From the fourteenth to the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, it is a good day to appreciate lanterns. At this time of year, skilled craftsmen gather in Jinling City to sell all kinds of lanterns that they have carefully crafted.
On the 14th day, the lanterns were tested, and the 15th day was the most lively lantern festival. The gates of the city were not closed these days, and the people were allowed to come and go, enjoying themselves all night long.
On the morning of Fifteenth, Zhan Ning'er and Sister Sun were flying kites in the post house, which was also a common activity in the south during the Shangyuan period.
Not far away, under the small pavilion, an official who was staying in the post house for the New Year asked the singer to sing a song for him. The ruler line is too thin and floating, not afraid of you going to the sky. A thread, a section, hold you around. It's not that I don't let go, when I let go, you just go and never return. After listening to your wind, I will take care of your height and distance.
Zhan Ning'er was pulling the kite and listening to the music, thinking about people, and unconsciously she thought of Ye Xiaotian. If Ye Xiaotian was the paper kite flying high in the sky, she could decide whether to let him fly higher or to fly farther away from her by pulling the silk thread here. It would be nice to be closer.
Zhan Ning'er was thinking, and suddenly felt something in her heart, she turned her head and saw Ye Xiaotian and Tang Xianzu walking out in a hurry, Zhan Ning'er hurriedly called: "Ye Xiaotian, where are you going?"
Ye Xiaotian raised his hand to her, and said loudly: "Brother Tang and I went to find Hongyan and the others to play the horse hanging."
Zhan Ning'er raised her voice, "Watching the lanterns tonight, are you coming back?"
Ye Xiaotian was about to walk out of the courtyard, he just waved his hand to Ning'er from a distance, neither saying back nor saying that he couldn't come back. Zhan Ning'er frowned and said to herself: "Why has he become obsessed with playing horses and cranes these days, he leaves early every day and comes back very late..."
Zhan Ning'er suddenly thought that one day when Ye Xiaotian came back, he was limping, and there were obvious mud marks on the knees of his robe. Where did the problem come from? Maybe it was as Ye Xiaotian said, it was because he fell while playing with Kuai Peng.
…
Zhenyuan Hou Mansion, Dicui Tower.
Li Xuancheng walked downstairs excitedly with a box in his hand. Li Xuancheng was good at carving. He had been immersed in this industry for many years and had been taught by a famous teacher. He seemed to have reached the level of a master. Today he carved a statue of Maitreya Buddha with a piece of ice jadeite. The small Buddha statue is three parts warm and seven parts cold, giving people a feeling of ice and jade.
Li Xuancheng felt that the carving was performed very well this time, and the jade material was also of top grade, so once the carving was completed, he couldn't wait to come to present the treasure to Xia Yingying. He wanted to give this jade Buddha as a gift to Yingying.
Li Xuancheng rushed to the downstairs of Dicui, and suddenly saw Mr. Xia sitting in the downstairs hall drinking tea, Li Xuancheng quickly stopped, and respectfully said: "Mr.
"Oh? It's Uncle Guo, come on! Please sit down!" Seeing that it was Li Xuancheng, Mr. Xia was about to stand up. Li Xuancheng quickly stepped forward and said courteously: "Mr. present."
"Okay! Okay!" Old Master Xia sat down, glanced at Li Xuancheng, and said with a smile, "Uncle Guo, will you go to see the lantern tonight?"
Li Xuancheng nodded and said: "With this plan, Xuancheng also wants to invite Miss Yingying to enjoy the lantern together."
Mr. Xia looked at the small box in his hand, and said with a hey: "That girl, you are still angry with me. This girl is really spoiled by the old man."
Mr. Xia stroked his beard and sighed, and said: "I won't hide it from you, I am very satisfied with you, Uncle Guo. You have a good family background, good character, and good looks, and you are even more devoted to my Yingying family. But , you have to coax her to change her mind. The old man and his sons are the only one girl. To tell you the truth, since three generations of the Xia family, there has been only one girl like this. I really don't want to force her to cry and cry for death..."
"The younger generation understands, the younger generation understands!" Hearing Mr. Xia's public statement like this, Li Xuancheng was surprised and delighted, and said confidently: "As the saying goes, gold and stone are separated by sincerity. Don't worry, old man, Xuancheng will definitely use me Your sincerity has touched Miss Yingying!"
On the third floor of Dicui Building, outside Yingying's boudoir, two maids with big arms and round waists stood with their heads held high and their hands behind their backs. Looking at the scene, Yingying was under house arrest. Mr. Xia was afraid that she would escape to have a tryst with Ye Xiaotian again, so everyone watched closely outside the door.
Yingying sat in front of the dressing table and grimaced bitterly at herself in the mirror. She regarded herself in the mirror as her father. It's very rare to want the always optimistic girl Yingying to be sad. Since she was a child, she has never had a wish that has not been fulfilled. How could she be crying and looking for death
A beam of light and shadow suddenly appeared on the wall, dangling back and forth, and gradually moved towards the bronze mirror. Yingying hurriedly covered her eyes with her hands to block the reflection on the mirror, and then happily ran to the balcony. There is a balcony outside the third floor, standing here you can overlook the entire Zhenyuanhou Mansion.
In the distance, there is another mansion, which also has a small three-story building. Upstairs was hanging a piece of white cloth with a picture painted on it. On the painting are a little boy and a little girl. The boy is pursing his lips to kiss the girl's face. The girl has two braids on her head, and she is twisting her fingers in a naive manner.
Yingying let out a "card" laugh, she quickly covered her mouth, looked back guiltily, and then looked upstairs, the painting was rolled up, revealing the second painting underneath , the little girl in the painting is locked in a cage, holding on to the bars of the cage pitifully, and the little boy is holding a sword and is about to rush to save the girl. In front of the cage stood a few big men with their chests and belly.
Yingying looked at the painting, her smile became sweeter and sweeter, she leaned on the railing, her pretty face was supported by her hands, her smile was like a flower.
Ye Xiaotian has been unable to break through the heavy defenses of the Hou Mansion, but Ye Xiaotian is not so easy to admit defeat. When he accidentally heard that the mansion next to him was Liu Junyang's cousin's house, he thought of a special method.
Ye Xiaotian first used money to buy the cook in charge of buying vegetables in the Hou's mansion, and asked Yingying's residence, then borrowed the embroidery building owned by Liu Junyang's cousin, and used a small mirror to get in touch with Yingying.
But at such a long distance, it is inconvenient to speak and write, and it is easy to arouse the alertness of the people in the Zhenyuan Hou Mansion, so Ye Xiaotian changed to painting, and first notified Yingying with a mirror, and then quickly showed her the painting. I saw it by accident, but I may not be able to understand its meaning.
In Liu Junyang's cousin's embroidery building, a whole pile of white leather was spread on the ground. Liu Junyang held up a mop dipped in ink, his face was black and white, and he shouted weakly at Ye Xiaotian's back: "Hey! I said , what do you want to draw next?"
With a sweet smile on Yingying's face, her hands resting on the railing, her pointed chin propped up, her charming eyelashes fluttering slightly, she looked obsessively at the embroidered building in the distance, suddenly, she saw a A very strange picture, Yingying suddenly opened her eyes wide, and looked carefully.
"Huh? Brother Xiaotian, this... what do you mean?"
Yingying frowned and murmured to herself inexplicably.
※※※
On the night of the Lantern Festival, the city is full of Lantern Festival.
A bright full moon hung in the sky.
There are people coming and going on the long street, laughing and cheering.
There is a lot of traffic on the street, and all kinds of lanterns are hung at the door of many people's houses and on both sides of the street, which are gorgeous and colorful. The dragon dance team and lion dance team passed by on the long street, attracting people to follow and watch with great interest. Many people carried lanterns and walked happily on the street, holding lanterns to watch the lanterns and guessing crossword puzzles.
The Zhenyuanhou Mansion was also decorated with lanterns and festoons at this time, Mr. Xia and Mr. Gu were wandering in the yard admiring the lanterns. Given their age and identities, they would not go wandering in the streets, but Li Xuancheng stood upright under the Dicui building, He has been waiting for a long time.
"Get out, get out!" There was a coquettish reprimand from upstairs, followed by the sound of closing the door heavily. After a while, Xia Da and Xia Er came down from upstairs, and said to Li Xuancheng in an embarrassing manner: "Uncle Guo, my Little sister, she...cough! I'm really sorry."
Annoyance rose in Li Xuancheng's heart. As an uncle, when had he been so neglected by a woman? In order to win Yingying's favor, he humiliated and humiliated again and again, but Yingying made things worse. The jade Buddha gifted to her last time was unceremoniously rejected by her, and she refused again when he invited her to watch the lantern tonight. No matter how good-tempered Li Xuancheng is, It is inevitable to be annoyed.
He took a long breath, adjusted his emotions, and smiled gracefully: "It's okay, since Miss Yingying doesn't like to go out, then Li won't go out, hehe, the few of us are here How about having a banquet downstairs to celebrate Shangyuan?"
The brothers of the Xia family were all wine lovers, especially when they felt that the younger sister had treated uncle Guo slowly, they felt sorry, so they responded immediately, and Li Xuancheng ordered someone to prepare a table and bring them to him.
Upstairs in Dicui, Yingying is wearing a cloak with a crane pattern, standing at the top of the building, looking into the distance. In the distance, the gongs and drums are noisy, standing upstairs and looking around, I can see thousands of houses with lights and towers, and a world of clouds and smoke for tens of miles. The city is full of lights and the sound of Xiao and drums.
Yingying looked up at the bright moon in the sky, and thought: "Brother Xiaotian also has a bright moon and a weird basket in the last painting, what does it mean?"
On Jinling Street, Zhan Ning'er was walking with Sister Sun, Hua Yunfei, and Mao Wenzhi in dismay. There were all kinds of lanterns on the side of the road, but she still lacked interest. Until the evening, Ye Xiaotian didn't come back, Ning'er really hated Ma Diao.
Suddenly, the crowd in front started commotion, and immediately after, Sister Sun also jumped up and shouted loudly: "Ah! Look quickly, what a big lamp! Sister Ning'er, look quickly!"
Zhan Ning'er looked in the direction pointed by Sister Sun in surprise, and saw a huge lotus lantern slowly flying across the sky. Perhaps this lantern adopted the principle of the Kongming Lantern, and it actually floated in the air. Under the giant lamp, there seemed to be something like a hanging basket, and there were actually people in it.
The giant lantern didn't fly very high, it was only more than two feet higher than the top of the city. When it flew over the top of the city, the lights on the top of the city reflected the hanging basket under the giant lantern, Zhan Ning'er's heart suddenly leaked After a beat, she saw the person standing in the hanging basket, although it was just a back view, but she would never mistakenly read it, it was Ye Xiaotian, it must be Ye Xiaotian.