Chapter 137: Releasing River Lanterns_l

Translator: 549690339

When Yingbao went to call her brothers back for dinner, she saw them and Wei Zhan digging in the fruit orchard.

Upon seeing his sister, Jiang Wu emphatically pointed to the section of ground they had dug up, “Look, Wei Zhan and us did all this.”

Yingbao’s eyelids twitched, she pulled her brothers back: “Why are you letting him dig?”

Jiang Jie defended: “He wanted to.”

Jiang Wu responded: “He wanted to eat vegetables, so he started digging.”

Yingbao: …

When they got home, she made sure her brothers washed their faces and hands before letting them have breakfast.

While eating his porridge, Jiang Erlang suggested: “Let’s send the boy to Clan Leader Chen later, after all, he is a guest of the Chen Family.”

The Chen Family was indeed their kin, and they guaranteed an audience with the Clan Leader.

“Whether we send him over or not, it’s not right to keep him here.” With the grudge they held against the Chen Family, Mother Chun was really reluctant to get too involved with their relatives.

But thinking of the boy’s destitute situation, she finally relented and sent him an egg and two mooncakes.

When Wei Zhan received the items Mother Chun brought, he teared up with gratitude. He thanked her around choked sobs, then started peeling the egg.

He had been wandering outside for some days. Despite all the rush of adrenaline, it was overwhelmingly tough.

There were several times when he regretted it and wanted to run to the post station for help, but he always managed to restrain himself.

After a journey filled with begging and sleeping in the open, he finally made it back here.

Now he thinks about it, all the hardships were worth it as he had finally accomplished one of life’s great feats on his own.

Mother Chun felt worse when she saw the boy in tears, she stroked his head, “I’ll bring you to Clan Leader Chen’s place later. After the festival, they’ll arrange for someone to contact your elders.”

Behind her words, Wei Zhan looked stunned and quickly shook his head: “No! I’m not going anywhere! I want to stay here.”

Seeing her silent, Wei Zhan blinked his tear-filled eyes. “Auntie, please don’t send me away? I can work, I can even dig.”

He stretched out his palms for her to see, “Look, I got blisters from digging this morning. But I’m not even afraid.”

Mother Chun gasped softly, taking his small hands, “How did you end up like

As a mother herself, seeing the boy in such a state naturally conjured up images of her own children, therefore she felt a pang of heartache.

“I will go get some medicine for you.”

The moment she finished speaking, Mother Chun hurried home. She fetched a powdered medicine and went to administer it on Wei Zhan.

She didn’t notice the fleeting hint of mischief in Wei Zhan’s eyes.

After tending to Wei Zhan, Mother Chun returned home and said to her husband: “The boy is really pitiful, let’s keep him in for a while. Sigh, seeing him like this, I can’t help but recall when Baobao was abducted.”

Jiang Erlang furrowed his brows, finally agreeing: “Alright, let’s keep him here until the festival ends. We have to send him to the village no matter what.”

In the evening, the whole family celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival together, and Mother Chun decided to invite Wei Zhan for dinner as well.

By this time, Wei Zhan had cleaned up and even changed into Yuanbao’s old clothes, he also swapped his worn-out deer skin boots with Yuanbao’s cloth shoes.

Before dinner, Jiang Cheng lit lanterns one by one, and hung them on the bamboo tower outside the courtyard, totaling eighteen in all.

Jiang’s oldest and second sons brought out the incense table and placed it to the south of the bamboo tower.

On the table as offerings, there were mooncakes, a bowl of dates, a plate of pears, a plate of persimmons, and a bunch of rice ears. They also put incense in the incense burner, and had each child in the family come and worship the moon.

There was a custom for worshipping the moon here. Only unmarried men and women could worship, symbolizing a wish for the Moon God to tie the red thread, and in the future find a good bride (or groom).

As the full moon rose, starting with Jiang Cheng, the children in the Jiang Family, one by one, came forward to light incense and kneel in worship.

Seeing them all paying respects, Wei Zhan followed suit and earnestly knelt and bowed.

After paying homage to the moon, the whole family returned to the courtyard for the reunion dinner.

Two tables were set up in Jiang Dala’s courtyard, one for the adults and one for the children.

Tonight, Yanru was in charge of cooking, turning chicken, duck, fish, and meat into different delicacies, and filling two large tables.

After dinner, Yanru took the children to release lanterns into the river.

Of course, there was no river on South Slope, so they could only release them into the pond for sentiment’s sake.

Each child was holding a lantern, they came to the edge of the pond, lit up their prepared river lanterns, and gently pushed them afar with bamboo poles.

Wei Zhan also held a river lantern, made a wish just like the young girls, lit the lantern, and put it in the water.

The red lantern shone on his face, making his eyes gleam brightly.

After releasing the lanterns, the group of children carried their lanterns home.

Wei Zhan was allowed to stay with Yuanbao, so he returned to the Jiang’s with him.

Yuanbao was quite curious about this boy, asking him how he returned to

Chuanhe Town.

So, Wei Zhan excitedly told Yuanbao about his heroic deeds, leaving Yuanbao in awe.

“You actually walked more than a hundred miles alone? For more than ten days?” Yuanbao found it hard to believe. “Where did you sleep at night?” Wei Zhan laughed with pride, “I slept in the trees at night, or squeezed into the haystack, and when I met kind people, they would let me sleep in their kitchen.”

Yuanbao marveled, “You’re really amazing.”

“Hehe.” Wei Zhan said mysteriously, “Do you know what I ate all the way?

“What?” Yuanbao craned his neck to ask.

Wei Zhan swiftly pulled out a small dagger from his leg, “I dug up vegetables from people’s fields to eat, ate rice raw, and even once caught a fish and ate it raw.”

In fact, he had killed a person who tried to rob his jade pendant during his escape, and dispatched him with a single blow.

Listening to this, Yuanbao felt nauseated, “Stop, raw fish is so fishy, I can’t believe you can eat it.”

“You can eat anything when you’re desperate with hunger,” Wei Zhan cleaned his dagger and put it back on his leg.

This adventurous experience was a tale he could boast of for a lifetime.

Humph! When he returned home, he would definitely teach the Guard Team a lesson.

Originally, he was with his elder brother, but a guard deliberately blocked his horse, separating him from his brother.

As a result, bandits caught up with them, and he had no choice but to flee towards safe ground.

Wei Zhan didn’t know if this was accidental or intentional, but either way, it was a wake-up call to him.

His mother was right, he was a thorn in some people’s sides, and if he was not careful, he could soon find himself in danger.

His father had many concubines, including a cherished concubine and a good concubine, both of whom had sons older than him.

His mother also said that they would be glad if he died, so he should be particularly cautious and not trust anyone, including his elder brother, Wei Wenbo.

The moonlight was waning, and the lanterns on the bamboo tower went out one after another. The South Slope was once again silent.

Before long, the crowing of a rooster woke up the dawn, and a new day began.

After the festival, Yingbao and Erni went to school.

Yuanbao, Huzi, Jiang Jie, and Jiang Wu also joined them on their way.

Wei Zhan insisted on going to school with them and coming back with them, as if he was a part of the Jiang family.

The Clan Leader of the Chen Family had already heard about this from Jiang Sanlang, so he wrote a letter and sent it to the courier station for a swift-footed courier to deliver it to the Wei Family in Prefecture City..