

As for the remaining one thousand decks of playing cards, An Zi Ran had other plans.

Five hundred of them were gifted to gold card members of the little garden as member benefits.

As for the other five hundred decks, An Zi Ran had already found a shop to his liking, and was planning to open a store selling playing cards in the capital, genuinely geared towards the common people. As for how many people would buy the playing cards that would depend on the people (and whether or not they were willing to part with their money).

After news of the novel playing cards store circulated, those who did not buy the cards at the casino all went to the store early the next morning and squatted outside to wait, but the cards were sold out quickly. Excluding manufacturing and labor costs, five thousand decks of playing cards made a net profit of three to four hundred silvers.

In the past, Li Zhen absolutely did not dare to imagine that he could earn so much money in one day. This result strengthened his determination to cooperate with An Zi Ran.

What was unfortunate was that the second batch of playing cards would take some time to produce. As for the mahjong cards, An Zi Ran intended to wait until they came back from Ali Xiang to promote them. As long as they had the technological skills, they did not have to worry about being preempted by Bao Hua Gambling House.

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……

At the same time, Bao Hua Gambling House welcomed the arrival of their master.

Luo Yang and Jiang Sheng did not expect that their master would come in person. While being startled, they could also guess that their master must have heard about the playing cards.

Both of them were very nervous and apprehensive in their hearts. When they rushed to the private booth, they saw their master’s unhappy expression. And when their master saw them coming in, his angry eyes fell upon them like a whip.

“This prince left matters into your hands, but this is the results you give this prince?” Fu Yuan Jian said as he smashed the teacup in his hands at their feet. The pieces of the teacup were scattered everywhere. There were porcelain shards in nearly all four corners of the room.

Luo Yang closed his eyes and did not speak. After calming down, he was not as panicked as before.

The current person in charge of Bao Hua Gambling House was not him, but Jiang Sheng. He was responsible too, but wang ye’s anger must be directed at the person currently in charge of the gambling house.

“Wang ye, right now the workshop is producing official card paper with all their effort. In three days time, they will be able to produce five thousand sheets of official card paper. We should still be able to make it on time,” Jiang Sheng braced himself to explain.

“What do you understand?!” Fu Yuan Jian snorted coldly. “In business, making the first move is an advantage. You said it would take three days before we can get the official card paper. What about the time for making playing cards? By that time, Tian Long Gambling House will have produced their second and third batch of playing cards. At that time do you still think there will be leeway for us to display our playing cards?”

Jiang Sheng didn’t have business acumen, so of course he didn’t know about such things, but even if he knew, there was nothing that he could do, because three days was indeed the fastest.

He had thought of going to other counties to buy the paper, but official card paper was not a precious product that could be easily popularized. The quality of paper from paper mills near the capital was not as good as the one within the capital itself. There were better papermaking workshops farther away, but they were too far, and it would take more than three days to go back and forth.

Fu Yuan Jian also knew this, but he needed a place to vent.

He was determined to the number one merchant in Da Ya. Bao Hua Gambling House was just the first step, because he needed to earn more money to do other things.

However, in his creed of life, no matter what industry he was in, he demanded to bet he best, however, just as he was striding towards success, someone harshly inserted a bar in his way. Not only did the other party successfully obtained Feng Hua Gambling House, they even snatched more than half of the business from Bao Hua Gambling House, resulting in the income of Bao Hua Gambling House becoming worse than before.

Translations by Vanilla Muse.

Now the other party was launching some kind of mahjong cards. If Tian Long Gambling House continued to develop like this, would there still be a place for them in the capital in the future? That’s why he wanted Jiang Sheng and Luo Yang to find out details about Tian Long Gambling House as soon as possible. What was even more unexpected and made him want to pull his hair out in frustration was that Yu Bo Fei’s trusted aide, Gong Yun, had dared to spoil his plans.

The only explanation was that Tian Long Gambling House might be related to the Yu family.

The more that Fu Yuan Jian thought about it, the more that he felt that this must be the case. The Yu family has always been at odds with the Zhao family. This was a fact that the entire Jun Zi City knew. If Gong Yun received Yu Bo Fei’s instructions to obstruct Fu Yuan Jian, then that would make sense.

But he could scarcely imagine that even Yu Bo Fei only learned about this matter after it had happened.

While Fu Yuan Jian scolded his men for being incompetent, Gong Yun was also summoned by Yu Bo Fei. The reason for the summons was related to the day that Gong Yun took the imperial guards to Boss Zhao’s house.

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T/N: I didn’t forget about this! It just took me longer to get this chapter translated. Sorry again for being late. 🙇‍♂️

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Chapter 111.1 – Number One Merchant

After the Lantern Festival, An Zi Ran and Fu Wu Tian began to make arrangements to go to Ali Xiang. If things went well, then they might be able to make it back before the end of the year.

He has given full control of his various businesses in the capital to people he trusted. As for the all-important small farm, there were Fu Wu Tian’s soldiers to help guard it, while disguised as ordinary peasants. Even if Jiang Sheng and his people learn of the existence of the small farm, they would not be able to get close.

Without caustic soda, this kind of critical chemical procedure, no matter how the other side racked their brains, they would not be able to make the bones of the cows turn milky white.

As for the playing cards, after knowing what kind of paper was used to make them, Bao Hua Gambling House also started to produce a large number of playing cards. The process of making playing cards was not complicated, so it was foreseeable that the other party would compete with Tian Long Gambling House for the playing cards market soon.

Fortunately, after all is said and done, the other party’s speed at making playing cards was still slower than An Zi Ran’s playing card workshop.

Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

According to An Zi Ran’s instructions, Li Zhen had already bought out all the official card paper and the inventory from several major papermaking workshops in Jun Zi City. Now there was no official card paper in stock at these major papermaking workshops. They needed to make the paper again starting from scratch, and this kind of papermaking was delicate work, especially for precious products.

Bao Hua Gambling House had to wait, and while they were waiting, Li Zhen’s workshop had already produced the first batch of playing cards, just the day after the Lantern Festival.

Li Zhen brought this good news to the prince’s palace.

An Zi Ran called him directly into the study to discuss the matter.

“Gong zi, the first batch of five thousand decks of playing cards has been produced. According to your instructions, all the materials used for printing are the best, and the manufacturing cost is the highest. This is a sample. Take a look.” Li Zhen took the deck of playing cards that he brought with him and placed it in front of An Zi Ran.

An Zi Ran picked up the cards. From appearance, it was almost the same as what was available in his previous life, excluding the technical manufacturing process.

In the end, the difference in technological advancement between the two space-times was too large. It was impossible for it to be exactly like the playing cards of the twenty-first century. He could only have Li Zhen make the cards as high quality as possible. This meant the manufacturing cost has also risen in correlation to the quality. But the advantage of being willing to spend the money was that these cards looked even more upscale than those in his previous life.

The cost of making one deck of playing cards was seventy coins. In addition to that, he must consider the wages of the workers.

Fortunately, the consumer base that they were looking at was only those from wealthy families, so in terms of price, Li Zhen suggested that they could be sold for one hundred and fifty coins per deck.

It would take some time for the playing cards at Bao Hua Gambling House to be made, so right now their playing cards were exclusive.

Li Zhen did some investigation and knew that the cards were very popular in the casino. This trend has not diminished even now, but the space within the casino was limited after all, and some gamblers have no way to play, so they all hoped to buy a deck of cards from the casino and take it back home to play themselves.

For the gamblers, one hundred and fifty coins were a lot less than what they won or lost at the gambling house. If they could buy a deck of cards and play with it for a long time, then why not?

As for the playing cards that Bao Hua Gambling House would launch in the future, if the price was lower than theirs, then they could also make appropriate adjustments to the price to reduce profits or reduce costs.

“We will do as you suggest. Tomorrow morning, have someone bring the five thousand decks of playing cards to the gambling house. I will have people promote them.” An Zi Ran told him after looking over the cards.

“Understood. I will have it arranged right away.” Li Zhen said goodbye to him.

An Zi Ran nodded.

Not long after Li Zhen left, Fu Wu Tian came in and saw the deck of cards that Li Zhen had left on the table. He picked it up and looked at it.

An Zi Ran looked up at him. “There’s one thing that I don’t understand.”

“What is it?” Fu Wu Tian went around the table and stood behind him.

An Zi Ran said, “It’s about the Fifth Prince.”

And Fu Wu Tian had thought that he wanted to ask about the second prince, Fu Yuan Cheng, instead, it was about the fifth prince, Fu Yuan Jian. Although he was not in Jun Zi City for a long time, he has also heard about him. “You want to know why he is not interested in the throne, but instead supports Fu Yuan Cheng, when he has the support of the Zhao family and is fully capable of competing for the throne.”

“Correct!”

He has long had this inquiry.

Translations by Vanilla Muse.

Fu Wu Tian explained, “This matter is not much of a secret. Fu Yuan Jian does indeed have capital, but like Yuan Fan, his ambitions lie elsewhere.”

“Oh?” An Zi Ran noticed that he addressed the two cousins differently. It would seem that only Fu Yuan Fan had a slightly better relationship with Fu Wu Tian.

“Fu Yuan Jian is actually the same as wang fei. He is very interested in doing business. This prince once heard a secret. It seems like Fu Yuan Jian wants to be the number one merchant in Da Ya, but wang fei also knows that Chong Ming Emperor does not like businessmen, so his goal cannot be achieved as long as Chong Ming Emperor is alive.”

“His ambition is not small.” An Zi Ran understood that it wasn’t easy or relaxing to be Da Ya’s number one merchant, but once this goal was achieved, it was tantamount to controlling Da Ya’s economy.

Fu Wu Tian looked down at him with a curve to his lips. “His ambition is indeed not small, but in comparison to wang fei it is like a minor magician in the presence of a great one*.”

[*T/N: minor magician in the presence of a great one – idiom meaning: “to pale into insignificance by comparison”]

According to wang fei’s goal, there was no way that he was merely aiming for number one merchant of Da Ya.

An Zi Ran did not answer this time.

Fu Wu Tian was not surprised and continued to speak, “In order to achieve this goal, Fu Yuang Jian needs someone behind him to support him. This person must be the future emperor and a person who recognizes his business talent.”

“That’s why he chose Fu Yuan Cheng, who has no maternal family to support him, not only because he is the most suitable person to ascend the throne, but also because he can only choose Fu Yuan Cheng.”

“Correct.”

The first prince and third prince already have backers, and they have never been close to the Zhao family, especially the Yu family. Yu Bo Fei was in command of the imperial guards in the imperial city, which was in conflict with the Zhao family’s interest. The two sides have been struggling for the military power of the imperial city. In recent years, because of Zhao Yi, it lead to constant friction between the two clans, so it was almost impossible for them to cooperate.

Coincidentally, Fu Yuan Cheng understood Fu Yuan Jian’s idea and supported him. As a matter of course, Fu Yuan Jian could only cooperate with him. But this was also related to the two of them being close friends with Zhao Yi from childhood.

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T/N: Click here for a general announcement on “Delayed Updates?”

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Chapter 110.2 – Second Prince

“I haven’t thought about it yet,” An Zi Ran said shamelessly. In the beginning, he wrote what he did with the intention of teasing the other party into playing. It was an impulsive act, so how could he be carrying something like a reward? “But… surprises vary from person to person.”

Fu Wu Tian asked, “How is it different from person to person?”

An Zi Ran gave an example, “If the other person is a poor scholar, do you think it would count as a surprise if I gave him ten silver pieces?”

“It counts! Then what if the other party does not lack for money?”

An Zi Ran hesitated. This was more troublesome. He had yet to figure it out. His eyes suddenly fell on the painting that he was holding. It was only an artist with a little bit of fame, but if he gave it to Zhuo Hai Tang, perhaps it would be a pleasant surprise. Zhuo Hai Tang was the artist that he hired for the casino.

“Finally found you!”

Just then, an elegant voice sounded from behind them. Without turning around, they could feel the other person’s gaze on them. No need to ask, the ‘you’ in that statement was without a doubt referring to them.

An Zi Ran turned around in surprise. He didn’t expect that someone actually fished up his lantern, and even played along with his boring little game. What’s even more surprising and unexpected was that that person actually found them at the Lantern Competition. The image that entered An Zi Ran’s eyes when he turned around was an elegant and refined man.

“Wu Tian?”

The slight smile on the corner of the refined gentleman’s lips abruptly disappeared upon seeing Fu Wu Tian beside An Zi Ran, replaced by a flash of surprise on his face.

Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

Fu Wu Tian was much calmer than him. When he saw him appearing here out of the blue, his expression didn’t change a bit, he even inclined his head very faintly. “Second Prince.”

This time, it was An Zi Ran’s turn to be surprised.

This person was the second prince, Fu Yuan Cheng, the current Minister of Revenue. His outward appearance was cultured and refined, polite and modest, courteous, able and efficient, moreover, he has an innately high talent for governing the country, and he has never spoken ill of others.

Among the Chong Ming Emperor’s five sons, he was the prince with the best leadership abilities. Compared to the first prince and third prince, he was more popular amongst the people, so the other two princes both regard him as their biggest competitor.

Although Fu Yuan Cheng did not have a maternal family to rely on, like Fu Yuan Wu And Fu Yuan Yang, he was the prince that could not be underestimated. In addition to his own ability, what was more important was that he had the fifth prince, Fu Yuan Jian, as his most loyal brother and helper.

The fifth prince’s mother, Yun fei*, was part of the Zhao family. The Zhao family’s ancestors were outstanding founding ministers**. When they were young they contributed heroic war exploits to the empire of Da Ya. The ancestors were all generals. Now, in the generation of Yun fei’s father and little brother, although they were overshadowed by Fu Xiao and Fu Wu Tian, they still could not be underestimated.

[*T/N: 妃 fei – imperial concubine]

[**T/N: 开国功臣 kai guo gong chen – title given to reward loyal general or vassal of new dynasty or state]

If nothing unexpected were to happen, then the military power that the emperor took from Fu Wu Tian would eventually fall into the hands of the Zhao family. Fu Yuan Cheng had the support of the fifth prince, Fu Yuan Jian, which was enough to make up for his disadvantage in terms of maternal family.

Neither side expected that they would have this kind of fate*.

[*T/N: 缘分 yuan fen – fate or chance that brings people together]

At this time, Zhao Yi, who had split up with Fu Yuan Cheng to search the convention, also saw them. He was Yun fei’s little brother. The age difference between the sister and brother was relatively large, because Zhao Gang was over thirty years old when he had Zhao Yi with his first wife, therefore, he was about the same age as Fu Yuan Cheng, so they were able to come together*.

[*T/N: Not come to the festival together, but come together as acquaintances and/or friends due to being in the same age group.]

“Zhao Yi greets jun wang.”

When he saw An Zi Ran and Fu Wu Tian, Zhao Yi’s eyes flashed with a bit of surprise, but he reacted quickly, and saluted him with a manner that was neither servile nor overbearing.

Fu Yuan Cheng smiled, looked at the two of them, and said, “Indeed, surprising enough.” Then he looked at An Zi Ran, “This must be Wu Tian tang di’s* wang fei. I have heard of di mei**, but have not had the chance to meet until now. Seeing you today, sure enough, you are different from the rumors.”

[*T/N: 堂弟 tang di – younger male patrilineal cousin]

[**T/N: 弟妹 di mei – younger brother’s wife]

An Zi Ran nodded his head slightly at the other party, but did not get close, instead he looked estranged.

Fu Yuan Cheng didn’t mind. He took out the four pieces of card stock that were collected along the way. “Presumably, these four pieces of paper are written by di mei, right?”

He has seen Fu Wu Tian’s handwriting before, grand and majestic, unmatched by anybody. If Fu Wu Tian had written the words on the card stock, then he would be able to recognize them at a glance.

An Zi Ran answered, “I wrote it.”

Fu Yuan Cheng laughed, “It’s a fun little game.”

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An Zi Ran said succinctly: “Thank you for the compliment!”

The gaze with which Fu Yuan Cheng looked at him suddenly became profound. This temperament was really indifferent, but much better than he had imagined. He heard that An Zi Ran was the son of a landlord in a small county, but there was no sign of panic when An Zi Ran saw him. If he had known that Fu Wu Tian’s wang fei was such an interesting person, he would have visited the Imperial Fu Palace earlier.

An Zi Ran did not like Fu Yuan Cheng’s gaze, it felt like he was looking at an object.

Fu Wu Tian seemed to read his thoughts, and after speaking a few polite words, he found an excuse to take his wang fei away from the Lantern Competition Convention.

Leaving aside the last two people they met, this trip to the Lantern Festival was still wonderful.

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T/N: This update is on time, and early! Bwahahaha- hack- hack- cough, cough, got too excited… Enjoy. XD

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Chapter 110.1 – Second Prince

The fourth piece of card stock paper was the last one.

An Zi Ran did not tell the woman that the two could only get the piece of paper after completing a task, because the time was too late, so this time they got the card stock right away.

The two were a little surprised at first, but when they saw the content of the piece of paper, they knew why.

The content on the card stock was unexpectedly not related to the Lantern Competition. But on the contrary, this was more interesting for the two, because the other party had asked them to find him before the top three winners of the competition was announced. This was a particularly arduous and difficult task. The reason was very simple.

After several rounds of games, they have roughly learned about the clothing and appearance of the two people. It sounded like they were two men with good looks. Such people were generally eye-catching.

The real difficulty was that there were too many people participating in the Lantern Competition, especially in the last stage of the competition. Due to the counting of votes, the crowd of people was almost glued together. Under these circumstances, the difficulty of finding the two people would increase a lot.

Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

Still, they found this interesting.

They have never played a game like this: looking for people. Furthermore, people were mobile. It wasn’t like the previous two tasks, which were very easy in their opinion, and not very challenging at all.

Outstanding men have one thing in common, the more difficult the task, the more their fighting spirit would be ignited.

“Looks like we have to split up.”

The two men looked at the dense crowd in front of them, and then they just squeezed in. In this crowd, they might not be able to find the two people even if they looked until the next morning, so they must split up to search.

The refined gentleman said, “That’s the only way.”

Then the two of them split up, one going to the left, and one going to the right.

Counting the votes was the most important part of the Lantern Competition. Some lanterns with more votes would take longer to count, but no one felt impatient, and the Lantern Competition also had corresponding countermeasures. They invited twenty people to count the votes together. Every person counted one box. Some may be miscounted, but as long as it didn’t affect the top three winners, then no one would fuss.

At this time, each of the twenty convention guards, dressed in the same color clothing, had a box in front of them.

These boxes were relatively light, because the counting order was arranged according to the weight of the boxes, from light to heavy, so as to leave suspense behind. The back of each box was affixed with the name of the lantern owner.

After a short while, the votes of a few dozen competitors have been calculated. The votes for these people were not high. The highest was only two hundred votes. The difference from that to the third place winner was still great. Some people were disappointed, and some people were nervous. The later one’s own box showed up on stage, the higher the chance of them winning top three.

But not everyone stood here waiting for the final results.

The lanterns in the Lantern Competition have not been stowed away yet, and they were still placed on the exhibition stand, row by row, without the boxes covering a portion of them, the scene was even more spectacular. There was every color under the sun, rich and diverse.

An Zi Ran and Fu Wu Tian strolled in front of one of the rows of lanterns, and neither of them spoke. Under the night enveloped in moonlight, in a place not super crowded by people, the atmosphere seemed peaceful.

An Zi Ran stopped suddenly in front of a lantern.

Fu Wu Tian followed his line of gaze to the lantern. “This lantern is ingenious.”

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The corners of An Zi Ran’s mouth curved up slightly. For the ancient people, this lantern was indeed ingenious. It has abandoned the universal shapes that could be seen everywhere, such as those they saw on the stalls selling lanterns before.

The owner of this lantern was likely a clever and dexterous young woman. She might even already be the mother of two children, which was why the lantern she made was of a boy and a girl, two children. The children were like mini-adults, raising their hands towards each other as if giving each other a New Year’s greeting. The smiles of the two were brilliant enough to be infectious, reminding An Zi Ran of the little bun at home.

If there were no unexpected mishaps, he would not have children in this lifetime, so he intended to cultivate the little bun. Let’s not talk about the new businesses in Jun Zi City for now, but the An family businesses in An Yuan County must be succeeded by the little bun.

“Let’s go back.”

An Zi Ran turned and said to Fu Wu Tian, who was beside him.

Fu Wu Tian didn’t ask him why he suddenly wanted to go back. When he stopped and looked at this lantern, he could roughly guess what his wang fei was thinking, but…

“Not playing your little game anymore?”

An Zi Ran shook his head. “Listen to the sounds, the counting of votes seems to be over. The person still hasn’t come at this time, looks like it’s hopeless.”

“This prince is very curious, if the other party really comes, what kind of surprise does wang fei intend to give them?” Fu Wu Tian asked. On their way through the carnival, he already knew the content of the first piece of paper, and he has wanted to ask this question all along.

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T/N: I’m sooo sorry that this chapter is a day late. I had to work overtime yesterday, and then I crashed at a friend’s place because they lived literally down the street from my workplace and I didn’t feel safe going home alone so late at night. I couldn’t access my PC until I got home from work today, hence the late update. Just know that even if there are delays, there will be weekly updates, because I get at least one day off from work every week.

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Chapter 109.2 – Brief Interlude

Several whispering voices drifted over to them. All of them were criticizing the middle-aged man. Hearing their criticism, the middle-aged man’s face flipped between green and white. His attitude got even worse. He glared fiercely at An Zi Ran. “Those who obstruct the order of the convention will be chased out. If you don’t leave, I will call people over!”

An Ziran looked at him abruptly.

These people don’t know to cry until they see the coffin*, the middle-aged man thought. Then he immediately called for security in a loud voice.

[*T/N: 不见棺材不掉泪 a popular saying in Chinese, but it’s not an idiom. Basically, it amounts to “people aren’t scared until they’re roughed up”]

The Lantern Competition was a relatively large contest, so there must be people around to maintain the order. When he shouted, five guards in the same color costumes ran over immediately.

“They disrupted the order of the convention. Kick them out!”

Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

The five guards trooped towards An Zi Ran and Fu Wu Tian without a word. Just as one of them was about to grab An Zi Ran’s shoulder, a big hand grabbed his wrist first. With just a small exertion of force he heard a kacha* sound. This was followed by the sound of the guard’s screaming.

[*T/N: 咔嚓 ka cha – onomatopoeia for breaking or snapping]

Fu Wu Tian forcefully threw the guard away. Two of them tried to evade unsuccessfully. Their flying companion smashed directly into them. The three of them fell into a tangle of limbs. Miserable shouts rose and fell in succession.

The remaining two had already rushed towards them.

“Oh!”

A guard flew upside down and slammed heavily on the ground. His bones seemed to have broken in the fall. The sound was so loud that the surround people could all hear it. But this was not the most critical, because the guard was covering up his crotch, his entire face dripping with cold sweat. It was clear at a glance that it must be very painful. Some of the men subconsciously covered up their groins.

The last guard stopped in fear. He stared at the attacker with rounded eyes, not daring to rush forward.

An Zi Ran calmly retracted his long leg.

Fu Wu Tian glanced at his wang fei, and a smile flashed in his eyes. When he didn’t take action he was normal, but when he did take action, his one movement was amazing*. He never thought that his wang fei would directly attack the most vulnerable places of men, but it was also because he was a man that he knew the weaknesses of men best.

[*T/N: 一鸣惊人 yi ming jing ren – to amaze the world with a single brilliant feat (idiom); an overnight celebrity]

“You, you guys… dare to disturb the order of the Lantern Competition Convention, you just wait to be arrested.” The middle-aged man did not feel afraid, conversely, he panted with rage as he spat out these ferocious words.

The middle-aged man’s confidence was not without reason. Da Ya’s Ministry of Rites was in charge of the Lantern Festival. If something went wrong, the Ministry of Rites would definitely look into it. What kind of place was the Ministry of Rites? Why, it was one of the six major departments of Da Ya’s empire. It had enormous authority. It was impossible for ordinary people to stand off against it.

Fu Wu Tian looked at him with a smile that was not a smile. Abruptly, an imposing militaristic aura erupted from his body. “This prince also wants to know, who dares to arrest this prince and his wang fei.”

As soon as these words came out, the surroundings went silent.

The middle-aged man fell back into his chair.

He, he, he… he is a wang ye? The youth next to him was his wang fei?

Two men?

The middle-aged man was just about to reject this, when a light bulb went off in his head, and his face finally turned white. Although it’s been more than half a year since that (wedding) event, but this man claimed to be a wang ye, and his wang fei was also a man, who else could it be but the empire’s god of war? In Da Ya, the only wang ye that dared to take a man as his wang fei was the god of war!

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“Seems like I have to get the Ministry of Rites to reorganize the personnel for the Lantern Competition Convention.” Fu Wu Tian’s eyes swept across the people on the ground, as well as the middle-aged man, who was still reeling from the revelation. Although he has handed over his military power, he still had his identity and status. No matter how haughty the Ministry of Rites was, they would still have to give him some face.

“Wang wang wang… wang ye, spare my life. This little one has eyes but failed to recognize Mt. Tai*, and offended you sirs. This little one won’t dare again. Begging wang ye to be lenient!” The middle-aged man fell on his knees with a loud thud and started kowtowing.

[*T/N: Idiom meaning he failed to recognize somebody important]

An Zi Ran ignored him and walked over to a woman in her forties. “This auntie, may I ask you to do something for me?”

The woman returned to her senses and immediately expressed a panicked expression. “Please, please say it.”

“I would like to ask you to wait for someone here. It will only take half an hour. At that time, give this piece of card stock to him. If no one comes, then just discard this piece of paper.” An Zi Ran placed the card stock in her hand along with a piece of silver. When the woman tried to refuse he said, “This is remuneration!”

The woman really wanted to reject his money. She already felt very honored to be able to help the god of war’s wang fei, why would she dare to also take his money.

However, An Zi Ran did not give her the opportunity to refuse, and returned to Fu Wu Tian’s side after speaking. The two exchanged a look and then walked into the crowd of people. After a while, their backs could no longer be seen.

The middle-aged man was prostrating on the ground, the words ‘it’s over’ running round and round in his head.

The other dispersed as they discussed Fu Wu Tian and An Zi Ran.

The woman and her family stood by the entrance in accordance with An Zi Ran’s intentions. They had also came for the Lantern Competition, but they could earn a piece of silver just for standing by the door for half an hour, of course they would be happy to do such an easy job, moreover, they were helping the god of war’s wang fei. When they return, they will have extra bragging capital. Just thinking about it made them feel happy.

The refined gentleman and his companion did not make them wait for too long. They soon appeared at the entrance to the Lantern Competition Convention. The ticket person at the entrance had been changed to someone else. The middle-aged man and the five guards were already carried away. So these two did not know what had just occurred here.

The two stepped forward to inquire.

The woman was close by, and when she heard the word card stock, she immediately guessed that these two people should be the ones that the god of war’s wang fei was waiting for. Although it wasn’t just one person, it couldn’t be such a coincidence.

“Are these two gong zi looking for this card stock?”

Upon hearing the woman’s voice, the two looked at her with a little flash of surprise in their eyes. They thought that the card stock must be with the ticket person. They did not expect that it would be in the hands of this humble woman.

“Thank you!” The man thanked her and received the piece of paper.

Translations by Vanilla Muse.

The woman waved her hand, “No need for thanks, I’m very happy to be of help.”

Afterwards, the woman walked inside the convention with her husband and daughter. Although the voting time has passed, there was still the ticket counting segment. This was the major tide!

Watching the family of three leave, the two men became more certain that something must have happened before they came.

“This little game is getting more and more interesting. I look forward to seeing those two people.”

The refined gentleman said with a smile, and then the two went in together.

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Chapter 109.1 – Brief Interlude

One of the most important programs of the Lantern Festival was admiring lanterns.

In his previous life, although An Zi Ran studied science, for certain reasons, he once studied history, especially historical culture, and the Lantern Festival was a kind of historical culture.

The Lantern Festival began in the Han Dynasty, rose in the Tang Dynasty, and flourished in the Song Dynasty. It has always been an important traditional festival among the common folk. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month of the lunar calendar, and on the night when the moon was high, families would light up lanterns to celebrate. It was a very grand occasion.

However, there were some differences between the two.

In his previous life, there was only one Lantern Festival each year, but Da Ya had it four times a year, and the people of Da Ya paid great attention to the Lantern Festival. The most distinguished representative (of the festival) was the Lantern Competition, which was admiring handmade lanterns.

Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

The Lantern Competition was held during the second half of the Lantern Festival.

When the Lantern Festival was halfway through, everyone would have enjoyed the lively atmosphere of the festival, and at this time, they would directly go to the Lantern Competition.

For example, right now, An Zi Ran and Fu Wu Tian had just left the Lantern Mountain and they were following the crowd towards the Lantern Competition.

Looking at it from afar, there were thousands of colorful lights, like a dream, an unprecedented grand occasion.

After seeing this scene, no one would think that Da Ya was still a precarious country, and no one would think that this prosperous age happened under the rule of an incapable ruler. But no matter what the future of Da Ya will be, at this moment, the people just wanted to cherish the present.

People at the Lantern Competition Convention competed with precisely lanterns.

No matter what kind of group it was, they could all participate in the competition, as long as they registered in advance.

When it came time for the Lantern Competition to start, those who signed up would bring the lanterns that they had made to the convention. Those who arrived in advance could also choose a prominent position by themselves and then hang up their lanterns.

The convention organizers would place a small box next to every lantern. The box had a small round hole. If viewers liked a lantern and thought that it was beautiful and valuable, they could vote for it to show support. At the entrance to the Lantern Competition Convention, people could collect a voting ticket. Each person could only take one, and no more. This was to prevent people from cheating.

There was only three hours for the Lantern Competition, and viewers could only vote during this time.

The time was not very long, but this was because the votes would be counted later to determine the top three lanterns. However, this was a rule only set up two years ago.

In the past, the results were only tallied up the day after the end of the competition, but this gave some people the opportunity to use their power and influence to cheat.

In order to secure a place among the top three, some government officials and wealthy families would do whatever they could. Therefore, prior to two years ago, it was always one of these people who would win top three in the Lantern Competition.

Afterwards, it caused public outrage, so the common people refused to participate in the subsequent Lantern Competitions. After all, it was pointless for them to participate if they couldn’t win anyway. Like so, only government officials and rich people attended the competition.

Not only that, but even more hilarious.

In the past, more than ninety-five percent of the votes came from the common folks, but ever since their children stopped participating in the Lantern Competition, these people did not vote anymore. As a result, the total number of votes in the three consecutive Lantern Competitions was much less than in the past, and the number of votes in the top three was almost an unbearably pitiful* number.

[*T/N: 惨不忍睹 can bu ren du – a spectacle too horrible to endure]

Later, the Chong Ming Emperor found out about this.

However, as an inept ruler, he possessed the extraordinary dull mind of an incompetent ruler.

The emperor did not make them change the competition regulations, instead he ordered that the commoners must attend the Lantern Competition, and those who disobeyed would be beheaded!

The people were terrified, so they could only have their daughters participate.

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However, they were also not people who would easily roll over, and they later came up with an exquisite solution.

They concentrated all of their votes on a certain family, so a very interesting scene appeared during the Lantern Competition. Many people lined up and cast their tickets into one box. As a result, the box was so full that the organizer had to use a new box.

In this way, it was very obvious who had the highest number of votes. No matter how much someone tried to cheat, it was impossible in the face of overwhelming numbers.

Therefore, a civilian girl held the first place in two consecutive Lantern Competitions. Having a civilian step on top of their heads made the second and third place winners – ladies of prominent families – mad enough to explode.

In the end, the organizer had to change the format of the Lantern Competition, which made the competition truly fair and continued to flourish. After the new system came out, those ladies from rich families were directly booted out of the top three. But there were still some people unwilling to accept this, and still tried to cheat. For example, spending money to hire hundreds of people to vote, but to no avail.

If they just gave each person ten coins, even hundreds of people would not cost too much money, but where would they find that many people? Not to mention hundreds of people was still not enough to guarantee a win.

The number of votes to get to third place in the Lantern Competition was more than one thousand votes. There was no need to mention first and second place, but the first place was usually no less than five thousand votes.

Translations by Vanilla Muse.

In addition, the current Lantern Competition has also increased the punishment system. Once it was found that a ticket was suspicious, not only would the contestant be disqualified from participating in the Lantern Competition, but the violation would also be reported, leaving a stain on her reputation for a lifetime. In this way, the Lantern Competition became a real contest.

There was less than half and hour left before the end of the competition.

An Zi Ran took two voting tickets from the person handing them out. Then he passed over the last card stock to the person handing out tickets.

The ticket person was a middle-aged man with a shrewd look. He didn’t take the piece of card stock paper as easily as the first two, but instead looked at the two of them suspiciously.

“What do you want to do? This isn’t a place where you can casually cause mischief!” The middle-aged man said with slight dissatisfaction, showing impatience in his eyes.

An Zi Ran retracted the card stock and said nothing. If the other party were not willing to help then he would not force it. But it was easy to make a bad impression.

The middle-aged man looked at his clear and cold face, and coldly snorted, “Take your tickets, and hurry up and leave. Blocking up the line here, don’t tell me you want more tickets. Leave. Leave. There are still a lot of people waiting to get a ticket!”

His tone of voice was so bad that even the people behind in line were unable to put up with it any longer.

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Chapter 108.2 – Lantern Festival Carnival

Reportedly, the reward for the hundredth layer of the Lantern Mountain was a glazed lantern*.

[*T/N: 琉璃灯 liu li deng – “colored glass lantern” or “ceramic glaze lantern”]

The shell of the glazed lantern was a magnificent, sparkling, translucent carved crystal, very precious. This kind of thing not only had collection value, but also ornamental value, it was a fond collection piece of many bigwigs. The common people have only heard about such a thing, but have never seen it.

Precisely because of the glazed lantern, the winter Lantern Festival was livelier than ever.

It’s just that the value of the glazed lantern was equal to the difficulty of the last lantern. From the start of the lantern show to the present, countless people who came for the glazed lamp have not been able to climb up, and some lost their nerves halfway up. The one hundredth layer was very high. If one fell down, they would be disabled for sure. So even though everyone was coveting the glazed lantern, they could only sigh from below.

“Do you want the glazed lantern?”

Fu Wu Tian looked down at An Zi Ran beside him.

Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

An Zi Ran thought about it and shook his head. He didn’t have any special hobby for collecting beautiful decorations. If he had it, then he had it, if he didn’t have it, then he didn’t have it. Not to mention he had other things to do right now.

“Leave this lantern for the people behind, ba.”

If you didn’t light the one hundredth layer, there was still the ninety-ninth layer, and you could get a prize by lighting all three lanterns on that layer. Although it was not comparable to the glazed lamp, the prize was also good. Reportedly, it was a painting by an artist with some fame.

Fu Wu Tian’s martial arts was the strongest in the army, not to mention the ninety-ninth layer, even the one hundredth layer, he was confident that he could easily win.

Under everyone’s gazes, Fu Wu Tian really completed the task.

Everyone could see that this handsome man was actually very skillful, maybe he could win the prize at the one hundredth layer, but he didn’t seem to have that intention. He jumped off immediately after lighting the third light on the ninety-ninth layer.

The strong body fell swiftly from the air like a descending lion, and fell directly in front of his companion. The pace was very stable. The girls in the crowd exclaimed as they watched, worried that he would fall, and waited for him to land safely. Eyes full of admiration fell upon Fu Wu Tian.

All the men in the crowd felt a bit upset.

Wasn’t that guy just a bit good looking and also not bad at martial arts, they weren’t bad either. But in their hearts, they still rejoiced. Since that guy did not intend to be first, then they still had a chance.

Thinking of this, the men began to flex their muscles and prepared to perform well in front of their favorite girls.

On the other side, An Zi Ran and Fu Wu Tian went to the place where people claimed their prizes.

After receiving the painting, An Zi Ran gave a piece of card stock to the person in charge there.

The person in charge agreed as easily as the old woman had.

The two then left the Lantern Festival Carnival.

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They had just left not too long ago, when the refined gentleman and his companion arrived.

The Lantern Festival Carnival was more than just the game of lighting the Lantern Mountain. The card stock only prompted them to go the carnival for the third piece of paper, so they had to go around one by one. The two men were standing in a place with little foot traffic, just observing the crowded scene in every corner.

“What should we do next? Ask them one by one?” The man asked the refined gentleman beside him.

The refined gentleman looked around, and finally locked on the lantern riddles and Lantern Mountain. These two small games were relatively difficult and challenging. “Let’s go take a look at the lantern riddles first.”

The place for the lantern riddles was close to where they were, but of course they didn’t get an answer, furthermore, someone had already won the top prize for the lantern riddles.

The two diverted their attention to the Lantern Mountain. Sure enough, they got the information they wanted from the person in charge, but the premise of getting the card stock was to light the last lantern on the one hundredth layer of the Lantern Mountain.

This task was difficult for the average person.

Not everyone could be as outstanding as Fu Wu Tian.

An Zi Ran knew this, but he still set the level of the second task high. He never said they couldn’t find someone to help, so there was still a loophole.

Translations by Vanilla Muse.

Fortunately, neither one of them was an ordinary person.

The man lit the last lantern and he successfully won the prize and the card stock.

However, the two men also heard from the person in charge that the person who completed the ninety-ninth layer was indeed a pair of men, as the old woman had said.

The refined gentleman chuckled and said, “It seems that in this entire Lantern Festival, we’re the only ones this idle.”

“But you could say the other party ‘helped’ us obtain a glazed lantern,” the man replied. The glazed lantern was indeed no ordinary good thing, despite the two of them not lacking (in money).

The two then went directly to the next target.

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Chapter 108.1 – Lantern Festival Carnival

The two men came to the tofu booth following the instructions on the piece of cardstock.

Because of their luxurious clothes, their temperament was slightly extraordinary, and immediately caught everyone’s attention.

The old woman who was serving the jellied tofu to the customers turned around and saw the two. She wiped her hands on the towel she carried with her and walked over right away. “These two gong zi came to eat jellied tofu?”

Just a glance, and you could tell that people with status and rank would not lower themselves to come eat at their humble stall. Although they served two customers like An Zi Ran and Fu Wu Tian, the old woman still asked politely.

Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

The refined gentleman replied gently, “Granny, we are not here to eat jellied tofu. I wonder if you have seen this kind of card stock?” Then he took out the card stock and showed it to the old woman.

The old woman took a look and suddenly revealed a look of realization.

“So it was you, yes, yes, yes!”

The two men looked at each other immediately. Unexpectedly she really have seen it!

Not long ago, the refined gentleman took out the card stock from the duck lantern. The owner of the card stock did not write any good wishes like other lanterns, but a little game. The other party asked them to follow the instructions on the card stock. When they successfully reach the last step, they will have an unexpected surprise.

The refined gentleman found it very interesting. This was the first time he has seen this kind of game. They just so happened to have no plans after, so they appeared here.

The two did not worry about whether someone was misbehaving and deliberately targeting them. The incident with the lantern was too unexpected, and no one could guarantee who would fish it up. Because of this, the two men dared to come to the tofu booth without any fear. It turned out that it was indeed a little game.

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“Not long ago, two people were eating jellied tofu here, and then a young man gave a yellow card stock to this old woman, and said that somebody might come to pick it up later. If not, then he told me to just throw it away,” the old woman said truthfully.

The refined gentleman said, “Then, can granny give us that piece of card stock?”

The old woman laughed. “Not for the time being. That gong zi said that you would have to complete a task before I give you that card stock.”

The two men looked at each other.

They thought that it was just a meandering path, but they still had to complete a task. Really strange!

They were even more interested now!

“What might the task be?” The man next to the refined gentleman asked immediately.

The old woman laughed and said, “Actually, it’s very simple. You only need to eat six bowls of jellied tofu in one sitting.”

The refined gentleman asked, “Granny, is it six bowls for one person, or six bowls for two people?”

The old woman said, “Six bowls per a person.”

The man stepped forward, “Let me do it.”

The refined gentleman nodded. The two were going on the same path together. The first stop was to do a task; there would definitely be more tasks later on. Between the two of them, one of them should always maintain an empty stomach to respond at any time. They also did not think that the old woman was tricking them into eating jellied tofu. Looking at the customers who were eating jellied tofu here; they knew that their business was good.

The amount of tofu in one bowl was not a lot. The man finished one bowl in two, three mouthfuls. Very soon, twelve bowls were eaten. But chowing down twelve bowls was still a bit much.

The refined gentleman paid the bill, and the old woman immediately gave them the card stock.

The man came over. “What’s the next goal?”

The refined gentleman handed him the card stock. “The Lantern Festival Carnival.”

An indispensible traditional event of the Lantern Festival was the carnival. The carnival was not just for admiring lanterns, there were also fun mini-games such as lantern riddles*, lighting up a Lantern Mountain**, and so on. At each Lantern Festival, the carnival was the liveliest.

[*T/N: lantern riddles – from my experience of watching Chinese historical dramas, this is a game where riddles or the first half of a couplet are written on lanterns, and people either have to figure out the riddle or complete the second half of the couplet.]

[**T/N: 点灯山 dian deng shan – this one I’m not familiar with, so I translated it quite literally]

When the two men got the second card stock, An Zi Ran and Fu Wu Tian had already arrived at the Lantern Festival Carnival.

It was super crowded, the carnival was full of people, and there was almost no space to walk. But thanks to Fu Wu Tian escorting him, they still easily squeezed to the front of the lighted Lantern Mountain.

The so-called lighting up a Lantern Mountain was different from what An Zi Ran knew. The Lantern Mountain here was not at a mountain ridge, rather, it was neatly stacking an exorbitant number of lanterns upwards, until it formed a tiny mountain, and letting the people go up personally to light up the lanterns. Each person would light up one lantern, and then they could obtain a blessing. This was a custom in Da Ya.

Translations by Vanilla Muse.

The lighted Lantern Mountain had a hundred layers. At present, someone has ignited it to the ninety-eighth layer. In the remaining two layers, there were actually only four lanterns left. However, the height of the Lantern Mountain was too high, and without a certain martial arts foundation, everyone hesitated, not daring to climb up so high.

[T/N: Sounds like a fire hazard waiting to happen… >_<]

Speaking of which, in addition to the blessing function of the Lantern Mountain, there were rewards for people who lit lanterns above the ninetieth layer.

In order to encourage everyone to go up to the Lantern Mountain, the organizers of the Lantern Festival Carnival specially added prizes. Every time you lit up a layer of the lanterns, you would get a corresponding reward. The higher the layer, the better the prize.

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Chapter 107.2 – Fishing for Lanterns

The old woman laughed. “Rest assured, gong zi.”

“Then, thank you!” An Zi Ran saluted to her.

“Gong zi is polite. It is but a slight effort.”

At the same time, on the opposite shore of the Huai Zi River.

After the conclusion of the poetry competition, a group of excited young talents crowded together and came to the riverside. They saw hundreds of beautiful lanterns floating on the river, one after another, and everyone was dazzled.

“This year seems to have more lights than last year.” A young man with a somewhat handsome face stood by the river with a paper fan. He sighed as he looked at these lanterns. Be that as it may, his eyes were shining as he looked at these lanterns, as if having a pair of discerning eyes.

“Don’t know if I can fish up a fated marriage this year. I’m really looking forward to it!”

“You? Wait a few more years, ba.”

“Hey. You’re looking down on me. What’s wrong with me? Can’t I get married? Don’t think I don’t know. Although you didn’t say it, your heart is actually thirstier* than me!”

[*T/N: 饥渴 ji ke – “hungry and thirsty” or figuratively “to crave (knowledge, love, etc)”]

“You’re thirsty!”

A man stepped out to interrupt their conversation. “Okay, don’t quarrel anymore, hurry up, otherwise the good ones will be taken away.”

When they heard this sentence, the two were reluctant to stop bickering, but when they turned around they saw that everyone was looking at the lanterns, and some people had already fished one up. The two hurriedly ran over. If they were any slower, they really would be left behind.

Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

When it came to fishing up lanterns, they must be tastefully chosen.

Most of the ladies who were seeking marriage made the lanterns themselves. The ladies were quite skilled with their hands, and there were many patterns. They were not the same as those sold on the market. Although there were many types of lanterns, the patterns were repeated, so if you wanted to know if the owner of the lantern made it, you had to look at the pattern and structure of the lantern.

After watching for a while, some people picked out the lanterns that they liked.

The number of lanterns was decreasing, and those who have yet to pick a lantern were getting anxious. For example, the two people who were just quarreling. Their families’ financial situation was not the best, so they hoped they would be able to fish up a lantern from a lady of a wealthy family. But as they perused the lanterns, one second they found this lantern looked good, and the next second they thought that lantern looked good.

Their hesitation made them slower than the others.

“Hey, look, there’s a lantern there, so ugly!”

At this moment, a young man standing upright on the steps suddenly pointed at a light slowly drifting across from him. Against the backdrop of the many beautiful lanterns, this lantern really looked ugly.

The others looked up and saw an ugly duckling. The duckling’s paper was yellow, almost the same shade as the candlelight, especially its big bill, which looked particularly funny.

“It really is ugly. Whose lantern is this?”

Someone laughed and echoed the sentiment immediately.

“Should we fish it up and take a look?” Someone suggested.

“Okay!”

“Nonsense!”

At this moment, a low voice of reprove suddenly thundered. It slammed into everyone’s hearts at once, and a few people were startled. They turned around subconsciously. When they saw the speaker, they immediately turned mute. It wasn’t that they knew each other, but that this person’s momentum was somewhat amazing. At one glance, it was clear that he was no ordinary person.

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However, there were some who refused to accept his authority and jumped out to protest.

It was the very young man who carried a fan in the middle of winter. “Who are you? What reason do you have to stop us? Don’t forget, everyone has a chance to choose a lantern.”

The man’s cold eyes fell on him.

The young man’s shoulders shrank back, but he didn’t want to lose momentum, so he still straightened up his chest.

Just then, the gentle and refined companion beside the man stood up. He was more handsome and nobler than the young man, and in comparison was even more extraordinary.

“That being the case, you can use your chance to pick up that lantern, but as you said, the chance is only once, are you willing or not?”

The young man choked.

He certainly didn’t want to. He waited for a few months for this chance, how could it be wasted on the ugly yellow duck for nothing?!

He didn’t say anything, and the others did not say anything. They were different from the other two. Their family backgrounds weren’t particularly good, merely depending on their intellect and talents to stand here.

The ugly duckling finally drifted to the shore while they were talking, but no one was interested in it at this time. Everyone went off to fish up lanterns. As the lanterns around the ugly duckling were picked one by one, only it was left alone. On the river, it looked particularly lonely.

The people who have picked lanterns were already scrambling to open the papers tucked within. There was excitement, disappointment, doubt, and hesitation.

Although some people hoped to get the lantern of a lady from a rich family, they could not see the family background of the other person based on the lantern. This was a form of fate, and those with courage could get happiness, but some people were worried that the other person was an ugly woman, so they hesitated non-stop.

The refined gentleman standing by the river suddenly walked over to the ugly duckling.

The man came over and glanced at him and said, “Interested?”

The refined gentleman smiled gently, “Indeed interested. There are so many beautiful lanterns, but the other side picks an ugly duckling. I wonder what kind of woman it will be?”

“Actually, I am also interested in knowing,” the man said out of the blue.

The refined gentleman laughed, “I knew you would be interested.”

Translations by Vanilla Muse.

Unlike other people, they did not carry high expectations for fishing lanterns, so it didn’t matter even if the opportunity was wasted. At worst, they could just put the ugly duckling back in the river after looking at it. There wouldn’t be any great affect.

The man then bent down to pick up the ugly duckling. It really contained a piece of card stock. The man carefully removed the card stock and handed it to the refined gentleman.

The refined gentleman received the piece of paper, took a look, and laughed.

“The owner of this lantern is really an interesting person. It seems like we did not fish out this lantern for nothing.”

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Chapter 107.1 – Fishing for Lanterns

Setting off lanterns on the Huai Zi River was not just for young women wishing for a marriage predestined by fate.

The Huai Zi River did not evolve into the Matchmaking River until later. As early as twenty or thirty years ago, the Huai Zi River did not have the alias of Matchmaking River. People set lanterns on the river just to pray for blessings.

At that time, it was not only young women who could pray for marriage. Men, old people, and children would buy lanterns if they had any wishes, or they could make one by themselves, write their wishes, and then set them on the river.

The reason why this was the case now was because later on, some man unexpectedly fished up a lantern and then ended up marrying the owner of the lantern. This was the origin of the Matchmaking River. It developed until this day, and now it was rare to see any men setting lanterns on the river.

But rarely seen did not mean that there were none. Occasionally there were still some men who would set lanterns on the river.

Whispers rose up around them from time to time, but An Zi Ran ignored those people. He went down the steps of the Huai Zi River to set off the lantern in his hands.

Translations are by vmnovels [dot] com, if you’re reading this anywhere else, then it was stolen.

There were many beautiful lanterns floating on the river, many of them were flower-shaped lanterns. Most of them were made by the young women themselves. Each one was very skilled with their hands, and the lanterns looked no worse than the ones that street vendors sold.

“What did you write?”

Fu Wu Tian asked curiously when he saw An Zi Ran bend down. Just now, he did not deliberately read what his wang fei wrote on the card stock.

An Zi Ran put the duckling lantern on the river. The shape of the duckling was not ugly, but it stuck out amongst the many beautiful and good-looking flower lanterns. In comparison it looked bad, just like an ugly duckling.

Before he could answer, the surrounding young ladies laughed.

They also saw this ugly duckling, and probably didn’t expect anyone to choose such an ugly duck, furthermore, the person was a man, and words like “such an ugly duck” sounded from time to time.

Although it looked like the young ladies were looking at the ugly duckling, they could still see that some of the young ladies were looking at them from time to time. Most of them were peeking at Fu Wu Tian. Of course, there were also many taking glances at An Zi Ran.

Both of them were excellent in appearance, but the man who could really make people feel safe was Fu Wu Tian, a man who was very mature and attractive at first glance.

An Zi Ran returned to Fu Wu Tian’s side, and answered unselfconsciously, “Just a little game. If someone fishes it up then it’s fate, if no one gets it then it doesn’t matter.”

Speaking like so, he made Fu Wu Tian even more curious about what he wrote on the card stock. A little game? It sounded very mysterious.

An Zi Ran did not intend to tell him for the time being.

Fu Wu Tian glanced at the side of his face and took hold of his hand again. In a low voice he said, “This prince is looking forward to wang fei’s little game.”

An Zi Ran covered the back of Fu Wu Tian’s hand with his other hand, but did not say anymore.

The whispering voices around them gradually quieted down. The young ladies’ eyes almost popped out when they saw them holding hands. Men and women were not the same. It’s weird to see two men holding hands, especially in the twenty-first century, but here, there was only one explanation.

Whether it was the girls peeking at An Zi Ran or at Fu Wu Tian, they were all disappointed.

Two men with such good looks turned out to be a pair?

But there were still some people’s gazes that were comparatively strange.

From appearances, it was clear who was dominant, but in the eyes of some, the one on the bottom was often some pet from a male brothel. Furthermore, only a pet from a male brothel would have the audacity to display affection in public with another man.

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But no matter how vicious their thoughts were An Zi Ran did not have mind reading capabilities.

Before leaving the Huai Zi River, An Zi Ran went to the table where the card stock was placed, took a few more, and wrote a sentence on each piece of paper, and then he left with Fu Wu Tian.

“I want to eat jellied tofu*.”

[*T/N: a.k.a. soft bean curd]

Looking at the bustling crowd, An Zi Ran suddenly had this idea. It was almost an hour after dinner, just enough time for them to digest dinner.

Fu Wu Tian would naturally meet his needs. When he just came here, he saw a family selling jellied tofu on the side of the road. The business was popular, so it should be delicious.

After a while, the two came to the stall selling jellied tofu.

The owners of the stall were an old couple. They were both gray-haired and seemed to be over their sixties. The stall was not large. There were four old tables and chairs next to it. However, there were seven or eight people eating jellied tofu at this time, and some of them have already eaten three or four bowls.

The two of them approached the old couple.

An Zi Ran spoke to the old man, “Two bowls of jellied tofu.”

“One moment, sirs.” The old man said and picked up two bowls. The action was deft. Very soon, he had filled two bowls and put a tablespoon of brown sugar in each. He originally wanted to put two tablespoons, but An Zi Ran stopped him. The old man’s brown sugar was not lumpy, but liquid. It looked slightly sweet.

An Zi Ran was not used to eating things that were too sweet. He has eaten jellied tofu before, but it was not the same as this.

Because there were no seats, the two stood and ate.

As soon as the tofu entered his mouth, it melted away immediately. There wasn’t a lot of brown sugar, so it was not particularly sweet, making the flavor of the tofu more intense.

Translations by Vanilla Muse.

No wonder there was so many customers. Really could not pity the owner for putting up a stall at his old age. The taste of the jellied tofu was enough to make anyone who has eaten it a repeat customer.

There wasn’t much tofu in one bowl. The two of them polished off their bowls in a few mouthfuls.

Fu Wu Tian took An Zi Ran’s bowl, and brought the two bowls, along with the tofu money, and handed it to the old woman, who smiled right away and said thank you.

“Granny.” An Zi Ran suddenly stepped forward to call the old woman who was about to return to her husband. “There’s a matter I want to trouble you with, don’t know if it’s convenient or not?”

The old woman was surprised. “Gong zi, please speak.”

An Zi Ran handed a piece of card stock that had been prepared ahead of time to her, and whispered something to her.

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