Chapter Twenty-Four: Folk Customs "Welcoming the Case"

And so the days went by. Zhang Niu, who was idle and had nothing to do, replaced the small wooden board in front of the door with the words "Happy Xiaozhu" for a nearby round boulder. The stones were left there when they were useless when the mountain was opened in the past. Zhang Niu went directly to the village to pull it back. It doesn't cost anything anyway.

I found an old man in the village who could make stone carvings to help, and carved the words "Happy Little Building" on the round stone. And carefully depicted along the notches with red paint. A boulder nearly three meters high stands next to the pond. From afar, you can see tall boulders. Now it has become a landmark on Zhang Niu's contracted land. Originally, Zhang Niu wanted to find an old man to carve a statue, and it was best to look like him. Engage in the carving of the old man straight. I've never seen such a request. Ignore it directly, and say a straight word to the annoying old man. If I carved this boulder alone, I wouldn't have seen it for a year. After hearing this, he slipped away.

Two hundred ducklings used to look quite a lot, but now they have grown up and changed their moults. It feels like the number is too small. Call the boss of the seedlings and ask him when he is free to buy 800 ducklings for him. Just meat duck, don't buy that kind of egg duck. Calculated that this batch of ducks has been raised for almost two months, it is estimated that it should be able to be sold in another month. I didn't feed any feed, and now a single duckling weighs almost four pounds. I didn't even have a minor illness with the flu. You don't have to worry about it at all.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, several other large villages near Zhangjia Village, including other large villages, will hold a welcome activity, and Zhang Niu does not know when this activity will start. His grandfather's generation has already appeared. At that time, the wild children of the village were the happiest, because they all had to play the role of little boys. Wear the ancient kaftans and clothes.

The event began at 5 a.m. The sound of firecrackers can be heard early in the morning. Seven fairy tables were laid out all the way. There is a big incense burning next to it with two arms thick as * people's height. It burns from morning to midnight. The first time I saw Zhang Niu, I realized that incense could also be made so tall and so big, which was really a bit scary.

On the table, from the beginning of the table, there are some foods that are unique to the village. It was placed on the last table and stacked densely. And the parents next to them usually tell their children. This is an offering to welcome the great god. If anyone robs him, the great god will go to him at night. The frightened child nodded repeatedly.

Wait until that's over. People will go to the vacant fields selected by each village. Watch the show. If you like to be elegant, you can watch "Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea". "The old master carries a small sedan chair". Young people like to see what chest-crushing boulders. Martial arts, breathing fire in the mouth. and so on, causing a series of applause from the people around him. On the day of the case, there were also a lot of people selling snacks, such as baked cakes, chaos, and fried rice cakes. Duck neck. Bananas and other foods are popular among children. Zhang Niu also bought a few strings of fried small taro for his little sister. Lentinula edodes. It's just that there are too many people who buy it, and the people who fry it are not in a hurry.

In the morning, Zhang Niu took the little sister to look around, for the little sister, this is a big festival. You can see acrobatics that are rarely seen last time, and so on.

In the afternoon, the parade began. Several large villages in the vicinity have to be walked through. Families will be waiting on the side of the road. And the children will follow and mingle in the crowd.

In the evening, everyone will carry a small lantern to the temple to receive the gods, which is the last activity to welcome the case. A long humanoid dragon leads to the temple on the mountain.

On the road, everyone will consciously keep quiet, and on the winding mountain road, you can only hear the rustle of everyone walking. The temple on the mountain is very strong all year round, and I heard that it is very effective. I don't know if it's true or not.

When everyone brings back the prayers of the temple, the annual greeting event will be over. The annual event is more about praying for a good harvest next year. A tradition that continues for many years.

The boss of the seedlings drove the tool cart and delivered the ducks the next day. The sound of ducklings in the back car with a cage rattling. The ducks by the pond also quacked. Together.

Move the duck cage to the duck shed. Fence it with a small wooden plank, put it like this first, and then take it to the space for a few days later. After that, the ducklings that come out can feel very easy to raise, and they will not get sick very much.

After moving the duck cage, Shengming from the village happened to ride a tricycle to this cow to borrow a pump, saying that his own one had just burned down. I heard from others that you have a newly bought platform on this mountain. So hurry up.

It turned out to be the door of Shengming's house, and the pond not far away was ready to pump dry ponds, which was not dried last winter, and this year I want to dry the pond early and sell a good fish for money.

There was a tool truck of the boss of the fruit seedlings, and he directly moved Shengming's tricycle and pumping machine. Go straight to his pond.

Katsumyung's pond is right outside the village on a dirt road. When I arrived, there were already many people at the pond, and it turned out that today was preparing to pull the head net fish. You can see the untied fishing nets on the edge of the pond.

Replaced with a new pumping machine, Katsuaki said that it was more powerful than the old-fashioned one in his house. You can see it from the outlet of the pipe. The whole nozzle of the new one is coming out of the water very violently. The old-style spout is much smaller. Watch the water level drop a bit, and you can get down the net to pull the fish. There are three people at both ends of the fishing net, and it is relatively easy to pull these seven or eight acres of ponds.

Zhang Niu and the boss of Guomiao stood on the shore, and there were many wild children standing on the shore watching. When the nets are collected, the villagers will throw a large handful of unknown small fish to the shore and let them go home to raise and play.

In the blink of an eye, the man on the other side had already pulled the net more than half, and the man on this side continued to release the net. The place where the net is collected is two or three meters next to the net. Today, Shengming pulled the fish, and he was lucky. The fishing net was pulled halfway through, and there was no sinking of the net. The sinking net is that the net bag is full of mud, and the more you pull it, the more you pull it. In the end, Shen couldn't pull it. At this point, you can only swim to the place where the net is sunk and lift the net up. As soon as you mention it, the fish will run out. The appearance of the sunken net means that there are not many fish left in the net.

The range of the nets is gradually decreasing. Many of the big fish in the net kept jumping out of the water. There are also lucky ones who jump out of the net.

Zhang Niu, who was on the shore, also ran over to help pull the fishing net when they were collecting the net, and the net was a bumper harvest today. Look at the big fish that are constantly jumping, at least there can be two or three thousand catties of fish in this net. Throw the bamboo poles and fish ponds on the shore into the water. So that they can free up their hands to pull out a fish pond for the fish.

After the fish pond is tied to the bamboo pole, drive all the fish in the fish bag into the fish pond. This way, you don't have to go through the hassle of picking fish in the nets.

The fishmongers don't come until the afternoon. Therefore, Shengming also has to guard by this fish pond. I'm afraid that people passing by will take a few of them. After Zhang Niu and Guo Miao were going back, Shengming also chose two big heads weighing more than ten catties in the fish pond. Let them take it home and eat it.

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