Dingjiangshan

Chapter 137 "Why Am I Stopping You?"

In Beijing, when ordinary people celebrate New Year’s Eve, most of them paste couplets with blessings on the door at noon on the 29th of the twelfth lunar month, which is used as a “door seal”.

Generally speaking, if there is no particularly serious accident, after the door is closed, the people will not go out again, and the whole family gathers together happily at home to watch the new year together, in the hope of a safe reunion.After the night watch, and until the early morning of the next day, I will go out to walk the streets and alleys, and walk around among relatives.

But Nanyang is not like this.

Nanyang Mansion is close to the south, and the customs also pay more attention to the Jiangnan lineage.On New Year's Eve, the common people did not stay at home blindly, but dragged their families out to buy lanterns and watch a play. They only waited for the midnight to burn the first stick of incense in the Town God's Temple.

It is precisely because of this that on New Year's Eve, the Lantern Market in Nanyang Beicheng is extremely lively, as if it can be compared to the Shangyuan Festival in Beijing.

In the whole world, only the people who live in peace and stability are the most open-minded. There is a lot of war in Xinyang City, and the army is on the alert every day. There are no less than twenty battles, large and small.

But as long as the flames of war do not burn to the end, the people in these cities are still willing to celebrate the new year.

The night market in Xicheng is brightly lit, palm-sized small stalls are crowded on both sides of the main road affectionately, and the candlesticks at the corner of the stalls are burning fiercely in the cold winter, and several long rows are connected together, stretching into an invisible The long river of warm colors at the end.

Ning Yan held Ning Huaijin's hand tightly, and glanced at him nervously.

Ning Huaijin noticed his wavering and restlessness for a moment, but maybe Ning Huaijin was nostalgic for the good atmosphere just now, or maybe something else had already taken root in his heart, so he was silent for a moment, and did not let go of Ning Yan , but held his hand instead.

Such a tacit and conniving attitude is obviously a tacit signal. The smile on Ning Yan's face suddenly widened. The smile shone brightly.

"I heard that there are many new gadgets in the Lantern Market." Ning Yan said: "I used to have a lot of time in the capital, but today I have to have fun."

"Okay." Ning Huaijin smiled and said softly, "Then let's have a good time today."

Nanyang City was built upright, especially the West City.There are three main roads in the West City, each of which is connected by two small roads, which is convenient for strolling.

Most of the shops on both sides of the main road are shop fronts. Except for a few antique shops that are closed, most of them are still open. They want to take advantage of the end of the year to attract two more orders.

Various restaurants and restaurants even set up tea stalls outside the shops early on to sell some small and cheap snacks.

Ning Yan has not been out of the palace many times in these years, and every big festival and celebration has to be busy from morning to night, let alone going to the night market, even sneaking out of the palace is very rare.

Ning Huaijin was more knowledgeable than him, but she had never been out shopping on a big day like New Year's Eve. For a while, the two of them were very fresh, and everything they saw was interesting.

Ning Yan pulled Ning Huaijin to squeeze left and right in the crowd, sliding like a loach that had just been fished out. Fortunately, Ning Huaijin was strong and strong, and he turned around on the spot, just like a candied haws surrounded by children. The peddler passed by, so that he didn't bump into the straw stack of others.

When Ning Huaijin regained her balance just now, she felt that Ning Yan in front of her had stopped.

"How much is this sugar figurine?" Ning Yan stood in front of a sugar figurine booth, poked his head to look inside, and asked, "Can you draw any pattern?"

"Yes." The skinny man behind the booth put down the half-drawn sugar figurine, wiped his hands, raised his head and said, "Twenty cents a piece."

The man probably looked at Ning Yan's extravagance, and guessed who he was from a rich family, so he hurriedly rubbed his hands and said awkwardly, "What trick do you want, sir? Turtles, snakes, tigers, leopards, twelve signs of the zodiac, I It can be painted."

Sugar figurine stalls and sweet water shops have always been popular places for children. In front of this stall, a group of half-grown children were gathered. They were looking at the tiger in the owner's hand that was about to take shape. Suddenly meeting such a "blocker" as Ning Yan, he immediately became unhappy, and a group of little peas turned their heads in unison, all glaring at Ning Yan.

Seeing that Ning Huaijin felt uncomfortable, she felt as if she was grabbing candy from a child, so she couldn't help but tugged at Ning Yan's hand, trying to persuade him.

"I think the sweet water balls up front are pretty good. They smell sweet. Why don't you go and sit there for a while?" Ning Huaijin said.

Ning Yan hadn't spoken yet, but the skinny man who painted the sugar figurine was afraid of losing his business, so he hurriedly said, "My lord, I can draw anything. If there is nothing you like on the wooden sign, you can designate a pattern, and I can do it too." painting."

"That's a good relationship." Ning Yan became interested, rolled his eyes, pointed to Ning Huaijin beside him and said, "Just draw him, draw more finely, if you draw a six-point portrait, I will give you two taels of silver." .”

Two taels of silver can catch up with the household expenses of ordinary people for several months.The man suddenly became energetic, and as if afraid of Ning Yan's repentance, he wiped the porcelain plate clean with his hands and feet, and scooped out a spoonful of boiled syrup.

Before Ning Huaijin had time to refuse, the man had already glanced at him quickly, bowed his head and began to draw.

Ning Yan thought that every time he came out, Ning Huaijin could only be forced to stand in the middle of a group of half-grown children and accept the baptism of their eyes. He was embarrassed like a piece of wood and stone, his eyes fluttering up and down.

"What are you afraid of?" Ning Yan said with a smile, "Huaijin is the best at dealing with children."

Ning Huaijin: "..."

Over the past few days, Prince Gong has gradually cultivated his articulation skills in Ning Yan's unexpected "molestation", and he did not show any timidity when he heard the words. Just wait a little longer."

Ning Yan hit the snake with the stick, not only did he not feel ashamed, but he became relentless and moved closer to Ning Huaijin.

"From this point of view, it's better for things like rules to be established at an early age." Ning Yan squeezed Ning Huaijin's hand under the cloak, and continued, "Otherwise, it's easy to grow into a little 'rebellious' thing."

— This child!

Prince Gong's kung fu was not perfect, and he was directly defeated in one round.

"The rebellious little thing" won a big victory, took the sugar figurine from the vendor, and walked around in front of Ning Huaijin with a smile.

"It's quite similar." Ning Yan said as he threw two loose pieces of silver to the stall owner, and pulled him away from the right and wrong place before Ning Huaijin could bear it no longer.

Ning Huaijin walked half a block away before recovering from the embarrassment of "snatching candy from children".

He turned his head to look at Ning Yan, and saw that the other party was no different from those children holding up sugar figurines to ask for credit, holding them to the candle light happily, admiring his "trophy".

In all fairness, the stall owner's craftsmanship is really good, the sugar figurine he drew is actually about half like him, and even the pattern of the belt is pressed out with a steel ruler.

It's just that it's a bit subtle to see his own sugar figure. Ning Huaijin looked away after two glances, and pulled Ning Yan's hand a little stiffly.

"I'm right here." Ning Huaijin was obviously not used to saying such nasty words, her voice sounded a little unnatural: "Just look at me, look at some sugar man."

Ning Yan was taken aback for a moment, then suddenly became happy, looked around Ning Huaijin exaggeratedly, and nodded.

"Indeed." Ning Yan said: "There are real people here, but the sugar man is really inferior."

But if he said so, he still handed the sugar figurine in his hand to Shi Li who was following behind him, and asked the other party to keep it well and don't break it.

Ning Yan's status is not ordinary, so he can't help but be careful when going out. Although the two of them said they were out to eat, drink and play, they couldn't lose their sense of propriety.

Therefore, even though he bought seven or eight street snacks, Ning Yan didn't bring any of them to his mouth, but Ning Huaijin was finally aroused by a bean curd shop on the street, so he sat down and drank half a bowl.

Since Ning Huaijin moved the chopsticks first, Ning Yan didn't hold them up, so he took a sip from his bowl, and it was considered to be out to "eat and drink".

At the end of the main road in Xicheng, the stage was set up just after nightfall, and the sound of gongs and drums rang for most of the night without stopping.But there were too many people there, and Ning Yan and Ning Huaijin were not the type to squeeze in crowds, so they didn't join in the fun, and sat on the bean curd stand for a while, then stood up and walked Go deep into the city of lights.

The two of them strolled around happily, stopping to look at everything they saw for a while, and when they finished shopping in the three streets, it was almost midnight.

By the time Ning Yan and Ning Huaijin arrived at the Chenghuang Temple in Beicheng, there were already several circles of people around the gate of the temple, just waiting for the New Year's firecrackers to go in and burn some incense for good luck.

Ning Yan and Ning Huaijin didn't compete with the common people for this prize, but stood at the outermost part of the crowd and walked slowly along the crowd.

"Huaijin didn't say anything today. It's against the rules, that's not proper." Ning Yan took a stick of shabby incense at the gate of the Town God's Temple, and whispered in Ning Huaijin's ear: "Why are you so good-tempered?" gone?"

After all, as an emperor, he could only worship the sky, the earth, and his ancestors. He secretly came to the night market to worship a local city god, and it was really not nice to say it.

Ning Yan originally thought that Ning Huaijin would stop him, but he seemed to have changed his temper today, and he didn't say anything along the way, letting him play around.

Ning Huaijin turned her head and glanced at him when she heard the words, and said, "Why, you want me to teach you now? That's not—"

"Forget it." Ning Yan immediately begged for mercy: "I'm just... just not used to it."

"You want to see the world of mortals and see how ordinary people live, that's good." Ning Huaijin said in a low voice: "Besides, not all high-ranking people are high-level statues of steel and iron. Since you want to be a Ordinary people with flesh and blood in the evening, try to live without rules and restraints, why am I stopping you?"