Chapter Sixteen – The Festival of Yuan Xiao, The Filial Maid
The rest of the Spring Festival – all fifteen days of it – passed by rather quickly. Xiao Xiao kept an eye out for her father’s return. He had sent word he was coming back, only that he was delayed by fierce snowstorms. When Yuan Xiao Jie arrived, Xiao Xiao grew disappointed. Die die had not returned.
Inspired by the filial piety of a palace maid a long time ago, Yuan Xiao was another festival where the palace and the cities around it exploded in a flurry of vivid color and lights. Lanterns festooned buildings and the largest, the most beautiful and ornate lanterns hung glowing to be admired. It was the festival when the moon rose full and round, a perfect day for young men and women to meet and matchmakers to look for perfect matches. Children carried lanterns in various shapes and sizes; people had fun solving riddles on lanterns.
At the table, tang yuan was served, once more, to symbolize family togetherness and good luck for the family. Xiao Xiao chewed her tang yuan glumly. Her father was not back.
When the moon rose to its highest, the palace servants let off the fireworks and fire crackers. The sound of bursting fire crackers and the boom of the fireworks was loud enough to deafen ears. Xiao Xin, perturbed by the sound, started to cry.
Later Xiao Xiao slept fitfully, her dreams replete with shimmering shoals of fish and corals shaped like bonsai.
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Xiao Xiao - Chapter One
Teen FictionEnter the world of Xiao Xiao, daughter of an imperial courtesan, and a fantastical historical Qing China, with dragons and magic and traditions. What happens when her mother adopts a baby girl found in a rice field? What does the green pearl do?
