Yanhua Kingdom, Loulan, Gardenia Street.
January 21st.
Stepping across the trestle where the clear snow has just melted, there are many people on the road, the streets are empty and quiet, and the lake is hazy with smoke and clouds.
The girl with long silver hair held her belly in her hands, limped to a flowering branch at the end of the bridge, and smelled it appreciatively.
"Ah...can you eat this flower...I can't bear it anymore, hmm."
After chewing it, she felt alive, and she suddenly smelled the fragrant steamer smell again.
"!"
ah……
Is it a bun, is it a steamed bun... Why is it so fragrant!
The girl's eyes shone brightly, she pressed the scabbard harder than killing the demon god, and she passed dozens of meters in the blink of an eye.
Then he fell down five steps away.
"Ah...I don't have the strength..."
She stretched out her fingers tremblingly and began to think about why it was so close yet so far away.
The hot steamer is clearly right in front of you...
"Haha, little girl, what are you doing lying on the ground on such a cold day?" The owner of the store saw a hand stretched out in the air and took a look. As a result, a little girl was sitting on the ground like this, "There is still snow. It hasn’t melted yet.”
"What's inside..." The white-haired girl looked at the steamer with all her attention, as if she could die in peace if she knew that.
"Want to try some rice cakes?" the boss asked, wiping his hands with a cloth. "We have been selling rice cakes for twenty years."
The girl's posture was fixed there.
"But...I don't have any money."
The only valuable thing on my body is this knife. If I exchange it for food, Ayi will definitely scold me to death...
"Hey, it's Chinese New Year. If you can't sell out, you can eat it yourself. Come on, give it."
The boss wrapped three pieces of rice cakes and handed them to her. The girl leaned under the counter and ate them like a squirrel chewing pine nuts.
At this time, you can't gobble up the tiger... hiccup...
Seeing that she was hungry, the boss handed over another packaged ceramic bottle.
"Here, this is my home-brewed rice wine. It doesn't taste too strong, so don't mind it."
"Grrrrrrrrrrrr...ha-!"
The white-haired girl felt like she was alive.
It was unusual to see this happening today. The boss put his hands on his hips in a funny manner, looked at her and said, "How does it taste?"
"tasty!!"
"Do you still want to eat?"
"think……!"
"Hahaha," the boss handed her a few more pieces, "I just told you it tastes delicious, eat it slowly, no one will compete with you today."
Pack after pack of rice cakes were handed out, and the girl just squatted under the counter and nibbled them all.
The boss looked at it and shook his head: "You are not from our street, are you? What is your name? You are obviously not shabby in your clothes. How can you be so hungry during the Chinese New Year?"
The white-haired girl wiped her mouth.
"My name is Anaining. I was originally in Baigang Town, the Western Lion Garden Kingdom. After being affected by the power of the laws of the second-level demon, I flew over from the west in a swish."
boss:"……"
I'm afraid he's not a stupid kid.
"Where is your hometown?"
"Bai Ming Mountain."
"Yan Yun... it's far away. Do you have any relatives or friends in Loulan?"
Anaining shook her head.
The boss paused.
"Doesn't that mean you're taking refuge somewhere today and planning to spend New Year's Eve alone?"
Anaining: "..."
Ayi must be talking nonsense to me now. She agreed to go find her to solve the problem in Baigang Town...ah! Luo Wei, ah, you reminded me to bring dry food, why didn’t you remind me to bring money! !
I walked here from Penglai without carrying a single board...
"Actually, I'm going to close the stall." The boss shook his head helplessly. He originally thought that there would be no business during the Chinese New Year, but in the middle of the meal, this silly boy suddenly appeared, "If you don't have a place to celebrate the New Year, you can go to my house to make do." After a while, my daughter is almost as old as you."
"Eh? You must have a lot of family members, won't you see anyone else if I go?"
"No, no," the boss said with a smile as he took off his apron, "there need to be more people to have the Chinese New Year flavor. I still have a daughter who hasn't come back. It just so happens that you and my second daughter can keep me company so that she doesn't rush me all the time. Call sister back."
Hearing the words "asking my sister to come back", Anai froze there.
"What's wrong? Why are you crying? Are you thinking of your loved ones?"
"Yeah." Anaining wiped her face and nodded heavily.
"Don't cry, don't cry. It's not just a New Year's celebration. Next year we'll just get together. Let's go. Can you walk?"
Anaining stood up.
"I'm here to help close the stall too!"
The boss didn't refuse, but when he saw Anaining dragging a big bucket with one hand, his jaw almost dropped.
This is……
Silly boy, is he strong?
…
Wuguan City, East Craftsman Street, Jiyun Inn.
January 21st.
Ayi Ning opened the door and happened to see her neighbor who lived next door hanging a lantern.
"Ayi Ning, it's almost night, why don't you go out at this time?"
"Yes, go for a walk."
Just as he was about to turn around, he saw two children coming out of the neighbor's house and surrounding the neighbor's aunt.
"Sister, sister! I want to hang a lantern too~"
"Don't disturb Auntie, can't you be good? Be careful that Auntie falls off her chair if you disturb her."
"No, sister, I want to play with lanterns..."
"Stop arguing, I'll just make one for you. Come in."
"Hehe...sister is so nice~"
"Hmph, who made you my sister?"
After watching the two children enter and close the door, Ayi Ning came back to her senses and showed a bitter smile.
It doesn't look like it at all.
Walking down the stairs, the innkeeper was getting wine in the front yard. He said with a happy face: "You are going out at this time. Have you eaten?"
"have eaten."
He nodded lightly and looked back before going out. There was steaming hot food in the inner hall, and the family was sitting together happily.
"..."
Pushing open the door of the inn, the bone-chilling wind at night made the back of his hands and face hurt. Ayi paused for two seconds, and then closed the door of the inn.
Let’s go and have a look at Zhuqing Lake.
There should be lanterns hanging there.
Stepping out of the inn courtyard, and just as she was getting ready to turn east, a servant dressed in oriental clothes stopped her in front of her.
"Excuse me, is this Miss Ayi Ning?"
Showing slight doubt, she said attentively: "I am, you...?"
The servant nodded respectfully, "Then please get on the sedan. Your relatives are waiting for you to have New Year's Eve dinner."
"!"
What!
Ayi Ning stared in shock, sister, her?
No, no matter how you think about it, there is absolutely no way that my sister will appear in Wuguan City. Is this a conspiracy to harm her?
"Do you know what my sister's name is?"
The servant raised his head and said, "Miss Anaining...isn't it?"
"Where is she now?"
"It's on East Street, we'll take you there."
Ayi Ning glanced sideways, "The sedan is too slow, I can't wait that long."
If her sister is really in Crownless City, then she must see her as soon as possible no matter what. No... If you put it this way, are Luo Wei and the others lying to themselves? Or was the sister not that far removed from exile at all?
With thoughts swirling around him, the servant lowered his head in panic.
"Here... don't embarrass us. When you paid, you said you had to carry it in a sedan chair, otherwise you won't be paid."
Ayi Ning immediately glanced at the sedan, "Why?"
"It is said that it is a sense of ritual..."
"?"
Ayi Ning frowned and made sure it was an ordinary sedan chair.
Even if you want to harm me in this way, you are too ignorant. Don't you know that I am best at internal energy and know everything about the movements around me?
Just right.
On such a boring day, it doesn't hurt to kill some unnecessary people.
Without saying anything, she picked up her skirt, got into the sedan with her back, and sat in meditation.
"Get up~ the sedan~~"
…
In the hot earthen stove room, the smoke from the fireworks of the food was warm. More than 20 people gathered around a large, somewhat greasy round table, laughing and eating food and drinking.
"Hahahahahaha!" Anain laughed so hard that tears came out of her eyes, "Your family is so interesting, isn't it? Did grandma really know grandpa while washing vegetables?"
Grandpa just smiled gently, squinted his eyes and gave her a braised lion head.
"Grandpa is so shy," Grandma smiled while holding the bowls and chopsticks. "At first I just laughed at him for being a grown man with no future in washing vegetables, but in the end he had to prove to me that he has a manly side..."
"Huh? Grandpa, who is usually so gentle, still has such a side. I have never seen him get angry since I was a child."
"When I was a child, I still remember that when the bully from the next street came over, it wasn't just my father who stopped in front of my mother."
"It's all in the past, it's in the past..." Grandpa said shyly, "Everyone eat more meat, and our family will be more and more hopeful this year."
"That's great," Anaining said after eating half of the lion's head. "It turns out that so many family members feel this way."
The boss's second daughter hugged her arm and said, "Okay, okay, since we are eating here today, you are also our family. Come on, tell me what happened to the devil in the end..."
Anai suddenly cheered up.
"Speaking of this, I am no longer sleepy. At that time, I swished, and he whizzed, and then he flew into the sky and caused thunder. So I used my sword to gather momentum and used the move "Pull out the moon and ascend to the sky". At that time That’s called a crackling…”
The family couldn't help but laugh while holding on to their bowls and chopsticks.
Why did she bring this topic back again?
…
"Sedan~fall~~"
Ayi Ning opened the curtain and took a look outside, Yufengxuan?
How could my sister have the money to host a New Year’s Eve dinner in a place like this?
She got out of the sedan neatly, turned around and took precautions. No one attacked her, and the bearers packed up the sedan and left.
Standing alone, Ayi Ning raised her head and looked at the brightly lit pavilion, with a slight light shining in her eyes.
Could it be that sister... is it true?
With uncertainty and doubt, he walked up the steps, walked towards the warm place of light, and opened the door like a child opening a gift box.
(Prosperous...)
The lively noise reached her ears, and the scene inside made her startled.
The entire lobby was filled with banquets, and the seats were all filled with unknown people. There were not only humans, but also elves and dwarves, as well as demons and succubus, even dragons, the light camp and the dark camp even sat at the same table. They competed with each other for their drinking power and grabbed the hot dishes and rice on the table.
This bustling scene made her stand there like a confused child.
Did I go wrong? Or is there someone in the inn named Ayi Ning? But the surname Ning is obviously very rare in the East.
No, how to explain that the bearer knew that her sister was Anaining?
But this...
Ayi Ning really didn't know how she was going to fit into this atmosphere, so she looked around in confusion, hoping to find that familiar figure.
"Ayi Ning!"
Suddenly someone called her.
Looking up, Vermeer with long dark golden hair was sitting there, wearing a gold-patterned oriental brocade skirt, waving to her on the main stage on the second floor.
"Here here~"
Ayi Ning was slightly stunned.
After taking another look around, could this large group of people have been arranged by them?
She paused before remembering the first words the servant said after confirming her identity.
Relatives?
She should have only one relative in this world: her sister, but if she wasn't her sister...
"Pfft..."
She suddenly laughed.
This guy is really brave.
It was as if all the doubts and confusion in her heart had turned into amusement and joy at this moment. She suddenly found her place in this environment and stepped onto the steps to the second floor without hesitation.
In front of a round table covered with a bright red tablecloth, although some of the people on this table could not be named, they were all known to her.
Vermeer, Shaye, Croxie, all the orc employees in the workshop, the yellow-haired craftsman at the promotion banquet that day, the blond adventurer and all his teammates, Lewis and several "Suying" cadres.
certainly.
The guy who calls himself her brother-in-law is also indispensable.
"You don't mean you don't have time." She looked at Luo Wei with a reproachful smile in her eyes.
"That's right," Luo Wei, wearing a black oriental brocade suit, responded with a smile, "I was busy preparing so many things, so of course I didn't have time, so I had to call you over for dinner in the end."
sophistry.
She glared at him.
"Sit down, everyone is waiting for you." Crossy smiled and patted the vacant seat.
As she settled down and sat down, her eyes brightened slightly as she saw the steaming meals being served one after another by the restaurant staff.
The most popular among them is undoubtedly the dumplings.
Ayi Ning felt amused and laughed: "Why is it so ugly?"
There were plates of dumplings, some big and some small, some with more stuffing and some with less stuffing. Many of them even had their skins broken and the soup flowed out.
Luo Wei helplessly spread his hands.
"You have to consider that dwarves have big hands, demons don't have much patience, and succubi always want to stuff them full..."
Ayi Ning was startled when she heard this, and glanced towards the banquet hall under the railing.
He actually asked the dwarf to make dumplings? ?
Also, succubus? ?
"Could this meal of yours be..."
"That's right," Vermeer answered the question for him, "it was made by the concerted efforts of everyone in this restaurant~"
Ayi Ning lowered her head and couldn't help laughing.
Let all races unite to compete in making dumplings. I'm afraid he is the only one in the world who can do it.
Just...what's the reason?
Although it feels ridiculous.
But what the hell.
She smiled very happily, her eyes turned into crescent moons, and for the first time she felt a sense of belonging in this foreign country.
Maybe it's really nice for my sister to be with him, and even I am touched by this happiness.
"Come on, come on, eat the fish." Seeing the fish being served, Luo Wei picked it up with chopsticks without hesitation.
His skillful movements immediately made the people around him look at the tools in their hands in confusion.
Ayi Ning hit his chopsticks with her chopsticks unceremoniously.
"Don't you know ladies are first?"
She first took a piece of fish for Croxie, and then took a piece for each of the other women.
Joey looked at the wooden sticks of the same length and wondered for a long time, but he couldn't figure out how they were clamped together.
The dwarves below couldn't stand it anymore and started tearing it apart.
"Hahaha~hahaha~"
Looking at these scenes of laughter and laughter, Ayi Ning couldn't remember how long it had been since she had laughed so happily.
But she is now.
Really happy.
…
The bustle continued late into the night.
Full of warmth in her arms, Ayi Ning/Anaining started to walk out of the door.
When they arrived at the bridge, the lanterns were already hung up. The two of them looked up to the east/west, as if they were bound by a long river.
How are you doing, sister?
I'm here and I'm having a great time today.
No matter where you are, as long as we are connected in our hearts, one day we will be reunited.
…
Where do old friends go? The buildings and bridges are by the side.
It's time to bid farewell to the old year, and it's hard to live alone.
but,
It looks like new every year, and it still looks like today.
Live up to the Spring and Autumn Period, and we will meet again.
Hope for the future——
Isn't it a beautiful scenery?
This chapter is free. Happy New Year to everyone~
This article is written for those who cannot be reunited with their loved ones today. May we see you again next year!
PS: There are three pictures, waiting for review
(End of chapter)
