Chapter 134: After Ten Years, Brother, I'm Here Again (I)

Two days before the Lunar New Year, the festive atmosphere was growing stronger.

Children in new clothes could be seen playing in the streets and alleys, which were strung up with lights and decorations. Zhang Xiaolan also sent Chen Chu and his brother to buy New Year goods.

Then it was time for work. There were many things to do, such as cleaning the entire house, and the day passed by in a busy blur.

In the evening, Chen Chu and his brother stood outside the door, looking at Zhang Xiaolan inside and calling out, "Mom, are you really not coming with us?"

"No, you two go and have fun."

"Okay then."

Tonight was the fireworks show set up by the city, so it was bustling. It wasn’t dark yet, but crowds of people were already gathering around the riverbank, including the Chen brothers. Keen-eyed vendors had already set up stalls along the street, selling various snacks, toys, and fireworks.

Just as Chen Chu and his brother got off the bus, they saw a crowd surging along the riverside street. It was so densely packed that they couldn't see the other end at a glance. Chen Hu exclaimed excitedly, "Bro, there are so many people today."

"Yeah, there are a lot." Chen Chu looked around and soon spotted Luo Fei and the others not far away. "Let's go, my classmates are over there."

Chen Chu led Chen Hu over. There, Luo Fei, Lin Xue, Li Wenwen, and Jiang Jiameng stood in front of a stall selling masks, picking some out for themselves.

On the opposite side, Xia Youhui, Liu Feng, Bai Mu, Li Meng, Yuan Chenghuang, and Lu Haitao squatted in front of a candy stall, watching the vendor skillfully shape various mutated beasts out of sugar.

As they approached, Chen Chu was completely baffled. "You guys, you're all grown up, yet you still like to eat candy."

Xia Youhui turned around. "Ah Chu, you're here!"

Liu Feng retorted, "Hey! What do you mean 'you guys are all grown up?’ You're just a high school student like us. We're all young, what's wrong with eating candy?"

"Exactly." Li Meng nodded in agreement as he took a bite off the tail of the sugar unicorn in his hand.

Bai Mu leaned over. "Chen Chu, do you want one? The sugar’s made with honey from the Golden Winged Bee, it’s delicious."

The Golden Winged Bee was a common mutated creature, not even considered a full mutated beast, but the honey it produced was delicious. Sweet but not greasy, with a natural floral fragrance, one spoonful would give you a feeling of returning to nature; as a result, it was very expensive.

When you combined that with the stall owner’s superb skill at shaping the buyer-blown sugar into life-like mutated beasts with his two bamboo sticks, it was no wonder business was so good for him.

"...Honey from the Golden Winged Bee? Forget it, I don't like sweets." In order to maintain his previous image, Chen Chu still refused.

"You actually don't like sweets? Alright, how about you, little brother? I'll treat you."

"Yes!" Chen Hu didn't hesitate at all.

At this point, Chen Chu remembered that he hadn't done introductions yet, so he said, "By the way, this is my brother Chen Hu, he's in junior high. Bai Mu, Li Meng..."

"Hi, Brother Bai, Brother Li, Brother Xia..." As Chen Chu introduced his classmates, Chen Hu politely greeted each of them with "Brother," causing those guys to smile happily.

Xia Youhui boasted, "Little Hu, your brother and I are good buddies. Tonight, Brother Xia treats you. Whatever you want to eat or buy, just take it."

Chen Hu's eyes lit up, but he still looked at Chen Chu.

Chen Chu didn't mind. "Old Xia's family is rich. Since he said so, you can spend as much as you want tonight."

"Hehe!! Thank you, Brother Xia, then I won't be polite." Chen Hu suddenly hesitated again. "But I’m gonna be meeting up with a few classmates to wander around the fireworks show together. It wouldn't be convenient to eat later..."

"Classmates, boys or girls?" Xia Youhui asked curiously.

Chen Hu felt a little embarrassed. "They're all girls."

"Nice!" Li Meng raised his thumb. "Chen Chu, your little brother is impressive."

"Damn, already making plans to hang out with girls in middle school?" Liu Feng and the others immediately started teasing.

Xia Youhui felt like he had met a kindred spirit and grinned. "Girls? Good. Tonight, you can eat whatever you want. If you're tired later, you can get a place to rest, and I'll pay for you."

"Isn't that inappropriate, Brother Xia?" Chen Hu grinned.

Despite his brawn, this guy still had some smarts. Seeing that the guys were getting more and more crazy, Chen Chu quickly stepped in.

"Alright, alright. Ah Hu, go find your classmates to play. Don't mess around with these guys."

Just as Chen Chu drove Chen Hu away, Luo Fei and the others came over. They took one look at the guys’ smirks and asked with suspicion, "What are you guys laughing at?"

"It's nothing, Chen Chu just introduced his younger brother to us." Xia Youhui and the others chuckled, looking even more mischievous.

Li Wenwen couldn't help but ask, "Chen Chu's brother, is he as handsome as him?"

"Kind of... but not exactly." Liu Feng and the others exchanged glances as they realized that, although Chen Hu was tall and strong like Chen Chu, his appearance wasn't as handsome.

Suddenly, there was a commotion in the distance, and someone shouted, "It's starting!"

By now, the sky had already darkened, and with the announced time quickly approaching, the boats on the river were already in position to launch the fireworks.

"Let's go and find a good spot!"

Chen Chu pointed to a small hill in the distance. "Let's go there. It's a bit far, but we’ll still see it clearly, and the elevated terrain will let us see the whole panorama."

"Yeah, that's a good spot. Let's go."

With that, the group squeezed out of the crowd and came to a hill a few hundred meters away from the riverbank, where many other people were already waiting.

Chirp!

Accompanied by a sharp whistle, a burst of fire shot from the river surface into the sky hundreds of meters high.

With a bang, a huge golden firework exploded, covering an area of ??hundreds of meters. It looked like a blooming golden lotus, illuminating both sides of the riverbank as if it were daylight.

With the booming sound of explosions, the sky was filled with brilliant fireworks, many of which formed fierce and ferocious patterns of mutated beasts after exploding.

"Wow! That one looks like a Golden Winged Scale Dragon."

"Damn! That mountain giant ape looks so real, it must be hundreds of meters tall."

More than a dozen teenagers sat in groups of two or three on the grass or stood on rocks, enjoying the rare spectacle in front of them.

Xia Youhui's eyes sparkled with excitement. "The factories made some really good fireworks this year. Tomorrow, I'm gonna order a batch to set off on New Year’s Eve."

Liu Feng sarcastically said, "Damn, you rich people really are something. Ordering fireworks that cost tens of thousands of yuan per batch?"

"Old Liu, stop being sour. With your current strength, what's a little money? Killing a level 3 beast on the battlefield would earn you hundreds of thousands."

Chen Chu and Luo Fei sat on the grass, watching the dazzling fireworks in the night sky. She whispered softly, "After so many years, I can finally see Wujiang’s fireworks show again."

Chen Chu turned his head slightly, feeling a little strange. "Didn't you come to see it before?"

Every year, a few days before the New Year, a fireworks show would be held in Wujiang, becoming a tradition for the city. In Chen Chu's memory,

he

had seen it many times.

To clear Chen Chu's confusion, she whispered, "I saw it a few times when I was a child, but then I followed my father to live in West Meng for ten years. I only came back this year. It’s been ten years since I last saw this."

The girl's gaze became slightly absent-minded as she looked at the brilliant fireworks in the night sky, as if lost in thought.

"No wonder."

𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

After the fireworks show came the New Year itself. Although there weren't many people in Chen Chu's family, it was still very lively.