Every year on the 15th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, it is the annual Zhongyuan Festival, which is commonly known as the Ghost Festival, and some people call it the Bon Festival.

The Zhongyuan Festival this heaven and earth palace opens the gate of hell, and it is also the day when hell opens the door, the deceased ancestors can go home for reunion, so it is a ghost festival again, so the people should set up a dojo, put steamed buns for the lonely souls and wild ghosts to eat, this day to worship the ancestors, go to the grave, light the lotus lamp for the deceased to light the way home. Taoist temples and temples hold grand pujas to pray for auspicious dojos, and the content is to transcend the soul of the deceased.

The Zhongyuan ritual is to forgive the sins of the souls of the dead, but it can never completely remove the sins, but it has only been alleviated somewhat, and I hope they will rest in peace as soon as possible. In the rituals, they not only transcend the souls of the dead, but also provide salvation to the souls of the ownerless and those who sacrificed their lives for the country and died on the battlefield. The money for sesame oil obtained during the ritual was mainly used to purchase sacrifices.

When he was young, Xiao Lie knew that as long as this day came, they would start to stay up late. During the day, there were officers and soldiers to protect the safety of the people, and at night, they were to protect the safety of everyone in the city. Since the first year of Xiao Lie's apprenticeship, it has never changed.

Xiao Lie is still more excited this year, because he doesn't have to patrol the streets by himself, and now there are so many people accompanying him, so Xiao Lie is very happy today. Zuo Tianming went to monitor the movements of Xiaoyaozhuang, so he didn't catch up with such a day, Xiao Lie was quite regretful, and originally said that he would take Zuo Tianming to see how beautiful their Hubon in Hecheng would be, but now it can only wait until next year.

At dusk, Nangong Junzhe led his wife Jiang Xiaoyu, Mu Zihui and Zhao Haiquan to Duwei Mansion, Xiao Lie said to them excitedly: "Brother Nangong and Brother Zhao, you two and Xiao Lie will go to patrol South Street, I and Senior Brother Yin will patrol North Street, and the rest of the place will be under the control of the Chenghuang Yamen, as long as there is no undead making trouble, today's task will be completed." The ladies are free to move, anyway, with Miss Qiu and Miss Xu here, there is no need to worry about the safety of Mrs. Qiu and Miss Mu. Xiao Lie took out the paper boat and paper lantern from the room and handed it to the four female dependents and said to them: "You can follow the crowd to the river to put paper boats and paper lanterns, they are very beautiful, I will never lie to you." As soon as he finished explaining these things, he suddenly thought of the most important thing and said to everyone: "By the way, I have to tell you, after the lights are put on tonight, the door of the underworld will be opened, and you may see your relatives." But no matter who you meet, you can't talk to them too much, only a few short words, otherwise they will be greedy for the world and will not return to the underworld, and then it will be troublesome. Also, after Zuo Tianming came back, he was not allowed to mention to him who he had seen, otherwise he would have to be angry with me, I lied to him and said that Luo Lao Hero had only died for less than a year, and he was still on an errand in the underworld, so it was impossible to come back on this day, so he went to Langcheng with peace of mind. ”

"Then Senior Brother Zhihe and Old Hero Luo really won't come?" Xing Hao asked, holding a paper boat in his hand.

"I don't know, after all, there is no one around me who is on an errand in the underworld, this is really uncertain. ”

"I thought I would meet Brother Zhihe. Xing Hao was slightly depressed.

"Didn't I just say that this is not a necessarily, and if they come to see us, won't everyone be happy? ”

Seeing Xiao Lie happy, everyone's hearts were also very cheerful and relaxed, Zhao Haiquan was happy and a little sad: "Alas, how good, you still have an uncertain hope, but I, I don't even have hope." My mother and daughter have been reincarnated a long time ago, and I will definitely not see them today. ”

"Brother Zhao, it's rare to be so happy and relaxed today, don't be sad, be happy. Xiao Lie comforted.

"I'm not sad, I just feel a little sorry. ”

"Okay, Lao Zhao, the deceased has the best home, you should be happy, I'll embroider a sachet for you when you go back, how about it?" Mu Zihui walked to Zhao Haiquan's side, bent down and said to him.

"I'm fine, but I'm old and easy to get sad. He stood up with a stool and took a mask and put it on his face: "Let's take a good look at the Bon Festival in Hecheng tonight to see if it is better for us in the capital city or your Hecheng." ”

Seeing Zhao Haiquan say this, everyone's hearts were also put down, Xiao Lie said happily: "That must not be comparable to Xudu City, but I know that there is one thing that you must not have in Xudu City, and if there is, it is not as good as our Hecheng!"

"Oh, is it?" Zhao Haiquan asked with a smile.

"Of course. Today everyone worked hard all night, tomorrow we will rest during the day, and in the evening in Yizhuang, I will be the east, and arrange for you to have a barbecue in our Hecheng. This season is the most suitable time to eat barbecue, at night, the weather is not stuffy or dry, eat meat and drink wine, you should be more comfortable and comfortable. Xiao Lie seemed to have reveled in the realm of what he said.

"Barbecue!" Mu Zihui heard the word barbecue, her eyes immediately flashed, and she didn't care about the mask and paper lamp in her hand, and said excitedly to Xiao Lie: "Really, after arriving in Hecheng, I haven't eaten it, only last time Lao Zhao got it for us in Jiangjiabao, now that I think about it, the fragrance is still swirling in my mouth." ”

Xiao Lie patted his chest: "Do what you say, and, it's enough!"

Mu Zihui happily circled around the room several times, bouncing back to the table, writing what she wanted to say to her father and mother on the paper boat.

A few people prepared a lot of things in the house, most of them were playthings for a few girls, and after cleaning up, Xiao Lie took out a few bamboo tubes and gave them to them: "You put this away, this is a signal firework, and after it hits the sky, it is the Zhuang character of our Yizhuang, no matter how far away we are, as long as we can see it in the city, and we can distinguish the location." Giving this to you is also a small precaution, once something happens, hit this signal fireworks into the sky, and those who see it will naturally rush in that direction. After checking it carefully again, and after making sure that everything was safe, he divided into three groups and left the Duwei Mansion.

Jiangjiabao is a relatively small town, the population is not very large, and there is no such large-scale nocturnal activities, Mu Zihui looked extremely excited, no less than Xiao Lie who was in Duwei Mansion just now. Because they are about the same age, Mu Zihui pulled Xu Huanxin to walk in front, look at this, look at that. The street vendors were also very welcoming, even if they didn't buy anything from him, they were all warmly welcomed. With the flow of people, the four people came to the riverside of the Nenjiang River, took out the paper lamps and paper boats that had been prepared long ago, and said the words of missing the deceased ancestors, and slowly put them on the river. After a while, a series of paper boat teams appeared on the surface of the Nenjiang River, and more and more people came here to put lanterns. When a few people were enjoying the beautiful scenery on the river, they suddenly heard a little girl's crisp cry for help: "Help! Please stop, don't beat my father again." ”

The four people searched for the source of the sound and saw three men in strange costumes beating an old man over half a hundred years old, and the little girl crying next to him who called for help. There were a lot of people around to see the excitement, but none of them stepped forward to help. Qiu Feisu didn't think about it, he flew forward, raised his foot and kicked a person out. The remaining two people noticed something unusual, stopped beating the old man, smiled at Qiu Feixu's four women, and said in an extremely awkward tone: "Jiro, these women are also very beautiful, now we don't have to worry about three people enjoying one woman, plus these are just enough." ”

The person who was kicked off the floating dirt on his body, stood up and walked to them, his expression and tone were the same: "Five women, how are we going to divide them?"

A man pointed his finger at the little girl who had just called for help: "This, it's not good to cry." Pointing at Jiang Xiaoyu again: "This, it's a bit old, it's not good." That's enough points. ”

Hearing them say this, several girls quit, and it was clear that three strange men were studying how to divide them, Jiang Xiaoyu shouted to them: "What are you, dare to tease the little girl here and seriously injured an old man, if you don't give a reasonable explanation today, don't want to leave here alive." ”

The three men were still smiling lewdly, saying words they didn't understand, looking as if the more they talked, the happier they became, and they didn't take Jiang Xiaoyu and the four of them in their eyes at all, in their eyes, they seemed to have become lambs to the slaughter. Jiang Xiaoyu was angry and was about to rush forward, but was stopped by Xu Huanxin: "Sister-in-law, looking at the appearance of the three of them, it seems that they are the Dongying Wokou that Senior Brother and they are dealing with, I think it is better to let Senior Brother and them deal with it." ”

Jiang Xiaoyu's bullish temper came up, and he didn't listen to Xu Huanxin's obstruction: "Just three dwarfs, you don't need to call them, our sisters can solve it." I've heard that my family has mentioned that this group of things that are not human should be killed if they see one. What's more, our sisters are not much worse than those stinky men. After speaking, Jiang Xiaoyu jumped in front of the three people and rewarded each of them with a slap.

These three people were really said by Xu Huanxin, and they were officially the subordinates of Akiyama Mingyou. They didn't understand why there were so many people on the street tonight, so they had to intersperse with the crowd, and followed the crowd to the riverside, where there happened to be a little girl who was like a flower and jade. It was the little girl's father who was beaten, and when he saw that his daughter was being bullied, how could the father be indifferent, and he went up to reason with them and was beaten.

The three of them were hit by Jiang Xiaoyu, and they almost fell down after shaking their heads twice, regained their spirits, screamed a few times, and pulled out the saber on their waists to slash Jiang Xiaoyu.

Xiao Lie and the others were wandering on the street they were responsible for, when they suddenly heard the sound of the air being torn apart, and when they looked up, they saw a big Zhuang character reflected in the sky.

"It's not good, Miss Qiu, they're in danger. ”