What is a revolving lantern?
The lantern has a wheel and axle with paper cutouts on it. The candlelight projects the shadows of the paper cutouts onto the screen, making the images appear to move continuously. As the lantern rotates, the pictures seem to come to life.
Xie Jie, this young master, always wanted the best of everything. Even the lanterns he brought to the lantern festival had to be more high-class than everyone else's. This revolving lantern was made by the most famous lantern maker last year. If Li Qi hadn't gone to the military camp to suffer, he could have shown off to Li Qi.
Just then, an old woman suddenly shouted, "Stop thief!"
The crowd immediately surged forward, and there were definitely many who wanted to do good deeds. However, with so many people on the street, the more they wanted to help, the more likely they were to get jostled together. Xie Jie couldn't even think about helping anymore. He was too busy protecting Fengguang behind him from being pushed by others, and he didn't even bother to pick up the lantern that had fallen to the ground.
Just then, a girl in red leaped up and landed right in front of Xie Jie. She turned around, and without drawing her long sword, she easily swung it forward, knocking the thief to the ground.
She stepped on the thief's shoulder, and with some unknown force, the thief collapsed to the ground, unable to get up. She then picked up the money bag from the ground and handed it to the old woman who had rushed over, saying, "Here you go."
"Thank you, thank you, young lady." The old woman left gratefully.
Soon the patrolling constables arrived and arrested the man who had stolen the money. The street returned to peace, and quite a few men were quite interested in the expressionless yet spirited young girl.
The girl turned around, picked up the lantern from the ground, and stared intently at the little figures walking on the lantern, looking very interested.
Feng Guang glanced at Xie Jie and saw that he seemed to want to say something but didn't know how. She stepped forward and said, "Little sister, this lamp belongs to my brother."
The girl wielding the sword spoke in a voice as calm as still water, "I'm about your age, why do you call me little sister?"
Indeed, they look about the same size.
"If you don't want me to call you 'little sister,' then you should tell me what I should call you."
"My name is Fang Nanguo."
Feng Guang paused, then said, "Your name is rather strange."
What's your name?
"My name is Xie Fengguang."
"Your name is a bit strange too."
Seeing her repeat herself expressionlessly, Feng Guang found it amusing. "Why are you called Nan Guo?"
“My mother said I don’t have a father. If I don’t have a name, other people will call me a burden because she’s so pretty.” Nan Guo said this calmly. She was just repeating a fact, so there was no emotion involved.
Although Nan Guo still looked quite young, her face was already as beautiful as a peach blossom. However, her expressionless face made her seem somewhat indifferent. She thought to herself that Nan Guo's mother must be quite good-looking as well. She then noticed that Nan Guo was carrying a pumpkin lantern and couldn't help but take a few more glances. In this day and age... would ancient people still make pumpkin lanterns?
Seeing that Fengguang kept staring at his lantern, Nanguo handed it over, saying, "My mother made this for me. Do you like it?"
"Yes... I like it somewhat."
"How about I trade you this moving lantern?" Although Nan Guo seemed to live a very ordinary life, she was still a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl who also liked strange and unusual things.
So, there's a certain charm in the unexpected contrast.
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