Chapter 317: Chapter 127 Lu Min_1
The Lantern Festival celebration wasn’t yet over; the observance of the lanterns would last until the eighteenth day of the first lunar month.
Lu Tong made his way through the throng of performers, and before him appeared a mountain of lanterns.
But calling it a lantern mountain wasn’t quite right; it was actually an entire street. Overhead, a long line had been strung up, adorned with countless silk lanterns. Beneath each lantern hung a small red strip with a riddle written in black ink. Those who guessed correctly could take the strip down and exchange it for a piece of candy from an old man sitting to one side.
It was prepared for the children.
The silk lanterns hanging overhead bathed the entire street in a red, luminous glow. Countless people walked by, creating a lively atmosphere.
Directly ahead of Lu Tong walked a pair of sisters. The older sister seemed to be around twelve or thirteen, and the younger one appeared to be five or six years old. The little girl hopped up trying to reach the lanterns above, but she was too short. Her older sister extended her arm to hold the lantern, squinting at the red strips under its light.
"What does it say?" her younger sister asked anxiously.
"Half bloom, the spare branches of plum start to open—" the older sister read the clue aloud.
The little girl looked puzzled, but her sister smiled with delight, tearing off the red strip and pinching her sister’s nose, "I know, it’s the character ’Min’!"
"Come on, let’s exchange this for some candy!"
The sisters joyfully squeezed into the crowd, their figures gradually disappearing from sight. Lu Tong watched them, somewhat spellbound, when Pei Yunmeng’s voice came from beside her, sounding rather casual, "Is Lu Min your real name?"
She snapped back to reality, murmuring a light "Mm."
"Is it derived from ’quick to act and cautious with words’?"
"No."
Lu Tong replied calmly, "It’s from ’Though quick-witted and sharp, they are unreliable.’
Pei Yunmeng’s eyes flickered slightly.
Lu Tong lowered her eyelids.
Among the three children in the family there was Lu Rou, named for "gentleness and firmness." Her father hoped she would be gentle yet have a firm resolution.
Lu Qian was named "Modesty is the handle of integrity," with the family wishing him to be humble, courteous, and not blindly arrogant.
As for her, being the youngest and doted upon the most within the family, her temperament was inevitably hasty, and she was fond of clever tricks, so her father named her Min, hoping she would be intelligent and quick, yet not vain, and remain down-to-earth.
As a child, she didn’t really like the character "Min"; she felt that there were so many nicer and prettier characters in the world and her father, learned and knowledgeable as he was, had chosen such ordinary names for his three children without any special distinction. That’s why she used to prefer to be called by her nickname "TongTong."
TongTong, New Year’s Day, immediately distinguished her from others at a glance.
Later, she followed Lady Yun to Luomei Peak. Lady Yun never asked for her name until her dying day and simply called her "Little Shiqi." When she left the mountain and was asked by others, she only called herself "Lu Tong," as if mentioning the name "Lu Min" meant failing her parents’ expectations, as if the Lu Tong who collected corpses and tested medicines on Luomei Peak, who committed murder and framed others in Shengjing City, was not the same Miss Lu San from Changwu County who loved to laugh and play, and was pampered by her parents.
Self-deception.
"I still prefer your current name," the person beside her said, interrupting her train of thought.
"TongTong," he paused, then said with a smile, "It feels like a new beginning."
Lu Tong’s eyelashes fluttered.
He had actually guessed it.
It made sense; his network of informants was extensive. If he knew her birthday was on New Year’s Day, he could naturally guess the significance of her childhood name, TongTong.
Lu Tong said nothing, and Pei Yunmeng thought for a moment, then said, "Doctor Lu seems to have read many books."
Nowadays, both boys and girls had public schools, though those were for the wealthy elite. Ordinary private schools were unaffordable except for rich households, like the gentleman who hired Scholar Wu to teach his daughter, while most commoners didn’t pursue education—it was too costly.
Lu Tong slowly moved with the crowd, "My father is a Teacher. He believes girls should read more, to avoid getting tricked later in life. Both my sister and I were schooled by him personally."
Father always wanted them to study.
But Lu Tong hated studying when she was young.
She didn’t understand the use of reading; it couldn’t earn silver like commerce, nor could it replace food when hungry. Even with the imperial examinations, very few from Changwu County ever passed to become juren. Moreover, she couldn’t sit for the exams and become an official like Lu Qian.
The auntie next door teased her with a smile, "Miss San, you should listen to your father and study well, so you can become a learned woman someday. Your mother’s poetry won her your father’s affection."
Lu Tong looked skeptically at her mother airing clothes in the distance and firmly denied, "That’s not true. My father didn’t like my mother because she could write poetry, but because she was beautiful!"