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The Lantern Festival, also known as Shangyuan Festival, is a very important holiday.

During the day, you wouldn’t notice anything special, and everything seems as usual, with street vendors selling sweet dumplings and lanterns.

But at night, it’s a different story—the shops that normally close before dinner stayed open for business.

Moreover, there were even more vendors lining the streets, selling lanterns, trinkets, sweet cakes, candied fruits, and sugar figurines.

If it were a regular day, these items would certainly draw a crowd. But this time, on the Lantern Festival, almost everyone was drawn to the Fuman Building instead.

In the large open space in front of Fuman Building, ten large square tables had been set up to form a stage since the afternoon, drawing the curiosity of passersby.

Other shops snorted at this, thinking it was the same old trick of setting up a stage on the Lantern Festival to attract customers, a tactic used for many years now.

However, they were ultimately disappointed.

On the stage, a few large characters were written on red paper, "New Product Release at Fuman Building".

New products—they understood that much. Wasn’t it just Fuman Building releasing a new dish? But what did this ’release’ mean?

As dusk just began to fall, the area beneath the stage was already packed inside and out, with people discussing what this ’release’ could possibly be.

Lin Yuan curved her lips in satisfaction at this attention-grabbing effect.

Ma Xiaonan, accompanied by her elder brother, hopped and skipped around joyfully. After nearly a month without visiting the town, she felt almost like Grandma Liu entering Grand View Garden.

"Wow, Big Brother, what’s Fuman Building up to? Look, there are so many people gathered around!" Ma Xiaonan pointed to the stage, taller than her by two heads, both excited and curious.

Ma Junying offered a slight smile, glancing around, but still, he couldn’t find the figure he longed to see. What were they doing? He too wanted to know what she was planning, but the ingenious woman had never shown any desire to share her secrets with him.

Lin Yuan stood in the elegant room on the second floor of Fuman Building. Although she was the main character of today’s release, she had no intention of making an appearance herself; everything was left in the hands of Shopkeeper Liu.

Night had fallen, but the streets were bright with lanterns and all the shops were open, so it didn’t feel dark at all.

Shopkeeper Liu glanced upstairs, and with Lin Yuan’s nod of approval, he raised his hand.

As his hand came down, the Lotus Lanterns at the four corners of the stage suddenly lit up. Below the stage, there was a burst of awe.

"Wow, Big Brother, the lanterns are so bright!" Ma Xiaonan exclaimed, taking a bite from the sweet cake in her left hand and then a bite from the Osmanthus Cake in her right, jumping around excitedly.

Ma Junying, holding a plate filled with cakes, nearly spilled them all when his sister suddenly jumped.

After giving his sister a reproachful look, Ma Junying closely observed the lamps, which at first glance appeared no different from ordinary lamps, yet they were more than three times brighter.

Ma Junying moved a little to get a better view and finally discovered the secret of the lamps. So that was it—a design so clever, it must have come from her.

"There are small copper mirrors placed inside the lamp in a crisscross pattern. The mirrors reflect light, so they scatter the candlelight in all directions, making it seem much brighter."

Ma Junying’s voice was not loud, but those nearby heard his explanation and turned to look at him. Without saying a word, their admiration was obvious.

Ma Xiaonan was not stingy with her praise. She even stopped eating her sweet cakes, her fine eyebrows arching into a smile, "Big Brother, you know so much! That’s amazing!"

A lot? He only explained it after someone else had come up with the idea. Compared to the one who thought of this, he was hardly worth mentioning.

While he was pondering, two long tables were placed on the stage, each with a food box on top. The lid of the food box wasn’t opened, leaving the crowd to guess what was inside. However, judging by Fuman Building’s reputation, the contents must certainly be the star of the day, their latest dish.

Amidst the murmuring of the crowd, Shopkeeper Liu walked onto the stage with a beaming smile.

He bowed to the audience and then spoke loudly, "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the new product release here at Fuman Building. As the name suggests, today we are going to showcase our restaurant’s latest culinary creation.

First, let us present our newly developed dish. "

Shopkeeper Liu leaned to the side, gesturing toward the food box on the table behind him, which clearly contained the new product. But what puzzled everyone was that he neither mentioned the name of the new dish nor opened the food box. What exactly was he selling in this tricky gourd?