Transmigrated into the Scumbag Ex-Wife of the Prime Minister - Chapter 44

“Orange light falls diagonally from above, landing on Qi Zhenshu’s slightly protruding brow ridge. Her eyes, hidden in shadow, are deep and fathomless.

Meeting her gaze for a moment, Lu Sheng felt as if Qi Zhenshu was somewhat displeased.

But before she could dwell on the reason, she heard her ask: “What are you thinking about?”

Her voice was still faint, but the end of the sound rose slightly, carrying a hint of tenderness that was usually absent.

“No, nothing.”

Like a gentle breeze caressing her ear, Lu Sheng’s heart trembled, and she felt a sense of helplessness. She dared not meet her gaze again, only stared blankly down at their overlapped hands.

However, this movement took on a different meaning in Qi Zhenshu’s eyes. She lowered her brows, then turned her palm, sliding her long fingers into Lu Sheng’s palm, clasping her hand.

A warm sensation came from her palm, continuously transmitting to her heart, becoming increasingly hot.

In a flash, her heart was like boiling water, bubbling and steaming. Lu Sheng’s mind had crashed.

Neither the feeling of melancholy at not being as good as Princess Changning, nor the slight displeasure she had just sensed, were all cast to the winds.

Her whole mind and sight were filled only with the slender, fair hand before her.

“There are many people here; don’t get lost.” Her tone was calm and composed, a gentle admonition as if she had said it countless times before.

“Oh.”

Lu Sheng secretly took a deep breath, and the rationality gradually dispersed by the heat slowly returned.

Qi Zhenshu reminded her, “Didn’t you want that Golden Chrysanthemum lantern? Why are you standing here in a daze?”

“You guessed the riddle?” Lu Sheng asked in surprise, her attention completely returning to the lantern riddle.

“Mm.” Qi Zhenshu nodded to her, then gave a slight nod to Princess Changning.

Taking in their actions, Princess Changning said in an elegant tone, “Please proceed.”

“Let’s go.”

Qi Zhenshu turned and led Lu Sheng away. Lu Sheng hastily turned sideways to nod goodbye to Princess Changning.

“What was the riddle’s answer?” Lu Sheng asked curiously.

There wasn’t a single word on that lantern; how did Qi Zhenshu guess the answer?

The young girl was slightly turned, her head tilted gently, her pair of dark, round eyes full of curiosity. The fringe on her forehead swept to one side, making her look particularly charming and lovely, remarkably similar to the other sweet little dumpling at home.

A ripple of gentle light appeared in her deep eyes. Qi Zhenshu raised her eyebrow slightly and spoke, reminding her.

“There was one extra thing on the lantern.”

“One extra thing?” Lu Sheng murmured, repeating the phrase. Then, her eyes lit up, and she suppressed her excitement, whispering, “It’s the butterfly.”

A curve spread across her lips. Qi Zhenshu nodded, “Exactly.”

Solving lantern riddles all the way, they went back and forth in Kangding Ward, basically covering all the streets within the ward.

These problems ranged from the initial character dissection and deciphering pictures, to later ones involving poetry, star and constellation deduction, historical allusions, and agricultural seasons. It was simply a case of everything from astronomy to geography.

Anyone who knew would know they were solving lantern riddles; those who didn’t would think they were participating in some kind of all-around talent selection.

Lu Sheng also went from being initially full of enthusiasm to eventually just looking expectantly at Qi Zhenshu after seeing a lantern, even sneaking off to buy a box of milk-flavored jujube paste cakes from a street vendor.

She decided that she would never participate in a lantern riddle event with Qi Zhenshu again.

Qi Zhenshu had answered all the questions; she hadn’t helped at all.

This would make her seem very stupid!

Lu Sheng chewed angrily on the milk-flavored jujube paste cake in her mouth.

The two came to the ninth lantern. This was an ordinary round lantern, with no picture on it, only two short lines of text.

“Now there are pheasants and rabbits in the same cage. There are thirty-eight heads above, and one hundred and fourteen feet below. How many pheasants and how many rabbits are there?”

The moment she saw the question, Lu Sheng immediately widened her eyes, quickly turned around, and covered Qi Zhenshu’s eyes with her hand, excitedly saying, “I know this one, I know this one, let me answer, let me answer.”

Before her eyes was a hazy red light, and on her eyelids was a soft, warm touch. A sweet, soft, milky scent lingered at her nose. Qi Zhenshu stopped abruptly.

The voice beside her ear was crisp like a silver bell, the joyful excitement mixed with a sweet, soft delicacy that made it impossible to refuse.

“Alright.” Slowly lowering the hand she had raised, Qi Zhenshu obediently closed her eyes and said softly, “I won’t look then.”

“Mm, mm.” Lu Sheng happily agreed, and before taking her hand away, she admonished her again, “You just watch, I’ll do the calculation, okay.”

Her tone was seriously funny.

“I know.” Qi Zhenshu responded gently.

Having received her affirmation, Lu Sheng let go of her hand, turned her head, and looked seriously at the question on the lantern.

The ‘chicken and rabbit in a cage’ problem wasn’t difficult using a system of two linear equations, but without scratch paper, Lu Sheng could only use one hand as paper and the other to gesture calculations on it. When she encountered difficult multiplication or division, her delicate eyebrows would furrow and knit together, looking very spirited and lively.

After reading the question once, Qi Zhenshu had been quietly watching her, a faint smile unconsciously gracing her lips.

“I’ve figured it out!”

Lu Sheng excitedly told her, “It’s nineteen; nineteen of each.”

Qi Zhenshu deliberately pondered for a moment before slowly nodding, agreeing, “It is nineteen.”

“Hmm, I knew I could do this one.” Lu Sheng’s brows raised high, her tone filled with a triumphant cheerfulness.

Her bright eyes curved into little crescent moons, her smile pure and clear, like a child’s.

Qi Zhenshu was infected by her, and couldn’t help but curve her own brows into a smile.

A beauty like jade, with just a slight smile, was like a quietly blooming immortal plant, brilliant and dazzling.

Lu Sheng was momentarily stunned by the sight.

The two stood facing each other, and everything around them seemed to cease to exist.

“Sister Sheng, you’re here?”

Miao Fang’s hearty voice broke the isolated tranquility between the two, completely unaware of the disruption.

“This question is just too hard. We guessed for ages, finally managed to get ten questions right, and then guess what happened?” Miao Fang walked over to the two, a look of frustration and deep regret on her face, complaining candidly.

Miao Fang had followed the main group for the excitement. The group had walked and guessed along the way, following the instructions to solve ten riddles.

Among their group, two leaders had excitedly rushed off to find the young master of Xianlin Villa. They almost came to blows fighting for the first place.”

“But the young master casually said that not a single one of the ten questions was answered correctly.” Miao Fang shook his head, completely bewildered. “I thought they were all right, so why were they wrong?”

Having finally finished his own rambling, he turned to Qi Zhenshu, who was standing nearby: “Scholar Qi, you know a lot. Have you guessed anything?”

Qi Zhenshu looked at him and said plainly, “Guessed some.”

“Eh?” Miao Fang was confused. He glanced at the chicken and rabbit in a cage lantern and puzzled, “How many did you guess? How did you get to this lantern? We seemed to have missed…”

As he was speaking, Princess Changning also walked up to the three of them. Miao Fang quickly hushed and greeted her. Princess Changning gave a slight nod and walked towards the lantern.

Seeing her movement, Lu Sheng remembered the main task. She quickly tugged at Qi Zhenshu’s sleeve and whispered, “We still have one more lantern.”

Qi Zhenshu nodded, signaling for her to walk towards the exit. Seeing the two walk away, Miao Fang also quickly followed.

“What does this ‘nineteen’ mean? Is it the nineteenth lantern counting from the entrance?” Lu Sheng looked at the haphazardly hung lanterns on the street, puzzled. “But there are lanterns everywhere, front, back, left, and right. They’re not hung in any order; I can’t tell which one is the nineteenth.”

This was the first number they had encountered in their puzzle-solving.

Qi Zhenshu was about to explain, but then she looked up and saw the number she was looking for, so she changed her words: “We’re here.”

Lu Sheng looked up and saw the number 19 painted on the house by the roadside in Kangding Ward, and a lantern with various chrysanthemums painted on it was hanging in front of its gate. In the upper right corner of the lantern were only two characters: Wú Tí (無題, ‘No Title’).

“What is this? It doesn’t even look like a lantern, it doesn’t have a riddle face.” Miao Fang wondered, “Did you perhaps guess wrong too?”

Seeing this lantern, Qi Zhenshu was temporarily stumped as well.

Could this ‘nineteen’ not be a house number? But apart from the house number, there were no other objects related to numbers in this Kangding Ward.

While she was thinking, Princess Changning also walked over. She glanced at the chrysanthemum lantern and smiled faintly: “It seems this is the last one.”

Hearing her say this, Qi Zhenshu no longer doubted if she had solved the previous questions incorrectly and focused on guessing the answer to this riddle.

“Wú Tí (‘No Title’).” Princess Changning murmured, her brow furrowed, also not quite understanding its meaning.

The moment her voice fell, a thought suddenly flashed through Lu Sheng’s mind, and she remembered an answer.

Lu Sheng pulled Qi Zhenshu’s sleeve, leaned into her ear, and whispered, “Wú Tí (‘No Title’), does it mean there is no question, and thus, there is no tenth question?”

Qi Zhenshu suddenly looked at her and agreed, “That must be it.”

“Eh? Really?” Lu Sheng said in disbelief.

She had only thought of it suddenly and said it casually, not expecting it to actually be the answer.

This riddle was indeed full of traps.

There were ten questions in total. The first nine required people to diligently analyze and deduce, but the last one was so straightforward that the answer was written directly on the riddle face.

Lu Sheng thought that people who could guess all the first nine questions would never guess the tenth question to be so simple, and people who could guess the tenth question directly probably wouldn’t have the complexity of mind to guess all the first nine questions.

The former were people like Qi Zhenshu and Princess Changning, and the latter was her.

Princess Changning had not initially thought of this answer either, but through their conversation, she had figured it out.

She turned to look at the bright lanterns lining the street, secretly musing that the young master of Xianlin Villa might not be as much of a rake as he appeared on the surface.

Having guessed the final answer, Lu Sheng happily pulled Qi Zhenshu to the foot of the elevated platform. At this time, a long rectangular table had been set up beneath the platform, with paper and brushes placed on it for people to write.

People came and went before the long table, some writing furiously, some confidently holding the written slips of paper, and others gloomily holding slips and checking them repeatedly.

Qi Zhenshu wrote the answers to the nine questions, confirmed they were correct, and handed them to the page boy for verification.

The page boy checked them one by one, his expression suddenly changing. He looked at Qi Zhenshu in astonishment, then hurriedly ran towards the entrance.

At the entrance, there was a square Eight Immortals small table, with a pot of chrysanthemum tea and several plates of pastries on it. The young master of Xianlin Villa was leisurely eating tea and snacks while leaning on a rocking chair next to the small table.

He had intentionally used a trick for the very first question this year, and each subsequent question had been meticulously pieced together from various classics, requiring a great deal of thought to assemble the ten riddles.

He figured it would take at least two or three shichen (four to six hours) before anyone could guess the riddles.

Unexpectedly, in less than an shichen, the page boy hurriedly ran over with a slip of paper filled with the correct answers.

The young master was greatly surprised. Following the page boy’s gesture, he saw a woman dressed in white, with a delicate and beautiful appearance.

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