Joyful Motherhood in a Rural Family

“Don’t chase me! Aren’t you just relying on your family’s power and status to bully and kill others? Even at such a young age, you are so malicious. What kind of person would you become when you grow up?”

How could Di Xuan miss this rare opportunity to undermine her?

“How daring, you troublemaker! How dare you yell at the Prefecture Princess? Don’t you want to live?!”

The maid by her side scolds in a hurry.

Di Xuan glanced sideways with a “I told you I was right” look, looking disdainfully at Luo Thirteenth. He casually raised his hand to tear off the riddle paper from the lantern, turned around, and continued to walk deeper into the crowd.

“Hey! You troublemaker… come back!”

That maid Lan’er couldn’t help but shout.

“Shut up! Give yourself ten slaps for this Prefecture Princess! Teach yourself a lesson!”

With a gloomy face, Luo Thirteenth was fed up with the way these maids, who were transferred from the Princess Consort’s courtyard, all looked down on her. They’ve become more and more spoiled and arrogant, and it’s time to discipline them!

Lan’er was unconvinced and mumbled, “Prefecture Princess, I am a servant sent by the Princess Consort…”

Facing Lan’er’s dissatisfied face, Prefecture Princess Luo scoffed coldly!

“No matter what, he is still my cousin. You are just a maid who can be beaten and scolded at will. Since you dare to point fingers and speak disrespectfully to your Master, ten slaps are already a mercy from this Prefecture Princess because of the Princess Consort’s face. Otherwise, I would have ordered someone to cut off your tongue and feed it to dogs! Shut up or get ten more slaps!”

Having said that, she ignored the pale-faced Lan’er behind her and quickly chased in the direction Di Xuan had gone.

“Hey! Little brat, don’t run!”

Although she was the Prefecture Princess, Luo Thirteenth still couldn’t escape her youthful nature. When she saw Di Xuan, who had somehow realized he was being chased, she ran deeper into the crowd, and her anger swelled even more in her chest.

“Stop, stop, little brat! Don’t run! Stop!”

“Do you think I’m stupid? If I don’t run now and you catch me, I’ll be doomed. Humph!” Di Xuan muttered to himself as he quickly darted into the crowd.

“Damn kid, how dare you run! When I catch you, I’ll skin you alive!”

Prefecture Princess Luo was naturally unwilling to give up and chased after him quickly.

The two of them zipped in and out of the crowd at high speed, unconsciously moving further and further away from where everyone was. The places they walked became more and more crowded, and soon they were separated by two full streets from the rest of the group.

However, neither of them noticed and continued playing their game of cat and mouse.

Now that the kids were no longer distracting her, Liu Sisi became even more engrossed in solving the lantern riddles.

There were different difficulty levels for the lantern riddles – A, B, C, and D – and naturally, the harder the riddle, the better the reward. At first, Liu Sisi solved any lantern riddles she saw. Gradually, she began focusing on the riddles in the center of the larger lanterns, where the difficulty level increased dramatically.

Guihua was comforting Ying’er who was particularly clingy to Guihua today. Ying’er liked her today because Guihua acted as the errand runner buying snacks. Basically, anything Ying’er took a fancy to and wanted, Guihua bought it for her.

Fortunately, Ying’er wasn’t the type of spoiled little girl to take advantage of this, and she knew her limits when buying things.

On the other side, Di Ye Lei supported Elderly Mr. Di, and Zhang Peng carried Da Mao on his shoulder, walking and talking at a leisurely pace, taking breaks along the way.

It was only when darkness gradually descended that the group had finished wandering just over half of the street.

As night fell, numerous lanterns were lit, and multiple lanterns decorated the streets, making them extraordinarily resplendent. The heavens were also favorable, and the rare clear sky revealed a round moon looming overhead, adding another unique touch of beauty to the Lantern Festival.

Liu Sisi was mesmerized before she knew it!

At some point, Di Yelei silently approached her and gently took her hand.

“How are you feeling? Do you want to sit down and rest?”

Liu Sisi didn’t even notice, but when he mentioned it, she suddenly realized her legs seemed to be filled with lead and couldn’t move at all.

“I’m really tired, let’s eat something first, then continue walking!”

As she spoke, she noticed her hand was holding a bunch of lantern riddle paper strips: “Let’s solve the riddles first and then go eat.”

Di Yelei also noticed the paper strips in her hand and was stunned!

“Are you solving all these lantern riddles by yourself?”

“Yes! I think… I might have taken a few too many…”

Liu Sisi was also somewhat embarrassed. Aren’t these twenty or thirty word puzzles? She didn’t expect to unconsciously pull off so many riddles.

Rather than a few, it was a lot more than a few!

Guihua approached her from the side: “Sisi, have you solved all these? If you guess the wrong answer, you have to compensate a certain amount of copper coins according to the amount of silver on the riddle…”

She was worried Liu Sisi had forgotten the standard for guessing lantern riddles and reminded her subconsciously.

“I shouldn’t be wrong. Let’s go to the place where the puzzles are solved and see. Won’t that give us the answer?”

As Liu Sisi spoke, she pointed to the puzzle-solving area in the center of the square, where a long line had already formed of people waiting to solve riddles.

Her words immediately cheered everyone up!

“Let’s go! Let’s line up, too.”

To increase efficiency, everyone decided to divide the riddles amongst themselves and line up separately.

At this moment, the square was somewhat empty, as it was dinner time, and many people were either at home or at a restaurant. Besides the crowd waiting to solve riddles, there weren’t many pedestrians.

“Huh! Where are Xuan’er, Ying’er, and Yun’er?”

At this moment, Liu Sisi noticed that several children were missing. Subconsciously worried, she began to search for them.

“Oh right! What about Prefecture Princess Luo? Where did she disappear to?”

Guihua from the side noticed more details: “I saw Prefecture Princess Luo and Xuan’er walking towards the other street, they should be solving lantern riddles there. As for Yun’er and Ying’er, Ying’er was just thirsty, and there was no tea nearby. So Yun’er led her to the other side of the street. You have nothing to worry about!”

Knowing Ying’er was with Yun’er, Liu Sisi was relieved.

Zhang Yun was a mature and thoughtful young man, and Ying’er was very fond of him. This was one of the reasons Di Yelei initially agreed to their engagement.

Everyone chatted and laughed, slowly moving forward in the line.

Cheers and excitement from those who correctly solved the lantern riddles came from ahead. There were also many couples who successfully solved the riddles, happily holding their lanterns as they walked and laughed.

The waves of laughter coming from the front made everyone itch with anticipation. Soon, it was Guihua’s turn to solve a riddle.

In the cold weather, Guihua’s palms were sweaty. Although Liu Sisi had written the answers on the paper strips one by one, her hands were still trembling when she handed them in. She looked up at Liu Sisi with a pleading expression.