Today is a big day for Luzhuang Village, the whole village gathers in the Erlang Temple at the back of the village, where the annual sacrifice ceremony will be held today to pray for good weather in the coming year.

What is different from previous years this year is that there will be a special wedding at this year's festival. The village chief chose a girl in the village and wanted to marry her to Erlang Shenjun to repay Erlang God for his protection of the village over the years.

...

Erlang Temple covers a wide area, almost the size of a basketball court, the temple is surrounded by red tiles and white walls, in addition to a few temples on the side, there is a large open space in the middle, there is a high platform in the middle of the open space, there are enough people on the high platform, wearing strange costumes, singing and dancing, as if performing some ceremony.

Hundreds of villagers surrounded the high platform, like the stars holding the moon, and kept kneeling and worshipping at the high platform, extremely pious.

As for the sacrifice (wedding), it will be held at the end of the sacrifice ceremony, and it is not yet time.

In the main shrine of Erlang Temple, there were several old men gathered together, discussing something, everyone's faces were a little flushed, and their nerves were slightly excited, obviously they were not in agreement, and everyone was arguing.

"The village chief... Just now, a villager came to report, saying that the stinky girl from Laifu's house ran out, probably asking for help from the river god, don't we take some precautions? "Some villagers are timid, afraid that the river god will be angry.

"Hmph... What kind of river god, I think it's a monster, in the early years, the two pocks in our village were eaten by monsters in the quicksand river, maybe that monster did it! ”

Some villagers expressed disdain.

Another villager said: "But whether the other party is a monster or a river god, he is always something that we mortals can't deal with, I heard that the girl has a very good relationship with the other party, maybe the other party will really come to make trouble, let's think of a good countermeasure." ”

"Uh... If you want me to say, it's better to cancel this sacrifice, if you really provoke that river demon, our village can't afford that loss! ”

In the crowd, an old man with a gray beard said worriedly.

"What... Cancel the sacrifice? "Somebody blew up right now.

"Don't be kidding, we promised the second master (Erlang God) that as long as God can rain down and protect us from the old snacks in the village, we will give the second master a beautiful woman as a concubine."

"Now that the rain is falling, and the dealer in the field has been saved, now you have to regret it... This is a teasing of the gods, and when the second master blames it, the whole village is afraid that it will be destroyed, and when the time comes, who will be responsible, and who can bear it? ”

At this moment, these elders in the village are in a dilemma, on one side is Erlang God, on the other side is the river demon, neither of them can provoke them, a little careless, it will definitely invite disaster.

"Otherwise... Let's sacrifice another man...", someone suggested.

"Hmm... That's a good idea. Someone immediately chimed in. Your granddaughter is 16 years old this year, and she can just replace that girl. This is what a great honor it is to marry the second master, in the future, your family will become a relative of the gods, and no one will dare to bully you Lu Lao Wu in the future! ”

"No.. No... My granddaughter... That's what happened, no... No way... No way! Lu Lao Wu waved his hand again and again, and he stopped talking.

"Old Five, now you know why we have to sacrifice that girl." The village chief suddenly spoke.

"This is also a helpless thing, the girls in the village are all grown up by us, and everyone is not related, who would be willing to sacrifice their children to the second master, and that Ah Zi girl has nothing to do with us, it is most appropriate to sacrifice her, this is also agreed by many villagers, don't make trouble for everyone!"

"But what about the river demon..."

"Ugh..."

The village chief sighed, and after a long time, said, "Old Five, you quickly send someone to find the girl of the Fu family, preferably before she meets the river demon." We also need to hurry up and settle this matter before the river demon comes. At that time, the person is already dead, even if the monster is angry, it will not be able to demolish this Erlang Temple! ”

"When the time comes, let's apologize to him, and promise to build a temple for him, maybe this matter will pass, if it really doesn't work, don't we still have the second master here, with him to protect us, I'm afraid that the monster will do something!"

"Well, we listen to the village chief."

"Yes, yes, yes... Hurry up and prepare for the festival..."

...

The villagers finally agreed, in order to complete the festival as soon as possible, they omitted some complicated steps in the middle, and directly carried out the last step, sacrifice...

It is said that after those things are burned, they can be turned into real houses in the other world for the people there.

And the sacrifice that the villagers call is similar to burning paper money, which is to put the 'things' to be sacrificed on the altar (high platform) of Erlang Temple and burn them.

They believed that by doing so, the god Erlang, who was far away in the heavenly realm, would be able to receive their sacrifices.

...

After the normal festival was over, the villagers did not disperse, everyone successively sent some dry firewood to the altar and piled it up, and poured fire oil on it, and after everything was ready, the village chief stood up.

He faced the villagers and said: "This year, our Luzhuang Village has suffered a great drought, and the crops in the field are about to be harvested, thanks to Erlang Shenjun for mercy on our Luzhuang Village, raining down to save all beings, although this year is a disaster year, but under the protection of Erlang Shenjun, a bumper harvest is really gratifying!" ”

"yes... Thanks to the Divine Monarch, we hard-working people can have enough to eat. ”

"That's right, the Divine Monarch is our reborn parent."

"Let's make more offerings to the god monarch and pray for peace!"

...

The villagers below shouted.

The village chief didn't want to waste time, so he stretched out his hand and motioned for everyone to be quiet.

He continued: "At the beginning, we promised that as long as God can rain down and keep us a village of old snacks to drink, we will give the second master a beautiful woman as a concubine, and now is the time for us to fulfill our promise." ”

As he spoke, the village chief turned around and glanced at several villagers on the side.

"There's a ritual below..."

Following the words of the village chief, several mothers-in-law in the village walked slowly with a girl in purple on their hands, and when they passed by the villagers, the villagers automatically moved out of the way and knelt on the ground to worship.

"Village chief, I heard that this girl is very strong, so let a few mothers-in-law hold her, and I won't let her run away!" Some villagers were worried.

The village chief waved his hand and smiled: "Don't worry, I secretly put sweat medicine in her meal a few days ago, this medicine I bought from the merchants of the Western Regions at a high price, it is said that this medicine can charm even a slightly lower level immortal, I gave that girl a lot, she can't run." ”

"That's it, it's just fine." When the villagers saw this, they didn't say much.