Chapter 34 First Release "What are you waiting for?"...
Without waiting for Wen Yu to speak, Song Linsheng began to sing softly.
His voice was unique. The moment he spoke, the melody enveloped Wen Yu from all sides, enveloping her completely. Unlike his usual gentle voice, Song Linsheng's voice now had a deep, almost hoarse quality, causing Wen Yu to unconsciously hum along with him.
The singing is sometimes high-pitched like an eagle's cry, sometimes gentle like a bird's chirping. The changing tunes linger over the wilderness. The high and low notes blend in harmony, and men and women sing together, bringing the breath of spring back to the world.
Wen Yu and Song Linsheng followed the crowd all the way. When the Qingyang Qu was almost finished, everyone started dancing again.
This ritual dance, while seemingly simple, was incredibly difficult to imitate. Wen Yu watched her sisters for a long moment, contemplating trying to learn it. She held her breath. She refused to believe there was anything in this world she couldn't accomplish! She was a spirit, a spirit that had absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, awakened by the incense of countless families. Naturally, she was gifted and possessed a high level of understanding. Even Song Linsheng's eight bookcases of scrolls and ancient tome were no match for her, so how could a mere ritual dance stump her?
Wenyu ran, waving her arms and mimicking the movements of her sister beside her. After a few repetitions, she had memorized the entire ritual dance. Her brows raised slightly. As expected, her master had said, she had the potential to become an immortal. How could such a trivial matter stop her?
However, as the saying goes, practice makes perfect, so if you are not familiar with it, things will change naturally.
Although Wen Yu had learned the general idea, she was still not as familiar with it as her sisters and brothers who performed the sacrifices every year. So when she danced, she would always bump into the sisters beside her, either hitting their hands or kicking their feet.
Song Linsheng followed Wen Yu all the way, with his hands slightly open, fearing that Wen Yu would fall again. While paying attention to Wen Yu's condition, he nodded and apologized to the ladies and men around him.
"Young man, is this your first time to attend the sacrifice to the God of Spring?" The elder sister beside them spoke to them with a smile.
Song Linsheng wanted to deny it. He had grown up in Jiangyang and had eaten countless water banquets, so this certainly wasn't his first time witnessing a sacrificial ceremony. But then he thought, Madam Wenyu was from another place, so she naturally didn't know Jiangyang customs, nor had she ever witnessed a sacrifice to the God of Spring. So, it made sense.
He chuckled and nodded, responding to the sister.
Wen Yu was dancing enthusiastically. When she heard the elder sister talking, she quickly begged, "Yes, yes! Sister, look at how I dance. Does it look like the real thing?" As she spoke, she raised her hand to demonstrate a dance for the elder sister.
Song Linsheng smiled as he gazed at Wen Yu before him. Her every move was incredibly agile and graceful, like a mountain spirit. If she truly were a fairy, she would be just as described in the book, drinking the weeping dew of roses in the morning and feasting on fallen chrysanthemum petals in the evening.
For the first time, he felt that those beautiful fantasies about gods and spirits weren't entirely the product of previous imaginations. It turned out that such women really existed in the mortal world, naive yet not clumsy, clever yet not vulgar, like newborn spirits fallen into the mortal world.
The appearance of Madam Wen Yu made him feel that what was written in the story was not fabricated.
"How can they be similar? The way the young lady dances is clearly no different from the rest of us!" The elder sister smiled even more. "But you are prettier!"
After the elder sister finished speaking, she called out to Song Linsheng, "But you, young master! Why don't you keep a close eye on your wife?"
"Today is the Shangsi Festival, don't let other men look at you!" Before the elder sister finished speaking, she laughed together with the sisters around her.
Wen Yu was completely absorbed in the ritual, and didn't react to her sister's words. Song Linsheng, on the other hand, blushed. His complexion was already fair, but now, with the blood rushing through his veins and the flush on his face, it looked like a half-peeled lychee, its round, white flesh hidden beneath the vibrant crimson shell. Anyone who saw it would want to take a bite.
"I'm not..." Song Linsheng denied without thinking, but he changed his mind as soon as he opened his mouth. When he spoke again, although he was still stuttering, his words were much firmer.
"Yes... yes... thank you very much! Thank you very much, sister!" He was not familiar with this sister, so what could he explain? He didn't know what to explain, and he didn't want to explain.
Wen Yu then withdrew her hand and came closer. Seeing him thanking the sister, she also said, "Thank you, sister!" She just thought he was thanking the sister for the compliment and didn't think much of it.
Unexpectedly, Song Linsheng, who was originally quite calm, stepped forward and blocked Wen Yu's way when Wen Yu was about to come over.
"Madam Wenyu, we're just ahead of us at Houchun Mountain!" Song Linsheng said hastily, "I'm afraid the Spring Festival is about to begin. Madam Wenyu, why don't you keep up?"
After hearing his words, Wen Yu stopped going back and turned to look at Lord Mu in front of him.
Along the way, she sang songs with Song Linsheng and learned dancing from her elder sister. She forgot to pay attention to the time and arrived at the foot of Houchun Mountain so quickly.
Lord Mu, the "God of Spring" in front, had indeed stopped beating the Spring Ox, and the ox was handed over to the servants behind Lord Jia to lead.
Wen Yu thought that the gods in heaven were mostly free and unrestrained, without the complex rules of the mortal world. But on the other hand, the fact that mortals were willing to expend so much money and energy on offering sacrifices to the God of Spring also proved that her master, Ju Mangjun, was quite prestigious in the mortal world, and it was worth his annual springtime journey to the human world to assist with farming.
What should we do next? Wen Yu stood on tiptoe, looking at Lord Mu in the distance.
"Mu Chunli will be here later." Song Linsheng seemed to be able to see through Wen Yu's thoughts and spoke at the right time.
Wen Yu glanced at him. Song Linsheng was always like this, answering her questions without her even having to ask. This was strange. If Wen Yu hadn't known that he was truly a mortal, she would have suspected that the Jieyu Flower had become a spirit.
"The ritual of worshiping the gods has been passed down for hundreds of years, and has accumulated many previous names." Song Linsheng spoke slowly, and the historical fragments turned into vivid sentences. "For example, the ancient Xifu, because it involves the act of washing hands, is also called Xichun."
"The water banquet mostly uses ingredients from spring, also known as spring food."
"Beating the spring ox is naturally called beating spring—" Song Linsheng raised his hand and pointed, "As for sprinkling water with willow branches, it's called muchun."
Wen Yu looked in the direction of his finger, and sure enough, Lord Mu, who was dressed as the "Goddess of Spring", was holding a jade bottle, which was as long as her forearm and seemed quite heavy. It seemed that the jade bottle contained the water used by "Muchun".
He held the jade bottle in his left hand and twisted a thin willow branch in his right hand. When he raised his hand, he was dipping the willow branch into the jade bottle, bringing out some dew. The "Goddess of Spring" waved her right arm, and the willow branch swayed, drawing an arc in the air, and the dew flew in all directions.
The dew sprinkled on the people around, and people all reached out to catch it with a smile.
"Bath in the spring water means receiving the blessing of the God of Spring. It also means washing away the past year and welcoming the new." Song Linsheng followed Wen Yu and walked side by side with her.
"Then what are we waiting for?" Wen Yu tilted her head to look at Song Linsheng. Her braids swayed gently as she turned and fell in front of her. "Let's join in the fun!"
"Hey!" Song Linsheng called out, as if trying to stop her, but Wen Yu was like an arrow shot from a bow, running away in the blink of an eye. Seeing that Wen Yu was in high spirits, he didn't say anything more and just followed her.
"Goddess of Spring--" Wen Yu shouted, calling out to Lord Mu who was high up.
She simply found it truly amusing. The real God of Spring was far away, while the fake God of Spring was right before her eyes. Before she became civilized, she had stared at the statue of the God of Spring in the Wutong Ancestral Temple day and night, and had only thought that the God of Spring was extremely beautiful. After she transformed and followed Ju Mangjun in the Spring Temple to comprehend the immortal arts, she realized that the God of Spring was actually a man.
Now, watching Lord Mu play the role of the God of Spring is a different kind of fun.
The Supreme God sits in the temple, protecting the world, and mortals offer sacrifices and offerings to the gods every year. Lord Mu plays the Goddess of Spring, who materializes the statue in the Wutong Ancestral Temple and walks among the people, carrying the hopes and aspirations of countless mortals.
Wen Yu secretly thought that the beautiful buildings in heaven were great, and the customs and people on earth were also good.
Mu Tong obviously heard Wen Yu's call. The "Goddess of Spring" who was originally sprinkling spring water on the side quickly turned around and faced Wen Yu.
If he wasn't pretending to be the God of Spring, he would have responded directly. Mu Tong glanced at his clothes and could only gently signal Wen Yu with his eyes.
Wen Yu met his eyes and saw the bead curtain on his face swaying with his movements. She raised her hands and waved them, still calling out in a playful tone, "Goddess of Spring! Goddess of Spring!"
Mu Tong knew that she was joking on purpose, but he was neither annoyed nor angry. He continued to play the role of the beautiful Goddess of Spring with a caring heart and beautiful eyes.
He raised his hand and soaked the willow in the jade bottle for a long time. When the willow tip had drunk enough water, he pulled out the note and waved it straight towards Wen Yu in front of him.
The water of blessing will naturally benefit all people, and Madam Wen should also be included.
Mu Tong's expression remained unchanged, but he was having a hard time holding back his laughter.
Of course, Wen Yu saw all his actions and even estimated the time the willow branch had been in the bottle accurately. Needless to say, Wen Yu also knew what Lord Mu was thinking.
She had no intention of avoiding it. Hadn't Song Linsheng just said that, "Mu Chunke can wash away the past year and welcome the new year, which is a blessing." Now that she was in the mortal world, she might as well follow its rules. Besides, what Lord Mu sprinkled wasn't hail, just a few drops of water. She could still bear it.
Wen Yu closed her eyes and raised her hands high, ready to catch the spring water.
But the noise of the crowd was still in my ears, and the expected spring water did not fall.
Wen Yu frowned, shook her head left and right, and opened one eye suspiciously - all she saw was white, or to be more precise, plain white brocade.
Wen Yu looked up and saw that it was Song Linsheng standing in front of her.
Perhaps because of the previous running, his originally meticulously combed bun was now loose. A strand of hair was wet by the water and stuck to his forehead, winding on his fair face like distant mountains in an ink painting, and then continuously flowing down and disappearing into his neck.
Drops of water trickled down his nose and onto his face, not to mention his back which was half wet.
Wen Yu opened her lips slightly. How did Lord Mu manage to sprinkle water with a willow branch but it seemed like he threw Song Linsheng into the Yuanshui River and flooded it?
Wen Yu wanted to ask Song Linsheng, "Are you not wet?" But she felt it was unnecessary to ask.
But she couldn't understand why Song Linsheng came to block her way after he said Mu Chun was blessed?
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The author has something to say: [Note] Quoted from "Li Sao"
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