“Gege, gege?”
Xie Lian snapped out of it and noticed that Hua Cheng was gazing at him. The red of Hua Cheng’s clothes was even more vibrant against his skin as the lantern lights gave a gentle hue to his pale, lifeless complexion. Xie Lian lost himself for a moment watching him before he could answer.
“What?”
“Gege, are you tired? Do you need a break from walking?” Hua Cheng asked.
Xie Lian nodded absentmindedly.
“Sorry, I went overboard last night,” Hua Cheng apologized.
It took a moment for Xie Lian to realize what he meant, and he quickly waved his hands. “Wh-what are you saying? That’s not it at all—everything’s fine!”
Hua Cheng arched an eyebrow. “Is that so? If everything is fine even after that, does that mean I didn’t go overboard last night? Does that mean I can…?”
“…”
Suddenly, Xie Lian remembered that they were still strolling along the main street of Ghost City! This jolted him back to the present, and he scanned the area in alarm. Sure enough, without him realizing it, they had been surrounded by a dense crowd of strange, oddly shaped creatures. The ones with long ears had them perked, the ones with short ears stretched their necks, and almost all of them were staring at them with unblinking eyes as wide as saucers.
Xie Lian was shocked to speechlessness. At last, he admonished, “Gosh, San Lang!”
Hua Cheng smiled in response and folded his hands behind his back. “All right, all right. I was wrong. I’ll stop.”
By then, Xie Lian had moved his eyes away from the yuanxiao monster’s stall on the streetside. Countless vibrant red lanterns lined both sides of Ghost City’s main street, bearing riddles just waiting to be solved.
“Solve a riddle! Solve a riddle!” the ghosts hollered. “There’s a prize if you get it right! A great prize!”
Hua Cheng turned to Xie Lian. “Gege, wanna try? There are prizes to win.”
Xie Lian walked over. “Let me give it a shot.”
The crowd of ghosts erupted with excitement, pushing and shoving one another in the chaos.
“Shh! Shh! Granduncle is about to solve riddles! Granduncle is about to solve riddles!”
“…”
Xie Lian was left a little speechless by the overwhelming wave of enthusiastic shouting—they made it sound like he was about to put on a grand spectacle, like a great shaman dance. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Xie Lian moved to pick a random lantern, but instead, a tentacle carefully delivered one to his hands directly.
“Please, go ahead! Go ahead!”
It didn’t matter to Xie Lian which lantern he started with, so he accepted this one and gave it a look.
The riddle was: Sought until the head of white.4
“‘Wo,’ as in ‘Me,’” Xie Lian answered without much thought. “‘Sought until the head of white,’ or ‘sought until old age.’ Take the dash on top of ‘white,’ 白, and add it to ‘seek,’ 找, and it makes the character 我 for ‘me.’”
Hua Cheng clapped. “Gege, you’re amazing,” he praised.
The ghosts clapped as well, their applause as loud as thunder. They also howled and hollered, and some strange black shadow creature even started doing flips into the air as it cheered—it was incredibly over the top.
Xie Lian sweatdropped. “This is actually…really easy, you know.”
The tentacle handed over a second lantern and beckoned him. “Please, go ahead! Go ahead!”
Xie Lian took it. This time, the riddle was: One day of the Spring Festival.
Again, without thinking, he gave his answer. “‘Fu,’ for ‘Husband.’ ‘Festival,’ 节, is a homonym for the word ‘snipe.’ And so, one ‘day,’ 日, sniped from ‘spring,’ 春, makes the character 夫, which means ‘man’ or ‘husband’—depending on context.”
Hua Cheng was about to clap again, but Xie Lian stopped him. “Don’t. This one was easy too.”
“Really?” Hua Cheng grinned happily at him. “But, gege, I really do think you’re amazing.”
Such a flatterer, as always, Xie Lian thought. If I solved a lantern riddle you devised, that would be amazing…
The tentacle gave him a third lantern and hollered, “Please, go ahead! Go ahead!”
When he looked down at it, Xie Lian frowned a little.
“Whoa! This one’s hard!” the crowd chimed in.
Xie Lian nodded. Sure enough, the answer to this riddle wasn’t as easy to figure out as the others.
The riddle was: Bashfully do I lower my head to express my admiring heart.
It wasn’t that difficult, though. Xie Lian had the solution only a moment later.
“‘Bashful,’ 羞, refers to the touch-me-not plant, so we take the character’s plant radical, 艹. ‘Lower head,’ 低头, indicates that one is to take the head, or the first part, of the word ‘lower,’ giving us亻. Finally, we take the heart, or middle, of the phrase ‘admiring heart,’倾心, which is ‘匕’. All three parts, when pieced together, make the word…‘flower,’ 花. The answer to this riddle is ‘hua,’ for ‘flower.’”
As soon as he finished and announced the answer, he covered his ears. Sure enough, it set off pandemonium again; the crowd praised him with boundless abandon, their hype comically over the top. It made him cringe.
Wearing a toothy grin, Hua Cheng gazed at him. “Gege, this time you really were amazing.”
The tentacle surreptitiously slunk over with another lantern.
Xie Lian returned the grin. “I’ve got another trick that’s even more amazing. This time, I can guess the answer without even seeing the riddle. Do you believe me?”
“Oh,” said Hua Cheng, his eye widening at his proclamation. “Is that right? Does gege really know such an astonishing trick?”
Xie Lian took the lantern. “Of course. Let me guess—the answer is ‘city.’ That is, the ‘cheng’ in Hua Cheng. Right?”
He raised the lantern, and sure enough, the riddle said: One move of armed forces stabilizes the south.
“‘One,’ 一, moved on ‘armed forces,’ 干戈, changes the 干 to 土 and leaves the 戈,” Xie Lian explained. “As for ‘stabilizes the south,’ 南方定, the south, or the bottom, of the word 方 remains in place, which changes it to 万. When combined, it forms the word 城, ‘cheng,’ for ‘city.’ This should’ve been the hardest of the riddles, but unfortunately…”
Unfortunately, he had guessed the pattern beforehand. And what phrase did the four answers form when strung together? Wo fu Hua Cheng—My husband, Hua Cheng.
With their scheme exposed, the ghosts stopped cheering. Instead, they turned their gazes skyward and began to cough awkwardly. Hua Cheng’s eye swept slowly across the crowd. As if that look had terrified them out of their wits, some ghosts scurried into random lanterns while others burrowed underground. The ones remaining clutched their heads as they cried out for forgiveness.
“Don’t be angry, Chengzhu! It wasn’t my idea!”
“It wasn’t mine either, quack!”
“Yeah, right! You were the loudest of all when agreeing to it!”
“Beat it,” Hua Cheng said mildly.
In an instant, everyone on the street—humans and ghosts alike—scattered and disappeared like clouds in the wind.
Xie Lian grinned as he hung the lantern onto its rack. “Let’s head back.”
The two walked toward Thousand Lights Temple side by side.
Along the way, Hua Cheng also pleaded for mercy in a deadpan tone. “Don’t look at me like that, gege. I really didn’t tell them to do that.”
“I know,” Xie Lian replied with a smile. “You wouldn’t have constructed the riddles like that.”
“Oh? And how does gege suppose I would’ve constructed them?” Hua Cheng asked.
“It would’ve been ‘My husband, San Lang,’ of course…” Xie Lian replied.
He hadn’t suspected anything until that moment, but he suddenly trailed off as he remembered that “a loose tongue causes trouble.” But it was too late—Hua Cheng had already burst out laughing.
“Got you, gege! Nice one!”
“You sly thing…”
The two arrived at Thousand Lights Temple. As soon as they entered the great hall, Xie Lian noticed that a table had been set up on the jade platform. He blinked. As he approached it, he noticed two bowls of yuanxiao.
When he looked back, he saw that Hua Cheng had approached as well.
“This was what gege was looking at on the street, right?” he asked.
Xie Lian nodded.
“Sit down, gege,” Hua Cheng beckoned. “Let’s eat together.”
“…”
Instead of taking a seat, Xie Lian flung himself into Hua Cheng’s arms and buried his face in his chest. He hugged Hua Cheng tightly, refusing to let go, and Hua Cheng returned the embrace.
After so many years, Xie Lian could finally recall the taste of Yuanxiao.