When I woke up again, it was already in the west, I got up from the bed and stretched a good waist, the fatigue of my body was finally reduced a lot, and my mood was better, and there were no more troops and madmen in the yard, and it seemed that the madmen were finally freed.

Seeing that the sky was getting darker and darker, I was still thinking about the festival that Shen Muhan said, so I was ready to go out to have a look, and just about to go out, Shen Muhan happened to come in, and I almost pretended to be full.

"Awake? Come! Get dressed! Shen Muhan raised her hands in front of me, holding a pair of clothes in her hands, and I found that this girl had also changed her clothes, not to mention, this girl's clothes were really different when she changed her clothes. Because of professional reasons, I still have some understanding of traditional clothing, Shen Muhan looks a little similar to Xiuhe wearing, but there are a lot more Yingluo, I'm sure I haven't seen this kind of clothes, probably my own tradition here.

I took the clothes from Shen Muhan's hand, turned around and went into the house to put them on, walked to the mirror and looked at it, it was not bad alone, but I always felt like a wedding dress when I got together with Shen Muhan. I straightened my collar in front of the mirror and went out to rush to the ceremony with Shen Muhan, on the way Shen Muhan told me that the madman couldn't help but run away, and Li Jingyao hadn't woken up yet.

As soon as I walked out of the courtyard gate, I saw a blazing bonfire burning on the hillside behind the village, and the firelight reflected the sky red over there, and there was a faint sound of singing.

I just recovered from weakness, the road is a little farther away, and my unconsciously footsteps are full, Shen Muhan is not in a hurry, and follows me slowly, saying that it should be a walk. Think about it, as soon as I returned to China, I went to the bottom of the sea, and finally picked up a life and came back into the mountains, and it was like rushing to reincarnate along the way, and it was rare to have this kind of leisure and ease to take a walk.

Seeing us from afar, the madman trotted over to me, slapped me on the shoulder, and nodded in satisfaction, as if pleased with the speed of my recovery.

When we got to the campfire, we realized that it was already full of people, and the whole village must have come. There were a dozen people wearing masks dancing around the campfire, and they were singing the song they heard when they went out, but it looked like it was still rehearsal, after all, it wasn't completely dark, and the others were busy with their own business. Next to the campfire was a flat area raised above the ground, on which were placed several chairs, the middle one was particularly special, with a snake carved out of the back of the chair, presumably for the noble people of the village.

We couldn't help much, so we had to find a place to sit and wait. From time to time, someone will pass by us, and they will stop to chat with Shen Muhan, it seems that when I was unconscious, this girl got along well with the residents here. It's just that when everyone saw me, their attitude suddenly became serious, and they were a little respectful and away, just like seeing a plague god.

Shen Muhan saw that I was a little confused, and began to explain to me with a smile.

"Wood, you don't have to worry, they have no ill will towards you, they just seem to have special respect for you, when you first started to fall into a coma, the village chief has been sending several people to be busy, and today the village chief sent people to find me several times, saying that they must bring you, you see, the clothes prepared for you are different."

Hearing Shen Muhan say this, I realized that the clothes I was wearing were really different from others, the fabric alone looked much more high-end than other people's clothes, and the clothes on Shen Muhan's body were not very different from the girls in the village, but the difference was not very big.

I asked Shen Muhan why it was different from mine, Shen Muhan shook his head and said that he didn't know, let me wait for a while The village chief came and asked myself.

I can only continue to wait for the village chief bored, Shen Muhan didn't leave me, and kept chatting with me without a word, the madman had already run over and fought with the girls in the village, fortunately, the people here are quite enlightened, otherwise I am really afraid that the madman will be beaten to death.

After sitting for a while, I suddenly realized that there was no shadow of the prodigal son Jin in the crowd, and the two brothers were not there. Shen Muhan said that the prodigal son Jin left with thousands of troops and horses at noon, and it was said that there was something else, and he also said that if there was fate, he would meet one day. I now begin to believe that I had lost my eyes at the beginning, and that the prodigal son Jin would certainly not be just a small farmhouse owner, and that his true origin would only be known when we met him later.

Shen Muhan and I were chatting, and the noisy crowd suddenly quieted down, and everyone crossed their palms together, put their palms on their foreheads, and bent down in one direction to salute. Shen Muhan saw this posture, quickly got up from the ground, and patted me on the shoulder: "Wood, get up quickly, the village chief is here." ”

As soon as I saw that the village chief had come and everyone saluted, I thought that I could not lose my courtesy, so I quickly got up from the ground and prepared to salute like the people next to me. As soon as I put my hands down and was about to bend over, a pair of hands suddenly appeared and grabbed me.

"Noble and slow, how can my old man accept such a great gift."

When I looked up, there was an elderly man standing in front of me, his hair and beard were already snow-white, and he looked like he was getting old, but his body was still very strong, and his hand holding me was full of strength.

"Old man, I can stand it, I can stand it, I have relied on you to take care of several of us in the past few days, and it must have caused a lot of trouble."

The old man took a step back after hearing me, and bowed to me in the same posture as everyone else, I didn't react for a while, and when my hand reached out, the old man had already finished the salute and got up, and I retracted my hand in embarrassment and scratched my head.

"Your honor, it is our honor that you can come to a poor and remote place, how can you say that it is trouble?"

I was still thinking about saying a few polite words to the old man, but the old man interrupted me, took my hand and said as he walked, "Your honor, the ceremony will begin soon, and you should take your seat." "I saw that the old man was pulling me in the direction of the special chair next to me, and I suddenly felt a little nervous, I turned my head to look at Shen Muhan, the girl stuck out her tongue and waved her hand at me, it seems that she already knew that the chair was made for me." This girl, I'll settle accounts with you when the ceremony is over in a while. "I made a hard note to her in my heart.

The old man led me to a chair, sat me down on that particular chair, turned around and said "Let's go" to the crowd and did it to the chair next to me.

The people below all straightened up when they heard the village chief's order, and a man with a mask on his face shouted something I didn't understand, and the others all stepped back and formed a circle automatically, leaving a dozen masked people in the circle. The masked men formed strange poses around the campfire, as if they had watched a puppet show as a child, until another slogan sounded and everyone began to move around the campfire, dancing and singing songs I didn't understand.

I secretly glanced at the old man next to me, and saw that he didn't pay attention to me, and I didn't want to ask, so I could only straighten my back and watch the performance in the circle.

After looking at it for a while, I probably saw some doorways, this masked person should be playing the role of the god of Wu, so this ritual should be related to the ritual if not it.

The ritual is an ancient primitive sacrificial ritual, which originated from the ancient ritual with the main purpose of exorcising ghosts and epidemics, and was popular in the Shang and Zhou dynasties. From today's point of view, the ritual is also regarded as an ancient form of dance, and some people even say that many dances now have the shadow of the ritual of the dance.

In "Zhou Li, Xia Guan", it was recorded that "Fang Xiangshi, four crazy husbands." Fang Xiangshi. The palm is covered with bear skin, the golden four eyes, the black clothes and red clothes, the halberd and the shield, the handsome and the times are difficult, and the room is used to drive away the epidemic; The great funeral, the first pivot, and the tomb, into the expansion, to hit the four corners, drive Fang Liang. ”

Although I had seen many records of the ritual in many materials before, it was the first time I had seen it with my own eyes, and I was immediately interested, and I slowly forgot about the anxiety of sitting on this chair.

The masked man sang and danced for a while, and the plot took a drastic turn, one of the people in the red mask was isolated by the others for some reason, the man seemed to be angry, and the relationship between the two groups became incompatible, and finally the others swarmed up, lifted the man in the red mask, and slowly walked towards the bonfire, as if to burn him to death.

Although I knew that the scene in front of me was the plot arrangement of the ceremony, I couldn't help but sweat. The man in the red mask kept struggling, but after all, he couldn't withstand the strength of a dozen or so people, and was finally carried to the front of the fire. Everyone raised their heads and shouted to the sky, and then made a gesture to throw the red-masked man into the campfire.

Seeing this scene, I suddenly stood up unconsciously and shouted: "Don't!" At this moment, the man with the red mask was put down, and all the people wearing the mask took off their masks and saluted in the direction of me and the village chief, and the onlookers began to applaud. I felt my gaffe at once, my face was hot, and I wanted to dive headlong into the campfire.

The village chief also followed me and patted me lightly on the shoulder: "Nobleman, it's just a ceremony and you don't have to take it seriously, it's a lot of offend to disturb you." ”

It was already very embarrassing, and I felt even more panicked by the village chief's words, but fortunately, Shen Muhan ran over at this time.

"Wood, let's go, let's go dance." After Shen Muhan finished speaking, he smiled at the village chief, and saw that the village chief waved his hand before taking my arm and running into the crowd, after the ceremony, all the people began to dance around the bonfire, and Shen Muhan and I also imitated the movements of the people around us and jumped together.

I took advantage of the gap between dancing and quietly asked Shen Muhan, what is the situation here, Shen Muhan said that she doesn't know the specific situation, according to the observation and speculation in the past two days, it is very likely that this place has something to do with the Lin family, and it can be seen from the village chief's attitude towards me that it is not ordinary, and even because of me, her attitude towards her is different from that of crazy people.

I pretended to dance while secretly observing the village chief. I don't know when, the chair was empty, and the village chief was gone.