It turned out that he had unconsciously walked to Zhang Yueyan's house.

In fact, it is also a good choice to talk to her and inquire about the details of the Liu family from the side, but she is everyone's lady after all, I am afraid it will not be too easy to see it so late, so it is better to come back early tomorrow morning.

Thinking of this, I turned to leave, but I heard the door creak open, and two girls came out of it, and when one of them saw me, he exclaimed in surprise, "Tao Yong! Why are you here? ”

When I looked at it, it was really a coincidence that there was no book, and it was Zhang Yueling who came out! The girl next to her was younger, dressed plainly, and looked like a maid.

Yue Yan was full of smiles, and ran over like a rescuer, turned to the maid and said, "Okay! You just tell your dad that I have a friend to accompany me, and I don't need you, right? ”

The maid's face was embarrassed, and she looked like she wanted to speak and stopped, but Yue Yan waved her hand and said, "Okay, okay, I'll be back soon!" Then he took me and walked away.

I was still a little stunned here, but she clapped her hands and smiled: "You came at the right time, otherwise it would not be easy to get rid of her!" ”

"Where are you going?" I saw that she was just scurrying forward, but she didn't know where she was going.

She stopped and said in surprise: "Today is the Summer Solstice Festival, of course you are going to the night market to watch a show, aren't you coming out to go there?" ”

Summer Solstice Festival? Is it the summer solstice of "winter solstice dumplings and summer solstice noodles"? I was a little stunned.

"Looks like your hometown is just this festival, isn't it? Let's go, I'll open your eyes! Yue Yan had an expression of "wrapped up in me" and dragged me away.

I still want to ask her about the Liu family, if she goes to the downtown area, how can she ask anything? But looking at her excitement, I'm afraid it's not time to discuss any serious topics, so you might as well find another opportunity. In desperation, I had to speed up my pace and keep up with her.

She took me through the streets, and there were more and more people along the way, and after a while, I came to a very wide street, full of small vendors on both sides of the road, and the middle of the road was crowded with people, shoulder to shoulder, and it was very lively!

As she walked, she happily pointed to the east and west, introducing me to the local snacks and various gadgets. If it were a normal day, I would definitely take a closer look at them one by one with great interest, but right now, I have a big thing in my heart, and I can't devote myself to it, and I feel bored when I eat the food in my mouth.

After strolling around for a long time, I suddenly heard a drum beat in the distance, and Yue Ling said happily: "It's about to start!" Let's hurry up and get a good seat! ”

I squeezed left and right, staggering after her, and asked her, "What's about to start?" ”

She said, "Perform a sacrifice to the gods! ”

Oh? This is rare, I don't know what kind of god people in this era sacrifice? I was curious.

After walking for another while, he was completely crowded and couldn't walk, so he could only passively rush forward with the crowd. Just when I felt almost suffocated, the crowd dispersed in an uproar, and we had come to a place as wide as a square, and by the light of the fires on all sides, we could see that on all sides and in the center of the square stood wooden pillars about a hug thick, carved with patterns, which looked like dragons coiled on them.

Although there were many people around the square, no one entered the area enclosed by these pillars. Next to the pillar in the center of the square, there are four **** men with upper bodies, all standing with their backs to the pillar, each holding a cane-like thing in their hands.

"Tao Yong? Hey, Tao Yong! "I was stunned when I heard Yue Yan calling me.

"Huh? What's wrong? I asked her.

She reached out and pointed down, "Can you let me go?" ”

I looked down and saw that my right hand was gripping her wrist tightly, as if I had subconsciously grabbed her when I was squeezing around in the crowd just now, afraid of getting separated from her.

I quickly withdrew my hand, nodded my head again and again, and said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." ”

She smiled and said, "It's okay, if you hadn't pulled me, I would have been squeezed down just now!" ”

"There are too many people, let's come early if you come back in the future, it's too dangerous to squeeze like this." I say.

She looked at me with a smile and said, "Will you come with me next year?" ”

Well, I immediately felt that this was a topic that was not suitable for expansion, and quickly pointed to the people in the center and asked, "Are those people in the middle the ones who are going to perform later?" ”

She didn't care, shook her head and said, "No, the high priest will come over in a while." These people were only responsible for protecting the high priest. ”

"High Priest? Who is it? I asked.

"He is the one who presides over the annual ritual of worshiping the gods, and it is very mysterious, and no one has ever seen him in real form."

I was about to ask more, but I heard a commotion in the crowd, and many voices were saying, "The High Priest is here!" He quickly stretched his neck and looked into the field.

I saw a group of people coming out of the corridor on the side of the square, each wearing a wide robe with large sleeves, a red background and black edges, and a high bun on their heads.

He stopped when he was about to reach the pillar in the middle of the square, and as the drums became high-pitched, he slowly raised his hands, holding a sickle-like thing in his left hand and two prongs in his right, like scissors.

The four men had retreated to four directions, and each sat down on a figure drawn on the ground, holding up his cane in his right hand and standing in front of his chest with his left hand, closing his eyes as if in prayer.

The high priest's retinue spread out in the center of the square, dancing in a dance-like fashion, and their mouths were constantly making "grunt" sounds like chanting incantations, which seemed quite imposing.

As they danced, a small amount of white smoke began to appear on the ground around the central pillar, and began to slowly rise around the pillar, and each time they ascended, they would gently flutter and deform, like a snake wriggling and crawling upward, and there were probably still people in the surrounding crowd who had never seen this scene, and began to make exclamatory sounds.

When the white smoke rose to the top of the pillar, it suddenly swelled up rapidly, like a snake opening its big mouth, causing everyone to exclaim!

The surrounding priests stopped dancing and stood bent over in place, making an ever-increasing "whine" sound.

At this time, six more people ran out of the corridor, holding their hands high, and they actually held a person in their hands. The man looked like a young girl, dressed in plain white clothes, with her eyes open but motionless. The six men shouted as they walked, and brought the girl to the central pillar and laid her down, and she stood facing the pillar, and raised her arms towards the smoke, as if to embrace it.

Among the six people who took her over, the last one to leave reached out as if he caressed her hands, and saw a red thread begin to slowly extend from her palm to her arm, and from a distance, it looked like a small red snake had crawled on her arms!

Only then did I realize that the red was blood, and it was someone who cut her palm, and the blood flowed onto her arm!

Immediately asked Yue Ling nervously: "Is this child okay?" You don't want to sacrifice her alive, do you? ”

She shook her head and said, "No, it's just a symbolic ritual to worship the gods, if you want to kill someone, how can the government ignore it?" ”

"Didn't you say sacrifice to the gods? Where is God? I asked again.

"That's not it!" Yue Yan pointed in the direction of the central pillar and said, "That is the incarnation of God." ”

"Those cigarettes? The God you speak of is ......"

"O snake god!"

Her words, like a light suddenly lit up in the fog, made my previous chaotic thoughts suddenly find the direction!

After doing it for a long time, the big guy he killed when Rui was worried about fighting the method was actually a totem that the people here worshipped as a god! Could it be that the Liu family wants to hunt us down because of this?!

But that's not right, if they really believe in this totem, how can they offer a reward for people to catch it? And they deliberately asked people to come to Rui Wei afterwards, they should have known that she killed a snake, so they should be angry instead of chasing after giving people money!

While I was thinking, the rituals in the square continued. Then the smoke enveloped the girl, and then more smoke came out from under the pillar, first like a big ball, and then suddenly like an explosion. The girl rolled out of the middle group, put on a white mask at some point, stood up, and danced with the priests as if suddenly full of vitality.

The whole event lasted for almost an hour before it ended, and at the climax of the end, everyone cheered and clapped and the crowd was excited, until the priests all disappeared at the end of the corridor and began to slowly disperse.

On the way back, I asked Yue Ling, "Do you also believe in the snake god?" I don't think you're as excited as everyone else. ”

She thought for a moment and replied, "Hmm...... I'm really just here to see the excitement. My father has always told me that the common people believe in them to give a little comfort to their weathered hearts, and we will not interfere, but we will not blindly follow them. ”

I had in my mind the appearance of her naughty dad, who was worthy of science and quite assertive.

"Do you know what that ritual means? I see that the high priest still has a sickle and scissors in his hand, does it mean that a man ploughs and a woman weaves? I asked.

"What," she said with a smile, "that's the 'rules' and 'rules' in the hands of Nuwa and Fuxi in mythology!" ”

"That's it!" It's really timid, I'm a modern person, and I don't know much about an ancient lady yet!

She continued: "It's only been a few years since my father was transferred to Hejian, and we don't know much about some of the folklore. I have privately looked through the literature of some places, and there are records that the people believed in the snake god because they believed that the snake god could give eternal life to its most devout believers. That girl was like a sacrifice, and after sacrificing herself to God, she finally gained eternal life or something, and I felt like that. ”

How is it immortality? I frowned.

Subconsciously touched the blood furnace stored in his arms. If it weren't for someone's absurd hope for immortality, how could my Tao family be ruined? Taking 10,000 steps back is really such a possibility, and it is also a sacrifice of many people to fulfill one person!

sacrificed a lot of people to fulfill one person...... Hey, do you mean......