Envy

Zhao Lin is not like Lizhou. Zhao Lin City has a history of only a hundred years and has no long-lasting festival customs. It is difficult to have a Lantern Festival all year round.This year's Lantern Festival, half of Mu Su's disciples went down the mountain to play with lanterns.

Huo Zhi brought Yan Miao and Huo Jie down the mountain, the path was full of disciples wearing Mu Su's white brocade clothes, carrying lanterns and walking down the mountain.They met Meng Tou, Jiang Yi and his party, and everyone was there.It's quite lively.They rarely get together.

Senior Sister Jingshi took her son with one hand and Huo Jie with the other, and bought candied haws for them with the baby as soon as they entered the city.Relying on his aunt's presence, Huo Jie pointed to the stall while eating candied haws and said he wanted to eat sweet cakes.Senior sister Jing Shi bent her eyes and said, "Buy, buy, buy. Let's go over here."

Yan Miao was not very happy, said: "Don't spoil him, he can't eat sweets recently."

Senior Sister Jingshi said: "Just eat once today, it won't be a problem."

Huo Jie didn't speak, but put on a somewhat sad expression.He has a personality like Huo Zhi, calm and quiet, and has always been well-behaved and sensible.Seeing his aggrieved expression, Yan Miao couldn't help but burst out laughing, pinched his little face and said, "Go."

The two children happily ran towards the sweet cake stand.

A group of people followed the two children, swinging from the street to the middle of the street.Huo Jie stopped in front of a shooting booth, pointed to the tallest glazed white pagoda lantern hanging on the booth, and said he wanted this one.

Xue Ye volunteered to stand in front of the stall, and the stall owner said that he could take away the lamp if he hit the bull's-eye with ten bulls-eye out of twelve.Xue Ye shot eleven arrows in high spirits, but none of them hit, and the one closest to the bull's-eye fell on the fourth ring.Meng Tou said that he would not be able to shoot at such close range, so he rolled up his sleeves and picked up the bow himself.

As a result, two people shot two barrels of 24 arrows and failed to hit the bull's-eye.Yan Zhaohan watched silently from the side, listening to the two of them complaining about their bad luck, he asked for a barrel of arrows from the stall owner, picked up his bow, and shot.Twelve arrows hit the bull's eye.

Xue Ye was dumbfounded.

The onlookers applauded.Meng Tou also clapped his hands, looking at Yan Zhaohan with pride on his face.Meng Tou turned his head and said to Xue Ye: "This is my daughter-in-law. Alas, she is only so good. I'm sorry to make you laugh."

The stall owner took down the glass lamp and sent it to Huo Jie.Huo Jie was so happy that he was about to jump up, and said to Yan Zhaohan, "Thank you uncle! Uncle will accompany me to the waterside to put a river lantern later."

When Meng Tou saw Yan Zhaohan's gentle expression, he knew something bad was going to happen, and he said to the boy, "Your uncle is not free, so you take your father and mother with you, be good."

Yan Zhaohan looked at Meng Tou coldly, and Meng Tou embraced him, whispering in his ear: "I...I want to take you to a fun place later. Just accompany me to see it, I rarely have free time of……"

Yan Zhaohan was dragged away half-coaxed and half-deceived by Meng Tou.While shooting arrows just now, Li Xingfeng's family wandered somewhere.Xue Ye said that he would take Jiang Yi to eat mutton, so he took a step ahead.In a group of people, only their family was left.

Huo Jie said that he would put another river lantern, like a river god to make a wish.Huo Zhi and Yan Miao accompanied him to the river.When he was near the river, the child suddenly said that he had lost the tiger mask.Yan Miao said in relief, go back and buy another one.But the child refused to let go, saying that it was the last tiger-head mask on the stall, and insisted on going back to look for it.

Yan Miao thought that at the archery stall, Huo Jie was sweating all over, so he took off the tiger head mask and handed it to her for safekeeping, and she conveniently placed it on the table in the stall.So she planned to take the child back to find the mask, and let Huo Zhi stay here and wait for them to come back.

The son handed over the glazed lanterns and river lanterns he was carrying to him.Then two people, one big and one small, disappeared into the crowd.

Huo Zhi waited for a long while but no one came, so he strolled by the river, and walked under the bridge without knowing it with two lamps in hand, and in the blink of an eye, he saw the girl on the bridge.The petite girl was wet all over, her hair and clothes were wet and dripping.She hugged herself, shivering with cold.

The people passing by couldn't help but look at her more, but no one came forward to ask her.

That's... Meng Xi?

Huo Zhi's mind suddenly became clear, he put down the two lamps in his hands, stepped up the stone bridge, took off his coat, and wrapped the little girl up.The frozen little girl's lips were purple and trembling. When she looked at Huo Zhi, her eyes turned red and tears welled up in her eyes.

She leaned towards him: "Huo Zhi, you finally appeared. I've been waiting for you for a long time, and I thought you wouldn't come."

He took her into his arms and said distressedly, "How long have you been waiting here?"

Meng Xi's lips and teeth trembled: "It's been an hour. When I first came, it rained heavily in Zhao Lincheng. I was soaked by the rain, so I hid in the bridge hole. Later, I met a fortune-teller here, and I asked When will he find you, he asked me to guard here, saying that you will appear soon..."

All the memories flooded in like a tide, the noise of Zhao Lin in his ears was unreal for a moment, and the whole Zhao Lincheng was somewhat unreal.He thought of everything, of Zhao Lincheng's corpse, of Su Chuo and Jiang Yi, of the dead Uncle Xi Ze, of Yan Miao who was burnt to death in Zhao Lin's fire...

His body stiffened.He turned his head to look at Zhao Lincheng, all the hustle and bustle was gone, the city was quiet and empty, with occasional pedestrians coming and going.The river under the bridge dries up, and only a trickle flows through the pebbles at the bottom of the river.

His voice was trembling, and his arms around Meng Xi were also trembling.He asked: "Is this... my dream? These are all fake, then you... are you real?"

His expression was pained.Meng Xi could feel the pain. She hugged his waist and said, "It's a dream. I'm real. I'm here to help you escape from the dream. If you believe me, we can escape from here." go."

Huo Zhi hugged her and didn't say much.Zhao Lincheng was subverting and silent, and everything around him was disintegrating.Huo Zhi's dream was shattered, and nothing would exist anymore.

……

Yan Miao led Huo Jie to the end of the street, quietly looking at the two embracing on the bridge.Huo Jie stretched out his hand and pointed at it, and said, "That's my father!"

Yan Miao turned around and pulled him back: "Ajie, let's go back. Your father is going back to where he should go."

Huo Jie looked up at his mother: "Then will we meet again?"

Yan Miao stopped, smiled, bent over and nodded his little nose, and said, "I will. You will definitely meet again."

She glanced back and saw thousands of fireworks in Zhao Lincheng, and the colorful lanterns hanging on the branches were swaying in the sudden strong wind.The thousands of lights faded, and she and Huo Jie also turned into a wisp of light smoke, blending into the shadows that turned into thousands of light smoke.