Carefully through the bushes and groves, approaching the lake, they finally saw the few bits of red light that were the leaping flames of four large candles, which were inserted in an old-fashioned candlestick and placed on a table of eight immortals placed along the lake. In the middle of the table was a wooden tablet with the words on it. In front of the tablet is placed an incense burner in the style of a small tripod, with three incense sticks inserted on it. In front of the incense burner are seven white porcelain plates containing a variety of fruits and pastries.

On the side of the table on the shore, a group of people stood neatly, dressed plainly, like local villagers, and they were all a group of elderly people. They face the lake, their hands folded against their chests. Between the table and the lake, where their eyes were focused, there was a long-bearded old man dressed like a Taoist priest, holding a talisman in one hand and wielding a peachwood sword in the other, making all kinds of strange movements, and chanting something in his mouth.

Seeing this scene, the four of them immediately understood that this was a sacrificial event.

Immediately, a big question mark popped up in the minds of the four people: What are they sacrificing?

I saw that the old man in the yellow robe put the rune paper in his left hand on the peachwood sword held in his right hand, and then used the sword to hold the rune paper and stretched it out to the candle to light it, and then waved the sword holding the burning rune paper irregularly towards the lake, drawing some strange patterns in the night sky. Finally, he blew the ashes of the rune paper towards the lake, collected his sword, and bowed down to the lake. Although his series of movements were weird, they were smooth and coherent, very similar to the Maoshan Taoist priests they often saw on TV who were good at avoiding evil spirits and driving away ghosts.

When the four of them were looking at it in a daze, none of them noticed that there was another person silently beside them.

"Who are you?"

The sudden sound in their ears startled all four of them. They hurriedly followed the sound to see that it was an old man with thinning gray hair, a furrowed face, and slightly dark, rough skin, who was staring at them with wary eyes.

Wu Yun hurriedly and respectfully explained: "Hello old man, we are tourists from other places, and when we were walking along the lake at night, we happened to see the fire here, and we were curious, so we came over to take a look." ”

After listening to Wu Yun's words, the vigilance in the old man's eyes disappeared, and he said with a relaxed expression: "So that's the case." If you want to see it, you can get closer, there are a lot of bugs in the bushes. ”

The four of them were ready to be driven away by the old man, but the old man was better at talking than expected, so he walked out of the bushes and came to the back of the crowd according to the old man's wishes.

"Old man, you're local, aren't you?" In order not to disturb the sacrificial ceremony, Wu Yun asked in a low voice.

The old man nodded. "We are from the nearby col village. I am the village head, and my surname is Lin. ”

"Village Chief Lin, what are you doing here?"

"We're worshipping the lake spirits."

Wei Xiaofeng asked in surprise, "Lake Spirit? Could it be the ghost of the little poor girl? ”

A hint of surprise flashed in Village Chief Lin's eyes, and he asked rhetorically, "You actually know the little poor girl?" Where did you hear the true legend of the lake? I thought that tourists who come here now will be deceived by that false story. ”

Xiao Feng said truthfully: "It was told to us by an old man surnamed Jiang on the painting boat yesterday afternoon. ”

Village Chief Lin thought for a moment and said, "It turned out to be Yongzi, no wonder......"

Chen Wendong opened his mouth and asked, "Brother, do you carry out this ritual of worshiping the lake spirit at this time every year?" ”

The village chief shook his head, looking at the lake with awe. "The lake spirit is angry, and the couple who were eaten by the lake spirit last night and floated their souls on the lake is the best proof of this. We must appease the wrath of the lake spirits, or the consequences will be unimaginable! ”

"You've had a sacrifice since that couple died last week?"

"Yes, we managed to appease the anger of the lake spirit. But last night, another stupid man and woman angered the lake spirits again, and the price of angering the lake spirits was to hand over their souls. ”

The village chief's superstitious tone made a nameless fire rise in Chen Wendong's heart, and he asked angrily, "How can you be sure that the drowning of those two couples is the hand of the lake spirit?" ”

The village chief looked at the old man in a Taoist robe standing on the other side of the table with reverence, and said, "This is all what the priest told us, the priest can see everything, and his words will not be wrong." ”

It was the first time that Wei Xiaofeng and the others had heard the word "sacrifice", but they roughly guessed that this should be a profession, equivalent to a shaman who presided over sacrifices and communicated with the gods of heaven and earth, which was similar to the meaning of shamans in the northern minority cultures.

If the ritual of worshipping the lake spirit has been handed down since ancient times, then it is understandable that it exists as an expression of traditional culture. But if you preach something strange and chaotic under such a banner, it is absolutely undesirable. As a senior former criminal policeman, Chen Wendong has witnessed many tragedies caused by feudal superstition. At this time, there was an urge in his heart to take off this pseudo-scientific mask with his own hands, so he asked the village chief urgently, "Can I say a few words to the sacrificial eyes in your mouth?" ”

The village chief did not hesitate, and nodded very simply: "Yes, but you have to wait until the ceremony is over." ”

Chen Wendong had to take a deep breath and temporarily suppress the impulse that surged into his heart.

Yue Lin rarely saw her husband so out of shape, so she hurriedly pulled his shirt and whispered, "Xiaodong, don't mess around." From the eyes of these villagers, it is clear that they respect him very much, and if there is anything wrong with your words later, it will easily anger those villagers, and it will be a big deal. ”

Wu Yun also persuaded: "Yes, uncle. Why don't you tell me the question you want to ask that priest, and let me talk to that priest later. The villagers' trust in the sacrifice has been ingrained for so many years, so they can't take strong measures, they must take it step by step, and they can't be in a hurry. ”

Chen Wendong calmed down a little and thought about it, agreed with Wu Yun's opinion, and then he said a few words to Wu Yun in his ear.

At this time, the village chief signaled that Wei Xiaofeng and the others had entered the most important process.

Seeing that the priest waved to the villagers standing on the other side of the table, two people picked up the two wooden sticks placed next to the table, and on the other end of the two wooden sticks strung an object made of paper that looked like two people hugging each other and walked to the priest's side. The two people embracing each other can be seen to be based on a man and a woman, symbolizing a couple. Then the two people holding the wooden stick held the paper puppet aloft high, and forcefully tore apart the paper puppets of the male and female embracing each other, as if forcibly breaking up a pair of lovers who were in love. Then they lit the two paper figures with candles, and the flammable paper combined with the momentum of the night lake breeze did not take long for the flames to break through the fragile paper skin and reveal the wooden skeleton inside. Just as the puppet was about to be burned to ashes, the two men holding the wooden stick threw the burning puppet into the cold lake water in unison.

The paper part was almost completely burned, and the ashes left over from the burn were floating in the air and on the surface of the lake, and the exposed part of the wooden skeleton was still burning. The priests and villagers chanted in unison as they lowered their heads against the burning lake.

At the end of the chanting, announcing the end of the sacrificial ceremony, the two people who had just burned the paper puppets began to clean up the sacrificial utensils on the table together with the priest. The villagers did not disperse in a hurry, but stood in an orderly manner, waiting for them.

Taking advantage of this gap, Wu Yun asked Village Chief Lin: "What does it mean to just light those two paper figures and throw them into the lake?" ”

Village Chief Lin replied, "That's a sacrifice. ”

"Sacrifices?"

"Hu Ling was originally a poor woman who was hurt by love, and naturally hated lovers of affection. We use paper figures to form a pair of lovers who embrace each other, and then separate and burn them to death and offer them to the lake spirit, so as to calm the anger of the lake spirit. ”

"Hmph, nonsense......" Chen Wendong disdainfully squeezed out such a sentence from his nose that was not easy to be heard by others.

At this time, the priest put away the peachwood sword, took off the Taoist robe on his body, took off the square hat, and revealed a neat and wonderful white hair. The village chief led Wei Xiaofeng and the others around the villagers and came to the front of the sacrifice.

Seeing the four people following behind Village Chief Lin, the priest asked suspiciously, "Village Chief, who are these people?" ”

"They are tourists from out of town, and they have heard the story of the little poor girl from Yuko. They want to have a few words with you. ”

After listening to Village Chief Lin's introduction, the priest carefully looked at the four uninvited guests with a clear gaze. His gaze first touched Wu Yun, and he hurriedly swept it without stopping long; Then when his eyes came into contact with Wei Xiaofeng, there was imperceptible surprise and approval in his eyes, and he stayed on her for a while; Finally, he turned his gaze to the old couple, and a sigh and sadness flowed in his eyes.

After carefully observing the four of them, the priest asked calmly, "I don't know what you have to do with the old decay?" ”

Wu Yun, as the spokesman, first greeted politely: "Hello, sacrifice." ”

"Let's call me Lao Shen, I'm still not used to being called that title for a lifetime." At this time, the priest is like an easy-going rural old man.

Wu Yun took the opportunity to change his words and said, "Elder Shen." How many years have you been a priest? ”

"It's been more than 30 years since my father ascended to heaven."

"You were sacrificed by your ancestors?"

"I guess so. It is a tradition in the village to hold a ceremony to worship the lake spirit once a year, so it is essential to preside over the sacrifice. However, this is the third time this year. ”

"We just heard from the village chief to appease the anger of the lake spirit. Do you really think that the two couples who drowned in the lake were the cause of the lake spirits? ”

Shen Lao closed his eyes towards the lake and slowly spit out a few words: "I can feel the resentment and anger hidden in this lake. ”

In Chen Wendong's eyes, Shen Lao's style was like a god stick who didn't learn and didn't know how to do it, he couldn't bear it all of a sudden, and he almost rushed forward, but he was immediately stopped by Yue Lin and Wei Xiaofeng.

Wu Yun also saw that something was wrong, and sped up his speech: "The little poor girl has been dead for hundreds of years, has her soul been lodged in the lake and not dispersed?" ”

Shen Lao opened his eyes and shook his head at him. "The spirit of the lake is not a poor girl, but another poor young woman who died in the lake a few years ago with a grudge."