Although Shang Yunmiao was quite excited about this, she was still more concerned about the love letter Chen Bing had promised her. After riding their bicycles home together, Shang Yunmiao couldn't wait to enter Chen Bing's room.
"Are you this happy about the party this afternoon?" Chen Bing saw Shang Yunmiao's cool and aloof demeanor and assumed that she was just being childish and happy because it was Children's Day.
Feeling misunderstood, Shang Yunmiao didn't dare to explain. She straightened her face and nodded in agreement.
After handing the two love letters from the bedside table to Shang Yunmiao, the girl happily returned home.
After Xiao Shang left, Chen Bing also made some plans for what to prepare for Children's Day that afternoon.
The most indispensable item was undoubtedly his camera, which had been with him for a whole year. Such an interesting activity naturally deserved to be captured in photos.
After wiping the camera slightly, which was a bit dusty from not being used for a long time, Chen Bing suddenly felt like looking through the photos.
It started with photos taken a week or two ago when I visited my new house, then photos taken during the Qingming Festival in 2014 when I swept the tombs… photos taken at the beginning of the same year when I visited Pengcheng University of Technology and Business… and at the end of 2013, a collection of photos showing all the books I'd read, the words I'd written, the paintings I'd drawn, and the problems I'd solved…
These photos were taken during the National Day holiday in 2013 when I went to Yanjing with Shang Yunmiao's family... During the New Year period in 2013... On December 21, 2012, the day the world was predicted to end, I took photos of bizarre human behavior... In September of the same year, because of the Diaoyu Islands incident, I took photos of smashed Japanese products on the street... During the May Day holiday in 2012, I took photos on the Inner Mongolian grasslands... And on the last day of 2011, I took photos of Shang Yunmiao playing with fireworks...
So many photos weren't just stored in this camera. Chen Bing picked out some of her favorites, printed them out, and then pasted them on the wall of her room.
Putting down the camera and turning around, Chen Bing admired his masterpiece that covered an entire wall.
There are photos of her family and Uncle Shang's family in front of Tiananmen Square; snails photographed in a flowerbed on a rainy day during Qingming Festival; meteor shower photos taken on a summer night; Shang Yunmiao wearing a red Hanfu and eating candied hawthorns during the Spring Festival; Shang Yunmiao playing in the water in a swimsuit at the beach in Qingdao; Shang Yunmiao falling asleep on her shoulder on the high-speed train; Shang Yunmiao playing with fireworks...
Wait, why are there so many Shang Yunmiao photos in my masterpiece? Where did the Emei Mountain monkeys I photographed go?
After searching carefully, Chen Bing realized that she hadn't gone to Mount Emei at all because of her negative impression of the monkeys there. Only Chen Shichao and Shang Zhengxin went to Mount Emei; she and the others went to see the Leshan Giant Buddha.
Chen Bing then recalled the comical sight of her two fathers returning to the hotel, their bags gone and their faces disheveled.
Oh right, that's the scene I took the picture of back then. Look, the photo is hanging here!
After recalling some interesting events from the past two years, Chen Bing couldn't help but smile.
I was really wise to make the decision to use a camera to record life. I didn't even think about taking a camera last year for Children's Day, but I definitely can't forget it this year.
Time naturally flew by when one is engrossed in watching. It wasn't until a little past midnight, when her stomach started growling, that Chen Bing realized she hadn't had lunch yet.
Just then, Liu Yue brought Chen Bing her lunch for the day.
After leaving Chen Bing with the instruction to invite Xiao Shang, the classmate next door, to have dinner, Liu Yue hurriedly left again.
It seems business is quite busy today. After all, Old Chen went to school for graduation activities these past two days, leaving Liu Yue all alone. When things get busy, she is indeed quite busy (grammatically incorrect).
After watching Liu Yue leave, Chen Bing went to Shang Yunmiao's house, knocked on the door, and summoned the little girl. When the girl came out to answer the door, her face was flushed and she was still slightly out of breath. It was unclear what she had been doing at home.
"Yueyue has brought lunch. Come on, let's go eat together."
"good."
After having lunch with Shang Yunmiao, the two rode their bicycles to the school gate.
It was a little past 1:40 PM, and the area in front of the elementary school was visibly bustling with activity.
Various uncles and aunties set up numerous stalls at the entrance, driving their own tricycles and other vehicles. There were traditional stalls selling things like creamy popcorn and chilled plum juice, as well as limited-time stalls selling colorful balloons, air pumps, ribbons, and confetti.
Many primary school students gathered around the stalls and vendors, noisily buying all sorts of items they liked.
The hawking calls from the loudspeakers, the children's laughter, the chatter of traders—all sorts of sounds mingled together, creating a joyful atmosphere for Children's Day.
"Chen Bing, I want a balloon too."
Upon seeing this, Shang Yunmiao grabbed Chen Bing's wrist and pointed to a nearby stall.
"Okay, I'll buy it for you."
In 2014, convenient mobile payment was not yet widespread, so cash was the only payment method.
Chen Bing bought Shang Yunmiao a bag of balloons, an air pump, and two cans of spray paint. After paying, they walked into the school together.
Compared to the bustling scene at the school gate, the school itself is a completely different story.
Students in classrooms on higher floors would stand in the open corridor connecting the two buildings, which are well-ventilated, and throw inflated balloons down into the open space below. The students waiting below would then scramble to catch the balloons as they flew down.
Although the balloons themselves are worthless, the joy that comes from this interaction is unparalleled. It's a kind of happiness that only exists during the period when people are innocent, naive, and carefree.
Many adults, of course, would not understand that when they are older than elementary school and have entered junior high school, they would naturally refuse to do something as "shameful" as scrambling with a group of people to grab a balloon.
Back to the playful games, although most of what was thrown down from upstairs were balloons, a few mischievous kids would fill the balloons with water and then aim at the crowd and throw them out with a whoosh.
The falling speeds of balloons and water balloons are obviously different, and everyone can see that, but whether or not you have time to dodge is another matter entirely.
Every seven or eight times the water balloons are thrown, there will always be one time when the children, who don't have time to dodge, get hit head-on by the falling water balloons.
If the person who got hit is strong-willed, they'll probably just continue playing without a care. But if it's a delicate little girl like Shang Yunmiao, then a good cry is definitely inevitable.
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