On the ninth day of the Lunar New Year, the three brothers, Jueying, Juequn, and Jueshi, were busy from morning to evening, watching the palanquin drivers make fireworks in the stable, and telling people about watching the dragon lanterns.

On this morning, the two palanquin men of the fifth room went to the bamboo forest in the garden to cut down two thick bamboos, sawed them into short bamboo tubes, and brought them to the stable. So the palanquin drivers from each room gathered to help: some cut bamboo tubes; Some do leads; Some spring **, but also put broken copper coins in the spring, saying that the sparks released in the future can be pasted on the human body to burn, will not fall. Everyone worked enthusiastically for the pleasure and satisfaction of the night. Soon, more than a dozen cannons were made. The palanquin bearers brought out all the fireworks and put them in the gatehouse for people to enjoy.

In the evening, after worshipping the gods, Keding went out to direct the servants to arrange everything and prepare for the dragon lantern. Several square tables were placed inside the second gate, and chairs were placed on top of them as temporary stands. Keding personally sealed the reward, and walked around the gate from time to time to see if there was any movement, and at the same time sent people to the street to inquire about the news of the dragon lantern, it seems that there is no place, or where the dragon lantern has arrived.

Keding arranged it like this, he thought it was more appropriate, and besides, he had already received a dragon lantern post during the day. So he went back inside and laughed with his family.

The clock struck eight o'clock, and there was no news; Half past eight o'clock passed, and there was still no news. Even the sound of gongs and drums could not be heard.

"Fifth Dad, where's the dragon lantern?" The two children, Juequn and Jueshi, couldn't bear to ask him four or five times.

"It's coming," he replied, a little anxious, but he felt sure. The Shuying sisters who were waiting in the hall all looked at him and smiled. Shufen also pulled his clothes and asked "Will the dragon lantern come?"

The clock struck nine o'clock, and there was no movement. Everyone finds it boring. Because Jian Yun was going to Wang's house to teach the next day, he was worried about his homework and was not interested, so he quit and left. When Keding saw people go, his heart was even more uncomfortable.

"The dragon lantern won't come," Shuhua said to Shuying with a smile, and she was laughing at Keding, which made him pacing up and down the patio in a hurry, and from time to time he felt his watch out to look at it. He strode out, but soon came back without any news.

At a quarter past nine, the sound of gongs and drums sounded in the distance. "The dragon lantern is coming!" Keding muttered to himself with relief.

At this time, Gao Zhong walked in. When Keding saw the young servant, he remembered the pain of Fang Cai's long wait, and he scolded, "You bastard! I told you to go out and inquire, and you were delayed for so long. You said where you went to play! ”

Gao Zhong stood upright with his hands down, silent for a long time, and waited for the master to scold enough, before he said slowly: "The little one waited for a long time on the street, but he didn't see a dragon lantern, and he couldn't see it after walking a few streets, and then he met one, which was sent today." The little ones grabbed their heads and asked them to come. But their heads were already burned, and there was only a bare shelf left of the dragon lantern. They will not come, saying that they will go back to recuperate, and they will not want any amount of reward. The little ones had to come back and report. ”

When Keding heard this, he became even more annoyed, so he scolded: "You useless thing, you only know how to eat, and you can't even pull a dragon lantern." Now you go, no matter what, you must pull one for me, or you will be told to get out!" ”

Although Gao Zhong had only served in this mansion for three or four years, he already knew the temper of his master. When the master is angry, he is completely unreasonable, and there is no other way for a servant to keep his job but to obey. He buried his head, did not dare to contradict a word, and responded with "yes" respectfully in his mouth, and when the master waved him to go, he left respectfully without saying a word.

Ten o'clock approached again. Still no news of the dragon lantern. Jueying, Juequn, Jueshi, and Shufen are completely desperate, and they plan to go back to the house to sleep. Xu Qianru, a guest from the diagonal mansion, also said goodbye and went home.

Keding paced irritably in the patio, unhappy and did not know what to do.

When the clock struck ten o'clock, Gao Zhong ran in from outside angrily and said intermittently: "The dragon-dragon lantern is here." Sure enough, Keding heard the sound of gongs and drums in the distance outside, and it was getting louder and louder. His face suddenly showed joy, and he happily listened to Gao Zhong say as if he had made a gesture of merit: "They were about to turn around and leave, but they were pulled here with great effort. ”

"Well, well done! You go and bring them in," Keding praised Gao Zhong twice, then turned around and invited his brother and sister-in-law to come out to see the dragon lantern, this good news has been spread by Jueying, Juequn, and Jueshi. The two children, Juequn and Jueshi, jumped around happily.

After a quarter of an hour, the mansion suddenly became lively. The whole family, except for the old lady, gathered on the temporary stand inside the second gate to watch the dragon lantern. The dragon lantern came in with the sound of gongs and drums and stopped in the large patio outside the second gate. The gate was shut, so that no idlers from outside would enter.

The gongs and drums kept ringing, and the dragon lanterns began to dance. The dragon has a total of nine sections from beginning to end, which are made of bamboo strips, and each section has a candle in the middle, and the outside is pasted with paper and painted with scales. The person who plays with the dragon lantern holds the bamboo pole below, and each person holds a section. There was another man in front of him holding a round orb. The dragon danced with the orb, or rolled its body, or dropped its tail, and its body turned as it wished, shaking its head, and waging its tail, or suddenly rolling on the spot, and then immediately turning over and rolling again in the other side, and then dancing very quickly, like a real dragon flying in the air. The sound of gongs and drums next to it seemed to fuel its majesty.

Suddenly, the sound of firecrackers rang out, and sparks appeared in the air. The dragon danced as if in anger. The firecrackers began to fall on the dragon's body, and it kept dodging to the left and right, and jumped in the air as if frightened. The gongs and drums sounded even harder, like the wounded dragon whistling.

Young Gao Zhong tied a string of firecrackers to the long bamboo pole, held the bamboo pole in his hand, stood far away, stood on a ladder by the wall, and stretched the firecrackers to the dragon to set off. Several palanquin bearers waited beside them for a while with bamboo cannons, and then took turns to set them off and shoot them at the light and red body of the person playing with the dragon lantern. The dragon began to go berserk, and it rolled down with all its might to meet the golden flowers that shot out of the cannon. It shuddered. All one could see was its body rolling. The voices of the people were noisy, and the gongs and drums kept loud and loud. The palanquin bearers laughed. The audience in the stands inside the second gate also laughed, and naturally they smiled very elegantly, which was different from the sedan chair drivers.

Then Wende, Li Gui, and Zhao Sheng took five or six cannons at the same time and shot at the people playing with the dragon lanterns, so that they had no place to hide. It worked. Although the dragon was still struggling to roll, the sparks shot down on the bodies of those ** one by one, some of them fell to the ground immediately, and some of them were attached to the people and burned, burning those people loudly. So they put down their hands and stood still, holding the bamboo pole as a cane, and letting the palanquin bearers burn it, while shaking their bodies with all their might, so that the sparks would not stick to their flesh. The flesh on their bodies had changed color, and the sparks made a subtle cry and trembled all the time. At this time, the audience smiled more satisfied. Everyone brought the fireworks closer to the body of the person playing with the dragon lantern, and they wanted to burn that person to beg for mercy.

The person who plays with the dragon lantern has a strong body and strong wrist strength. But they let it be burned, and they did not defend themselves at all, and although they also felt pain, they only shouted loudly, saying that they were not afraid of pain, and that they were very brave, and at the same time shouted loudly: "If there are 'flowers', take them out and put them away!" ”

Later, the fireworks burned closer. They finally couldn't hold back the pain and ran away. In this way, the mighty flying dragon was broken up and divided into nine sections, each of which ran around with one of them, and did not echo each other. The dragon's scale armor had fallen off, and its body was almost burned into an empty shelf from head to tail.

Some of them carried the dragon on their shoulders and ran towards the gate. However, the door is closed. They couldn't escape, so they had to come back. Gao Zhong and Zhao Sheng obeyed the master's command and chased after them with the fireworks. It was a flat dam with no trees and no place to hide. Some ran to the second gate. But the second entrance was full of people, densely packed, as if it was a screen, and only countless heads could be seen. Moreover, Keding himself was standing there with a cannon, and when he saw people approaching, he immediately lit the cannon and radiated it in all directions. The man who played the treasure was a young man, and he came up to him with the firecracker of Keding, and the spark burned on his body, and he let out a sharp cry, and ran away in a hurry, but was burned back by Wende's firecracker, and shook wildly, and his head was covered with beads of sweat. At this time, Keding put the flower cannon in front of another person who played with the dragon's tail, and suddenly caught a glimpse of the person who played with treasure standing next to him shivering, so he smiled and said, "Are you cold?" I'll give you another fire! He turned the cannon around and fired at him. He was taken aback and used his treasure to defend against it. The treasure was still intact, but now it was on fire, and it burned so violently that it burned out in an instant. At this time, the palanquin man and his servants had already gathered around, and the people who played with the dragon lantern were surrounded in the middle, and they burned them with firecrackers, so that they were about to beg for mercy. But at this moment, people realized that the fireworks were gone, and everyone had to stop. The gate opened, and the people who played with the dragon lantern put on their clothes, formed a line, and walked out tiredly with the dragon with the rest of the empty shelf, accompanied by the sound of half-dead gongs and drums. The young man who was playing with treasure was wounded in the leg, and he limped along, muttering something unsatisfying.

Keding gave the reward money, and said regretfully: "It's a pity that the fireworks are too few, otherwise we can burn them greatly tonight." Are you satisfied? I'll show you again tomorrow night. ”

"That's enough, don't look any further," Jue Hui, who was standing behind Keding, said in a serious voice. Keding glanced back at him, not quite understanding what he meant. Others politely say "no". The three children who made the most noise, Jueying, Juequn, and Jueshi, had already crowded into the crowd and disappeared. The crowd dispersed satisfied, and walked inside one after another. Servants were busy dismantling the makeshift stands.

When they entered, Brother Juemin walked behind, and Juehui walked up to Qin's side and asked, "Sister Qin, do you find it interesting?" ”

"I don't think it's interesting," she replied blandly.

"What do you think?" Jue Hui asked unrelentingly.

"I don't have any feelings," was still a short reply.

"It's too bland, it seemed interesting when I was a kid, but now it's not," Juemin said next to him.

"Are you really not impressed at all?" Juehui asked sternly.

Juemin didn't understand what he meant, so he turned his head to look at him and said disappreciably: "How can such a low-level and interesting trick move people? ”

"Don't people have a little compassion?" Jue Hui said indignantly.

"You're going too far. What does this have to do with compassion? The fifth uncle was satisfied, and the person who played the dragon lantern was rewarded. Each man was given what he wanted. Isn't that good? Jean expressed her opinion.

"It's really worthy of being a daughter," Juehui praised with a sneer, "and a smart person like you can't see it." Do you think that a person should build his own happiness on the suffering of others? Do you think that as long as you pay for it, you can burn other people's bodies with fireworks? In this way, your eyes are not fully open! ”

Jean stopped talking. She has a temper, and when she can't answer a question, she closes her mouth and thinks about it, and she doesn't rush to argue. But she didn't know that this question was beyond the reach of her girl's heart.