Someone in the square was calling Zhang Fan. A group of people gathered around the fire pit. Someone was holding a wooden stick and kept calling Mr. Zhang.
It turned out that Zhang Fan was invited to light the bonfire in the evening.
The bonfire has always been lit by the most respected person in the village. In the past, the old patriarch would light the torch, but this time everyone unanimously agreed to ask Zhang Fan to light the torch.
Then I saw the old patriarch coming over respectfully and shouting loudly.
"Mr. Zhang, please light the first fire of our Hundred Family Banquet!"
When the old patriarch shouted like this, someone handed a wooden stick to Zhang Fan. The front of the wooden stick was wrapped with cotton, and there should be something like resin or gasoline inside.
Someone nearby handed me a match.
Seeing the small box of matches, Zhang Fan felt a little emotional. Since the invention of lighters, these small boxes of matches seemed to have completely disappeared. Zhang Fan hadn't seen them for many years. He didn't expect to see them here again.
He held the match and the stick in one hand, and used the other hand to strike the matchstick. Then a little bit of faint flame suddenly came onto the stick. There was grease on the stick, so it would burn fiercely even if it encountered a little bit of flame.
As soon as Zhang Fan lit the torch in his hand, he heard countless people cheering, "Woo woo woo woo!"
The voices were surprisingly consistent, which startled Xu Zijun, who was studying the food on the table. He saw Zhang Fan, holding a torch, walking to the fire pit in the spotlight, and then looking back at the villagers gathered behind him.
At this time, the villagers seemed extremely excited, shouting constantly, and some even put their hands to their mouths and shouted loudly with excitement.
Those whose faces turned red due to excitement were staring at the torches in Zhang Fan's hands and waving their arms constantly. They all deliberately changed into their best festival clothes, and the atmosphere in the whole venue was very lively.
Zhang Fan pushed the torch in his hand into the fire pit, then moved his mind and manipulated the fire control technique, causing the flames in the fire to suddenly shoot up several meters high. The flames that shot up into the sky stunned the people who were cheering!
The old patriarch looked at the flames in surprise, and suddenly knelt down, worshiping the flames continuously. The rest of the people followed suit, and quickly knelt on the ground, worshiping Zhang Fan and the fire continuously!
Some people kept cheering.
"God of Fire, it's the God of Fire. Our village hasn't had such a big fire for many years..."
"The God of Fire, the God of Fire is here!"
It turns out that there are rules for lighting the torches at the Hundred Family Banquet. After the torches are thrown into the fire, the higher the flame, the more favorable the weather and success will be in the village in the coming year.
According to my memory, the flame was usually half a meter high, which was because a lot of gasoline was added. However, it was the first time that the flame suddenly shot up several meters high like Zhang Fan's.
All those villagers would keep shouting for the God of Fire.
For them, having the God of Fire come to attend their banquet of a hundred families was their supreme honor, something they would never dare to hope for in their entire lives, so almost everyone in the audience knelt down at this moment, leaving only Zhang Fan and Hua Yueying.
Standing among the crowd of people, he stands out.
Zhang Fan looked at the flame. Since everyone liked it so much, he would just let the fire burn more vigorously. This was too easy for him.
So the flames burned more and more vigorously, even rising to more than ten meters high. This made the people present kowtow and cheer towards the flames. Their extremely pious appearance made Hua Yueying, who was standing over there, couldn't help but smile at Zhang Fan.
Because only she knew that there was no fire god here. It was clearly the master who was just using some fire-controlling technique. For the master, this fire-controlling technique was as easy as eating and drinking.
But to these villagers, it seemed to be a big deal, because everyone knelt on the ground and worshiped devoutly.
After a long time, those people, led by the old patriarch, walked up to Zhang Fan respectfully and saluted him.
"Most distinguished guest, our Fire God recognizes you and treats you as one of our own. Please take a seat and accept our gifts and regards you as one of our own!"
Compared with their previous respect, the old patriarch and the villagers were even more respectful at this time, as if they really regarded Zhang Fan as the God of Fire who had descended to the earth.
Zhang Fan was assigned the best place in the square. Even the old patriarch sat below him, while Xiaoshan, Xiaowu and others were arranged around Zhang Fan. There were more than a dozen people responsible for serving Zhang Fan.
Someone poured him wine, someone served him food, and someone helped him wipe his hands.
At this time, Xu Zijun, who was sitting next to Zhang Fan, was looking at the dishes. There were more than a hundred kinds of dishes, all of which were brought in front of Zhang Fan. Even though Xu Zijun was knowledgeable, he was still surprised by these dishes.
Because there are so many types of dishes.
There were so many that even Xu Zijun couldn't recognize them all. Apart from some chickens, ducks, goats, wild bacon and the like, there were many more that he couldn't recognize, especially some mushrooms and some wild vegetables. There were really too many types.
He couldn't help but marvel at the richness of the products here. If these mushrooms appeared fresh in the market, they would be the highest-end ingredients and would definitely taste great.
These villagers really put a lot of effort into preparing this banquet for a hundred families. Just looking at the variety of dishes and ingredients, Xu Zijun didn't know what they were and couldn't even learn from books.
This really made Xu Zijun feel very curious.
So when Zhang Fan had time to sit down, someone would pour him wine while Xu Zijun would pick up food for him. But most of the time, he had to ask Wang Ju and Xiao Wu to explain the ingredients of the dishes.
Because Xu Zijun doesn’t know him either!
"This dish is made of mushrooms. The chicken mushrooms grow in our mountains. They can be used for cooking and stewing. There are also porcini mushrooms, which are as delicious as beef liver. These mushrooms are the freshest and taste much better than those dried mushrooms..."
Wang Ju carefully explained the ingredients of these dishes to Zhang Fan.
Among them, mushrooms occupy a large part. In Xiaoshan’s hometown, there is not much other things, but there are a lot of mushrooms.
For the villagers here, picking mushrooms, drying them and selling them is their main source of income. In an average family, if there are a few diligent people, they will spend their free time picking various mushrooms.
A family can exchange 7,000 to 8,000 yuan or even tens of thousands of yuan.
But for families with fewer people, picking mushrooms only costs a few thousand yuan a year.
Of course, these are all pure natural wild mushrooms, and they taste very good, but the taste is much worse after being dried, and they are not as good as fresh mushrooms at all.
After taking a bite of the porcini, Zhang Fan felt that the taste of this fresh porcini was amazing!
An idea suddenly popped up in his mind! ?
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
