A Devil Hunter's Mid-Autumn Festivals

With the Mid-Autumn's festival round the corner, I happen to see every night my neighbor's kids playing with lanterns, clearly enjoying themselves.

I reminisced when I was just their age; sweet, innocent kid I was back then. Grandma used to tell me stories about Chang'e and Houyi, as well as the origins of the mooncake. I used to beg her to tell me every year, and Grandma would go, 'Haven't I told you already last year? My oh my... you're more forgetful than I am', and would begin her story with a smile.

After the story, I'd go play lanterns with my brothers and cousins, who would come to my house for that rare opportunity to play with fire, legally. Back then there wasn't any electronic lanterns that we have today, we just either had the colorful paper ones or those bigger ones made with wire, shaped according to your favorite cartoon character or animals, etc.

My brothers and I, being the elder lot; called ourselves 'The Mint Men'; as we had the right to hold matches and candles, we'd quickly replace our cousin's lanterns with fresh candles when theirs looked dim. We had a mantra, 'The Mint Men, risking their lives to save YOUR tang-lung', before replacing the candles. Our cousins used to stare at us blankly whenever we said that, and beleaguered us to hurry 'save' their lanterns.

And sometimes, we'd go burn some wax into the anthills and do all sorts of crazy stuff. Come morning, with candle wax all over the floor, my mother would ask us to remove the wax with a scraper. 'If the floor isn't clean, you're not allowed to play anymore next year', she'd go.

Then, as I grew older, I stopped playing lanterns, instead I went to parks with girls to watch the lantern parade, and after that I'll bring her to do stuff that people do during dates. I remember every year a different girl, and Grandma would shake her head everytime when she heard of my diversity in girls.

Looking back, it's been many years since I last celebrated Mid-Autumn's with her, so I've decided that I'll do so this year. I'll pester her again to tell me the stories she used to tell me, while slipping back into my role of a 'Mint Man', this time 'rescuing' my nephews and nieces lanterns from 'dying' out.

Have a wonderful Mid-Autumn's Festival, everyone.