At this time of that year, the family sat around the campfire and listened to a terrible story told by their father, on the night of the "Chinese New Year's Eve", which had not changed for a hundred years.

"Child, do you know why I want to celebrate Chinese New Year's Eve, and what is this night?" At that time, we were still young, and we didn't know what the Chinese New Year was, so we all shook our heads, and then stared at my father with curious eyes, and we knew that the knowledgeable father would tell us the answer.

"Ahem" Father cleared his throat and told the origin of Chinese New Year's Eve and the story of the year for Gu and his brothers.

"Legend has it that a long, long time ago, on Chinese New Year's Eve, heavy snow would cover all the food in the mountains, and wild beasts would run out of the mountains to find food, but a monster appeared in this village. It was much larger than the tiger, with eyes as big as my head, a pointed horn on its head, and two huge fangs that were red and black. As soon as it broke into the village, it not only ate the animals raised in captivity, but even the people were used as food by it, making the villagers miserable. The name of that monster is "Yuki".

In desperation, the villagers had no choice but to take refuge in the bamboo forest on the mountain with their livestock and food, and this has been the case for several generations. Strange to say, every time the monster arrived at the bamboo forest, it was frightened and scurried around when it heard the sound of villagers cutting bamboo. Gradually, the bamboo forest became a refuge and a sacred place for the villagers.

This year's Chinese New Year's Eve villagers are also the same as in previous years, driving cattle and sheep, bringing food, helping the old and the young to take refuge in the bamboo forest, the difference is that there is an old woman who took in a child who fainted due to hunger and cold on the side of the road, and the child is as big and weak as you are now, and needs to be protected. Of course, it can also be painful.

The boy followed the villagers to hide in a cave on the mountain, blowing the cold winter wind, looking at the village with houses at the bottom of the mountain, and asked puzzledly, 'Mother-in-law, why don't you live in a house at the bottom of the mountain, and you are freezing and starving on the mountain?' When the child asked, the old woman told the child why they had left their home and gone to the mountains.

When the boy heard this, he laughed and said, "Where you need to be afraid of it, you come back to the village with me, and I have a way to deal with that monster." ’

Somehow, the villagers believed the boy and followed him back to the village, even when the child told them to cut bamboo, they didn't ask why.

"When the monster comes, I'll go and hold it back, and you can throw the chopped bamboo into the fire, and I'll take care of the monster."

"Roar!" The monster came as promised, and the huge body overturned the strong gate at the entrance of the village and the beast at once, and the villagers saw this scene, and their legs were weak and they did not dare to step forward, only the child came out of the house, opened his arms and shouted: "Oh, monster, I am here today, you don't want to hurt the villagers." ”

You think that monster is so big, how can you pay attention to this little man like an ant, and poke down with its paws, and you will take the child's life. Seeing this, the child hurriedly shouted to the villagers: "Throw the bamboo into the fire, quickly!" ”

The villagers were frightened by the monster's weak legs, and their spirits were sluggish, and before they could throw the broken bamboo into the fire, the monster's claws had already killed the child, and as soon as they moved forward with their mouths, they ate the child without even bones.

Seeing that the child was eaten by the monster, the villagers were furious, and threw the bamboo into the fire with lightning speed, only to hear a chaotic sound of "crackling, splitting, crackling", and the frightened monster ran around in all directions, and ran out of the village in a panic, and after a while, there was no shadow, and since then, the monster has not been to the village, and I don't know whether it is starving to death, or running to somewhere else.

In order to commemorate this child, called "Nian", the villagers regarded this day as a festival and named it "Chinese New Year's Eve" and "New Year". The custom of lighting bonfires and burning bamboo festivals during the New Year has also been passed down from generation to generation.

After my father finished telling the story, he threw the broken bamboo into the fire, just like in that village, and there was a chaotic sound of "crackling, crackling" from the fire.

"Woo woo woo ......" After hearing this, the eldest brother wiped his tears with his hands and cried.

"Yi Kao, why are you crying, is this story so scary?"

Seeing the eldest brother crying his nose, Lone sneered at the time: "The eldest brother is so timid, he can be scared to cry when he hears a story, coward." ”

"No, I'm crying not because the story is scary, but because the child called Nian is so pitiful."

"He's only as old as us, not only does he have no father or mother, but he didn't even have his life to protect the villagers, if those villagers had thrown the bamboo into the fire earlier, they wouldn't have died that year. Wow wow wow ......" After speaking, the eldest brother cried even more sadly, this may be what later generations called "empathy".

"Okay, it's worthy of being my Ji Chang's son, with a benevolent heart."

The father praised the eldest brother, but Gu naturally scoffed at the time and said, "I think it's better to die in the year." If he didn't die back then, who would remember his name in the next hundred years? ”

When his father heard Gu's answer, he frowned, stuck his beard and didn't say a word.

"King, the three animal sacrifices have been prepared, it's time to go and sacrifice to the ancestors and ancestors." A sentence that is too pregnant will wake up Lone from his memories.

At this time in previous years, it was the father who took all our brothers to the ancestral hall to worship the ancestors with the three animal sacrifices, but this year, he took the brothers to the ancestral hall to worship the ancestors, and there was a father among them. Is there no sorrow and indignation in a lonely heart?

Every festive season, I miss my relatives, but heaven and man are forever separated. The real murderer is safe and loyal, but hateful and incapable of getting rid of it.

Jiang Ziya, you old thing, return my father's order, return my father's order.

In the wild, the high pyre has long been set up, and they don't dare to light the bonfire if they don't come, they just wait on the side, looking at the piles of pyres like the stars in the heavens, and they can't help but think of the scene when they sat around the bonfire with their eldest brother and listened to their father's story, and they couldn't help but cry two lines of tears.

"In the past, my father lit this bonfire, but now that my father is gone, how can this bonfire be understood?"

"The order goes down, during the three-year mourning period of my father's king, my Ji clan, on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, do not light a bonfire, do not light a lamp, and use this heat to illuminate my father's way to heaven."

"No."

Originally, the Ji clan only let the Ji clan do this, but they didn't want to see a single light in Xiqi City except for moonlight and starlight every Chinese New Year's Eve in the next three years.

"Father, do you know how much your children and grandchildren, your people, love you, they pray for you every year, they miss you? Your name will live forever and for generations to come. ”

………

Working at the hotel on Chinese New Year's Eve, I felt that there was no difference in the usual send-off. When I returned to the dormitory, I was awakened by the colorful fireworks outside the window, and the New Year was as lively as in previous years, and I was the only one missing in my home. Firecrackers are used to rejoicing, and this scene is sad at this time. Ten thousand families light up the lamp and sit around the table, only my family lacks one.

Thank you for the recommendation ticket of the immeasurable sea mountain during my stoppage.