Lin Feilu trotted back with Kong Kong and handed the letter to Lin Ting.
After seeing it, he also sighed, “I’m afraid it won’t be very peaceful in the next few years.”
This year’s New Year had arrived with such worries.
Empress Dowager was getting older by the year, and was too tired to make many trips back and forth. She had not returned to the palace to celebrate the New Year for several years as she remained at Mount Wutai. Even if many palace servants accompanied her, staying in such a place alone was still rather lonely.
This time, Empress Dowager finally had two of her grandchildren to accompany her. As she was delighted, she ordered the palace servants to go down the mountain to buy some New Year’s goods. She wanted nothing more than to have her two good grandchildren feel the lively atmosphere and have a good New Year on the mountain.
It was also the first time Lin Feilu spent the New Year outside the palace, so she planned for her and her Imperial Grandmother to cut several couplet window decals together. In the serene place filled with Buddhism, fireworks and firecrackers couldn’t be put out, but the palace servants bought a lot of Qitian lanterns. After the reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve, Lin Feilu and Lin Ting accompanied Empress Dowager to the gates of the mountain to set up Qitian lanterns.
Lin Feilu was a little worried that playing with the Qitian lanterns on Mount Wutai would cause a mountain fire, but it snowed a lot that night. Besides, the palace servants have also tried one in advance, which eased her worries.
Empress Dowager also said, “It’s okay to just have a few of them fly, and they don’t have to fly too high; as long as we are sincere, the Heavens will hear our prayers.”
The three of them each took a Qitian lantern, wrote their wishes on the paper, and released them into the sky amidst the wind and snow.
The Qitian lantern that flickered in the snow looked hazy and beautiful. Lin Feilu couldn’t help thinking of the Qitian lantern that she and Song Jinglan watched from the top of the tower on the night of the Qixi Festival.
That day, she was very close to the stars and was also very close to him.
The drifting snow poured down as the mountain wind whistled, blowing the Qitian lantern aside as it swayed.
Before it was completely extinguished, Lin Feilu quickly folded her hands and closed her eyes, making a sincere wish.
Although this wish sounded hypocritical, to the point where it could even be considered a joke in the place where she once lived before her transmigration, she reverently made a wish word by word— hoping for peace in the world.
Even if it’s for a better life in the future, please don’t fight. Please just let this peace stay forever.
Next to her, Lin Ting took Empress Dowager’s hand and said softly, “Imperial Grandmother, please stay healthy all the time.”
Empress Dowager smiled, but there were tears in her eyes, “Of course, I still want to see you get married and have children.”
Lin Feilu opened his eyes and saw that several Qitian lanterns were finally extinguished as they drifted towards the valley by the wind.
After the New Year celebration, Lin Feilu stayed on Mount Wutai for a few more months. It wasn’t until the snow melted in the spring and the trees in the mountain sprouted new shoots that the two people said their goodbyes to Empress Dowager as they set off for the palace.
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