The car was speeding through the city of Peiping. It was daytime now. Unlike sitting in the car last night, I could see the surrounding scenery more clearly.
Xiaobai and Xi'er gathered in front of the car window and looked at the scenery outside.
"It's snowing~"
Xi'er shouted.
Snowflakes were falling again in the sky.
There were hurried pedestrians and busy traffic on the road, and snowflakes fell on people. Some people stopped, raised their heads and stuck out their tongues to catch the snowflakes.
But most of them kept their heads down and continued on their way.
Xi'er also stuck out her tongue stupidly, trying to catch the falling snowflakes in the sky.
It’s just that she was stopped by Xiaobai. The car window was closed and she couldn’t catch the snowflakes!
The snow was getting heavier and heavier. When the car arrived at the Forbidden City, the light snow turned into heavy snow.
Zhang Tan told Xiaobai and Xi'er to put on their coats, scarves, towels, and gloves.
"Wrap yourself into a meat dumpling." Xi'er said to herself, wrapping herself really tightly, and not forgetting to tell Xiaobai not to focus on style but not warmth.
She learned this sentence from Teacher Xiao Yuan, who always told Xin Xiaoguang this way recently.
Wang Xuehui was prepared and took out several umbrellas from the trunk. The big ones were for adults and the small ones were for children. She was really thoughtful.
There was already snow on the ground, which made a crunching sound when stepped on, leaving a series of footprints.
Children like to play with this and have a great time stepping on it.
When Zhang Tan saw Liu Chuyuan and Director Yu standing at the gate of the Forbidden City, he waved to him. He walked over, exchanged a few words, and prepared to enter the Forbidden City to start today's visit.
Wang Xuehui reminded the two children who were stepping on the snow to stop playing and led them to follow.
"Why don't we see any tourists today?" Zhang Tan asked doubtfully. The Forbidden City seemed much deserted today. The gate was actually empty, with only a few people.
Director Yu said: "Today is the Forbidden City's renovation day, and the museum is closed and will not accept visitors."
Liu Chuyuan said: "I just want to use this day to invite Teacher Zhang to visit. I won't be distracted and will not be disturbed. It will be more immersive in my mood."
There were staff guarding the closed door. When they saw them approaching, they opened the door without any instructions and let them in.
Several other young men and women who had arrived earlier than them suddenly said: "Can we go in? Can you let us in too?..."
Zhang Tan heard the sound and looked over, only to see that the person speaking was a girl, wrapped in a thick coat and wearing a bright red dress, the kind worn for weddings.
Next to her was a man wearing wedding clothes.
The girls are quite good-looking, but the boys are average.
There were several people beside them, holding cameras and other items. It seemed that they were here to take wedding photos, but unfortunately, the museum was closed for a break today, so they were turned away.
When they saw that Zhang Tan and others could go in, they wanted to follow them in, but the staff refused to let them in.
When Director Yu saw Zhang Tan stop and watch, he couldn't turn a blind eye, so he asked the staff what was going on.
Seeing that the curator's words worked, the girl immediately begged to let them in and filmed outside the palace instead of entering the palace.
"Today is the scheduled closing day," Director Yu said.
The girl pleaded: "I know, I know, we originally planned to come yesterday, but it snowed yesterday and the ground was icy and slippery. Our car hit another car on the road and my boyfriend's hand was broken.
Yes. Our original flight ticket was for this afternoon, so we can only make it in the morning..."
Everyone looked at the man. They hadn't noticed it just now, but they saw that one of his arms was raised unnaturally.
Director Yu looked at Zhang Tan, who smiled and said, "It's not harmful, but it's very important to them."
Director Yu said to them: "Then come in. You can't enter the palace and don't run around."
The girl even thanked Xiaobai and Xi'er who were watching the show. Xiaobai grinned at her, while Xi'er was very curious and stepped forward and asked, "Are you the bride?"
The girl smiled and said: "I will be the bride soon."
"Wow~ you are so awesome~"
"Xiwawa, let's go now."
Xi'er said to the bride: "I wish you have a baby soon. I'm leaving now. Bye~"
"Bye~"
The bride and her entourage watched them go away, and then registered with the staff. Accompanied by a staff member, they also entered the Forbidden City.
Snow is falling heavily in the Forbidden City, with red walls and black tiles, mythical beasts standing on the top corners of the eaves, majestic in the wind and snow, everything is antique, and every brick and tile seems to carry a heavy history.
The Forbidden City looks even more vicissitudes of life in the heavy snow.
In the eyes of the group of people, the few people who had just entered stood in the center of the vast square, looking around, surrounded by white snow and red walls, as if they had been integrated into this period of history.
Who is that person? It was closed but he could still come in, and it seemed like he was given the opportunity to visit alone.
The people traveling with me asked the staff accompanying me. The staff didn’t say anything at first, but then said, "This is a musician. We hired someone to write the theme song for the Forbidden City. Remember not to take pictures."
He was worried that if there were rumors that some leader was using his power to come in for a visit and cause unnecessary trouble, he simply introduced a few words.
At this moment, Zhang Tan held a black umbrella and strolled under the red wall, looking around. Director Yu followed him and carefully explained the story of each place to him.
Liu Chuyuan also followed, listening with great interest.
Xiaobai and Xi'er were more fascinated by the surrounding scenery at first, chasing and running around, but they overheard the curator Yu's explanation and became fascinated, so they followed obediently and listened with half-understanding.
This is much better than the bedtime story told by Old Man Zhang, but also much more difficult to understand.
Except for Director Yu, the rest of the group rarely spoke. Occasionally, Zhang Tan would ask a question or two.
Besides, there was only the crunching sound of snow on the ground.
The snow is silent and the history is profound.
"The Forbidden City has a history of more than 600 years. Construction began in September 1369 and ended in April 1375. It took nearly one million people and six years to complete..."
Director Yu was talking and leading everyone forward.
Zhang Tan originally thought that he had a relatively deep understanding of the Forbidden City, but after listening to Director Yu's explanation, he realized that what he knew was just superficial, and the history was far richer and more exciting than what he knew.
Every brick and every tile seems to have its own story.
Even after more than six hundred years of wind, frost, rain, and snow, most of these stories have been lost, but the few that remain are enough to make people sigh, cheer, or sigh.
Zhang Tan was fascinated by what he heard. When visiting such a cultural monument, one must be accompanied by someone who understands it, so that he can experience the wonders of it. Otherwise, he is just like a passer-by, just visiting here in a hurry, and it cannot be regarded as a visit.
Xiaobai was also fascinated by what they heard, while Xier unfolded the map he brought without knowing when, and was studying the map of the Forbidden City, trying to deduce where they had come and where they were located on the map.
She needs to know the direction, because if everyone gets lost, she needs to lead everyone out.
