Farmhouse Green Plum

Chapter 314 The Hardest

The students of Qingshui County swept away their previous shame and depression and became excited. Shen Jing walked to Yuan Qing and patted him on the shoulder. "Hey, I didn't expect you to be good at guessing lantern riddles!"

No matter how simple the riddles were before, Yuan Qing didn't move his feet at all. Shen Jing thought he was not good at this.

"That's right, Brother Yuan, you really are a hidden talent! You are good at writing contemporary essays, and you can guess lantern riddles with ease as well!" A classmate from Jiahu Academy praised him.

A student from Qingshui Academy shook his head and said, "Brother, what you said is wrong. To write a good essay, you need not only careful thinking, but also quick thinking. This lantern riddle test is a flexible thinking. Brother Yuan has such quick thinking. He will definitely be on the list when he takes the college entrance examination in the future!"

Yuan Qing smiled and said modestly, "Thank you for your praise, brother. It was just a blind cat catching a dead mouse, and I just happened to guess it right."

"Brother Yuan is too modest..."

Seeing that the students from Qingshui County were about to praise Yuan Qing to the sky, Mr. Wu from Mindi on the right snorted with disdain.

When Shen Yonghui heard this, he immediately mocked him, "Tsk tsk, they say that when a man has been away for three days, he should be treated with new eyes. Wu Mingzhi, why are you still so impatient?"

"Why are you showing off? It's just a tie. Look how proud you are, as if you have already won." Wu Mingzhi rolled his eyes unceremoniously, "Besides, it wasn't you who guessed it, so why are you so proud?"

Obviously, the two knew each other before. Song Ying was a little curious. Weren't these five people said to be scholars from Min? How did Shen Yonghui know them?

Could it be that Wu Mingzhi, like Shen Yonghui, had lived in the capital before? Then his family must also be a family of officials.

Shen Yonghui sneered and simply stopped arguing with him. He looked at the owner of Jin Manlou and said, "The winner has not been decided yet. Keep guessing."

Hearing this, the waiter next to him looked anxious, leaned close to the ear of the owner of Jin Manlou, and whispered a few words.

The owner of Jin Man Lou nodded and said loudly: "Everyone, you have guessed all the riddles here. Now there is only the most difficult one left. Do you want to continue?"

As he spoke, he glanced at the students from Qingshui County on his left with some concern, and it was obvious that he was not optimistic about them.

The students from Qingshui County were also feeling guilty. The previous riddle had already stumped them. Could Yuan Qing guess this most difficult one?

Wu Mingzhi said arrogantly, "Of course!"

Shen Yonghui was the grandson of Shen Zhuangyuan, the leader of the local officials' children, and had a feud with Wu Mingzhi when he was in the capital. Naturally, he could not back down at this time. He gritted his teeth and said, "Continue."

The owner of Jin Man Lou was worried and said again: "My father got this riddle by chance and never figured it out, so even I don't know the answer. My father took out the ancient zither Luqi as a prize to get the answer."

Someone in the audience suddenly realized, "It turned out to be that riddle."

"Which riddle is it?"

"Auntie, this is your first time to guess lantern riddles this year, right? We have two particularly difficult lantern riddles in Qingshui County that no one has been able to guess for several years. One is the riddle of the Wanyan Luo Lantern that Mr. Zhang from Jinyi Pavilion brought back from Suzhou and Hangzhou, and the other is the riddle of Jin Manlou. Mr. Jin even took out his precious ancient guqin, which attracted countless scholars to guess. Unfortunately, no one has guessed it yet."

Thousand-eyed lantern?

Song Ying looked at the lantern hanging on the branch in front of him. It turned out that the lantern was called Wanyanluo. Why did it have this name?

Not only was she curious, but Luo Yanxing and others were also very curious, and they thought that this lantern would be called something like Pavilion or Pavilion.

The people below completely ignored the light of Mr. Zhang, the boss of Jinyi Pavilion, and their attention was all on the latter one.

"Is it so difficult?" The lady who asked the question was surprised, and other people also became curious about what kind of riddle could stump so many literati in Qingshui County.

Many of the Qingshui County students on the stage knew about this incident and also knew the riddle, and they all looked puzzled.

Shen Yonghui was not in Qingshui County during the Lantern Festival last year and did not know the riddle. But when he listened to the discussions of the people below the stage and saw the retreat on the faces of his local classmates, his heart began to beat.

Seeing his expression, Wu Mingzhi on the opposite side immediately laughed at him: "You are not scared, are you?"

"Afraid?" Shen Yonghui immediately threw away the fear in his heart, as if he had heard a joke, "There is no such word in my dictionary!"

Wu Mingzhi smiled triumphantly and looked at the owner of Jin Man Lou in the middle, "They accept the challenge, read the riddle."

Seeing this, everyone could see what was going on. His words just now were just provocation. The students from Qingshui County were so upset that they were worried that the other side would guess the riddle and win the competition. But they could not blame Shen Yonghui for falling into the opponent's trap, because in the current situation, they had no choice but to continue.

Finally, all the students could only place their hopes on Yuan Qing and encouraged him: "Brother Yuan, it's up to you."

"Brother Yuan, don't be nervous, you can do it..."

Although everyone was cheering Yuan Qing on, in fact, few people believed that Yuan Qing could really guess it, so they prayed in their hearts that the other side could not guess it either, so that it would be a draw.

Min was a place with a flourishing literary culture, and there were five scholars on the opposite side. For those of them who had not yet passed the imperial examinations to fight them to a draw, it would not be considered a disgrace to Qingshui County.

At this point, even if the owner of Jin Man Lou wanted to help the students of this county, he had no way to do so. He could only say, "The riddle is a young woman with yellow silk and a grandson with a mortar. Guess the answer in four words."

Song Ying was confused. Not to mention guessing the riddle, she couldn't even be sure of the specific words in the riddle just by listening to the sound. It sounded like a few words pieced together, with no special meaning.

The owner of Jin Manlou obviously knew that it was difficult to determine the words in this riddle. After he finished speaking, he pulled out a piece of paper with large words on it from his sleeve and showed it to both sides first, and finally did not forget to show it to the people in the audience.

The words on the paper were written in large letters. Song Ying and the others could see them clearly from the tree. Luo Yanxing exclaimed, "It turns out that these two characters are the same as 齑臼! I was wondering which part of the chicken 鸡旧 is. Hey, what does the word 齑 mean?"

Not only did she not recognize it, but Erni and others, including Lin Wenxuan, did not recognize it either. It was obvious that this was an uncommon character.

Song Ying thought for a moment and replied, "It is a kind of seasoning, made from crushed ginger, garlic, leeks, etc. A mortar is a container for this seasoning."

"Wow, Song Ying, you even know this word!" Luo Yanxing and others were very surprised. In their opinion, although Song Ying knew a lot of words, she shouldn't know more than Lin Wenxuan, who had known words for a long time. They didn't expect that she knew the words that Lin Wenxuan didn't know!

Song Yuan was even more surprised. As far as he knew, his sister Song Ying learned calligraphy from him. His sister had a good memory, so it was normal for her to remember what he had forgotten. But how could he remember that he had never learned this character?