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The street was lined with colourful lighting on both sides, even hanging above the pair. The trees were newly trimmed and the ground clear, dead leaves swept. Though you wouldn’t notice that. There were so many people, you could only look straight and up. The moon shone brightly that night, almost full, almost. It gleamed over the people of Nanchang.
Kids ran around the uncrowded spots, mostly moist grass as it had just rained that morning. They held glowing lanterns in their hands. Some were lit with fire, they made sure they wouldn’t burn the paper. Others had fake led fires in theirs, they swung around, not a care in the world. The two sides I guess. Another group played with sparklers, like mini fireworks they crackled, barely heard among the loud laughter of the children.
Decorative lanterns hung from long branches and streetlamps too, making the street look truly beautiful. The gorgeous venue was complete with stalls lining both sides, selling food, souvenirs and overpriced trinkets. Further down the long road, game stalls would line, it was less crowded as many knew the queues would be crazy and decided to go later in the night.
The wafting smell of fresh barbeque from one side, freshly baked mooncakes from the other, the smell was truly captivating. It’d make you want to buy the insanely overpriced food.
Chen Jingshen and Yu Fan were close to each other, mostly because they were being pushed together by the bustling crowd. When their hands bumped, cold hands against even colder ones, Chen Jingshen took Yu Fan’s hands into his, causing the latter to look over at the former. Chen Jingshen smiled innocently.
“Chen Jingshen!” he whisper-shouted as he glared at him, yet he didn’t bother letting go, his hands felt warm against his, but it wasn’t any warmer than his anyways. The touch between them spread heat over his hands, his face and his ears.
Chen Jingshen looked at him, his smile curved further as he looked at the other’s face, dusted with pink, his ears burning red.
“It’s the cold!” Yu Fan falsely reasoned.
—
As the crowd dispersed, going off to play with lanterns or have a small picnic, the road significantly cleared.
The stores, surprisingly, had not cleared out yet and the two walked down the street until they stopped at a barbeque stand. It sold sticks that the owner cooked right in front of you, then he would plate it and drizzle it with sauce. He gave rice too, when 5 or more sticks were bought.
They bought 10 each, served with rice and sauce.
They sat at the only table open and dug in. It was warm and homey tasting, the savour melted on their tongues, they could only hum in delight as the flavour set in.
“It’s really good…” Yu Fan hummed as he picked up another stick, cheeks still full with meat.
“Swallow before getting another piece, you’ll get gastric if you eat too quickly,” Chen Jingshen said as he gracefully broke apart the domed rice and ate a spoonful along with a bite from a stick of meat. And when he did, he understood why Yu Fan gobbled so much.
The flavour was comparable to a michelin restaurant, in fact, it could be stated as better.
After the absolutely delicious meal, they threw away the trash and walked down further before stopping at a mooncake store.
On display, they had snow skin mooncakes and the traditional baked ones. In quite a selection of flavours too, ranging from lotus paste to yam.
“Which do you usually eat? I quite like… snow skins i guess…,” Yu Fan said as he looked at the nicely decorated display.
“I don’t have a preference, choose one for me?” Chen Jingshen said as he took out his wallet again, handing it to Yu Fan so he could pay once he made his selection.
Yu Fan chose the smallest size for both mooncakes because, well, they aren’t the healthiest and are also quite heaty. He also did not want to spend too much of Chen Jingshen’s money.
He had chosen a lotus paste snow skin for the both of them.
It was the flavour he had grown up with, the one his mother used to cut up and share with him - behind Yu Kaiming’s back - as they looked up to the moon in the sky.
The year before she left, it was a crescent. His smile that time reflected the shape.
He handed the carefully packaged mooncake to Chen Jingshen and spoke, “Don’t hold it with your palm, it’ll melt.”
The same words his mom told him when the skin started sticking to his own that year.
After that year, he’d always spend Zhong Qiu Jie alone. Until this year when he met Chen Jingshen.
If you told early-this-year Yu Fan, he’d be dating Chen Jingshen, he would’ve punched you.
But as they both bit into their cold mooncakes, a warm flush rose to his face, along with a smile. And that, obviously, did not go unnoticed by Chen Jingshen.
“You should smile more.”
And that flush, spread, he was probably as red as some lantern right now!
“Sh-shut up!” he flayed his free hand as the latter laughed. And it sounded like a melancholy.
He wished that he could freeze in this moment, live in it forever.
–
When both mooncakes were gone and digested. They walked further until Chen Jingshen spoke.
“Do you want to do games or light a lantern and play with sparklers?”
“I guess the sparklers sound nice.”
And that’s how they ended up before another stall. They had shelves of various coloured sparklers and lanterns, it genuinely took them a good while to select one. But they didn’t select one, they selected just close to 15 different colours of sparklers. For the lanterns, Yu Fan bought one with a delicate flower design and Chen Jingshen bought a stupid cartoonish one.
It looked so dumb in such hands, even the store owner let out a laugh!
Yu Fan lit his with a real candle whilst Chen Jingshen’s was a false one.
Yu Fan held his in one hand and sparkler, crackling red, in the other. He smiled as he wrote things in the air with it. It felt like he was a child again when he laughed in joy.
The other, took out his phone to capture some pictures but it was mostly Yu Fan smiling. He did not smile often and so these photo were special to him.
When they finished a box and Yu Fan’s candle blew out, they headed over to another row of booths.
These were mostly photobooths or polaroid stands.
“Can we take some polaroids?”
Yu Fan merely nodded before Chen Jingshen took his hands and took him to one of the booths.
It was just a stand, with a table on each side. One table displayed the stuff to preserve the prints and the payment things. While the other had props resting on it.
They took the props, mostly hats and sunglasses. Yu Fan donned a cat hat, the ears would rise when the strings dangling were squeezed, along with some pixel sunglasses. Chen Jingshen had a dog hat resting on his head, the same type as Yu Fan’s, with heart sunglasses covering his eyes.
When the photo was about to be taken, Yu Fan squeezed the straps and the ears rose. Chen Jingshen held up a stupid banner that read, “i <3 u”. How cheezy!
They printed the photo twice, one for each of them.
Chen Jingshen slotted his in between his phone and phone case whilst Yu Fan displayed his in his wallet.
They put them side by side and Yu Fan took a picture of it (to Chen Jingshen’s demand).
They had taken many other pictures that night, they laughed as they walked back home, moon dawning above them and glowing.