There is no guarantee for the lottery? So what?

When I was little, I heard adults say that setting off firecrackers during the New Year was to drive away a ferocious beast called 'Nian' and make it leave our home.

At the time, I was very happy, thinking that I, a little kid, could drive away such a powerful thing just by setting off firecrackers. I felt incredibly awesome.

But later, I realized that I was that Nian beast.

Every year, I would go home before the New Year, leave after the New Year and the firecrackers were set off, and wait for the next New Year to come again.

It was as if the firecrackers were not exploding gunpowder, but our lost innocence.

New Year's Eve.

In the old courtyard of the Qi family.

Father Qi, holding a match in his hand, looked at the warm sunlight reflected by the icicles under the eaves and sighed softly:

"Winter goes, spring comes, but flowers don't bloom; the old year departs, the new year arrives, but joy is absent. Alas!"

At that moment, the match in his hand quietly went out, as if responding to the sadness in his words, filled with a sense of desolation.

"Stop acting like a literary youth! Go put up the Spring Festival couplets!"

Mother Qi, wearing an apron that wouldn't get stained, lifted the door curtain with a knife and shouted at Father Qi:

"You and your 'Nian' beast! You're more like a pig, good for nothing but eating and lazing around. I asked you to put up the couplets, but you're setting off firecrackers and writing poems! Look at whether your writing is symmetrical or not. Go do some work!"

"Okay, I'm going right now!"

Father Qi quickly threw the half-burnt match into the remnants of the firecrackers he had just set off and started looking for the Spring Festival couplets that he didn't know where he had put.

Where did they go?

I remember they were just here?

Let me look.

Drinks, beef, biscuits, melon seeds, candies, and this pile of fireworks.

It has to be said that these fireworks are high-end. In the past, they could only make one sound, but now they can actually draw in the sky, and even have two stages. Amazing.

Huh?

There's also a match left behind from who knows when?

It probably won't light, right?

Let's try.

......

"Zhayin, my grandpa's little dog is so awesome, it can do backflips! Do you want to come and see it next New Year?"

Qi Jing, wearing new clothes and lying on a sun chair, was chatting on the phone with Tan Zhayin, finishing up the last bit of their phone conversation for the year.

Tan Zhayin said in a disdainful tone:

"My family's monkey can do that too, and it's much rarer. I don't want to see your little dog."

"Ah? Your family has a monkey? How come I didn't know? Doesn't your family only have Jile?"

Qi Jing's hand, which was secretly eating a tangerine, suddenly stopped in mid-air.

How come he hadn't heard that Zhayin's family had a monkey?

Could it be.

That her grandfather runs a zoo?

Hearing no sound from the other end of the phone for a long time, Tan Zhayin said with a smile:

"Silly, do you really believe I have a monkey?"

"Ah? You don't have one?"

"Of course not, have you ever seen anyone keep a monkey as a pet?"

Hearing her words, Qi Jing suddenly realized.

Yeah, no normal family keeps a monkey. How could he have actually believed it?

But he definitely had to continue the conversation to show off his extensive knowledge:

"Tang Sanzang did. Tang Sanzang kept a monkey."

"This monk is talking about you, this monkey, who lies in bed all day long, only knowing how to read novels and play games."

Lying in bed?

Qi Jing quickly sat up.

But when he saw that he was sitting on a rocking sun chair, he fell back down.

This isn't a bed:

"Hey, Master, watch Sun Wukong flip a somersault to your side."

Tan Zhayin replied:

"Don't bother, you should just go knead your dumplings."

"Call me 'dear husband,' and how about I give you a small cannon that can launch dumplings like fireworks?"

As soon as Qi Jing finished speaking, a burst of crackling sounds suddenly came from outside the door, so loud that he couldn't hear the voice on the other end of the phone clearly.

After the noisy sound ended, Tan Zhayin's voice came:

"Are you done? When will it be delivered?"

"Done? I didn't hear it?"

"Anyway, I'm done. If you dare to go back on your word, I'll, I'll punish you with a kick!"

"Slurp ~"

Qi Jing, who was imitating a perverted foot fetishist by licking the screen, suddenly heard his mother's voice from outside:

"Are you done setting off firecrackers? You're so old, and you don't know how to work. Go put up your Spring Festival couplets. You haven't put up one in so long. You're slower than a snail, you New Year's pig!"

Then came Father Qi's voice:

"This is the last match. I promise I won't set them off anymore. I'm going right now!"

Then there was a sound of quick footsteps.

Qi Jing, understanding what had happened, burst out laughing:

"Hahahahahaha ~"

However, just as he wanted to continue chatting with Tan Zhayin, Father Qi's voice came from outside again:

"Qi Jing, come out! You don't know how to work even during the New Year. Come and put up the Spring Festival couplets!"

"You can't laugh now, can you?"

Tan Zhayin's mockery followed.

Qi Jing pursed his lips, quickly cleaned up the pile of tangerine peels around him, and snorted:

"Putting up Spring Festival couplets is so easy. I'll be right back."

Coming out of the door, he saw Father Qi standing on a small stool, holding a Spring Festival couplet and gesturing back and forth.

Then he threw him a roll of transparent tape:

"Hurry up and tear it."

Qi Jing picked up the roll of tape and started looking for its opening.

He swiped around with his thumb.

Nothing.

He swiped around twice.

Still nothing.

He switched to his index finger with a longer nail.

Still nothing.

"Are you done yet?"

Father Qi, holding up the Spring Festival couplets with both hands, urged with a match in his mouth:

"Hurry, hurry."

I don't believe it. With my twenty tons of strength, I can't find the opening of a tape?

I'll tear it!

Tear ~ Tear ~ Tear ~

Hey!?

Violent cracking, forceful tearing!

Uh, it's broken.

Damn it! What crappy tape! What ghost invented this pirated garbage!

It's even worse than Yan Cheng's fake products!

Qi Jing, who was broken by a roll of transparent tape, took out a set of small round double-sided tape from his space and handed a piece to Father Qi:

"Use this, it works well."

"Is this easy to tear?" Father Qi asked.

"It's very easy to tear. It comes off with a blow from a thirty-seven-degree mouth."

This was one of the many [useful but not very useful treasures] he had drawn.

Among them was the "dumpling firework cannon" he had just mentioned.

"Let's go, next door."

......

At night.

Taking advantage of his speed advantage, Qi Jing went out for a walk while the TV was showing the news, and suddenly walked to the outside of Tan Zhayin's house.

One of his legs kept swinging back and forth:

"Zhayin, guess where I am?"

"Where are you?"

Tan Zhayin, who was watching the news in front of the TV, asked suspiciously.

If he could ask this question, he should be in an unexpected place that was related to her, right?

Qi Jing suddenly said without rhyme or reason:

"A red apricot."

"Coming out of the wall?"

Glancing sideways at Tan's father and mother next to her, Tan Zhayin's voice suddenly became smaller:

"Are you outside my window?"

"Hehehe, you guessed it~ Come out, come out, I'll show you something good."

Tan Zhayin pretended to get up casually and walked towards the bathroom.

Why do I feel like I'm a cabbage heading for a pig~

"Zhayin, look at my dumpling firework cannon. As long as you put a dumpling in it, it can randomly launch pollution-free fireworks. It's very pretty."

Outside the bathroom window, Qi Jing took out his small cannon and showed it back and forth to Tan Zhayin like a salesman.

Tan Zhayin said with interest:

"Dumplings? I just ruined one today. Let me find it."

After speaking, she went from the bathroom to the kitchen and rummaged through the trash can there.

Then she returned to the bathroom and handed Qi Jing an ugly, pinched raw dumpling:

"Here's the ammunition~"

"Watch me fire a shot!"

Qi Jing took it, raised it, and pointed it at the sky:

"Fire!"

Fireworks · Everlasting Rose

(It's not pretty, don't laugh)

Happy New Year, everyone! Bid farewell to the old and welcome the new, throw away all the bad luck of last year, and welcome a better year!