Chapter 106: Holy Tour
Ahead was the bustling world, but Qing Bai couldn't help but look back again. Covered by the dark fog of the underworld or the smoke left after the endless firecrackers, Qing Bai could no longer see the expression of the ghost official who had stayed in the same place. He only discovered unexpectedly that the female ghosts who originally emitted a faint, pale and cold white light had disappeared at some point.
Qing Bai suddenly thought of the thin frost on the withered grass leaves on both sides of the mountain road in late autumn...
After working in the underworld for so many years, Xiao Wu had never been so happy to run into a grand parade. You know, in the past, she would avoid it if she could, and when she couldn't, she would obediently offer incense money with the intention of doing charity in the underworld to accumulate merit... Originally, she didn't lack the protection of the gods.
But now was different from the past. In just a few breaths, several equations had quickly flashed through her mind -
The ability to host a divine procession means there must be a god with a name and surname protecting this area.
The imperial procession is grand = the local people love and respect them = the gods are powerful and efficacious... Isn't this the perfect opportunity for them to cling to?
Whether in folklore or in the terminology of various religious sects, the word "realm" refers to the area governed by a certain deity, and the specific scope is usually determined by its temple.
The so-called "saint's tour of the country" is just a term, and different places have different terms. There is no unified one. Some call it "parading the god", some call it "welcoming the god", there are also terms such as "parade of gods", "Bodhisattva walking in the village", "carrying Buddha", "deity statue parade", "parade of gods", etc. But the main idea remains the same: it may be the first day of the Lunar New Year or the fifteenth day of the first lunar month or the birthday of the god. In short, a special day is chosen to carry the deity out of the temple, put it on a sedan chair and parade from house to house within the scope of the temple's faith, implying that the god has descended to the people, patrolling the village, and is blessed by the believers with incense and offerings, protecting the peace of the whole country.
No matter whether the gods patrolling the area are the ancestors of the local families, or the true gods and Bodhisattvas widely believed by the people on this land for thousands of years, or even if they are just household gods or wild gods worshipped by the locals in recent years... as long as they are worshipped, no matter how long or short the time, how much or how little the worship is, they will always protect you when something happens.
Xiao Wu pulled Qing Bai with one hand and dug out the two gold ingots that had been used as bribes but not yet given out with the other, ready to strike first. They had just arrived and had to show their appreciation first. As long as the offerings were in place...
Xiao Wu was eager to try, and said excitedly, "We are now the victims who were stopped on the road and knelt down to complain about their injustice! Have you seen Bao Qingtian? Remember to look a little sad later. Even gods care about appearances~"
Qing Bai: “…”
But you don't look like a victim who's stopped by a car and kneeled down to complain about his injustice. You look like someone who's set their sights on a 'luxury car' and is ready to make a big profit...
As they got closer, the excitement on Xiao Wu's face faded a little. She looked up suspiciously at the dark, overcast sky and asked, puzzled, "Why aren't these imperial patrols following the rules with such a grand display? How can they patrol at night?"
Qing Bai's hometown didn't have the custom of parading gods, so he had no idea what constituted a grand procession. He simply found the shrill, resonant suona and the high, dull gongs and drums, interwoven with each other, extremely disturbing. It wasn't the kind of elegant and joyful music heard at weddings, birthdays, and other celebrations, nor was it solemn and dignified. Occasionally, when the gongs and drums failed to keep pace and only the suona remained, sounding alone in the night, it had a certain mournful, shrill quality. After listening to it for a long time, it felt as if my heart was beating to the tune...
Juhuai is a very typical southern township. The two- or three-story self-built buildings are like the paint on a painter's brush, with different heights and very cleverly connected into lines. Then these "lines" are interconnected in all directions, like the spider web woven by the most unrestrained spider in the world, entwined in the huge shadows of four consecutive mountains facing each other.
Except for a wide avenue running from the town entrance to the end, all other houses are connected by various winding paths.
And the place where Qing Bai and the others are at the moment is right at the dam mouth of the road that runs through the giant locust tree.
Nearly every village, township, and town has a spacious, flat dam like this at the entrance. Here, a procession of several hundred people gathers, led by drummers, gong players, and suona players dressed in red and green. The blast of gongs, drums, and suona alerts even remote homes off the main roads to the impending procession, so they prepare early.
After the musicians came the "Children", "Black and White Impermanence", "Ox-Head and Horse-Face", "Four Generals", "Eight Immortals", "Eight Generals" and other gods wearing all kinds of exaggerated puppet headgear, who danced to the sound of gongs, drums and firecrackers. After the performance, it was the real protagonist of today's imperial tour - more than ten large sedan chairs with red backgrounds and gold decorations stood steadily in the center of the team. There were nearly a hundred sedan chair bearers alone, not to mention the ceremonial officials who were responsible for opening the curtains, calling out the names, collecting "hard work money", giving out talismans and saying auspicious words.
With such a complicated terrain and such a large group, it is not an easy task to ensure that the procession passes by every household accurately. After all, in addition to the people who carry and send off the holy carriage, there is also the most important person - the "god".
Although it is customary to carry statues of gods on parade, most of the statues in temples are made of clay or wood, and some statues of the main gods are several meters tall. Even if you take the trouble to invite them out, it is likely that "it is easier to invite a god than to send him away."
Therefore, places that often hold processions often prepare bamboo or paper statues as substitutes.
Since the statues are the incarnations of gods in the human world, it would be the same to make some smaller and lighter statues to serve as the incarnations of gods' external incarnations.
While they were thinking, they had already rushed to the edge of the parade. Qing Bai suddenly stopped and asked, "You said they don't follow the rules. If they follow the rules, when should the parade start?"
Xiao Wu said, "There's no universal standard for this, but generally speaking, it all starts early in the morning. No one ever waits until it's pitch black before the parade begins..."
At this point, her hand holding the gold ingot, which was about to hit the car with a fake car, hesitated. She turned her head to look back at the road she had come from, but it was so dark that she couldn't see anything clearly. She said hesitantly, "How about... let's take a look at the situation first? Don't just escape from the tiger's mouth and fall into the wolf's den..."
At this point, Xiao Wu couldn't help but complain again, "I even deliberately put on this ugly head, and even managed to sneak out of the underworld, but Cheng Yaojin suddenly showed up... The key is that Cheng Yaojin didn't even bother to disguise himself properly. How can he be a ghost official like him! He's so perfunctory, it's clear that he doesn't take us seriously!"
Qing Bai thought to himself that Cheng Yaojin's face-changing technique was so sophisticated, his achievements in bewitching souls so remarkable, that it didn't seem perfunctory at all. But despite his inner thoughts, he still said, "Miss Wu has a keen eye, but I don't know where he gave away his secret... Could you please explain this to me?"
Qing Bai was really curious, after all, Xiao Wu's previous reaction was too quick.
"Oh, you're so polite, how can I be called a discerning person?" Xiao Wu said jokingly, "It's just that I'm in the middle of it, so I understand my colleagues better... You know, there's no such thing as a greedy official in this world!"
Qing Bai blinked. He didn't expect Xiao Wu's understanding of his colleagues to be so... profound, even to the point.
"Whether or not the job gets done is another matter, but the gold ingots and paper money handed out are like meat buns thrown at a dog. No one can get them back intact." At the end, Xiao Wu muttered, "Besides, these are Boss Hong's pure handmade gold ingots. One is worth ten. How could anyone refuse them? Unless he has other motives, and he certainly does."
Qing Bai thought that the unknown Cheng Yaojin would never have thought that he would be exposed because he was too "upright" to accept bribes... It can be seen that sometimes some human relationships really cannot be ignored.
As the two were talking, a voice suddenly interrupted: "What's going on with the ceremonial officer up front? The Rat God is about to arrive, but why are there two Black Impermanence here? Hey, who are you from, you young fools? Do you know you're falling behind?"
Qing Bai Xiao Wu turned around at the sound and was faced with a dark, thin and withered face, one could tell at a glance that he often worked in the fields. The old man who spoke was not tall, but he looked very energetic. It was not known whether he had put on makeup specially for this parade, or because he was usually too exposed to the sun, his face had a slightly metallic texture, which made him almost seamlessly blend into the group of bronze sculptures on the streets of some tourist attractions.
It turned out that while they were talking, the vanguard of the procession had already set off. Now, apart from the more than ten heavily covered large sedan chairs, there were only sedan bearers and ceremonial officials parked in the dam. The two of them standing there chatting "idle" seemed both abrupt and conspicuous.
But... Black Impermanence? Two?
Xiao Wu, dressed in black, and Qing Bai, also dressed in black, looked at each other and suddenly felt that instead of trying to stop someone on the road and kneel down to protest their innocence, it would be a better idea to directly join the parade to seek shelter.
After figuring it out, Xiao Wu was about to use her expertise to fabricate a local identity for them, but the old man didn't give her a chance at all. He frowned and looked Qing Bai over from head to toe with an almost critical gaze, while complaining: "Tsk... This year is really outrageous! Who is so stupid to find such a tall young man to play the Black Impermanence? What's the use of him being handsome, tsk..."
As he spoke, he looked at Xiao Wu again, finally nodded with satisfaction, and gave affirmation: "This is the style of Mr. Fan Ba!"
Qing Bai, who is about 1.8 meters tall and handsome: "..."
Xiao Wu, who is of normal height but has the demeanor of Mr. Fan, said: "..." I feel like you are scolding me, but I have no evidence :)
"What are you still standing here for? Hurry up and catch up with your brother and clear the way! As for you..." The old man glanced at Qing Bai with disdain and said reluctantly, "Follow me first, act as an assistant, and help welcome the incense."
Xiao Wu obviously wanted to say something but was pushed out by the old man. In the end, she only had time to wink at Qing Bai before quickly disappearing in the bustling crowd.
Qing Bai, who had no tacit understanding with Xiao Wu, was still pondering what her eyes meant when a cry suddenly exploded in his ears like thunder.
"The Rat God has arrived, all idlers must retreat—"
After the old ceremonial officer finished shouting the slogan, he quickly bent down and lifted the curtains of the sedan chair, which were originally covered tightly, to both sides and hooked them, so that the door of the sedan chair opened wide to reveal the statue of the god that was supposed to be sitting inside.
As for why it was originally supposed to be... it was naturally because the person sitting in the big red sedan now was a 'living immortal' with lively eyes and a sharp tongue.
The 'living immortal' was squeezed into a sedan chair that was large enough to accommodate an adult. His body fat and mottled fur filled every corner of the sedan chair. His hairless tail, as thin and long as a round stick, could only droop miserably at the bottom of the sedan chair. Unfortunately, because it was too long, the tip of the tail was still exposed when the ceremonial officer hung the curtain, dragging on the ground in a very unrefined manner - the person sitting in the sedan chair was actually a huge gray-haired rat that was bigger than a human!
The big gray-haired rat was slumped in the sedan chair like a ball of meat. Its pointed head, which seemed a little disproportionate compared to its fat body, was tilted against the back of the chair. Its beady eyes stared at the old ceremonial officer who was tidying the sedan curtain. It was chewing something with a squeaky sound in its mouth. Finally, it stretched out its long, bruised and black tongue to lick the hair on the edge of its mouth.
The old ceremonial officer who had hung the curtains of the sedan chair seemed to have not noticed the horrifying scene inside the sedan chair at all, and continued to chant in a loud voice: "Lift up the sedan chair..."
Several sedan chair bearers exerted force at the same time, and the "solid" sedan chair swayed off the ground. But like the old ceremonial officer who could not see what was happening inside the sedan chair, the sedan chair bearers did not seem to think that there was anything wrong with the sedan chair being so heavy when it only contained a bamboo statue.
The sedan chair swayed onto the main road, the lights flickered, firecrackers rang out, and the crunching sounds of chewing continued. The parade of the giant locust tree officially began at this moment.
It was so bizarre and strange, yet seemed so commonplace that Qing Bai couldn't help but start thinking. After all, our country is vast and has a vast territory. Could it be that there really is a place that worships... rats?
Is he a little...surprised by the unusual?
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