Birthday (5)
As the Prince An and Princess An dug a hole, put a wine jar inside, and then closed it, the maids around them could only watch helplessly. They repeatedly offered their assistance, but Mu Mingtang chased them all away.
When the Prince and Princess finally had enough fun, the maids all exhaled a sigh of relief and moved forward to help them clean their hands. The maids had been watching the two with some concern as they looked like two ignorant kids playing with mud.
It was finally time for dinner after their long stay in the garden. Although they didn’t invite outsiders, the birthday buffet prepared for the Princess An was incredibly grand. Different varieties of food were prepared in the kitchen and kept warm on the stove. The servants hurried to the dining hall to fix the table after finally waiting for the Prince An and Princess An to return. The dishes had already been set by the time Mu Mingtang and Xie Xuanchen changed into their new attire, and it was already dark when they finished their dinner. The sky was filled with numerous stars but there wasn’t any sign of the moon.
Xie Xuanchen was invited to go over for stargazing by Mu Mingtang, who was captivated by the twinkling stars in the sky. “Look at the night sky. It’s filled with so many stars.”
Xie Xuanchen walked up to Mu Mingtang and also looked up at shiny stars with the birthday girl. The sky was black and looked bottomless, and the stars were like broken diamonds, scattered all over the night sky, creating an incredible scene.
Mu Mingtang looked up for a while, feeling a little regretful, and said, “The sky is full of stars, and the wind breeze is also not too warm and not too cool, accompanied with the light fragrance of flowers floating everywhere. This whole timing makes it perfect to drink some wine. But It’s a pity.”
Xie Xuanchen lowered his head when he heard her sigh, asking: “Why not?”
“Our wine was only buried this evening.” Mu Mingtang said, “It’s only been a while, how can we drink it?”
With his eyes full of mischief, Xie Xuanchen added with a chuckle, “Not necessarily.”
Mu Mingtang’s eyes widened in surprise, but Xie Xuanchen didn’t say much. He just said pointedly, “Go and check.”
Mu Mingtang felt that Xie Xuanchen had made another move behind her back, and she was about to go out immediately, but Xie Xuanchen grabbed her hand as he said, “Put on the cloak first, it’s windy. What’s the hurry?”
One of the maids hurriedly handed over a clock to Xie Xuanchen, and he put it on his wife before letting her go out.
They went to the place where they had buried the wine in the afternoon, and Mu Mingtang saw that the soil was loose. “Why is the soil loose? Didn’t we press the soil hard?”
When Xie Xuanchen heard Mu Mingtang’s question, he didn’t give her a direct answer, but said, “Just dig it out first.”
Mu Mingtang had some doubts, and when she was about to dig under the begonia plant again, a maid hurriedly came over and volunteered to dig. As Mu Mingtang wasn’t keen to get dirty, she just let the maid do the manual work.
Only halfway through the digging, Mu Mingtang had already guessed why Xie Xuanchen said to dig it again. She didn’t find the wine jar they had buried in the afternoon, but saw many unrecognisable wine jars.
Mu Mingtang felt a sense of familiarity when she saw the wine jars, so she bent over and looked at them for a while. Suddenly it dawned on her as she exclaimed, “Isn’t this the wine that my parents had buried for me in Xiangyang before?”