Chapter 79 – Visiting Temple Fair and Sugar Painting
Mo Fei’s scandal has been fueled by people with high ambitions, and it’s getting bigger and bigger, but for Yang Yi, he still believed in his own eyes. Whether Mo Fei has a problem with that Ju Jie can be seen from those “secretly taken” photos.
What’s more, Mo Fei specially explained it to him, so Yang Yi didn’t take it to heart.
On the contrary, it was Mo Fei who was worried and uneasy. Yang Yi, who had a big heart, happily took his daughter with him and went to the temple fair according to the original plan.
In addition to many well-preserved ancient villages in Tingshan District, there are also some interesting traditional customs, such as the temple fair in the middle of each month. Yang Yi listened to the surrounding neighbors’ introduction. The temple fair is very popular and on a large scale!
Whether it is an elderly person who like tradition, young people who like lively activities, or the greedy children, they’re all going to have fun in the temple fair!
Having been fascinated for a long time, Yang Yi also asked when the temple fair would be held this month. Finally, on this day, in the evening, without having dinner, Yang Yi set off with Xixi!
“Papa, I want to eat a lot of delicious food!” When Xixi sat in the car, she couldn’t restrain her excitement and, like a songbird, chattered in her sweet voice. (TN: Songbird – lark)
“How many delicious foods are there? Papa and Xixi have never been there, how do Xixi know there will be a lot of delicious food?” Yang Yi teased her, “What if there is no delicious food?”
Xixi covered her mouth with her two small hands, and her big eyes were full of surprise. The naive little girl believed it and hurriedly asked nervously, “Ah! What are we going to do? Is Xixi going to be hungry?”
Originally, Xixi is very cute, but she was more amusing now that she is serious!
“Ha ha ha ha!” Yang Yi couldn’t help but be amused by her daughter. For safety, he also stepped on the clutch gently to slow down the car.
“Well, Xixi wants to eat delicious food!” The little girl became upset and cried out.
Yang Yi smiled and said, “Ok, there will be a lot of delicious food, Papa promises! I will never let Xixi go hungry!”
…….
The temple fair is not held on this side of the University Town, but on the street of the City God Temple at the foot of Baiting Mountain. Before arriving at the place, Yang Yi felt the hustle and bustle and knew that his car couldn’t get in, so he could only find a paid parking lot far away and park it there.
In the afterglow of the setting sun, Yang Yi was holding Xixi’s small hand as they walked. Because of the slight slope, they could see a spacious but already crowded long street from a distance. There were many shops on both sides, most of them were street vendors who have their own spacious street stalls, and there were also many hawkers pushing their carts to peddle.
As they got closer, they felt the lively atmosphere. The signboards were hanging high and the banners were waving. The crowd around them were surging. They could hear people hawking, cheering, talking and laughing. The noise was greater than that of a vegetable market!
“Lots of people!” Xixi was a little nervous. It was obviously the first time that she had encountered such a complicated environment. She saw all kinds of legs in her field of vision. She couldn’t help raising her head, and saw a lot of strange and terrifying adults. She always felt that she was going to be swayed by the rolling tide of people, holding her father’s hand in fear. (TN: Point of view of a child)
Suddenly, she felt that her armpit was held, and then she seemed to flew up in the cloud, then spun around and rode on her father’s neck.
“Ah!” Xixi hurriedly hugged her father’s head tightly for fear of falling down.
It was not the first time she has experienced this action, but every time when she just sat there, Xixi will be very flustered and the feeling of slight dizziness is terrible!
“You’ve covered Papa’s eyes.” Yang Yi smiled helplessly and said. He reached out to pull Xixi’s clothes. Today Xixi was wearing denim shorts with a short-sleeved T-shirt and a small vest, which was quite fresh and elegant. Of course, it was not easy to walk with her on her father’s neck.
After adapting to the high altitude, Xixi became lively. She not only sat high and could see far away, but also had a wide field of vision. What’s more, holding her father’s head around her father’s neck, she didn’t have to worry about being squeezed, and the sense of security in the little girl’s heart rose up.
“It smells good!” Xixi looked around happily and kept calling out to his father, “Papa, you see, there are a lot of delicious food. Papa, look, what is that?”
Yang Yi was very patient. Although he sometimes saw a calligraphy and painting stalls that he was interested in and got interrupted by his daughter, Yang Yi patiently followed her daughter’s instructions.
“That is sugar painting, and the boss has good skills!” Yang Yi was also interested. He didn’t expect that this old trade still exists in this world. Maybe even though there were differences in history, some of the livelihood developed by material needs will still appear.
“Haha, this little brother has good eyes!” The old man, whose business was doing good and was very busy, looked up at Yang Yi and Xixi and said with a smile, “I learned the craftsmanship of sugar painting in Sichuan Province. Birds, animals, trees, flowers and fruits, as long as you can say it, there’s nothing I can’t draw!”
“It looks beautiful. Xixi wants it, too!” The little girl saw the grandpa stuck a sugar painting on a bamboo chopstick, scooped it up gently and handed it to a young man next to her, and she said enviously.
“Then, I will trouble the boss to draw a dragon for my daughter!” Yang Yi smiled and said, “She’s a dragon.” (TN: Dragon here is referring to her Chinese Zodiac)
“It must be a cute little dragon!” Xixi added.
The little girl was talking about the kind of cartoon dragon that her father had drawn for her, chibi version. She likes that kind of little dragon more. it’s very cute, and better-looking than that kind of big dragon with its teeth and claws.
Yang Yi smiled. He put Xixi down and said to the old man, “The dragon she wants is not as fierce as the one in our new year pictures. The body is shorter, the head is bigger, and it looks cute.”
Unfortunately, there weren’t any pen and paper, otherwise Yang Yi would draw one for the other party as a reference.
“It doesn’t matter. Grandpa will draw one for you, what do you say? okay?” The old man said to Xixi with a smile.
Xixi nodded shyly.
The old man boiled the sugar first. As he boiled, he introduced: “In sugar painting, the real work is not only in painting, boiling the sugar is also very important. If the sugar is thick or thin, you can’t draw a good sugar figure!”
After all, he has been a craftsman for most of his life. The old man has great confidence in his craftsmanship. After boiling the sugar, he calmed down, scooped up the syrup with a spoon, took the spoon as a pen, and drew on the copper plate.
Compared with calligraphers who write big characters, the old man run wrist with a spoon. From time to time he would raise it, sometimes shake it, sometimes pause, and sometimes spread it deep. Then, a rudimentary form of little dragon embryonic had appeared. (TN: Run wrist (运腕) – Calligraphy term that means to use wrist to manipulate the brush tip when writing brush characters.)
Xixi also stood on tiptoe, watching curiously. But she dared not breathe heavily, for fear she would break it in one breath. Her enthusiasm was as if she were looking at a very delicate work of art.
Finally, the old man finished painting. It was a traditional-shape dragon, but the head was a little bigger and the feet were shorter. It has a different kind of comic look!
But it has to be said that the old man’s craftsmanship was very good. The texture of the dragon was clear, the whiskers were also portrayed. The old man gently shovel it up, and those whiskers were still firmly stuck to the dragon’s body.
“Child, do you think grandpa’s painting looks good?” The old man stuck a bamboo stick to the sugar dragon, shook it in front of Xixi, and asked with a smile.
“Looks good!” Xixi was dazzled. She hugged her father’s leg and said cleverly.
“Do you want it?” The old man asked with a smile.
Xixi looked at his father sheepishly, but her eyes showed that she wanted it.
Yang Yi paid for it with a smile. How could he not?
He also gave an extra 100 yuan to show his admiration and support for the artists for passing on the craft.
It was just that Xixi was reluctant to eat the little candy “dragon” all night.
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TN: Sugar Painting: Here.
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