Clay ball
Who would have thought that Yue Lang, a grown man, would be so interested in snack stalls and toy shops? Whenever Meng Yan lingered, he would introduce them to her as if they were his own treasures, saving the shopkeepers a lot of trouble.
After listening to and observing everything along the way, Meng Yan asked him, "How do you know so much detail?"
"Come often." His eyes flashed, and a smile spread across his lips. "When I was little, I only watched others play. Now that I'm grown up, I naturally want to experience it for myself."
As soon as they finished speaking, the child, who had been staring intently at the toys since they arrived, sighed. He reluctantly withdrew his little hands from the cloth, and the handprints he had made were quickly smoothed out by the wind. He looked back at the table every few steps before finally deciding to turn his head and run away.
"Hey kid, wait a minute!" Yue Lang called out. Seeing the thin figure stop, he turned around and looked at the stall.
The child was still staring at a palm-sized ceramic rattle ball until he left. It was porcelain on the outside and hollow inside, filled with sand and gravel. Some of them even had a bell hanging inside. When you shook it, it made a rattling sound. It would get boring after playing with it for a while, but it was quite novel when you first saw it.
The child obediently walked back to Yue Lang's side, lowered his head and began to apologize: "I'm sorry, brother, I disturbed your business. I only looked at it and didn't touch it."
Yue Lang squatted down abruptly, his entire face appearing before him. Startled by this, the child didn't dare to cry out loud and could only sniffle pitifully.
"Why are you crying? I'm not going to eat you." Yue Lang grabbed the child's sleeve, wiped his face casually, and let go only when he saw there were no more tears.
Meng Yan, noticing the tear stains on the child's sleeves, thought, "..." He's quite clean, of course, referring to Yue Lang.
He rubbed the child's hair, stood up, and waved to the shop owner: "Boss, give me a octane ball."
Holding a ball in one hand and a child in the other, he glanced at his busy hands, smiled, and turned to Meng Yan: "Yan Yan, can I lend you some money first? I'll pay you back later!"
After Meng Yan finished settling the bill with the boss, she turned around and saw Yue Lang staring blankly at the bird's nest on the child's head, asking who did it. She couldn't bear to expose him, so she casually blamed it on the already subsided cold wind.
"Here you go."
Yue Lang stuffed the clay ball into the child's arms, held him and shook it. He heard a rustling sound inside. The child was stunned for a moment, then a smile bloomed on his face.
"Alright, it's freezing cold, go home and play." Yue Lang pushed him a few steps in the direction he had just left.
This time, the child was smarter. He wiped away his tears with his sleeve, ran away without looking back, leaving behind a drawn-out "Thank you, brother."
"Don't just thank your brother, your sister paid for it!" Yue Lang said with a smile from behind him.
"Thank you, sister and brother, may you be forever united in love and happiness!"
The wind delivered the message perfectly, and Yue Lang stopped laughing. He pursed his lips and stole a glance at Meng Yan, only to be caught red-handed. He blinked innocently and said, "Children say whatever comes to mind."
Meng Yan didn't pursue the matter further and walked with him as if nothing had happened. After a few steps, whether to change the subject or because she was genuinely suspicious, she pulled her hand away from his and said with amusement, "Why did you use the child's own sleeve to wipe your tears?"
Yue Lang took her hand back and waved it in front of her: "We still have important things to do. If I get my hands dirty, who will you hold? What if we get lost if we don't hold hands?"
"How old are you? Where are you going to throw yourself away?" Meng Yan raised an eyebrow but didn't reply. Having a spokesperson with him wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
Before long, Yue Lang had stuffed Meng Yan's arms full of snacks. Even so, he kept asking, "Yan Yan, do you want some candied hawthorns? They're sweet and sour, but they can sometimes make your teeth hurt."
Meng Yan wanted to throw everything in his arms at his face, but considering that he had never tasted it before, he held back and dragged him out of the snack street by the arm.
Although he was quick, Yue Lang was even faster. He was holding the string of red candied hawthorns and wanted to give them to him again, but when he saw the food hanging on his hands, he immediately wrapped his arm around it and held the candied hawthorns horizontally in front of his mournful eyes to block his vision. He then moved it down and pressed it to his lips.
Why wouldn't you eat food that's offered to you?
Without thinking, she took a big bite, and only when she swallowed and chewed did she understand the astonished look in Yue Lang's eyes.
It has both sour and sweet flavors, but each flavor is distinct, bursting together in the mouth in a way that cannot be described by ordinary tastes.
His face was probably quite distorted. Yue Lang glanced at him a few times, then turned away and laughed so hard he bent over. Then, to show that he was sharing the same fate, he closed his eyes and took a big bite. He squatted down by the wall and pondered for a long time. When he returned, he shared his enlightenment with Meng Yan: "Next time I see this vendor, I'll run away."
.
Winter days are short, and the cool nights arrive before dusk, eagerly embracing us.
Meng Yan felt the temperature drop sharply. Although his hands, which were wrapped around him, were large, some wind still managed to get in, feeling like ice shards cutting into his flesh. It would be a lie to say he felt nothing.
"Are you going back already? Don't you want to play a little longer?"
After reading her meaning, Yue Lang rubbed his thumb against the back of her hand, as if playing around, or as if trying to persuade her to stay.
With a slight shift in his gaze, Meng Yan suddenly felt that he was being a bit heartless. It would be too unfair to just abandon someone like that. So he decided to walk with him for another street and give him enough time to prepare for parting. The next time they would meet would be next year.
Several stalls lit candles, their dim light illuminating the faces of passersby. The warmth was quickly swallowed up by the surrounding snow before it could be felt.
A girl, about thirteen or fourteen years old, stood hesitating in front of the stall, her clothes tattered. The candlelight illuminated the sorrow on her face, making everything seem extremely lonely.
She was staring intently at the rattle drum. A cold wind swept by, and her small, thin body shivered, clutching the exposed skin through the hole, but she had no intention of leaving.
The owner glared at her fiercely and yelled at her to leave, but she only took a few steps away from the stall and stubbornly stared at it.
Seeing this, Meng Yan wanted to go forward and buy her a rattle drum so that she could get home as soon as possible before the night snow, but Yue Lang stopped him instead.
Meng Yan turned to look at him and gestured by the dim light, saying, "Then you can go buy it, I'll pay for it."
“Neither of us needs to buy anything.” Yue Lang stepped forward and leaned close to her ear, his warm breath tickling her earlobe.
He stood up, met Meng Yan's questioning eyes, raised his chin to signal her to take a closer look, then switched places with her, leaned close to her ear again, and whispered, "How old do you think that girl is?"
"When you were that age, would you have thought about playing with a rattle drum?"
"And it was in the middle of heavy snow, wearing only a tattered rag, and as night was falling, you still couldn't bear to leave?"
His words prompted Meng Yan to think more deeply, and it seemed to make sense, but why would she do that?
“It’s simple.” Yue Lang smiled as he saw her momentarily clear her mind and then frown again, leaning close to her cheek. “Because the stall owner is from the same family as her, of course she doesn’t need to rush home. The reason they put on this show is to deceive a kind-hearted girl like you. It’s a foolproof trick with excellent results. Just watch, during the temple fair, they’ll come several times a day. If they run into a kind person, they’ll make a profit.”
After explaining the situation to Meng Yan, Yue Lang did not take her away directly. Instead, while she was standing there in a daze, he went to the stall, paid for the rattle drum, and gave it to the little girl.
He smiled and walked back to Meng Yan's side, no longer lowering his voice: "I know you can't stand it, coincidentally, so can I. Since that's the case, it doesn't matter who gets scammed, so let me, the 'easy target,' take the fall!"
Meng Yan wondered why he hadn't noticed this person had such a good memory before. He took out some money from his pouch and tried to give it to him, but the man dodged it as expected, widening the distance between them in a few steps.
"It's getting late, let's go back, Yan Yan!"
He waved his hand and retreated step by step, his gaze fixed on Meng Yan, remaining motionless despite the wind and snow blinding him.
After Meng Yan had completely turned around and taken two steps, he called out from behind, "Yan Yan!"
May you enjoy happiness year after year.
Meng Yan turned around and looked, but in the vast darkness, there was no trace of Yue Lang. Only a newly risen full moon remained in the sky, shining on the white snow.
.
The New Year arrived amidst laughter and the deafening sound of firecrackers, with lanterns and decorations adorning the valley, filling it with the joy of the Spring Festival.
"It's crooked, a little to the left, yes, that's it!"
"It's shorter than the one on the right. Show me how big your head is, and move it up a bit."
"Watch your step, senior brother! Just hang the lanterns and do your work, please don't move around!"
...
Not only the doors, windows, and walls, but also the trees on both sides of the road were not spared. They were wrapped in bright red discarded cloth strips. At first glance, it looked very festive, but after several rows of them, it was somewhat hard to describe.
"Whose idea was this?" Meng Yan looked away, as if he would join the blind band if he looked any longer.
Even someone as knowledgeable as Chu Ming stammered for a long time without being able to utter a single word of praise, finally saying helplessly, "Who else could it be but Senior Brother Gu!"
A few days ago, the senior brothers from each group gathered together for a drink to celebrate this year's peace and reunion. In high spirits, a large group of them came to the clothing courtyard where Chu Ming was. When they saw so many people, they thought something important had happened, so they stopped their needlework and went to the door to ask for details.
"Junior sister, do you have any extra red cloth that you don't want in your courtyard? Even scraps that have been cut up and thrown away are fine, as long as they are red."
Without a second thought, everyone handed the cloth to them, said nothing more than thank them, and then the group turned the corner and left in a great commotion.
Then came this "festive" scene before us.
"That sounds wonderful, but it's only good for thinking." Meng Yan dragged Chu Ming away from this eyesore.
The two strolled along the road to the mountain gate, where the crooked gateposts were stained with festive colors, giving it a sense of the story of a great sect.
"Senior Sister Yan, Senior Sister Chu, a letter has arrived!"
A letter? The two exchanged a questioning look, both startled. "Is it for us?"
"It seems like the entire valley has them! The mechanical group has the most!"
"It's the Lunar New Year, are you sure you won't have a good holiday?" Meng Yan was extremely unwilling, but Chu Ming dragged him over, and he closed his eyes to wait beside her, waiting for the bad news that might reach his ears at any moment.
"Huh? This custom still exists this year?" Chu Ming asked curiously, her voice neither hurried nor trembling, suggesting it wasn't a bad thing at all.
A piece of paper was poked at Meng Yan's hand, accompanied by Chu Ming's cheerful tone: "Sister Yan, come and see!"
"Is it absolutely necessary to see it?" Meng Yan pleaded earnestly, but his eyes peeked through a crack at the letter beside him.
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