The Lost Tomb Vol. 7

Chapter 11: Lighting the Sky Lantern

After she said this, I shivered and immediately understood what would happen next. It suddenly occurred to me that Grandpa had mentioned this concept in some anecdotes I heard a long time ago.

The so-called "lighting the sky lantern" was an old saying in casinos. In fact, it should be called "lighting a lamp". It was a gambling technique where if someone at the gambling table was found to have bad luck, everyone would bet against him. If he bet big, you would bet small. If he bet idle, you would bet on the gambling house. Essentially, you weren't betting on your own luck, but the bad luck of others. This person with bad luck was your "lantern." Some people were born with bad luck and would lose every bet, so they would be invited to "light the lantern" in order to make a small loss and large gain.

According to the theory of probability, this actually wasn't true, because it didn't recognize the theory of luck. But lighting the sky lantern was absolutely effective.

Any gambler knew that after losing the first hand, he would probably lose the rest of the time. That was how wonderful the world was.

Among the circle of rich people in the south of the Yangtze River during the Qing Dynasty, the word "lighting lamps" wasn't elegant enough, because the number of games was huge and unrestrained, and those with poor luck often lost everything in one night. Moreover, that kind of person often liked to be angry with others. The kind of "you don't like me, I don't like you, you haven't started betting yet you're already running your mouth" kind of situation. As soon as he got up, "Wang's second son, don't show off in an ostentatious manner. I'll light your lamp today." The other party had to add something to scold him back, "You light a lamp for me, and I'll light a sky lantern for you! I'll show you who's boss!"

In the long run, this was directly called lighting the sky lantern. In fact, this terminology was quite appropriate, because a lantern was a torch that burned itself to the ground, much like how those people gambled and lost everything in one night.

This was later extended, and the term was used outside the industry. When it came to auctions, however, the meaning changed. I remembered my grandfather told a story about their boss in the Mystic Nine, who made a name for himself in Beijing. He chased his wife by lighting a lantern while both buying and selling. I had almost forgotten the story, and only remembered it when the old woman gave me such a hint.

Lighting the sky lantern during the auction seemed to mean that no matter what the item was— or how much it cost— the person that lit the lantern had to buy it at the highest bid.

In these second-floor boxes, there were two main seats: one on the left and one on the right. The right seat was considered the lantern seat, so whenever someone sat there, he was saying, "No matter what's sold in this round, or how much money is finally taken, I will automatically add one vote." This was equivalent to saying that no matter how anyone else played, you would have the final say on that thing.

This was generally a way for nobles to pick up women, and was very common in the Qing Dynasty. Political marriages were made regardless of money, so after the government was in power, money was a small matter. As a result, princes and princesses liked to come here after the monarch. Sometimes the two princesses didn't see eye to eye, so the winners on both sides had to fight for the lanterns. This wasn't to see who paid the highest price, but whose boyfriend could hold up. There was no time limit for battling lanterns, but the lights could be removed. If one side removed the other's lights, it would really be a disgrace. At that time, such a thing was even more painful than death for those trust fund babies.

It was a very cruel affair to hang a single lantern, because you had to carry it at least until the auction was over. No one knew what price it would fetch, so the only chance for other auctioneers to get the item was to blow the lantern off and bid desperately to raise the price to such a high level that the lantern lighter couldn't afford it. Once this happened, the item would belong to the one who made the last bid, and the person who ordered the lantern had to pay a price for his own behavior. Sometimes it was money, sometimes it was body parts like fingers. In short, the price was extremely painful, because the backstage boss had to make it clear to everyone that this wasn't fun and games. Therefore, those who wanted to light the sky lantern had to weigh their options. It wasn't something that could be played with money.