After they finished crossing the bridges, the elders just ‘drove away’ the younger generation, and either mutually invite one another to continue strolling, or find a place to sit down and crack melon seeds, the joys belonging to them.
And tonight, the liveliest was naturally the various performances.
The dragon lantern dance, the lion dance, walking on stilts, rowing drought boats, these were all the most basics. There were also acrobatics, and stage plays, practically just having all one needs, the streets exceptionally lively.
(T/N: Pictures below for the various activities, hopefully they’re obvious enough to figure out which is what, but roughly in the order mentioned above. If you’re on the computer you can hover over the pictures for the caption.)
Dragon Lantern Dance day Dragon Lantern Dance night
Lion Dance Drought Boat
And on the various lantern building and lantern stages, there similarly was a performance. Compared to the performances organized by the commoners, these naturally were even more magnificent. One has to know, the famous acting troupes in the capital can all be contracted, and all perform at the same time tonight. En, in this case, it was practically just an unconventional type of competition. Whichever one had the most number of people viewing, then naturally was just the one that was the most popular. And the final result can very likely directly influence the acting troupe’s business for the year.
Towards opera plays, Jing Wan wasn’t very interested in, and for the most part, was just at the level of being able to understand them.
Jing Wan got dragged by Yuan Qiao Qiao through one street, two streets, three streets, getting forcibly shoved a lantern into her hands by Yuan Qiao Qiao as well.
Towards the various folk sideshows, Yuan Qiao Qiao seemingly was especially fond of, her spirits high, walking faster than Jing Wan. Afterwards, they just accidentally got scattered apart. However, Jing Wan wasn’t worried. After all, by her side, there were always people following.
Jing Wan held the colored lantern, standing in her original spot, laughing in spite of herself, “Really is energetic.” If such a person were to be constantly restricted by the chains of social convention, they’ll definitely be quite unhappy. Jing Wan feels, this older cousin of hers would probably like the environment of her past life. There were truly too many fun things, and moreover, no matter how much one played, all won’t have anyone questioning.
Suddenly something wrapped around her waist. Jing Wan was startled, subconsciously turning back to see who it was. Jing Wan patted her chest, “Wangye, people scaring people can scare someone to death, can you not suddenly attack?” Thinking back, aside from him, there was probably no one else that would do something this mischievous. Moreover, Gong mama and them were all present. Ordinary people simply wouldn’t be able to approach her.
Li Hong Yuan helplessly laughed, casually scrapping the tip of her nose, “Guts this small?”
“This isn’t the problem of having big or small guts.” It was a kind of biological reflex alright!
“Alright, it was my fault, how should I make amends and apologize?”
“No need to make amends and apologize, it’s not that serious. Wangye can just not scare me next time.”
“There won’t be a next time.” Li Hong Yuan ensured her.
Afterwards, Jing Wan noticed that quite a few people in the surrounding were secretly sizing them up. Jing Wan finally realized in hindsight that he was still holding her waist. It was all because in private, she was used to this kind of intimacy that at this time, she didn’t think of moving away first thing. Her face somewhat reddened, “Wangye, let go first.” Even if these people all didn’t recognize them, getting stared at with looks of ‘criticism’ was still very uncomfortable. During times like this, it really made her reminisce her past life.
Li Hong Yuan didn’t make things difficult for her, “You must have walked for a very long time, right? Hungry? How about we go eat a bit of something?”
Jing Wan nodded her head. She really was a bit hungry.
Borrowing the wide sleeves’ cover, Li Hong Yuan pulled over Jing Wan’s hand, his fingers faintly caressing. Compared to the soft and smooth feeling of Jing Wan’s hands, Li Hong Yuan who practiced martial arts year round, pulling the bow and setting arrow, in addition to various kinds of weaponry, his hands were naturally much more rough. But this kind of roughness still wouldn’t go as far as to scratch the skin, instead feeling a bit numbing. Jing Wan struggled, but was unable to struggle free.
“Wan Wan, this is the bottom line.” Li Hong Yuan neither lightly nor heavily said.
Jing Wan was speechless. Encountering such a tyrannical and unreasonable guy, aside from compromising, what else can she do?
Oh, Jing Wan actually saw a street of street food. Moreover, it was even this honorable and noble wangye that brought her here. To say she wasn’t surprised was a lie. Jing Wan originally thought that he would take her to a nearby big restaurant.
Although this place was right next to the lantern festival, but in comparison, it was much more quiet. Moreover, judging from the people coming and going, one just knew, the people that came here were all just ordinary commoners. As the saying goes, ‘people follow the herd’, maintaining the discrepancy between the honorable and lowly. Not a single wealthy person would come here, so naturally won’t cause a ‘trend’. The people of their social class won’t know of this place, and even if they knew, for them to not come was also very normal.
“These’s a place here that has very good sticky rice dumplings.” Li Hong Yuan said.
Jing Wan didn’t ask how he knew, “Since we’re already here, let’s also have a taste of the other things?” In her past life, Jing Wan was born into a wealthy family. Prior to meeting with misfortune, she was also considered someone of the upper class society, so naturally had never eaten these things on the side of the road before. However, afterwards, she did try them. There were those few that were still relatively pretty good.
Li Hong Yuan slightly frowned. It’s not that he believes these things are just not good, after all, in his past life, he also had times where he was completely unable to nitpick, but in this life, his food and clothing were all the best. In addition, it’s not like these were necessary, so these things he really didn’t have a high opinion of. However, seeing Jing Wan’s gaze carrying a bit of pleading, under the glistening lights, he couldn’t bear refusing, ultimately nodding, “Just have a taste, don’t eat too much.”
Jing Wan hurriedly nodded, “Definitely just sampling.” This street didn’t seem to be short either, so there were quite a few things. Even if it’s just picking and choosing to buy some, eating from the start of the street to the end was still impractical.
Jing Wan excitedly began picking. The first thing was naturally looking at the sanitation. Those that didn’t pass at a glance certainly got skipped over. Having meticulously maintained the digestive system for ten some years, it most likely has long turned delicate. Eating unclean things, the probability of getting sick was truly too high.
Have to say, for these little stall owners, they occasionally would also see some people in luxurious clothes, appearing out of the ordinary at a glance, come here, but they often times would just reveal a disdaining look. Even if wanting to try something new, it was still with a frown, sometimes just spitting out after a bite. Not only will they not give money, might even wreck the stall. As an ordinary commoner, they didn’t even have a place to complain to. If it was just destroying the stall, it actually was still considered good. If they were to also beat up the person, that would just be ‘the gains not making up for the losses’.
Because of the above reasons, whenever these people encounter these kinds of out of the ordinary people, they actually won’t be happy, instead feeling deeply worried inside. Especially since there were even some delicate young ladies that were completely ignorant to the pain and difficulties of the world. They perhaps didn’t have any ill intentions, but would always inadvertently cause trouble for people. As such, when seeing Jing Wan approach, they didn’t dare to boast, instead feeling nervous and tense.
Jing Wan was somewhat confused, but didn’t really say anything, directly purchasing a share, letting the servant girl directly pay, and afterwards taking a bite. If it’s good, then just take a few more bites, if not, then just let someone hold it.
As such, while buying and eating, Jing Wan occasionally would even let a certain wangye also have a taste. Seeing his obvious look of disdain, yet because of her stubbornness, or rather because she wanted to mess with him, whenever she brought it to his mouth, Li Hong Yuan would reluctantly eat it every time. Jing Wan smiled exceptionally happily. The ones that were able to make this one compromise, afraid were just those countable few. Jing Wan felt quite a sense of accomplishment.
Probably seeing that the people in front all had the things sold, yet didn’t attract any unexpected calamity, a portion of the people afterwards slightly grew some guts, and as Jing Wan was approaching, they would even softly shout a few words.
Speaking of which, Jing Wan going around like this really did bring about some small changes. For instance, people all possess a kind of ‘following the trend’ mentality. For ordinary people, seeing that kind of wealthy person buying, they just can’t help but want to try. And the ones she didn’t buy would also make people subconsciously feel that thing wasn’t good. Afterwards, they also noticed that for some, she would just take one bite, some, two bites, and generally, the ones that she took two bites of, she would then let that man following her eat. Did this mean that those were the good ones? Afterwards, they also bought for themselves, tasting, en, really not bad, as expected of someone from a large wealthy family, indeed impressive.
As for those stall owners that discovered this situation, their guts grew even bigger, all hoping that their things can be fancied.
Because it was the Lantern Festival, there were naturally more of those selling sticky rice dumplings.
(T/N: The word for sticky rice dumplings ‘元宵’ is the same as the name for the Lantern Festival ‘元宵节’ in chinese. The literal translation of the word ‘元宵’ is just ‘first night’.)
And when they reached the sticky rice dumpling stall Li Hong Yuan picked, they’d already finished walking through most of the street. Jing Wan right now was more or less seventy percent full, but since Jin Qinwang specially came for this sticky rice dumpling place, no matter what, still need to have a taste.
(T/N: Sticky rice dumplings or yuan xiao ‘元宵’, if you ask me, I really can’t tell the difference between them and tangyuan, pictured in part 1 of this chapter. However, they are considered different food, trust me a purist might strangle you if you get it wrong. When it comes to regional customs, the south eats tangyuan, while the north eats yuanxiao. Their difference really just comes down to how they are made, choice in stuffing, and cooking method. Yuanxiao are all sweet fillings and traditionally only have three different flavors, while tangyuan can literally be almost any kind of filling.)
In reality, the table and stool were all wiped very clean, and the other things were also this way.
Thus they sat down, the perfect time to rest their feet.
Very soon, a small bowl of sticky rice dumpling was brought over, dainty and delicate. Jing Wan tasted one, her eyes slightly lighting up, genuinely not bad.
T/N: Bonus picture I found that sorta illustrates the difference in the process of how tangyuan and yuanxiao are made. Tangyuan, on the left, is made by wrapping the stuffing, kinda like when making normal dumplings, while yuanxiao, on the right, is made by rolling the filling in this special flour. Their cooking method is also different too. But if you ask me, they sorta end up the same way when cooked.
