The moon and stars are scarce, the sea breeze blows slowly, the waves rise and fall with the tide and fall on the beach, Xiao Siqiu walks on the beach.

I don't know when she started to like the feeling of walking by the sea. In particular, your feet are deeply immersed in the soft sea sand and feel the residual warmth of the day, and as the waves caress your feet, it gives people a comfortable feeling.

Maybe that's why I like to walk around the beach a few days ago when summer was still around.

At that time, Xiao Siqiu, who had just been appointed by Cangwu to serve the summer personal maid, never understood why the adults were so seriously injured and had to go for a walk.

When she stopped, the adults always liked to touch her head and silently look up at the bright starry dome in the night sky.

She didn't understand the kind of eyes in summer, but Xiao Siqiu had seen many people have such eyes.

A few years ago, when her parents planned to take her out of Chu in order to escape the war, she saw this similar look in her father's eyes. Later, his parents suffered a rebellion of swords, and he was displaced to the hands of Renyazi, and after several tosses, he was sold to a nobleman in the court, and then received the teaching of this rite and music, and became a virgin boy and was sent to this ship to search for immortal medicine overseas.

If it hadn't been for the fact that the adult had saved him that day, Xiao Siqiu knew that he might have died. It is precisely because of this that he has an inexplicable feeling of attachment to summer.

So when she was walking along the beach with Summer as usual that day, she asked what the adults were looking at.

"I heard people say that when you miss someone but you can't see her, you can look at the stars in the sky. If two people who miss each other look at the stars, the stars will transmit their thoughts to each other and make them feel that each other's presence is close by. ”

I only remember that Summer seemed to say so, but Xiao Siqiu stared at the stars in the night sky for a long time and didn't see his parents, or felt their thoughts.

"Why don't I see anything?"

"Because you didn't pay attention to it."

Xiao Siqiu still remembers the feeling of the warm and wide palm caressing the top of his head when the adult said this. That feeling of peace of mind

And now it's still that starry sky, but things are different.

But looking at the Milky Way flickering overhead, exuding a soft but shocking starry sky in the night sky, Xiao Siqiu somehow understood.

Maybe it's not the beautiful starry sky overhead, but the longing in my heart.

……

Leaving the beach, Xiao Siqiu plans to go to the place where the seeds were planted today to pray for the summer, what kind of prayer the summer has not been explained, so she plans to dance the dance of the hometown sacrifice to the gods to pray for the summer.

"Let you steal it!"

With an angry curse, one of the soldiers raised his whip at one of the natives and swung it down vigorously. The whip struck the native, and the diminutive man fell to his knees with a scream, a piece of pancake in his hand that almost fell out of his hand.

He curled up, enduring the whipping of the soldiers, and even though the pain made his body tremble, he struggled to hold on to the pancake in his hand.

Seeing that the natives under him were so tenacious, the soldier's face was angry, and he wielded the leather whip with more and more force. The original dark skin of the aborigines was now covered with many blood marks all over the body.

"Alright, alright, stop fighting." A soldier came over at this time and dissuaded: "Even if you kill him, it's useless, and now that the camp is small, Commander Cang still relies on them to fish for us, and Commander Cang said that these natives can't have an accident." ”

As if sensing the reasonableness of his companion's words, the whip-wielding soldier stopped, his chest rising and falling as if his temperament had not yet subsided. He said angrily: "Barbarian, don't let me see you stealing food, or you will suffer next time, bah." ”

After the whip soldier was taken away, the native was taken directly to the very edge of the camp, not far from the deep forest behind, but surrounded by many soldiers, who did not give the natives a chance to escape.

These natives were originally arrested to repair the ship, and after the ship was repaired, Cangwu began to worry about what to do with these guys. Originally, he thought about killing it, but after agreeing to the promise of summer, he suddenly wanted to let this group of natives play what they are good at, let them fish and gather food. I didn't expect the results, and the results were not bad for the past two days.

So I kept these natives. The promise was kept, and it was fully utilized.

At this time, standing in the distance and watching the beaten and dying natives being dragged into the cage, Xiao Siqiu's face turned a little pale, which reminded her of the days when she was imprisoned and tortured by Xu Fu in the secret room.

Although she was treated well in the camp at this time because of the summer, the behavior of these soldiers still made her a little uncomfortable.

She hurried out of the place that had made her panic and into the woods not too far from the camp. This is where she planted her seeds in the afternoon, and she made many marks around it with a lot of white thread drawn from her clothes, and she wrapped all the twine around the branches of the trees to make simple marks.

Finding the place where the seeds were planted, Xiao Siqiu began to remember according to the sacrificial dance in the memory of the Chu State, and she broke off the pine branches of the pine tree next to her. Then began to kneel on the ground.

Dance has occupied a large proportion of the history and culture of this land of China since ancient times, and the witch dance originated in the primitive era and is the earliest dance of people to pray to the gods. Later, in the era of the Yin Shang Dynasty under theocratic rule, Wu was the spokesman of the gods, and his social status was high, and he could even influence the actions and political affairs of the monarch of the country. After King Wu of Zhou led the countries to overthrow the rule of the Yin Shang, he established the Zhou Dynasty and maintained the social system with the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty.

Later, with the improvement of productivity in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the society underwent great changes, and this Yale system showed signs of collapse after its glory, and it originally belonged to the dance between the nobles and slowly entered the people. Later, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Confucius even used etiquette and music as the standard of perfection.

Therefore, it is why the six arts of Confucianism include courtesy, music, archery, royalty, calligraphy, and mathematics. Rites, become one of them.

The previous dances compiled by Qu Yuan of Chu were sorted out in the "Nine Songs", and the custom of Chu was "believing in ghosts and worshipping them". During the festival, witches and witches participate in the festival, and make music and dance to entertain the gods. This kind of activity is not only seen in the princes and nobles, but even popularized to the desperate sight of the Chu State, and the popularity rate is extremely widespread.

That is to say, they will dance different dances every time they worship a different god, such as "Donghuang Taiyi" to worship the gods, "Yun Zhongjun" to worship the god of clouds, and "Da Si Ming" and "Shao Si Ming" are to worship the male gods and goddesses in charge of life.

So for Xiao Siqiu, who is a native of Chu, even if she is young, she has been nurtured by this dance culture since she was a child. Although Chu Guo has been dead for many years, and her memories of her original youth have long been blurred, she only remembers these dances in a general way.

"Is it dancing "The Eastern Emperor" or "Jun in the Clouds"?" Xiao Siqiu, who was kneeling on the ground, had a tangled look on her thin little face at this time, because she didn't know what sacrificial dance to dance to pray for the blessing of summer.

"Why don't you jump them all?"

Xiao Siqiu, who really had no choice, had to splice together all the movements he remembered in these dances, and then re-tailored a four-different dance for the summer.

Well, that's fine, adults are people favored by the gods, so the gods of heaven and clouds should not be counted.

After making up his mind, Xiao Siqiu slowly stood up and patted the white sackcloth on his body, picking up the emerald green pine branches just now. She struggled to recall every detail, and her small, thin body began to dance slowly in the starlit forest.

If it is a dance, it must be accompanied by the combination of the piano and the serpent, at this time, without any music, Xiao Siqiu can only listen to the waves and the sound of insects in the forest.

Gradually, she found the rhythm and began to dance slowly, as a person who had been sold to the court and received training in etiquette, although she was transferred to the ranks of boys and girls after not long in contact, but it was precisely in these few months that Xiao Siqiu learned a lot of dance basics.

At this time, the thin body is like a fairy in the forest, under the bright and soft starlight, it moves a smart and joyful step, like a breeze across the mountains, and plays a harmonious and beautiful picture with the sound of waves and insects.

At this time, Xiao Siqiu was dancing wantonly, even if she had never danced a dance as if she was born to order for her, there was no trace of jerkiness and pause. And this time it was different from the previous sacrificial dances, using the dances taught by the court of the Qin Dynasty, as well as the soft and mixed dances of the Chu State in Xiao Siqiu's memory, which was like a natural thing.

After a dance, his thin and flat chest rose and fell slightly, and he gasped for breath in his mouth. Although the dance without any restrictions just now made her dance very happy, but the physical effort was also quite huge, and it was already a great thing for a thin little girl in her early teens to be able to complete this dance.

After regaining some strength, she fell to her knees again, clasped her hands between a green pine branch, and began to pray for summer in her heart. After praying, he placed the pine branch on the ground where the seed was buried.

After doing this, Xiao Siqiu wiped the sweat on her forehead, for some reason this strange prayer ceremony actually made her heart feel inexplicably at ease, looking up at the night sky in the sky couldn't help but show a happy smile,

"My lord, did you hear Xiao Siqiu's prayer?"