A Hot & Fiery Night

A hot and fiery night, as the name implies, was a night that was hot and fiery.

After Christmas, we soon welcomed Chinese New Year.

On Chinese New Year’s Eve, my irresponsible parents each called me individually. Apart from their sincere greetings were their loving teasing. What I don’t understand was that these two people were clearly together yet why were they still pretending as if they were one hundred and five thousand miles apart? Sure enough, they were more mischievous and bored than I thought.

In the evening, we gathered at the Han residence for Chinese New Year’s Eve dinner and the entire atmosphere was what you would expect, it was still as lively and cheerful.

After dinner, everyone agreed to set off the firecrackers at dawn. To pass the time, someone suggested that we play Dou Di Zhu (a widely popular card game in China), another suggested playing mahjong while another suggested karaoke. Ultimately, under Grandma Han’s “quelling”, the young and the old of the Han family obediently sat down and accompanied the Empress Dowager to watch the spring gala.

Enduring until dawn, we finally casted the four elderly aside and drove to the site for setting off the firecrackers.

We drove along a road that was far away from the city. The stretch of road was permeated with mist and the ambiance was just right for shooting a supernatural horror movie. There were many cars parked along the road, sounds of firecrackers crackling throughout.

I wondered, why do the youngsters nowadays enjoy setting off firecrackers on the road?

We proceeded forward and stopped once we were about a hundred miles apart from the rest of the cars. Everyone got off and placed the box containing the firecrackers by the roadside.

The men grinned while rolling up their sleeves, picked up their favorite firecracker and firework and began to “welcome the new year”.

Compared with the men’s recklessness, us women quietly stood to the side and picked out the sparklers and bang snaps to play.

Just at this time, Han Yu suddenly ran to the middle of the road, crouched down and placed an aerial type firework upright on the ground. After turning around and laughed toward us, he lighted it and dashed back to our side.

“Whizz! Whizz!” After a few sounds, the firework pierced through the paper of the cylinder and shot straight into the sky. Sparks flickered like butterflies fluttering, floating in succession.

The beautiful firework won the joyful shouts from us women. Thus, Han Yu was even more zealous. He had basically stood in the middle of the road whenever there were no cars passing by, lighting different kinds of firework for us which in return received our praises and flattery.

As if the rest of the men would let Han Yu shine alone. Han Si smirked and lighted a rotating type of firework and threw it near Han Yu’s feet.

That firework was spinning rapidly on the ground, alternating between a disc of red, yellow, blue, green and other colors. The interchangeable colors were beautiful but Han Yu didn’t feel the same. He jumped around everywhere, afraid to have any close contact with it.

Noticing this, under Han Si’s lead, Han Lei, Guan Yi, and Han Hui’s counselor boyfriend followed along and attacked Han Yu, making him busy evading their attacks. Moreover, Han Yu’s comical movements made us laugh to tears.

After playing for a while, Han Lei brought the pitiful Han Yu to squat next to a drainage hole. The two brothers smiled at each other, revealing a similar grin and then lighted the firecrackers in their hand. After calculating the time, they dropped it down the drainage hole through its cracks. Boom! The water in the drainage hole and its cover exploded.  

The two brothers seemed to have found their own enjoyment, squatting there playing by themselves.

Hey, you guys are blowing up the drain!

After two hours, there weren’t many firecrackers and fireworks left except for some handheld fireworks.

Then Han Yu, with fireworks in both hands, walked to the middle of the road. He raised one of his hands and pointed the firework at Han Si: “Bro! I’ve been bullied by you all this time! Tonight, I’ll take my revenge! Let’s have a round!”

Han Si, who was called out, arched his eyebrow and sneered. He had also walked to the middle of the road with a firework in each of his hands and stopped when he faced Han Yu.

At this time, the surroundings had gradually quieted down with smoke slowly dissipating in the air. They confronted each other at a safe distance in the middle of the road, posing what they had assumed as their most handsome pose and waited for the right time to attack each other. They stood shrouded by the smoke as if they were two soldiers with guns. It was very drama like.

We excitedly stood to the side, shouting and clamoring while watching them fight each other.

Han Lei and Guan Yi went to their side and helped them light the fireworks.

“Whizz! Whizz!” Both side’s fireworks shot out separately. They agilely moved and shot it toward each other’s feet. Soon, Han Yu was in a disadvantageous position. He turned around and ran without a second thought. Han Si chased after him and evilly shot another one towards Han Yu’s PP (butt). Han Yu’s PP immediately felt the burning disaster.

While Han Yu was wailing, we laughed. Why were they such show offs and so amusing?

In the midst of our laughs, we had unexpectedly stayed until 4:00 AM.

When Han Lei and I got home, it was already dawn. After a simple cleanse, we fell asleep. It seemed like the person who lighted the firecrackers was just as tired as the person watching them.