Elena fanned the flames from the side.
"Go on. The little girl put her whole heart into this—if you don't go, how badly would that hurt her? Besides, I want to see the Star Festival gala too." Elena looked at Elonore. "Two tickets won't be enough, will they? I'm going too."
Elonore froze.
She had pestered her grandfather endlessly to get those two tickets. She had originally planned to go alone with Su Li.
"I... I only have two." Elonore was so anxious her tears were on the verge of falling.
"Then that's easy." Elena snatched the tickets from Elonore's hand. "Su Li and I will go. The village girl can stay home and guard the door."
"In your dreams!" Saina lunged in to grab them. "If anyone's going with Su Li, it'll be me! You spendthrift hag can stay home!"
The two women immediately started tearing at each other in the courtyard.
Elonore stood to the side, watching the tickets get snatched back and forth, her face full of grievance. The little world for two she had so carefully planned had been ruined by these two women just like that.
Su Li deftly pulled the two apart and slipped the tickets out of their hands.
"Enough. The Star Festival, right?" Su Li slapped the tickets onto the table. "We need a new wok at home anyway. We can take a look at that meteorite iron while we're there."
Saina was unhappy.
"Then who exactly is going?"
Su Li glanced at the sky.
"We'll all go. If we don't have tickets, we'll climb over the wall. I'm sure they won't mind."
Saina immediately ran inside to change, while Elena turned and headed upstairs to pick out one of those gowns of hers that could blind people.
Only Su Li and