Chapter 256 256

The street has not changed much. It is still the old house with white walls, black tiles and mottled walls, but it is cleaner, tidier and more standardized.

There are snack shops on both sides of the street. Even at the entrance of the alley, you can see that they are all at the back door of their own house. They set up a stall with an oil pan, selling fried glutinous rice cakes and spring rolls, various spicy hot pots, duck blood vermicelli, wonton shops... At a glance, both sides of the street are full of various foods, some local, some foreign. Many shops he had never seen before have all opened up, and the streets are full of people.

"Wow, is your hometown so prosperous?" His bandmates were also surprised to see such an ancient town. They thought He Qiaosheng's hometown was a remote and poor place, but they didn't expect it to be such a charming ancient town. He

Qiaosheng was also a little surprised.

There were rows of tricycles next to the station. When they saw this group of young people who obviously didn't look like locals 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?"

The four members of He Qiaosheng's band all carried musical instruments and had long arms and legs. Four people couldn't fit on one tricycle, so they had to get two.

He Qiaosheng said in authentic Wucheng dialect: "One dollar."

The driver of the tricycle shook his head and said: "Get in the car!"

At the same time, another tricycle driver also drove over quickly, and the four of them drove towards the moat in the tricycle.

The weather in June was neither cold nor hot. The doors on both sides of the tricycle were not closed, but locked outside. The early summer breeze gently fell on He Qiaosheng's face, blowing his hair flying.

The driver was about 40 years old and a talkative person. While driving, he asked He Qiaosheng: "From your accent, you are from Wucheng? Where in Wucheng are you from?"

He Qiaosheng smiled and said, "Wucheng, where is your master from?"

"I'm from Yanggou Town below. Wucheng has developed well in the past two years. Secretary Song has promoted tourism in Wucheng. Now there are more and more tourists coming to Wucheng. I went out to work this year and no one wanted me, so I got a car in my hometown to pick up tourists and make some money." The driver was smiling easily when he spoke.

He Qiaosheng looked out the window and said, "It seems that 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 to drive tricycles and sell snacks like me." The driver's face was full of joy, but he still said enviously in a sighing tone: "But Yaoba Town is still good. In the past, they raised fish, shrimps, and pearls, and now they have also started to develop tourism. The town is so beautiful. I heard that every household there earned at least 10,000 yuan last year. That pearl factory made a lot of money. Hundreds of thousands! This year, they started large-scale lobster and crab farming."

He said enviously, "Alas, they have a good mayor. In the past, Liuba Town was the leader of the three hegemons in Wucheng. A few years ago, Douba Town also caught up. In the past two years, Yaoba Town has obviously been better than Liuba Town. The three hegemons of Wucheng are worthy of being the three hegemons of Wucheng."

He Qiaosheng stayed in a bar in Beijing during the winter vacation last year and did not come back for the New Year. He asked the driver, "Is this all done 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 Liu is from Shuibu Town. I heard that it was her idea. The Linhe Brigade of Shuibu Town is now very prosperous. The mayor of Yaoba Town is also from Linhe Brigade, you know that, right?" The driver chatted while driving: "Wow, one person led the whole county. Look at what our Wucheng was like before she was admitted to university and what it is like now. Who could have thought that Wucheng would be like this now?"

He raised his chin to the outside, looking at the rows of flowers in the flowerbed outside. Seeing the bright flowers in bloom, she asked He Qiaosheng with a smile: "Do you think our Wucheng is beautiful now?"

In late spring and early summer, all the flowers are in full bloom, competing for beauty. The bright red azaleas in the flower beds are as bright as the sun. They are different from the varieties bought from the botanical garden. These azaleas are all wild azaleas dug back from the mountains. The 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 come back on May Day, it will be really lively. You know Sophora japonica Road, right? There are snow-white Sophora japonica flowers on both sides of the road, blooming in bunches. They have even been on CCTV. Have you seen it? It's so beautiful!" The driver's tone was full of pride and pride: "You will 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. The moat and the city wall are the boundaries. The inside of the moat is called the inner city, and the outside of the river is called the outer city.

Most of the area outside the moat is still in its original undeveloped state. Only some new communities have been built along the river.

Originally, the neighborhood 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 prices and housing prices in the vicinity have suddenly risen. This neighborhood has gone from being a neighborhood that no one wanted to a hot spot.

The main reason is that there is a huge lawn next to it. Now it has become the most popular place for square dance disco in Wucheng. There is also a square dance disco place in the small square next to the cinema in the inner city, but it is still too small. It can only accommodate a few hundred people at most. 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 ride motorcycles here to dance at night. After dancing, they go to the food street next to it to get two pounds of crayfish, a jug of beer, or have barbecue, stinky tofu, etc. Every night, people here don’t leave until eleven or twelve o’clock.

The driver brought He Qiaosheng and his friends to this large lawn.

He parked the car next to the arch bridge with a simple yet brand new shape: "You have to pay a toll to cross the bridge, so I won’t take you there. Anyway, it’s right there after you cross the bridge."

He pointed to the opposite side of the river.

The construction of this bridge began last year, and it was not officially opened until the eve of May Day this year.

But currently only pedestrians can cross the bridge for free, and vehicles have to pay a toll. The bridge deck is not very wide, only about six meters, barely wide enough for two cars to pass at the same time, and there is still some space on both sides for pedestrians to walk.

Last year, the bulk of Wucheng's fiscal revenue was spent on building this 150-meter-long cross-river bridge, which directly connects the two sides of the moat together, so that people don't have to go a long way to get to the other side of the river like in the past, or walk on a trembling bamboo bridge.

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 a pavilion, in which five ancient people are sitting opposite each other, two of them are playing chess, one is standing beside and watching the game, and the other two have tea cups in front of them, and they look like they are looking at the moat.

Song Shuji obviously took advantage of the hot spot of Wugong Mountain.

After crossing the newly built arch bridge and walking less than 200 meters, there is a huge lawn. Below the lawn is a lively food street, which is open to the sky and crowded with people.

He Qiaosheng and his friends did not go directly to the lawn, but first walked around the food street, found a booth and sat down to eat some authentic snacks of Wucheng and invited his bandmates to eat.

"Come on, come and 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, "Auntie Hua, five spring rolls!"

The woman called Auntie Hua was busy, but when she saw it was him, she smiled and said, "Are you back, Qiaosheng? 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 Auntie 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.

Auntie 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 Auntie Hua, "Auntie Hua, why didn't you set up the stall in the original place? Why did you come here?"

Auntie Hua smiled and said, "Of course I set up the stall. My family was setting up the stall there. Isn't the Dragon Boat Festival coming soon? Everyone is here, so I'll 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 these days?"

Aunt Hua said with a smile, "You know that people in our area like to be lively and eat delicious food. If they hear that there is a lively and delicious place, they will go there. When they heard that Wucheng held the International Dragon Boat Cultural Festival and set up a food street, not to mention people from other cities, even people from the villages below, they all ran to the city every day. There were so many people that it was crowded. This is not the time when there are the most people. There are more people during May Day!"

Aunt Hua's hands were nimble and she used tongs to quickly turn the spring rolls on the pan, and she almost left a shadow.

The spring rolls she fried were really delicious, with thin and crispy skin and a lot of fillings. One spring roll was as big as a palm, and people with small appetites could be full with one spring roll.

But it was obviously impossible for the guys in front of them to be full with just one spring roll, so He Qiaosheng took his teammates to eat Wucheng's specialty 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 below. I don't know what kind of rice is used for the steamed rice below, and how the flavor is adjusted. Anyway, it is extremely fragrant. The only bad thing is that it is too oily. After eating a bowl of rice, they are basically full.

They walked through the long food street and came to the lawn above.

There were many children playing on the lawn. Some people brought out picnic mats, bought snacks and had a picnic on the picnic mats. Some adults took their children to fly kites.

At one end of the lawn, there was a wooden stage. There were not only several large speakers on the stage, but also spotlights.

There was a huge background wall at the back, on which was written in Chinese characters: The First International Dragon Boat Cultural Festival in Wucheng.

They walked onto the stage to experience it. The stage was very solid and made of wood. The background wall was a huge cloth, on which the words and artistic words were hand-painted and written.

Suddenly, they heard a loud cheer, and they looked in the direction of the cheer. They saw 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 were no cheers. At this time, they heard the lively shouts and cheers, and they also carried their instruments and walked towards the moat, but they did not go down, but stood on the high lawn and looked down. Many parents with their children also stood on the big lawn and looked down.

I saw several dragon boats coming from afar. The people standing at the head of the dragon boats, wearing golden vests, beat the drums passionately, and the people rowing the dragon boats also waved their arms rhythmically.

People who were originally just playing on both sides of the river, saw the dragon boats coming, and all stood by the moat, shouting loudly: "Come on! Come on! Come on!"

I don't know which dragon boat team they are cheering for, but occasionally you can hear: "Doubazhen! Come on! Doubazhen! Come on!"

"Niubu Town! Come on! Linhe Team! Come on!"

He Qiaosheng's teammates were also infected by such a passionate scene and started shouting passionately. It was not until seven or eight dragon boat teams quickly passed by that they asked curiously: "Didn't they say that the dragon boat race starts on the Dragon Boat Festival? Why does it start now?"

A Wucheng native who heard their words turned around and said with a smile: "You are all from other places to play, right? You don't know that these dragon boat teams have practiced in their respective rivers. They are now familiar with the race track in our Wucheng moat. What about the turns? If they don't practice in advance, what will happen if the boat capsizes?"

A dragon boat race must not be held in a river, otherwise how can tourists watch it? The moat of Wucheng is a very suitable race track. The width of the river is 150 to 200 meters. Tourists can stand on both sides, which is convenient for watching the race. The moat is built along the ancient Wucheng, so it has bends. How can a dragon boat race go straight? Of course, bends are necessary to make it more interesting!

He Qiaosheng and his team finally understood and asked, "Do they practice here all day long?"

The person being questioned said, "Of course not. There are more than 20 teams. 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 they practice in the evening?"

The local person being questioned smiled proudly and said, "Everyone goes to the disco in the evening. Who would practice that? This is your first time in Wucheng, right? Let me tell you, where are you at night? Don't go anywhere, just come to this big lawn, there will be a disco at night, it will be so exciting, you all come then, I guarantee you won't want to leave when you come to Wucheng!"

It was the first time that He Qiaosheng's teammates heard that disco was danced outdoors, and asked if it cost money. The people who were asked repeatedly waved their hands and said, "No money! It's all free! Where can you charge for dancing?"

Now some local dance halls are almost deserted, and they have changed their business and turned them into karaoke or skating rinks.

They took the train back from Beijing, and then transferred to Wucheng, ate some food, checked the location, and then followed He Qiaosheng to He Qiaosheng's home.

He Qiaosheng's house is quite big, 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 lace white cloth against the wall. Although they already knew that He Qiaosheng could play the piano, seeing such an old-looking piano in He Qiaosheng's house, they could tell that He Qiaosheng's family should 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 his own food, 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 about it, 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 on the chair, and played the song He Qiaosheng wrote together.

After resting for a while, in the evening, they took a tricycle and came to the big lawn beside the moat of Wucheng.

There were at least tens of thousands of people on the lawn. The food court was even longer at night. In addition to the snack stalls in the front, there were also stalls selling spicy crayfish around the lawn. This was something that was everywhere in ditches and wetlands a few years ago, and that people would crawl on the ridges of fields to take home to feed chickens and ducks. Now, it is not only on people’s tables, but also paired with beer from breweries, becoming the most popular thing this summer. The daily consumption of crayfish is an astonishing number. Various spiced, spicy, and garlic crayfish are fried in iron pots and placed in stainless steel pots. Whoever wants one weighs two kilograms, and the seller gives them some cucumber, celery, green onion, coriander, etc. for free. After stir-frying with dried chilies, they fill a stainless steel pot and bring it to the folding table. It is so satisfying to eat.

There are also spicy crabs.

The crabs are not particularly big, and big ones don't come to the night market, but the two-yuan-sized crabs are cut in half, coated with flour, and fried in a pan until golden brown. You can eat a big bowl of them for five or ten yuan. Snails and field snails are even cheaper. Old men in their fifties and sixties stand in the night market with two big plastic buckets. There are no bowls, only plastic bags. One yuan for a big iron spoon of small snails, two yuan for a bag of big field snails, and they give you a few toothpicks. You can eat them while walking, and they are spicy and satisfying.

Wucheng is surrounded by water on three sides, with rivers and streams all around, so there is no shortage of fish, shrimps, and crabs. The night market sells grilled fish, fried fish, deep-fried fish, chopped pepper fish head, spicy shrimp, braised shrimp, fried shrimp on skewers, grilled shrimp, etc. They are cheap and plentiful, so many tourists from other places are impressed by the food.

As soon as six o'clock arrived, the music on the stage started, and the volume was turned up to the maximum, which was deafening.

There are few residents around here, and the large wetlands around have not been developed, so you can turn the volume up to the maximum without disturbing others. The music is all the most fashionable, coolest and most exciting 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 dance on the stage is so professional, and the dance off the stage is so chaotic. The main theme is lively.

It was the first time for He Qiaosheng's teammates to experience Wucheng's square dance disco culture. They first stood outside and watched the chaotic scene. Many out-of-town tourists like them did the same. They watched the excitement and were soon pulled in by the enthusiastic local residents to dance. 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. Those who knew each other and those who didn't knew each other all danced together.

After the dance, He Qiaosheng's teammates were all sweating but still wanted to dance. They said to He Qiaosheng excitedly, "The square disco in your hometown is very similar to the atmosphere of a music festival!"

"Your hometown is great, isn't it?"

He Qiaosheng, who was completely different before he went to college, also looked dazed.

This Wucheng was not the Wucheng in his memory.

At the county government, Secretary Song received a call and heard that the CCTV leader had seen the Jiangnan Provincial TV station's report on the International Dragon Boat Cultural Festival held in Wucheng and arranged for reporters to come for an interview. He immediately gathered the county party committee cadres for a meeting and called the Wujiang Municipal Party Committee to tell them about the incident. 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 severely crack down on possible illegal criminal activities during the Dragon Boat Race in Wucheng,

mainly targeting petty theft and human trafficking.

Because every time it is so busy and the flow of people increases, that is 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, there is basically no news of underground casinos and human trafficking in Wucheng, nor has anyone heard of girls or children being lost.

Because Wucheng does not have a train station, these police forces are mainly deployed at several bus stations and docks.

At the same time, Secretary Song also specially dispatched several bus lines, which specifically go through the moat to the dock, South Bus Station, West Bus Station, North Bus Station and other stations. The bus ticket price is also very cheap, 50 cents per trip.

Now many tricycles that carry students cost one yuan per trip.

After all this was done, the Dragon Boat Festival Dragon Boat Race, which had been prepared for more than a year, finally arrived.

People from the villages and towns below all came to Wucheng. Wucheng, this ancient small county, had never been so lively before. There were really loud drums and gongs, firecrackers, red flags flying, and huge crowds of people!

The Dragon Boat Race was held during the day and was divided into two days.

In the morning, the top ten were competed, the next day the top five were competed, and the next day the top three were competed, and there

was an award ceremony! In the evening, there were performances and square dance disco.

The remaining day is reserved for you to stroll around Wucheng, or go to the Wucheng Three Hegemons below to buy some local specialties. If you have time and leisure and want to play, there are also the Linhe Brigade and Wugong Mountain in Shuibu Town, which are a little further away. They have been on CCTV.

On the Dragon Boat Festival, Wucheng is like a small town that has been sleeping for many years, and it suddenly wakes up. People from the surrounding towns all gather in Wucheng. Both sides of the moat are full of people who come to cheer for their respective dragon boat teams. People wearing local team uniforms stand on their respective dragon boats, waiting for the start at 9:30.

At 8:30, one dragon boat after another has entered the competition venue with cheers from the moat.

The moat was built around the inner city of Wucheng. The entire dragon boat race started from the starting point of the Wugong Bridge, went around Wucheng along the moat, and then returned to the starting point. If the whole race was fast, it would take about 30 to 40 minutes to complete the whole race.

Many people came on bicycles, ready to ride along the moat on the shore and run behind the dragon boat team to cheer them on.

There were also people riding motorcycles.

The reporters from the provincial TV station, the city TV station, the county TV station, the neighboring city TV station, and CCTV had all arrived in Wucheng the day before.

The dragon boat team of Linhe Brigade also came to Wucheng early and had practiced several laps along the moat.

Jiang Guotai was not there. The dragon boat team of Linhe Brigade was led by the 30-year-old brigade secretary Xu Changjiang, who was also in charge of standing at the dragon head and beating the drum.

He Qiaosheng and his team also came to the moat and shouted at the top of their lungs.

It must be said that the people in Xujia Village were not smart, but they were quite energetic in charging forward. In the top ten and top five competitions in the morning and afternoon of that day, Linhe Brigade won places and finally entered the finals on the second day.

After the afternoon dragon boat race, the tourists went shopping and eating, not only by 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 merchants were so happy that they never stopped grinning all day.

In the evening, the provincial dance troupe, teachers and students from the provincial arts academy, teachers and students from the municipal arts academy, and He Qiaosheng, who were invited by the Wucheng County Government, performed.

These performances were also recorded by the cameramen of various provincial and municipal TV stations.

Including CCTV's footage.