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Red.
Red was everywhere.
It was on the walls, on the ground, on human skin.
Qiqi looked down at her leg and saw red.
Then, suddenly, black. Total darkness.
Soon the darkness gave way to amber, which was the color that truly made Qiqi pause and panic. Amber was a terrifying color. It meant being trapped and helpless.
"Qiqi? Is everything all right?" came a voice, at the same time as a grasp on her shoulder.
Qiqi turned around and saw a spark of green against all the red.
"Yaoyao... Qiqi saw..." She looked around again, and while it was true she saw a lot of red, it was due to the context of Lantern Rite. None of it was...
"I think I understand, but it's still weird coming from you," Yaoyao responded, giving Qiqi the grace of not having to force more of her answer out. "You remembered something bad, didn't you? It's not unheard of if there's something in the area that feels familiar. But just like with dreams, there's not just bad memories. What if we try to use the same technique to remember something good?"
Nodding, Qiqi proceeded to look around, examining the colors around her. At the sight of amber, she physically recoiled; but Yaoyao's hand in her own kept her grounded, so she always quickly focused on the other colors around the amber instead.
Yaoyao wasn't the only green thing around. Red was a prominent color during this time of year, but so was green and yellow. The area they happened to walk into had a lot of red things, but looking beyond she could see the other colors of Lantern Rite illuminated even in the dusky darkness.
One yellow thing made Qiqi's eyes pause in their wandering. It was clothing - a street performance of an old play, equipped with recreations of the ancient uniform.
Old. Ancient. But only to everyone else around. Qiqi...
Recollections of clothes that looked just like that one - all in the person's favorite style of yellow - flowed past her conscious memory, just enough to make her heart ache. It was a bittersweet nostalgia - the last time she tried to summon these memories, it was at a time where she knew she wouldn't see them in person again. The time when she became a Vision Holder. The time when she-
"Not helping?" Yaoyao's voice poked through again, bringing Qiqi back to the present moment. For once, it was painful to be remembering things, even though she'd tried so hard to fight off forgetting.
"Then how about..." Yaoyao's voice trailed off, a beat passing before her body surged with energy and her arm pointed out. "There! Right on time!"
Qiqi heard the boom before her eyes made it to the sight. Explosions of color were filling the now void-like sky. She couldn't help but be mesmerized, especially once little dots of light started to ascend from the ground.
The entire time, Yaoyao was watching her, until she was satisfied that the distraction had worked.
Once the fireworks were over, Qiqi was devoid of any indication that something wrong had happened - the one silver lining of a jiangshi's failing memory.