Gu Ruobai put his arm around Su Mingyu's shoulder. "What's mine is yours."
Su Mingyu slapped his hand away and rolled her eyes at him.
In this small place, the market was not as grand as that in the capital, but it was still quite bustling. Su Mingyu and Gu Ruobai were strolling around the market when they suddenly saw many stalls selling lanterns.
Su Mingyu asked a vendor curiously, "Excuse me, is there any special event here? Why are there so many people selling lanterns?"
"You two must be from out of town, right?" The vendor's eyes lit up.
He then handed a lotus - shaped lantern to Su Mingyu. "Today is the Qixi Festival. The tradition here is that all the unmarried girls will float lanterns in the river not far outside the city.
"And the lanterns will carry the girls' wishes up to the sky. The matchmaker in the sky will see them and tie the red strings of marriage for the girls."
Su Mingyu nodded after hearing this, but she didn't buy a lantern. Instead, she took Gu Ruobai's hand and waved it in front of the vendor. "The person I want is already in my grasp, so I don't think I need this lantern."
The vendor didn't expect Su Mingyu to already have a partner. He could only nod awkwardly. "Then take your time, miss."
Just as Su Mingyu was about to leave with Gu Ruobai, Gu Ruobai took out some silver. "Give me two lanterns."
A flash of excitement crossed the vendor's eyes. He immediately packed two of the most beautiful lanterns for Su Mingyu and Gu Ruobai. "May the young lady and the young master be united in love forever!"
Su Mingyu helplessly picked up the two lanterns and raised an eyebrow at Gu Ruobai. "Why did you suddenly decide to buy lanterns?"
Gu Ruobai leaned over and whispered in Su Mingyu's ear in a low, hoarse voice, "I want the matchmaker to tie our red strings more tightly. I'm afraid you'll run away."
Su Mingyu looked back at Gu Ruobai with a helpless and amused expression. She waved the lanterns in her hand. "Two won't be enough. We should probably buy a hundred or so.
"Think about it. As a prince, you'll surely have many concubines in the future. Of course, I won't be as domineering as Lady Jiang, but if you even glance at another woman, I'll turn around and leave right away.
"And think about it, you may not just be a prince in the future. Then I'll not only leave, but also go far away from you and make sure you can never find me again."
As Su Mingyu said this, she winked at Gu Ruobai. "I don't think you can hold me down. After all, I'm such a lively - minded person. I won't just stick to one tree..."
Before Su Mingyu could finish her sentence, a strong hand suddenly grabbed her. Before she could even react, a soft, thin lip pressed against hers.
Su Mingyu's eyes widened. She was just about to push Gu Ruobai away when Gu Ruobai hugged her tightly and pulled her closer, deepening the kiss.
Unable to break free, Su Mingyu finally had to let Gu Ruobai have his way.
After the kiss ended, Su Mingyu pouted. "What's this? Is Prince Ruixian feeling guilty? So you're trying to shut me up like this?"
Gu Ruobai carefully tucked the loose hair behind Su Mingyu's ear and whispered in a low, hoarse voice, "I just simply wanted to kiss you."
Su Mingyu pursed her lips and smiled. "That sounds nice."
But she didn't let go of Gu Ruobai's hand.
The two of them slowly walked towards the river with the crowd. By this time, it had already gotten dark, and there were already quite a few people gathered around.
Looking at the young girls holding lanterns and making wishes by the river, Su Mingyu squinted her eyes. "I think this is the first time I've felt the Qixi Festival so relaxedly."
In her previous life, she didn't know if it was because there were too many scumbags and bitches, but every Qixi Festival or Valentine's Day had been a disaster for her.
On that day, the orders would always be overflowing, and usually, the task time was specified. One year on Qixi Festival, Su Mingyu had taken on three orders.
Fortunately, the tasks during this period were relatively easy to handle.
Young people especially liked lively places, which made it easy to carry out the tasks while also being difficult to be discovered.
Of course, Gu Ruobai didn't know all this. He raised an eyebrow and looked at Su Mingyu. "Does Wang Manwen dislike you so much that she won't even let you go out on a festival like Qixi?"
Su Mingyu knew he had misunderstood, but she didn't explain. She just grinned at him. "Come on, let's go and have a look up there."
With that, Su Mingyu took Gu Ruobai's hand and walked towards the more crowded part of the crowd.
"Buy spiders~ Buy spiders~"
A strange cry came into Su Mingyu's ears. She stopped curiously and looked back at Gu Ruobai. "Did you just hear someone shouting about selling spiders?"
Gu Ruobai stopped for a moment and nodded. "Indeed."
"People can sell spiders? And... how do they sell them?" Su Mingyu felt that she was quite ignorant.
Seeing Su Mingyu frowning, Gu Ruobai raised an eyebrow. "So there are things you don't understand too."
"I'm just a human being. How can I know everything in this vast world?" Su Mingyu pouted.
"Selling spiders is a traditional activity during the Qixi Festival in the Jiangnan area." Seeing that Su Mingyu's mouth was almost drooping with dissatisfaction, Gu Ruobai finally began to explain. "On Qixi Festival, merchants will catch slightly larger spiders and put them in wooden boxes about the size of a palm.
"On the day of Qixi, girls will come to choose the boxes they like, make wishes to the boxes, and then open the boxes under the moonlight at midnight. If the spider inside has woven a web, it means the girl's wish will come true."
Making wishes to a spider? What kind of custom was this? It was a bit strange.
Su Mingyu frowned and didn't seem very interested.
"Do you want one too?" Gu Ruobai raised an eyebrow and asked. "Maybe your wish will really come true."
"I don't want any." Su Mingyu refused without even thinking. "I'm the kind of person who believes more in things within my grasp. Those romantic things are too elusive."
Although Gu Ruobai had a rough idea of what Su Mingyu's answer would be before he asked, he had always been curious about her detached attitude.
"You're not even twenty yet, but I always feel that you're too sober - minded. Can Wang Manwen really temper people like this?"
Hearing Gu Ruobai's doubts, Su Mingyu just squinted her eyes and didn't answer.
What had tempered her wasn't Wang Manwen, but her experiences in the 21st century.
One murder after another, one task after another. Su Mingyu had long wrapped up all her edges and corners in blood and flesh.
She wouldn't tell Gu Ruobai that when she carried out her first task, seeing the flying flesh, the flowing blood, and the motionless corpses, she had vomited for a whole week.