Only After I Was Reborn Did I Realize That I Had Childhood Sweethearts

Lin Youxi and Xia Yuan followed Mei Fang and arrived at the southern area of the cultural square, where they indeed saw many people releasing sky lanterns.

The people wrote their wishes for the coming year on the lanterns. Then together they opened up the lanterns and lit a small candle underneath them. This way, the hot air would gradually make the lanterns rise and float up into the sky.

Xia Yuan and Lin Youxi stood by, watching others release lanterns. At this moment, Mei Fang patted their shoulders from behind them.

“Do you want to release a lantern together?”

Xia Yuan and Lin Youxi exchanged a glance, and Lin Youxi wiggled her body a little uneasily. “I’m a bit scared. I’ll release one if Xia Yuan wants to.”

“It’s okay, let’s release one together! I want to do it,” Xia Yuan raised her hand.

“Okay then, I have money.”

Lin Youxi swung the five yuan in her hand. “Let me buy one!”

Lin Youxi initially had a proud and confident attitude as she approached the vendor’s stall. But when she saw that the vendor was a burly-looking man, she timidly stretched out her hand to give him the money, emitting a weak and feeble voice.

Lin Youxi looked back at Xia Yuan and Mei Fang, who were waiting for her.

“Um, what color?” The burly man wasn’t a local of Baimei County, so Lin Youxi didn’t quite understand his dialect.

“One… sky lantern.”

“I know, I’m asking you what color?”

This time, the burly man’s voice suddenly rose a few decibels, causing Lin Youxi to be frightened and run back, diving into Xia Yuan’s embrace.

The burly man scratched his head, looking puzzled. At this moment, Xia Yuan gently comforted Lin Youxi while tugging at Mei Fang’s arm.

“It’s okay, it’s okay… Let Mei Fang handle it.”

This little girl is troublesome. It’s taking her forever just to buy a lantern… Mei Fang took Lin Youxi’s money and went to buy a sky lantern from the burly man. The two children had expressions full of anticipation.

“Where should we release it? Let’s go to the riverbank!”

“We need to write our wishes on it first. I only borrowed this pen, so I need to return it quickly.”

The three of them spread the sky lantern on a stone table, preparing to write their wishes on it.

Xia Yuan wrote the four words 【Be happy every day】. Mei Fang wrote 【Get rich next year】. When it was Lin Youxi’s turn to write, she hesitated for a while and couldn’t decide what to write.

At this moment, Xia Yuan suddenly seemed a bit anxious. She touched her own hair bun, seemingly searching for something.

“Did you lose something?”

Xia Yuan nodded. “My hairpin is missing.”

Mei Fang helped look for it on the ground. It was quite dark now, so finding something would be difficult.

“Did someone bump into you earlier?”

“I don’t know… But I don’t think anyone bumped into me.

Lin Youxi suddenly exclaimed, “Could it be that I knocked it off when I hugged Xia Yuan earlier?”

“Well… it’s not necessarily…” Xia Yuan smiled faintly. “Let’s forget about it for now and release the sky lantern. You can write on it first, Lin Youxi.”

“I… I’ll go look over there!”

Ignoring Xia Yuan’s dissuasion, Lin Youxi insisted on running back to the place where they bought the lantern, searching for Xia Yuan’s hairpin.

Seeing her rush off, Mei Fang worried that she might get lost on the way and asked Xia Yuan to wait for a moment. Mei Fang accompanied Lin Youxi in searching the area where they originally bought the sky lantern. Although the dim light from the vendor’s stall illuminated the surroundings, the bustling crowd made it difficult to spot the hairpin on the ground.

“If you can’t find it, let it go… It might not be you who knocked it off. Don’t blame yourself,” Mei Fang said, shaking his head. But Lin Youxi didn’t listen to Mei Fang’s advice.

“I know that hairpin. It was brought back by her dad’s friend from Japan as a gift for her. Xia Yuan likes it so much… I must find it.”

As time passed by, Lin Youxi still hadn’t found anything. She was on the verge of getting down on the ground to search for the hairpin. Squatting amidst the crowded crowd, her desperate search for the hairpin was heart-wrenching.

Mei Fang approached and tried to pull Lin Youxi up, but Lin Youxi stubbornly refused to stand. In the end, she kicked and bit Mei Fang. Finally, Mei Fang forcibly dragged her up and stood her in place, where Lin Youxi rubbed her eyes and cried.

“I lost Xia Yuan’s favorite hairpin. She will definitely, definitely hate me… She won’t play with me anymore.”

She was very afraid of Xia Yuan disliking her. Feelings of self-blame and regret lingered in her heart, and her voice sounded extremely aggrieved.

Mei Fang knew that comforting Lin Youxi at this moment by saying it might not be her fault wouldn’t be of any use. He just patted her shoulder and said,

“If you really feel it’s your fault, how about we go to the vendor and buy a hairpin as compensation for Xia Yuan?”

Lin Youxi vigorously shook her head in refusal. “No! Xia Yuan’s hairpin is a high-quality item from Japan. The ones here definitely won’t look as good as hers.”

“Although it can’t compare to the one Xia Yuan had before, Xia Yuan is a reasonable girl. As long as we apologize sincerely, she won’t hold onto this matter… What do you think? I don’t think she will blame you.”

Mei Fang squatted down and coaxed Lin Youxi for a long time, finally convincing her to go with him to the vendor’s stall to buy a small accessory.

Lin Youxi sniffled and held onto Mei Fang’s clothes, following behind him. Mei Fang carefully selected a hairpin, and at that moment, Lin Youxi pushed Mei Fang’s shoulder and pointed to one of the hairpins.

“Do you think Xia Yuan will like that hairpin?” Mei Fang asked, looking at the hairpin pointed by Lin Youxi.

Lin Youxi wiped her tears and nodded.

Indeed, it resembles the peach blossom hairpin she had before…

“Then let’s buy this one. How much is this hairpin?”

“20.”

“So expensive? Can you make it a bit cheaper?”

“I can reduce it by 2 yuan, but I can’t make it any cheaper.”

As Mei Fang was bargaining with the vendor, Lin Youxi nudged his arm, her face blushing with embarrassment.

“Mei Fang… let’s not buy it. I only have 1 yuan and 50 cents on me. Wait here for a moment, I’ll go find Dad and ask him for money to buy the hairpin.”

“If you really want to buy it, buy it quickly. If you don’t, someone else will.” The vendor urged Mei Fang to make a decision quickly, and Mei Fang gritted his teeth and took out 18 yuan from his pocket. “Then we’ll buy this one!”

After purchasing the hairpin, Lin Youxi gave Mei Fang all the money she had on her.

“Thank you, Mei Fang! I… I’ll go ask Dad for money later and repay you the rest.”

“No problem. Don’t worry about it.”

Mei Fang patted Lin Youxi’s head. “Go and give the hairpin to Xia Yuan and apologize to her properly.”

“Mhm!”

Holding the hairpin, Lin Youxi ran up to Xia Yuan and explained what had happened.

“Oh, it might not even be your fault… I don’t want you to compensate!”

“No, it’s definitely my fault. I’m really sorry, Xia Yuan.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay! I don’t mind about this! If it’s lost, it’s lost… Let’s consider this hairpin as a gift from you, alright?”

Lin Youxi nodded vigorously. “But… it was mainly Mei Fang who paid for it.”

“Thank you! I also like this hairpin.”

Xia Yuan didn’t express any disdain for the cheap stall item. She tied up her hair with the hairpin right in front of Lin Youxi and asked if it looked good. Lin Youxi, her loyal follower, exclaimed that it looked great. At that moment, Mei Fang hurriedly approached.

“Mei Fang, let’s release the sky lantern together!”

“Wait for Lin Youxi to think of her wish.”

“Yes, Lin Youxi, you haven’t written your wish yet. What do you want to write?”

Encouraged by Xia Yuan and Mei Fang, Lin Youxi wrote a long string of words:

【Xia Yuan, Mei Fang, and Lin Youxi will forever be good friends】

“The last few words barely fit! Your ‘Yuan’ character is so big!”

“As long as it’s readable.” Xia Yuan smiled. “The important thing is the sentiment behind it.”

The three of them worked together to set up the sky lantern. Mei Fang arranged the position of the candle and then lit it with a lighter. The flame ignited in the center of the sky lantern, and the three of them each held onto a corner of the lantern, waiting for the air inside to heat up and expand.

“How long do we have to hold it like this?”

“Until the sky lantern inflates.”

Lin Youxi sniffled and resisted the urge to sneeze. She had been holding it in for a long time, and Mei Fang quickly said:

“Lin Youxi, Xia Yuan, get ready to let go now…”

“Mhm, mhm! Mei Fang, you count down from three.”

“Three, two, one, let go!”

The three of them released their grip simultaneously, they also gave it a gentle push upward.

Instead of soaring into the sky immediately, the sky lantern floated in place for a while.

Lin Youxi couldn’t hold back any longer and opened her mouth, about to let out a big sneeze.

At this critical moment, Mei Fang stepped forward and hugged Lin Youxi, letting her sneeze into his own embrace.

“Ugh… It’s all Youxi’s saliva and snot.”

Mei Fang couldn’t easily get a tissue, so he had Lin Youxi search his pockets for a while until she finally found a pack of tissues.

“It’s flying, it’s flying!”

Finally, the sky lantern slowly began to rise into the sky. Mei Fang, Xia Yuan, and Lin Youxi ran along the riverbank, chasing the sky lantern for hundreds of meters until they saw it floating away on a pond.

Xia Yuan clasped her hands together in a prayer gesture, and Lin Youxi followed suit.

After finishing their prayers, they continued to watch the sky lantern fly away with Mei Fang.

“Oh, by the way, Mei Fang, if the candle burns out, will the sky lantern eventually come down?”

“Yes.”

Lin Youxi was surprised. “Knowing that it will eventually come down, what’s the meaning of releasing the sky lantern then?”

“The sky lantern is a way for us to convey our feelings to heaven. As long as it flies high enough, as long as our feelings are delivered, it doesn’t necessarily have to reach heaven.”

“So that’s how it is…”

“Mei Fang, you know so much.”

As the three of them were watching the sky lantern drift away, Xia Yuan suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder from behind.

It was Teacher Yu and Xia Xun who came to find their daughter.

“Yuan Yuan, have you had enough fun? It’s time to go back.”

“Dad, Mom, look, that’s the sky lantern we released! Did you see it?”

“Wow, Yuan Yuan, you’re so amazing… Did you make a wish to be more careful in the future? Otherwise, you always end up losing things.”

“Huh? What did I lose…”

Xia Xun handed the peach blossom hairpin to Xia Yuan. “When you went to play with Mei Fang earlier, you dropped the hairpin on the ground. Luckily, at that time, little Mei Ya was quick-witted and kept shouting for everyone to look at what was on the ground, so we found it.”

“So, the hairpin was lost at that time!”

Xia Yuan exclaimed in surprise, and Lin Youxi joined in the excitement.

“It’s great that it wasn’t lost!”

“Then I should return this hairpin to you,” Xia Yuan quickly took off the hairpin and returned it to Lin Youxi. “You can keep it…”

“But that was already given to you by her as a gift, Xia Yuan.”

“However, I don’t have… Well, in that case, I’ll give you this hairpin instead.”

Xia Yuan gave Lin Youxi her original hairpin and said, “This is also a gift from me to you.”

Seeing the hairpin that his friend had gone through so much trouble to retrieve being given away, Xia Xun couldn’t help but feel a bit reluctant. However, Teacher Yu, who was standing nearby, advised him, “Let the child decide what to do with the gift she received. If she wants to give it away, then it’s fine.”

“Alright… as long as Yuan Yuan doesn’t feel regretful.”

“I won’t feel regretful.”

Teacher Yu smiled slightly. “Our Yuan Yuan always shares the best things with her best friends. She never has any selfishness.”

“That’s true…”

Mei Fang listened to Xia Yuan’s parents’ conversation and watched as Lin Youxi and Xia Yuan helped each other put on the hairpin.

“Mei Fang, do you think it looks good on Lin Youxi? She seems to suit this hairpin more than I do.”

“That’s not true… It’s definitely Xia Yuan who suits it the best…” Lin Youxi said.

“As far as I’m concerned, both of you look great with this hairpin, ” Mei Fang said and smiled gently. “Both of you look lovely!”

【Balloon in my hand】

【I hold your hand while browsing aimlessly】

【I have something to tell you】

【But your eyes pretend to be busy】

【I want to taste the cake and jam at the corner of your mouth】

【The film of the garden tour festival is playing】

【We have made a pact to roam this world together】

Compared to the well-known song Orange Jasmine ^[1], Jay Chou’s song Fun Fair^[2] may not have the same level of popularity, but it was one of the most memorable sweet songs of this era.

As the three little ones reached the end of the road and went their separate ways, the sky bloomed with brilliant fireworks.

Underneath the dazzling fireworks, the sky lanterns that drifted away with the wind carried the yearnings of those who released them, creating a poetic and timeless winter scene.

In 2004, the young people of that era always bravely pursued love, even if they were scarred, they wouldn’t easily let go.

Mei Lijun was also looking forward to his future. He held his daughter and enjoyed the fireworks. The words his daughter spoke in his ear suddenly made him excited.

“She called me ‘Dad’! Did you hear that?”

“She clearly said ‘Mom.’ Mei Fang rolled his eyes.

“No way! Listen carefully, she clearly said ‘baba, baba!'”^[3]

“Mu——a, muamua!” Little Mei Ya waved her little hand and tapped Mei Lijun’s face.

“See! She’s definitely calling ‘Mom’!”

“How can that be?! I just heard her call me ‘Dad’…”

Mei Lijun’s New Year’s wish came true, but it was not what he expected.

Translator's Notes:

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