The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 1039 - 1018: Mid-Autumn

Chapter 1039: Chapter 1018: Mid-Autumn

Four people came together and followed the crowd forward. After a while, they were finally able to closely admire the lanterns hanging on both sides and the various lantern carts slowly turning along the road.

This was the capital, even more bustling than Yizhou City. Not only were Bai Shan and the other two young ones captivated, but even Bai Dalang was drawn in by the liveliness.

Acrobatics, lanterns, all sorts of strange toys and forms of entertainment they had never seen before—many were brand new to them.

They thought they wouldn’t see much just on this street, but little did they know that just wandering this street took them more than an hour.

By the time they finally came back to where they started, their hands were filled with several lanterns, all won from solving riddles, except for Bai Dalang who couldn’t resist buying a palace lantern he particularly liked.

Regarding this, Manbao, Bai Shan, and Bai Erlang were quite disdainful in their hearts. These lanterns wouldn’t last until next year; they were just a novelty.

Winning them and hanging them up at home for a couple of days before eventually throwing them away, spending so much money on lanterns seemed very uneconomical.

Manbao didn’t realize that her attitude towards spending money was increasingly aligning with that of Old Zhou, and neither Bai Shan nor Bai Erlang realized that their views were nearly identical to Manbao’s.

Perhaps the only one who was aware was Daji, but what could he say?

He actually thought this kind of mindset wasn’t bad.

It’s better for the masters to be frugal than to spend money recklessly, right?

The group, carrying a pile of lanterns, returned home and each found a good spot under the eaves to hang their own lanterns.

Bai Shan and Manbao had the most lanterns. These two, for some reason, loved solving riddles. They even gave away quite a few along the way, and almost all they brought home were lanterns they really liked.

Now, having hung them all under their eaves, Manbao ran to the yard, found a suitable branch after gesturing, and felt the position was quite good, so she asked the tallest, Daji, to help hang them.

Of course, Daji couldn’t reach even with his hands raised, so he found a tall stool to use.

Seeing this, Bai Shan also started looking for a good spot around the tree. Bai Erlang glanced at the mere three lanterns he had, reached up, took them down from the eaves, and also asked Daji to hang them up.

Bai Dalang looked left and right, then particularly glanced down at the palace lantern in his hand and ultimately couldn’t bring himself to just hang it on the tree. So, with a wave of his hand, he turned and left.

He would go back to his own courtyard; for some reason, seeing the three of them always made him feel suffocated.

Mr. Zhuang stood smiling under the corridor, watching their antics. Once they had finished hanging the lanterns, he finally ceased the excitement, saying, "It’s getting late. Although there’s no school tomorrow, don’t sleep too late either."

The three of them responded and, after paying their respects, went to wash up and sleep.

Since they went to bed late after having so much fun and a lot of experiences, all three children ended up waking up late.

Manbao only woke up from her beautiful dream when Zhou Lijun pushed the door open. She rubbed her eyes and glanced at the window, which was closed, but the sunlight could not be kept out.

Zhou Lijun, hearing some movement behind the screen, said, "Little Miss, haven’t you gotten up yet?"

Manbao stretched lazily and responded, asking, "You didn’t come back last night; did you stay at the shop?"

"Yes, there were so many people last night," Zhou Lijun said happily, yawning and chattering, "You wouldn’t believe it. The outer city was bustling, people crowding together. Before it even got dark, some packed our place for a family reunion dinner. There were those who dined and drank wine on the second floor while enjoying the lanterns after dark, and even those who came in to eat because they were hungry from wandering around. We had already prepared a lot of ingredients in advance, fearing that prices might go up during the festival. We had even extra stored vegetables that could be preserved, and who knew we would use them all up last night."

Manbao, putting on her clothes, came out and asked, "That must have been very tiring, right?"

"If it makes money, I don’t mind being this tired every day."

"What time is it now?"

"It’s almost lunchtime."

Manbao exclaimed, "I slept that late?"

Lijun smiled and asked, "Little aunt, didn’t you feel your stomach rumbling?"

Manbao then touched her stomach, quieted down, and listened carefully before shaking her head, "No, it isn’t."

She then asked, "Why are you back at this time, isn’t it the busiest during lunchtime?"

"Sixth Uncle used up all the ingredients, they only managed to serve breakfast this morning. Fifth Uncle saw we were all exhausted from working all night, and since there weren’t many people on the streets now, he said we didn’t need to sell at noon; we could wait until dinner. He’s gone out to buy ingredients now," Lijun explained. "If I didn’t need to settle the accounts from yesterday and this morning, I would’ve come back earlier too."

Seeing her yawning, with dark circles under her eyes, Manbao waved her hand, "Then go get some sleep. I’m up now; the house will quiet down, and you can sleep better."

Lijun nodded, but she didn’t really mind having her little aunt around since she was so sleepy she fell asleep as soon as she hit the bed.

Manbao tiptoed to change her clothes and went out to wash up, and Bai Shan was just getting up too.

After they washed up, Aunt Rong gave them each a bowl of hot porridge and said, "Eat this to tide you over; lunch will be ready soon."

They nodded, didn’t even sit at the table, and simply held their bowls on the steps, gently scraping at the meat porridge while letting the mid-autumn sun shine on their legs.

They both started to feel sleepy again.

After leisurely finishing their porridge, they were too lazy to move, just comfortably sitting on the steps, spacing out in silence.

Not far off, Bai Erlang, holding his stomach, came out, smelled the fragrant air, and seeing their empty bowls, frowned and asked, "Why didn’t you call me for breakfast?"

Manbao, pulled back to the moment, shifted her gaze to Bai Erlang and said, "I thought you’d prefer to sleep."

Bai Shan nodded, "After all, we want to sleep again now, so we thought you would too."

Bai Erlang: "..."

Seeing his speechless stare, Manbao said, "It’s almost time for lunch; aren’t you going to wash up if you want to eat?"

Bai Shan said, "While we were washing up earlier, the teacher went to the garden with a book, saying out of sight, out of mind. You better hurry and wash up, or the teacher will be back and It’ll annoy him seeing you start washing up so late."

Manbao warned, "Be careful or the teacher might punish you to copy books."

Bai Erlang turned around and went inside to get a basin. Although he didn’t want to yield to their threats, he was genuinely afraid—he still had a book and a half of the "Book of Rites" left to complete.

Bai Erlang sighed heavily.

After he had washed up, Aunt Rong, true to form, brought him a bowl of meat porridge.

Bai Er simply sat next to them with his bowl of porridge and said while eating, "I still have to copy ’Book of Rites,’ it’s homework assigned by the school, Manbao, can you help me?"

"The teacher will punish if he finds out."

"You don’t tell, I don’t tell, Bai Shan doesn’t tell, who would know?"

Manbao and Bai Shan simultaneously turned to look at Daji, who was basking in the sun nearby.

Daji met their gaze and quietly turned around, giving them his back.