House Dad's Literary Life

Chapter 79 -Visiting Temple Fair and Sugar Painting

Mo Fei’s scandalhas been fueled by people with high ambitions, and it's getting bigger andbigger, but for Yang Yi, he still believed in his own eyes. Whether Mo Fei hasa 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 thecontrary, it was Mo Fei who was worried and uneasy. Yang Yi, who had a bigheart, happily took his daughter with him and went to the temple fair accordingto the original plan.

In additionto many well-preserved ancient villages in Tingshan District, there are also someinteresting traditional customs, such as the temple fair in the middle of eachmonth. Yang Yi listened to the surrounding neighbors' introduction. The templefair is very popular and on a large scale!

Whether itis an elderly person who like tradition, young people who like livelyactivities, or the greedy children, they're all going to have fun in the templefair!

Having beenfascinated for a long time, Yang Yi also asked when the temple fair would beheld 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, shecouldn't restrain her excitement and, like a songbird, chattered in her sweetvoice. (TN: Songbird - lark)

“Howmany delicious foods are there? Papa and Xixi have never been there, how do Xixiknow there will be a lot of delicious food?” Yang Yi teased her, “Whatif there is no delicious food?”

Xixi coveredher mouth with her two small hands, and her big eyes were full of surprise. Thenaive little girl believed it and hurriedly asked nervously, “Ah! What arewe going to do? Is Xixi going to be hungry?”

Originally, Xixi is very cute, but she was more amusing nowthat she is serious!

“Ha haha 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 criedout.

Yang Yismiled and said, “Ok, there will be a lot of delicious food, Papapromises! I will never let Xixi go hungry!”

…….

The templefair is not held on this side of the University Town, but on the street of theCity 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 hecould only find a paid parking lot far away and park it there.

In theafterglow of the setting sun, Yang Yi was holding Xixi’s small hand as theywalked. Because of the slight slope, they could see a spacious but alreadycrowded long street from a distance. There were many shops on both sides, mostof them were street vendors who have their own spacious street stalls, and therewere also many hawkers pushing their carts to peddle.

As they gotcloser, they felt the lively atmosphere. The signboards were hanging high andthe banners were waving. The crowd around them were surging. They could hearpeople hawking, cheering, talking and laughing. The noise was greater than thatof a vegetable market!

“Lotsof people!” Xixi was a little nervous. It was obviously the first timethat she had encountered such a complicated environment. She saw all kinds oflegs in her field of vision. She couldn't help raising her head, and saw a lotof strange and terrifying adults. She always felt that she was going to beswayed 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 notthe first time she has experienced this action, but every time when she just satthere, Xixi will be very flustered and the feeling of slight dizziness isterrible!

“You'vecovered Papa's eyes.” Yang Yi smiled helplessly and said. He reached outto pull Xixi’s clothes. Today Xixi was wearing denim shorts with ashort-sleeved T-shirt and a small vest, which was quite fresh and elegant. Ofcourse, it was not easy to walk with her on her father’s neck.

Afteradapting to the high altitude, Xixi became lively. She not only sat high andcould see far away, but also had a wide field of vision. What's more, holdingher father’s head around her father’s neck, she didn’t have to worry aboutbeing squeezed, and the sense of security in the little girl’s heart rose up.

“Itsmells good!” Xixi looked around happily and kept calling out to hisfather, “Papa, you see, there are a lot of delicious food. Papa, look,what is that?”

Yang Yi wasvery patient. Although he sometimes saw a calligraphy and painting stalls that hewas interested in and got interrupted by his daughter, Yang Yi patiently followedher daughter’s instructions.

“Thatis sugar painting, and the boss has good skills!” Yang Yi was alsointerested. He didn't expect that this old trade still exists in this world.Maybe even though there were differences in history, some of the livelihooddeveloped by material needs will still appear.

“Haha,this little brother has good eyes!” The old man, whose business was doinggood 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 nothingI can’t draw!”

“Itlooks beautiful. Xixi wants it, too!” The little girl saw the grandpa stucka sugar painting on a bamboo chopstick, scooped it up gently and handed it to ayoung man next to her, and she said enviously.

“Then, Iwill trouble the boss to draw a dragon for my daughter!” Yang Yi smiledand said, “She's a dragon.” (TN: Dragon here is referring to herChinese Zodiac)

“Itmust be a cute little dragon!” Xixi added.

The little girlwas 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, andbetter-looking than that kind of big dragon with its teeth and claws.

Yang Yismiled. He put Xixi down and said to the old man, “The dragon she wants isnot as fierce as the one in our new year pictures. The body is shorter, thehead is bigger, and it looks cute.”

Unfortunately,there weren't any pen and paper, otherwise Yang Yi would draw one for the otherparty as a reference.

“Itdoesn’t matter. Grandpa will draw one for you, what do you say? okay?” Theold man said to Xixi with a smile.

Xixi noddedshyly.

The old manboiled the sugar first. As he boiled, he introduced: “In sugar painting,the real work is not only in painting, boiling the sugar is also veryimportant. 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 confidencein his craftsmanship. After boiling the sugar, he calmed down, scooped up thesyrup with a spoon, took the spoon as a pen, and drew on the copper plate.

Comparedwith 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 sometimesspread it deep. Then, a rudimentary form of little dragon embryonic had appeared.(TN: Run wrist (运腕) - Calligraphy term that means to use wrist tomanipulate the brush tip when writing brush characters.)

Xixi alsostood on tiptoe, watching curiously. But she dared not breathe heavily, forfear she would break it in one breath. Her enthusiasm was as if she werelooking at a very delicate work of art.

Finally, theold man finished painting. It was a traditional-shape dragon, but the head wasa little bigger and the feet were shorter. It has a different kind of comiclook!

But it hasto be said that the old man’s craftsmanship was very good. The texture of the dragonwas clear, the whiskers were also portrayed. The old man gently shovel it up, andthose whiskers were still firmly stuck to the dragon’s body.

“Child,do you think grandpa’s painting looks good?” The old man stuck a bamboostick to the sugar dragon, shook it in front of Xixi, and asked with a smile.

“Looksgood!” Xixi was dazzled. She hugged her father’s leg and said cleverly.

“Do youwant it?” The old man asked with a smile.

Xixi looked athis father sheepishly, but her eyes showed that she wanted it.

Yang Yi paidfor it with a smile. How could he not?

He also gavean extra 100 yuan to show his admiration and support for the artists for passingon the craft.

It was justthat Xixi was reluctant to eat the little candy “dragon” all night.

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TN: SugarPainting: Here.

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