Card Room (Rebirth)
chapter-191

This lantern market was terrible.

The eight people acted separately and used various displacement cards to move and explore through the crowds. After returning to the tree, Xiao Lou drew a miniature map on the ground based on everyone’s description of the roads and the arrow marks left behind.

As he drew, he analyzed it for his teammates. “The entire lantern market is like the ‘申’ character. The longest main road is in the middle and both sides of the road contain round red gauze lamps. The end of this road is connected to the stone bridge. After crossing the stone bridge, there is our target destination, the lantern tree.”

He drew an asterisk at the location of the lantern tree. “Then there is the middle part. After removing the main road without the lamp riddles, the rest is a ‘日’. There are three horizontal streets and two vertical streets. In order to facilitate the relay, we will divide the work…”

“Group Leader Yu and I will be responsible for the two vertical streets. For the three horizontal streets, Old Mo and Liu Qiao are in charge of the furthest one. Chief Shao and Ye Qi are in charge of the middle one while Long Sen and Teacher Qu are in charge of the nearest one. Everyone should remember their position clearly and don’t mess around.”

His arrangement was indeed very thoughtful. The Light as a Swallow card could leap lightly through the air and was the fastest moving, so he arranged for Liu Qiao and Old Mo to go to the furthest place. The speed of the teleportation card was also very fast so Shao Qingge and Ye Qi were arranged in the middle. For the Long Jump card, they could only jump 8 meters at a time and it wasn’t convenient to jump in the bustling crowd. Once the two people got out of the crowd, they could use the skills near the stone bridge.

Thinking about it carefully, they really admired Professor Xiao’s arrangement.

The seemingly complicated lantern market was arranged by him like this and it became a simple two way road. Unless they were completely direction challenged, they just had to walk in a straight line and couldn’t go wrong. The parts that were the most difficult and easy to get lost in were left to Professor Xiao!

After dividing the work, the group entered the lantern market again.

In the Diamonds room, attack and control cards were all forbidden. The people coming and going blocked their way and sometimes accidentally hit them. Yu Hanjiang had to continue to hug Xiao Lou’s waist and protect him. This intimate movement made Xiao Lou blush but all around him were red lanterns. The red light shone and his blush was less obvious.

After walking through the main road onto the vertical road to the side, there were significantly fewer people.

Xiao Lou soon saw a palace lantern hanging on a shelf. It had a classic shape with six sides and six corners. It was made of paper with beautiful patterns drawn on each side. There were red silk threads hanging from the six corners of the palace lantern and it looked very delicate.

Under the illumination of the warm candlelight, these patterns came to light. No matter the shape or exquisiteness of the lantern, the difference was quite obvious compared to the same red gauze lamps on the main road.

Xiao Lou took a step forward and asked, “Is this a lantern riddle?”

The store boss smiled and said, “Yes, as long as you can guess the answer, this lantern will be given to you.”

Sure enough. It was the ancient Shangyuan Lantern Festival and there were many activities like ‘guess the lantern riddle and receive the lantern.’ Lanterns were cheap to make and were hand-made. They were also given for a good luck sign. It was unlike the modern lantern festivals where electronic lights were sold everywhere and there was a variety of music. Xiao Lou actually liked this quaint Shangyuan Lantern Festival a lot more.

Xiao Lou reached out and picked up the lantern on the shelf, carefully observing the pattern on it.

The lantern in his hand had a scholar with a folded fan in his hand drawn on the first side. The second side had a rooster, the third side had a few gold ingots and then it was another rooster.

Yu Hanjiang frowned and thought about it. What was the relationship between a scholar and a rooster? Was there any connection between the rooster and the gold ingot? As a result, he hadn’t understood it yet when Xiao Lou smiled and replied, “A great number of competent people?”

The boss nodded. “Yes, yes. Madam can guess so quickly. The lantern will be given to you!”

Xiao Lou thanked the boss, took the lantern and handed it to Yu Hanjiang beside him. Yu Hanjiang took the lantern and carefully pondered the drawings. Finally, he figured it out.

The two of them continued to move forward and saw another palace lantern hanging on the shelf with some patterns on it.

The first side had a simple brush. The second side was a pair of colourful butterfly wings. The third side was a young man and woman holding hands and looking at each other affectionately. Both characters were drawn in a life-like manner. The fourth side had a group of geese flying through the sky.

Xiao Lou guessed. “A pair of birds flying together?” (Idiom that means two hearts beating as one)

The boss was a young girl. Once Xiao Lou guessed the riddle, she immediately handed over the lantern. “Madam guessed correctly.”

Yu Hanjiang only realized at this time. This graphic riddle actually used the ‘stream of consciousness thinking. A brush was a homophone for ‘pair’, the butterfly wings were ‘wings’, the couple holding hands were ‘together’ and the group of birds was ‘flying’. Together, it was the idiom ‘A pair of birds flying together’.

Those who hadn’t played riddle games would only be confused when seeing the messy patterns. However, for Xiao Lou, these riddles weren’t difficult.

After guessing these two, Xiao Lou turned back and said, “Hanjiang, you go and hang the lanterns first. I will continue to look for the riddles. If you take too much then it won’t be easy to go. Hang these two up first.”

Yu Hanjiang nodded. He put on the acceleration shoes and sped toward the tree outside the lantern market.

Once he came near the big tree, he found there were still only a few wishes and a colourful lantern hanging on the tree. It was the same as the beginning and his teammates hadn’t returned yet. It seemed that Xiao Lou’s speed was the fastest.

Yu Hanjiang hung two lanterns on the tree. At the same time, a prompt appeared on everyone’s floating boxes. [Number of lantern riddles that have been collected: 2.]

Ye Qi was currently holding a lantern and thinking about the answer. The riddle he got was a word puzzle. A line of words was written on the round lantern: Draw a circle of time, write a square of time, a short winter, a long summer’. Ye Qi hadn’t thought of the answer yet when he saw the prompt. Ye Qi couldn’t help wondering, “Who is so fast that two lanterns are already hung?”

Shao Qingge smiled slightly. “Who else can it be? It is only our witty Madam Yu.”

Ye Qi remembered that ‘Madam Yu’ was Xiao Lou and immediately nodded. “It must be him! We are still looking at the question while he has already thought of the answer. He is indeed the top student!”

Qu Wanyue had also just found the first lantern riddle. She was facing a poetry riddle. It was a delicate red lantern with a line of poetry written in black script: The mountains and water are heavy but willow trees make the shade, the flowers give the light. (TL: The willow trees make the shade, the flowers give the light is an idiom that means light at the end of the tunnel)

She had just made a guess when she saw the prompt in the floating box and couldn’t help smiling. “It must be Professor Xiao.

Long Sen scratched his head. “He is really good at this type of riddle. I think the seven of us helping him find the lanterns and letting him guess the riddle alone might be more efficient!”

Qu Wanyue agreed. “I also think so.”

The two of them looked at each other and continued to ponder on the riddle.

Liu Qiao also found a word puzzle that was seemingly simple but it wasn’t easy to guess. The riddle was: A flock of wild goose chasing the boat.

She was thinking carefully when she saw the prompt on the floating box. Liu Qiao expressed her admiration. “We have only found one while they have guessed two and hung the lantern. It seems that we have to speed up or by the time we finish one street, Professor Xiao would’ve already finished searching two streets.”

Mo Xuemin looked melancholy. “I think this is a great possibility!”

Liu Qiao, “……”

So what was the wild goose chasing the boat? Should she ask Professor Xiao for help?

Yu Hanjiang quickly returned to the lantern market and saw Xiao Lou holding two lanterns in his hand.

Xiao Lou saw Yu Hanjiang and smiled. “Hanjiang, I guessed two more. I have to trouble you to send it again.”

Yu Hanjiang, “……”

Could you guess a bit slower?!