Red Mansion: Picking up a Lin Daiyu

Chapter 366 Why do you want to die on your birthday?
Accompanied by the sound of stringed instruments, the maids danced gracefully on the newly laid carpet and set up their movements.

Soon, Lin Daiyu discovered that the plays sung by the little girls this time were very different from usual.

There was not much fun in the boudoir in the past, so every now and then a small opera troupe would be invited to sing in the room to relieve boredom. Lin Daiyu also accompanied the two concubines to watch many operas.

The small troupe is mostly good at Kunqu Opera, most of which are taken from historical allusions or plays written by famous writers. However, today's plays seem to be arranged by themselves and have no original source.

The first scene is about two maids, Lingguan and Ruiguan. One of them is dressed as a rich girl, and the other is dressed as a maid accompanying her. They seem to be wading across the river, and then they encounter a thief played by another maid and are in danger.

At this time, a man appeared and protected the two little girls behind him. They put on a good fight scene, which immediately attracted the attention of all the girls in the courtyard.

The plays that were sung before were either about love or about the sorrows of spring and autumn. It was the first time for me to listen to such a lively play in the room, so the feeling was naturally different.

Then, in the second scene, the two women were rescued by the strong man and came to another place, where they had an argument with someone. It was again the strong man who stepped forward and protected the two women.

Next, the two of them lived together with the strong man and seemed to be living together.

The song is about walking through the streets and alleys, traveling around the mountains and rivers, and the tune is very cheerful.

Until this moment, Xueyan was surprised and said, "Why does this story look so familiar? It seems, it seems to be singing about the days that the young lady and I lived after meeting the Marquis."

"Next, it's time to head south to Cangzhou. The girl and the marquis are riding horses in the fields..."

Lin Daiyu was of course much smarter than Xueyan and had already noticed the unusualness of this play.

However, I never expected that these little girls would turn these stories into plays.

Thinking about it carefully, I met these girls when I was in Suzhou. There is no need to think too much about who planned this. It must be Yue Ling.

"It turns out that Brother Yue has been in the room for a long time. I thought he had forgotten about it."

Lin Daiyu let out a sigh of relief, feeling a lot more relaxed. She even began to look for Yue Ling on the stage, wondering if Yue Ling was hiding inside.

However, the one who played "Yue Ling" was obviously a maid, and did not have a tall and handsome figure like Yue Ling, which made Lin Daiyu a little confused.

"If he's not on the stage, where would Brother Yue be?"

At this moment, Lin Daiyu was still watching the music with great interest, reminiscing about the old days, and had not thought about what would happen next.

The other girls were also watching with great interest, as if they were watching the same path Lin Daiyu took.

A peaceful atmosphere permeated the courtyard. The girls were talking and laughing, all in high spirits.

Until Lingguan suddenly stood on tiptoe and kissed the maid who played the warrior, and the two of them danced on the stage with great affection.

Ruizhu asked Xueyan, who had just spoken, in a daze, "Miss Lin and the master are in the room, is that right?"

Xueyan spread her hands and said, "I wasn't in the room, how would I know..."

The eyes of the girls could not help but focus on Lin Daiyu, whose cheeks instantly turned red. She quickly raised her sleeves to cover her eyes and said, "Just watch the show. Why are you looking at me? Brother Yue and I have never been so abrupt before."

Of course, Lin Daiyu had never been so proactive before. She only did that once when they parted in Cangzhou. It can be said that the arranger was making it up.

But the corners of Xue Baochai's mouth curled up slightly, and she smiled without saying a word.

Qin Keqing seemed to understand something when she saw Xue Baochai's reaction. She also laughed and said with envy, "Sister Lin is so innocent. She hasn't even taken the last step with the master yet? I thought they had already gotten married on the Lantern Festival."

"No wonder the master took out all his anger on me that day."

Thinking of this, Qin Keqing couldn't help but rub her lower back.

When the song was finished and the instruments stopped, the girls thought that the story was over, because what followed was the story of Suzhou's Canglang Garden.

By then, everyone had already met each other, and everything was no longer a secret.

But suddenly, the stringed instruments started playing again, this time with a more cheerful tune. Lingguan was wearing a red dress, as if she was acting out a wedding scene.

This made the young girls who had never been married blush and their hearts beat faster.

Lin Daiyu, who was surrounded in the middle, stared with a pair of affectionate eyes, taking in everything.

On the stage, Lingguan and her partner sang love lyrics to each other, drank wedding wine, looked into each other's eyes with affection, and the charming atmosphere was so real that it made people even more imaginative.

All the girls couldn't help but think about what the scene would be like when that day came.

Lin Daiyu was even more empathetic. Her eyes fell on Lingguan's red dress and she began to daydream.

Lingguan's features and figure were somewhat similar to hers, which made it easier for Lin Daiyu to make the association.

The two were still singing touching love words at this moment, "Yu'er, I will take care of you for the rest of my life..."

Lin Daiyu suddenly woke up, jumped up, blushed with embarrassment, went on stage and pulled the two apart, saying, "Stop, stop, stop, don't go on. I think you are deliberately harboring bad intentions and want the sisters to laugh at me!"

As expected, all the girls in the troupe started laughing. After they separated, they saw a long table at the door. Behind the table was Yue Ling, painting. He finally drew a pair of eyes, and the painting was complete.

After blowing away the ink, Yue Ling took down the painting and presented it to Lin Daiyu.

Every step Yingying took seemed to touch Lin Daiyu's heart. Her heartbeat quickened and she didn't know whether to look at the painting or at Yue Ling.

The girls covered their mouths in surprise. They didn't expect the Marquis to be so versatile and even good at painting. What's more, his paintings were really good. He portrayed Lin Daiyu exactly, even the blush on her cheeks was not omitted, which made Lin Daiyu in the painting more cute.

Everyone knows how to draw people. But if the person is not present and one can only draw based on memory, how difficult it is.

This also indirectly shows how deep Lin Daiyu's impression is in Yue Ling's mind.

Lin Daiyu understood this principle better. Her eyes were filled with tears and her heart trembled.

Seeing Lin Daiyu's surprised expression, the other girls were filled with envy.

Standing in front of Lin Daiyu, Yue Ling smiled and said, "I've been thinking about preparing some birthday gifts for Sister Lin, but I feel that the things I bought are not as thoughtful as the ones I prepared myself."

"I just finished this painting in the past few days. It was when Sister Lin and I were studying together in the past. Sister Lin taught me the painting skills. I have not forgotten them now."

"After finishing this painting, I was troubled about how to draw Sister Lin's eyes. People often say that the finishing touch is the finishing touch, and this is also true for figure paintings. Sister Lin is depicted in my heart, and even if she is not in front of me, I can still sketch her stroke by stroke."

"It was just this pair of eyes that I had never been able to paint. So I discussed it with the girls in the troupe and came up with a made-up story to capture the tenderness of Lin Daiyu at that moment, and created this painting."

"Flowers have their blooming seasons, people have their time. At this moment, Lin Daiyu is so beautiful that it is beyond measure. I have recorded this. When we look through it later, it is also a memorial."

"The daisy on the bedside leaves its beauty, and I leave the beauty of Lin Daiyu."

Yue Ling's words made Lin Daiyu blush and her heart beat faster, and the atmosphere in the field reached its peak at this moment.

Amid the cheers of the crowd, Lin Daiyu did not take the painting first, but hugged Yue Ling tightly in her arms. The laughter of the women rose and fell, and the small opera troupe began to play again, serving as a foil for the two of them...

……

After the fun, everyone returned to the room for a feast.

The blush on Lin Daiyu's face had not yet faded, and she lowered her head without saying a word.

Unexpectedly, under Yue Ling's passionate confession and everyone's encouragement, Lin Daiyu did such a bold thing and got close to Yue Ling in front of all the girls.

The only thing missing was a kiss in front of everyone.

But even if there was no kiss, it was already too unrestrained for Lin Daiyu.

Normally, she was self-reliant and taught other girls a lesson. Now, it became the most vivid demonstration.

Lin Daiyu really didn't know how to teach them in the future.

At this moment, Lin Daiyu was extremely happy. Turning her head to look at Yue Ling who was treating everyone to food and drinks, Lin Daiyu felt relieved and thought to herself, "From Yangzhou to the capital, and then to Suzhou, I didn't expect that eight years have passed in the blink of an eye."

"In the past eight years, I have experienced all kinds of things with Brother Yue that I never thought of in my old boudoir. They are so exciting that they can be turned into a piece of opera."

"Indeed, Brother Yue is the one sent by God to save me. Mother also answered me in the same way..."

Thinking secretly, Lin Daiyu tentatively reached her hand under the table, trying to hold Yue Ling's hand.

She didn't know what she was thinking at the moment, she just wanted the two of them to be closer. Even though she was in public, Lin Daiyu wanted to hold his hand.

She only stretched out her hand halfway, then looked up at the people at the table. Except for Xueyan, they rarely took their eyes off her, the protagonist of the birthday party, and would look up from time to time.

This made Lin Daiyu feel ashamed of her little thoughts, and she slowly wanted to pull her hand back.

But before he could pull it back, Yue Ling's hand, which had been put down from the table, grabbed it.

"Sister Lin, come and try this soup. It was made by Zijuan and Xueyan. They have been trying to learn from me these days and it took them a lot of effort."

Lin Daiyu blinked and actually liked the gifts that her sisters had carefully prepared for her. However, her hands were interlocked with Yue Ling's, so it was not convenient for her to free her hands to drink.

She looked over with a puzzled look, only to see Yue Ling naturally pulling her closer, their shoulders pressed against each other, and he used his other hand to feed her mouth, "Try it, is it delicious?"

Lin Daiyu secretly raised her eyes and looked around. Seeing that all the girls were looking at her as if they were watching a show, she made up her mind, closed her eyes, and went over to drink up the soup.

"Anyway, we've already had enough embarrassment today, this one won't be a big deal!"

Seeing Lin Daiyu like this, Yue Ling couldn't help but laugh and asked, "How is it? How does it taste?"

Lin Daiyu pursed her lips and nodded, "Very good, it seems that they are still very talented."

Zijuan felt relieved and said, "It's good as long as the girl likes it. Every time I sing it to Xueyan, she says it tastes good. When I asked her which one tasted better, she couldn't tell me. I don't know whether it tastes good or not. I really doubt whether she really thinks it tastes bad."

Xueyan, who was sitting next to Zijuan, frowned slightly and said unhappily, "Why not? The soup made by the master is terrible."

Hearing this, all the girls looked over in surprise.

All the girls in this room knew that Yue Ling's cooking skills were excellent. No matter what he cooked, Xue Yan would finish it all. How could it taste bad?

Xueyan looked around and saw the faces of the girls. She explained helplessly, "It's not the Marquis, it's the Master."

The girls burst into laughter again when they heard this.

After the banquet lasted for a while, all the girls had almost finished eating, except Xueyan, who put down her bowls and chopsticks.

Birthday banquets are, of course, not as solemn as formal banquets, so Qin Keqing suggested: "How about we play a game together on this auspicious day?"

All the girls looked over, and Yue Ling asked, "You must have thought of an idea, right? Why not tell me about it?"

During the previous banquet, no one played around too much together.

It’s just that the games the girls played were too elegant, either reciting poems or composing essays. The maids, who had only a limited literacy, could not join in, so the atmosphere was not so lively.

At that moment, Qin Keqing smiled coquettishly, pulled out a lottery stick from behind her back, and explained, "This is also a new thing I found in the shop."

After opening the lottery tube and showing it to the other girls, Qin Keqing said, "This game is very simple. There are eleven sticks in the bamboo tube, eight of which have numbers on them, and three have colors on them."

"If you draw red, you can punish everyone present to do something, and you can also ask others to cooperate in doing this thing."

"If you draw blue, you will be automatically pardoned from the upcoming punishment."

"And if you draw black, you can transfer the upcoming punishment to others."

"How about it? Doesn't it sound simple? And interesting?"

The girls looked at each other in bewilderment. "Punishment? What counts as punishment?"

Qin Keqing shook the bamboo tube and said, "Oh, it's very simple. You will understand it after playing it once. Let me take out the red stick and show you how to do it. Then you will all understand it."

Yue Ling blinked and thought to himself, "Isn't this just a modern version of the King's Game? Could it be that Qin Keqing is hiding something?"

But looking around, the little girls were all very excited, and Yue Ling didn't want to be the one to spoil their fun, so he had to let Qin Keqing take charge.

"Okay, everyone, draw your lot. Once you draw, you cannot regret it. Hide your lot and don't let others see it."

The stick tubes were distributed, and the girls at the round table each got one. The girls from the small opera troupe at another table also put down their bowls and chopsticks and came over to watch the fun.

Lin Daiyu took one in her hand, took a peek, and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that it was black.

She had a premonition that Qin Keqing was going to do something bad, and she could offset the punishment by drawing the black bamboo stick.

No matter how she wanted to act, as long as she didn't get involved, it would be fine. Lin Daiyu had been embarrassed too much today, and it was time for her to make up for it and look at the fun of others.

Everyone hid their bamboo sticks in their palms and stared at Qin Keqing with burning eyes.

"You got them all, right? Then I'm going to talk about the punishment."

Qin Keqing paced outside the table, which made everyone nervous and they held their bamboo sticks tighter.

"Number 6 and the person on her left drank a whole cup of wedding wine!"

(End of this chapter)