As she spoke, she carefully lit up a matchstick and aimed it at the wire tip, which soon crackled alive and produced fiery sparks.

Little Yichen held the end of the sparkler in great agitation as though he were waiting for the arrival of his enemies. He was so nervous that he dared not move even an inch.

Colored flames and sparks shot out of the ignited sparkler, its flickering glow illuminating his tender visage.

“Wow! This is so pretty!” cried the boy in surprise and excitement.

The woman then handed her younger son a sparkler, too. Unlike his brother who felt nervous and lost due to it being his first time playing with sparklers, Youyou calmly waved the stick in the air.

The psychedelic sparks, which formed dazzling lines as he waved the sparkler in the air, looked beautiful against the night sky.

Seeing that the sparkler could be played this way, the older twin excitedly mimicked his action and waved his piece in the air. The two lads had a fun time playing with the sparklers.

Hua Jin, who was standing at the side, fell into a trance while watching them play around.

Out of the blue, Yun Shishi handed a sparkler to him and smilingly said, “Come, join us.”

“Okay!”

He took the sparkler from her, and she helped him light it up. Multicolored sparks soon lit his smiling face aglow as he gently waved the sparkler while leaning against a boulder on the riverbank.

Gong Jie and Mu Yazhe took way prettier sparklers for themselves and lit them up.

“Ha ha ha!”

Little Yichen’s sparkler soon fizzled out. He could not help feeling utterly envious when he turned around and saw his uncle holding a beautiful sparkler. “Whoa! Yours really pretty! I want one like it, too! I want one, too!”

His uncle walked over, carried him up with one arm, and passed the sparkler in his other hand. “There you go! Hold it properly, and you can play with it!”

“Thank you, uncle!”

With a face-splitting grin, he waved the sparkler around and let it dance mid-air.

By now, Youyou’s stick had also fizzled out. His mother, thus, handed her sparkler for him to play.

As the actor watched the actress happily carrying her son while playing with the sparkler, he felt his heart become heating up as though it had been set ablaze.

At that moment, he suddenly felt that Yun Shishi’s world, be it the woman herself or her surroundings, was shining brilliantly.

He desperately yearned to enter her world, so much so that he did not realize that each of her actions, which seemingly held the power of a level-ten tornado, was capable of unsettling him.

The strong emotions he felt now was akin to that of a naïve youth experiencing his first love. Those feelings flooded him, causing tears to flow down his face unknowingly as he gazed longingly at the woman’s back.

Just when Yun Shishi wanted to call the idol to join them, she incidentally caught sight of him quietly standing behind them; seeing a faint tear streaking down his face, which glowed under the bright lights of the sparklers, shocked her.

Startled, she put down her son at once and approached the actor, only to see him staring dumbly at her face with large, moist eyes.

“Hua Jin… w-what’s wrong…” She helplessly reached out to his face and lightly wiped the tear stains away. “W-What’s wrong? Why are you crying…”

Crying?

Eh?

Did I cry?

The actor absent-mindedly touched the corner of his eye, only to feel a stabbing pain in his heart upon feeling the cold, moist sensation on his fingertip.