Han, in the summer of the eighth year of Jian'an, on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival, a small village on the river somewhere outside Xiangyang City in Jingbei.

Jingzhou in the Han Dynasty, if divided by modern geographical domain names, roughly included the entire Hubei Province and Hunan Province. In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Jingzhou was the location of the Chu State, one of the five hegemons of the Spring and Autumn Period, so Jingzhou was also called the land of Chu, even in the Han Dynasty, people still habitually called Jingzhou "the land of Jingchu" when calling Jingzhou.

Since it is "Chu Land", there are two Chu people who are very famous in history and must be mentioned. The first is King Chuzhuang, and his deeds need not be said. And the other is not as good as King Chuzhuang in terms of personal identity, but his actual influence on later generations is far above that of King Chuzhuang, this person is Qu Yuan. Today, although there are many theories about the origin of the custom of eating zongzi and racing dragon boats during the Dragon Boat Festival, the most widely spread and most recognized by the public is that these customs evolved from the activities of sacrificing Qu Yuan.

People are always accustomed to looking for idols to worship. Since there are two such famous local celebrities in the land of Jingchu, driven by worship and pride, the people of the land of Jingchu have never neglected the sacrifice activities of these two celebrities. In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, after Liu Biao took over Jingzhou, he adopted a policy of basically ignoring the outside world and developing internally, so the land of Jingchu was far away from the war for a long time, and the people lived a life of peace and contentment, which was relatively much more stable and prosperous than other states.

In addition, Liu Biao, as the head of the "Eight Jun", attaches great importance to the development of culture, and even brings Jingzhou, especially the area centered on Xiangyang, people's cultural accomplishment is relatively high. In this atmosphere, people are also very happy to have meaningful sacrifices and festivals. No, it's the Dragon Boat Festival soon, and there are more than a dozen village girls sitting on the bank of the river in this small riverside village. While laughing with each other, they were washing rice and washing leaves with the help of the clear river water.

All the village girls are busy with their work, but there is one of them who seems to be out of place with these village girls. Other village girls were busy tying up the zongzi, but she looked at the few zongzi leaves in her hand, and she didn't move to fold them for a long time. It wasn't until a breeze blew her long hair that she smiled faintly, gently placed a few dumpling leaves in her hand on the water, and let the flowing water take away these dumpling leaves, or even sink into the river. And faintly, you can see that the small characters of Juanxiu are written on the few dumpling leaves. It seems to be some kind of sacrificial word.

Suddenly, someone asked, "Sister Cai, why don't you wrap your zongzi leaves?" ”

"The ancestors Shen Jiang is here, and I will write a few sacrificial poems on the leaves to show respect in my heart."

"Hey, Sister Cai is just different from us ordinary village girls! Look at us, we don't know a few big characters, we can only do some rough work, how can we be as proficient in poetry and lyrics as Sister Cai, and even Mr. Shui Jing and Pang Degong's great sages are full of praise! And Sister Cai is so beautiful. It's really eye-catching! Hey, Sister Cai, I don't believe it all along, you...... Is it really already in your thirties? ”

Sister Cai smiled faintly: "Shou is from the sky, how can you deceive people?" ”

"I still don't believe it! You look like us. Even younger than us! ”

"Really?"

This Sister Cai smiled again and dried herself carefully against the clear river water. The surface of the water reflects the smooth and jade-like skin, the black and beautiful hair, and a face with bright eyes and jade teeth, and a face that captivates the country and the city. I looked at it for a long time. Sister Cai reached out and gently stroked her face, smiled and said secretly in her heart: "I thought that my youth was gone and my glory was gone, but I didn't expect that I would be able to return to my double decade again." He, a bastard, dared to tell me that he was not a child of the fairy family. But I'll never trust him again. ”

It was close to the Dragon Boat Festival, the weather was hot, and this Sister Cai had already seen a little sweat on her body. Dipping his hand into the water, there was a cold feeling from his fingertips, which was indescribably comfortable in this hot summer day. After a few strokes, she couldn't help but find a clean stone surface to sit on, remove the shoes and socks on her feet, and poke a pair of jade feet into the water, enjoying the coolness of this secretion.

Since some people take the lead, others will naturally follow suit. Soon, these dozen or so village girls also followed Sister Cai's example and poked their feet into the water, and even slapped the water and frolicked with each other. Sister Cai looked at these village girls frolicking with each other, and her face also showed a somewhat relieved and satisfied smile.

The village girls were frolicking, and suddenly the soft sound of horses' hooves told them that someone was coming this way. But these village girls didn't take it seriously, and they were still laughing there. Don't think that these village girls are busy hiding their feet when they meet people, people's concepts in the Han and Tang dynasties are actually not so rigid, women will be in a hurry to put their feet away from people to see that it is still after the Song Dynasty and until the end of the Qing Dynasty, as for foot binding or something, it is even more.

Besides, even in the period from the Song to the Qing Dynasty, the perennial barefoot barefoot girls who lived near the water were exceptional. However, among the women, after Sister Cai glanced at the comer over there, she thought about it and threw the corners of her skirt into the water and covered her own pair of jade feet.

But I saw that there were about a dozen people over there, the first one was of medium stature, about forty years old, and his appearance gave people the feeling of loyalty and kindness, but on his side were two big men, one red and one black, mighty and majestic.

For these village girls, these two red and black are a little scary, and they just wanted to avoid each other in a panic, and the person who was the leader hurriedly called out when he saw this: "Don't be surprised, we are not villains." Under Liu Bei Liu Xuande, I took the liberty of disturbing to ask you, whether Lu Yihao and Lu Servant are idle in this village? ”

As soon as they heard the name "Liu Bei", these village girls immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and just as they wanted to speak back, the red-faced man next to Liu Bei pointed to Sister Cai, who was still sitting on the river stone and soaking her feet, and said to Liu Bei: "Big brother, isn't that Cai Wenji Cai?" ”

Liu Bei glanced at it, his face showed a little joy, and he quickly turned over and dismounted and was about to rush over, but Cai Yan's voice floated over one step ahead of Liu Bei: "Xuande Gong, please stop." Cai Yan was lazy for a while, quite a little frivolous, and it was really inconvenient to meet Xuande Gong at the moment, and the rude place was also to look at Xuande Gong Haihan. ”

Liu Bei also saw Cai Yan's long skirt soaked in water at this time, and naturally understood what was going on, so he immediately bowed to Cai Yan on the spot and said, "In this case, it is really inconvenient to bother." But since everyone Cai is here, then dare to ask, where is Lu Servant? ”

Cai Yan smiled faintly: "My husband is taking a nap at home, so it's time to wake up, right?" Xuande Gong entered the village to find someone to inquire. Originally, Cai Yan was supposed to take Xuande Gong to go, but now ......"

Liu Bei hurriedly waved his hand and said, "It's okay, it's okay, it's to be rude first." Yes...... I won't disturb Cai's Yaxing. ”

Cai Yan smiled and owed Liu Bei and the others, and then watched Liu Bei and his party ride into the village. Seeing that they had walked a distance, Cai Yan dragged her long skirt and walked a few steps in the river, then turned around and glanced at the village aunt who only looked at Liu Bei and his party from a distance and did not notice her, nodded secretly, raised her left hand and stuffed the earring in her left ear into the ear hole, and her right hand held the necklace in her neck and brought it to her mouth, and called in a low voice: "Yihao, Yihao!" Did you wake up? ”

After calling a few times, a lazy voice came from Cai Yan's earrings: "What's the matter, Wen Ji, I'm still asleep......"

"Don't sleep, wake up! Liu Xuande just took Guan Yu and Zhang Fei here, and he has already gone to the village to find you. ”

"Oh, I see...... Well!? You said Liu Bei came here to look for me? ”

Cai Yan rolled his eyes a little funny: "You...... Go wash up and don't miss the rudeness. I packed up my stuff and came back. ”

"Okay, okay. Hey, hasn't Zhang Fang come back yet? ”

"Not yet, but I guess it's going to be soon. Why don't I sit here a little longer? To be honest, I don't really want to run into Liu Xuande and them. ”

"Oh, then you pay attention. Jingzhou is actually not very peaceful, and you went out today and didn't bring anyone with you. ”

"I was just preparing the Dragon Boat Festival dumplings with the women at the entrance of the village, and I didn't go far, so I would be fine. It's up to you to move quickly, don't let people see the joke. ”

"Oh oh oh, I see. That's the way it goes, and you'll come back sooner. ”

At the end of the call, Cai Yan put down the earrings and necklace, reached out and lifted the long skirt soaked in the river water and prepared to sit back on the stone face. Suddenly, a voice like a silver bell came from the river: "Sister! Sister Wenji!! ”

Cai Yan looked for prestige, only to see several boats on the river, and on the deck of the first boat, an eighteen or nineteen-year-old girl was waving to her excitedly.

"Xiao, Xiaolan?"

Cai Yan was dumbfounded, and said secretly in his heart: "This year's Dragon Boat Festival is really lively!" Why is Xiaolan and this girl here? ”

――――――――――――――――――――

"Annoyance is spread through, General Hanzuo, Yicheng Tinghou, Yuzhou Mu, and Emperor Uncle Liu Bei came to visit Lu Fuju."

In front of the door of a certain Jingya house in the village, Liu Bei had just reported a long list of names to the doorman, and Lu Ren's clear laughter came from the courtyard: "Hehehe, don't be so troublesome!" Just one sentence Uncle Liu Huang is here, don't say that it is in this Jingxiang land, even if you look at the world, who will not know? Uncle Huang, it's been a long time! Since that day, we are afraid that we have not seen each other for several years. ”

Liu Bei was overjoyed when he saw Lu Ren, and immediately bowed to Lu Ren to the end: "Lu servant, be polite!" ”

Lu Ren hurriedly returned the salute, and when he got up, he peeked at Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. Guan Yu is better, after all, during the battle of Guandu, Guan Yu was taken care of by Lu Ren, so he successfully found Zhang Fei in the ancient city, and then completed the "ancient city meeting" where the three brothers Liu Guan and Zhang reunited, so Guan Yu was somewhat grateful to Lu Ren, so although he was arrogant, he was not rude.

As for Zhang Fei...... To be honest, the few interactions between Lu Ren and Zhang Fei were basically full of gunpowder, so Zhang Fei didn't have a good face for Lu Ren. This is because Liu Bei and Guan Yu are pressing here, otherwise Zhang Fei may have to make something for Lu Ren again.

After each salute, Liu Bei habitually said a few polite words like an opening remark when he turned around, but he was only halfway through the words, that is, Liu Bei was a little surprised when he saw Lu Ren's current appearance clearly, and he couldn't say any more...... (To be continued.) )