This Was Never Love

Flower growers loved setting off firecrackers, and flower growers in business loved setting off firecrackers even more.

Especially during the Spring Festival. Any family with even a little business to its name would always set off tens of thousands of firecrackers.

If they did not, they would feel uneasy about doing business in the coming year. Should they encounter even the slightest setback, they would wonder whether they had not worshipped the gods devoutly enough during the New Year, or whether they had not set off their firecrackers grandly enough.

So after night fell, firecrackers all over Chinatown began clattering and banging in one great din, frightening many out-of-town tourists into screaming again and again. They thought the local gangs had suddenly started a gun battle!

After all, Chinatown had plenty of gang halls to begin with, and little frictions broke out at the drop of a hat. Several lion-dance troupes had already sparked with the smell of gunpowder earlier, so it would not have been strange at all if they started fighting now.

Xia Zemin and Ruan Shujun had just finished setting off firecrackers at the Chaozhou Hotel when they stepped outside and ran into people setting them off in the street.

Ruan Shujun was so frightened that her face drained of color, and she cried out repeatedly. After the two of them clung to each other and hid for a while, they turned around and went back into the hotel.

Seeing how lovey-dovey they were, as if still savoring the lingering aftertaste after wind and rain, they completely failed to notice that several people across the street were silently watching them.

Li Ye raised his hand and checked his watch. Less than fifteen minutes. Deducting the preparation and cleanup, the rate of fire really was not slow.

But