Flowers in full bloom

Chapter 728 Education

Because the bamboo strips are cut with uniform thickness and width, they are very strong and flexible. After the frame of the lantern is made.

After cutting the red rice paper into the appropriate length, you need to design the pattern on the rice paper yourself. You can write or draw. Rong Jin originally wanted to help, but Hua Lei wouldn't let her.

Hualei thinks that it doesn’t matter if the lanterns made by children are not good-looking. The most important thing is that parents should learn to let go and let children do it themselves and make their own decisions throughout the process. This will cultivate children’s initiative and give them a stronger sense of satisfaction.

However, after writing on several pieces of rice paper, none of them were satisfactory, and Jinnian himself was not satisfied. So Hualei thought of a simple solution for Jinnian.

Let Jinnian use a piece of thin paper to write the desired words on the copybook, then overlap the thin paper with the red rice paper, and outline the words with a charcoal pencil.

Then he gave Jinnian a small single-edged blade and asked him to dig out the words along the charcoal line, and hollowed-out words appeared on the red rice paper.

Then use golden rice paper to make the body of the lantern, paste red rice paper inside, and the whole lantern is ready. Finally, install the handle on the top of the lantern, and hang the tassels below, and the whole lantern is ready.

Thanks to Uncle Zhao's hands-on help, the lantern was well made. A small candle was lit inside, and the candlelight was reflected from the hollow, which had a very beautiful effect.

Looking at the lantern in his hand, Jinnian was very happy, but the ignorant Jinshi came over and grabbed it. Seeing the two children arguing, Hualei did not dissuade them.

She did not persuade Jinnian to give the lantern to his brother when Jinshi cried and asked for help. She also did not directly order Jinnian to give the lantern to Jinshi, but let them solve it themselves.

After the two little guys argued for a quarter of an hour, Hualei suggested that they make another lantern, and they began to work together to make red lanterns.

So, Jinshi, who had originally run away, squatted quietly beside Jinnian and began to help him pass bamboo strips and tools.

Of course, Hualei didn't let Uncle Zhao make the lantern this time, and only gave verbal guidance. So, after stumbling and fumbling for an hour, a very ugly lantern appeared in Jinnian's hands.

Looking at the new lantern which was obviously uglier than the first one, Jinnian was very dissatisfied. He looked left and right, unable to decide which lantern to give to Jinshi.

Jin Shi, who had been waiting nearby, did not despise him and happily took the lantern from Jinnian's hand. He asked Hua Lei to help light the candle inside and then carried it for a walk in the yard.

Looking at the happy Jinshi and the large pile of bamboo strips on the ground, Jinnian began to make the third lantern silently. In this way, when Hualei called for a stop in the afternoon, Jinnian had made a total of four lanterns by himself.

Except for the first lantern that Uncle Zhao helped make, the quality of the following lanterns was better than the last one. By the time it came to the last one, its quality was almost the same as the first lantern that Uncle Zhao helped make.

So Hualei took the two children to their own study and bedroom. There were no red lanterns hung there yet. Hualei had specifically asked Qingqi and Qinghua to leave them empty.

Jinnian made several red lanterns and hung them in the brothers' bedroom and study. Although the lanterns here were the worst compared to the lanterns hung in other places in the house, they were the brightest, and the brothers were very happy.

After asking the maid and the old woman to take the two children downstairs to wash and change clothes, the family started to eat dinner.

After dinner, the family went to the study and started to do their own things, such as reading, writing, or drawing. It was not until the time was almost up that the family went back to their rooms to sleep.

The next day was New Year's Eve. However, the New Year atmosphere in Xichang Prefecture had never been as strong as that in Shangjing City, and there had never been a lantern festival like that in Mobei.

As the top leader of Xichang Prefecture, Hua Lei could actually organize lantern festivals, let people guess riddles and other activities to entertain the people.

However, the government offices do not have sufficient money this year, and holding a lantern festival is really expensive. Moreover, holding a lantern festival in Xichang, where the weather is dry, can easily cause a fire.

In addition, there is a shortage of water here, and if a fire occurs, rescue will be very difficult. Therefore, the pragmatic Hualei still did not hold the lantern festival.

However, half a month ago, she issued a notice to encourage wealthy businessmen in the city to organize and hold these activities on a small scale.

You just need to register with the criminal department of the government office in advance, and then the government office will send people to help maintain order and prevent fires.

However, the people in Xichang Prefecture might not be very enthusiastic about activities such as lantern festivals and riddle guessing, so no wealthy businessmen came to report that they would hold these activities.

It would be too lonely to celebrate the New Year like this. Hua Lei was thinking about holding some inexpensive activities. However, Pan Wan Tong told Hua Lei that in Xinjiang, there is a New Year custom called mud cannon throwing.

This activity is somewhat similar to the custom of setting off firecrackers during the Spring Festival in the capital. The loud noise made by the mud cannon symbolizes scaring away monsters and bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new.

However, local people turned the clay cannon throwing game into a competition. Those who want to participate can sign up and make their own clay cannon.

Then, during the competition, the homemade "mud cannon" is thrown to the ground, and then two people in charge of measuring come on stage pulling a rope to measure the length of the mud strips thrown out.

Whoever throws the longest mud strip will be the first. The first place winner will not only receive unanimous congratulations from everyone, but all the mud cannons will be given to him after the competition.

You know, making this mud cannon is not simple. First of all, the selected mud must not be sticky enough. This condition is very difficult to make in Xichang.

In many areas of Xichang, the soil is seriously sandy, and it is difficult to obtain sticky soil. Therefore, in order to make sticky mud cannons, many people will dig ditches and silt along the river, and some will go to the hills to find suitable soil for making mud cannons.

The person who wins first place will get the mud cannons made of silt and pile them in the fields. If there are a lot of them, the originally inferior fields will soon become medium or superior fields.

This is not only about face, but also about profit. The output of the best fields is definitely higher than that of the inferior fields, which is a real benefit.

If sold, the price of the top-quality farmland would be several taels of silver higher than that of the lower-quality farmland. This would be a huge income for an ordinary family.