When the pears are green

Chapter 252 Lantern Festival (2)

Song Li looked at the crimson figure slowly disappearing in the crowd, her heart filled with mixed feelings.

Jiang Yao, who was standing in front of the table, pulled Song Li's sleeve, pointed at the porcelain spoon in the bowl and said to Song Li, "Mom, hello."

Song Li looked at Jiang Yao's eyes which were as bright as the moon in the sky, smiled and sat down, scooping up wontons with a porcelain spoon and feeding them to Jiang Yao who had already opened her mouth.

Jiang Qingzhou took Jiang Huan to the stall selling lanterns first, and then, under the guidance of the vendor, they found Song Li and her daughter who were eating wontons.

"Qingzhou, Huan'er, do you want to eat? The wontons here are delicious." Song Li looked up and asked with a smile.

Jiang Qingzhou held up the almost empty paper bag and told Song Li: "Huan'er has almost finished the mung bean cake, so don't let him eat any more, otherwise he will have indigestion. I'm not hungry now, so I won't eat any more."

Song Li stretched out her hand and pinched Jiang Huan's chubby face and scolded him, "Huan'er, what did you promise me? It's not that I don't allow you to eat, but eating too much at night is not good for your health."

"Mom, I was wrong." Jiang Huan covered his mouth and apologized to Song Li, his eyes fell on the cloth bag on the table.

While feeding Jiang Yao wontons, Song Li said to Jiang Huan, "There are lanterns inside. I bought them for the seven of you. I'll show them to you when we get back to the inn. We're on the street now, and it's inconvenient with so many people coming and going."

Jiang Huan reached out and touched the bag and asked, "Mom, shouldn't there be nine?"

Song Li smiled and explained to Jiang Huan: "Jingming and Yanqi are too young to play with this. I will buy them something else tomorrow. Huan'er, you go walk along the street with Yaoyao and your father. I'll be there soon."

Jiang Qingzhou knew that Song Li was worried that Jiang Yao would eat too much and get indigestion, so he quickly took Jiang Yao in one hand and Jiang Huan in the other and walked out of the wonton shop.

Song Li quickly finished the remaining wontons, and after paying the bill to the stall owner, she picked up the cloth bag and went to look for Jiang Qingzhou and the other two.

The sound of firecrackers rang out, and many pedestrians covered their ears and looked towards Hengqu Academy.

Song Li walked through the crowd and saw Jiang Qingzhou squatting down to help Jiang Yao cover her ears while watching people setting off firecrackers near the wall of Hengqu Academy. Jiang Huan, who was standing next to her, covered his ears with his hands and jumped around in circles.

Song Li was afraid that there might be beggars nearby, so she quickly rushed to Jiang Huan and hugged him in her arms.

"Mom, why are you hugging me?" Jiang Huan said as he tried to break free from Song Li's arms.

Song Li increased the strength of her hands and whispered to Jiang Huan: "Huan'er, there are too many people here. If you get separated from me, Dad, and Yaoyao, you may never find us again. Are you afraid?"

"Mom, I'm scared." Jiang Huan leaned on Song Li's shoulder with a frightened look.

Seeing that more and more people were gathering around, Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou squeezed out of the crowd with their two children.

The night was getting deeper and deeper. Jiang Qingzhou was carrying Jiang Huan on his back, and Song Li was holding Jiang Yao as they walked towards the inn. There were far fewer people than before.

The inn is located at the intersection of Haiyan Street and Nianfeng Street. Song Li saw the dragon dance team turning into Haiyan Street from afar.

The giant red dragon rolled its body back and forth under the night sky, as if it was hovering and soaring among the clouds.

"Xiao Li, do you want to go and take a look?" Jiang Qingzhou asked Song Li with a smile.

Song Li ignored Jiang Qingzhou and walked straight into the inn carrying Jiang Yao.

Jiang Qingzhou followed quickly, thinking about how to apologize to Song Li.

In the spacious room, Song Li sat on a stool beside the round table and watched the brother and sister sitting on the bed fighting for the pillow.

Both the brother and sister wanted to sleep with Song Li. They held the dark blue pillow and refused to give in. At this time, Jiang Huan also forgot about the lantern he had been thinking about.

Jiang Yao was not strong enough and Jiang Huan did not dare to use force, so the two of them sat at the head of the bed in a stalemate, each turning back to look at Song Li with aggrieved eyes.

Song Li walked to the bed and sat down, reaching out to touch their hair and said, "Wait a minute, wash your hands, faces, and feet, and then the three of us will sleep together."

"Okay, okay!" Jiang Yao dropped the pillow and lay on Song Li's back, reaching out to touch the black mole on Song Li's neck.

Jiang Huan lay on his back on Song Li's legs, asking Song Li to tell him a story.

Jiang Qingzhou stood by the window and looked at the three people who were having fun together, not wanting to disturb them.

After the waiter brought hot water, Song Li first helped the two children wash up, and then sat between the brother and sister to coax them to sleep.

"Are you asleep?" Jiang Qingzhou walked to the bed and asked softly.

Song Li rolled her eyes at Jiang Qingzhou and still said nothing.

Jiang Qingzhou's face was filled with frustration, and he whispered words of self-blame: "It's my fault. I didn't take good care of Huan'er. I shouldn't have only cared about Yaoyao at that time."

Seeing Jiang Qingzhou's sincere attitude, Song Li sighed and told Jiang Qingzhou: "Qingzhou, there were so many people at that time, and you didn't hold Huan'er, what if Huan'er was squeezed away by the crowd or... or..."

Song Li couldn't say any more, feeling that any additional words she said would be a curse on Jiang Huan.

Jiang Qingzhou sat on the bed and looked at the sleeping Jiang Huan. Ever since Jiang Yao was born, he had been focusing all his energy on Jiang Yao, but forgot that Jiang Huan was only a six-year-old child.

Parents always think they can treat their children equally, but they often subconsciously assume that older children are capable of taking care of themselves, thus ignoring the fact that the older child is also just a child.

Seeing Jiang Qingzhou's guilty face, Song Li hurried to comfort Jiang Qingzhou: "Don't take the children to crowded places next time."

Jiang Qingzhou nodded quickly, leaned over Jiang Huan and pressed his forehead against Song Li's, saying, "Then you shouldn't be angry and not talk to me. From the time we arrived at Hengqu Academy until the children fell asleep, you didn't say a word to me. If you don't talk, how can I know what's wrong?"

"I didn't say anything just now, but you knew that, didn't you?" Song Li said as she tried to push Jiang Qingzhou's head away from her shoulder.

Jiang Qingzhou leaned over to Song Li's ear and whispered, "You three can't sleep well, let's sleep together."

"That's wishful thinking. Go to bed quickly and don't wake up Huan'er and Yaoyao. We have to go home tomorrow!" Song Li pushed Jiang Qingzhou away with all her strength.

Jiang Qingzhou rubbed Song Li's face, turned around and lay down on the other bed to sleep.

The next morning, Song Li and her two children woke up to the noisy sounds of hawking.

Jiang Huan rubbed his eyes and asked Song Li: "Mom, where is Dad?"

"Your father should go hire a car. We need to go home at noon. Huan'er, it's cold, put on your clothes quickly." Song Li replied while helping Jiang Yao put on clothes.

Jiang Huan picked up the blue cotton jacket on the bedside and asked, "Mom, which home should we go back to? I don't want to go back to Jiangjia Village. I want to go back to the home in town. I want to go play with Xuanhe, Lingyi, and Yanyin."

"Okay, we are going back to town. You will go to school next year. Take advantage of this year to have fun." As Song Li spoke, she combed Jiang Yao's hair into double buns and inserted butterfly silk flowers into them. Jiang Yao held up her own long-handled small bronze mirror and kept looking at the butterflies in her hair.

Jiang Huan's face fell when he heard this and he said that he didn't want to study.

Song Li moved to Jiang Huan's side, picked up the comb and combed Jiang Huan's hair.

"Huan'er, don't you like Xuanhe and Jingming's father very much? Your uncle Li is a juren, and he is very good at studying. If you don't study hard, what will he do if he doesn't let Xuanhe play with you?"

"If you don't want to play, then don't play. I can play with Lingyi and Yanyin, so I don't need Xuan to play with me."

Song Li twitched her lips after hearing this. Can the friendship between children be broken up just like that?

After Song Li and the other two finished cleaning up, Jiang Qingzhou returned to the room.

Jiang Qingzhou picked up Jiang Yao and said, "I ordered food, and the waiter will bring it over in a while. Xiaoli, do you want to buy anything else? It's windy outside."

After thinking it over in her mind, Song Li told Jiang Qingzhou: "Except for the gifts for Jingming and Yanqi, the rest are basically bought. After breakfast, you stay in the room and look after them. I will go to the nearby shops by myself."

"Yeah." Jiang Qingzhou responded quickly, carrying Jiang Yao to the wooden rack to wash her face, and then pulled Jiang Huan over to wash his face.

Jiang Huan snatched the handkerchief from Jiang Qingzhou's hand and wiped his face.

"Dad, I'm grown up. I'm not Yaoyao anymore." Jiang Huan washed the towel in the basin and turned around to hand it to Jiang Qingzhou.

A quarter of an hour later, the waiter brought the food. Jiang Qingzhou fed Jiang Yao lean meat porridge, while Jiang Huan lowered his head and carefully peeled the bones from the fish belly.

Song Li hurriedly finished her breakfast and went to the grocery store near the inn.

Song Li went around two shops and finally bought a painted pottery pig for Yang Yanqi and Li Jingming respectively.

Near noon, the ox cart that Jiang Qingzhou rented arrived at the door of the inn. The family of four got into the carriage and started their journey home.