Yonghe Road

Chapter 50 Ruixue
The night was as dark as ink, tightly enveloping the sky and earth. The campsite was located on the top of the mountain, like a secret place outside the world. It was so quiet that only the whisper of the mountain wind could be heard.

The two people in the room could only hear each other's heartbeats.

Xie Anmin pulled open the floor-length curtains. It was pitch black outside the window. There was no moon or stars. The beautiful scenery of green mountains and towering rocks amidst rolling clouds that could be seen during the day had now become a ball of thick ink. However, the figure of Zhong Ziqi walking in the room was reflected on the glass. He was lighting a red candle, dripping wax on it, and fixing it on the coffee table.

"What are you doing?" Xie Anmin turned around and looked at him strangely.

There was a light in the room, why did he light a candle?

"This is the 'Zhao Sui' of our She ethnic group. We She people have the custom of staying up all night to celebrate the New Year's Eve. The whole family gathers together to stay up all night, with red candles burning in the hall all night long, symbolizing welcoming the new year, exorcising evil spirits and bringing in good fortune."

Zhong Ziqi took two pillows from the sofa and put them on the ground, then pulled Xie Anmin to sit on the pillows. The two of them leaned over to look at the red candles on the coffee table.

"Compared to other ethnic groups, the She ethnic group's Spring Festival customs have many differences," Zhong Ziqi patiently explained to Xie Anmin. "First, there's the unique food. During the Spring Festival, the She people brew rice wine and make glutinous rice cakes (glutinous rice cakes) with glutinous rice and ash-alkali water. This is what you Han people call rice cakes."

While Xie Anmin was nodding, Zhong Ziqi continued, "But our glutinous rice cakes are sweet. In the past, every Chinese New Year, my father and mother would work together to make glutinous rice cakes. My mother would pour the steamed glutinous rice into a stone mortar, and my father would pound it repeatedly with a stone pestle. Every time he pounded it, my father would lift the pestle, and my mother would reach out and turn the glutinous rice in the mortar. When my mother took her hand out of the mortar, my father would pound the pestle down again... During this time, we had to constantly sprinkle water on the glutinous rice to prevent it from sticking, until the rice was pounded into a soft paste. My parents would sing She songs while making glutinous rice cakes, and we children would watch from the side..."

Zhong Ziqi's thoughts seemed to be pulled back to his childhood.

At that time, my parents would knead the pounded glutinous rice paste into round glutinous rice balls, flatten them with their hands, coat them with sugar, bean powder, or sesame and peanut crumbs, and share them with my brothers and sisters.

Mother gave the glutinous rice ball to the eldest brother, and father gave the glutinous rice ball to him and Chunshui, and said that the glutinous rice cake of us She people is sweet, because the She people have lived in the mountains for generations, and their life is too hard. Eating sweet glutinous rice cake will make their life sweeter.

But after eating the glutinous rice cake, their life became even harder because their father was gone.

When my father was alive, his family would, like other She people, light red candles on New Year's Eve to celebrate the coming of the new year, and set off firecrackers at midnight to usher in the new year. At the first crow of the rooster in the early morning of the first day of the new year, my father would set off firecrackers and then lead him and his eldest brother around the house, banging bamboo clappers to drive away the plague god and eliminate disease. At dawn, he would take them to the bamboo forest on the mountain to "shake bamboo"...

"My father said that if She children shake bamboo, they will grow up like bamboo shoots..."

The red candle made Zhong Ziqi's face glow red. There was a soft light flashing in his eyes, and the corners of his mouth were slightly raised. He was immersed in the warm and beautiful childhood memories that his father brought him. It was as if time had gone back and happiness remained the same.

In Xie Anmin's eyes, Zhong Ziqi rarely appeared so melancholy and quiet. He looked like a scholar, not a sports student.

Suddenly, Zhong Ziqi stopped talking, his lips tightly closed, and he fell into silence. Only the red candlelight flickered in his eyes.

Xie Anmin was listening with great interest when Zhong Ziqi fell silent. He then pressed him, "After shaking the bamboo, what next?"

"There is no more, because my father is gone."

Xie Anmin also fell silent, and the atmosphere in the room became depressing for a moment, just like the dark sky and earth outside the window.

In that vast darkness, something was flickering with a faint light, like fragments of stars, lightly falling from the night sky.

"It's really snowing." said Xie Anmin.

Zhong Ziqi also noticed that the snowflakes gradually became larger and denser, dancing and interweaving freely in the air.

The two of them walked to the French window and looked out quietly, their thoughts drifting away with the snowflakes. The snow made the dark night more lively, like the little surprises in life that came unexpectedly.

This area of land is mountainous and hilly, with a relatively closed terrain and surrounded by mountains, making it more difficult for cold air to enter. In addition, the marine climate makes the winter temperature here relatively high and the air humidity high, so it rarely snows. Even if it snows, the snowflakes easily melt into rain or sleet during the falling process, making it difficult to form large-scale snowfall.

Therefore, this heavy snowfall was extremely precious. Zhong Ziqi had rarely seen such heavy snowfall in his life, and he witnessed this snowfall together with Xie Anmin.

This grand destiny seemed to be extremely strong, indicating that it was beginning to fade away.

Zhong Ziqi turned his head to look at Xie Anmin. She was extremely happy to see the snow. She was happy, and so was he.

For the rest of my life, there will not be many moments when I can see her happy like this, perhaps, there will never be another one.

He might be like a speck of dust, disappearing silently from her future life.

He was ready to accept the inevitable outcome.

"You see snow often in the north, don't you?"

"That's natural."

"Then why are you still excited?"

"Because I saw the snow with you."

Xie Anmin looked up, his spirits high. She had always given him a feeling of superiority and oppression, and it was rare for her to have such an innocent and lovely moment.

"You know, it snows on New Year's Eve in eastern Fujian. This is the first time I've ever experienced that."

"So this snow has more to do with me."

Yes, this snow has secretly forged so many deep and shallow connections, and I don’t know how many people and things have quietly changed in this snow.

After this snow, some people underwent earth-shaking changes. Some went up to the sky, and some fell to the ground. Zhong Ziqi didn't know which lucky person would go up to the sky after the snow stopped. He only knew that he would be the unlucky one who fell down after the snow stopped, and he would be heartbroken again, because in the new year, Xie Anmin would leave Baile Village.

And in a few minutes, it will be tomorrow.

"Tomorrow, let's have dinner at my house again," Zhong Ziqi invited Xie Anmin, "and have a New Year's Eve dinner."

On New Year’s Eve, the She people will specially cook some extra rice and save it for consumption the next day, which is the first day of the Lunar New Year.

"Ah, isn't this just eating leftovers?" Xie Anmin complained.

Zhong Ziqi pinched her nose and said, "Leftovers symbolize a prosperous life and abundant harvests in the coming year. On New Year's Eve, the She people not only leave behind leftover rice, but also select a thick piece of firewood, burn it in the hearth, and then warm it with charcoal ash to use as fire for the New Year. This firewood is called the "leftover fire," also known as the 'warming pig', symbolizing a prosperous new year."

"You She people are quite particular. Everything has a different origin..."

Zhong Ziqi looked at Xie Anmin and said in his heart, it’s a pity that there is no love that lasts another year.

It is certain that he is an unlucky guy who broke up in love during the New Year.

And Zhong Chunshui, his sister, was the lucky person who became famous all over the country overnight.