The temple outside our village always intrigues me. It is tall — taller than anything in our rundown village and a fair bit more fancy too. The lights of the temple are constantly on, even when me and Nai Nai’s* house ran out of oil to fuel our lamps. On those nights, I found myself wishing I were a bird and could fly into the temple to sleep just one night without the fear of demons. I could be a crane too; how about a peacock? I heard we used to have a lot of peacocks in our town. But one day, they mysteriously disappeared and with them, left our prosperity.

When he was still alive, Ba Ba** would tell me how it’s because someone in the village didn’t complete the tradition well. They didn’t place their most valuable possession in their family lantern. The gods could tell and withdrew their blessing of prosperity — we have been struggling ever since.

This year, Nai Nai and I have nothing to give. Nai Nai ate the last scraps of corn we had.

“Zhiyuan***,” she tells me, “we never have nothing to give. We will pack our entire house into the lantern if the gods so wish.”

When I reply that we need a place to stay, she looks at me as sternly as an old, sick lady can: “we shall never be a disgrace to this village.”

I scoff, kicking a rock as I run down the street. What has this village ever done for us? I know — everyone knows the village want us gone. Everyone it seems, except Nai Nai. They inflate their prices for us and when we ask people to help, they never have enough time; the leak in the middle of our hut has been there for the past five years.

I’ve decided to go into the temple myself. I will beg for the gods mercy on me and my family. Last year, I tried to go into the temple myself in order to save Nai Nai’s medicine vase, but the guards caught me off curfew and I was punished. This year — I wouldn’t fail. Nai Nai was too tired to argue with me; I knew she didn’t want to.

The lanterns are released at _ziye*, _and the hours leading up usually consists of loud banging and music from inside the temple. The noise comes on some other nights too, but it always happens tonight, which is what makes it special.

The festivities have started and I leave Nai Nai laying on her mat. “Zhiyuan, stay safe,”she rasps out. “When you come back, I will have already packed the straw from our roof into the lantern.”

I nod. I run to the canoe located behind the temple I sneaked a couple of nights before. The villagers are too distracted to see me row towards the temple. At last, I end up on the rocks and peek through the window. What I see stills me to my core.

It’s Huangshou** — our village elder. He’s laughing and drinking with some others. I heard the village elder has to meditate before each celebration to pray to the gods. Are the gods these foreigners? But that’s disrespectful; no one can treat a god like that, village elder or not. But maybe Nai Nai was just wrong.

One of the “gods” glance at me and grins. I try to stumble away, but the canoe is gone.

“Looks like our first valuable is here!”

__________

*奶奶 meaning “grandmother from dad’s side”

**爸爸 meaning “dad” (informal)

***致远 deriving from 淡伯明志， 宁静致远 meaning “with ambition as clear still waters, a quiet mind will get you far”

*子夜 meaning “midnight” (used in ancient China, more specifically the time between 11pm - 1am)

**慌说 reversed means to “tell lies”