“Yes! Baby moooooooooons!”
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked around. Where was my husband?
“Look, Mom, look!”
Eggy stood at the window and pointed up at something. I got up and pulled the curtains out to see what the fuss was about.
“Wow!” I poked my head out of the window to see the eight moons better. There was one big moon and seven smaller ones trailing behind it, arranged from biggest to smallest. The light they cast made the night bright as day. “It really is the season for having babies.”
“Mom?”
“I had a baby; Lady Yuying had a baby; Yinuo had a baby. Now even the moon has a baby.”
“And Shushu!”
That was his nickname for my Farm Guide. I draw my head back from the window. “Yes, and Shuye.”
“The moon is a mom.” Eggy went to the other side of the room and rose on tiptoe to look out the other window. “Is the sun the dad?”
Suddenly, I realized that it was as bright as day because it was actually still daytime! I was still wondering what it all meant when Eggy jumped back from the window with a startled scream because Prince Baiyu popped down from an unseen angle above the window to surprise him.
“Boo!” Prince Baiyu laughed and flew inside the room headfirst. Floating just below the ceiling, he made rapid throwing motions at Eggy, who dodged the make-believe missiles.
Eggy retaliated with a throwing motion of his own. “Explosion! I win!”
They pounced on each other and started a tickle battle while I washed my face and put on a cotton robe and trousers. It was too early for the evening meal, but I doubted if anyone was still sleeping. I asked Prince Baiyu about the moons, and he said that the barrier around the space was intact, and he detected no abnormalities.
The three of us went outside to join the others in the castle’s formal garden on the west side. I had reconfigured the place for the festivities, and this was the place with a lot of open spaces and benches as well as the usual symmetrical flower beds, neat hedges, picturesque fountains, and trees. The front lawn was where we would feast and play party games, but it was also where people could retreat for a while to rest if they got tired, as the party would last for hours.
“Teacher, did you do this?” asked Kharli.
This seemed to be the question on everyone's lips, and my apprentices and the staff were all waiting eagerly for my reply.
“No, I was just as surprised as everyone, but Prince Baiyu says the qi here is normal, so we should simply enjoy the show,” I said.
“I think this is a good omen,” said Mo.
My other apprentices nodded.
“Okay, let’s meet up when it’s time for dinner,” I said.
We picked up Cutie from her house in the garden, and I strolled along the paths with my husband and son, trying to see if the moons looked the same from different angles. The Mustard Tree farm was in perpetual summer, and the air felt pleasantly warm on my skin. I thought about the moon. I didn’t get any System pop-ups, which meant it wasn't a quest or event. Perhaps the moon multiplying was something that happened every New Year.
An hour later, Kharli approached me with a book in hand. “Teacher, I knew I remembered something like this. I found this in one of Scholar Wu’s history books.”
Prince Baiyu and I read the passages she pointed out to us.
“...on midday, we saw two false suns beside the real one, haloed by two rainbow arcs on either side. The false suns were smaller and not as bright as the real one.”
This was recorded in antiquity before a decisive battle between the Crow and Black Dog clan. The crows, whose clan emblem was a three-legged crow that represented the sun, took it as a good omen and thoroughly routed their enemy.
“I remember this from my lessons, too, but it’s about the sun, not the moon,” said Prince Baiyu.
A thought struck me, and I laughed. “Oh, maybe it’s because I’ve been playing at being a rabbit recently. Maybe the Jade Rabbit is showing me a sign of favor.”
“What Jade Rabbit?” asked Prince Baiyu.
Eggy looked delighted. “The moon is a mommy rabbit?”
I realized they probably didn’t have this myth in this world.
“The Jade Rabbit that lives on the moon. Give me a moment, and I’ll show you.” I took a photo of the moon using the System camera function and printed it out. Then I used a pen to outline the dark parts, which looked something like a rabbit with a square shape at its feet. “See this? It’s the moon rabbit using a mortar and pestle to grind ingredients for the elixir of immortality.”
“Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit!”
Eggy showed my drawing to Kharli first, then they both ran off to show it to the others.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Interesting,” said Prince Baiyu. “That isn’t the moon I know.”
“It isn’t? Shall we go outside to take a picture of the moon?”
We waited until Eggy was done, and the three of us went outside.
“No rabbit.” Prince Baiyu pointed at the moon.
I couldn’t really see the details without a telescope, so I took a picture and printed it. “No rabbit.”
“I like the rabbit moon,” said Eggy, holding the picture to his chest.
“Anyway, in this world, it's the moon bear that’s associated with the moon,” said Prince Baiyu.
Eggy and I checked the picture and tried to find the bear in it.
“No, there is no bear on the moon.” Prince Baiyu chuckled. “What I mean is the black bear of the north, it has a white crescent-shaped marking on its chest.”
“Moon rabbits are better than moon bears,” said Eggy.
With that, we returned to the castle, and after a short time of chatting with my apprentices about the moons, it was finally time to eat.
The party was for everyone, so I persuaded Fengying and Deming to join us. Thus, the kitchen staff had prepared the food beforehand, with the System keeping it fresh for us. I took the buffet table with all the New Year’s Eve dishes on it and placed it in the middle of the party area for people to take whatever they wanted.
I sat at the head of the table with my husband and child and let my apprentices bring us plates and bowls filled with goodies from the buffet in a display of filial piety.
As was the custom both here and on Earth, there were the usual luxury food ingredients like ginseng, bird’s nest, and truffles, as well as the stuff that was considered lucky, such as sticky rice cake, dumplings, fish, longevity noodles, and my favorite, rice balls in broth, also called tangyuan. The Demon Chef was quite considerate of our different tastes and made both sweet and savory ones. I liked both and merrily filled my stomach with the sausage and minced meat-filled ones first, and then the sweet ones filled with red bean paste, black sesame, and lotus seed paste for dessert.
Though I sampled every type of rice ball, I and the others made sure not to eat too much because of the upcoming event I had scheduled. When everyone was done eating, Fengying gave me the signal, and Prince Baiyu announced the start of the games.
I put the buffet and dining tables back inside my inventory, dishes and all, for the staff to clear and clean out later. Then I placed long benches on all four sides of the front lawn, leaving the center space open.
Lari, Kharli, and Mo then went around with a large cotton sack filled with colored balls. Everyone reached in, and whatever color they drew was their team color. Each side of the lawn was then divided into the red, blue, yellow, and white teams. I got red, Eggy got yellow, and Prince Baiyu didn’t get anything because he was to serve as the judge and record all the points for all the teams. Fengying and Deming together would be the referees.
I placed a wooden table in one corner and heaped the prizes on it. Since the games were just for fun, the prizes I provided were not silver or gold coins, but rather, the snacks and drinks from the vending machines we had plundered. The winning team would receive a wooden acorn trophy, which would be painted their color and engraved with their names.
The first was a simple game of “Day or Night.”
Everyone formed a line, and when the referee said “Go!” people went to either the left or right side, which meant, respectively, day or night. Prince Baiyu then flipped a coin, with one side designated day and the other night. The people on the wrong side were eliminated and the last person standing was the winner.
One of the maids from the white team won and chose a [Mermaid Mist] as her prize.
[Mermaid Mist:
Soda with a citrus flavor and a hint of seawater.]
The next game was a balloon popping one. Balloons were basically unknown in this world, but I was able to get plenty from the Cash Shop’s numerous birthday party-themed furniture packs. I gave everyone a balloon, then directed the teams to form separate lines beyond a line I drew on the ground. Then I put four chairs in front of them and had Eggy demonstrate how to pop the balloons by sitting on them. The items from the Cash Shop were much sturdier than one would expect, so it took him a while.
“Go!” Fengying gave the signal, and one by one they rushed forward to pop the balloons to much laughter and cheering.
This time, the red team won, and all the members of the team shared the prize of three bags of caramel popcorn.
And so we spent the night in revelry, playing more simple team games that I taught them, such as Simon Says, musical chairs, hot potato, as well as the egg relay race, but with a potato instead of an egg, and a six-legged race, which was a race but had five people with their legs tied together.
By the end of it, the red team emerged as the overall winner.
We were all tired and left to rest in our rooms. One hour before midnight, we changed into our new clothes and waited for the end of the year at the main farmhouse’s outer courtyard, which was decorated with both plum blossoms and orchids.
The plum blossom was the symbol of winter resilience, as it bloomed even when snow still covered the plum tree’s branches, representing the will to flourish in adverse conditions.
The orchid, meanwhile, was the flower that symbolized spring. Blooming in the wild, deep forest, it releases its subtle and elegant scent even when no one is around to admire it, representing the nature of a true gentleman of good character who acts nobly even when such acts are not noticed by society.
I explained these things to Eggy, who said, “I like flowers because they are pretty.”
We drank warm soup and nibbled on rice cakes. I had a big clock displaying the time. As midnight approached, my apprentices did the countdown.
“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.”
“Happy New Year!” we shouted as one.
I wanted to hug and kiss my family to start the year properly, but my field of vision was suddenly covered by dozens and dozens of System popups. All around me were gasps and screams of surprise and terror.
“What is that?”
“Something’s here!”
“I see writing in the air!”
“Is it another omen?”
While everyone, including me, was bewildered, Lari was the first to catch on. “I know what it is! Everyone, think in your mind, ‘read the text out loud’ and listen to what it says.”
“You think it’s the System?” Kharli asked him.
“What else? Did you also get popups?”
“I did,” said Mo.
“Me, too,” said Kharli.
“Me, three,” I said.
“Mom! I got a System message, too!” said Eggy.
How could that be? I had pretended to add him to the System when he asked, but nothing happened when we did that. Did everyone really have a System now, too?
After a round of questioning, I verified that all of the humans had somehow gotten quests from the System.
I closed all of my own popups except for the one.
[Quest Available: Great Restoration Decree of Samsara Severance and Life Reversal, Resurrection of the Crimson Pearl Flower and the Underworld Defying Heavenly Jade]
[Great Restoration Decree of Samsara Severance and Life Reversal, Resurrection of the Crimson Pearl Flower and the Underworld Defying Heavenly Jade:
Plant the flower seed and stone in a deep hole. When the roots of the plant reach the underworld, a new Flower Deity will be born.]
Despite the overly verbose style of the text, I knew what it meant. This was the quest for my mother's and father’s return from death’s embrace.
“Wow, I can tell this year is going to be exciting,” I said.
“It always is.” Prince Baiyu kissed my cheek and patted Eggy’s head. “Never a dull moment with you.”
I laughed and kissed him back. “Happy New Year, my love.”
THE END OF BOOK THREE
THE STORY CONTINUES IN BOOK FOUR
*****
Author's Note:
- Book 3 is now ended! There is no hiatus, and I am currently writing Book 4.
- Now I need to reread books 1 and 2 before going over the entirety of Book 3. My current plan is to add more leveling up and stats to the early chapters. I'll also check for errors and correct them.
- Advanced chapters on my Patreon! Book 4 has already started -
- Thank you very much for reading.
- Please let me know if there are any errors.