Juehui returned to her room. The dice in the hall had stopped, but there were still many people speaking loudly. There was still the sound of cards in the new room, but not as loud as before. The sky is starting to change color. The year is over. The old fades away in darkness, and the new comes with the light.

Not long after Juehui entered the house, Jian Yun also came in. He didn't speak, but sat down in a chair by the window.

"Did you lose?" Juehui asked.

"Hmm," Jian Yun replied vaguely, and turned his head away.

"How much?" Juehui asked.

"Six dollars," Jian Yun replied dejectedly.

"It's just half a month's salary for you," Juemin, who was leaning over the table to write, suddenly raised his head and said to Jian Yun.

"Isn't it?" Jian Yun said with annoyance, "I originally planned to use this money to buy a few English novels. ”

"So why are you gambling? I really want to stop you from the side, but I'm afraid that you will be upset," Juehui said sympathetically.

Jian Yun glanced at him, and then complained to himself: "I also understand that gambling money is not interesting, every time I gamble money, people always regret it very much." I repeatedly said that I would no longer gamble, but I was too embarrassed to refuse when others pulled me into the game. ……”

Firecrackers rang out outside, not very close. Later, several mansions responded one after another by setting off firecrackers. There were people coming and going under the window, and I heard Keding shouting "Su Fu" in the hall.

"It's time to be godly," said Kyawmin, closing his diary. He solemnly placed it in the drawer of his desk and locked it again. The electric light, which had been on all night, had been on for an exceptional night, began to dim. A dull gray light peeked in through the window.

Juemin walked out first, and as soon as he looked up, he saw the dark blue sky, and a cold air rushed towards him, he shrugged his shoulders and hurried towards the hall. He walked under the window of the upper left room and saw many small tea bowls with red flowers on the square table, where Yuan Cheng, Su Fu, Wende, Zhao Sheng, and Li Gui poured tea, and after pouring six bowls, they were carried to the hall with a tea tray, and Keming and Ke'an placed them on the offering table one by one.

The tea bowls were ready, but everyone was still waiting in the hall, waiting for the rice cakes to be brought from the kitchen. During this waiting time, the crowd talked tirelessly about playing cards or rolling the dice with tired smiles. Some people stood beside a blazing brazier and stretched out their hands to bake the fire. The old lady coughed loudly in the room. He's already out of bed.

Juehui and Jianyun also walked out of the room. They stood on the threshold, looking out at the house and talking.

The sky gradually turned white, and when it was time to worship God, Juehui left Jian Yun and went to the hall. Because Juequn said unlucky things in the hall, the old lady wrote on a red slip of paper that read, "Tong Yan is unscrupulous, good luck", and took it out and pasted it on the doorpost of the hall. When Juehui saw it, she couldn't help but smile in her heart.

The sound of firecrackers began to sound outside the hall, and three strings of firecrackers were set off in a row, and by the time everyone had finished their salutes in the hall, the firecrackers had not yet been burned, and the sky was already bright.

In the morning light, Juexin and his three uncles went out in a sedan chair to pay New Year's greetings, and the female dependents also stepped on the wreckage of firecrackers, laughing all the way out of the gate, to the street, towards this year's "Xi Shen Fang", which can be regarded as doing the trick of the annual "travel". This is the only time of the year that they have the opportunity to show their heads on the street, so everyone looks at the quiet street in the haze with curiosity. Everyone seemed to be a little reluctant, but at the same time, they were afraid of bumping into other men, so they hurriedly walked into the mansion. The sound of firecrackers stopped, the laughter stopped, and the street returned to a brief silence.

An important day has passed. In this mansion, most of the people couldn't support it because they didn't rest all night, so they went to bed early. Some people didn't sleep, such as Keming and Juexin, because they still had to take care of some things. There are also those who sleep until the evening when they worship God, such as the brothers of the Kyaw Min, who even forgot to eat lunch.

In the New Year, the days passed uneventfully. The schedule for each day is pretty much prescribed, it's the same every year, and there are no major changes. In these days, gambling still reigned in the mansion, and the sound of cards and dice never stopped. The one who understands that gambling is not interesting is often participated. He does not hesitate to do what he does not want to do in order to perfunctory others. In the meantime, he had small sorrows, but also small joys. He won back all the money he had lost.

On the second day of the first month of the old calendar, Qin followed her mother to pay New Year's greetings. Mrs. Zhang only stayed at Gao's house for three days, but promised to let Qin stay until the 16th. One more piano adds a pleasant atmosphere to the younger generation. They spend their days in the garden playing meaningful games or telling interesting stories. No one bothered them. Sometimes they also take chips and play on the evening incense building near the lake, and they like to throw "lion chips" because it is more complicated and interesting. Whoever won the money took it out in full, and asked the servants to go outside to buy some wine and food, and take it to the garden, where they set up a small stove at the foot of the hill behind the evening incense building, and cooked the food themselves. Ruijue, Shuying and Qin are all experts in cooking, so they take turns cooking, and the rest of the people help out and do some chores. When the dishes are ready, they will be brought to the evening fragrance building, or they can choose an elegant place, set up a table and eat happily, and there are all kinds of wine orders on the table.

Sometimes there is a guest who comes to play, which is invited by Qin, it is her classmate Xu Qianru. Her home is diagonally across from this mansion. She was a chubby eighteen or nineteen-year-old girl, with generous manners, free speech, and the style of a schoolgirl everywhere. Like Qin, she longs for the schools of the people to open up for women, so she is willing to get to know them. Her father used to be a member of the League, studied in Japan in his early years, ran a newspaper for Qiu Man, and studied chemistry in Germany. He is more open than the average person. Her mother, who was also a Japanese student, had been dead for nearly five years, and her father refused to remarry. She is the only daughter in the family, and an old nurse who has taken care of her since she was a child. Xu Qianru, who grew up in this environment, certainly has significant differences in personality compared with Qin.

Jianyun is still in the Gao family, and he lives in Jueying's room. In the past few days, he has also been much happier. Although Juemin is relatively cold to him, Juexin, Juehui, and Jueying are all very good to him.

On the evening of the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, after two or three days of arrangement, the young men invited all the elders to the garden, saying that they were watching the fireworks. The elders could resist their warm requests, and sure enough, they all came, except for my grandfather, who could not stand the cold of the night and refused to come.

In the garden, entering from the right, the electric lights on the cloister are all turned off. In places where there are no electric lights, such as bamboo forests and pine forests, there are many small lanterns hanging between the branches, red, green, yellow, and almost all kinds of colors. The railings on both sides of the stone bridge are equipped with electric lights, and the shadows are reflected on the water, like a round moon. Everyone finally arrived at the evening fragrance building, and there were a few palace lamps with green ears and red covers hanging under the eaves of the building, and now they are all plugged in with lit candles, shooting a dim red light, adding hazy and fantastic colors to the surroundings, making people wonder and enter the realm of dreams.

Everyone sat down in the building, and more than a dozen servants, maids, and maids were busy pouring tea and filling cigarettes to wait. Everyone was sitting in front of the window. The windows are wide open to see everything outside. But outside, apart from the nearby colored scenes, there was only an unrecognizable darkness in the distance, with some colored spots still showing in the darkness, and a few brighter lights.

"Where's the fireworks? You're lying to me again! Zhou said with a smile to Qin and Ruijue next to him.

"I'll be here in a while, how dare I lie to my aunt?" Jean replied with a smile. She looked back and saw that the brothers Juexin and Juemin were not here, and Jian Yun was talking to Keming, Ke'an, and Keding. The wives kept asking Qianru, and Qianru answered cheerfully, although some of the questions she felt were meaningless, but she also answered according to her own meaning.

There seemed to be no sound in the garden except in this building. In the darkness there was a faint black place, which was evidently separated from the dense darkness, and at that place suddenly there was a sharp sound, and a bright red fire came out of the darkness, and rose up into the air, and suddenly spread out, sending out many thin strands of gold, which fell down, and still fell in the darkness. But then another bright goose-egg-like thing rushed into the sky again, and there was a loud popping sound in the sky, and it exploded immediately, becoming countless silver flowers that flew in all directions. So a stream of blue light flew straight up again, and as soon as it reached mid-air, it changed color, and fell red raindrops, and then green raindrops, and the green raindrops were finished, and there was still a dark green in front of everyone's eyes. Shufen laughed beside her mother, Wang, and said in a loud voice, "Good, good, good! ”

"It's so pretty!" With a smile on her round face, Zhou turned her face sideways and praised Qin, and then asked, "Where did you buy it?" ”

Qin smiled, pointed at Xu Qianru and said, "Auntie, you ask her!" Qianru then replied, "We asked my father to try to get it." "There was another green fire in the darkness ahead, and this fire rose into the sky and did not set, but swirled in the darkness, changing colors one after another, and at last suddenly disappeared, and soon, one did not know where it fell. At the same time three or four more bright things arose, making a loud noise in the sky, and in an instant I saw a silver flower flying, illuminating the pine forest on the shore of the lake, and one or two small boats looming out of the lake, leaning against the shore of the lake.

"It turns out that they were put on the boat, no wonder I saw it moving," the fourth wife, Wang, said to Ke'an in understanding, and her husband nodded and smiled.

After a while, there was no movement on the lakeside, and everyone was still stretching their necks, looking at the impenetrable darkness. Qianru walked over, stood beside Qin, and whispered a few words.

"Isn't that new?" Keding asked loudly and regretfully, and was about to stand up, but suddenly the water was bright.

In a loud noise, many silver-white flowering trees suddenly grew on the surface of the water, spreading small golden flowers in all directions, and after some time the trunks gradually shortened, and the light gradually dimmed, and finally disappeared. In front of the eyes of the audience upstairs, there is still a golden splendid scene. But after some time, everything was quiet again. There was still that impenetrable darkness ahead.

The air suddenly trembled slightly, and the flute fluttered from the lakeside, blowing "Plum Blossom Three Alleys", and some people used the huqin to harmonize, but the huqin was very low, and it was overpowered by the flute. The crisp, tactful sound of the flute seems to tell a wonderful story. It came from the air into the building, and it reached the hearts of the people, so that they forgot the cumbersome reality. Everyone has had a beautiful dream, and at this time they were awakened by the sound of the flute, so they all fell silent, intoxicated with the memory, and let the sound of the flute float softly in their ears.

"Which one is playing the flute? Blow so well! Zhou asked Qin Dao in a praising voice, and at this time, "Three Alleys of Plum Blossoms" was almost over.

"Our second miss," Wan'er replied immediately, as she was loading cigarettes for Zhang's beside her, and she was very happy to hear the eldest lady praise her young lady.

"It's the eldest cousin who plays the huqin," Qin added.

The flute stopped. There was applause and laughter in the distance. But the sounds immediately struck the calm water and dispersed, and when they fell into the water, they could no longer float, and the only ones who had escaped with the help of the breeze were already very low and thin. At the same time, there is still the aftermath of "Three Alleys of Plum Blossoms" in the air.

Then the melodious flute flew again, playing a happy tune. A male's loud voice resounded through the night, dispelling all the aftermath of the moment. The voice sent to the building, waking everyone up from their memories. They could tell it was Kyawmin's singing.

The song didn't last long, and then disappeared into the darkness along with the flute. After a while, it was still Juemin's voice that flew up, singing a popular song. When Juemin sang the second line, many voices rang out in unison. Everyone sang in harmony, male, female, soprano, bass, mixed together, organized into this complex singing, but the voices in it were distinctly distinguished, and even Sookyoung's crisp female voice did not dissolve into Juemin's high-pitched male voice. The sound rushed at the building with great force, and everyone felt that they had hit their faces, and had broken into their ears, and they could not finish their ears, and they were flying around the building, and the building seemed to be shaken by them.

The singing stopped abruptly. Then there was a burst of laughter. The laughter crashed against each other in the air, and some shattered, shattered into strands, and could no longer gather together, so they let the new one get up, and chased after the unbroken one, and at once smashed it to pieces. The people in the building seemed to feel the laughter crashing into the dark air, running away, chasing after them.

At this time, small red and green lanterns floated on the water one after another. In a few moments, the section of water on which the eyes of the crowd were watching, was filled with lanterns. They moved slowly, reflecting the surface of the water in strange colors, changing and rippling from time to time, but there was no sound. Suddenly, in one place, the lantern moved sharply, dodging to the side, leaving a path in the middle. Then the laughter began again, a little softer than before. A small boat came slowly carrying laughter, and stopped at the edge of the bridge. Laughter was heard more clearly into the building. One could see that below, the brothers had landed on the shore. The boat crossed the arch bridge and moved slowly forward. To everyone's surprise, there was another one in the back, still moored by the bridge, and several girls walked down from the boat, it was Shuying, Shuhua, Shuzhen and the girl Mingfeng, all of whom were carrying lanterns in their hands.

One by one, the young men went upstairs. The building is more lively.

"Mom, third dad, are you satisfied?" Juexin walked up and asked loudly with a smile.

"Not bad," Keming replied with a nod.

"It's very interesting," cried Keding; "Tomorrow night, I will invite you to watch the dragon lantern, and I will make my own 'flowers' to burn."

Jueying was standing behind him, and he was the first to applaud. So the younger generation chimed in.

Fireworks do bring a lot of joy and, like rainbows, adorn the lives of this older generation. But after a short time, everything was a vestige of the past, and the garden was left standing lonely in the cold night.