Chapter 256
The streets haven't changed much actually. They still have the same old houses, white walls, black tiles and mottled walls, but they are now much cleaner, tidier and more standardized.
There were snack shops on both sides of the street. Even at the entrance of the alley, one could see that they were all set up at the back door of their homes. They had a stall with an oil pan, selling fried glutinous rice cakes and spring rolls, and all kinds of spicy hot pot, duck blood vermicelli, and wonton shops... At a glance, both sides of the street were full of all kinds of food, local and foreign. Many shops that he had never seen before were now open, and the streets were full of people.
"Wow, is your hometown so prosperous?" His bandmates were also surprised to see such a quaint little town. They thought He Qiaosheng's hometown was a very remote and poor place, but they didn't expect it to be such a charming ancient city.
He Qiaosheng was also a little surprised.
There were rows of tricycles beside the station. When they saw this group of young people who were obviously not from the local area coming out of the station, they called out to them in their broken Wucheng Mandarin: "Are you going to watch the dragon boat race? One dollar and fifty cents, do you want to go?"
He Qiaosheng's band consisted of four people, all of whom had their own musical instruments and long arms and legs. Four of them could not fit on one tricycle, so they had to use two.
He Qiaosheng said in authentic Wucheng dialect: "One dollar."
The driver of the tricycle shook his head cheerfully: "Get in the car!"
At the same time, another tricycle driver also drove over quickly, and the four of them sat on the tricycle and drove towards the moat.
The weather in June was neither cold nor hot. The doors on both sides of the tricycle were not closed but left outside. The early summer breeze blew gently on He Qiaosheng's face, making his hair fly.
The driver was about 40 years old and a talkative person. While driving, he asked He Qiaosheng: "From your accent, you sound like you are from Wucheng? Where in Wucheng are you from?"
He Qiaosheng smiled and said, "From Wucheng, where is Master from?"
"I'm from Yanggou Town. Wucheng has developed well in the past two years. Secretary Song has developed tourism in Wucheng. Now more and more tourists come to Wucheng. At my age, no one wants me to work outside, so I got a car in my hometown to pick up tourists and make some money." The driver had a relaxed smile on his face when he spoke.
He Qiaosheng looked out the window and said, "It seems like there are more tricycles on the street."
"Of course, don't you see how many tourists there are now? There are more than a dozen people in our town who come here like me to drive tricycles and sell snacks." The driver's face was full of joy, but he still sighed and said enviously: "But Yaoba Town is still the best. They used to raise fish, shrimps, and pearls, and now they have also started tourism. The town is so beautiful. I heard that every household made at least 10,000 yuan last year, and the pearl factory made more than 100,000 yuan! This year, they have also started large-scale crayfish and crab farming."
He said enviously: "Alas, they have a good mayor. In the past, Liuba Town was the leader of the three tyrants in Wucheng. A few years ago, Douba Town also caught up. In the past two years, Yaoba Town's momentum is obviously better than Liuba Town. The three tyrants of Wucheng are worthy of being the three tyrants of Wucheng."
He Qiaosheng had been performing in a bar in Beijing during the winter vacation last year and did not come back for the New Year. He asked the driver: "Did this happen in the past two years?"
"Yes, in the past two years, I heard that Shuibu Town and Yaoba Town started it first. You know Shuibu Town, right? Jiang Ning is from Shuibu Town. I heard that it was her idea. The Linhe Brigade of Shuibu Town is now prosperous. You know that the mayor of Yaoba Town is also from Linhe Brigade, right?" The driver chatted while driving: "Wow, one person drives the whole county. Look at what our Wucheng was like before she was admitted to university and what it is like now. Who would have thought that Wucheng would be like this now."
He raised his chin to look outside, looking at the rows of brightly colored flowers in the flowerbed outside, and asked He Qiaosheng with a smile on his face: "Do you think our Wucheng is beautiful now?"
In late spring and early summer, there are truly hundreds of flowers in full bloom, vying for beauty. The bright red rhododendrons in the flower beds are as bright as the sun. Different from the varieties bought from the botanical garden, these rhododendrons are all wild rhododendrons dug back from the mountains. The flower color is not the common light red on the market, but bright red and scarlet. The leaves are small and the flowers are dense. They are not trimmed to be tall and square, but have various postures. Under the sunshine of early summer, the petals are all shining with bright red light.
"You're back late. If you had come back during the May Day holiday, it would have been really lively. You know Sophora japonica Road, right? Both sides of the road are lined with snow-white Sophora japonica flowers, blooming in bunches. They've even been on CCTV. Have you seen it? It's so beautiful!" The driver's tone was full of pride and pride: "You'll know when you get to the moat. Sophora japonica trees are planted on both sides of the moat. In a few years, when these trees grow up, bunches of Sophora japonica flowers will grow again."
The moat is very long, and the area inside the moat is called the inner city, and the area outside the moat is called the outer city.
Most of the area outside the moat is still in its original undeveloped state, with only some new residential areas built along the river.
Originally, the community here was the cheapest and no one wanted it. Now, due to the management of the moat and the development of the wetland park, the low and real estate prices nearby have suddenly increased. This place has suddenly become very popular from a community that no one wanted.
The main thing is that there is a huge lawn next to it, which has now become the most lively place for square dancing and disco in Wucheng. There is also a place for square dancing and disco in the small square next to the cinema in the inner city, but it is still too small and can accommodate at most a few hundred people dancing together. How can it be as spectacular as here? Thousands of people come here to dance disco in the middle of the night.
Young people from nearby towns also come here on motorcycles to dance at night. After dancing, they go to the food street next to it to get two pounds of crayfish, a pitcher of beer, or have barbecue, stinky tofu, etc. It is not until eleven or twelve o'clock every night that people disperse here.
The place where the driver brought He Qiaosheng and the others was this large lawn.
He parked the car next to the arch bridge which looked quaint yet brand new. "There's a toll for crossing the bridge, so I won't take you across. It's right there after the bridge anyway."
He pointed across the river.
The construction of this bridge began last year, but it was not officially opened until the eve of May Day this year.
However, currently only pedestrians can cross the bridge for free, and vehicles have to pay a bridge toll. The bridge deck is not very wide, only about six meters, which is barely enough for two cars to pass at the same time, leaving some space on both sides for pedestrians to walk.
Last year, a major portion of Wucheng's fiscal revenue was spent on building this 150-meter-long bridge across the river, which directly connects the two sides of the moat. This way, people no longer have to take a long detour to get to the other side of the river, or walk on a shaky bamboo bridge as in the past.
After He Qiaosheng got off the car, he saw three words engraved at the bridge head: Wugong Bridge.
In the middle of the bridge, there is actually a pavilion built. Inside the pavilion, five ancient people are sitting opposite each other. Two of them are playing chess, one is standing beside watching the game, and the other two have tea cups in front of them, and it seems that they are looking at the scenery of the moat.
Secretary Song obviously took advantage of the hot topic of "Wugong Mountain" to the fullest.
After crossing the newly built arch bridge and walking less than two hundred meters, you will come to a huge lawn. Below the lawn is a bustling food street. It is open-air and crowded with people, making it very lively.
He Qiaosheng and his friends did not go directly to the lawn, but first went to the food street, found a stall to sit down, and invited his bandmates to eat authentic Wucheng snacks.
"Come on, come on, try these spring rolls. They are the most authentic spring rolls in Wucheng. They used to be sold at the street corner between No. 4 Middle School and No. 2 Middle School, but now they are sold here." He Qiaosheng said to the middle-aged woman selling spring rolls, "Aunt Hua, five spring rolls!"
The woman called Auntie Hua was busy, and when she saw him, she smiled and said, "Qiao Sheng is back? I haven't seen you for a long time. Did you graduate from college?"
Because there were so many tourists, there were three frying pans on Aunt Hua's stall at the same time. She was frying spring rolls, and an old woman next to her was quietly wrapping them, her movements very quickly.
Aunt Hua pointed to the small bucket of money next to her and said, "50 cents each, just put the money in the bucket and you can get the change yourself."
He Qiaosheng asked Aunt Hua: "Aunt Hua, why didn't you put it in the original place, but put it here?"
Aunt Hua smiled and said, "Why not? My family is setting up a stall there. Isn't the Dragon Boat Festival coming soon? People are all coming here. I will set up a stall here for a few days and go back after the dragon boat race is over."
“Are there so many people every day in the past few days?”
Aunt Hua smiled and said, "You know that people in our area like to join in the fun and eat delicious food. If they hear that there is fun and delicious food, they will go there. When they heard that Wucheng was holding the International Dragon Boat Cultural Festival and had a food street, not to mention people from other cities, even people from the villages below came to the city every day. There were so many people that there was no room. This is not even the busiest time. The May Day holiday is the busiest time!"
Aunt Hua deftly used tongs to flip the spring rolls on the pan so quickly that afterimages were almost left.
The spring rolls she fried were really delicious, with a thin and crispy skin and lots of fillings. One spring roll was as big as a palm, so people with a small appetite could be full with just one.
But it was obviously impossible for the young men in front of them to be full with just one spring roll, so He Qiaosheng took his teammates to eat Wucheng's specialty, the five-treasure rice.
The so-called five-treasure rice is made of minced meat, peanuts, corn kernels, sesame seeds, snow vegetables and other vegetables, covered on the steamed rice underneath. I don’t know what kind of rice is used in the steamed rice, or how the flavor is adjusted. Anyway, it is extremely fragrant. The only bad thing about it is that it is too oily. After eating a bowl of rice, I am basically full.
Only then did they walk through the long food street and reach the lawn above.
There were many children playing on the lawn. Some people brought picnic mats and bought snacks to have a picnic on the mats. Some adults took their children to fly kites.
At one end of the lawn, there was a wooden stage, which was equipped with not only several large speakers but also spotlights.
Behind it is a huge background wall with the words gg written on it: The First Wucheng International Dragon Boat Cultural Festival.
They walked onto the stage to get a feel for it. The stage was built very solidly, made of wood. The background wall was a huge gg cloth, and the words and artistic words on it were hand-painted and written.
Suddenly, they heard a loud cheer and looked in the direction of the cheers, only to see that both sides of the moat were full of tourists. When they crossed the bridge before, they also saw many people by the moat, but there was no cheering. Hearing the lively shouting and cheering at this time, they also carried their musical instruments and walked towards the moat, but did not go down. Instead, they stood on the high lawn and looked down. Many parents with their children also stood on the large lawn and looked down.
I saw several dragon boats paddling over from afar. The people standing on the dragon heads were wearing golden vests and beating drums passionately. The people rowing the dragon boats were also waving their arms rhythmically.
People who were originally just playing on both sides of the river, when they saw the dragon boats coming, all stood by the moat and shouted loudly: "Come on! Come on! Come on!"
I don’t know which dragon boat team they are cheering for, but occasionally I can hear: “Douba Town! Come on! Douba Town! Come on!”
"Niubu Town! Come on! Linhe Team! Come on!"
He Qiaosheng's teammates were also infected by this passionate scene and started shouting passionately. It was not until seven or eight dragon boat teams sailed past that they asked curiously, "Didn't they say that the dragon boat race would start on the Dragon Boat Festival? Why is it starting now?"
The Wucheng people next to him who heard their conversation turned around and laughed, "You are all from other places, right? You don't know that these dragon boat teams have practiced in their own rivers and lakes. They are now familiar with the track of our Wucheng moat. What are the turns? If you don't practice in advance, what will happen if the boat capsizes?"
Competitions like dragon boat racing definitely cannot be held in a large river, otherwise how can tourists watch it? The moat in Wucheng is a very suitable racetrack. The river is 150 to 200 meters wide and tourists can stand on both sides, which is convenient for watching the race. The moat is built along the ancient Wu city, so it has bends. How can a dragon boat race go straight? Of course, there have to be bends to make it interesting!
He Qiaosheng and the others finally understood and asked, "Do they practice here all day?"
The person being questioned said, "That's definitely not possible. There are more than 20 teams, and if they all practice together, what will happen if they collide? Some teams practice in the morning, and some teams practice in the afternoon."
He Qiaosheng's teammates asked curiously: "Don't you practice in the evening?"
The local man who was questioned smiled proudly and said, "Everyone goes to dance disco at night, who would still practice that thing? This is your first time in Wucheng, right? I tell you, don't go anywhere else at night, just come to this big lawn, and dance disco here at night. It's so exciting. Come when the time comes. I guarantee that you won't want to leave our Wucheng!"
It was the first time that He Qiaosheng's teammates heard that disco was danced outdoors. They asked if it cost money. The people being asked waved their hands and said, "No money! It's all free! How can you charge for dancing?"
Some local dance halls are now almost deserted, and many have switched to karaoke bars or ice skating rinks.
They came back from the capital by train, then transferred to Wucheng, ate something, ordered some food, and then followed He Qiaosheng to his home.
He Qiaosheng's house is relatively large, with an area of more than 90 square meters. In addition to his room and his parents' room, there is also a study.
When they arrived at He Qiaosheng's house, the first thing they saw was a piano covered with white lace cloth against the wall. Although they had known for a long time that He Qiaosheng could play the piano, seeing that He Qiaosheng's house had such an old-looking piano, they could still tell that He Qiaosheng's family must be quite well off.
He's father and mother had not returned yet. He's mother was a doctor at the county hospital and often had to work overtime. He Qiaosheng was used to cooking for himself, but they had just eaten and were not hungry, so they followed He Qiaosheng into his room.
It was not cold in early summer, and his teammates were not very particular people, so they slept on the floor in He Qiaosheng's room. When He's father and mother had not returned yet, the young people sat on the clean floor, or on the bed or chairs, and played together the song written by He Qiaosheng.
After resting for a while, in the evening, they took a tricycle and came to the large lawn beside the moat of Wucheng.
There are at least several thousand people on the big lawn, and the food street is even longer at night. In addition to the snack stalls in the front, there are also stalls selling spicy crayfish around the big lawn in front. This thing was everywhere in the ditches and wetlands in the past few years, and was taken home on the ridges to feed chickens and ducks. Now it is not only on people's tables, but also paired with beer from the brewery, becoming the most popular thing this summer. The number of crayfish consumed every day is an astonishing number. All kinds of spiced, spicy, and garlic-flavored crayfish are fried in iron basins and placed in stainless steel basins. Whoever wants it will weigh two kilograms. The seller will give some cucumber segments, celery segments, onion segments, coriander segments, etc. for free. After stir-frying them with dried chilies, they are filled up in a stainless steel basin and brought to the folding table. It is so satisfying to eat.
And spicy crab.
The crabs are not particularly big, and the big ones don’t come to the night market, but the crabs the size of two yuan are cut in the middle, coated with flour and fried in a frying pan until golden brown. You can eat a big bowl of them for five or ten yuan. Snails and field snails are even cheaper. There are old men in their fifties and sixties standing in the night market with two big plastic buckets. There are no bowls, only plastic bags. For one yuan, you can get a large iron spoon of small snails, and for two yuan, you can get a bag of big field snails. They also give you a few toothpicks and you can eat them while walking. They are spicy and satisfying.
Wucheng is surrounded by water on three sides, with rivers all around it, so there is no shortage of various fish, shrimps and crabs. The night market sells all kinds of grilled fish, fried fish, deep-fried crispy fish, chopped pepper fish head, spicy shrimp, braised shrimp, deep-fried prawns on skewers, grilled shrimps and the like. The food is cheap and plentiful, making many out-of-town tourists savor it.
As soon as six o'clock arrived, the music on the stage began, and the volume was turned up to the maximum, it was deafening.
There are few residents around here, and large areas of wetlands around have not been developed, so even if the volume is turned up to the maximum, it will not disturb others. The music is all the most fashionable, coolest and most explosive songs in major dance halls. There are also some regulars of dance halls, or more fashionable teachers from art schools, who lead the dance on the stage. The dancing on the stage is so professional, and the dancing off the stage is so wild. The main purpose is to create a lively atmosphere.
It was the first time for He Qiaosheng's teammates to experience Wucheng's square dance disco culture. They first stood on the periphery and watched the scene of chaos. Many out-of-town tourists like them did the same, watching the excitement. Soon, they were pulled in to dance by the enthusiastic local residents. Some of them were danced by their companions first, and then they pulled their companions in to dance. Those who didn't know how to dance held hands or supported each other's shoulders and jumped around to play the train game. Everyone, whether they knew each other or not, danced together.
After the dance was over, He Qiaosheng's teammates were all sweating but still wanted to continue dancing. They said to He Qiaosheng excitedly, "This square dance disco in your hometown is very similar to the atmosphere of a music festival!"
“Your hometown is pretty awesome, isn’t it?”
He Qiaosheng, who was completely different from this before he went to college, also looked dazed.
This Wucheng was not the Wucheng in his memory.
At the county party committee and county government, Secretary Song received a call and heard that the leaders of CCTV had seen the report of the Jiangnan Provincial TV station about the International Dragon Boat Cultural Festival held in Wucheng and had arranged for reporters to come down to interview. He immediately gathered the cadres of the county party committee for a meeting and called the Wujiang Municipal Party Committee to tell them about the matter. The Municipal Party Committee attached great importance to the Dragon Boat Race in Wucheng and sent many police officers from the Municipal Public Security Bureau to Wucheng overnight to maintain public order and crack down on possible illegal and criminal activities during the Dragon Boat Race in Wucheng.
It is mainly aimed at petty theft and human trafficking.
Because whenever it gets busy and there are more people, that's when thieves and human traffickers want to take advantage of the situation.
In the past two years, after Secretary Song's rounds of crackdowns and investigations in Wucheng, there have been basically no reports of underground casinos and human trafficking happening locally, nor have we heard of any girls or children going missing.
Since Wucheng does not have a railway station, these police forces are mainly deployed at several bus stations and docks.
At the same time, Secretary Song also specially dispatched several special bus lines, which went from the moat to the wharf, South Bus Station, West Bus Station, North Bus Station and other stations. The bus fare was also very cheap, only 50 cents per trip.
Nowadays, many tricycles carrying students charge one yuan per trip.
After everything was ready, the Dragon Boat Race, which had been prepared for more than a year, finally arrived.
People from the villages and towns below all ran to Wucheng. This ancient small county town of Wucheng had never been so lively before. There were loud gongs and drums, blasting firecrackers, waving red flags, and huge crowds of people!
The dragon boat race is held during the day and is divided into two days.
In the morning, we will compete for the top ten, then the top five, and on the second day, we will compete for the top three and there will be an awards ceremony!
There are performances and square dance disco in the evening.
You can spend the remaining day strolling around Wucheng, or go to the Three Bastards of Wucheng below to buy some local specialties. If you have time and want to go somewhere else, there are also the Linhe Brigade in Shuibu Town and Wugong Mountain, which have been on CCTV.
On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival, Wucheng was like a small town that had been sleeping for many years and suddenly woke up. People from the surrounding towns all gathered in Wucheng, and both sides of the moat were full of people who came to cheer for their respective dragon boat teams. People wearing local team uniforms stood on their respective dragon boats, waiting only to start at 9:30.
At half past eight, dragon boats entered the competition venue one by one amid cheers from the moat.
The moat was built around the inner city of Wucheng. The entire dragon boat race starts from the starting point of "Wugong Bridge", goes around Wucheng along the moat, and then returns to the starting point. If the whole process is fast, the entire race can be completed in about thirty to forty minutes.
Many people came on bicycles, ready to ride along the moat on the shore behind the dragon boat team to cheer them on.
There are also people riding motorcycles.
Reporters from the provincial TV station, municipal TV station, county TV station, neighboring city TV station, and CCTV had all arrived in Wucheng the day before.
The dragon boat team of Linhe Brigade also arrived in Wucheng early and had practiced several laps along the moat.
In Jiang Guotai's absence, the dragon boat team of Linhe Brigade was led by the 30-year-old brigade secretary Xu Changjiang, who was also the one responsible for standing at the dragon head and beating the drum.
He Qiaosheng and the others also came to the moat and shouted "Come on!" at the top of their lungs.
I have to say that the guys from Xujia Village may not be very smart, but their brute force of charging forward is quite powerful. In the top ten and top five competitions in the morning and afternoon of the same day, the Linhe team won places and finally entered the finals on the second day.
After the dragon boat race in the afternoon, the tourists went shopping and eating again, not only along the moat, but also inside Wucheng. For a while, shopping malls, supermarkets, small commodity markets, and streets were all full of people, all tourists. The vendors were so happy that they couldn't stop grinning all day long.
In the evening, there were performances by the provincial dance troupe invited by the Wucheng County Government, teachers and students from the provincial art school, teachers and students from the municipal art school, and He Qiaosheng and others.
These performances were also recorded by cameramen from provincial and municipal television stations.
Including CCTV footage.
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