Amid deep booms like peal after peal of thunder, the people throughout the city faced the bleak, cold wind and looked up toward Midheaven, laughter rising on every side.
This was not the Southern Territory, not Floating Jade Lake, nor the Si Encounter Festival.
It was the New Year Festival.
It was New Year's Eve...
Today, for the first time in a long while, the curfew had been lifted. The townspeople locked their doors and came out to set off fireworks and admire the night lanterns.
Many families from the nearby villages also drove their old donkey carts here, bringing their entire households, supporting the elderly and leading the young, to enjoy this bustle that came only once a year.
Dazzling flames filled the sky, flaring and fading in an instant, flickering ceaselessly.
They thundered as though the Silver River had tipped and poured down.
The world before their eyes seemed shrouded in gauze, hazy and dreamlike, obscuring the precise outlines of things, so splendid that it left people spellbound.
Fragrance spread along the steps, plum blossoms unfurled their white; flowers filled the platters, candles curled their red.
Together they celebrated the new year and the old, welcoming one and bidding the other farewell in a single night-
"I grew up in the mortal world, so naturally I have seen its fireworks and festivities. As for the last time, that was at the Si Encounter Festival in the Southern Territory..."
Just then.
Chen Heng suddenly spoke, his voice mild.
The World-Escaping Shuttle paused at his words.
"I once truly admired Senior Sister, and I once hoped she would fall for me, but that is all in the past. Bringing these things up now is rather ill-timed.
"It is like someone in deep water, on the verge of drowning...
"The only