Top Scholar

Chapter 167 The Tiger with the Lantern

In fact, every shop has riddles, and the prizes are mostly their own products. This saves money and also helps to promote their products.

But these simple riddles, such as "Red gate tower, white courtyard wall, a red girl lives inside," "Biting off the cow's tail," and "A day and a month are not today," are fine for ordinary people to play with, but they don't arouse the interest of scholars.

The Zhu brothers and their associates targeted the "lantern tigers" set up by various wealthy and powerful families under the clock tower.

This is a tradition in Luzhou City. Every year, wealthy families would create some lantern riddles that were both challenging and elegant. Because the riddles were more difficult than those for shooting tigers, they were called 'lantern tigers' or 'literary tigers'. Therefore, solving these lantern riddles was also called 'solving lantern tigers'.

The prizes for the lantern tiger are naturally even more generous. If you can answer the question about the 'Tiger King', you will be invited up to the Drum Tower to receive the grand prize and drink a cup of wine offered by the host. You will become the most dazzling person at the lantern festival and definitely gain a lot of face and substance!

Unfortunately, all the lantern tiger puzzles require a considerable level of education to solve; ordinary people can only watch the spectacle and have no chance of successfully defeating the tiger.

So when everyone arrived at the clock tower, they saw that seven or eight out of ten riddles remained unsolved.

"Whose house shall we start with?" Zhu Zigeng asked enthusiastically, "Let's start with the Bai family, the closest one!"

Su Lu had been there for less than half a month, and he spent his days going back and forth between two places, burying himself in his studies. He only had a superficial understanding of the wealthy and powerful families in Luzhou City, which he only learned about from the Zhu brothers at the dinner table...

Luzhou boasts seven prominent families, some deeply rooted in the imperial examination system, others newly risen to prominence through the examinations. The Zhu family, at its peak, held a commanding third place, but after decades without producing a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations), it now ranks fifth, behind only the "Han, Wang, Bai, and Li" families…

Su Lu was speechless. His family had three members who had passed the provincial examinations, yet they only ranked fifth in Luzhou. Meanwhile, Hejiang County hadn't produced a single Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) since the founding of the dynasty. The difference was truly enormous!
~~
The Zhu brothers then began to enthusiastically hunt down the Bai family's lantern tigers...

"Look at this!" Zhu Zijing, true to his reputation as a seasoned lecher, immediately spotted a riddle in the far corner:

"The beautiful woman feigned drunkenness and asked someone to help her up, revealing her snow-white skin on her chest."

He entered the tent but could not find her; let the feng shui of the world remain as it may.

"Hahaha, this must have been Bai Laosan's idea!" The Zhu brothers also smiled knowingly and guessed who had set the question.

"There's no prize for guessing who it is!" the Bai family member standing in front of the riddles said irritably. "You have to guess the names of four ancient poets!"

That ridiculous third young master insisted on hanging this lamp. He was also hoping someone would figure out how to remove it and take it down, so as not to embarrass the Bai family any further…

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to achieve my wish yet.

The Zhu brothers initially had no clue what to do, but after listening to his hints, they gradually figured it out.

Zhu Zigen first said: "The beautiful woman pretends to be drunk and asks for help... She pretends to be drunk, and if she is not helped, she will fall down, so it should be Jia Dao, pretending to fall down."

"That's right, that's right." Everyone nodded in agreement.

Zhu Zijing added, "Exposing the snow-white skin on the chest... removing the outer garment reveals the 'whiteness' underneath, which naturally should be Li Bai."

"Hahaha! Great, great, great!" The onlookers cheered enthusiastically. Sure enough, no matter when or where, being lewd is always the most attractive thing.

Zhu Zixian continued, "Going into the tent, you can't find it... The tent is a 'cloth tent,' and what is not seen is hidden, so the answer is Luo Yin, who said, 'Drink today, for tomorrow we may die.'"

"That's right." Everyone nodded, then asked, "And what about the fourth line?"

"Let the feng shui of the world be as it may..." The Zhu brothers were stumped, looking at each other with no clue.

In fact, many of the onlookers were scholars who had already guessed the riddle, but they were all stuck on the last sentence.

After a while, Zhu Zijing laughed and said, "I've guessed the fourth one. It's still the second line, 'revealing the snow-white skin of the chest'—you can also guess Du Fu, because he witnessed the beauty's breasts."

"That makes sense!" the crowd roared with laughter. "Can we claim our prize now?"

"No way," the Bai family member said helplessly. "Each line is a different poet, and we still haven't guessed the last one."

"You didn't say it was one poet per line!" the crowd protested.

"The answer to the last line is Pan Lang, who said, 'Standing at the crest of the wave, holding the red flag high and dry.'" Zhu Ziming suddenly shouted.

"Congratulations, you got it right!" The Bai family members quickly took down that damned lantern and presented Zhu Ziming with a prize—a golden hairpin exclusively provided by the Third Young Master Bai!
"Why Pan Lang?" The crowd was still puzzled and pressed Zhu Ziming for an answer.

"The character 'Pan' means 'water flowing without direction,' and 'Lang' is a homophone for 'wave,' so 'let the winds and waters fill the rivers and lakes' refers to Pan Lang!" Zhu Ziming explained.

"I see." Everyone suddenly understood and praised Zhu Ziming, saying, "Young man, you're a prodigy!"

Zhu Ziming longed to enjoy the same title as Qiji, but the Zhu family governed their household according to the principles of rites, and as the saying goes, "a person cannot stand without integrity," so he dared not tell lies.

So he just took the Xue Tao letter written by Huang E and went out without even bothering to hide it...

So Zhu Ziming frankly admitted this time: "This is not my idea, but comes from an older sister who does not want to reveal her name."

"..." The brothers were speechless. This dim-witted kid might as well have just said that Huang E had guessed it.

"Come on, next one!" Zhu Zigeng quickly diverted everyone's attention and loudly recited: "The Xiongnu chieftain fled in the night—shoot a line from the Zuo Zhuan!"

"Their demise will be nigh!" The usually silent Zhu Zixian suddenly uttered his words, naturally drawing cheers from the crowd. Those who flee will perish; the night will be without end…

~~
In fact, Su Lu was also very interested in riddles.

As mentioned before, solving the eight-legged essay problem is like solving a riddle in reverse; the question is the answer, and solving it is about coming up with a suitable riddle clue. Therefore, scholars are all fond of this. However, he's been living off others all his life, so he didn't want to steal their thunder and stayed in the back row watching the show…

"Why don't you give it a try, Young Master Su?" Huang E happened to be standing next to him and asked with a smile.

"I never guessed that before, so I won't embarrass myself by offering my guess," Su Lu said.

"Huh?" Huang E had originally intended to challenge him again, but was taken aback by what he heard.

"I come from the mountains, and this is my first time visiting a lantern festival," Su Lu said honestly. "As for riddles, I can only guess the ones at the shop entrances."

"I see." Huang E smiled and said, "I was wondering why I felt that Young Master Su was different from others."

"So Miss Huang, you can just call me Hongzhi. Calling me 'Young Master' makes me feel like I'm just pretending to be someone I'm not," Su Lu said with a smile.

But when he said this, there was not a trace of inferiority in his eyes; he was simply stating a fact.

“Alright.” Huang E readily agreed, “From now on, I will call you Brother Hongzhi.”

"Thank you." Su Lu nodded.

"Why do you keep calling me Miss Huang?" Huang E asked curiously. "Very few people call me that."

“We mountain people aren’t used to calling people ‘Miss’.” Su Lu scratched his head, but actually it had nothing to do with mountain people.

"So you all call yourselves girls?" Huang E asked.

"Actually, it's the eldest sister and the younger sister," Su Lu whispered.

"Ah, I remember now, you called Sister She 'Big Sister'." Huang E covered her mouth and laughed, "That really angered her."

"Calling her 'girl' feels even more inappropriate," Su Lu said with a laugh.

"Pfft..." Huang E couldn't help but laugh at his joke.

"Why doesn't Miss Huang try to solve the riddle?" Su Lu asked Huang E, who was also standing in the back row.

"I'm past the age of wanting to show off," Huang E said in a mature tone.

This time it was Su Lu's turn to laugh. "How old are you? Fifteen or sixteen?"

“It’s not a good idea to ask a girl’s age,” Huang E chuckled, explaining, “When I was little, I was ignorant. When we had guests, my father would ask me to write a poem, and I would. As a result, busybodies spread the word throughout the city, giving me an annoying reputation. Everyone else keeps their maiden names a secret, but for me, everyone knows my name…”

“‘A talented woman from Sichuan’ is so wonderful,” Su Lu laughed. “If someone called me ‘a talented man from Sichuan,’ I would be so happy I couldn’t sleep.”

“We are different. Brother Hongzhi wants to pass the imperial examinations and gain fame, which will give you a great advantage. But I am confined to my room, and fame will only bring me trouble…” Huang E sighed softly, then smiled brightly and said, “It’s a holiday, let’s not talk about such unpleasant things.”

"Why don't you let your younger sister teach Brother Hongzhi how to solve riddles?" she said enthusiastically. "That way, next time you can also shoot the tiger and win the prize!"

Actually, she wanted to teach him, and then defeat him...

"Please enlighten me, young lady," Su Lu said with delight.

Normally, he would have said that it had nothing to do with the exam and he wouldn't study it, but this time he inexplicably agreed.

'Ah, money really does move people's hearts...' Su Lu sighed inwardly.

"The most important thing in solving riddles is learning the riddle formats. Riddle formats refer to modifying the wording, pronunciation, and syntax of the riddle or answer through specific structures to match the riddle," Huang E explained softly.
"Some riddles will directly indicate the riddle format, while others will not. But as long as you are familiar with the riddle format, you will naturally understand at a glance how to solve the riddle..."

"I understand, the thought process behind the question and the solution." Su Lu nodded.

“That’s right.” Huang E knew that the person who could match his first line must be extremely intelligent; indeed, they understood immediately. He then continued:
"Modern riddle enthusiasts say there are eighteen types, such as Cao E, Zeng Sun, Jie Ling, Juan Lian, Jin Ping, Hao Shou, Fen Di... Today, due to time constraints, we will only discuss the first seven common types."

Su Lu glanced at Huang E's stunning profile and was surprised to find that she was also a teacher.

Hey, why do you want to say that?

"Let's start with the 'Cao E style,' also known as the 'back-of-the-stele style.' Legend has it that after reading the inscription on the Cao E stele, Cai Yong wrote eight characters on the back: 'Yellow silk, young woman, grandson, mortar and pestle.' Later, Yang Xiu dissected it into the four characters 'Exquisite and wonderful words.'" Huang E said with a smile, then asked Su Lu:
"Brother Hongzhi, do you know why?"

“You’ve already told me the answers, how could I not know?” Su Lu laughed. “Yellow silk is colored silk, which together make ‘exquisite’; young woman is a young girl, which together make ‘wonderful’; grandson is a daughter’s son, which together make ‘good’; ​​mortar and pestle is ‘receiving bitterness’, which together make ‘words’.”

“That’s right.” Huang E nodded approvingly, “So the Cao E style is a method of transforming form and elaborating meaning. Each character in the answer must be read separately to match the riddle.”

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(End of this chapter)