Chapter 15: Long History
Chapter 15: Long History
"The villagers who had been staying indoors last night finally went out to check the almanac. Does this mean that the snake god is not causing any diseases now?" Feng Yusu asked curiously as she listened to the noisy footsteps under the roof.
"Maybe." Ning Zhe did not comment much.
Perhaps because it was taboo to offer sacrifices today, the villagers who came to the ancestral hall did not burn incense to the snake god after checking the almanac, let alone offer vegetables and food on the lotus platform as usual.
But the strange thing is that after checking the almanac, the huge crowds that flocked to the ancestral temple did not offer sacrifices to the snake god, but they did not leave either.
They just stood there quietly, motionless.
"What's going on?" Feng Yuxu carefully took out his cell phone and glanced at the lock screen.
The time now is 05:51 in the morning. The sun has just climbed above the horizon, and the surrounding environment is not very bright, but still gloomy.
Ning Zhe swept his eyes around. The crisscrossing streets and alleys around the ancestral hall were crowded with people, both coming and going. There were shadowy figures on the roads, and the gloomy sky was filled with gloomy people.
On both sides of the street, behind every open door, a strange figure with a yellow paper covering his face walked out slowly and staggeringly.
Their bodies are real yet blurry, and their steps are as synchronized as well-tuned machines.
He Shunsheng, He Youlin, He... The names written on the yellow paper covering their faces were different. They were clearly different people, but they all stepped on the wet stone road with the same foot at the same second.
Such a spectacular and strange scene made Feng Yuqin extremely nervous. He subconsciously grasped the red cloth covering his legs tightly with both hands, and his face turned pale.
But when she turned around, Ning Zhe looked still the same as usual.
His expression was eerily calm, his hollow eyes were as still as a pool of stagnant water, as if he was a very bored man sitting lazily on the grass, looking down at a group of busy ants.
Seeing Ning Zhe's indifferent look, Feng Yuqin's originally panicked heart gradually calmed down.
"Ning, Ningzhe, what are they going to do?" Feng Yuqin asked in a low voice.
Ning Zhe shrugged: "I guess it might be a sacrifice, or a wedding, or someone's death or something."
"Sacrifice?" Feng Yuxuan was stunned: "But isn't it taboo to offer sacrifices today?"
“So I said I guessed.”
Ning Zhe said softly, "In a village like this, there aren't many occasions where the whole village can get together. Either they have fun together during festivals, or they worship the gods together. Otherwise, there are weddings and funerals."
Now the place where they gather is the ancestral hall, and it is very likely that the villagers hold collective sacrificial activities here.
But if it was a sacrifice, it would be a bit strange.
"Why are these people risking breaking taboos by offering sacrifices to the Snake God today?" Such doubts began to linger in Ning Zhe's mind.
Just as I was wondering, suddenly two children holding hands appeared from a corner of the street and merged into the crowd rashly.
Ning Zhe's sharp eyes followed the two figures closely. The two children, one boy and one girl, had a piece of dry yellow paper on their faces like other villagers, with different names written on them.
The boy's face says: He Jingyan
The girl's face says: Why
The arrival of these two people seemed to have triggered a switch. When He Jingyan and He Yiyi disappeared in the crowd, the villagers who had gathered inside and outside the ancestral hall without saying a word knelt down.
Rows of human figures fell to the ground in unison, like rice plants bent by a typhoon. Their foreheads banged heavily on the ground inside the ancestral hall and in the muddy water on the wet streets. Sheets of yellow paper with people's names written on them were soaked in mud.
They knelt down towards the ancestral hall, and their faces, which had been covered by yellow paper, were now exposed because they were kneeling. If you bend down and observe carefully, you can see their mouths opening and closing one after another, and a faint murmur sounded from the crowd: [Good mountains look at the soil, it is unbroken and unmoved. ]
[The old man's new coffin, not yet buried or moved. ]
[The white jade is flawless, but the full moon has its flaws. ]
The murmuring sound, sticky as mud and fine as rain, continued to ring out, carrying some kind of indescribable religious meaning, making people feel a little hazy.
The villagers recited the sacrificial words in very soft voices, almost like a soliloquy that only the speaker could hear, and the words were even a little unclear.
Ning Zhe tried to concentrate and discern the specific content of these sacrificial words. The fragmented words gradually became clear in his ears:
[Swaying faintly, without a trace...]
[As clear as water, as bright as the sun...]
[…Bright and clear, the blue and white porcelain shines brightly in the sky…]
[… Vast and misty, a dragon is wandering in the boundless smoke and clouds…]
Ning Zhe's brows slowly relaxed, and his originally confused and alert emotions unconsciously calmed down.
These obscure yet clear words seem not to be heard through the ears, but to ring directly in the mind. The wonderful syllables give people an indescribable weird feeling.
Broad, big, profound, immense, tiny... Ning Zhe could think of too many words to describe the feelings echoing in his heart and mind, but none of them could fully summarize them.
It was as if these obscure words, once spoken by the villagers, were no longer simple sentences, but that there was truly a more transcendent existence responding to their prayers.
The sticky time slowly flowed with the sound of mournful sacrificial words, and the time came to 06:30 in the morning.
Ning Zhe saw that the villagers who had been kneeling and muttering to themselves for a long time finally took other actions - dozens of people who were kneeling at the gate of the ancestral hall stood up one after another, making room for everyone.
Two strong young men walked out of the ancestral hall and together they lifted a long wooden table to the vacant space at the entrance of the hall. If it weren't for their awkward puppet-like movements, the scene would have even had the solemnity and sacredness unique to religious occasions.
"This is..." Feng Yusu subconsciously wrapped the big red tablecloth tightly around her body. She discovered that the table carried out by the villagers was the sacrificial table that Ning Zhe used to hide Lin Zhiyuan's body.
The tablecloth is now wrapped around her, and the table itself has been carried out by the villagers. Doesn’t this mean that Lin Zhiyuan’s body has also been discovered by the villagers?
"Don't panic, just watch quietly." Ning Zhe put a finger in front of Feng Yusu's lips which were slightly opened due to panic.
Under the roof, several villagers came forward and placed three pieces of white paper, two long and one short, on the table at the entrance of the ancestral hall.
Afterwards, a bald old man with gray hair and beard came to the table, and others immediately served him with writing materials.
The old man picked up the brush and wrote blood-red words on the pale white paper:
First couplet: [Pearls and jades on the Bashe case testify to the ancestor]
Second line: [Descendants add fragrance to the lotus hall]
Horizontal banner: [Long history]
(End of this chapter)