in spring

Chapter 8 Flower Market Lights Like Day

Seeing that the little girl in front of him just stared at his face without answering, the man thought she was frightened, so he slowed down his tone a little more, and said, "Don't be afraid, we are not bad people. My friend is just drinking. You don't have bad intentions when you're drunk and talking nonsense." The tone was very gentle and amiable, but it made people feel that they were coaxing children.

Chun Ying woke up, smiled and said: "It's okay, I'm fine, you go take care of your friend."

A trace of surprise flashed across the man's face, just at this moment he heard his friend yelling at him from inside the building, mixed with drunken gibberish, so he had to clasp his hands again and hurried back to the building.

Chunying didn't realize that what she said and her tone didn't match her age at all. Quan thought it was just an insignificant episode, so she hurried to catch up with the team. The sound of friends discussing how to send a drunk friend home.

Lu Yougui was looking around with Xiaohu in his arms, and when he saw his daughter running over, he hurriedly said, "Where did you go just now? It's worrying!"

Chunying smiled and said: "There are too many people, they dispersed for a while. Didn't I catch up?"

Lu Yougui looked at his daughter carefully, and seeing that she was fine, he motioned for her to come quickly: "Let's go, everyone is waiting for you."

After walking for less than half an hour, the group arrived at the Lantern Market.After observing all the way, Chunying judged that this "capital" should be Beijing. Not only the climate is similar, but even the streets have many similarities, but the differences are not small.Thinking that this might be Beijing hundreds of years ago, she doesn't find it strange, and she can feel a little more at ease if she can wear it to a more familiar place.

Just now, I have seen many lanterns along the way, but they are all hung up by pedestrians or residents on the side of the road. Once I entered the lantern market, it was completely different. It was really fiery, colorful and bright.Chunying only felt that her eyes were full of lights, red, yellow, green, and blue, and there were countless patterns, which made people dizzy.

The lanterns here are mostly made of thin strips, pasted with various colored papers or tulle. The handwork is very exquisite, and some of them are painted with fine patterns on the surface. What's more rare is that there are many kinds of mechanisms mixed inside.The revolving lantern is quite simple, some bees, butterflies or birds that can flap their wings, crabs that can dance their pincers, tigers and unicorns that shake their heads and tails, golden boys and girls who raise their hands, and Fu Lu Shou who grin and nod. Samsung... Chunying has seen many Lantern Festival lanterns that incorporate the latest technology in modern times, but she still can't take her eyes off them.

At first she was very surprised, wondering how the ancients could do these things, until she realized that those organs were actually simple manual manipulation, and she suddenly realized.

In addition to lanterns, there are other things in the lantern market.Some hawkers set up stalls to sell various festive items, some took up space to dance knives and guns, or juggle and fire-breathing, and some used carts to push big iron pots out to sell hot Lantern Festival.Candied haws, the most must-have food for women who travel through time, are also carried by hawkers and hawked loudly among the crowd.Chunying was not attracted by these snacks, she was just watching the fun, but the children who came with them couldn't help but gather around the hawkers, staring at the food, no matter what their parents and elders yelled, they would not Move half a step.Later, it was the adults who reluctantly spent dozens of dollars and bought a few bunches of candied haws before dragging them away.

Chunying's quietness and cuteness amazed the adults, and they praised and praised in front of the Lu family couple, among which Ziyu, Lu's sister-in-law, praised the most.Mother Lu humbly belittled her daughter a few words, and occasionally glanced triumphantly at the other noisy children, then turned around and bought a candied haws for her daughter: "Eat it, be careful not to stain your clothes."

Chunying looked at the red fruit in her hand, a little speechless, looked left and right, took a bite, it was sweet and sour, but it was fine, but the sugar was too sticky, and the flesh was a bit astringent.Turning around, she saw two brothers Ma Xiaodong and Ma Xiaoxi in the same courtyard staring at her with longing looks on their faces. She bit off the first fruit and threw it to the Ma brothers, watching them share happily.

A big warm hand covered her head, Chunying looked up and saw that it was her father Lu Yougui.The latter touched her head with a smile, and heard her son babbling in another direction. It turned out that she saw a beautiful lamp, and hurriedly hugged him and squeezed past.

Everyone was looking at the lights and watching the excitement, chatting and laughing very happily, Chunying stood where she was, feeling a little lonely for some reason.

She remembered last year's Lantern Festival, she took her parents to the cultural park to watch the lights, and there was a fireworks show at that time, the scene was even more lively than it is now.At that time, she bought a lantern to carry, and ate a lot of snacks, such as Xinjiang lamb kebabs, Tianjin zizi, Sachima, ginger crisp... I remember that my mother also bought a bunch of candied haws , saying that she wanted to relive her childhood memories, but she only ate one and stuffed it to her, because the candy was too hard and sweet, but the fruit was too sour.But when I think about it today, I feel that that bunch is much more delicious than today's...

Today is a day for the family to reunite and eat Lantern Festival. In modern parents, I don’t know what’s going on...

"It's an ice lamp! There's an ice lamp!" The loud shouts from the people around her brought back Chunying's thoughts. She felt the corners of her eyes were cold, and when she reached out her hand to touch it, it turned out to be wet.She shed tears at this moment when everyone was laughing and laughing, it was too conspicuous, she quickly wiped it with her sleeve, pretending to be curious, blended into several companions of similar age, and marched towards the corner of the street.

It wasn't until the large ice-carved palace lantern shining with white light appeared in front of her eyes that she really understood what it was that she heard just now.There were actually ice lanterns in the Ming Dynasty? !She vaguely remembered that in a novel about traveling through the Qing Dynasty that she had read, it was mentioned that the heroine made ice lanterns, which caused a wave of fascination.Huh?Could it be that the book was written wrong?
Next to her was the young man who had been here a long time ago, and he said triumphantly: "The weather has become warmer these days, and there are fewer ice lanterns. There are a few more tricks in the past few days! This palace lantern can only It’s low-grade, I saw with my own eyes that day, there is an ice beauty, I’m afraid it’s not worse than the beauty statues in the Jade Hall built by Emperor Taizong back then!”

Someone next to him yelled at him: "Nonsense again! How can the things in the palace be compared with those of ordinary people?!"

"I'm not talking nonsense!" The young man said unconvinced, "The young master also knows that the craftsman who carved this ice beauty is the descendant of the apprentice of Mr. Wei, who was bestowed by the Emperor Taizong as the 'No. [-] Master Craftsman in the World'." People! This craft is hand-passed!"

Hearing what he said, the man fell silent, and a child next to him asked the boy: "Xiao Wuge, I heard that the beauties in Emperor Taizong's beauties are all fairy-like, is it true?"

Chunying was a little curious, who is this Emperor Taizong?Let someone talk about the year name and temple name.

It's a pity that Brother Xiao Wu couldn't hear what she was saying, so he just smiled and said, "Are all the beauties in the Jade Hall real? Fool, they are all ice beauties! That's why they melt in spring. Others say Those beauties are fairies who have gone back to heaven, but the young master said that they are made of ice sculptures, and the sculptures are the twelve harem concubines conferred by Emperor Taizong, so no outsiders can see them. Master Wei's craftsmanship is so amazing that even Every strand of hair is carved clearly!"

The child asked again: "Why did Emperor Taizong use ice sculptures? As soon as the sun comes out, it will all melt. If it were me, I would definitely use white jade, so that it can last for a long time. My mother has a white jade flower." The hairpin is said to have been handed down from my grandfather’s family, and it’s been 200 years! It’s not broken at all.”

Xiao Wu glanced left and right, and slapped the child: "Stop saying a few words, is it possible to talk about such things?"

The child hid back: "You haven't answered me yet, why?"

Xiao Wu said a few words, pulled his face down and said, "I don't know why? Can we know what Emperor Taizong thinks?! Do you still want to look at the lamp?!"

The other children were frightened by him, so they honestly looked at other lights.Chunying wanted to ask who Emperor Taizong was, but she didn't know Xiao Wu well, so she hesitated for a while before she was about to speak, but she heard him shout: "There are lantern riddles there!" Child, rushing forward mightily, she had no choice but to follow.

What they went to was a large lantern stall. The owner of the stall had built a shed with bamboo poles and hung hundreds of lanterns, almost none of which were heavy.There is a riddle on each lamp, whoever can guess the answer, the lamp will be given to him for free, but if he fails to guess the riddle and wants the lamp again, he will have to pay ten times the price to buy it.Because the lanterns in his house are more exquisite and beautiful than others, countless people crowded here, intending to earn one or two to go back.

With a large group of children, Xiao Wu naturally walked around happily.He is the servant of the young master in the mansion, and he can know a few words on weekdays, but now he has the heart to show off, so he read out the riddles on the lamp one by one, how can the children guess, but they are just random guesses, but they are envious Xiao Wu's talent and learning made him more and more proud, but when someone asked him which one he had guessed, he dragged the conversation away.

Chunying didn't follow them around, there were a lot of people here, not far away were her parents and a group of children, so she wasn't afraid.She looked at a carp lamp quietly, and felt that it was very similar to the one she bought in the Cultural Park last year, and she remembered that her mother's boudoir name seems to be "red carp", why not... use this lamp Get it back?
Do whatever comes to mind.She looked at the riddle on the lamp with great interest. The riddle was very simple, with only one word: "flower".Many people can't figure it out after guessing. Seeing that other lamps are more delicate, they divert their attention.However, Chunying vaguely remembered that it seemed to be mentioned in "Dream of Red Mansions" that the word "flower" was taken apart to mean "grass", referring to the word "ying" for fireflies.

Thinking of this, she was overjoyed, and was about to speak to the stall owner, when she heard a voice behind her: "Give me that carp lantern, I guessed it, it's the word Ying for firefly."

Chunying was very frustrated, she turned her head to see who guessed it, but saw two familiar mustaches.The two of them looked at each other and were taken aback for a moment.

The mustache obviously recognized her, smiled slightly, nodded, reached out to take the lamp from the stall owner, and was about to turn around and leave when he suddenly stopped, turned around, and asked, "Little girl, what did you do just now?" Do you want to guess the riddle on the lamp? What did you guess?"

Chunying pursed her lips and said, "I guess it's the same as you, it's also the word Ying."

Mustache smiled: "I don't believe that, how could you guess it?"

Chunying said unconvinced: "Why can't I guess it? Aren't fireflies made of grass?!"

Mustache was startled, and looked at Chunying thoughtfully.

(Note: "Rotten grass is a firefly". This is a sentence in "Book of Rites · Moon Order · Ji Xia".)
(End of this chapter)