Lin Youxi and Xia Yuan followed Mei Fang, skipping all the way to the southern area of the Cultural Square, and sure enough, they saw many people lighting sky lanterns here.
Everyone writes their blessings for the coming year on the paper lanterns, then opens them up together and lights a small candle underneath them so that the paper lanterns can gradually rise up under the action of heat and float to the sky.
Xia Yuan and Lin Youxi stood by and watched others light lanterns. At this time, Mei Fang appeared behind them and patted their shoulders:
"Want to light the lights together?"
Xia Yuan and Lin Youxi looked at each other, and Lin Youxi shook her body shyly, "I don't dare, but if Yuanyuan says to let me go, I will."
"It's okay, let's light the lanterns together! I want to play." Xia Yuan raised his hand.
"Well, I have money."
Lin Youxi waved the five dollars in his hand and said, "I'll buy the lamp!"
Lin Youxi originally came to the stall with her head held high and in a high profile, but when she found that the other party was a burly man with a face full of flesh, she reached out her hand to pay tremblingly, making a weak mosquito-like sound.
"I want... I want a Kongming lantern."
Lin Youxi turned around and looked at Xia Yuanmei who was waiting for her.
"Um, what color?" The sturdy man was not from Baimei County, and Lin Youxi didn't quite understand his dialect accent.
"A... Kongming lantern."
"I know. What color are you?"
This time the sturdy man's voice suddenly rose several pitches. Lin Youxi was so scared that she ran away and threw herself into Xia Yuan's arms.
The sturdy man scratched his head with a confused look on his face. At this time, Xia Yuan gently comforted Lin Youxi, while pulling Mei Fang's arm.
"It's okay, it's okay... Let Mei Fang come!"
So the little girl is troublesome. She can spend a lot of time to buy a lamp...
Mei Fang took Lin Youxi's money and went to the strong man to buy a Kongming lantern. The two little ones looked expectant.
"Where should we release it? Let's go to the river bank!"
"I have to write the blessing first. I borrowed this money, so I have to return it quickly."
The three of them spread the Kongming lanterns on the stone table and prepared to write blessings on the Kongming lanterns.
Xia Yuan wrote down the words "Happy every day", Mei Fang wrote down "Get rich next year", and when it was Lin Youxi's turn to write, she struggled for a long time and couldn't decide what to write.
At this time, Xia Yuan suddenly seemed a little anxious. She touched her bun-like head, as if looking for something.
"Did you lose anything?"
Xia Yuan nodded, "My hairpin is missing."
Mei Fang followed and searched on the ground. It was dark now, so it would be difficult to find things.
"Did someone just knock it off?"
"I don't know... But no one should have touched me, right?"
Lin Youxi, who was standing by, suddenly exclaimed, "Could it be that I knocked it off when I was hugging Yuanyuan just now?"
"Well... maybe not..." Xia Yuan smiled slightly, "Forget it, let's release the Kongming lanterns first, Youxi, you come and write first."
"I, I'll go look over there!"
Lin Youxi ignored Xia Yuan's dissuasion and insisted on running back to the place where she bought the lamp to find Xia Yuan's hairpin.
Seeing that she was running so fast, Mei Fang was worried that she would get lost on the road, so she asked Xia Yuan to wait for a moment while she and Youxi went to look for her first.
Mei Fang accompanied Lin Youxi as they searched around the place where they had bought the sky lantern. Although there was a faint light from the vendor's shop, there were a constant stream of people passing by in the market, so how could they find the hairpin on the ground
"It's okay if you can't find it... It's not necessarily you who lost it, so don't blame yourself, right?"
Lin Youxi shook her head. She did not listen to Mei Fang's advice.
"I know that hairpin. It was given to her by her father's friend from Sakura Country. Yuanyuan likes it very much... I must find it."
Seeing that time was passing by, Lin Youxi still had no results. She was almost kneeling on the ground to look for the hairpin. In the crowded crowd, the sight of her squatting on the ground searching for the hairpin was heartbreaking.
So Mei Fang went over to pull Lin Youxi up, but Lin Youxi refused to get up. In the end, she kicked and bit Mei Fang. Finally, after being forcibly dragged up by Mei Fang, she stood there rubbing her eyes and crying.
"I lost Yuanyuan's favorite hairpin. She will definitely hate me to death... and she will never play with me again."
She was very afraid of being disliked by Xia Yuan. Feelings of self-blame and regret lingered in her heart, and her voice sounded extremely aggrieved.
Mei Fang knew that it would be useless to comfort Lin Youxi now by saying that it was not necessarily lost by her, so he just patted her shoulder and said:
"If you really think it's your fault, then let's go to the stall and buy a hairpin and give it to Yuanyuan as an apology, okay?"
Lin Youxi shook her head desperately to refuse: "No! Yuanyuan's hairpin is a high-end product from Sakura Country. The one I bought here will definitely not be as pretty as hers."
"Although it's not as good-looking as Yuanyuan's original one, but Yuanyuan is a reasonable girl. As long as we apologize properly, she won't hold on to this matter... What do you think? I don't think she will blame you."
Mei Fang squatted down and coaxed Lin Youxi for a long time, and finally persuaded Lin Youxi to go with her to the small vendor to buy small accessories.
Lin Youxi followed Mei Fang while sniffing her nose and holding the corner of his clothes. Mei Fang was carefully selecting a hairpin. At this time, Lin Youxi pushed Mei Fang's shoulder and pointed at one of the hairpins.
"Do you think Yuanyuan will like this hairpin?"
Lin Youxi wiped her tears and nodded.
Indeed, it is more similar to the original peach blossom hairpin...
"Then buy this one. How much is this hairpin?"
"20."
"So expensive? Can it be cheaper?"
"I'll give you another two dollars off. It can't be any cheaper."
Mei Fang was bargaining with the vendor when Lin Youxi, who was standing beside him, poked his arm, her face flushed with embarrassment.
"Mei Fang... I won't buy it, I won't buy it. I only have 1.5 yuan on me. Please wait here for a while. I'll go find my dad and ask him to give me money to buy a hairpin."
"If you want to buy, buy it quickly. If you don't, someone else will."
The vendor urged Mei Fang to make a decision quickly. Mei Fang gritted his teeth and took out 18 yuan from his pocket, "Then buy this one!"
After buying the hairpin, Lin Youxi gave all the money she had to Mei Fang.
"Thank you, Mei Fang! I... I'll go ask my dad for the money later and return it to you later."
"Don't be so polite to me..."
Mei Fang patted Lin Youxi's head and said, "Go and give this hairpin to Xia Yuan and apologize to her."
"Um!"
Lin Youxi trotted over to Xia Yuan with the hairpin in hand and explained to her what had happened.
"Oh, it's not necessarily you who lost it... I don't want you to pay for it!"
"No, I must have lost it. I'm really sorry... Yuanyuan."
"It's okay, it's okay! I don't care about this! If it's lost, it's lost... I'll just treat this hairpin as a gift from you, okay?"
Lin Youxi nodded vigorously, "But it was mainly Mei Fang who paid for it for me."
"Thank you! I like this hairpin, too."
Xia Yuan did not express disdain for the cheap street stall goods. She tied up her hairpin in front of Lin Youxi and asked Lin Youxi if it looked good. The little follower Lin Youxi exclaimed that it looked good. At this time, Mei Fang trotted over.
"Mei Fang, let's fly Kongming lanterns together!"
"Wait for Lin Youxi to think of her blessing words."
"Yes, Lin Youxi, you haven't written your words yet, what do you want to write?"
With the encouragement of Xia Yuan and Mei Fang, Lin Youxi wrote a long string of words:
[Xia Yuan, Mei Fang and Lin Youxi, always good friends]
"It's OK as long as you can see it clearly." Xia Yuan smiled slightly, "The most important thing is that the heart is here!"
The three of them worked together to put up the Kongming lantern. Mei Fang placed the candle in the right position and then lit a lighter. The candle started to burn in the middle of the lantern. The three of them each held a corner of the lantern, waiting for the air inside to burn and expand.
"How long are you going to hold it like this?"
"Just wait until the Kongming lantern inflates."
Lin Youxi sniffed her nose while holding back the urge to sneeze. She had been holding back for a long time. Seeing this, Mei Fang quickly encouraged her:
"Lin Youxi, Xia Yuan, we can prepare to let go..."
"Yeah! Mei Fang, you count to three, two, one!"
"Three, two, one, let go!"
The three of them loosened their hands at the same time and lifted them up.
The Kongming lantern did not fly into the sky immediately, but floated in the same place for a long time.
Lin Youxi finally couldn't help it and opened her mouth to let out a loud sneeze.
At the critical moment, Mei Fang stepped forward, hugged Lin Youxi into his arms, and let her spray all over him.
"Huh... it's all Youxi's saliva and snot..."
It was inconvenient for Mei Fang to pull out tissue, so he asked Lin Youxi to rummage in his pocket for a long time, and finally found a pack of tissues.
“It’s floating, it’s floating!”
At this time, the Kongming lantern finally began to slowly fly into the sky. Mei Fangxiayuan and Lin Youxi ran along the river bank chasing the Kongming lantern for a hundred meters, and finally saw it floating away on the pond.
Xia Yuan put her hands together and prayed, and Lin Youxi followed her example and prayed together.
After finishing the prayer, the two followed Mei Fang and watched the Kongming lantern fly away.
"By the way, Mei Fang, if the candle burns out, will the Kongming lantern fall down in the end?"
"That's about right."
Lin Youxi was surprised and said, "We know that they will fall down in the end, so what's the point of releasing the Kongming lanterns?"
"The Kongming lantern is for us to convey our thoughts to the heavens. As long as it flies high enough, it's fine as long as our thoughts are conveyed. It doesn't have to be placed in the heavens."
"So that's how it is..."
"Mei Fang, you know so much."
The three of them were watching the Kongming lantern fly away when suddenly Xia Yuan was patted on the shoulder from behind.
It was Teacher Yu and Xia Xun who came to look for their daughter.
"Yuanyuan, we've had enough fun, it's time to go back."
"Mom and Dad, look, that's the Kongming lantern we released, did you see it?"
"Wow, Yuanyuan is so amazing... Have you ever made a wish to be more careful in what you do? Otherwise, you always leave things behind."
"Ah? What's falling..."
Xia Xun handed the peach blossom hairpin to Xia Yuan, "You just ran to play with Mei Fang and dropped the hairpin on the ground. Fortunately, little Mei Ya was smart and kept yelling for everyone to look at the things on the ground, so we found it."
"It turns out that the hairpin was lost at that time!"
Xia Yuan exclaimed in surprise, and Lin Youxi also felt happy.
“It’s great that it’s not lost!”
"Then I'm going to return this hairpin to you."
Xia Yuan quickly took off the hairpin and returned it to Lin Youxi, "You take it..."
"This has been given to you, Xia Yuan. It's your gift."
"But, I don't have... Well, then, this hairpin is for you."
Xia Yuan gave her original hairpin to Lin Youxi, "This is also my gift to you."
Xia Xun was of course a little embarrassed to give away the hairpin that his friend had worked so hard to get, but Teacher Yu beside him tried to dissuade him:
"Let the child decide on her own what gifts she receives. If she is willing, that's fine."
"Okay... As long as Yuanyuan doesn't feel sorry about it."
“I won’t feel sorry about it.”
Teacher Yu smiled slightly, "Our Yuanyuan always shares the best things with her best friends. She never has any selfish motives."
"That's true..."
Mei Fang listened to Xia Yuan's parents talking and watched Lin Youxi and Xia Yuan put hairpins on each other.
"Mei Fang, Youxi, do you think this looks good? She looks better with this hairpin than I do."
"That's impossible... Yuanyuan is definitely the best match..."
"If you want me to tell you, which of you two would wear this hairpin?"
Mei Fang smiled slightly and said, "They are all good-looking, all beautiful!"
The balloon is in my hand
[I'll take you for a stroll]
[I have something to tell you]
[Your eyes pretend to be busy]
[I want to try both the egg cake and the jam on the corner of your mouth]
[Garden Party Video is Playing]
[Let’s go shopping together in this world]
Compared to the well-known "Qilixiang", Allen's "Yuanyouhui" may not be as popular, but it is also the most impressive sweet song of that era.
At the end of the road, the three little ones separated one after another, and at this moment, brilliant fireworks bloomed in the sky.
Those Kongming lanterns that fly away with the wind, under the brilliant fireworks, carry all kinds of thoughts of the people who lit them, creating a poetic and timeless winter picture.
In 2004, the young people of that era would always bravely pursue love and would not let go easily even if they were hurt.
Meilijun was also looking forward to his future. He held his daughter in his arms and watched the fireworks. His daughter's words in his ear made him suddenly excited.
"Yes, she called me! Xiaoya just called me dad. Did you hear it?"
"She's clearly calling for mom." Mei Fang said with a look of disgust.
"No way! Listen carefully, it's clearly baba, baba!"
"Mu—a, muamua!" Little Meiya waved her little fist and hit Meilijun's face.
"Look! It's really mom!"
"How could that be! I just heard her calling me dad..."
Meili's army's New Year's wish came true, but it also seemed to be in vain.
This chapter has 4,000 words. Once again, I wish you all a happy new year and a happy New Year's Day.
(End of this chapter)