Spring Festival.
Yuan Yuanyuan didn't meet anyone on the way from her home to the pub. She originally thought that she might happen to see one or two people wandering on the street, but she didn't even see a dog.
Later she thought about it and realized that she had never walked back and forth on the streets during the New Year before, so she naturally didn't know that the streets would look like this during the New Year.
When Yuan Yuanyuan walked to the front of her small courtyard, she used a chessboard trick. She wanted to see if there were any monsters hiding around, but she didn't hear any heartbeats around, but instead heard a lot of chaotic sounds on the street behind.
She looked over there, and saw a light rising into the sky. However, the color of this light was not red, but a mixture of gold and purple, which looked a bit magnificent.
A lot of the light was blocked by the building in front of her, but it still came through faintly, forming a vague outline in front of her.
Yuan Yuanyuan squinted her eyes and looked over there. That was the direction of the square. She had seen the scene over there on her mobile phone, but she didn't expect that when she came over to see it with her own eyes, it would be like this.
The red, gold and purple mixed together were particularly dazzling, as if they were going to light up the entire sky. Yuan Yuanyuan didn't know why, but she suddenly remembered the auspicious golden light behind the Buddha every time he appeared in the old version of Journey to the West...
She shook her head. The monster didn't seem to believe in Buddhism, so she lowered her head and opened the door with the key. As soon as she pushed the door open, she looked towards the yard and was suddenly stunned.
There was actually a person in the yard... sitting under the tree created by magic, looking drowsy.
Yuan Yuanyuan's eyes widened. She didn't know when Liu An was squatting under the tree. But then she thought something was wrong. Why didn't she sense anyone in the house from outside
She pondered for a moment, then took another step forward before she began to hear her heartbeat in her ears.
Yuan Yuanyuan felt a faint smell in the air and frowned. She sniffed carefully and discovered something fishy.
Someone here has used an illusion... and this illusion is particularly familiar.
An illusion that is so familiar to him...either he used it himself, or he was taught by Yuan Yuanyuan.
Yuan Yuanyuan knew what was going on. She walked over and patted Liu An on the shoulder, "Don't sleep here. You'll catch a cold."
Liu An, who was under the tree, sniffed and opened his eyes in a daze. Yuan Yuanyuan was pondering the principle of the illusion around him. This should be Liu An's own idea. He used illusion to hide his heartbeat and breathing. It was really amazing. If Yuan Yuanyuan didn't know the principle of this thing, she wouldn't understand it.
As soon as Liu An opened his eyes, he saw Yuan Yuanyuan squatting in front of him. He sat up with a start and said, "Boss."
"Why are you staying here?" Yuan Yuanyuan asked.
"Well... the friend I live with went out today. I felt quite bored, so I just packed my bag and came back." Liu An said.
Oh, that’s right… Liu An’s friend is a monster. He must have gone out to hang out today and probably couldn’t accompany Liu An.
"Then won't you go with him?" Yuan Yuanyuan took out the key and opened the door of the small building, asking as she opened the door.
"I... don't like going out during the Chinese New Year." Liu An said.
"Pfft, what a weird habit you have, you're just like a human." Yuan Yuanyuan felt inexplicably happy when she heard this. She didn't know why she was happy. Maybe it was because she had seen so many monsters who had to go out during the New Year, and now she suddenly ran into a monster who didn't go out like a human, and she actually felt quite friendly.
After hearing this, Liu An behind her touched the back of his head, smiled awkwardly, and followed her into the house.
The house had not been cleaned up since someone broke in that day, and it looked empty. The broken chairs and tables had been thrown out, and the windows were covered with several layers of newspapers, making it look desolate.
Yuan Yuanyuan pushed the door open and was a little uncomfortable looking at the empty house. She pulled the only remaining chair on the first floor and sat down, then asked Liu An, "Have you eaten yet?"
"I've eaten." Liu An said.
Yuan Yuanyuan was sitting on a chair with her head down, looking for something for him to sit on from a box. Finally, she pulled out a large blanket. This thing was originally used by her to make clothes. She didn't need to say much about how she got it. After listening to Liu An's words, she always felt that these words sounded a little untrue.
Apart from anything else, as soon as she pushed the door open, she saw him squatting under a tree with his arms folded and sleeping. He looked so pitiful. She felt uncomfortable for some reason and didn't think he looked like he had already eaten.
"Did you really eat or just pretend? I remember there's something in the kitchen. Do you want to eat anything?" Yuan Yuanyuan asked.
"I..." Liu An said a little hesitantly.
"Why don't you go and eat something? I haven't eaten much today. Can you make me one portion as well?" Yuan Yuanyuan said.
Liu An thought for a while, then stood up and went into the kitchen. Yuan Yuanyuan turned around and looked at his back. After the window was broken that day, she told Liu An not to come back recently for fear of something happening. Unexpectedly, when she came back, she found him sitting under the tree. It seemed that he had come back secretly many times without her knowledge.
She sat quietly in the chair for a while, staring at the orange candlelight in the kitchen for a long time. Suddenly she thought of something and quickly ran upstairs.
The room was quiet, and the lobby was silent without a sound.
About an hour later, when Liu An came out of the kitchen carrying two bowls, he suddenly heard a "ding-ling-bang" sound coming from upstairs. When he looked up, he saw the boss dragging a large box down from the second floor.
"Boss, what are you doing?" Liu An asked curiously while holding the bowl.
"Ah? I... I'll move this thing down and deal with it." Yuan Yuanyuan carried the box and walked downstairs, stopping one step at a time.
"Boss, wait a moment, I'll help you move it." Liu An hurriedly put down the bowl in his hand to help Yuan Yuanyuan, but she refused.
The box that Yuan Yuanyuan moved was the one that someone had given her as a gift. She spent the hour upstairs carefully counting the contents of the box, recording them carefully, and even taking pictures with her mobile phone.
Now she was thinking of putting the box in a hidden place... The box was on the second floor that day, and she didn't have time to take it with her when she ran downstairs. Unexpectedly, it survived the disaster, and she didn't touch it when she cleaned up later. However, Yuan Yuanyuan suddenly remembered that if something happened again, she might not be so lucky, so she planned to bury it in the yard.
There are indeed a lot of things in this thing... But how can I put it? After all, this thing was not given to Yuan Yuanyuan by others. Even if Yuan Yuanyuan was very greedy, she didn't want to touch it. Besides, Yiqi's affairs were a mess. She didn't know anything now. If she used this thing rashly, she was afraid that something would happen.
Although she was indeed jealous, she had dreamt about the box twice, and recently... Yuan Yuanyuan seldom had dreams about money. Every time she woke up, she would sit on the bed for a long time, covering her face and thinking, "Am I so hungry and thirsty to this extent?"
Yuan Yuanyuan went out and came back after a while. When she came back, she found Liu An already sitting at the table, which was set with two sets of bowls and chopsticks, as well as soy sauce and vinegar.
"This is..." Yuan Yuanyuan walked over and took a look, "Dumplings?"
"Yes, boss, are you jealous?" Liu An said.
"... Eat, you are quite fast. You wrapped two dumplings in just one hour? What's the filling in these dumplings?" Yuan Yuanyuan asked curiously while looking at the dumplings.
"Potatoes and green onions."
… Yuan Yuanyuan’s whole body shook violently.
"Well, there's nothing else in the kitchen, just four sprouted potatoes, a bundle of green onions, and some flour." Liu An said.
"Then... can't you just have a bowl of noodles?" Yuan Yuanyuan looked inexplicably annoyed. "Where did you read this nonsense? People eat dumplings during Chinese New Year, but they are filled with leeks and eggs. There is no such filling. So don't read that nonsense in the future. If you are really interested, come and ask me. The monsters out there don't know as much as I do."
The two of them sat down to eat dumplings. Yuan Yuanyuan started eating without saying anything. After all, dumplings...she could accept any filling.
While eating dumplings, Liu An suddenly asked her what other customs humans have during the Chinese New Year. Yuan Yuanyuan casually told him a few. In fact, some of the customs she mentioned no longer exist now. During the Chinese New Year in her hometown, everyone likes to play with their mobile phones with the Spring Festival Gala playing in the background... However, Yuan Yuanyuan still didn't want a monster to know that humans are such decadent creatures.
I don’t have a strong sense of racial pride, but I don’t know why it suddenly popped up at this time…
So she only talked about things that sounded beautiful, such as setting off fireworks until the early morning, children asking for New Year's money, and adults playing mahjong together... Liu An just listened quietly. After listening, he said, "I didn't expect that you, Boss, are quite familiar with the human world."
After hearing what he said, Yuan Yuanyuan felt a little guilty. She felt that she had said too much, mainly because she didn't expect a monster to be interested in these things, so she said a little more in excitement.
She was afraid that Liu An would think too much. After all, she had something to hide, so she casually added that she had lived with humans for a period of time and changed the subject.
"Then the monsters who live longer... don't they all have colorful lives?" Liu An said, "They live longer than humans and experience more things than humans. If they have nothing to do, they can go to the human world for a private visit. It feels very interesting and they can learn a little bit about everything."
Yuan Yuanyuan was drinking dumpling soup at the time. After hearing this, she held the bowl and thought for a while, then said, "It's not entirely true."
"Not all?"
"To be precise... most monsters are not very familiar with humans. At best, they are only familiar with a few Taoist priests." Yuan Yuanyuan said, "Monsters... most of the time don't pay much attention to humans."
"Then boss, you..."
"Don't use me as an example. I'm not normal." Yuan Yuanyuan waved her hands a little awkwardly. Just as she was waving her hands, a huge firework suddenly shot up into the sky and exploded behind her.
Yuan Yuanyuan and Liu An both looked out the window at the same time, and saw a huge monster that looked like a cornflower exploding in the sky, occupying the entire sky.
The fireworks were so big that Yuan Yuanyuan had to go to the window to see them. She had never seen fireworks so big before and didn't know who set them off.
In fact, at this time, she should have said who was so brave as to set off fireworks on the street, but Yuan Yuanyuan forgot about it at once. The main reason was that she rarely saw this kind of blue and purple fireworks, so she didn't think of it at once.
"What is this?" Yuan Yuanyuan asked.
"This belongs to the Zhuo family." Liu An said.
“… What, what, what is that?” Yuan Yuanyuan turned around and asked.
"The Zhuo family's fireworks, their family's Night Parade of One Hundred Ghosts is gathering people." Liu An said, "Do you want to go out and take a look?"
"..." Before Yuan Yuanyuan could ask who this Zhuo family was and why you, who had only been here for a few months, knew more than me, who had been here for almost two years, a floating float suddenly appeared in the sky. The float was so huge that it looked like a small moving house.
The moon was just behind it, with only a small silver edge of light left. The carriage was pulled by four centaurs. They had snow-white horse bodies and human upper bodies. They wore lavender ancient clothes, and the jewelry on their bodies sparkled under the moon.
The carriage was made of wood, with windows carved with patterns and hung with gauze curtains, and jade tassels hanging from the four corners.
The car flew from one end of the moon to the other, and countless purple petals fell from the sky, soon covering the ground. Many of them fell into the yard, covered with crystal dew.
Yuan Yuanyuan watched the carriage that seemed to appear in a dream flash across the sky, just like the chariot of an immortal in mythology. As this antique chariot flew over the city with countless flashing neon lights, she even felt like she was in a dream.
The car quickly flew away from over their heads and flew to another place. Yuan Yuanyuan craned her neck to look up and vaguely saw a figure in the car.
He was a young man who was sitting very upright, wearing a hair crown. He flashed past her and left only a silhouette in her memory.
Countless red and black lights shot up into the sky and gathered from all directions. Soon, they covered the sky and blocked out the sun.
This thick black and red light was just behind the purple car, like a billowing smoke, and disappeared into the sky along with it.