Chapter 9
New Year’s Eve, bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new.
Qingshi Town was filled with lively festivities, decorated with lanterns and streamers, and the sound of firecrackers echoed without end.
On New Year’s Eve, my elder sister and I stayed up to see in the new year. Sun Dagui gave us lucky money, but I complained that he gave too little and kept pestering him about it.
Later, my sister said she would take me to release a Kongming Lantern, so I snorted and let Sun Dagui off the hook.
We released the Kongming Lantern in the courtyard. My sister had attended private school and wrote with a delicate hand. She inscribed on the lantern-“As the years change, may good fortune always remain.”
The candlelight inside the lantern illuminated her gentle brows and eyes. She glanced sideways at me and asked what I wanted to write.
I thought for a moment, then picked up the brush and wrote eight characters-“May wealth from all directions come to our home.”
My sister smiled and patted my head, teasing, “Look at my Xiao Chun, she’s almost obsessed with money.”