Lantern Festival (Fourth)
During the Lantern Festival, dusk begins to fall, and the distant mountains and nearby trees are shrouded in a quiet gray-blue hue.
The long streets are as bright as day with lanterns, and fish and dragons chase each other at night, making a hustle and bustle of the world. However, on the paths of Luzhu Mountain, there is only the crunching sound of snow being trampled.
A faint festive aroma floats in the woods, a mixture of honey, oil, and incense candles, blown away by the mountain breeze.
He Shu returned alone on the snow, carrying a few oil-paper bags containing cooked food he had just bought from the city.
He looked up and saw that the colorful lights hanging in his yard halfway up the mountain had already lit up one after another. The warm yellow, crimson and fluorescent green halos spread softly in the thickening snow.
It doesn't look like the lights of the mortal world, but more like a handful of crushed stars that were accidentally scattered into this quiet valley by a careless immortal.
Pushing open the creaking fence gate, a few pieces of snow piled on the lintel fell down.
But Sang Li was seen hanging in the air under the eaves, her crimson skirt fluttering gently like butterfly wings in the evening breeze. She twisted the magic formula with her fingertips and hung an exquisitely crafted koi lantern steadily on the beam.
The scales painted on the lamp surface shimmered and came to life under the candlelight, and the flowing light and shadow also illuminated the young salamander squatting beside the pillar.
Cangjue was holding a pile of unlit bamboo lanterns in his arms, with his head tilted up. His unfocused light gray blind eyes were also reflected in the colorful lights in the corridor.
He tilted his ear slightly and whispered:
"Sister Sang, it's Brother He who's back."
"You have a sharp ear."
Before Sang Li could answer, Heqi, who was sitting on a stone bench in the yard, responded first.
She didn't look up, still leaning lazily against the stone table, her slender jade fingers teasing the orange cat with its fur standing on end in her arms.
The fingertips holding the glutinous rice ball swayed and finally stopped an inch above Jin Wu's nose. Seeing that it looked reluctant and made threatening gurgling sounds in its throat, it still couldn't help but stand up on its hind legs to beg for food, and wrapped the tip of its tail around her wrist.
"How can I have sharp ears?"
He Shu closed the courtyard door and walked to Cang Jue with a smile. He also squatted down like him, and deliberately waved the oil paper package in his hand that exuded an alluring fragrance in front of the young man, saying with a smile:
"It's clear this kid has a sharp nose! He must have smelled the aroma of the freshly-cooked 'quail dumplings' and the golden fried 'oil hammers' in my hands! Cangjue, do you want to try some?"
"think!"
Cangjue nodded vigorously, not hiding his desire at all. His nose followed the swaying oil-paper bag, he sniffed deeply, and a happy smile appeared on his face.
At this moment, a stronger aroma wafted from the direction of the kitchen. It was the warm fragrance of black sesame and osmanthus sugar dissolved in boiling water, mixed with misty water vapor, and diffused in the cool air.
Heshu paused, and quickly pulled Cangjue up, stuffing several oil-paper bags into the boy's hands, his tone becoming more urgent:
"Come in quickly, our Chef Qingshan must be finishing his work!"
His gaze involuntarily turned towards the direction where the fragrance came from, and as if by telepathy, the blue printed cloth curtain at the kitchen door was lifted up at this moment by a bony hand.
Qingshan came out holding a large celadon bowl, with some glutinous rice flour still on his cuffs that he hadn't had time to wipe off.
In the bowl, round and plump glutinous rice balls floated in the clear soup, glutinous and white like pearls. The misty hot steam made his originally handsome eyebrows and eyes look particularly gentle.
Seeing He Shu standing in the yard, a faint but genuine smile naturally appeared on the corners of his lips:
"Wuming came back just in time, the first pot of dumplings has just been cooked."
The light and shadow of the colorful lanterns under the eaves flowed, falling on their shoulders and dancing on their clothes that were still stained by the wind and frost of the market and the smoke from the kitchen.
Sang Li had already hung the last lantern, and she landed quietly, light as a feather. Silently, she took Cang Jue's wrist and led him into the house.
He Shuze quickly ran to Qingshan, excitedly took the heavy porcelain bowl, sniffed it, and asked with sparkling eyes:
"Qingshan, what's the filling in this bowl?"
"It's made with chengsha filling, and it uses the red beans you harvested from the fields last year."
Qingshan answered gently, not forgetting to remind him,
"It's just out of the pot, it's very hot, please be careful..."
Before he could finish his words, an orange shadow suddenly jumped towards him like a firecracker.
He Shu's hand trembled from the collision, and the soup in the bowl almost spilled out. He quickly steadied himself, and with a bit of fear, he whispered to the culprit:
"You little brat! What are you doing in such a hurry? What if the soup spills and burns your paw?"
As he said this, he turned around and shouted in dissatisfaction at Heqi who was walking slowly behind him:
"Sister Wuyou! Why don't you keep an eye on Jinwu? Why do you just let him run around like this?"
Heqi raised his lips to a helpless smile, raised his hand to pat the frost on his shoulders, lifted the door curtain, and said with a tone of indifference:
"It would be great if this little ancestor could really listen to me. Normally, I have to coax him for a long time just to rub his belly... Come in quickly, if you keep chatting at the door, this bowl of dumplings will get cold."
Upon hearing this, He Shu hurried into the house, but he leaned half of his body out and looked at Qingshan who was bending down to pick up Jin Wu not far away.
The little fellow bared his teeth and meowed, twisting his body, leaving a few small paw prints on the front of Qingshan's paw pads covered with melted snow.
He Shu couldn't help laughing when he saw this, and called out:
"Qingshan, stop working and come in quickly so we can have dinner together."
"There's a pot of lactose and glutinous rice balls on the stove, and they're about to float."
Qingshan tried to comfort the restless kitten in his arms and looked up and replied,
"You guys eat first, I'll watch the fire and be right back."
"Okay—Hey! Jin Wu!"
He Shu responded, but before he entered the house, he saw the cat kick its hind legs and rush towards his legs again. He was so scared that he quickly shrank back and put the porcelain bowl on the table in a hurry. Then he turned around, put his hands on his hips, and made a vicious look, as if he was going to catch the bad cat who was particularly excited in the festive atmosphere and was causing trouble everywhere.
"Great! Now that we have guests at home these past two days, you've become lawless, right?"
He approached with a bluff, while he was scolding,
"Let me tell you, even though that old mandrill you're afraid of has been too busy to care for you these past two days... as soon as he's done with his business, he'll be heading back to heaven to continue being a carefree immortal! If you keep acting so naughty, be careful or I'll have him take you up with me, and you'll never be able to return to Luzhu Mountain again!"
He Shu stretched out his hand towards Jin Wu, who was moving nimbly between the tables and chairs, but Jin Wu dodged it with a light leap.
He was not annoyed by being teased like this. He quietly gathered a trace of immortal power at his fingertips and gently pulled. The chubby body that was still twisting on its own lifted its four claws off the ground and hung precariously in the air, floating towards He Shu.
"Haha! Now let's see where you can escape!"
He smiled triumphantly, his eyes curved.
However, before he could reach out to catch it, Heqi, who was standing beside him, took the kitten into his arms and acted as a peacemaker:
"Alright, alright. You're a Crane Immortal after all. Why are you still bothering with a young beast that's just beginning to develop intelligence? Isn't that childish?"
"How can it be said that it has just begun to develop intelligence? It's so smart! It can almost transform!"
He Shu snorted indignantly and pointed at Jin Wu who was rubbing her head against He Qi's chin in her arms to show her goodwill.
"I've been feeding it plenty of goodies that nourish its spirit veins and brighten its mind! Look at how chubby it is now! If I don't control it, it'll really turn into a big, round ball of flesh when it transforms!"
“Meow—”
Jin Wu cried out in dissatisfaction in Heqi's arms, his emerald green cat pupils widening as if he was strongly protesting Heshu's overly honest evaluation of him.
"I think Jin Wu is cute when she's chubby like this."
Cang Jue, who had been sitting obediently at the table waiting for dinner, suddenly said this. He followed the direction of the cat's voice, stretched out his hand and paused in the air, silently extending an invitation, hoping that Jin Wu could come into his arms.
"Hey! You guys... I really can't argue with you!"
Seeing that no one was on his side, He Shu turned away angrily and decided not to dwell on this topic anymore.
He tightened his coat and walked towards the door again.
"Forget it, I'll go to the kitchen to see if Qingshan needs any help. The dumplings should be ready by now."
When passing by Heqi, he caught a glimpse of the orange figure in her arms, ready to move. He couldn't help but stop and said angrily:
"Just wait! I'll let your brother teach you a lesson!"
Familiar footsteps approached, and Qingshan asked with a smile from outside the door:
"What's going on? I can hear a lot of noise in the house from far away."
He Shu quickly lifted the door curtain and saw the visitor holding a steaming bowl in each hand. The bowls were filled with snow-white dumplings, which made people's mouths water at the sight.
He swallowed back the complaint that was on the tip of his tongue, and his tone softened unconsciously, turning into a coquettish mutter:
"No, nothing...it's just that Jin Wu was too naughty..."
He stepped aside and was about to return to the table with Sang Li, who came forward to take the porcelain bowl, when he suddenly remembered something and slapped his forehead.
"Oh right! I almost forgot about the Tusu wine! I'll get it right away!"
He turned around and was about to leave when Qingshan's voice rang out from behind him:
"Wuming, I've already put the wine in the kitchen to warm it up. Don't look in the wrong place."
"clear!"
He Shu nodded, and soon returned to the house carrying two large wine jugs.
The silver charcoal crackled in the stove in the corner, and the whole room was filled with the unique mellow and sweet aroma of black sesame filling, which blended with the clear aroma of Tusu wine, making people feel drunk before they even drank.
In the center of the eight-immortals table, in several large green porcelain bowls, glutinous, white, round dumplings lay quietly in the soup, waiting for diners to enjoy them.
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