Chapter Twenty-Four: Lost
"It's coming, it's coming." On the second floor of the liquor shop where Li Chen often goes, Lifan jumped happily, only to see a group of marchers in the distance.
The leader of the procession was a man and a woman, wearing masks of an old man and an old woman, leading the dance, and several children surrounded them, singing and dancing. It's said that it's a child, but in fact, they're all adults, and they're not too young, but they just wear a child mask. after
There are a lot of people on the face, some with ghost masks, some with colors painted on their faces, and I don't know what the characters are.
The whole line is very long and lively. There are all kinds of blowing, playing and singing, and you can also see the dragon dance team in the team. I only saw a big dragon, which was held up by people with a long pole, constantly dancing up and down. Looking further back, after the dragon dance, many people are ordinary citizens, following the parade to join in the fun.
As the team got closer and closer, the sound became clearer and clearer, originally I just heard the lively voice, but now I can hear the professional leaders in front of me dancing and singing.
"What are they singing?" I didn't understand a word.' , Li Chen really wants to understand the lyrics seriously, but it's a pity, the team is too lively, and the lead dancer in front seems to be singing something, and he doesn't know whether he is professional or unprofessional.
was followed by the crowd of people who were playing behind, laughing and playing indifferently, and they couldn't hear clearly. Plus he didn't know anything about the lyrics, so he couldn't understand it at all.
"Thirteen, let's go down and follow." , the closer the team gets, the more itchy Lifan becomes, grabbing Li Chen's hand, he wants to take Li Chen down, and he also wants to participate in the parade.
Originally, the second floor of this wine shop was the boss's own private residence, but because Li Chen often came and became acquainted with the boss, he gave the boss some money, which was regarded as renting the window on the second floor, so that he could see clearly the lively activities and beach on the Chinese New Year's Eve night of the Tang Dynasty.
"Don't worry, tell me clearly, I remember someone said that they wanted to introduce me." "Gee, that's a long one." "What's long?" If it's long, it's a long story short, anyway, the line is very long, and if it doesn't work this year, there will be next year." , Li Chen was not in a hurry, leaned against the window, looked at the stall line getting closer and closer under the window, and drank the wine brewed by the shopkeeper.
"Alas, you can't hold back the excitement. Okay, I'll tell you.'" The dancer who was singing as he walked in front of him pointed to the front and said, "The two in front are called stall men and women are called stall mothers." "Is there a division between corruption and motherhood?" "The stall boy and the stall mother."
"Those children are all guards." "Corruption is divided into fathers and mothers, and there are Dharma protectors, it's really professional." Li Chen nodded in admiration. "It's not corruption~ Li Shisan, do you still want to listen to it?" , Fan was angry, Li Chen raised his hand and said that he invited Master Fan to continue the lecture.
"So, what is this parade for? Let's just have a good time?' "It's to expel the ghosts, to expel those plague gods and ghosts, to keep the peace, and hopefully the coming year will be better." "What are those two stall men and stall girls singing?" "I don't understand either." Fan scratched his head.
"Then, when did this custom come into being?" Li Chen threw out another question. "Ah~ Do you want to go see it?" How would I know?' , Lifan scratched his bald head, a little crazy.
"This Langjun, don't be embarrassed by the little novice, this custom has been around since the early years of the dynasty." , In the shop next door, a boss said with a smile, the entire window on the second floor of the street is like the wine shop rented by Li Chen, full of people, some relatives come to join in the fun, and some are the owner's family, "The team is coming, let's go down and finish the fun together."
"Let's go, let's go, little novice chanting scriptures, with a mouth and no heart, just memorize something you know, if you really ask you anything, you won't be able to come." , Li Chen patted Fan on the head and drove him down to participate in the parade. was so happy that Fan didn't care about being patted on the head again, and ran down, and Li Chen also went down to have a lively time.
"Oh Le Oh Le Oh Le Oh Le Woo go
gogo, oh le, oh le, oh le. , Li Chen drank some wine, and the whole person was in a drunken state, and was excited by the lively atmosphere, and the whole person was also excited, singing and dancing without knowing what to do.
Don't say that he is strange, in fact, the people around him are also like this, like the previous leader, Li Chen still didn't understand what he was singing. There was no order in the whole team, everyone was laughing and making trouble, just to have a good time, many people had different patterns painted on their faces, and a few people were wearing ghost masks, whether it was painted or not, anyway, everyone was dancing with the team, talking and laughing.
After singing and dancing for a long time, Li Chen was tired, and he found that he didn't know where he was, "Oops, where am I?" , he seems to be in a dwelling, as if he was singing and dancing with a few people, and he ended up here.
"It's really...," Li Chen also found a bad thing, and Lifan was gone, "It's troublesome, and I don't know if there is a service desk or anything for this event." In modern large-scale events, where there are many people who will be scattered, there is a service desk, and it is right to find a service desk if you have a problem. And those service desks, at most, have to serve, either broadcasting to beware of pickpockets, or co-learning missing children, but, how could these have in the Tang Dynasty.
"Don't worry, calm down." , Now that it's dark, Li Chen is a little flustered, in a place where he is completely unfamiliar with life, separated from Fan, and doesn't know where Fan went, Li Chen can only let himself cool down a little.
If you think about it, it's not too late. He and Lifan set out from the temple at noon and rushed to the town, where the wine shop he had set in advance was almost dusk. In winter, it gets dark quickly, the days are short and the nights are long, but it's not too late.
"Let's ask someone." , It's not too late, that is to say, most people may not have slept yet, looking for a house to ask, there should be no one to answer, here he knows that it should still be Cangfang Town, but he doesn't know the location. Find someone and ask him how the wine shop went, and he can go back.
"It's okay, I guess it's okay. On Chinese New Year's Eve, it's time to rest for kidnapping and trafficking." , Li Chen comforted himself like this, abducting and selling Xiao Shami, the crime is not small, it should be,. I shouldn't lose it.
"Let's ask the family first." , Li Chen's drunkenness receded, his mind cleared up a little, and when he looked around, there was still light in the courtyard of a house, the light jumped, the light and darkness were uncertain, it seemed that something was burning again, Li Chen could still smell the burnt smell, and walked to the house.
It's just that as soon as he wanted to get closer, the door of the house opened, and Li Chen subconsciously dodged, so he scolded in a low voice, "You hide from the wool." You ask for directions, what to hide.'" , It's just that what to do now that I'm hiding, I suddenly went out, and people don't want to treat him to the Song Mansion, let's hide for a while, wait for people to close the door, and then lean over.
"Lang Jun go well, it's dark, be careful on the road." , Li Chen heard a gentle female voice say this, and then heard again, "Well, you should be careful yourself. The door is closed, and the fire in the courtyard should be taken care of." , and then Li Chen saw a light source move towards the end of the street.
Then the house opened the door, and with a loud noise, the light of the fire through them suddenly dimmed, and only the fire in the courtyard jumped, "Dalang, stop playing. Beware of the fire burning you. Aya is gone, and you won't send it away.'"
"Is anyone there?" A certain family wants to ask for directions.' Seeing that they were locked up, Li Chen hurriedly walked out of the shadows and asked for directions like others.
"Who's outside the door?" My house is resting again, and it is not convenient to receive guests." "This lady, there is no need to receive it, a certain family just asks for directions, please ask the Wang family wine shop in the town which direction to go." , It seemed that Li Chen was sure that he was asking for directions, and the voice of the wife in the door seemed to be relaxed, "Lang Jun go to the right, go out along the road, and you can see it."
"Is it facing away from the gate, to the right, or facing the gate to the right?" It wasn't too far, so I was glad I was, "Turn your back to the gate and go to the right." "Thank you, madam, excuse me, and I wish you a happy new year." , There was silence in the door for a while, "I also wish Lang Jun a happy year." , Li Chen turned left, still confused, didn't the Tang Dynasty say Happy New Year to each other?
"Thirteen Lang, where have you been. Hurt me and wait.'" , Li Chen finally found the wine shop, and Li Fan was already waiting at the door of the wine shop, very angry.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I just got lost. Fortunately, there are people who ask questions. Let's go inside.'" Li Chen couldn't help but apologize, and was glad in his heart that he finally didn't lose anyone.
"What is burning in the yard?" , It's so late, there's no need to dare to go at night, Li Chen had already made an appointment with the owner of the wine shop to borrow it for one night, but he just entered the house and found that there was a raging fire in the yard.
"Except for the old, of course, every Chinese New Year's Eve, the old and broken debris must be burned." With a look of really pitiful face, you haven't even had Chinese New Year's Eve, and looked at Li Chen. Li Chen was about to teach him a lesson, and use force to let him know that children had better not despise adults, when suddenly an explosion sounded in the courtyard, which startled Li Chen.
"Shet, what's the matter?" , Li Chenyao was frightened, and suddenly remembered the explosion, everyone would be startled, but this was despised by Fan again, "Firecrackers, you don't even know about firecrackers."
"Firecrackers? There was gunpowder in the Tang Dynasty?' , Li Chen didn't care about Fan Deda, walked to the courtyard to look, and saw that the wine shop was Boss Wang's family, and they threw a lot of things they didn't want, broke their bast shoes, broke the rope, and threw them into the fire.
At this time, there was an explosion again, Li Chen took a look, mother, it was really firecrackers, it turned out that there was bamboo in the fire, after it was burned dry, the bamboo burst by itself, and there was an explosion, and the result was really firecrackers.
"OOXX Le, one day Lao Tzu really makes a firecracker come out, and you will all be shocked." Thinking of the essential artifact for the traverser, Li Chen was in high spirits, this is definitely a business opportunity. But like the peach charm, you'll probably have to wait until next year.