Grand View Garden Survival Rules [Infinite] - Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Solving Lantern Riddles

Huainan Yue took the lead, with the others following closely behind. The five of them filed out of the gate, only to be met by a flash of white light. When they opened their eyes again, they were still standing in the exact same courtyard as before.

However, unlike before, the courtyard was now bustling with activity. Coarse-work maids were sweeping and sprinkling water, while older matrons stood to the side, waiting for orders.

…They were back.

The bell suddenly tolled. Huainan Yue listened intently; it struck eleven times.

It was already 11:00 AM.

Xiuju was nowhere to be seen, nor were any of the other high-ranking personal maids. They were likely frantic, busy dealing with Yingchun’s disappearance.

This damn instance is actually quite logical, Huainan Yue thought. The behavior of each NPC is a bit strange, but to a certain extent, it all follows a kind of common sense.

Since no one was hosting them, their degree of freedom had increased significantly. The two men suggested checking out other rooms, so Huainan Yue led Xue Xi and Rabbit toward the main house.

To their surprise, as soon as they entered the main house, they encountered Xiuju.

A red-eyed Xiuju.

The moment Xiuju saw the three of them, her gentle and refined posture evaporated instantly. She lunged forward, trying to grab Huainan Yue’s collar, but Huainan Yue dodged her with effortless grace.

Huainan Yue frowned almost imperceptibly. “What is the matter, Miss Xiuju?”

“Young Mistress! Give my mistress back to me!” Xiuju’s tears fell in large drops, her wailing as intense as if she were mourning a parent.

“Don’t panic yet,” Rabbit said from the side. “You said last night that the mistress had disappeared. What, you haven’t found her after an entire night?”

Xue Xi chimed in with her hands on her hips: “Exactly. It’s your business that you lost her. What’s the point of harassing our Sister Moon?”

Xiuju collapsed onto the edge of the bed, weeping and wiping her eyes. “My mistress was married off some time ago and only returned to her family home yesterday. She said she wanted some peace and quiet. We were busy arranging other matters outside and didn’t look into the room. Who knew that after half a day of silence, we would go in only to find her gone, even after turning the courtyard upside down?”

“It is absolutely impossible for the mistress to have run away. We had sisters guarding the outside every single moment, no one saw her leave.”

Huainan Yue leaned against the table with her arms crossed, her expression unreadable. Xue Xi glanced at her and prepared to argue further with Xiuju: “We are anxious about your mistress being lost too. But on what grounds do you say she is with us and demand we ‘return’ her?”

“Where else could she be?” Xiuju sobbed so hard she could barely speak. “Yesterday, you were the only outsiders in the courtyard. While I was distracted hosting you, she vanished. How do I know this wasn’t some diversionary tactic of yours to hide her away?”

“You failed to look after her yourself, and now you’re blaming us?” Xue Xi’s face was flushed from the argument. “If you ask me, your courtyard security is just lax. Any Tom, Dick, or Harry could sneak in. Who knows if they took her? Someone even came to our room in the middle of the night wanting to play Go with me!”

Xiuju froze, her tears stopping mid-flow. After a long pause, she spoke softly: “The person you mentioned… were their pupils much larger than a normal person’s?”

Xue Xi was also stunned and nodded like a chicken pecking at grain.

“That person really exists?! The mistress wasn’t just playing around!” Xiuju clutched her head. “A while ago, the mistress kept telling us that a guest had come to the house—someone with huge pupils who always wanted to play Go. I thought she was joking, but later I actually saw her sitting alone at the Go board, muttering to herself. If you said she was playing against herself, the board clearly only had black stones on it.”

Huainan Yue blinked, recalling the latter half of the diary.

I saw her. She is different from me; she is bright and must be first in everything. If you ask me, that’s not good—it’s so exhausting.

I have to leave. I don’t want to go. If only I were her, then I could be brave enough to fight for it.

…Did the “she” in the diary refer to this person?

However, she had no time to ponder further, because in the next second, the electronic voice rang out in everyone’s ears simultaneously.

Triggered Side Quest: Withstand Xiuju’s screaming attack for ten minutes

Success Reward: None

Failure Penalty: None

Quest Points: 30 total, distributed based on contribution

Huainan Yue: “…”

Rabbit and Xue Xi: “???”

No way, why do these unlucky missions just come out of nowhere?!

As the electronic voice faded, Xiuju abruptly began to scream.

Huainan Yue: “…”

What a beautiful mental state. Truly the mark of a seasoned laborer.

While Huainan Yue and her group were suffering, the two men had also stirred up quite a bit of trouble on their end.

After Huainan Yue and the other two had finally managed to dodge the “flying daggers” of Xiuju’s ten-minute sonic tantrum, they hurried to the other rooms. They found the two men sitting dejectedly in chairs, looking as miserable as if they were at a funeral.

“What happened to you two?” Xue Xi asked.

“Mission failed.”

“What mission?”

“Solving lantern riddles.”

“Were the riddles that hard?”

“That’s the problem!” one of the men suddenly became agitated. “It was an extremely common brain teaser. Something like, ‘Xiao Ming’s father has three children. The eldest is called Da Mao, the second is called Er Mao, what is the third one called?'”

“It’s Xiao Ming! You guys actually got that wrong?”

“Exactly! We answered ‘Xiao Ming.’ But then the system prompted that the mission failed.”

“…”

“Is this system sick?!”

Solving lantern riddles—the second event recorded in the diary:

Today Her Highness made lantern riddles. Of all the sisters, I was the only one who didn’t guess right. But that’s fine, I have never been clever at such things.

The group huddled together, discussing whether the system had misjudged them due to poor pronunciation, when the woman leaning lazily against the doorframe suddenly spoke up:

“Have you ever read Dream of the Red Chamber?”

One of the men said he had.

“In Dream of the Red Chamber, when the Imperial Consort made the riddles, did Yingchun get them right?”

The man’s eyes widened. After a long silence, he stammered out: “So that’s how it is.”

This was Yingchun’s instance; they had to follow Yingchun’s behavioral logic. Since Yingchun didn’t solve the riddles, they naturally weren’t supposed to get them right either.

…The instance wasn’t so moronic as to give them such a simple question just to hand out free points.

“What were the exact words of the mission?” Huainan Yue asked.

The man thought hard. “It just said to ‘play’ the lantern riddle game. It really didn’t say we had to get them right.”

“So…” Huainan Yue reached out and tapped the table twice. “In the future, watch out for these traps.”

The man nodded frantically and then asked, “What do we do now?”

“What’s the penalty for failing?” Huainan Yue’s voice was steady, her articulation light.

“It said the penalty for us two is that we can’t sleep tonight…” The man’s voice trailed off, trembling slightly. “Last night Xue Xi wasn’t sleeping deeply and ran into an NPC. Are we going to encounter those things tonight too?”

Huainan Yue thought for a moment and said cryptically, “If it’s just that, it’s actually manageable.”

The two men: “…”

Wait, coming face-to-face with a ghost is called ‘manageable’? Then what counts as ‘not manageable’?

The two men closed their eyes and slumped in their chairs, suddenly losing the will to live.

Losing the will to live was one thing, but at least they weren’t dead yet. The two men stood up, and suddenly remembering something, they said to Xue Xi with some apology: “The NPC we saw just now had very large pupils. From the description, she sounded a lot like the one you met last night. We wanted to help you catch her, but…”

But they were simply too scared.

Xue Xi waved her hand to show she understood, then asked: “Where did the NPC go?”

“She appeared and disappeared suddenly.” Both men shook their heads, saying they didn’t know.

Xue Xi looked like a wilted bitter melon, but out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Huainan Yue was lost in thought. She was still standing by the door, seemingly present yet distant, the light from outside outlining her silhouette.

Xue Xi wanted to ask what she was thinking but didn’t dare disturb her. In her impression, Huainan Yue had always been like this. When she spoke, she seemed easy to trust, but once her expression faded, she revealed a coldness that kept people at a distance. The person was the same, the expression was the same, yet it felt like everything had changed.

Xue Xi wanted to say “Let’s go look in other rooms,” the words ready on the tip of her tongue, when she saw Huainan Yue tap the table again.

After drawing everyone’s attention, she said unhurriedly: “I know how to find her.”

In the diary, the first event was threading flower-chains, the second was lantern riddles, and the third was:

Today Third Sister started a poetry club and invited the sisters to join. I don’t care for poetry and can’t write it well, but I didn’t want to dampen Third Sister’s spirits, so I went. I was given the task of setting the rhymes; it was quite interesting.

Participating in a poetry club. A poetry club needs someone to start it.

Huainan Yue went to the main house to get a brush and paper. She formally wrote out an invitation:

“I often think of the sages and scholars of old, who established poetry forums to meet friends, occasionally creating beautiful legends. Though I lack talent, I admire such pursuits today and wish to host a banquet for poets in the manner of the ancients. If you have the leisure, may I have the honor of your presence?”

As the question mark was finalized, a gust of wind rose from the floor of the room, making the window frames bang twice. Huainan Yue put down the brush, placed the invitation on the round table, stepped back three paces, and squinted.

It worked.

Xue Xi stared nervously at the wooden table where the invitation lay, her heart nearly jumping out of her throat. In the next second, a slightly familiar electronic voice rang in her ear.

“Congratulations, mission complete”

“Points +5, Your current points: 20”

She almost jumped up in excitement. At the same time, the voice also rang for Huainan Yue—.

“Assisted a companion in completing a mission”

“Points +15, Your current points: 105”

The NPC manifested in the wind, spinning once on the spot. Huainan Yue saw the NPC’s face clearly for the first time: oversized pupils and skin as white as snow.

The NPC picked up the invitation and read it carefully, smiling as she said, “I have never been well-versed in poetry and lyrics; why invite me?”

Huainan Yue: “Since you have come, Sister, it means you are willing to join the club. Whatever you wish to do is entirely up to you. If you do not wish to write poetry, you can set the themes and rhymes to test us. That would be a delightful pursuit as well.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the electronic voice haunted them once more.

Triggered Side Quest: Compose Poetry

Success Reward: *’s Affection

Failure Reward: *’s Disgust

Quest Points: 100 total, distributed based on contribution