The road between the Zhuangda, which could accommodate six carts, was packed tightly tonight, and in the crowd, a young man and a woman were trying to move forward. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The cold little hand was held by the hot palm, Tian Jia felt very trance, and the nervousness was beyond words, but after several attempts to break free and failed because of her own weakness, she didn't want to make a noise, and as if resigned to her fate, she lowered her head and let Chang Anjun lead her.

So in the eyes of others, this is undoubtedly a pair of lovers dating on Autumn Club Day.

In the spring and autumn period, the wind of prostitution and wild cooperation prevailed, and it was not a big deal for men and women to marry on their own. A hundred years ago, when Mozi came to the country of Qi, he sighed, "Yan Zhi has ancestors, when Qi has Sheji, Song has mulberry forests, Chu has cloud dreams, and this man and woman belong to the view." It means that these places are good places for young men and women from all over the world to meet privately, and Linzi people have become accustomed to walking hand in hand with men and women.

On Autumn Day, people are a little more tolerant than usual, this is the time of the year when etiquette is the most relaxed, and it is also the day when it is easiest to conceive illegitimate children.

There were guards beside him to push away the surging crowd, so the sweaty people couldn't squeeze them, Mingyue held the girl's hand tightly, and couldn't stop talking to her.

"I now understand why the Duke of Nalu Zhuang had to be as good as Qiguan Society, although Handan is a big city in the north, but the Spring and Autumn Societies are not as lively as Linzi."

"It's not as good as before, my father said, when he was a market official in Zhuangyue City, the society day was a little more noisy."

Speaking of her father, Tian Jia doesn't seem to be so nervous, after all, everything in front of her is a familiar scene for her, when she was a child, every social day, her father and mother would also take her and her younger brother here to watch the excitement, after all, this is the place where Tian Dan was born and grew up, and it is also Tian Jia's hometown.

From childhood to adulthood, she tasted almost all kinds of food sold in the Autumn Society, and the King of Qi gave the tasteless community wine, different from the community meat, the Linzi people who love to enjoy have made a lot of pastries that are nominally dedicated to the gods, but actually satisfy the appetite of the mouth, and the mill invented by Lu Ban has been popularized in the Qi country, giving birth to creativity and innovation in food.

While stopping at the roadside vendor with Tian Jia, tasting various foods on the Autumn Society, Mingyue is also observing this ancient activity that shows the various forms of the people.

He remembered that when he was in middle school, he learned an article by Lu Xun called "Social Opera", which was about the situation of the social day party. This shrine has a long history, and it was very common in the Central Plains at least in the Spring and Autumn Period. This kind of folk gathering is the evolution of sacrifices, and generally speaking, the spring shrine worships the land, praying for the land to give food, and praying for a good harvest in the coming year. Autumn is the harvest season, and it is also a carnival.

In the State of Zhao, the Autumn Society was after the beginning of the Autumn Festival, but in the State of Qi, it was brought forward to the first day of July between the summer harvest and the autumn harvest.

The people not only expressed their expectations for a bumper harvest through community activities, but also used it to carry out entertainment, assemblies and competitions, and perform as a club. As far as the eye can see, but seeing the crowd playing the flute, drumming, building, playing the piano, cockfighting, dogs, six bo, and bowing, the wealthy Linzi citizens hold all kinds of entertainment activities on the street, which attracts more people to watch.

The various vendors and merchants also took the opportunity to start a small business, and the heat rising from their stoves made people think that they were in the middle of summer night, and the whole street was in full swing, and the wind blew near the ditch that ran through the city, but it could not blow away the heat and passion of the city.

But at the end of the day, Sheri was still nominally entertainment dedicated to the gods, and with the crowds, Mingyue and Tian Jia came to the edge of a huge procession that stretched for several miles.

Walking in the front is a strong man carrying the flag of the gods, the flag is painted with the appearance of the god of the shrine, followed by a group of folk musicians who play the sheng and drums, and then there are people who worship the gods with incense, generally the old man is in front, and there is a long queue.

Looking at the colorful clothes of that group of people, Mingyue couldn't help but speak, this is simply a carnival parade.

Tian Jia said to Mingyue that this long column should be paraded in the city, passing through every Lilu gate, every household will put up an incense case to receive the gods, this team is the core of this autumn society, and the crowd of people in Linzi is moving with them.

Mingyue and Tian Jia glanced at each other, and also walked together, after the procession to welcome the gods, they were fixed in an open place, which was convenient for worshipping the gods and performing programs, nothing more than horns, cockfights, etc.

However, there are also dwarfs who appear out of nowhere to make grimaces and perform acrobatics, but although they are short, they are dancing with their eyebrows and body, and from time to time they speak vulgar and easy-to-understand Qi slang and make funny moves to make the people laugh.

Mingyue saw that opposite him, there was also a pair of young men and women, who were so amused by this group of advocates that they were about to bend down with laughter, and couldn't help but secretly say Is it so funny? Could it be that your laughter is too high? However, looking at Tian Jia next to him, he couldn't help but laugh, and he suddenly realized that in this ancient era where entertainment activities were poor, this was enough to make people laugh.

The festival is an ancient carnival, which provides people with an occasion to entertain the gods, and the occasion for entertaining the gods is made into a singing and dancing feast by the people.

For ordinary people, such days are rare several times a year, and people take the opportunity to entertain the gods, beat drums and make noise, drink and sing. The drums are like spring thunder, awakening the earth, giving birth to all things, and stirring the crowd, while alcohol stimulates them to be bold, do something they dare not do on weekdays, laugh loudly, and relieve the fatigue of farming.

Affected by the atmosphere, Tian Jia's hand was not so nervous, but she was sweating, she couldn't help but tilt her head, wanting to see Chang Anjun's expression, but found that he was looking up at the gradually rising moon, as if he was counting the time, and seemed to be waiting for something......

Before Tian Jia could open his mouth to ask him, at this time, another big drum sounded, and the sheng flute was played together, and the dwarfs who advocated excellence retreated one after another, and then, it was the turn of the main event of the social day......

In the entertainment team that was surrounded by the crowd, a group of men wearing hideous masks walked out, as many as hundreds. The mask looks like a bear but not a bear, like a tiger and close to a ghost, looking mysterious and terrifying, this group of people one by one holding Ge, shields and other things, accompanied by the sound of gongs and drums, singing and dancing, dancing the gods.

Some of them focus on dancing, while others focus on singing. The dance is clumsy and rudimentary, reminiscent of ancient times, and because of the mask on his head, the voice of the singing is low and indistinct, as if it came from hundreds of years ago.

"It's a show." Tian Jia explained to Mingyue.

"They are wearing a face on their heads, a bear skin, four golden eyes, a black robe and a shield, imitating the great sacrifice Fang Xiangshi of the Yin Shang Dynasty, in order to drive away ghosts and plagues, and eliminate disasters Naji......" Tian Jia smiled, she didn't feel that those masks were terrifying at all, but let her fall into warm memories, her mother is the ink man, the ink man worships ghosts and gods and is close to the people, every social day, her mother will also wear a mask herself, playing the witch ghost.

The bright moon is clear, and the opera is also a tradition that has been handed down since the Shang and Zhou dynasties and has continued until 2,000 years later, and its ordinary meaning refers to the ritual of expelling plague ghosts in a specific season. People have been working hard for more than half a year, they have to raise their heads and talk to God, they have to twist their bodies, they have to have fun for themselves, and they have to make God happy, and they have to drive away the nasty ghost plague.

It is said that Confucius once met a villager walking in a nu, and he respectfully stood on the steps of the temple in court clothes to watch.

However, ordinary people are not as old-fashioned as Confucian sages, they also raised their arms and shouted together while the opera was going on, and the atmosphere shook the mountains and the sea, which shocked the bright moon and the whole city!

Zi said, worship ghosts and gods and stay away.

The people were a little humble and fearful of the gods, but they did not want to lose their self-esteem, and their expressions were quite difficult, so they simply put on masks, stirred up people, gods, witches, and ghosts, and sang and danced in the chaos, and could not tell whether it was a prayer to God or a compulsion from God. Anyway, the solemn atmosphere of worship does not exist, and what emerges is a wild spiritual frenzy: Hell, you! God, look at it!

Tossing back and forth like this, the performance stage has been extended to the entire Zhuang Yue, including Mingyue and them, and all the onlookers have been wrapped in it, as if the entire city is working together to exorcise demons collectively. The light of the pine fires flickered in the moonlight, and the flags held high by the leaders of the procession were raised into the night sky again and again.

The crowd was surging, Mingyue was also involved, and even a few guards were scattered, and the plan couldn't catch up with the change, which was unexpected. He could only hold Tian Jia's hand tightly, if she was also separated, tonight's plan would be greatly reduced.

Struggling to squeeze through the crowd, he stood side by side with her on the edge of a well on the side of the road, which gave him a little space. At this time, I watched the autumn society opera, in the dark night, the torches rolled, and the faces of the people who held the torches were covered with beads of sweat, trying to disperse in all directions, as if they wanted to rely on their own people to drive the ghosts away.

Mingyue looked up at the moon again, calculated the time, and the time agreed with Shu Qi was almost up......

However, at this moment, he found that an actor wearing a wooden mask seemed to be lost, and was leaving the crowd of people rushing in all directions towards the city, leaning towards him, and looking at him and Tian Jia with fixed eyes......

Mingyue frowned, his guards were crowded by the crowd and there was no trace, so after hesitating for a moment, he still touched the sword on his waist and blocked it in front of Tian Jia.

In order to make the drama more hot, the actors had drunk beforehand, Mingyue thought it was a drunk, showed his sword to scare him, and it was enough to drag the guards to arrive.

Before he could speak, the man had taken a few steps, but suddenly drew a short sword hidden in his bosom, and rushed towards him with great strides, shouting loudly:

"Zhao Guo'er is dead!"

Under the reflection of the torches all over the city, the bright sword blade was only a few steps away from the bright moon, he would not admit that he was mistaken, although he was wearing a mask, but the figure of the person was taller than Shu Qi, the pace was slower than Shu Qi, and the posture of holding the sword was also very different......

He's not Shu Qi!

It was unplanned, a real assassination!