"Old Jiang, hurry up and bring the vegetables over!"
"Number Two, get that deer you dressed and haul it over!"
"Number Three, hurry up and bring over the crabs and pufferfish you caught in the river!"
"Number Four, move those legs! Hold that grill steady for me!"
Chu Youning was used to Lin Xiangyin commanding the field.
Chu Lange and Little Wukong watched from the sidelines, dumbfounded.
They had thought this year's Mid-Autumn Festival would be a cold, lonely affair, never imagining a surprise awaited them here.
A little while later.
In the newly completed, enormous garden of the Princess's Residence.
Everyone admired the chrysanthemums and grilled meat while waiting for dishes from the main kitchen, watching the acrobatic troupe Jiang He had invited.
To avoid disrupting their plans at court, Chu Youning had canceled all the fireworks she had originally planned to set off on Mid-Autumn night, replacing them with sparklers.
Everyone present was seeing these things for the first time, and they found them wonderfully novel.
Soon, everyone in the garden held a handful of sparklers, chasing one another amid laughter and merriment, their faces lit by the brilliant, gentle glow of sparks.
Later that evening, the men of the Jiang Family began drinking.
Chu Youning brought out the mooncakes she had prepared long ago for everyone to taste.
Lin Xiangyin drew Chu Youning aside and chatted with her at length before gazing at the moon and speaking wistfully. "Ningning, tell me... Rong'er has been gone for quite some time now. I wonder whether she's looking at the moon right now, too, and thinking of us."
With no one around paying attention to them, Chu Youning held Lin Xiangyin's arm and gently rested her head on her shoulder, gazing at the moon as well.
"She will be.