The Big Landlord - Chapter 108.1 – Lantern Festival Carnival

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.

Support the translator. Read this on vmnovels (dot) com

“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.