booktalesy Chapter 409 Setting off Fireworks
Chapter 409 Setting off Fireworks
Two days before Lunar New Year's Eve, Lu Ran and Shen Yuege didn't go anywhere.
The two of them snuggled on the sofa, covered with the same blanket, each holding a bag of snacks. The small coffee table in front of them was piled high with sunflower seeds, peanuts, candies, and nuts, like two hibernating bears.
The TV was on, playing trailers for the Lunar New Year movies, one after another on a loop.
Shen Yuege watched for a while, then, finding it uninteresting, handed the remote control to Lu Ran: "You pick one."
Lu Ran took the remote control, flipped through the movie list, and found an old film.
It wasn't directed by Shen Zhiwei; it's an art film by a foreign director. The pace is slow, the visuals are beautiful, but the plot is practically nonexistent.
Shen Yuege watched for more than ten minutes before resting her head on Lu Ran's shoulder.
A few minutes later, her breathing became even.
Lu Ran looked down and saw that she was asleep.
She was still holding a pistachio in her hand; the shell had been peeled off, and the kernel had fallen onto the blanket.
He didn't move, nor did he turn off the TV.
Scenes from an art film flowed slowly across the screen, while light and shadow danced on the living room ceiling.
Occasionally, one or two firecrackers could be heard outside the window, from a distance, as if they were coming from the other side of the city.
About half an hour later, Shen Yuege's phone vibrated.
She was jolted awake. Still half-asleep, she reached for her phone and glanced at it. It was a message from her studio confirming her work arrangements after the New Year.
She replied with a few words, tossed her phone aside, and leaned back on Lu Ran's shoulder.
"Lu Ran".
"Um?"
"If we keep doing this every day, eating and sleeping, won't we get as fat as a ball?"
"meeting."
"Then why did you let me eat it?"
"I didn't force you to eat it. You ate it yourself, what's it to me?"
Shen Yuege patted him on the shoulder, the force was light, almost like a tickle.
"I don't care. I got fat because you spoiled me."
Lu Ran was defeated by this logic. He took a bag of potato chips from the coffee table, tore it open, and handed it to her.
Shen Yuege glanced at it, took a piece, stuffed it into her mouth, and chewed it with a crunching sound.
The two of them spent the whole day lounging on the sofa.
At noon, Priscilla Chan came to call them for lunch. Seeing the two of them huddled in the blanket, she shook her head and said, "Are you two going into hibernation?" Then she went back to the kitchen, heated up the food, and brought it up.
Shen Yuege didn't even get off the sofa; she just picked up her rice bowl and started eating.
Lu Ran was the same; the two of them, like two paralyzed patients in bed, leaned against the back of the sofa and ate their rice bite by bite.
Priscilla Chan watched from the side, wanting to say something but swallowing it back. Finally, she sighed and left.
Shen Zhiwei glanced at the room as he passed by, said nothing, and took his teacup to the study.
He left with a smile on his face, as if to say, "Youth is wonderful."
In the afternoon, the two changed their position.
Lu Ran lay on the sofa reading a book, while Shen Yuege lay on his lap scrolling through her phone.
My phone is full of push notifications from various game companies about their Lunar New Year events, including EA, Sakura Games, Perfect World, and a few smaller companies.
Shen Yuege saw a message and read it aloud: "EA's Wilderness Era Lunar New Year limited skin is now available, priced at 199 yuan, for a limited time of seven days."
"One hundred and ninety-nine? One skin? Why don't they just rob it?" Lu Ran's eyes never left the book.
"It's none of your business how much they sell it for. It's not like you're the one buying it."
"I don't care about them. I just think it's expensive. One hundred and ninety-nine yuan is enough for me to eat breakfast for a month."
"You only spend six yuan on breakfast?"
"Steamed buns are three yuan, soy milk is two yuan, and you can buy an egg for one yuan."
"Hey, where did you get such a cheap breakfast, Mr. Hu?"
"None of your business."
Shen Yuege was both amused and exasperated by his calculations, and continued scrolling.
She stopped scrolling when she saw the GG message in League of Legends.
The game's description reads, "Unlimited Power Mode is only available for a limited time. It will be closed after the New Year, so enjoy it while you can."
"Your use of the word 'GG' is way too direct."
"Straightforwardness is good. Nobody reads anything that beats around the bush."
"Shutting down right after the New Year—you're just creating anxiety."
"It's not about creating anxiety, it's about creating a sense of urgency. Anxiety and urgency are two different things. Anxiety makes you not want to do anything, while a sense of urgency makes you want to do it as soon as possible."
Shen Yuege was too lazy to argue with him, so she put her phone aside and closed her eyes.
The sky outside the window gradually darkened.
In Shanghai, winter dusks are very short; as soon as the sun sets, it gets dark, without the long, gradual transition of twilight.
Lu Ran put down his book and glanced out the window. Lights were coming on in the windows of the building across the street, orange, white, and warm white, like glowing building blocks embedded in the gray building.
"Is the Little New Year coming soon?" he asked.
Shen Yuege opened her eyes and thought for a moment: "Tomorrow. The 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the Little New Year in the North. The Little New Year in the South is the 24th of the twelfth lunar month, but here in Shanghai, everyone celebrates the 23rd."
"Shall we go out to set off fireworks tomorrow?"
Shen Yuege glanced at him: "You know how to set off fireworks?"
"What's so hard about setting off fireworks? Just light it and run, who can't do that?"
"Can you run after you light it? Your leg is just healed."
"Setting off fireworks isn't a 100-meter sprint. Just light them and walk normally, no one's chasing me."
Shen Yuege smiled but didn't reply.
...
The next day was the Little New Year.
When Lu Ran woke up in the morning, he found that Shen Yuege had already gotten up.
This is very unusual.
Shen Yuege is the kind of person who would rather sleep one minute more than thirty seconds more, especially on holidays.
He put on his clothes and went downstairs, only to find Shen Yuege standing in the kitchen, learning to make dumplings from Chen Huixian.
"Didn't you say you don't know how to make dumplings?" Lu Ran stood at the kitchen doorway.
"You can learn if you don't know how." Shen Yuege didn't even look up, her hands covered in flour as she struggled with a dumpling wrapper.
The dumplings she made had a strange shape; they didn't look like dumplings at all. They looked like a dough ball that had been kneaded a few times and a little filling had been stuffed inside.
Priscilla Chan watched from the side, her expression subtle, as if she was suppressing a laugh.
"Yuege, you put too much filling in that. Put less, and the crust will close."
"It won't taste good if you don't put in enough."
"If you put too much in, it won't seal properly and will break during cooking. It won't taste good if it breaks. Which do you choose?"
Shen Yuege thought for a moment, then scooped out half of the filling and closed it again.
This time the wrapper closed, but the dumpling's shape was still very abstract.
Lu Ran watched for a while and then said, "Your dumpling looks a bit like a dinosaur."
Shen Yuege grabbed a handful of flour and threw it at his face.
Lu Ran couldn't dodge in time and got splashed all over his face.
Flour fell on his hair, eyebrows, and shoulders, making him look like he had crawled out of a flour bin.
Priscilla Chan was laughing so hard she almost dropped the dumplings in her hand.
Lu Ran patted the flour off her face and calmly said, "You're trying to murder your husband."
"You deserve it. Who told you to say my dumplings looked like dinosaurs?"
"I'm telling the truth."
"I can't even tell the truth."
Lu Ran patted the flour off her face, washed her hands, and joined in making dumplings.
His dumplings looked much better than Shen Yuege's; the skins were thin, the fillings were generous, the pleats were neat, and each one was plump and white, like a group of little pigs lined up.
Shen Yuege glanced at him: "How come you know how to make dumplings?"
"People used to say that if I didn't know how to make dumplings, I wouldn't be able to find a wife when I grew up."
"So, have you learned it and found a wife yet?"
"I've got her. Look, she's standing right next to me now, shaping the dumplings I made into dinosaurs."
Shen Yuege looked down and saw the dumpling in her hand that had been squeezed beyond recognition, and smiled embarrassedly.
By the time we finished making dumplings, it was already afternoon.
Priscilla Chan put the dumplings in the freezer, saying she would cook them tomorrow.
Today is the Little New Year, so I'll just have something light for dinner.
Lu Ran and Shen Yuege changed their clothes and went out.
The two of them didn't drive; instead, they took a taxi to the designated fireworks display area.
This year, China has not completely banned fireworks, but it's not like you can set them off anywhere.
Each district has designated several parks and squares where animals can only be placed; placing them elsewhere will result in a fine.
Lu Ran had found out in advance which was the closest place to his home to set off fireworks, in a riverside park along the Huangpu River.
The park is not large, built along the river, with a long walking path and a large lawn next to it, where there were already quite a few people.
Most of the attendees were families with children. The kids were running around on the lawn with sparklers in their hands, while the adults watched from the sidelines, carrying large and small bags of fireworks.
Lu Ran and Shen Yuege found a quiet place and took the fireworks they had bought out of the bag.
The two of them didn't buy many fireworks: a few large firework shells, a few bundles of small sparklers, and a few "small spinning tops" that spun around on the ground.
Lu Ran squatted down and arranged the fireworks shells one by one. After checking the fuses and confirming that everything was in order, he took out a lighter from his pocket.
Shen Yuege stood behind him, covering her ears with her hands, her eyes wide open.
"Stand back a bit," Lu Ran said.
Shen Yuege took two steps back.
"Further away."
They took two more steps back.
Lu Ran lit the fuse and then jogged back to Shen Yuege's side.
The fuse hissed and burned, emitting tiny sparks.
A few seconds later, a sharp whistle blew, and the firework shot into the night sky with a long tail.
boom.
The first firework exploded in the night sky; it was a golden chrysanthemum, its petals spreading outwards and illuminating half the sky.
Shen Yuege tilted her head back, her eyes sparkling in the light of the fireworks.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Fireworks burst open one after another in the night sky, red, green, blue, purple, all kinds of colors and shapes, like someone splashing paint on a black canvas.
Shen Yuege stopped covering her ears.
She lowered her hands, looked up at the sky, a smile playing on her lips, and looked very happy.
Lu Ran stood next to her, not watching the fireworks.
He was looking at Shen Yuege.
The light from the fireworks shone on her face, changing from red to green to blue, and her expression appeared exceptionally vivid in the shifting light.
"Why aren't you watching the fireworks?" Shen Yuege felt his gaze and turned to look at him.
"Finished reading. The rest are all the same."
"How are they the same? This isn't finished yet." Shen Yuege pointed to the sky, "Look, isn't this purple one beautiful?"
Lu Ran looked up and glanced at it. It was indeed beautiful.
Purple fireworks exploded in the night sky, like a giant violet, its petals slowly scattering and disappearing into the darkness.
"Lu Ran".
"Um?"
"Is this how it should be for Chinese New Year?"
"Which way should it be?"
"There are fireworks, there are dumplings, there is family, and there is you."
Lu Ran smiled.
"Yes. That's how it should be during the Lunar New Year."
"As for dumplings, any dumplings except those shown on the Spring Festival Gala are fine."
...