Six years ago

(617)

Who said that young people around the age of seventeen have enough qi and blood, so they sleep deeply, and most of them can sleep dreamless for a long time and sleep until dawn?

Cheng Jiao slept very unsteadily last night!

Several layers of dreams with completely different backgrounds enveloped her. She knew that when she saw all kinds of strange colors and absurd scenes, she must be dreaming, so she kept saying to herself in her dream, "This is a dream!" It's a dream! She wished she could break free from the annoying dreams, but how could people control them?

When I woke up, it was dark inside, but when I looked out of the window with summer curtains, I could see that the sky outside was not completely dark, but a little gray and blue. She propped up a little to look at the wall clock, the tip of the second hand just past the jewel for twelve, three o'clock. At this time, the outside world is silent, and the insects that are noisy because of the heat of the day seem to be asleep. But it won't be long before the early birds start chirping. Two hours later, a woman will climb the bell tower at the top of the hot spring temple and ring the bell to welcome the morning.

Thinking of this, Cheng Jiao fell back to the pillow in annoyance. She should have enjoyed the last vacation after graduating from school, and she didn't have to get up at five o'clock in strict accordance with the rule of "the night leaks out, and the bell rings" as in the past. But there will be so many important things happening in these two days, and she must participate in everything!

She had been worried for a long time about her mother's prayer to be made in a few hours. I have long circled the date of August 15 on the calendar, that is, tomorrow, the day of the fall of the three gods and the rise of the god of war, and the day of reincarnation. The three of them are going to participate in the ceremony of the temple in Myohosan, so the father who is far away on the island of the god of war will definitely rush back tomorrow morning, and Cheng Jiao received the news that his father got on the boat to cross the sea a few days ago. That meant she had an imminent heavy lifting to do – cleaning her father's study. And she's decided to go to the hot spring shrine with her mom in a moment, and she wants to help with the preparations before the prayer. But the annoying thing is that she is still awake! She kicked the quilt off her body. In such a hot summer, who wants to cover the quilt! It must be that this double layer of silk quilt is too thick, so stuffy that she can't sleep well! She rolled over and moved into the bed against the wall, she had liked to sleep next to the wall since she was a child, and felt cool and safe. But her mother was always worried that the cold night would cause her headaches, so she ordered a few sets of silk-faced soft mats and laid them along the wall. That's fine, the silk is cool and soft, wrapping her.

This time she quickly fell asleep.

Dreamless sleep can make two hours go by.

Cheng Jiao knew that when the bell rang, her mother came to look at her, picked up the quilt from under the bed and put it on her body. She thought to herself, "I'm faster than her, and I'll be able to walk together in a little bit of confusion." ”

But when she opened her eyes again, the sun had already shone on the floor-to-ceiling mirror at the door of her room, shining brightly in her eyes.

This says two things. First, it's only about an hour before noon at most. Second, the ritual of praying for rain has not yet begun. She quickly rolled over and sat up, running to the dressing room without even putting on her shoes, the soles of her bare feet touching the stone floor, and the cold feeling instantly made her sleepy. She knew that she should have gotten up early to burn incense and bathe in such a large-scale prayer ceremony, so that the gods would feel the sincerity and respect of the person who made the prayer, but it was obviously too late to light incense and release water now.

She silently recited the names of the gods in her heart, expressing her eagerness to participate in the prayer and the reason why she could not prepare strictly according to the rules, while freshening up and changing her clothes as quickly as possible.

But the more anxious you are, the more problems arise.

First of all, the matter of combing her hair made her angry. The waist-length long hair was already difficult to take care of, but a few locks of hair at the tips of the hair were tightly entangled, she combed it hard, and even the sandalwood comb teeth were broken, and the annoying knot was still there! She puffed up the scissors from the drawer and minus the strands of hair. While skillfully braiding his hair, he secretly made up his mind - before going to Jinwuyuan, he must cut off this obstructive long hair, no matter how much his mother stops it, it is useless!

Today's outfit was prepared last night, after the braid was knotted, she wore a red coral stone hairpin on the sideburns on the left and right sides, the position of the hairpin echoed the lock of one-inch long hair left in front of her ears, and the color of the hairpin echoed her youthful ruddy lips and plump pink cheeks, although the decoration was simple but set off her petite face smart and lovely. She carefully tied the ribbon of the same color embroidered tassel belt around her waist in front of the floor-to-ceiling mirror, and took out the red satin embroidered black cat's small high-heeled cloth shoes to put on. These shoes are she begged her mother to go to the embroidery workshop to order, other people's girls like to wear some embroidered blue water lotus pond, magpie climbing the branch of these pattern shoes, she hates to wear embroidered shoes, always wear lace-up flat leather shoes all day long, so that it is convenient to run and jump on the horse. But as the daughter of the main island hot spring hall, there are always some occasions when you can't wear lace-up leather shoes, so there is this unique pair of embroidered black cat little red shoes, she thinks that such a pattern is more worthy of her heart. These shoes were the first time she had worn them, and they were a little tight on her feet, but she had no other embroidered shoes to wear with a skirt.

After dressing, Cheng Jiao opened the door and ran to the corridor on the west side of the courtyard.

When she arrived at the corridor, she found that something even more annoying was coming, Chiji was gone!

Chiji was brought back by his father from God of War Island two years ago. Before Chiji, no horse was willing to carry a horse. There have been so many times when I was a child riding with my parents, and Cheng Jiao remembers it very clearly, and there is nothing wrong with it. But when she was over fifteen and needed to ride her own horse, she couldn't pick a suitable horse anyway. The horses either neighed and wirled around the air at the sight of her, or fell to their knees and shivered, and none of them would carry her even two steps.

It added to her already eccentric reputation.

Mom didn't care about that. However, after Cheng Jiao practiced martial arts, the bow and arrow became more and more proficient, and there was no good horse to drive with the skill of piercing Yang in a hundred steps, which was really worrying. Therefore, my mother sent someone to look for horses.

Cheng Jiao remembered that someone brought her back a beautiful horse with a snow-white body, named "Zhaoye Bai". In addition to being beautiful, having a loud name, and spending a lot of money, this horse also has a different way of discord with Cheng Jiao than other horses. After seeing the Jiaojiao, it opened its nostrils and squirted hot air a few times, and suddenly turned around and spread its four hooves and ran wildly, with so much force that it threw the face of the person who led it to the ground and knocked out its teeth. The tragedy is still to come, this horse was raised in the mountains and wilderness before, the first time he came to the city, the running force was too fierce, and he couldn't stop it when he got to the wall, and he was killed by it!

Seeing the horse's brain burst and his neck collapsed on the side of the courtyard wall, the mother shook her head anxiously and angrily and scolded: "Stupid horse! Stupid horse! Cheng Jiao thought disheartenedly: "This horse would rather crash into the wall and kill himself than let me ride!" ”

After that, her mother stopped looking for horses for her, and she never mentioned the choice of horses herself.

Until Dad brought back Chiji.

The horse was red, without a single stray hair, its hooves were black and shiny, and its body was not as fat as the other horses, but in the flesh and bones, and its eyes were not as tame as those of the other horses, but showed a rebellious color.

Dad said it was a war horse that had experienced the night of the Bloody Eye, and that its owner had died in that chaotic night. He saw that the horse's bones were strange and his spirit was extraordinary, so he took great pains to cross the sea and bring it home.

This Chiji is indeed extraordinary, and when Cheng Jiao approached it, it only took two steps back in surprise, but soon took another step forward with a snort. Chengjiao patted its head, it turned its head away from looking at Chengjiao's eyes, Chengjiao took advantage of the victory to pursue, turned over on the horse, Chiji turned around in place uneasily, then stood still, vigilantly pricked up his ears. Cheng Jiao's feet clamped, and the horse began to run in small steps, and at first glance it was well-trained.

After searching for several years, he finally had a powerful mount, and Cheng Jiao was very happy, and rode it every day to practice archery. The horse's spirit was very high, and when he reached the open field, he ran as if he had been running with all his strength and compared with the speed of the sharp arrow that Cheng Jiao had just shot.

Chengjiao cherishes it very much, feeds and bathes it every day, and never lets the horsemen do it. But this horse did not look very close to Cheng Jiao, and when he returned to the porch, he silently ate grass and rested, almost without looking at Cheng Jiao. Even so, Cheng Jiao was twelve points satisfied with it, and she arranged Chi Ji in a stall at the head of the horse corridor, where the air circulation was good, which was conducive to the rest of the horses.

Therefore, this morning, Cheng Jiao opened the wooden door of the horse porch, and saw at a glance that the inside of Chiji's horse pen was empty.

From home to the hot spring temple, Chiji ran for only ten minutes. But without Chiji, no matter how many horses there are in the corridor, it is also for nothing for Cheng Jiao, and she is so angry that she stomps her feet.

At the moment, there is only one way to catch up with the prayer ceremony, and that is to run, but wearing these new embroidered heels on your feet is absolutely impossible. She ran back to her room, took out the pair of lewd strap flats she usually wears, and sat down on the bluestone steps in front of the house to change her shoes. Untie the belt around your waist, tie the embroidered shoes you have taken off against the uppers, straddle diagonally to your back, tie a dead knot on your chest, and run towards the front door.

The paths in the park are crooked, and the stone slabs on the ground are old for a long time, and the soles of the shoes are a little slippery when running. She strode quickly through the gardens and rockery pools to the west, and she didn't meet anyone along the way, which made her even more anxious!

Everyone must have finished their work early and went to the hot spring shrine to pray!

She turned out of the side gate and ran into the wide and uninhabited main courtyard, and at the end of the ten-pace-wide bluestone road, the double large wooden door was hidden, and the gilded golden crow's wings were not on the same plane. Cheng Jiao crossed the high threshold of the main entrance and was about to rush to the Divine Blessing Avenue to run wildly, but at a glance he saw that the tea jar on the stone table on the right side of the door was empty. She could only stop her steps to run, pick up the teapot and turn back to the door to refill the water. When the nagging uncle in the porter filled the teapot with freshly brewed tea, she ran back to the stone table and put it down, and at least five minutes passed.

If you want to catch the rain prayer ceremony at noon, you can only run to the hot spring shrine in one breath!

At this time, the old woman who sold the pastries was still sitting in her old place, which was in the thick shade of a Bodhi tree on the side of the road near the end of Shenyou Avenue. In front of her is her wicker stall, the last piece of the most popular cherry jam sandwich in the wooden tray of the stall. She expected that the cakes would be in demand today, so she made three times the usual portions, and when the bell of the hot spring hall rang for the first time, she was already waiting at her old place.

However, she is not an early riser today.

When she pulled the cart to the side of the road, there were already many people rushing on Divine Bless Avenue. There are those who ride horses, some who walk, some who wear gold and silver, some who are in ragged clothes, there are young boys supporting gray-haired grandmothers, and there are young mothers who carry sleeping babies in their arms. There were groups of uniformly dressed young people with brisk steps, and the faces of their youth were full of hope and piety. There are also middle-aged people who move forward slowly, the kind of people whose heads are buried low, and their faces cannot be seen clearly. The destination of the crowd is not far from the hot spring shrine with wide walls and cascading pavilions. Many of them had been sleeping in the open for days to get there on time today, so if they noticed the old woman sitting on the side of the road, it was better to smell the enticing scent of fresh pastries. Although people came from different directions on the island of the Sun God, and even came from the other four islands, when they saw the wrinkled, white-haired mother-in-law pushing a snack cart selling dim sum and cakes on the side of Shenyou Avenue, they knew that the old man's craftsmanship must be excellent, so people kept stopping to buy them. Within an hour, three times the amount of pastries was sold out.

The mother-in-law finally left the last piece. After that, there was a long wait of six hours. This is really too long for a mother-in-law who is over eighty years old, and she repeatedly warned herself that she was a good child, and she would never make her old woman happy. So she checked and checked the money she had collected this morning, counted a few black silver rings to wipe down, and picked out a few pearl buttons and shells.

As soon as the sun rises, the temperature rises rapidly, and the shadows of the linden trees on the ground keep receding. She looked to the west of the Divine Blessing Avenue several times, and it was almost noon, and she knew that the rain prayer ceremony at the Hot Springs Temple was about to begin. The mother-in-law lowered her head and sighed, the child must have gone to the temple with the lord of the hot spring hall before the bell rang.

They are God's messengers, and they have great things to do, so how can they care about the old woman's little piece of cake?

Not wanting to wait any longer, she stooped down and pulled up the lid of the wicker stall, put her hands on her knees, and slowly stood up, covering the last piece of cherry-filled sandwich in the wooden tray with the lid.

At this moment, there was a sound of swift footsteps at the west end of Shenyou Avenue, and the mother-in-law turned her head sideways, and looked west with her hands on the pergola. The air was distorted by the scorching sun, so that the little figure was crooked when it first appeared. But as the figure quickly approached, the mother-in-law recognized that it was indeed the daughter of the hot spring hall lord named Cheng Jiao.

She loves cherry sandwich cakes the most, and she made a special trip yesterday morning and paid in advance to ask for a piece to be left for her, because she had to attend her mother's rain prayer ceremony and must not have time for breakfast.

The child ran to his mother-in-law, nodded in thanks, grabbed the cake on the tray and ran forward again. At this moment, the mother-in-law also noticed that she was wearing a beautiful dress, her long black hair was tied into a smooth braid, and she was pinned with a shiny red clip, but she was carrying a pair of shoes on her back. The boy ran with a frown on his brow and beads of sweat on his head.

"Strange child", the mother-in-law shook her head and began to clean up the stall car, "You have a prominent family, you are handsome, and you are loved by everyone, what are you always frowning about!" If it were me, I would laugh out loud in my dreams!"

Of course, the mother-in-law didn't know why Cheng Jiao frowned.

The large tea jar on the stone table at the door of the house is specially used for passers-by to quench their thirst in the middle of summer, and it has not rained in the past three months. Granny Ulanda, the housekeeper, had already ordered the porter and the apprentices to replenish the water frequently, from six times a day to once an hour. Last night, she heard Grandma Ulanda say to the porter grandfather that after the bell rings tomorrow morning, she will refill the water in half an hour. Because those who go to the rain prayer ceremony will definitely pass by the door, everyone has been rushing here for days, and they are exhausted, and they must be drinking water like drinking sweet rain. Grandpa the porter is a diligent person, even if he doesn't say that he is always adding water.

But when Cheng Jiao went out in the morning, the cup was dried by the sun, and it was so hot that it must have been drunk by passers-by as soon as it was poured water.

With such a severe drought, can my mother succeed in praying for rain? Cheng Jiao thought worriedly.

She is not vainly underestimating her mother's spiritual power.

Today's hot spring temple golden leaf witch is the youngest main god island town hall witch since the unification of the five islands by virtue of her powerful divine power that can communicate with heaven and earth and communicate with the gods, and it is also the only one who has no origin, no surname, only a single name of the town hall witch. In the seventeen years since she entered the hot spring temple, she has presided over countless prayers and prayers, and she has never missed.

But on the day of reincarnation two years ago, God of War Island was suddenly attacked by a strange night! The Glorious Great Wall was intact but the Burning Legion was almost wiped out, the Immortal King Long Ran was killed by the commander of the God of War Island, and the Temple of the Thousand Divine Eyes was destroyed. Although there was a miraculous retreat, the people of each island clearly felt that the world around them had changed.

Nasas Scarlet, the successor commander of the Isle of War, recruited troops and led the soldiers to practice day and night, vowing that one day he would sacrifice the blood of the Shadow Land Barbarians to Mars, the god of war, and avenge the shame of the Burning Legion; The shield city of Lingjin Island began to strengthen the city walls, and the Morimori Mori Tanpoli witch of the forest guard temple did not leave Lingjin Island for a single step in the name of personal supervision and defense; The Light and Poria Witches of the Alder Hall urged all beginners and students on the Medicine God Island to increase their martial arts and pharmacy courses, and encouraged the improvement and reproduction of the Golden-maned War Horse on the Medicine God Island; Even the remote and barren island of Poseidon began to store food and forge swords, and it is said that Sakura Shrine Maiden, the god of the whale wave temple who had always lived in seclusion, personally supervised the construction of warships.

Ordinary people always praise the good deeds of the gods in their hearts, longing for the clouds of war to disperse and the gods to return again.

But things backfired, and the five islands have not been quiet for two years. People from Poseidon Island say that seabirds gather like dark clouds, throwing half-human-high guano on the beach; Fish washed up on the beach in droves, stranded and died; Last summer, a major earthquake and tsunami struck the eastern part of Yakujin Island, leaving the beautiful city of Dilloai in ruins, and rumors spread that the visions were a sign of the wrath of the gods, and that wandering singers cater to people's curiosity and tell a story of a similar scene from the battle over the mountain a hundred years ago.

For the past two years, various sacrifices and prayers have been carried out in various temples on various islands, but this year there was a severe drought that ravaged the entire continent of Shenyou.

The hardest hit was Yakujin Island. There, natural rivers dried up, artificial canals and cisterns dug for irrigation soon bottomed out, the ground cracked, seedlings awaiting irrigation withered and died, and hopeless farmers sat on the edge of their fields weeping. The temple dedicated to Elibi, the god of medicine, is lit day and night, and the farmers who gather there to pray for rain during the day do not want to disperse at night, and many of them live in the huge temple and pray day and night, hoping to move the god of medicine with sincerity, sprinkle rain, and save the world. But the attentive peasant women found that the face of his consort deity, Hestia, was standing next to the tall statue of the god of agriculture, and large tears were dripping from the face.

Suffering from the unpredictable providence, people have petitioned the golden leaf shrine maiden of the hot spring temple of the main island, Sun God Island, asking her to open the altar to pray for rain.

The great drought also caused the island of Sun God to suffer.

Summer on the island is the rainy season, and the rain every once in a while makes the island's vegetation lush and lush, full of fruits and vegetables, and the air is always filled with the sweet smell of the sun distilled from various melons and fruits, which is the blessing of the sun goddess Apollona. This summer, however, there was a month of rain that did not fall! Less than two hours after the morning bell rings, the scorching sun will make the top of people's heads hot, and even the melons and fruits will be wrinkled. Wells scattered throughout the island used to be filled with cold spring water, but in recent days only a thin layer of water can be seen seeping from the bottom of the wells every morning. People had to get up early and hang the children with buckets to the bottom of the well to draw water.

The same is true of the well of Cheng Jiao's house. In addition to the daily drinking water at home and the drinking water left for pedestrians, my mother has already stipulated that everyone in the house has a small half basin of water per person every day, and no soap can be used for washing. Wash your face in the morning, leave it for noon and evening before pouring it into the vegetable patch. Cheng Jiao is the same, she hasn't washed the dishes and chopsticks for nearly a month, but wiped them clean with a cloth after eating.

The entire Divine Blessed Continent was tormented by drought, but only the hot spring in the center of the Hot Spring Temple was not affected in any way, and it still continued to bubble up with steaming spring water. Legend has it that more than 600 years ago, the glittering Apollona descended here and declared it the center of the world. As soon as she left, hot water sprung up from where she stood, and it had not stopped for six hundred years. The inexhaustibility of the hot spring water is also the confidence of the Golden Leaf Shrine Maiden to open the altar to pray for rain, believing that it is a clear proof that the gods will not leave humans.

Thinking of this, Cheng Jiao also doubled his confidence.