Long Lantern Dream

Street pavilion. Ma Di knelt in the tent, and Zhuge Liang handed the flag to him. He stretched out his hand, his fingertips half an inch away from the flagpole. The story splits into three lines from this moment. One is history: Ma Di lost his street pavilion and was beheaded. One is a fantasy: he held on, from Longyou to Chang'an, Luoyang, Yecheng, Liaodong, and Jinling, and unified the world in thirty-two years. There is a deeper one: the street pavilion has been lost long ago, and the copper lamp has never been handed over. All the conquests and recoveries were all completed by Ma Su in his dream at the last moment of his life. Zhuge Liang lit the lamp in his heart, and he no longer needed any physical objects. The flame of the lamp was half an inch high, and the wind blew from the north for more than thirty years, blowing across every city, and never went out. Ma Su responded to the entrustment with this fantasy - he knew that the street pavilion could not be defended, but he still chose to reach out to receive the command flag. Extreme repetition and precise details create a long ceremony. The flame is half an inch high. My hand stretched out, but it hadn't touched the flagpole yet.