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Chapter 141: Coming Back 2/4
Curiously, Li Qingzhi asked, and Xu Qifei, feeling embarrassed, replied, “I’m going to the lantern festival today, Miss Qu will also be there.”
So that’s why, the springtime of youth was stirring!
Most of the students in the school were thinking about going to play, but Guo Ying was different.
He had been going to the area near the new dock every day recently, far less excited about the lantern festival than the others.
At the moment, he was seriously studying.
But he didn’t focus for long. After finishing the homework assigned by the teacher, he suddenly jumped up from his seat and said to a few boys around his age, “Let’s go, homework’s done, we can go play now!”
Li Xiucai’s school had a small courtyard with a flower bed.
The game these students played involved seven or eight children staying inside the flower bed, while one child stayed outside. The child outside the flower bed had to catch those inside without entering the flower bed.
Once caught, the person inside the flower bed became the one outside, and started catching those inside.
These kids ran around, having fun every day. The soil in Li Xiucai’s flower bed was particularly solid from being stepped on, and not even a single weed could grow.
Luckily, Li Xiucai hadn’t planted flowers inside, but instead, two jujube trees.
After playing for a while, Guo Ying was called back to study again. Li Qingzhi happened to be looking out and saw him, full of energy, messing around with others.
That evening, as usual, Guo Ying went to dinner with Li Qingzhi at Jin Xiaoye Embroidery Workshop.
On the way, Guo Ying kept talking, “Brother Li, I think Brother Chang is definitely the best chef in Chongcheng County. The dishes he makes are so delicious. I’ve never eaten such delicious food in my life.”
Li Qingzhi also thought that Chang Zhan was very skilled in cooking.
But Guo Ying probably felt this way because of the chili… Guo Ying especially liked dishes with chili.
Of course, Li Qingzhi liked them too.
When they arrived at Jin Xiaoye Embroidery Workshop, the staff was preparing to eat.
Chang Zhan had cooked several dishes today, and Guo Ying’s favorite was the pork and green beans stir-fried with chili powder. He scooped some onto his plate and started eating heartily.
After they finished eating, they walked together towards the area near the new dock.
Guo Ying went to Li Xiucai’s place to study every day, so he was familiar with Li Damao and the others. Li Damao asked Guo Ying, “Uncle Guo, do you have any pocket money?”
Guo Ying said, “Damao, just call me Uncle, don’t call me Uncle Gou.”
Guo Ying didn’t like one of the reasons he disliked his father, his surname didn’t sound nice.
Uncle Gou… it sounded like Uncle Dog!
“Uncle, do you have any pocket money?”
“What’s pocket money?”
“It’s money your parents give you to spend however you like!”
Guo Ying said, “My parents don’t give me money, but I have money I can spend freely.”
“How much do you have? Do you know? My dad gave me ten cents today!” Li Damao was a bit proud; for kids like them, ten cents was a lot!
Guo Ying said, “I have one hundred cents!” Actually, before he came to Chongcheng County, his grandfather gave him one hundred taels…
This wasn’t even counting the money his grandparents gave him before, and he had over ten gold ingots.
“So much! Uncle Guo, you’re amazing!” Li Damao looked at Guo Ying with admiration.
Li Ermao nodded repeatedly too.
Guo Ying felt extremely proud.
When Li Qingzhi and the others finished dinner, it was still broad daylight. They had actually been walking under the sun all the way.
By the time they arrived at the area near the new dock, it was already past five in the afternoon, and the sun still had a long way to go before setting.
But by this time, there were already many people at the new dock! Many stalls had been set up!
Basically, all the stalls that were at the temple fair during the New Year were here now.
Li Qingzhi asked Li Laogen to watch over Zhao Xiaodou, while he and Jin Xiaoye watched over Li Damao and Li Ermao. As for Chang Cui… Chang Zhan just let his niece sit on his shoulders.
And so they strolled around like this.
Guo Ying was amazed, “Why are there so many people today?”
Not only were there many people, but there were also many stalls and shops now.
Li Qingzhi said, “It’s not easy to have a lantern festival; everyone comes out for a stroll.”
Li Qingzhi was right.
It wasn’t easy to have a lantern festival, so everyone who could come, came.
If it weren’t for the spaciousness of the area near the new dock and the large areas of land that hadn’t been built on yet, so many people wouldn’t fit!
The county magistrate invited a theater troupe to perform, but in this situation… whatever the theater troupe sang, few could hear.
There weren’t any amplifiers these days!
But nobody minded; just seeing people on stage made them happy.
“So lively!”
“So many people!”
“So much food!”
Jin Xiaoye Embroidery’s female workers from Miaoqian Village were overjoyed. Despite their age, Jin Xiaoye didn’t restrict them, so they went out in small groups to buy things.
Speaking of which, when the lantern festival was so lively, Li Qingzhi was a little worried at one point, fearing that human traffickers might take advantage of the chaos. But on second thought…
At this time, there were plenty of child traffickers around, and they generally wouldn’t snatch children in such crowded places.
Moreover, at this time, everyone spoke in dialects, so it was easy to spot an outsider.
Nevertheless, he still had Guo Ying arrange constables to maintain order and prevent accidents.
As the sky slowly darkened, the designated lantern lighters climbed up the ladders to start lighting up the lanterns one by one.
Before the apocalypse, Li Qingzhi had seen lantern shows more than once and had attended lantern festivals.
At that time, he found them quite boring, even though the lanterns were very beautiful and delicate. For him back then, lanterns were not unfamiliar.
But in this era, it was different.
On nights like this in this era, there weren’t as many lights.
Things like lantern shows… ordinary folks had never seen them before!
As the lanterns were lit one by one, the common people who came to the new dock to see the lanterns were extremely delighted.
“How beautiful!”
“There are words on these lanterns!”
“I heard the words ‘peace and safety’ were written by the young master of Magistrate Guo’s family.”
“These words are really nice!”
“Look at that lotus lantern on the roof, it’s huge!”
“The rabbit lantern over there is also beautiful!”
…
The shops near the new dock, in order to obtain the plaque personally written by Magistrate Guo and to outshine others, all made very beautiful lanterns to decorate their shops.
These lanterns were undoubtedly very beautiful. Chongcheng County didn’t celebrate the Lantern Festival much, so there was hardly any lantern festival here. As a result, the common people couldn’t bear to look away from the various shapes of lanterns they saw.
It was at this time that Magistrate Guo, accompanied by his wife, finally arrived.
Many people in Chongcheng County knew him. He was afraid that if he came during the day, people would recognize him and he wouldn’t be able to have a good time, so he decided to come at night. Not only that, he even wore a mask that revealed his mouth.
“Wife, how’s the lantern festival? Isn’t it beautiful?” Magistrate Guo asked his wife proudly.
He didn’t expect so many people to come… but since so many people came, it showed that his lantern festival was a success!
“It’s indeed very beautiful,” Mrs. Guo replied with a dignified smile, but she felt very uncomfortable inside.
There were too many people here, in the middle of summer, and some people’s smell was not pleasant… she felt very uncomfortable.
And this lantern festival… she didn’t understand why these people were so fond of it. In her eyes, it was really nothing special.
The lanterns hanging around were very ugly, and she didn’t know where they were bought from!
“Husband, there are many vendors here today, selling all kinds of food. The taste of Chongcheng County is different from ours, but there are still some good things here. The sesame balls smell really good. Shall I buy one for you to try?” Magistrate Guo asked his wife.
Mrs. Guo said, “Husband, you know I have a poor appetite… We just had dinner, where can I eat?”
Mrs. Guo didn’t want to eat the food sold at those stalls at all; they looked dirty!
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