Chapter 421: Chapter 250: Nerve! Who let the Bodhisattva go on New Year’s Eve, making kneel and kowtow three tis_2
Qi Ting was playing with her phone nearby, watching a couple squatting by the roadside. The yellow glow of the street lamps fell on them, casting their silhouettes long and infinite.
Chang’an is a romantic city, even the na of the underpass is called Kaiyuan. The Chang’an Bell Tower is famous far and wide, a landmark over six hundred years old.
To enter the Bell Tower, you have to go through Kaiyuan.
At this ti, the inside and outside of the Bell Tower was packed with people, almost without room to move. Not only people from neighboring cities ca here, many unable to see the morning bells or evening drums.
The crowd was so dense you could only see the back of the person’s head in front of you, a sea of people.
The Bell Tower, engulfed by the night, emitted a bright yellow light, looking solemn and awe-inspiring. The skyscrapers in the distance were lined up one after another, looking sowhat blurry.
Xu Qingyan, accompanied by two won, stood on the periphery, not squeezing into the crowd.
“So many people, why are they still pushing forward?” Qi Ting was confused, unable to comprehend, “It’s already like this, there’s no need to push forward anymore.”
“Finding a good spot for photos, I guess, they’ve probably been squeezing for hours.” Xu Qingyan asked, “By the way, does anyone want to take pictures later?”
“Take pictures of what?” Qi Ting tilted her head.
“Maybe releasing balloons? I see they’ve all prepared balloons, probably planning to release them during the countdown.” Xu Qingyan turned to look around.
“Oh, where can you buy balloons?” Qi Ting exclaid with surprise.
“I don’t know; you’d have to go out to buy them, I saw so just now.”
“Forget it, it’s okay without balloons.” Lin Wanzhou was worried that Xu Qingyan and Qi Ting would get separated in the crowd if they went out, “We can just take pictures of other people’s balloons.”
Twenty minutes left until the New Year’s countdown, and the crowd was barely moving.
At that mont, Shen Jinyue sent a ssage.
“There are too many people, it’s impossible to move around in the street, we are going back!”
Xu: “Aren’t you going to watch the countdown?”
The ssage was sent, spinning for several turns, ultimately showing as failed. After sending it seven or eight tis, it finally went through as the signal was nearly non-existent due to the crowd.
Shen: “We’ll look for another place. There’s too many people over there, many ran to Xinghai to watch the countdown.”
Two minutes later, Shen Jinyue sent a photo of Pei Muchan.
“[Image] How about that, are you jealous?”
Xu: “Jealous of you, shorty? Did you jump to take this photo?”
“You’re the shorty!” Shen Jinyue sent a few angry emoticons, punching the air, “I’m one ter sixty-eight, I’ll reach one seventy in a couple of years.”
“Growth stops at eighteen; are you planning to get height-increasing insoles in a couple of years?”
“[Knocking]!”
Their usual bickering ended, leaving Xu Qingyan sowhat listless. Glancing at the ti, there were only ten minutes left to the New Year’s countdown, and unrest was already spreading through the crowd.
Qi Ting and Lin Wanzhou were chatting quietly to one side, giving him so room to breathe.
The whole year was about to pass, and if he had to express his feelings, there weren’t many.
Looking at the restless crowd, he lowered his head and pre-composed a text ssage to Pei Muchan, Happy New Year.
He didn’t plan on sending it exactly at midnight, since there was almost no signal now; it wouldn’t go through anyway. Pressing send, predictably… a red dot popped up.
After a while, with only five minutes left until the New Year.
Xu Qingyan gave up struggling with the signal and decided to send the ssage after the stroke of midnight. As he turned to walk towards Lin Wanzhou, he suddenly realized Qi Ting was nowhere to be seen.
“Where is she?”
“Oh, she said she saw soone selling balloons.” Lin Wanzhou pointed in a direction.
Xu Qingyan looked in that direction, indeed seeing Qi Ting. She was moving through the crowd, approaching soone holding four or five balloons.
That’s tricky; that person surely wasn’t selling balloons.
With the countdown to the New Year down to its final minutes, almost everyone had their phone caras out. So even pulled out digital caras, lenses all aid at the sky.
So released balloons a bit prematurely—perhaps they slipped. Under the night sky and in the gaze of thousands of onlookers, it received a baptism of attention.
“Are you going back to Qinghe this year?” Lin Wanzhou, wearing a mask, asked, “The Chang’an satellite venue over here, you probably won’t have ti to go back until after New Year’s Eve, right?”
“Yeah, I’ll go back. Are you?” Xu Qingyan asked straightforwardly.
“Where would I go back to?” Her eyes slightly lowered.
After Guan Jin passed away, she didn’t have a ho anymore, and she lost contact with other relatives. Partly because there was no affection and partly because neither side liked her much.
Compared to uncles and aunts on her father’s and Guan Jin’s sides, Lin Wanzhou felt more attached to Qinghe.
“Qinghe, it’s been a long ti since my mom saw you.” Xu Qingyan said in a matter-of-fact tone, adding, “She’s recovered quite well, and her health has been good these past six months.”
“Anyway, I can’t stay for long, probably just four or five days at most. If you are free and want to take a trip, you can co back with .”
“Oh, okay.” Lin Wanzhou agreed.
People were cheering, waiting for the last minute of the countdown.
In the past, there would have been a fireworks display, but now with too many people, it was canceled. It was said this year’s Bell Tower countdown would be canceled too, but sohow it was kept.
Lin Wanzhou looked up at the verdant night sky, lost in thought.
She rembered, many years ago, a sumr afternoon’s downpour in the small village of Qinghe. The half-green, half-yellow leaves of the parasol trees were washed shiny by the rain, the horizon moist and whitish.
She couldn’t recall the reason, but the two of them were huddled at a square table doing howork.
During the scorching afternoon when the torrential rain suddenly fell, Xu Qingyan moved a stool to the doorway to watch the cascade of rain like a white ribbon. She leaned against the door post, staring blankly at the rain in the courtyard with him.
Inside, the room was dim and hazy. Lin Wanzhou bowed her head and suddenly realized his gaze sticking to the faintly visible softness beneath her thin clothes, instantly her face flushed with embarrassnt.
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