◎The heart feels unexplained and hot.◎
Although Jinshe Town is not big, the lantern festival held there is extremely lively. Several streets are hung with bright lanterns and the whole town is brightly lit. From a distance it looks like a flowing river of light.
An Jiu and Ming Yi were walking on the street, and they saw people everywhere.
It seemed as if everyone in the town had come out of their homes tonight to attend this grand event.
"There's a game of pitching pots over there! I want to try it!" Ming Yi pointed to a stall.
This lantern festival also has its own unique characteristics. In general, lanterns at lantern festivals must be purchased with money or guessed through riddles and words to win the lantern. But it is different here.
An Jiu saw people playing pot-throwing to win lanterns, people hanging lanterns at very high places for guests to pick up, and people stringing lanterns together with a thin rope, and guests had to shoot the rope to break it in order to get the lantern.
In addition to the lanterns, many food stalls have popped up, and the air is filled with the aroma of food and the noisy voices of people.
Mingyi ran to the pitch-pot stall with great interest. Anjiu looked around and was attracted by the sugar painting shop not far away.
After taking a look at Ming Yi who was concentrating, An Jiu quietly turned around and left.
The man selling sugar paintings was an old man with white hair and beard, and tattered clothes. He stood behind the stall with his hands in his sleeves, and had a kind and gentle face.
Sugar painting is obviously not as popular as those stalls that require showing off martial arts skills. Perhaps only children like sugar painting, so this place is very deserted and no one visits.
An Jiu stood in front of the stall and looked closely at the sugar paintings on the stall.
They were all made by the old man for display. There are pictures of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl meeting on the Magpie Bridge, the twelve zodiac animals, and the God of Longevity offering peaches. Each one is vivid and lifelike.
"Girl, would you like to buy some sugar paintings? The old man can draw anything."
An Jiu pointed at himself curiously and asked, "Can I draw too?"
The old man narrowed his eyes and smiled, "Of course you can, wait a moment, young lady."
As he spoke, the old man looked at An Jiu carefully, then lowered his head, took out a bamboo stick, scooped up the syrup with a copper spoon, and poured it on the oil paper.
The sweet aroma of syrup wafted in the air. An Jiu watched without blinking, and saw a figure gradually emerge on the bamboo stick. She had a graceful figure and fluttering skirt, and she had double buns on her head with several hairbands hanging among her hair.
Then, the little face became clear, with big eyes, a upturned nose, and upturned corners of the mouth. The little face was delicate and beautiful.
"Here, girl, do you think it looks like it?" The old man handed over the sugar painting.
Just as An Jiu was about to take it, a slender hand like jade suddenly stretched out from the side and took the sugar painting away first.
An Jiu subconsciously turned his head and saw a tall, snow-white figure.
Behind him was a long river of dim lights. The man was tall and slender with his back straight, standing there in a white robe, like a banished immortal who was isolated from the world and graceful.
"Fei Yi!" When his eyes fell on the silver mask on the other person's face, An Jiu's eyes suddenly lit up and his tone was excited.
The man in white moved his lips: "Very similar."
There was a lot of noise around, so Anjiu couldn't hear clearly: "What?"
The man took a step closer, and the sleeves of their clothes hung together. He tilted his head and lowered his eyes, with a faint smile in his dark pupils. He said in a gentle voice: "The painting looks a lot like you."
An Jiu's eyes fell on the sugar painting, and he reached out to take it. Their fingers touched lightly and then separated.
An Jiu didn't care. The man in white put down his hand and hid it in his sleeve, but he rubbed his fingertips lightly unconsciously.
"I think so too." An Jiu said with a smile, took out a few copper coins from his sleeve pocket and threw them to the old man.
"This...girl, you gave too much." The old man reminded quickly.
An Jiu had already pulled the man in white into the crowd, and the girl's clear voice came from afar: "No need to look for it, the extra money will be yours!"
"It's so beautifully drawn that I can't bear to eat it."
An Jiu held the sugar painting in one hand and frowned in confusion.
Pei Ji's eyelids dropped, his gaze seeming to fall on the little hand holding his sleeve, then he turned to look at the girl walking beside him.
She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't seem to notice the intimacy between their postures.
Since ancient times, people have always emphasized the separation of men and women. Even the unrestrained people rarely flirt with each other on the street. What they did was considered a bit out of line.
Logically, he should have reminded her.
"Fei Yi, what are you looking at?"
Hearing the girl's question, Pei Ji raised his eyelids, his eyes calm, and said nonchalantly: "Nothing."
The girl didn't investigate further, but suddenly stretched out her hand and handed the sugar painting to him.
"for you."
Pei Ji was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously asked: "What are you doing for me?"
The girl raised her little face and looked at him with a smile. Her two dark and bright eyes reflected the lights on the street and his shadow.
She had a sly look in her eyes and said in a delicate voice, "This is me. I'm giving myself to you. Don't you want me?"
Pei Ji's eyelashes drooped slightly, casting a small fan-shaped shadow under his eyes, and his eyes were dark and unclear.
He stared at her for a moment, then slowly took the little sugar man.
He opened his thin lips and uttered a low, "Yes."
The sugar painting flew out of her hand, and the girl quickly retracted her fingertips as if she had been electrocuted. The boldness just now disappeared. Her cheeks blushed, and she turned her head away as if nothing had happened, no longer looking at him.
She only hid her face, but her small, white jade-like earlobes could not be hidden, and they were so red that they looked like blood.
The man's black eyes flickered slightly, and he suddenly remembered that not long ago, he had put that earlobe into his mouth.
He had no other thoughts at the time, but when he thinks back on it now, he feels an inexplicable heat in his heart.
"Hey, look there!"
The girl suddenly turned around and pointed in a direction with a look of surprise.
Pei Ji's Adam's apple rolled, and he calmly looked away to where she was pointing.
Not far away, on the busiest street, there was a very beautiful lantern in front of a teahouse. It was in the shape of a very intricate phoenix flying in the sky.
A candle was lit in the lamp, and yellow light shone through. The fire phoenix seemed to come alive, its entire body was golden, and it sparkled brightly in the night.
Seeing this scene, many people were attracted and gathered around the lamp to look at it.
The waiter introduced: "This Fire Phoenix Lantern was specially customized by our store at a high price. We won't sell it. If you want to take it away, you must complete the challenge set by our store owner."
Then he began to talk about how to challenge.
The general rule is to steal something from the shop owner, who will keep the item close to his body. Whoever can take it away from the shop owner will own the Fire Phoenix Lamp.
When the others heard this, they couldn't help but start talking about it.
"The ghost hand is fooling people again. Who can steal things from him?"
"Don't be fooled by him. Guishou is the best thief in the world. No one can steal better than him!"
The shop owner as they were talking about was sitting under the lamp. He was a thin middle-aged man with a very ordinary look, the kind that you would not be able to find if you threw him into a crowd of people.
Listening to the conversations around him, the man stroked his mustache and said with a smile, "Everyone, the ghost hand has long gone. Now I am just a teahouse owner. I wonder which young hero is brave enough to challenge me?"
"What is a ghost hand?" An Jiu asked the man next to him curiously.
Pei Ji explained calmly, "Ghost Hand was once a famous thief in the martial arts world. He would steal people's treasures if he didn't strike, and he had countless enemies. He was being hunted many years ago, so he hid here. This person has strong Qinggong skills, especially his move of taking things out of bags with one hand. It's not that easy for ordinary people to take things from him."
"You can't get it either?"
The girl blinked, her eyes gleaming with a desire for knowledge.
Pei Ji lowered his eyes to look at her and asked in a deep voice, "Do you want it?" He paused and then said, "If you want it, I will get it for you."
An Jiu: "But didn't you just say he's great at stealing things?"
The man's lips curled slightly: "In terms of stealing skills, I am not as good as him, but it is not difficult to take things from him."
Pei Ji had only been practicing martial arts for a short time, and his biggest flaw was his lack of internal strength, which was a time gap that could not be made up in a short time. But he did not like to wield swords and guns, and in many cases, poison was more useful than pure force.
So what if Ghost Hand is good at fighting? Pei Ji can take things from him right in front of him, and he can't even resist.
An Jiu shook his head when he heard this: "No, the lamp is too big and hard to carry."
In fact, An Jiu saw the male and female protagonists in the crowd, and suddenly remembered that this seemed to be a small plot in the original book.
Seeing Lin Qingyan and He Ziqing coming together, An Jiu hurriedly pulled Pei Ji to the back of the crowd.
Pei Ji asked: "What are you doing?"
An Jiu put his fingertips to his lips and whispered, "Don't talk, let's go to the theater."
The girl's eyebrows and eyes were lively and her expression was cunning, as if she was planning something bad.
Pei Ji's heart moved, and he did not struggle, allowing her to pull him into a dark corner.
As soon as the two of them stood still, the show began.
Pei Ji finally understood what she meant by a good show. It turned out that she was talking about watching the fun between He Ziqing and Lin Qingyan.
In the crowd, Lin Qingyan also took a fancy to the Fire Phoenix Lantern. Unfortunately, her martial arts skills were not that good. Although she was considered to be among the best among the younger generation, she pales in comparison to the Ghost Hand of the previous generation. She was defeated in just two moves.
Seeing that she was defeated, He Ziqing naturally took the field.
The challenge is not limited to stealing, you can also defeat the ghost hand openly and make him surrender and hand over the token.
He Ziqing is an excellent swordsman. He is a swordsmanship genius that is rare in a century, and he uses the sword to perfection.
The man held a long sword in his hand. The sword had never been unsheathed. The dark and worn scabbard looked plain and simple.
The pitch-black long sword swung out gorgeous sword flowers, changing moves dozens of times in a breath, and the tip of the sword pierced the thirty-six large acupoints on the ghost hand's body. Each strike was extremely precise and came from an incredible angle, like an antelope hanging on a horn, without any delay, making it impossible to defend against.
The ghost hand's body was erratic, and its toes tapped the ground quickly and lightly. It sometimes lowered its head, sometimes turned sideways, and sometimes bent over. As it moved around, it avoided every sword!
Dozens of moves were exchanged in a flash.
"Young man, you have great swordsmanship! I never knew there was such a young swordsman in the martial arts world!"
The ghost hand suddenly stopped. He had changed his posture. He was originally sitting on the chair, but now his legs were hanging upside down under the beam. His eyes were shining as he looked at the young man confronting him under the beam with admiration.
He Ziqing put the sword back on his back, raised his head and asked, "Senior, did I win?"
The ghost hand shook his body and said with a smile: "If you can force me to climb the beam, then you win!"
Hearing this, the onlookers laughed.
"Ghost Hand, how could you lose to an unknown boy? Have your martial arts skills declined as you get older?"
"Hahaha, ghost hand, you really have become a gentleman on the beam!"
Someone else asked He Ziqing, "This young man is really good at swordsmanship. Who is his teacher? Which senior disciple is he?"
He Ziqing scratched his head, smiled innocently, and said, "My master lives in seclusion and doesn't allow me to spread her name outside."
As he spoke, He Ziqing flew up, took down the fire phoenix lantern hanging on the door beam of the teahouse, and walked straight towards the girl in green who was waiting outside the door.
The girl's eyes were burning as she stared at him intently. When their eyes met, although no words were spoken, a faint affection lingered unconsciously.
"Here." He Ziqing handed the lantern to Lin Qingyan.
This move caught the eyes of everyone, and the onlookers all showed a look of understanding.
It turned out that they were a pair of lovers.
Seeing this, An Jiu quietly turned his head to look at the man next to him.
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