Brother, my third year of junior high school in Qijiatun No. 2 Middle School was the most dreary year in the nine years I lived in the Qi family, and the reason was, of course, that Qi Zhengli was imprisoned in the Yinhu Labor Reform Farm.

The always gloomy uncle was even more gloomy, and the always cheerful aunt rarely smiled, and I felt that the two of them had aged five years overnight.

After returning from the prison visit, I somewhat relieved the guilt in my heart, gradually returned to my original study state, and regained the "throne" of the first place in the grade in the final exam.

For me, regaining the "throne" was expected, but it made the head teacher breathe a long sigh of relief.

The final exams are over, the winter vacation is coming, and the most embarrassing thing is coming - the New Year.

The New Year was originally in our anticipation, because it is a symbol of auspiciousness, happiness and hope.

However, no one in the Nian Qi family this year wants it to come, and everyone is afraid of its arrival, the reason, brother, you should have guessed it as soon as I said it.

Yes, it's because of Qi Zhengli.

The first to react, of course, was the aunt. There is still a week before Chinese New Year's Eve, and my aunt's eye circles are red every day. We all knew that she was missing Qi Zhengli, so no one dared to mention it.

The visit was definitely a visit. also wanted to alleviate his aunt's emotions in this regard, Qi Zhengzhe had already taken his aunt to the Yinhu Labor Reform Farm on the twentieth day of the twelfth lunar month, and gave Qi Zhengli all the things that might be used for the New Year.

But in fact, this emotion cannot be alleviated. Even if he goes to visit the prison every day, even if he can see his son every day, when the firecrackers for the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner explode one after another, when the chicken, duck and fish meat are served on the dining table in the hall, when the uncle lights incendiary paper under the table, goes to the door and says to the air, "Father, mother, grandparents, grandparents, grandfather, and grandmother come back for the New Year, come back for reunion", and then beckoned everyone to the incense table, suddenly paused, the fact that Qi Zhengli was absent filled everyone's chest in an instant, and everyone's throat choked.

Naturally, it was the aunt who was the first to cry.

As a result, the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner ended in an atmosphere without a hint of New Year's flavor.

A few years ago, the whole family almost sat in front of the TV on Chinese New Year's Eve, and the Spring Festival Gala was everyone's spiritual food; In the past two years, Qi Zhengzhe and I went to Qi Caihong's house on Chinese New Year's Eve. A group of young people crowded into the big room where Qi Caihong's mother slept, giggling and laughing, and time passed like a meteor. The New Year's bell rang, and Qi's mother urged her several times, and everyone couldn't bear to disperse.

This year, because of Qi Zhengli's absence, it is impossible for us to go to Qi Caihong's house anymore, although Sister Qi Cai has already greeted us.

My uncle and aunt didn't even have the energy to watch the party, so they went to bed early, and we went back to our rooms early to sleep.

Almost all of the days after the year were spent in this atmosphere.

In fact, the Qi family was very busy in the last few days after the New Year, because of the "Zhengzhe Wholesale Department". My father and I had to help out in the store.

Qijiatun people have the custom of buying New Year's goods. In the first two or three days of the year, all the things to be used in the next few days were purchased, and the market demand rose suddenly.

The main point is that people from the neighborhood and people from the countryside who go to the city to shop are willing to come to the Jeongcheol wholesale department. As a result, the store was crowded with people in and out. At this time, even my uncle had to come together to help.

The idea of expanding business may have been born in Qi Zhengzhe's mind at this time.

The next few days after the New Year are also relatively busy, because Qijiatun people also have a habit: to visit relatives and friends to visit the New Year. In the first month, no matter which relative's house you go to, you have to carry things, and it is natural for a married daughter to go back to her parents' house to carry something, and it is impossible for parents to go to their daughter's house to carry things. But the people of Qijiatun are used to doing this.

Can the Jeongcheol Wholesale Department still be idle?

When the business fades a little, Qi Zhengzhe can be busy alone, and the taste of the New Year is already very light, or rather, the New Year has passed.

The only compensation is the thirteenth camel dragon lantern of the first month of the second village. This news got me excited for a while.

On the afternoon of the thirteenth day of the first lunar month, the people of the second village carried some dragon lanterns to the street and took a turn. The sound of gongs and firecrackers are ringing, so it is not lively. Don't think that this is a camel dragon lantern, this is the organizer in disguise to solicit sponsorship from units and store owners.

As soon as the sound of gongs and drums was heard, the shopkeepers on the street opened the firecrackers early and prepared them there, as well as the red envelopes they gave away. Who doesn't want to draw this lottery.

Qi Zhengzhe Qi Rainbow also pictured this color head.

The sound of gongs and drums was still far, far away, and Qi Zhengzhe and I stood in front of the store and waited. I took a red envelope, Qi Zhengzhe took a firecracker. Qi Caihong also stood at the door of the store. We talked across the street.

It was Qi Caihong who didn't dare to blow up firecrackers and asked Qi Zhengzhe for help. It had already been said, Qi Zhengzhe threw the exploded firecrackers to the ground and ran to the opposite side to help Qi Rainbow light the fire.

Firecrackers rang out one after another, and tall and mighty dragons walked towards us on the shoulders of several young men. The dragon head on the shoulder is more than three meters high and one meter wide, the image is realistic but exaggerated, two huge eyes are rotating in the eye sockets, the boss has a dragon lantern in his mouth, and the long dragon whiskers are fluttering in the wind.

It is said that the pregnant daughter-in-law who ripped off a dragon's whisker and brought it home was going to give birth to a son.

Who would have believed that such a superb work of art could come from Yu Liushou's famous father?

Even at the end of the dragon lantern is a yellow-green cat and tiger like an animal - no wonder the people of Qijiatun call it "cat tiger", less than one-fifth of the size of the dragon, two people to carry it is enough.

Cats and tigers are not welcome. There is a link in the camel dragon lamp, which is the most exciting and intense link, which is specifically for cats and tigers, called falling cats and tigers. It is said that the worse the cat and tiger fall, the more prosperous the people of the second village will be.

That's because cats and tigers often sneak into the village to steal pigs and chickens to eat. If the cat and tiger are miserable, won't the grain be abundant and the animals will prosper?

Night has finally fallen. With a bang, the dragon lantern was dispatched. A bench is connected to a bench, each bench is equipped with two dragon lanterns, there are hundreds of dragon lanterns, the front is connected to the dragon's head, the back is connected to the tiger's tail, the candle flame in the dragon lantern is flickering, and the city is a long line, so it is not spectacular.

Qi Zhengzhe and Qi Rainbow closed the door of the store and made an appointment to watch the dragon lantern together. There are also Yu Yinshan, Yu Liushou, Li Xiuli and Yu Dongrong, Yu Liushou's sister.

It was as if everyone had come out of their homes, and the streets were suddenly filled with people. The sidewalks and lanes are full of people.

We arrived early in the square and took a spot. The dragon lantern just walks on the street, and the square is where it leaps.

The dragon lantern has not yet come, and the square is relatively quiet. The square of that era was not as smooth and beautiful as the square more than ten years later, and the square of that era was just a relatively large cement floor, and some villagers often dried the millet on the square. It is an ideal barn for drying the grain.

We were all very happy, and no one except me was talking about whether the dragon lantern would come or not. is originally a happy age, there are endless jokes, a sentence that doesn't seem funny, and you can also laugh forward and backward.

Three young men can compete very seriously under a camphor tree to see who can pull down the camphor leaves on the higher branches. Qi Zhengzhe has a height advantage, and his bounce is the worst; Yu Liushou is the shortest, but he has the best bounce power, and he has become the best one among the three.

Qi Zhengzhe was puzzled.

"How? If you don't admit defeat, you can't do it. Concentrate is the essence, you know? Yu Liushou said.

Everyone is hilarious.

There were more and more people in the square, and I knew that the dragon lantern was coming. Sure enough, the sound of gongs and drums drifted in the wind, and the tall and mighty red dragon head walked towards the square with the flow of people, and could be seen from afar.

There was another bang, and the dragon's head went up to the concrete floor of the square. At first, it was still a slow turn, and when the cat and tiger got on the concrete floor, I don't know who shouted, the rhythm of the cymbals suddenly accelerated, the gongs and drums were as dense as raindrops, and the person carrying the dragon head also suddenly accelerated his pace, inadvertently pressing a sharp turn in the opposite direction, which was terrible, and the entire light team ran rapidly. This inertia soon spread to the position of the cat tiger, and I saw that the cat tiger and several benches in front of the cat tiger were thrown out violently. Seeing the lantern team falling to the side, they all thought that the cat and tiger would be thrown to the ground, but the young man who carried the cat and tiger flexibly adjusted his body and stood up.

The crowd was in an uproar.

The rhythm of the cymbals fell, and so did the pace of the procession, as if a dragon was tired of flying in the air, and it drifted freely.

Perhaps a few of the candles in the dragon lanterns were extinguished, and the team stopped to rest for a while. There were a number of lads who used the break to make changes in the team.

It seems that the camel dragon lantern is a tiring job.

"Hey, where did Yu Liushou and Li Xiuli die?" Qi Caihong said.

"yes, it looks like it was still with us." Qi Zhengzhe said.

"Maybe you're going to buy something, right?" I say.

"Surely somewhere have you gotten fooled around? I said Yu Dongrong," Qi Caihong patted Yu Dongrong on the shoulder, "Why aren't you optimistic about your brother and sister-in-law?" ”

Yu Yinshan smiled and said, "How can she want to be optimistic about her brother and sister-in-law, she wishes they were fooling around." ”

I found that Yu Yinshan has a good tooth, the teeth are very white, I don't know if it is because of Colgate, or it may be the effect of the skin contrast.

"Don't you want to fool around with Sister Rainbow?" Yu Dongrong sneered.

"Yu Dongrong, you talk nonsense, I'll break your tongue!" Qi Caihong said.

"I just said what Yu Yinshan was thinking."

"You talk nonsense." Qi Caihong raised his hand, as if he was really angry.

Yu Yinshan just laughed silently, no one knew what he was thinking.

However, the sound of gongs and drums and the sonorous sound of cymbals suddenly attracted our attention, and the dragons began to "leap" again!

This time it really knocked the cat and tiger down.

What a great show.

There was another bang, the speed at which the dragons swam slowed, and the dragons walked out of the square and headed southwest for the street.