Chapter Forty-Eight,

The icy chill dispelled the jumbled thoughts in my head.

When watching the scene again, Yan Xiaoying talked with several Tujia girls, Tujia dialect is different from Chinese, although Yan Xiaoying's mother and grandmother are Tujia, but she herself does not know Tujia dialect.

However, one of the girls, Gan Lan, speaks Mandarin.

She told us that she had spent a long time in the big city and seen the outside world, and then returned to the village because of her parents' orders.

Gan Lan is a lively and talkative girl, about 20 years old, a few years younger than us.

She introduced us to the names of the girls next to us and then asked us how we had come to their village. Are you lost?

Yan Xiaoying told her that we were going to Tianlong Village deep in the mountains to look for relatives, and because the road was far away, we wanted to stay in their village for a while and leave tomorrow morning.

Gan Lan asked curiously: "I heard that Tianlong Village is full of Miao people, and you are not Miao people?" What relatives to look for there? ”

This girl is sensitive, it seems that she is not easy to fool, but fortunately, Yan Xiaoying's brain is also fast, she pointed to me and said that my grandfather is a familiar Miao, and later moved to live in Tianlong Village, a few days ago I heard that he was seriously ill, so we were in a hurry to visit.

When I heard Yan Xiaoying say this, I couldn't help but be speechless for a while, but it was not easy to debunk it in person, so I had to nod and follow her to lie.

Gan Lan looked at us, and suddenly asked again: "His grandfather is seriously ill, you also go with him, are you husband and wife?" ”

Yan Xiaoying's face flushed when she was asked, and she shook her head and hurriedly said, "No! ”

"Oh! I see, you're not married. ”

Gan Lan covered her mouth and chuckled, as if she knew everything, and at this time, the man on the mountain came back with his oxen, and people from the village came out to watch us.

They watched us curiously, but they didn't know what they were talking about.

Soon after, Gan Lan invited us into the village, and she told us that there was not much contact with the outside world, and although there were occasional people who went out, only a few people could speak Mandarin.

Later, I finally realized the hospitality of the Tujia people that Yan Xiaoying had said, and when I entered the village, I almost vomited from the wine at the baring door, and followed Gan Lan back to her house, and before I could get to know her parents, I was dragged by another group of strangers to drink again.

Then, a village gathered on an open field, lit a bonfire, slaughtered livestock, sang mountain songs, and danced hand dances, so enthusiastic that Yan Xiaoying and I could not get used to it.

Especially me, when I started out with a clear head, then I drank too much and became confused, and I didn't know what I was doing.

Anyway, I didn't understand a word of what they said, and occasionally Ganlan came to talk to us, beckoning us to eat, drink, and dance.

In the end, I really threw up, and I vomited very badly.

It was the first time I had grown up in a strange place, and I was drunk before I was fully acquainted with it.

In a daze, I didn't know how to get to a strange room.

When I came back to my senses a little, I found that Yan Xiaoying was feeding me water to drink.

"Thank you......"

I shook my heavy head, struggled to get out of bed, took the bowl from her hand, and drank it all in two clicks.

"How are you feeling?"

Yan Xiaoying sat next to her and watched, and said with some concern: "You vomited so badly just now, you even vomited bile, and your face was terrible pale!" ”

"Much better......"

I sat on the back bed, pillowed against the cold wall, took a few deep breaths in a row, and said with a wry smile: "I don't want to drink so much, mainly because of their own rice wine, I don't feel strong when I drink it, who knows that the stamina will be so great." Alas, this time it's really a shame. ”

Yan Xiaoying chuckled: "Who made you a hero?" Can't drink and still drink so much? ”

I spread my hands and said helplessly: "I can be regarded as having learned the enthusiasm of the Tujia family, I don't dare to come back a second time in the future, it's terrible." ”

"Actually, it's a coincidence that we came, Gan Lan said that tomorrow is the annual god worship meeting of their Tujia family, so the village will be so lively."

"Sacrifice?"

When I heard this, I asked, "Could it be a human sacrifice?" ”

I think they have not fully received the education of modern science, and they are the kind of people who are superstitious and have very extreme religious ideas.

So when Yan Xiaoying talked about their god sacrifice conference, the first thing that came to mind was the sacrifice of living people.

"It's not!"

Yan Xiaoying shook her head and said: "They are sacrificing the hunting god Meishan Niangniang, and they use cattle and sheep and other livestock, and they will not use living people to sacrifice." ”

Originally, the Tujia people lived in the mountains, and in addition to plowing the fields, they also went into the mountains from time to time to hunt.

However, most of the Tujia ethnic groups have now gone out of the mountains, assimilated with the Han people, and lived a modern life. There are only a very few villages that have little contact with the outside world and still maintain the cultural customs that have been passed down since ancient times.

Meishan Niangniang is the supreme god of the Tujia family, and they call it the god of hunting.

According to legend, in ancient times, Xiangxi Mountain was high and densely forested, and there were many tigers and leopards in particular, many years ago, in the Wuling Mountain, the mountain chongli between Heming Mountain and Wutong Mountain by the Yuanshui River, because the tigers and leopards rose in groups, and they were named Xinghu Chong.

There is a hunter surnamed Mei in Xinghu Chong, and there is a girl in the family who depends on her father.

The girl was born smart and clever, with apricot eyes and red lips, and was extremely beautiful, and the hunter loved it like a pearl in her palm, and she was bent on making a good appearance.

The girl knew the language of birds and beasts since she was a child, and her personality was like that of a boy, she played with a puppy during the day and slept with a rabbit at night.

When she was fifteen or sixteen years old, she followed her father into the mountains to hunt, her understanding was high, her archery skills were good, her bows were far and accurate, and she also understood the language of birds and beasts, and her strength was particularly amazing.

Therefore, she went into the mountains to hunt and hit every shot, but she did not shoot pregnant animals in winter and hatching eggs in spring.

The girl hunted more prey every day than the hunters in the eighteen caves of Jiuxi, and after she had caught the prey, she always left the head of the beast according to the custom in the village and distributed the prey to each Tujia family.

Because she runs in the mountains all year round, everyone calls her Meishan girl.

Later, in order to improve the efficiency of hunting, she also invented the earthen musket, which became famous.

Her news reached the King of Tusi, who sent a matchmaker to send a few baskets of jewels to marry the Meishan girl to make a partial room, but the Meishan girl did not agree, so the Tusi King locked her in a cell, but she still refused to obey.

When the Tusi King saw that the Meishan girl did not obey, since he couldn't marry her, he wanted to kill her, but his housekeeper said: "Killing her for no reason may cause the people to anger, and I have a plan to save her life." ”

Later, the housekeeper deceived Meishan Niangniang to get rid of the tiger, the tiger was very fierce, although Meishan Niangniang killed it, but she was also seriously injured.

After she hacked the tiger to death, on the way back, she unfortunately stepped on the trap set by the Tusi King for a long time, and the butler and conductor who were lying in ambush next to the trap fired arrows together, and the Meishan girl was immediately killed by the arrow.

The bad news spread to the cottage, the people were angry, and the Tujia people immediately got into the palace of the Tusi King, hacked the housekeeper to death with a knife, and the Tusi King was also broken into thousands of pieces.

After the Meishan girl died, she turned into the god of Meishan, in charge of people's hunting and protecting Tujia hunters.

Since then, the Tujia people have enshrined the Meishan Niangniang, called the hunting god, and at the same time built the "Meishan Palace" in Xinghu Chong to protect the Tujia people forever hunting safety.

Yan Xiaoying finished telling me the story of Meishan Niangniang she heard from Ganlan, and said with emotion: "This Meishan Niangniang is really a heroine, how good it would be for me to be like her in the future." ”

I joked, "I can't imagine that our Yan girl also has people who worship her, so will I have to call you Miss Yan in the future?" ”

Yan Xiaoying glanced at me and said, "Every ethnic group has its own beliefs, and we should respect them, and besides, I am also half a Tujia family." ”

She paused, and then said, "Ganlan told me that tomorrow after they worship the god of hunting, they will go into the mountains to hunt and go with us, and then we can go with them." ”

I nodded, remembering the story she told about Meishan Niangniang just now, and I couldn't help but think of my wife Jingmei, I wonder if she also had the same legendary experience as that Meishan Niangniang during her lifetime?

Touching the jade pendant on my neck, I looked at the room and found that the door was locked, and suddenly thought of a question and asked Yan Xiaoying: "Where do you sleep tonight?" ”

"Sleep here, Gan Lan thinks that the two of us have that kind of relationship, so I only prepared one room, otherwise you think that in the middle of the night, I will appear next to your bedside?"

"Forehead ......"

I touched my nose, climbed down from the bed/and said, "Then you can sleep in the bed." ”

"I sleep in the bed, where do you sleep?"

Yan Xiaoying glanced at me and said, "There is only one bed and one quilt, can you withstand such a cold day?" ”

"Just make a fire."

"You want to burn the house down? Then let the Tujia people arrest us and really have a living sacrifice? ”

I was embarrassed and said, "Why don't I go to Gan Lan and ask her to give me another room?" ”

"In the middle of the night, if you go to find someone else's eldest girl, aren't you afraid of misunderstanding?"

"You're still a man, such a mother-in-law, isn't it just sleeping in the same bed, what's the big deal." Yan Xiaoying glanced at me.

Then he turned around and climbed into bed, shrunk his body to the innermost, and left me a place: "Come on, don't rest well, you won't have the energy to go tomorrow." ”

"That...... How are your injuries? ”

"It's all said to be skin trauma, don't worry about you, if you don't sleep, I'll sleep." Then I saw Yan Xiaoying close her eyes.

I shook my head, thinking about it carefully, it doesn't seem to be a big deal, Yan Xiaoying's body has seen it herself, are you still afraid of sleeping in the same bed?

Thinking of this, he immediately became arrogant, slipped into the quilt, lay straight on his back, and didn't dare to move.

"How did you and Yamagami Niangniang meet?"

At this time, Yan Xiaoying suddenly turned over, looked at me and asked.

"That's a long story......"

I saw that Yan Xiaoying was curious, and immediately told her how grandpa tricked herself back, and then told her about seeing the mountain god Niangniang outside the door for the first time.

Yan Xiaoying is not an outsider, and there are some things I don't need to hide, so I also told her about Jingmei's strange life experience of borrowing my life......