When night fell, there were still many offerings left.
There is a circle of iron bars nailed to the ground around the square, with a groove at the top. The villagers pour some oil into it and stuff straw into it, and then light it to use as street lamps.
On the altar, they swept the human body parts into a pile and then built a bonfire on it.
With the help of the oil in human skin, the fire burned quickly and vigorously. The blazing flames illuminated everyone's faces, making them look even more ferocious than the statues of gods.
"It's time to dance!" someone shouted.
The Mountain God Blessing Dance is a dance performed specifically for the Mountain God.
The puppets appeared on stage again, thirty or forty identical faces gathered together and began to "dance" in the same way.
The bonfire and the celebratory dance should have been a very beautiful scene.
But the hands and feet of the puppets were manipulated by the people below to make them into strange and twisted postures, which tore this beautiful picture apart with another weird atmosphere.
They danced in circles around the fire, sometimes leaning forward with their hands raised as if in worship, sometimes leaning back as if about to fall, repeating these two movements until the strange tune they were humming became louder.
They sped up their movements, sweeping their heads, raising their hands, twisting their bodies, jumping twice on one leg, and then repeating in the other direction.
Slowly, some villagers joined them and began to dance this strange dance together.
"Woo! Hey! Hoo! Yo!"
"Ji-mi-ma-ho! Sa-jo-hey-yo-ho!"
The neat and powerful singing almost woke the night up. Someone ran into the team with a jar of wine in his arms, opened the lid, and passed the jar one by one, and everyone took a big sip.
Amidst this bustling scene, the three players at the edge of the square seemed particularly lonely.
"ah!"
Suddenly, Zhong Le called out softly, tugged at the sleeves of the two people beside him, and motioned them to look over.
At the other end of the square, behind the bonfire and the dancing crowd, two "people" walked in.
They were so familiar with those two faces, weren't they Wang Yang and Zhang Yuan?!
"What's going on? They didn't..." Zhong Le's face turned pale. It was late at night. It must be a ghost!
"Could it be that they were not the ones on the altar today? Did we make a mistake?" Wu Zheng began to doubt her own eyes. After all, she had only taken a quick glance at the altar today, and it had already changed beyond recognition. She would rather believe that they had made a mistake during the day.
"Let's go... and take a look?" Wu Zheng's words ignited the little spark of hope in Zhong Le's heart, so she asked cautiously.
Qiongzhi also stared at the two people. A voice in his body told him that those were not the real Wang Yang and Zhang Yuan, but another voice told him to go over. They were Wang Yang and Zhang Yuan.
The real Wang Yang and Zhang Yuan.
Qiongzhi felt a slight heat in his right abdomen. He reached into his pocket again and touched the triangular talisman, which was slightly warm.
In an instant, he only heard a voice, which said: Go over there.
"Let's go," he said, turning to look at Zhong Le and Wu Zheng. "Let's go and take a look. Maybe we really made a mistake during the day."
Wang Yang and Zhang Yuan were pulled into the team by the villagers and danced with them.
As they got closer, Zhong Le and the others could see the unfamiliar movements of the two people and the extremely vivid embarrassed expressions on their faces. This was exactly the Wang Yang and Zhang Yuan they knew!
She and Wu Zheng looked at each other, both with surprise in their eyes, and ran up hurriedly.
Qiongzhi was about to follow, but was suddenly grabbed by the hand by a villager beside her.
He turned around and saw that the person holding him was none other than Lin Da. This handsome man had a drunken redness on his face, traces of alcohol on his chin and neck, and a wet patch on his chest.
"Come, drink and dance!" His breath was filled with a strong smell of alcohol, which made Qiongzhi shake her head repeatedly, but the wine jar had already been stuffed into his arms.
"Drink, young man, drink!"
"That's the wine given by the mountain god!"
"Drink! Join us! Drink!"
"Drink, drink, and then dance!"
People suddenly gathered around him, and a few young girls pushed him with giggles, their smiling faces still showing traces of blood left by the madness of the day.
The wine in the jar exuded a strong aroma. Qiongzhi felt as if he was entangled by a snake. The fragrance lingered around him and could not be shaken off.
"Drink quickly!" Lin Da urged him, put his hand under the wine jar and pushed it upwards, so that the mouth of the jar touched Qiongzhi's mouth.
In an instant, Qiongzhi smelled an even stronger aroma of wine, as if it was going to drown him.
The wine tastes spicy at first, and brings a burning sensation as it passes through the throat, but soon it starts to taste sweet again, with a hint of fruitiness.
Alcohol is best at paralyzing the human brain. After two big gulps of wine, Qiongzhi felt as if she was floating in the air. Soon, someone pulled her away from the jar of wine and she joined the dancing.
His limbs were severely numb, and his feet felt like they were stepping on cotton. With blurry vision, he followed the people around him, swaying their limbs and singing unknown lyrics.
The old lady Zhu who was not far away took out a handful of new incense sticks, lit them one by one and inserted them into the cauldron in front of the statue. When the wind blew, the curling white smoke seemed to come alive and rushed towards the crowd.
Qiongzhi suddenly understood the words of the villagers' singing.
The great mountain god,
Grant us peace;
The great mountain god,
Give us peace of mind;
The great mountain god,
Let us have enough food and clothing.
People, people,
O faithful believers!
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