Hu Zongren stood up and said to me, then so be it, Mr. Zhao please find a crockpot for me, just that kind of small one. There is nothing else in the countryside, and this type of crockpot is very easy to find. After a while, Mr. Zhao took out a small jar from the kitchen, then used a bowl to take out the pickled garlic inside, and then squatted at the door, scooped water, washed the jar from the inside out, and then wiped the water stains with a cloth and handed it to Hu Zongren. Hu Zongren took the jar and said to me, "Do you remember how to walk back from the snail's trajectory just now?" I said yes, I call me a beautiful boy with memory. He said that's good, let's go back to the ancestral grave the same way, and on the way I see the snails still crawling towards the house, so let's pick up as many as we can.

After saying that, he stood up, stepped on the bench, reached over to the hanging faucet, grabbed the snails on it and the snails that were trying to climb the wall, and threw them into the crockpot.

I understand Hu Zongren's intentions, because the ancestral grave of Mr. Zhao's family does not have a tombstone, or it used to be there but now it can't be found. Therefore, it is difficult for us to calculate the birth date and death taboo of our ancestors based on the information we have now, and the most direct thing we have found that can be directly related to the dead people in the grave is the snail everywhere, not including those who accidentally stepped on the road earlier, so we can't dig up the ancestral grave and find out the bones. So these snails have become the only way for us to establish a connection with our ancestors, so Hu Zongren asked me to collect as many snails as possible, definitely because of this.

Walking back along the original road, I couldn't count how many snails I picked up on the way, but when we walked to the grave, the crockpot, which was only half the size of Hu Zongren's head, was already densely packed with small half jars.

Hu Zongren first covered the jar, which was to prevent the restless snails from crawling out again. Then place the clay pot at the head of the grave, about three feet away. Then he pulled a handful of corn stakes and used them as a broom to clear the weeds in front of the grave, and by the way, swept the snails that were crawling out back to the grave. Then Hu Zongren said to me, I want to borrow your red rope again. I asked him how to use it, and he said you should just make a long rope and walk around the tomb and fence it up. I looked at these dense snails and panicked, I don't want to catch the snails back in place while doing the tricks, if you don't want to, then you can help me catch the snails later.

I glanced down at the snails on the ground, and although I wasn't a person with dense phobias, it was quite spectacular to have so many snails wriggling. So I took out the red rope and circled the grave, and since it was outdoors, in order to prevent it from being blown away by the wind, I also deliberately pressed the red rope with small stones a few feet away. I surrounded the grave, the snails, and the clay pots, and just as I was tying the knots, some of the snails climbed to the edge of the rope again, but as soon as it touched the rope, it seemed to be stimulated by something, and quickly retracted into its shell, and I knew that the snails under the control of the ancestors could not climb out of the rope at all.

Hu Zongren took a deep breath, tidied up his clothes, then stood in the circle, stood in front of the clay pot, placed paper money between the clay pot and the grave, inserted incense and candles, and then he picked up a stack of paper money, held it in his hand like a book, stretched out his index finger and middle finger with his right hand, and the rest of his fingers curled and pinched his thumb, and used his fingers to write, drawing on the paper money in a twist and turn. One of the most important components of the Yaoshan Taoism is to write a yin deed, which is equivalent to what our Buddhists often say, which is a kind of letter-like thing written by the living to the dead, which probably means that these things are sent to whom, others should not accept them, and the little ghosts should not come to rob them, otherwise they will be struck by lightning and the like. After Hu Zongren painted for a while, he ignited the paper money in his hand on the candle, and when he was halfway through the burn, he raised his hand and threw the burning paper money flat on the grave. It's very similar to the God of Gamblers movie, where the master kills people with playing cards.

Then he reached into his bag, took out a piece of rune paper, grabbed a handful of clay on the ground and put it in the palm of his hand, then spit into his palm, dissolved some of the soil, and then took a pen as if dipped in ink, mixed the tomb soil with Taoist saliva to make ink, and drew a talisman on the rune paper, this talisman he himself called the edict, and told the deceased who had just received the Yin deed in a tone of order from top to bottom, what I want you to do now, a considerable part of the Taoist mantra contains the word "edict", In fact, this is the meaning, what is called order, is the meaning that you have to follow. After drawing the talisman, Hu Zongren held the talisman flat with his index finger and middle finger, pointed to the direction of the grave and drew several circles clockwise and counterclockwise in a row, and then set the fire to burn, and when the flame was burning, he opened the lid of the clay pot and threw the burning talisman into it.

I heard a crackling sound, and when I was a kid, I used to play the game of roasting snails, and the shell of the snail seemed to have something like an air bag, and when it was hot, it would explode like a balloon, and I think that's how it sounded. Hu Zongren put his hands together, still stretched out his index finger and middle finger, and the index finger was still bent and stuck on the middle finger, so this posture looked very much like scolding, his eyes were closed, his mouth was muttering, and the voice was so small that I could barely hear it. And at that moment, the pot suddenly cracked with a thud and shattered to the ground, and the snails in the jar began to scatter and flee, except for those that had been scalded to death.

Hu Zongren frowned and looked at the broken crockpot underground. Teacher Zhao was more stupid, and he asked tremblingly, did he just burn the fire and blow up the jar. Hu Zongren ignored him, and from his expression, he could see that this scene was something he had not expected. And just before he could react, there was a sudden slight but crisp sound from the grave, as if many shells were constantly colliding slightly, I felt that something was wrong, so he said to Hu Zongren, you withdraw first. But before I finished speaking, a stream of powdery stuff suddenly squirted out from the crack in the grave and sprayed directly on Hu Zongren's face.

Hu Zongren hurriedly retreated and jumped out of the circle directly, and I went to see him immediately, because I had learned this powder, it was very similar to the powder on the wings of a moth, and I thought that this thing had been sick for a month. Hu Zongren told me that he was fine, he just held his breath and didn't inhale it, just rubbing his eyes. I looked in the direction of the grave, and the sound of the rustling just now turned out to be the sound of a large number of snails continuing to crawl out of the gap, their shells colliding with each other.

When Mr. Zhao saw this scene, he was so frightened that he took a few steps back. I waited until the snails had climbed to the red rope and found that they still couldn't get out, and I was relieved. Hu Zongren said that there was nothing to do, and then continued to stand back in the circle, this time he didn't burn the talisman, the candle was about to burn out, so he directly chanted the mantra and asked, which roughly means that they are already sending you, and you are resisting if you don't leave. If you don't leave, we'll have to force you away. At this time, the snails on the ground began to change direction, gathered between the incense candles and the grave, and then gradually, the front and back formed a wavy line.

I've never seen anything like this, but I think it's definitely the reaction of the ancestors. I looked closely at the line, and there were more snails gathered at the left side of the line facing the grave, and there were fewer other parts, and when the snails formed this wavy line, they retracted and did not move, as I saw on the dragon's head at first. So that line looked to me a lot like a tadpole with a particularly long tail, Hu Zongren looked at me stupidly, and then asked me, what the does this mean?

"Dragons." Teacher Zhao said a word behind me.

So I suddenly realized that the remaining wish of my ancestors was not the so-called tomb relocation, but the dragon dance. But what did he mean by that? Do you want us to show him the dragon dance at the grave? Or do you want us to burn that faucet in the house to him? Hu Zongren withdrew from the circle, and then said with a smile, your ancestor is quite humorous, is it still unclear to pass on a word, classical Chinese? I didn't bother to joke with him, so I asked him, what now? Hu Zongren spread his hands and said helplessly, what else can I do, first find someone to dance the dragon dance, if you don't want to leave after the dance, burn him, and if you still refuse to leave, you can only come hard.

I thought about it and it seemed that there was no other way, so I said to Mr. Zhao, if you want to organize a group of people to dance the dragon now, when will you be able to find all the people at the earliest? Teacher Zhao thought for a while and said, if you call now, if all the people in the village who can dance dragons come back, they can barely form a dragon, but now there is no dragon in the village, just a dragon head. I said that's easy to do, you tell me the phone number of Tongliang's team that is still dancing dragons, Hu Zongren and I are going to borrow the dragon back, you can go and find all the people, even if you can't find it, count me and Hu Zongren.

After the work was divided, Mr. Zhao immediately called the master who was still in charge of the team in the county, and the other party readily agreed, I think it was because Mr. Zhao's ancestors contributed to this folk art, and the other party respected him very much. After the location was settled, Hu Zongren and I went down the mountain the same way, and then drove back to Tongliang County.

The dragon we borrowed was one ring after another, so if the whole dragon was overlapped, my entire rear seat would be able to be put down, but I wouldn't be able to see the back of the car in the mirror. However, I still relied on my skillful driving skills and coquettish positioning, and rushed back to Mr. Zhao's house not long after dark. There are seven or eight people from Mr. Zhao, as he said, there are really a few people missing, so Hu Zongren and I have to go, because we haven't learned, we can only mix in the stage of the dragon's body, the dragon tail is the same as the dragon's head, but also to show the action of the dragon flicking the tail, we laymen can't play that essence at all. After the preparations were complete, Mr. Zhao took off the dragon head on the wall, formed a complete dragon, and led us to dance in the cornfield in front of the components, beating gongs and drums by the light of torches.

Half an hour later, after a set of actions was completed, when Hu Zongren and I continued to measure the spirit, we found that those snails had scattered in all directions, and many of them had climbed out of the rope, which meant that the ancestors' wish had been fulfilled, so Hu Zongren began to send the soul with high-standard treatment, and reciprocated his respect for this traditional folk art.

About a month after the incident, we received a commission from Mr. Zhao, who told Hu Zongren on the phone that the construction company had borne the entire cost, and that they would also send the grave of the ancestor to his father's grave and rebury it together. Mr. Zhao also said that even if everyone forgets that we can still dance dragons, his children and grandchildren will not forget.

After that, during the Spring Festival of 2011, I saw the news on Chongqing News Daily 630 about the Tongliang Dragon Dance applying for local folk cultural heritage.

It's good.