The crowd searched for him thousands of times. Suddenly looking back, the man was there, in a dimly lit place.
——"The Sapphire Case·Yuan Xi" by Xin Qiji
…
New Year's Eve has passed and the Lantern Festival is coming in a blink of an eye.
Today's New Year's Eve is more lively than in previous years. In addition to every household displaying lanterns and colors, the royal family of the Li and Tang Dynasties also held a lantern show with great fanfare.
In order to echo Suzong's opening of the altar to worship heaven, Princess Qingluan secretly agreed with several princesses and princesses to set up lanterns outside the palace to raise funds for her father and the army to fight the rebellion.
Emperor Suzong was overjoyed when he heard this and ordered the royal family, princes, princesses, princes and princesses to hold a lantern competition.
Set the rules of the competition. Whoever raises the most military expenses will be today's oiran and will be rewarded heavily. The rest of the rankings will be rewarded.
The Anlu Mountain Rebellion caused the Li Tang royal family to be displaced and humiliated. The royal family also wanted to take advantage of this festive season to feel proud and get rid of bad luck.
As soon as His Majesty's decree came out, the royal family became even more motivated. Everyone was eager to win the championship on New Year's Eve.
…
Princess Qingluan and her maids started preparations a month ago, and asked Bai Fu to help with design sketches from time to time.
…
In the evening, every household is draped in red and green, with lanterns hung up, and the entire city of Chang'an is colorful and colorful.
People in Chang'an went out of their homes one after another to help the elderly and the young. There was a huge crowd of people in the streets everywhere, people were rubbing shoulders one after another, and it was very lively.
But careful lantern shoppers will find that although the lanterns are still colorful and colorful, compared with before the Anlushan Rebellion, the quantity and quality of the lanterns are much worse than before.
In the past, there were three lanterns on the New Year's Eve that attracted tourists the most: one was the Aoshan lantern in Caishan Hall in front of Chunming Gate, the other was a lantern with hundreds of beasts facing Lin in front of Prince Yue's Mansion, and the third was the lantern in front of the Prime Minister's Mansion.
A lantern with hundreds of birds facing the phoenix.
This year, these extravagant lanterns are gone, and there are more simple paper lanterns. Compared with previous years, the only thing that remains unchanged is the enthusiasm of the people to watch the lanterns and the emotion of surviving the disaster.
A local old man sighed to his family: "Don't complain, it would be nice to have lights to see. Two years ago, Chang'an fell, and the rebels burned, killed and looted. I no longer know what lanterns are. I can still see Yuan Yuan in my lifetime."
I am satisfied with the sunset lanterns."
…
Groups of young and beautiful girls came out to enjoy the lanterns, applying a little makeup and wearing new clothes, smiling happily. Although they did not have the expensive jewelry they wore in previous years, they also made bouquets of silk and stuck them in the corners of their hair, which gave them a unique style.
Princess Qingluan also dressed up carefully. After finishing dressing up, she suddenly remembered something and found a Luan and Phoenix hairpin carved from jade from the box, and gently inserted it into her hair.
The maid smiled and said: "Your Highness, this is the hairpin you had when you were a child. It has long been out of date. Why do you still wear it?"
Princess Qingluan smiled and said nothing, thinking: "What do you know? It was because of wearing this hairpin that I met him."
…
Princess Qingluan and her party walked to the royal family's lantern display. All the princes and princesses had arrived, waving flags and cheering for their own lanterns.
Standing on the palace city and looking down, the people below the city tower are crowded, looking forward to it, and full of enthusiasm.
The palace lanterns of the royal family are indeed worthy of their reputation, such as silk lanterns with drums and silk lanterns, octagonal carved eaves lanterns, Chang'e flying to the moon colorful cloud lanterns, the three immortals' lanterns of fortune, wealth and longevity, the eight immortals crossing the sea lanterns, the twelve zodiac lanterns, etc., they are vivid and lifelike, you can see them
Everyone was dizzy.
Just listening to the nine bells, the eunuch announced that the lantern competition was about to begin. People walked into the donation office one after another and donated the money they had saved to their favorite lanterns.
An hour passed, and His Royal Highness had raised the largest amount of donations, far exceeding the amount of other princes and princesses. Prince Li Chu was both happy and worried, and worrying too much was more than enough.
Dugu Xiaozhong saw the prince's worries and said to Li Chu: "Your Highness, I will go and say hello to other noble families and ask them to donate more to other princes and princesses."
Li Chu nodded with a smile and said to himself: "As expected of the granddaughter of the Dugu family, Lan Xinhui is very resourceful and resourceful. This kind of vision and network resources are not comparable to that of a folk woman like Shen Pearl.
Therefore, the title should be given to a daughter of a well-known family, a beautiful young lady, to be a side room to relax her mood, it should not be taken seriously."
Before he finished speaking, dozens of carriages were seen slowly approaching and stopped under Princess Qingluan's lantern.
Hundreds of graceful dancers stepped out of the carriage, their faces covered with gauze and only their eyes exposed. They played the pipa and danced cheerfully.
At the same time, the curtain of the carriage was opened, and there were hundreds of beautiful piano players in the carriage. For a time, guzheng and pipa were playing in unison, drums were singing and dancing, and the cheerful and warm atmosphere attracted the crowds of lantern watchers from the surrounding streets to Qingluan. Under the princess's lantern.
After the song ended, the two luthiers got off the carriage, bowed deeply to Princess Qingluan on the tower, and said: "Daughters Mu and Cao led Yunshangfang luthiers and dancers, totaling more than a hundred people, to wish Your Highness the New Year's Eve." Prosperity, eternal youth, happiness, longevity and good health!”
These two were Mu Yunyi and Cao Huashang, the pipa masters of Yunshangfang. Princess Qingluan hurriedly waved warmly from Mu Yunyi with a smile on her face.
After that, Mu and Cao led the dancers and piano players to donate thousands of pieces of precious silk, Shu brocade, and Su embroidery to Princess Qingluan.
…
Princess Qingluan was overjoyed and hurriedly returned the gift to express her gratitude. She thought to herself: "Brother Fu arranged it carefully and didn't even tell me. Could there be any surprises?"
As soon as this thought came out, I saw a hundred strong men with broad arms and round waists, each carrying a large gilt box on their backs, humming and humming as they walked under Princess Qingluan's lantern.
Walking to the donation site, with an order, the strong men opened the gilded wooden box, and found a box full of gold. The golden light was brilliant and dazzling.
The eyes of the onlookers were all wide-eyed, and the venue was silent for a moment.
Beihai Gang leader Jia Chang walked out of the crowd, bowed deeply to Princess Qingluan on the tower, and said: "Beihai Gang leader Jia Chang and his disciples sincerely wish Your Highness a prosperous New Year's Eve, eternal youth, good fortune, longevity and good health!"
Before anyone could recover, a group of topless hunters wearing tiger skins walked into the square and used ropes to stop the crowd watching the lanterns, leaving an open space in the square.
Just hearing a rhinoceros horn whistle, hundreds of apes, black bears, ligers and tigers poured into the square. The beasts were ferocious and ferocious, constantly making low roars. However, they lined up neatly and were actually very tame.
Led by dozens of Persian animal trainers, this group of normally majestic forest kings performed various exciting performances, such as walking through fire rings and walking on tightropes... which attracted the crowds of onlookers to applaud and cheer. , one falls and another rises.
Princess Qingluan smiled broadly and said to herself: "When I was captured by a demon, I didn't watch it as a sideshow performed by the Persian troupe on New Year's Eve that year. I told him once, but I didn't expect that he would always remember..."
The nine elephants neighed in unison and walked into the center of the field. Their heavy steps made the earth tremble slightly. The leader was a white elephant, twice the size of the other eight elephants.
The eight elephants all knelt down facing Princess Qingluan on the city tower. The leading white elephant walked straight to the bottom of the city tower, stretched out its long trunk, and rested on the city tower. There was a golden ape on the white elephant's back, holding a
A huge bamboo basket of peaches sprang out from the white elephant. With the help of the elephant's trunk, it jumped up to the city tower and dedicated the basket of peaches to Princess Qingluan.
Princess Qingluan took the bamboo basket with a smile on her face. As soon as she got the peaches, she heard a blast, fireworks rose all around, and countless firecrackers soared into the sky, making the sound of "chirping" birds chirping like a meteor shower across the sky.
The meteor cannon flew to the highest point and exploded, blooming into gorgeous fireworks, transforming into various patterns such as 'rich peonies', 'birds facing the phoenix', 'dragons and tigers leaping', etc., which were magnificent and wonderful.
square……
For a time, the night sky lit up, the sky was filled with flowers and rain, the clouds were flowing, and the colorful fireworks illuminated everyone's face, making everyone's eyes moist and shed tears of happiness.
A young mother held up the swaddling clothes with all her strength, held the baby's little hand, waved to the fireworks in the sky, cried and laughed, and choked with sobs: "Brother Tieniu, don't worry, I will take care of our child."
Pull the big one. When the time comes, I will also let him join the army to protect the family and the country!"
Under the wall, an old charcoal seller with a skinny face and a wrinkled face looked up at the sky, clasped his hands together, and murmured to himself: "My dear mother, Qiao'er, I hope everything will be fine for you over there. It won't be long before...
I will go and reunite with you, and then our family will be together again."
Everyone is praying, praying that the relatives who died in the war will be well in heaven, and praying for peace and health in the world as soon as possible.
"Boom" made a loud thunder-like sound, and a huge firework exploded in the sky. It spread out and turned out to be the word "Gong".
Dozens of fireworks bloomed one after another, forming the words "I wish Princess Qingluan eternal youth, your Majesty a long life, and the Tang Dynasty and its people in peace." These characters had different colors and hung high in the air for a long time before they dispersed.
I don't know who took the lead. Thousands of people knelt down and shouted: "I wish your majesty a long life, may our Tang Dynasty be prosperous for many years, the country may be peaceful and the people are safe, and the country may be long and prosperous..."