45 Chapter 45
◎Self-love◎
During the Lantern Festival this year, the lights in the flower market were as bright as day. The moon rises above the willows, and we make an appointment after dusk. 【1】
On the Lantern Festival, the whole city was in a state of excitement all night long.
As night fell, colorful lanterns were lit in front of every house. The yellow lights illuminated the night as brightly as day.
There are shops everywhere, all decorated with lights and colorful decorations.
The streets are lined with brightly lit lanterns.
The snack stalls are filled with fragrance and are mouth-watering.
The acrobatic performances were so impressive that the audience could not take their time to watch.
There were drums and gongs, music and singing, and it was very lively.
The two of them were walking through the bustling crowd. Jiang Jingyun was holding a candy figurine in his hand. Looking at the lifelike little civet cat painted on it, he turned his head and asked Xiao Muyan beside him, "Is this the candy figurine you wanted to buy so much?"
Xiao Muyan had seen it once when he was running at night, but he didn't buy it. After that, he paid special attention to it every night when he went out for exercise, but he never saw it again, and he regretted it for a long time. He happened to see it today, and without saying a word, he ran to buy one for Jiang Jingyun.
"It doesn't look that special, do you like it that much?"
Xiao Muyan lowered his eyes to look at him, the love in his eyes seemed to overflow, and he answered concisely: "Yeah, cute, I like it."
I don’t know whether he is talking about the sugar man or the person in front of me.
Jiang Jingyun's ears turned red, and he looked up at him: "Why are you always so direct when you speak? Aren't you embarrassed?"
Xiao Muyan looked back at him with an innocent look on his face and said, "The kitten is cute, what's wrong with liking it?"
It turned out that I was over-conscious and self-indulgent!
Jiang Jingyun's face instantly turned red. He pretended not to care and changed the subject: "The lanterns over there seem to be beautiful. I'll go take a look..."
After saying that, he turned around and tried to leave, but someone grabbed his wrist unexpectedly.
Xiao Muyan slowly interlocked their hands, his voice full of laughter: "I was kidding, you are the cute one, and you are also the one I like."
…
Jiang Jingyun's face turned even redder.
The lanterns on the streets are rich and colorful, including dragon lanterns, palace lanterns, lotus lanterns, rabbit lanterns, revolving lanterns... in various shapes and sizes, which make people dazzled and difficult to choose.
Jiang Jingyun shook Xiao Muyan's hand and asked, "Which one do you like?"
Xiao Muyan glanced at the lanterns in front of him and said with regret, "There's no civet cat lantern that I like."
"......" You're going to have a hard time with the civet cat tonight, right? Jiang Jingyun glared at him with gritted teeth, "If you don't have one, change one!"
Even rabbits bite when they are angry. Xiao Muyan was afraid that people would get really angry and ignore him, so he didn't dare to tease him anymore. He pointed at a chubby rabbit lamp and said, "Then let's make a rabbit lamp. It's also very cute."
Jiang Jingyun nodded and looked at the shopkeeper: "How much is the rabbit lamp?"
The boss replied cheerfully, "We don't sell lanterns. Today is the Lantern Festival. Guess the lantern riddles and win a lantern. If you can guess eight lantern riddles, you can pick one to take away. Would you like to try?"
"Okay, then please ask the question."
"Okay, sir, please listen to the questions. The first question is, if you see three people in the shadow, guess a word."
Jiang Jingyun thought for a moment and gave an answer: "Play."
"Sir, you are really quick-witted," the boss praised, "Then please listen to the second question, birds roost on branches, guess a word."
"Spell."
…
A moment later, Xiao Muyan had a rabbit lamp emitting orange light in his hand.
Jiang Jingyun looked somewhat smug. He raised the candy man in his hand and raised his eyebrows to indicate, "It's a courtesy to return gifts."
Looking at the smug kitten in front of him, Xiao Muyan's lips curled up slightly, and he thanked it solemnly: "Thank you, I will definitely keep it well."
"Well, it's just a lantern. There's no need to take it so seriously. If you like it, I'll win it for you next time." Jiang Jingyun's ears turned red, and he shyly changed the subject, "There seems to be a lion dance over there. Shall we go and have a look?"
"good."
Just as he was about to leave, he heard someone calling Jiang Jingyun's name from behind. He turned around and saw that it was Su Yuheng and Zhang Zhengbai.
The two of them must have been shopping for quite a while, carrying a lot of things in their hands.
Before they even got close, they could already hear Su Yuheng complaining, "I asked you to go to the Lantern Festival with me a few days ago, but you insisted on not going. Now you're coming here secretly without telling us. That's really mean of you!"
Jiang Jingyun rolled his eyes unceremoniously, "We can see each other every day at school. It's hard to get a day off, who would want to stick with you?"
Su Yuheng was not convinced, "Then why don't you come out with your brother Xiao? Don't you two see each other every day?"
“He’s different.”
"What's the difference?!"
"Don't worry about it, it's different anyway."
"Humph, you're always right anyway." Su Yuheng snorted, "Luckily I still have Zhengbai to accompany me, I don't need you!"
Zhang Zhengbai would always watch them bickering from the sidelines with a smile, and when they were done, he would smooth things over by saying, "We just came from over there, and we heard there's a pleasure boat cruise on the river ahead, do you want to go and take a look?"
Jiang Jingyun looked at Xiao Muyan and replied when he saw him nod, "Okay, let's go take a look together."
When they arrived, quite a few people had already gathered on both sides of the river.
The water shimmers as painted boats sail by, lights reflect off the singing and dancing. [2]
The carved railings and painted buildings, the golden and colorful clothes, make people miss her deeply and deeply.
Su Yuheng stood on tiptoe and looked towards the center of the river, her tone slightly excited, "I heard that the courtesan Yunyan Fairy from Zuiyue Tower will also be here today. It is said that she is extremely talented and beautiful, surpassing all the other beauties. She is the most talented woman in the world. I wonder how extraordinary she is."
As he was speaking, there was a sudden noise from the front.
"Here I come." Su Yuheng squeezed forward excitedly.
Influenced by the surrounding atmosphere, Jiang Jingyun also became curious. He stood on tiptoe to look inside. After a lot of effort, he saw a bow of a ship coming towards this side, but his sight was blocked by a tall figure.
Jiang Jingyun quietly reached out and poked Xiao Muyan's back, whispering, "Xiao Muyan, you're blocking me. I can't see what's ahead."
Xiao Muyan said nothing, just turned his head to look at him.
The two looked at each other in silence for a moment, and then the one in front reluctantly moved away.
The lights flickered and the shadows were vague.
Although he couldn't see the beauty on the pleasure boat clearly, the scene of singing and dancing spread out like water and looked extremely pleasing to the eye. Jiang Jingyun watched with great interest and was completely unaware that the air around him had slowly dropped to freezing point.
After the show, the crowded crowd dispersed and they were also separated by the crowd.
Jiang Jingyun was hesitating whether to go back first when he heard someone calling him from behind. Turning around, he saw Xiao Muyan standing in the dimly lit area by the road, looking at him intently.
Seeing that it was him, Jiang Jingyun ran over with a smile on his face, "How did you find me so quickly? I thought you were going to go back by yourself."
"We're not far away."
In fact, Xiao Muyan's eyes had never left him. As soon as they were dispersed, he immediately followed the direction and looked for them.
Jiang Jingyun was still recalling the performance. "The courtesan played the pipa really well. The sound was like pearls falling on a plate, clear and melodious, touching the heartstrings. No wonder so many people admire her. She is worthy of being the most talented woman."
"..., I didn't notice." There was some displeasure in his words.
Jiang Jingyun squinted at him and said, "So many people came here just to see your beauty. You didn't even take a look at this rare opportunity just now?"
Mingming is usually a quiet and cool guy, but for some reason, he always feels that Xiao Muyan's eyes are full of resentment when he looks at him at this moment.
Jiang Jingyun laughed grimly and poked his cheek with his finger, "What are you doing? You look so grim?"
The other party was unhappy. He dodged Jiang Jingyun's messy hand, turned around and walked forward without saying a word.
"Hey, wait for me." Jiang Jingyun took two quick steps and caught up with the man who hadn't walked far at all. He reached out and gently hooked Xiao Muyan's fingers, tilted his head to look at his expression, and asked, "Are you really angry?"
The person next to him still didn't say anything, but just took his hand naturally.
Jiang Jingyun curled his lips, and his fingers scratched the palm of the man dishonestly, with a tone of arrogance that he himself could not detect, "Tell me, if you don't tell me, how can I know what you are thinking."
"You know exactly what I'm thinking," Xiao Muyan paused and looked down at him, "and you also know who I want to see."
Jiang Jingyun's eyebrows curved, his eyes innocent, "I don't know."
Seeing the cat pretending to be dumb with its tail wagging, Xiao Muyan pinched his chin and narrowed his eyes, "You really don't know?"
Jiang Jingyun was about to shake his head to deny it when his vision darkened. Then he felt a warm touch on his lips, and someone grabbed the back of his neck. A pair of strong arms held him tightly in the embrace.
Under the moonlight, two hearts pressed tightly together were beating wildly.
After a while, I heard a low and hoarse voice coming from my ear, "Now, do you understand?"
Jiang Jingyun's eyes widened unconsciously due to lack of oxygen. He slightly pushed away the person who occupied his entire field of vision. His face flushed and he said in panic: "It's broad daylight, and you're just a hooligan. Why did you flirt with me afterwards?"
Seeing his reaction, Xiao Muyan was startled, and then a low laugh escaped from his throat, "Then next time I'll pick a dark and windy night when there's no one around, okay?"
"Hmph, you wish for it," Jiang Jingyun muttered in a low voice, "If you want to have a next time, dream on."
Knowing that Jiang Jingyun was shy, Xiao Muyan stopped teasing him. He smiled and took his hand again, and asked, "It's getting late. Do you want to go home now? Or go shopping again?"
Jiang Jingyun touched his stomach. He was a little hungry after walking all night. "I just saw a stall selling glutinous rice balls on the road. Let's go and have a bowl before going back?"
There was no reason for Xiao Muyan not to respond.
It was almost late at night, but the glutinous rice balls stall was still very busy. The two of them found a seat and sat down, then asked the boss to serve two bowls of glutinous rice balls.
While I was waiting, I heard people next to me talking about releasing river lanterns and making wishes.
Seeing that he was very interested, Xiao Muyan suggested, "After we finish eating, shall we go and release the Gehe lanterns?"
"Is this... too late?" Jiang Jingyun looked a little hesitant.
"It's okay, it won't take long, just think of it as a walk to digest the food."
"Well... okay." Jiang Jingyun agreed reluctantly, but his sparkling eyes had already betrayed him. "Tell me, if I want to release two river lanterns and make two wishes later, would that be too greedy?"
"Won't."
"real?"
"Well, I'll give you my lamp too. You can make three wishes. Have you decided what you want?"
"A secret. I won't tell you."
【Author’s words】
[1] From Ouyang Xiu’s “Shengchazi·Yuan Xi”: During the Lantern Festival last year, the lights in the flower market were as bright as day. The moon rises above the willows, and we make an appointment after dusk.
[2] References: 1. Two Poems in “Accompanying Chen Lidao, the Secretary of the Central Secretariat, on a Boat Cruise” by Wu Qian of the Song Dynasty: A painted boat sails amidst the sound of stringed instruments, while the people of the city congratulate the country on its prosperity. The flying geese know nothing about human affairs, yet they still make the heartbreaking sounds of the poor people in the border areas. 2. Su Shi's "Drinking on the Lake, First Sunny, Then Rainy" Part Two: The water is bright and beautiful when it is sunny, and the mountains are misty and strange when it rains. If I were to compare the West Lake to Xi Shi, she would look beautiful with either light or heavy makeup.
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