Cai Garden is Cai's garden, is a private garden of a high-ranking official surnamed Cai, located in the northwest corner of Kaifeng Mansion, Cai Garden covers an area of about dozens of acres, pavilions and pavilions in the garden, small bridges and flowing water, snow hangs on the trees, arranged quite the scenery of the south of the Yangtze River, makes people feel refreshed and happy.

The layout of Cai Garden is also extremely elegant, the flowers and trees in the garden are sparse, the stone mountains are towering and green, and the winding paths are secluded, which is really a good place for literati and scholars to visit the garden and enjoy the flowers.

At this time, although it is winter, although it is not as full of flowers as spring, the garden is full of plum blossoms, black orchids, junzi orchids, daffodils and other winter blooming flowers. In the Spring Festival, the plum blossoms are in full bloom, if it is the time of the quiet round of the night, the wine appreciates the plums, the old fragrance is fragrant, it is refreshing, it is also a special taste, so there are still many people who come here to play at this time, the gentry, the rich, the literati and so on.

Although Cai Garden is a private garden, it is open to the public at this time, allowing literati and scholars to enter the garden to show their elegance and dignity.

At this time, in addition to appreciating Meilan Qiuju in Cai Garden, many lanterns are also arranged for visitors to enjoy the lanterns and the moon, spend the festival together, and even guess the lantern riddle play, and the lantern riddle reward is quite rich.

In Cai Yuan, Li Sanjian and others saw scholars from time to time chanting poems against each other, or splashing ink, or drinking and appreciating plum blossoms, or using wine to comment on the current situation, or gathering together to guess lantern riddles, and competing for talent in the stomach.

The Song Dynasty promoted officials through the imperial examination system, and the high-ranking officials and nobles were no longer monopolized by the gate lords and nobles, and the scholars, especially the scholars of the Wang clan, had the rank to advance, and they could obtain the noble lords through the imperial examination, but they were not hereditary like the royal nobles, so the ups and downs of the sea and the promotion and depreciation were commonplace.

Therefore, in these people, a common way of life has been formed, that is, if you are poor, you will be good at yourself, and if you are good, you will be good at the world, and you will do a great job as an official in the court, and at the same time, you will also reserve a way for yourself to retreat after the dismissal of the official, and operate a garden and villa business, which is to be good for yourself after the dismissal and retirement in the future, so that you can also leave a good reputation for idle clouds and wild cranes and otherworldliness.

Therefore, the garden is not only a place for the hermit to settle down, but also a place for the pilgrim's heart.

It is also common for the Song Dynasty to dismiss officials, so almost all the officials in the court are building gardens, and because of this, it has caused a sharp increase in Song private gardens, which are all over the place, but they are different in size.

Since Taizu and Taizong of the Song Dynasty, foreign wars have almost been defeated repeatedly, and the alliance of Tanyuan has been coined in Liao, and the sixteen states of Youyun, the barrier of Zhongzhou, have been lost forever. The battle of Song and Xia is a mutual victory and defeat, but the battle of Song and Xia for Song, but it is a failure, there is no doubt about it, the reason is that the national strength of Song is several times or even dozens of times that of Western Xia, no matter in terms of population, economy, armor and so on, there is no comparison with Western Xia at all, but at this time it is helpless to help the little Western Xia, Xia called the emperor, and forcibly took off a piece of fat from Song's body, and the Song Land Silk Road was interrupted.

All this, the impact on the heart of the Song literati is huge, from the original Tang Dynasty heroic dry clouds, thousands of miles of rivers and mountains, to the unstable status quo of the country, the rivers and mountains, but also the dissatisfaction and disappointment of the temple, so many literati doctors decided to return to the mountains and forests, return to the countryside and do not ask about state affairs, like an ostrich, the pursuit of inner stability.

However, there are still many people who think that the current era of peace and prosperity has never been seen in the Great Song Dynasty, and everyone is also singing every night and enjoying peace.

"Let's go, let's go, Cai's little lady is out of the light, let's take a look."

"Which lady of the Cai family?"

"You're lonely and unheard, aren't you? Cai's little lady is a well-known talented girl in Kaifeng, and she has to be lit up every year, but no one cracks her riddle every year. ”

"Brother Tai really has a lot of knowledge, I heard that Cai's little lady is still a great beauty in a million, but unfortunately no one can see it."

"However, it is rumored that if someone cracks her lantern riddle, she can become the fast son-in-law of Cai's mansion."

"Ouch, why don't you hurry? If it's too late to be preempted by others, isn't it a big deal? ”

"Phew, just your three-inch ding, ancient bark, and you also want to do a for jade?"

"Hehe, the so-called world is unpredictable, maybe Cai's daughter has her own uniqueness, just this one."

“。。。。。。。。”

"Hey, hey, I said that you are a lot older, and you are about to become someone's grandfather, what are you going to do to join in the fun? Get out of the way. ”

"Although the old man knows the destiny of heaven at his age, how can he compare with a young person in his womb?"

"Don't you want to imitate Zhang Anlu?"

"What's wrong with Anlu? I am eighty years old and eighteen, and I am red and white-haired. With Qing upside down this same Geng, only a flower in the middle. . . Such good stories have been passed down through the ages. ”

"Lao Tzu sams your face of saliva, eighteen brides and eighty langs, with pale hair and red makeup. The mandarin ducks are packed into a double night, and a pear blossom presses the begonias. . . Forever? Are you an old man who is not ashamed to have the ability to press begonias? ”

"Hahahaha!"

Between the laughter and playfulness of everyone, they all rushed to an archway, among which there were men and women, old and young, Li Sanjian also followed the flow, and at the same time found Ye Mengde in the crowd...

Li Sanjian and his entourage were left with only Li Sanjian and Zeng Gongming at this time, Yao Yu, Ran Yunbiao and others had no interest in what kind of garden lanterns the literati gathered, so they left in advance and went back, and it was already dark, Shankui sent the little bean sprouts back, Shankui also before this in order to confirm what the Zhennan Exchange said, followed the Zhennan Exchange to his residence, and as the Zhennan Exchange said, the mother of the Zhennan Exchange was sick.

Zhennan's surname is Xu Mingbiao, a name from the Daimyo Mansion, and he is also from a humble family, so he has no name.

Xu Biao was also more than ten years old, his father died of illness, and he depended on his mother for his life, which was the same fate as Li Sanjian.

Xu Biao's father is also a famous pouncer, making a living from sumo wrestling, Xu Biao's family passed on the fighting skills, plus he looks black and strong, so he is also mixed in the market and countryside, making a living by fighting.

Later, he was favored by the Tokyo Fluttering Society, so he came to Kaifeng Mansion to perform fluttering in exchange for some money to support his family.

Li Sanjian saw that his family was also in difficulty, so he returned the five taels of gold to Xu Biao.

It seems that he has no luck in this life, Li Sanjian and Zeng Gongming walked towards the archway, and secretly laughed at themselves while touching the only remaining two copper coins in their arms.

The five taels of gold bills that had just arrived were given to others in a blink of an eye. . .

Li Sanjian and others soon came to the front of the wooden colored building built with colored silk, and saw that the colorful colored building was about three feet high, and in addition to the colored carved wooden railings on the upper floor, there were many small wooden doors. There are many young ladies of the official palace dressed in various costumes above the colorful building, watching the crowd below keep whispering and laughing.

This kind of color building is generally built by the official eunuch or wealthy businessman, in order to show the dignity of their own family, the higher the color building is built, the bigger the building, then it shows that the status of the family is extremely noble.

There are also many colorful and colorful lanterns around the color building.

The name of the New Year's lantern is called the lantern market, every night when the building lights are on, there are people, associations and Hua Dan dress up and parade on the street, play a variety of dances, songs, puppets, bamboo horses, etc., which are as many as thousands of teams, stretching for more than ten miles.

Some people also set up elegant fireworks and fireworks, lace water, bright lights and candles, and tourists and women look at it, and they go to the door to drink wine.

For example, Cai's Garden, a large household in Kaifeng Prefecture, held a lamp market on this day.

At this time, there are thousands of kinds of lights in Cai Garden, which are very new and ingenious, and all kinds of strange and strange lights are all over Cai Garden, which is all-encompassing.

The lantern market came into being, and the lantern riddle also came out.

When everyone flocked to the bottom of the color building, the small wooden door above the color building opened, and several handmaidens came out, these handmaidens were between fifteen or sixteen years old, all of them were graceful and beautiful like flowers, and the most amazing thing was that the head was almost all generally tall, and at a glance it was known that it had been carefully selected.

Each of these little maids carried a lantern, and the figure on the lantern looked very elegant under the light of the candlelight.

When everyone saw it, their eyes lit up and turned green, and there were bursts of cannibalistic light in the candles.

The little maids are so beautiful as flowers, then their masters must be as beautiful as fairies, and some people even think that if they marry their masters, and then use them as maids, wouldn't it be a beautiful thing?

"Jie Yun saw that he borrowed red makeup, and the knot soared and the water tree was low. Bright and clumsy, the spring is not old, Li Jun and the phoenix are in the orchid period. . . A little maid carried a lantern and said with a smile to the "hungry wolves" under the color building.

Many people under the colorful building still haven't understood the meaning of this seven-word quatrain, but Li Sanjian has already understood.

The meaning of this poem is that only those who have the ability can go up to the color building...

Sure enough, it didn't take long for another maid to tell everyone the rules, that is, the color building is divided into three floors, each floor has some riddles, guess the bottom of the riddles, in order to go to the next level, and finally reach the top floor, it is possible to meet with Cai's talented women, only to have a chance to see the beauty...

The last is the reward, each floor of the reward is different, the higher you go, the more generous the reward, if you can go up to the third floor, then the reward is a gold ingot, five silk, six Shu brocade, wine, a number of deer breasts. . .

Li Sanjian's heart suddenly jumped when he heard this, Li Sanjian has no interest in what kind of daughter, it's not that Li Sanjian is not a womanizer, but Li Sanjian was born in poverty, and it is expected that the daughter of such a big family will not take a fancy to him.

Li Sanjian is interested in a rich reward, Li Sanjian is now about to go crazy, such a rich reward, that is, it can solve Li Sanjian's urgent need, and he will be able to prepare for the provincial test of the Ministry of Rites with peace of mind, and no longer have to worry about firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea...

So Li Sanjian silently recalled the "Song Ci Code" again, and recalled the memory that had been recovered.