"The east wind blooms thousands of trees at night. It even blows down, and the stars are like rain."
Jiaxuan layman's poem "The Sapphire Case" describes the grand scene of the Lantern Festival. Although tonight's lantern festival is not in the Lantern Festival, let alone in Lin'an, the excitement is also reflected in the three-dimensional image in the poem.
Although the moon is already at its zenith.
But the city became more and more jubilant.
There are flowers and trees on both sides of the street and thousands of colorful lanterns.
There are crowds of pedestrians, laughing and talking, and various vendors are connected along the street.
Suddenly, with loud gongs and drums, a large group of people came on the street.
The person at the head was carrying a three- to four-meter statue of the goddess, which was decorated with ribbons and lanterns. Behind the statue, there were people beating gongs and drums, people walking on stilts, people breathing fire, people dancing lions... and they were all bustling together. Long queue!
A string of laughter sounded like silver bells.
An eleven or twelve-year-old girl emerged from the "long dragon".
"Hey, slow down."
Immediately, another young woman with a gentle temperament came out.
The temperament, appearance and even the clothing of these two people are rare to see in this small county town, but the pedestrians around them can't seem to see them, and they can't help but avoid them when they get close to them.
"smell good!"
Suddenly, the girl raised her face, sniffed the air, and followed the smell to a chaos stall.
"Old man! Old man!"
She called out twice, but the old man selling Chaos didn't respond at all. He only focused on greeting other customers.
The girl rolled her eyes, turned to the woman who was following her and whispered, "Sister!"
"Eh."
The woman responded and made a finger on her hand.
The old man seemed to have just seen the two of them. Although he was stunned for a moment by their temperament and appearance, he still walked up.
"What do you two want?"
"Old man, what's cooking in your pot?" The girl excitedly pulled the woman to sit down and pointed at the iron pot and asked, "It looks delicious!"
"The little girl has good eyesight." The old man beamed at the compliment, "My bowl of wontons is a time-honored brand in this city. Even the Bodhisattva has to say it tastes good after eating it!"
This was too much to boast about, but the little girl's face lit up when she heard it.
"Give me one...two bowls!"
"Dele!"
Moments later, two nights of hot wontons arrived on the table.
The little girl grabbed the chopsticks, her eyes were shining, she picked one up, and she screamed before she could even eat it.
"tasty!"
There is no taste in this food. It is clearly a fresh meal.
There was a slight smile on the woman's face, just watching the little girl enjoying her meal, but she herself
I didn't even touch the chopsticks.
When the little girl had almost eaten, she said softly:
"It's time to go back, Master is impatiently waiting."
Hearing this, the happy expression on the little girl's face suddenly dimmed. She reluctantly glanced at the busy street, nodded, and suddenly said:
"My mother said that if you take something from a mortal place, you have to pay...Should we pay?"
"Pay?"
The woman's face was full of surprise. Obviously, the word "pay" didn't exist in her dictionary. She looked a little embarrassed, "But, I didn't bring any money."
"In this case..." The little girl's eyes suddenly shouted. "Old man!"
The old man heard the sound and came over, but the little girl took out a jade ring from her pocket.
"Can this be worth Chaos Money?"
The old man's eyes widened!
Not to mention that this jade ring is worth two bowls of Chaos, it is more than enough even if it includes people and stalls.
The old man held it with shaking hands, but suddenly a hand stretched out from the side and took off the jade ring lightly.
"A bowl of chaos is not worth the price. I paid for the chaos for them."
A Taoist priest wearing a fox mask suddenly emerged from the crowd and dropped a few copper coins into the old man's palm. Then, he calmly put Yuhuan into his arms.
The woman frowned at this.
But the girl suddenly opened her eyes wide and said excitedly: "Brother Taoist priest, where did you buy this mask?"
This title made the Taoist priest stunned for a moment, but he still pointed across the street.
"Bought it there."
The girl looked in the direction pointed by the Taoist priest and saw a small mask stall opposite with all kinds of strange faces hanging on it.
"Sister, I want it!"
The woman glanced at the Taoist priest warily, then turned her head, with a look of helplessness on her face.
"We have no money."
"If you don't mind." The Taoist priest suddenly interrupted, "I can buy it for you."
The woman frowned and was about to refuse, but the little girl clapped her hands.
"OK."
The little girl dragged the woman to the mask stall, and first chose a fox mask that was exactly the same as the Taoist priest, and then chose a rabbit mask. One after another, just caged on the head.
"Selling candied haws on a stick! Big, round and sweet candied haws on a stick!"
A candied haws seller swaggered past her.
The little girl stared at the strings of candied haws, her eyes widened. She quickly turned around and said to the Taoist priest:
"Brother Taoist priest, can you buy a bunch of candied haws for me?"
The Taoist priest said with a smile: "Of course."
It doesn't take a moment.
The little girl wore two masks on her head, holding a candied haws in one hand, a candy man in the other, and some random objects, all of which were held by the dumbfounded woman.
She licked the candied haws and then the candied man.
"Brother Taoist, you are such a good person! If my family hadn't moved away, I would have invited you to my house to play!"
"Moving?" The Taoist priest also held a bunch of candied haws, and his words were a bit unclear under his mask. "Isn't it good here?"
The little girl spoke in a low tone.
"I also think it's nice here, but recently there was a vicious neighbor near my house..." As she spoke, she held up the snacks and showed her teeth and claws, which made her look even more cute and cute, "... very vicious! Mother said she would It will cause disaster, and we are afraid that it will affect us, so we have to move away.”
"Evil neighbor? Where's the evil neighbor?"
"at……"
The little girl raised her hand and was about to speak, but was quickly pulled back by the gentle woman.
The little girl realized that she almost spilled the beans.
"I won't tell you!" She waved her hand at the Taoist priest, "Goodbye, brother Taoist priest."
After saying that, he pulled the gentle woman and ran away.
The Taoist priest also waved his hand, but turned back to look in the direction the little girl pointed before.
The waning moon is in the clouds, and the outline of a mountain is faintly visible in the moonlight.
……………………
"Slow down, slow down."
The woman greeted softly.
But the girl didn't care, holding the woman and just running rampant.
Suddenly, he stopped again.
Ahead, a young woman in palace attire stood by the wall of the long alley, looking over with a smile. This young woman has a graceful posture and luxurious clothing and jewelry, but she is incompatible with her surroundings. Even though she is such a striking beauty, no one around her stopped to take a look. They just walked around spontaneously, leaving an open space around her.
"Mother!"
The girl smiled coquettishly and threw herself into the young woman's arms.
“It’s so lively and fun here, can we not move away?!”
"It's not that mother doesn't want to live here." The young woman touched the girl's head, her tone full of endearment, "I really can't continue to live here!"
"But there's no harm in doing so well!"
The young woman smiled and shook her head.
Disaster? Isn’t it already here?
She raised her eyes and saw that under the flower tree, the Taoist priest in a fox mask nodded to her, turned around and merged into the noisy crowd.
She patted the girl's vest and held her little hand.
"It's getting late, it's time for us to hit the road."
Say it, lead the girl and the gentle woman, turn around and step into the shadow of the corner.
Under the corner, there is a row of finger-high bronze statues. These bronze statues are lifelike and complete in style. There are warriors riding horses, musicians playing gongs and drums, horsemen driving horses, accompanying maids, and others. The boy carrying the burden, and the ox cart pulling the luggage...
The strange thing is that when these three people took a step forward, their bodies shrank sharply, and soon they were the same size as the bronze man. They walked to the carriage, opened the carriage, and actually got in.
Then, these bronze statues came to life, the warriors rode their horses to clear the way, the musicians played gongs and drums, the coachmen waved their whips, and the wheels rolled slowly...
Not long after, the carriage and horses disappeared into the shadows.
