Li Xiyue heated the tiles over a fire until they were red-hot, then used a net to catch some leeches and placed them on the tiles. With a sizzling sound, some of the jumping leeches curled up, while others straightened out.
"Yueyue, this smells awful." Huang Xinrui couldn't stand the smell of roasted leeches.
Li Xiyue also covered her mouth and nose, "It really smells bad, I'll go to the yard to get rid of it."
Wang Jiaxing took a few stones and built a makeshift stove for her, and Li Xiyue, feeling utterly hopeless, roasted leeches in the yard.
Having been a doctor for two lifetimes, this was the first time I'd ever encountered such primitive medicinal herbs.
Two and a half buckets of leeches, roasted until she questioned the meaning of life.
Fortunately, the leeches were roasted before dinner. Since there's sunshine, they can be dried in the sun and ground into powder later. Anyway, the leeches can't escape now.
The roasted leeches were so sour and pungent that they ruined Li Xiyue's appetite. She barely ate any food at noon, and couldn't fall asleep when she went back to her room for a nap. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw images of countless leeches wriggling in the water.
When it was time to start work in the afternoon, Lai Di and the others started catching leeches again with smiles on their faces. Li Xiyue quickly told them to stop, making an excuse that there were enough leeches and to switch to other kinds.
The children then went to the fields to dig for earthworms.
As a result, after finishing work in the afternoon, Li Xiyue harvested several buckets of long, fat, wriggling earthworms.
Li Xiyue: "..."
She shouldn't have shown such kindness.
She'd had enough for today. She wouldn't cook those earthworms anymore. She covered them up and put them in the yard. After a quick dinner, she went to the river with Wang Jiaxing and Huang Xinrui.
When they arrived at the riverbank, all the villagers were there.
Apart from the villagers of the first team, everyone in the entire production brigade gathered by the river. The first, second, and third teams stood on one side, while the fourth and fifth teams stood on the other, forming a contest.
"What is this for?" Huang Xinrui couldn't help but ask curiously.
Wang Jiaxing said, "March 3rd is a relatively important festival in the area. Every year on this day, people from the village come to the river to celebrate."
"What do we need to do?" Li Xiyue asked as well.
"Actually, it's just about washing your hands and feet in the river and then singing folk songs," Wang Jiaxing said in a low voice. "This festival used to be very grand, with prayers, banquets, and exorcisms... But now that we're eliminating the Four Olds, those things can't be done, so it's been simplified."
Li Xiyue and Huang Xinrui exchanged a glance. It seemed to be a feudal superstitious festival that had been passed down from ancient times. No wonder they hadn't heard of it much in later generations.
Suddenly I remembered that the "Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion" that Li Xiyue studied in school was about this festival, wasn't it?
At the time, she thought the classical Chinese text was very evocative and even memorized it.
Xu Guoqiang gave his opening remarks through a megaphone, and then many people, still dressed, jumped into the river with a splash.
Li Xiyue was surprised, "Aren't we supposed to be washing our hands and feet? Why are you taking a bath?"
"This festival is about bathing in the river to get rid of evil spirits and bad luck, but the weather isn't hot, so many people don't dare to bathe. They just wash their hands and feet as a formality. But the young and strong men aren't afraid of the cold, so they jump in to bathe," Wang Jiaxing explained.
I see.
“Let’s go through the motions too.” Wang Jiaxing led the two down the river steps, washed their hands and feet, and then returned to the shore.
Next came the singing competition. Xu Guoqiang, as the team leader, started it, and then the vice-captains of each team took turns singing. They were all local folk songs and folk songs, which Li Xiyue had never heard before in her two lifetimes, and she found them quite interesting.
As night fell, men, women, and children gathered together, singing and laughing, creating a lively atmosphere.
It was Li Xiyue's first time experiencing local customs since coming to the countryside, and she was very happy.
Members from both sides of the strait sang in pairs, and some men picked wildflowers to give to their wives and partners, filling the scene with laughter.
"Yueyue, take these two eggs." Grandma Yu squeezed in from somewhere and stuffed two eggs into Li Xiyue's hands.
Seeing that it was a cracked hard-boiled egg with a greenish surface, Li Xiyue asked in confusion, "Why is it this color?"
Grandma Yu explained, "These are eggs cooked with shepherd's purse. You're from the city, so you don't know. We have a saying here: eggs cooked with shepherd's purse on the third day of the third lunar month are better than elixir. They're good for your health."
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