Lamp Flower Smile

In front of the Jingde Gate in Shengjing, lanterns are decorated both inside and outside the city.

Sheds and lights were set up on the city gate avenue, the east and west turrets, and various palaces and temples. The two lanes of Royal Street were crowded with people, and children from various schools performed "magic magic, extraordinary powers, singing and dancing".

Lu Tong, Du Changqing and his entourage were walking on the imperial street under Jingde Gate. It was the first time Yin Zheng saw such a lively scene and couldn't help but admired: "It really is Shengjing!"

Sunan City also likes to watch lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, but the lantern festival is far less prosperous than here. The various lantern hills are dazzling to see. The lanterns are tied into different fairy shapes, the clouds and mist are hidden on the colorful sheds, or the large lantern lotuses are solemn and solemn. Among them, the huge Buddha statue is smiling and sitting on the lantern hill, overlooking the busy traffic in the city.

Acheng pointed to the huge golden dragon made of tens of thousands of candles in front of him and said, "Look there!"

The giant dragon is majestic, its body is winding and entrenched on the river bank, its eyes are sparkling, and its scales are actually embroidered with silver thread. Looking from a distance, the whole dragon looks like it will jump out of the water at the next moment and soar into the clouds. go.

Du Changqing glanced at Lu Huan, who was walking beside him, and said with a hint of pride: "How about it, Doctor Lu, it's not a bad idea to come here, right?"

Lu Chen lowered his head and smiled.

The lantern festival in Shengjing is very beautiful and more lively than in Sunan. Don’t even mention Changwu County. Someone was performing magic not far away. Dozens of people were holding a canoe, covered only by a piece of black cloth, and it disappeared without a trace in front of the crowd in an instant.

Yin Zheng said "Wow" and squeezed in front of others to take a look. She was amazed.

There are also people "stepping on the rope". On a suspended rope, a craftsman wearing a red cloth scarf holds a horizontal pole and walks carefully and slowly from above. The viewers are breathless and terrified.

Miao Liangfang had no interest in this kind of gambling, but his eyes were attracted by the person spitting five-colored water on the street. Those people took a sip of water, held their necks up for a moment, then spat it out, and the spitted water turned blue. Take another sip of water, raise your neck and wait for a few breaths. The spit out turns red, and so on, black, white, yellow...

Miao Liangfang looked at it for a long time, and finally figured out something about it. He commented unscrupulously in front of the audience: "I have Duliang incense in my mouth. Let me take a look. There should be Qiulong incense, monkshood incense, and benzoin... Otherwise, what's wrong with the sleeves?" Isn't it so lenient just to make it easier to contain pills when drinking water..."

Before he finished speaking, he was glared at by the performer who spit out five-color water.

At this time, I was walking to a vendor selling Ketou dumplings, and there were already diners waiting around. There is a pool of water boiling in the iron pot, and the white balls are floating in the water, like expanded pearls, with a little fragrance.

Acheng was so greedy that he asked Du Changqing for some money and went in to buy it.

Du Changqing told him: "Slow down, don't get lost in the crowd. Buy two bowls for Dr. Lu and Miss Yin Zheng." He turned back to Lu Chen and said: "This stuff is not very delicious, you can try it as you like... ...Doctor Lu?”

There was nothing in front of him, and there was no trace of Lu Zhen.

When Lu Yun found out that he was separated from Du Changqing and the others, they had already gone a long way.

The long street was really crowded with people coming and going tonight, and it was crowded with people watching. As people pushed me forward, I quickly lost sight of the people around me.

She stood there for a moment, without waiting for the shadow of Du Changqing and the others, she thought for a moment, then turned around and continued walking forward.

There are guards patrolling in front of Jingde Gate tonight, so there won't be much danger. Small shadow theater sheds are also set up at the entrances of each lane. In order to prevent the children of our visitors from getting lost. If Du Changqing and the others found that she was missing, they would probably go to the theater in front to wait for her if no one could be found.

Lu Zhuo didn't look back and walked slowly forward along with the flow of people.

It's late at night, the lights are brighter, and there are more tourists.

Every few dozen steps you'll encounter a vendor setting up a food stall selling quail bones, white sausage, crystal wonton, stir-fried chestnuts, salted black bean soup and the like. There are also people who are using medicinal puppets. The puppets are made just like real people. They are gorgeously dressed and spin and move when the firecrackers are going off. They are more beautiful than ordinary fireworks.

Lu Zhen slowly walked through the crowd, and among the noisy and laughing noises, some ripple-like music floated. That was the sound of the actors playing the xiqin and perhaps the flute.

Something floated overhead.

Lu Zhuo looked up and couldn't help but pause.

In the distance, in the Guangji River, there are tens of thousands of lotus river lanterns floating densely, while in the night sky above the river, there are tens of thousands of fluorescent lights floating. At a glance, the night is as bright as day, with brilliance and mist.

There are still many people standing on the river bank, holding bamboo poles and lanterns in their hands, and are sending the lanterns into the sky above the river.

Are you... releasing lanterns?

Lu Tong stared blankly into the distance, his eyes blank for a moment.

She loves lights, all kinds of lights.

When I was young, my personality was not as calm as Lu Rou's, and she loved liveliness and novelty. My father often said that among the three children in the Lu family, she had some rebellious traits, being the smallest and the most irritable.

She likes crowded places and various New Year festivals. Every year on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, she always pesters her parents to take her to the mountains to release floating lanterns.

After all, Changwu County is a small place with not many people, and the types of lanterns are not as prosperous as Shengjing. At its busiest time, the Jingdemen Lantern Festival is not as impressive as it is right now.

At that time, in order to show that the lanterns were different from other people's lanterns, Lu Zhen always asked his mother to make floating lanterns for her.

My mother was very skillful, and when she took out the floating lanterns she made, she always received envious and jealous looks from her friends. Rabbits, carps, white elephants, and flower baskets. Once, she asked her mother to make a toad lantern. The toad was so realistic that it was a bit ugly. Lu Qian said it was an "ugly toad," but Lu Zhu himself was very fond of it. I like it so much that I reluctantly let it go when I put the light on.

Later, she was brought back to Luo Meifeng by Yun Niang.

Yun Niang was very kind to her. Lu could read her medical books, poison classics, and pharmacology at will. She would occasionally make snacks and buy new clothes for Lu.

Yun Niang wasn't very kind to her either. She was Yun Niang's tool for testing the medicine, and she had to struggle through the life and death situations several times. Yun Niang also poisoned her so that she could never leave Luomei Peak.

Yun Niang would go down the mountain when she wasn't making new medicines. Sometimes Lu Chen wished that she would never come back, so that the tortured days would end abruptly. But sometimes Lu Zhen hopes that Yun Niang can stay with her in the mountains, even if she is reduced to a tool for testing medicine.

——For example, New Year's Eve, such as the first day of the lunar month, such as the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month.

However, Yun Niang has never come back at such a time.

During the seven years she spent in Luomeifeng, she had always celebrated the New Year alone, birthdays alone, and the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month alone.

In the Liang Dynasty, there was a tradition of viewing lanterns on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. On the day of Lantern Festival in southern Jiangsu, people would also set up tents in the city to display lanterns and put floating lanterns by the river. Those bright floating lanterns slowly float up into the sky from the foot of the mountain, but the wind in southern Jiangsu will push them up to Luomei Peak.

At this time every year, Lu Zhen would stand on the top of Luomei Peak and look down, watching the stars in the world slowly falling to the mountain.

That was the only place she could get close to the smoke of fireworks.

She would look at the top of the mountain for a long time and say to herself: "One more year, one more year before we can go down the mountain."

Until those stars turn from bright to dim, until they go out, until looking down from the top of the mountain, the fluorescent stars gradually turn into nothingness in the night, the excitement fades away, and darkness gradually invades from all directions.

She returned to the thatched cottage, and there was no one in the house. Only the wreath she made of wild flowers blew to the ground, reminding her that today was originally a grand festival in the world.

Lu Chen sat up and walked to the small table to light the oil lamp.

In the copper oil lamp, a small wick swayed, causing shallow ripples in the oil.

Year after year, night after night. Only the rusty copper lamp kept her company.

The girl flicked the wick, and the flower spikes exploded from the middle, spitting flames and producing light.

The popping of the wick is a good omen.

She stared at the oil lamp for a long time, and finally said to herself:

Next year...next year I will definitely be able to go down the mountain.

The flowers on Luomei Peak bloomed and faded, the clouds gathered and dispersed as usual, the orioles returned to the treetops in spring, the cool moon filled the mountains on summer nights, the night rain in late autumn, the snowy mornings in winter... The moon waxed and waned, and she repeated the same days.

Another year has passed.

In the dark and deserted mountain, there was no one around. She was guarding the small lone lamp, her eyes slowly turning red.

"Father, mother, sister, second brother," she sobbed, her sobs scattered in the wind, "I want... I want to go home."

"Boom--" came the sound of a juggler by the river spitting fire.

The blue flame was like a large flower that suddenly bloomed, causing everyone around to scream in surprise. Those flickering sparks fell into the river and mixed with countless flowing floating lights, like the Milky Way pouring down from the sky.

"Dad, hurry up, lift me up higher! I can't see!"

The speaker was a boy of five or six years old. He was sitting on his father's shoulders among the crowd watching the circus. He was holding a bag of roasted chestnuts in his arms and was looking at the fire-breathing craftsman cheering.

The father who was holding him was still very young. He said hello with a smile, lifted him up higher, and told his son to be careful of falling.

There was laughter everywhere in the noisy crowd. When the young people passing by passed by, they accidentally caught a glimpse of the father and son looking at the lights, and their expressions moved slightly.

He looked at the father and son for a long time.

It wasn't until someone accidentally bumped into him and lowered his head to apologize that Pei Yunying came to his senses and continued walking forward.

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, people in Shengjing indulged in night tours, and the scenery was noisy. The car is like running water, soft and red like fog. The young man walked through the bustling crowd. The lantern above his head and the chanting beside him couldn't make him smile at all. His expression was still indifferent and his interest was waning.

Not far away, there was a singer playing the piano and singing. When he saw this young man walking by, he was very beautiful, like pearls and jade shining brightly on the tiles. He was also richly dressed. He looked like he was an aristocratic son from an embroidered family in Kinmen, so he sang while singing. , while looking at him with a pair of loving eyes and a smile.

Pei Yunying was unmoved.

He walked deep into the crowd and was about to move forward when he suddenly stopped.

Among the people coming and going, a young woman was standing not far away.

On a cold day, she wore a cloak with a silver-white background and green patterns, covering the dark blue embroidered brocade dress underneath, as if snowflakes had fallen all over her body. Her black hair hangs down to her shoulders, only dotted with a few small, fluffy snow-white velvet flowers. Like a fluffy little bunny.

The crowds of people in front of the stall were noisy and laughing, and she was looking up at the floating lights twinkling in the night sky above her head.

She looked at it very seriously, so seriously that it was almost pious. The beautiful lights all around fell on her face, and her pretty face lost its usual coldness and looked childish and clean.

Like a pearl falling in the world.

The performers in the band are singing: "The flowers are green, the white dew is like frost, the so-called beauty is on the side of the water..."

The so-called beauty is on the water side...

Thousands of streets and lanes are decorated with lanterns. The ten-mile long street is noisy with flutes and drums, and the beautiful scenery is difficult to achieve on a good day.

Across the crowds of people, he silently stared at the person looking at the lamp for a long time, then lowered his head and smiled.

"What a lovely lady."