Living Paper

nostalgia/article

Xu Yanwen has always dressed very ordinary, either in a white coat or a plain suit, and even the color is gray-blue.

Today he tidied up specially, combed his hair meticulously, put on a black dress, shirt, bow tie and handkerchief fully dressed, stood by the car and waited for Axiu to run over.

Axiu's whole body was light and light, Xu Yanwen stretched out his hand to support her, he noticed the change of Axiu almost immediately.

It's not her mature dance clothes, or her curly hair, but she is smiling.

She looked shy and smiled.

Xu Yanwen was stunned, and tried his best to say something to praise her, but no words were suitable for her, so he could only look at her with a smirk.

He laughed, Axiu laughed too, and the two smiled at each other.

Until Axiu pointed to the flowers in his hand and asked him with her eyes: Are they for me?

Only then did Xu Yanwen come back to his senses: "Give it to you."

A bouquet of red roses was carefully wrapped in paper. Axiu reached out and hugged it. As soon as her fingertips touched the petals, her eyes widened. This bouquet of roses was made of paper.

"I know you don't like to cut flowers." Xu Yanwen opened the trunk, and inside were two pots of soil-grown roses.

Ah Xiu hugged the paper flower tightly, slipped into the car, and went to the dance with him.

They were the most eye-catching couple at the Yule Ball.

Cen Dan was standing by the window. She was also wearing a velvet dress that almost merged with the curtains. She looked at Dr. Xu and his girlfriend through the dancing crowd.

Cen Dan couldn't feel any jealousy. As soon as that girl appeared, Cen Dan knew that he couldn't beat her.

Not only because of her looks, but Cen Dan is very confident in herself. Even if that girl is beautiful, she is no worse than that girl, but she is good at each game.

She couldn't win her because Dr. Xu's eyes no longer paid attention to anyone except that girl. He looked at her with almost adoring eyes, and anyone could easily see his admiration.

She didn't even have a chance to compete, so why talk about winning or losing?

Axiu had never learned to dance, she didn't know those complicated steps, but she learned to turn in circles, Xu Yanwen held her hand and raised her arms, letting her circle around him.

The shadow of the lamp slid across the skirt, Axiu was the most beautiful and lightest girl in the audience, she did not feel dizzy after turning around a dozen times.

It wasn't until the end of the song that Axiu stopped. She was surrounded by applause. Xu Yanwen was afraid that people would find that she was blushing and out of breath, so he took her aside and used the posture of a guardian to keep people away.

He stared at Axiu's smiling face, even if it was destined not to last long, he would always remember today.

Before the dance was over, Xu Yanwen sent Axiu home first. He parked the car at the gate of the White Mansion and watched Axiu go in.

He didn't feel cold at all, he still had a lot to say to Axiu, but before he could speak, fine snowflakes fell from the sky, and it actually snowed this Christmas!

Xu Yanwen stretched out his hand, and just about to open his mouth, the smile on his face froze, and a vague voice came to his ears, he turned around and sat back in the car, and drove away.

Axiu stared at Xu Yanwen's car until the car was out of sight, then she turned her head and looked directly at the woman in black across the road.

The woman in black asked silently, "Have you thought about it yet?"

Axiu bit her lip, the master was very kind to her, even though he was sick, he was willing to draw a smiling face for her.

The woman in black seemed to understand her thoughts, she curled her lips and smiled slightly, "You don't want to be by this man's side? Don't you want to grow old with him?"

"You don't need to draw, you can also have your own emotions."

"It does no harm to your master at all."

Axiu went back with flowers in her arms, and when she opened the door, she saw a huge Christmas tree standing in the living room. The tree was covered with colorful lights and balls, and there were many gift boxes under the tree.

Bai Zhun was warming himself by the stove, and said impatiently, "What's so interesting about this?"

Huo Zhenye arranged the Christmas tree by himself: "Then you come? I can't arrange it by myself."

Bai Zhun rolled his eyes, thinking that this person is so boring, why should a family spend Christmas together, build a tree, hang some colorful stripes, and the family can be harmonious?

"Axiu is back?" Huo Zhenye looked at the clock and was a little surprised. After all, Xu Yanwen still followed the rules and sent her back so early.

But when he thought about it, even if he didn't send it back, the two of them really couldn't do anything.

"Then Axiu also hangs a bell." The other paper figurines were all hung up, and the whole tree was in a mess. Failed to decorate the Christmas tree.

Axiu put the flowers aside, she went under the tree, picked a bell, and hung it on the branch on tiptoe.

Bai Zhun lowered his eyelids, and from the corner of his eyes, he glanced at the bouquet of roses, and the petals trembled.

Huo Zhenye and all the paper figurines looked at Bai Zhun, everyone hung it up, even the little squirrel hung a bow on the tree, only Bai Zhun didn't move.

Bai Zhun withdrew his gaze and clicked his tongue: "Annoying."

After speaking, he pointed at the source code, and the paper servant presented him with a stack of gold paper.

He casually folded a few paper stars and threw them out, and the birds flew over immediately, holding the stars in their mouths and embellishing the branches.

Today, almost all the houses on this road are having dance parties

Huo Zhenye turned on the gramophone, he reached out to hold the handle of Bai Zhunzhu's wheelchair, took a step back stepping on dance steps, and turned around a little bit.

Bai Zhun stopped suddenly: "Are you sick?"

Huo Zhenye touched his nose: "Dancing, you can sit down, and I can push you to dance."

Axiu covered her mouth, she knew she couldn't make a sound, but she still covered her mouth and smiled.

In the dead of night, the whole Bai mansion fell into silence. Axiu was lying on the bed with lace curtains hanging down layer by layer. She stared at the bed curtain and reached out to touch her face.

Still a smiling face.

The bouquet of paper roses was put in a crystal vase by Axiu and placed on the dressing table. The moonlight came in from the window, and the "petals" stretched gently.

Spread the wings from the branch, and the two petals are a paper butterfly.

They flew up one after another, slipped out through the crack of the door, and flew to Bai Zhun's door silently.

A red paper butterfly slipped into the room from under the door, flapped its wings lightly and flew to Bai Zhun's bed, Bai Zhun opened his eyes suddenly, and slapped one of them away with bamboo sticks.

The red paper butterfly was photographed on the wall, forming a puddle like a flower of blood.

Xuan Yun opened her eyes in the attic, climbed out of the jar, walked through the building to Bai Zhun's door.

Snow-white slender palms held up the ghostly blue will-o'-the-wisp, and the red paper butterfly in front of the door burned instantly, leaving no ashes behind.

Burning a string of butterflies to ashes, Xuan Yun slapped her hands, and said to Bai Zhun through the door: "Please Qiye, please change me to a bigger jar." It's not decent to crawl in and out like this.

Bai Zhun lay on the bed hugging the goose feather pillow, before he could speak, Huo Zhenye circled him tightly behind him.

He raised the corner of his lips and nodded in response.

Early the next morning, Huo Zhenye said to Bai Zhun while baking bread, "I had a dream last night."

Bai Zhun took a bite of the baked buttered toast, waiting for him to continue.

Huo Zhenye took a sip of coffee to wake himself up: "I dreamed that Xuan Yun said she wanted a bigger jar."

Bai Zhun raised his eyebrows in surprise, he could hear Xuan Yun's words without using copper coins?

Following Huo Zhenye, he laughed again, holding up his coffee cup and laughing, "I really bought her a jar yesterday, it's in the gift box under the tree."

A blue and white vase with Xuan Yun's favorite opera painted on the outside.

Every paper figurine and every ghost in the family has a gift.

Bai Zhun was dumbfounded, he raised his eyebrows and looked at Huo Zhenye, is this a coincidence, or is his consciousness already so strong?

Bai Zhun has been getting weaker and weaker day by day, and he can only control the paper figurines in this room with ease, unlike before when he could easily control the paper birds to fly all over Shanghai.

Seeing that Huo Zhenye's spiritual sense had become stronger, he felt relieved. It would not be so easy for Bai Yang to harm him again.

"I'm going to the Town God's Temple today." Huo Zhenye sandwiched the fried egg in the toast, took a bite and continued, "I brought up the construction date."

He invested all the dividends from the Starlight Film Company. Boss Huang donated [-] yuan, and all business and political circles donated money.

Boss Huang let out the wind, saying that he had committed too many murders in his life, and building a temple was a great merit.

Even donating nails to the threshold is a merit, and the famous people in Shanghai are not willing to lag behind. The cement king and the coal king spend a lot of money.

"Start construction so soon?" Bai Zhun's heart skipped a beat, perhaps because of this reason.

It was rare for him to have the energy to ask these details, Huo Zhenye smiled: "Just wait, I have a big gift for you."

He hastily finished his bread and sausages, put on his coat and went out.

Bai Zhun's wheelchair was next to the window, and seeing him driving away, he called Axiu into the room and said to her, "You know what to do."

Axiu nodded heavily.

She changed into a new dress and waited in front of the bookstore where she and Xu Yanwen often met.

The shadow of the car passed by, and the woman in black appeared across the road.

"I want to be human."

"I'll take you to see Mr.

Bai Yang was chased and intercepted by people from the four sects, all of them were desperate to smash the Taoist altar into a mess, without incense to worship, his body had more and more white spots.

He couldn't wait any longer.

When Axiu appeared in front of him, Bai Yang was silent for a moment, and after a long time said: "His master is far inferior to him at his age."

"I want to be human."

Bai Yang smiled: "Of course, but I need something."

"what?"

"The incense that Bai Zhun burns every year on his birthday."

Axiu immediately took half a step back, "She said it would be harmless to my master."

Bai Yang sneered, and stepped into this door, and said that he had no second thoughts about Bai Zhun.

He walked to the table and lifted the red cloth covering the mirror. In the mirror was Xu Yanwen, who was walking in the park with the girl student Axiu had seen.

Cen Dan was a little puzzled, she didn't seem to understand why Dr. Xu, who was not in the eye yesterday, would take the initiative to ask her out for a walk today.

The mirror saw the back of Xu Yanwen's neck, where there was a blood butterfly.

"Look, I can make him love you, and because I love living beings, I can also make him forget you." After having tasted the seven emotions, why would you still want to be a paper puppet again?

Bai Zhun lit a stick of incense and raised his spirits to see if Axiu was doing what he told him to do.

He couldn't see clearly, as if someone had blindfolded his eyes and plugged his ears.

Just when Bai Zhun was about to snuff out the incense, his eyes suddenly brightened, and Bai Yang's voice sounded beside his ears: "Give me the incense of life."

Huo Zhenye sat on the remaining stone steps of the Town God's Temple, holding a stone carving knife in his hand, and carved Bai Zhun's name one by one.

He didn't engrave his own name on the stele of merit and virtue for building the temple, but he engraved Bai Zhun at the front. He leaned close to the stele and blew lightly, blowing off the stone powder, and painted Bai Zhun's name with gold sand.