It took longer to get from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain than from the city. There was no resting place along the way, so it took nearly two hours to get there.
After reaching the top of the mountain, I felt that the wind was getting stronger. In the carriage, I could clearly hear the whine of the wind blowing through the woods. This would be quite scary at night.
After turning out of the forest, we came to an open space. Now the open space was full of people, the shouts of vendors and the cheers of the crowd surrounding the sideshow stalls came and went, as if we had suddenly entered the deep world and entered the fireworks of others.
Fortunately, even if there were many people in the open space, the middle road leading to the temple gate was not blocked. The carriage could move forward unimpeded, and the flow of people was on both sides of the road.
They did not get off the carriage, but followed the large troops directly into Qingyuan Temple, and parked the carriage in a specially parked area in the front yard of Qingyuan Temple.
Then he and the lady from another family got off the carriage, and first went into the main hall to burn incense.
The ladies donated some money for incense and then went to the backyard to wait for the ceremony to begin today.
The ladies took their maids or guards directly out of the side entrance of the temple to visit the temple fair, so they were divided into two groups.
Qingyan could see that Xue Huan'er actually wanted to go out to the temple fair with them, but was pulled away by a lady with whom she had a good relationship. Qingyan and Li Muxue looked at each other with reluctant expressions, covering their mouths. laugh.
The ladies went to the backyard to chat, and Qingyan and Wang Qingyue took Li Muxue to have free time.
Mrs. Wang was also taken away by Xue Huan'er and the others. Mrs. Wang was not reluctant. Although she was very happy to go out for a walk, she still couldn't handle going to the temple fair with her daughter.
One was that her body couldn't support her. She was exhausted after riding in a carriage for more than two hours. She couldn't hold herself on the carriage just now. She had to go to the back room to rest.
Another thing is that Qingyan discovered that Mrs. Wang actually has some social fears. She will be very nervous when there are many people and cannot communicate openly with others. She is very passive and responds to what others say. If others do not take the initiative, she will He won't take the initiative to speak at all.
Fortunately, with Xue Huan'er, a social cow, taking her by her side, it wasn't very embarrassing. Wang Qingyue trusted Xue Huan'er's character and felt relieved to leave her mother to her.
After all, her mother is also the wife of Tongpan, who is an official with real power. These ladies will do something to save face, and no one will really say anything bad in front of her face, so there is no need to worry about her mother being bullied.
Like birds out of their cages, the three half-grown girls led the maids directly out of the temple and into the crowd outside.
Wang Qingyue brought a maid with him, Qingyan and Li Muxue brought one, and each had a maid left for Xue Huan'er and Mrs. Wang to help run errands or serve tea and water.
The coachman stayed at the carriage, which still had some things on it. There were many people here, and he was afraid that there would be young people there.
It's not that I'm afraid of having my money stolen or anything like that. This carriage is used by ladies and ladies, and it contains some of their personal belongings. It would be very troublesome if it were lost.
When a group of five people came outside, the closest thing next to the side door of the temple was a stage.
Qingyan looked at the shed on the stage that looked a bit like the funeral sheds seen in later generations, the kind where coffins were parked.
The roof above is covered with oilcloth, surrounded by wooden shelves and mats. There is no wooden platform below, there is a relatively high place directly here.
I don't know if it was reserved specifically for this stage or for some other purpose. There was a stone platform about half a person's height, and the stage was built directly on it.
Two pieces of faded red cloth hung in front to serve as curtains. Now they were lifted up and hung on both sides. There were a few people wearing heavy makeup singing on them.
The song should be a local opera here, using the dialect here, plus the opera tune. Some Qingyan can understand it and some can't. Looking at the group of people squatting, sitting or standing below, she just I know it is still very popular with local people.
Judging from the clothes of those people, they should be from nearby villagers. Not to mention tattered, they definitely don't belong to wealthy families anyway. They shouldn't even be considered well-off. Most of them have patches on them.
It was quite clean and tidy, and he must have put on his best clothes to attend the temple fair.
This kind of temple fair only happens a few times a year, and the nearby villagers should come here early to join in the fun.
The five of them stood on the periphery and listened for a while, then lost interest.
Qingyan didn't understand it, Li Muxue was not interested in this kind of opera because she was young, and Wang Qingyue was tired of hearing this story.
As soon as she heard it, she knew which part of the opera was being sung. As she led them away, she told them what the opera was about.
This play tells the story of the Dragon King. It tells the story of a Dragon Palace on their side of the Weishui River. It turned out that there was a lot of water. Later, the son of the Dragon King married the daughter of the Dragon King of Dongting. It was not good for him because he later fell in love with someone else. , the other party's uncle came over and overthrew the Dragon Palace. Later, there was no longer a Dragon King to guard the area, so the water became less and less, and there was even drought in some places.
After the dragon girl was taken back to Dongting, she found that she had a child. When the child grew up, she returned here, and the Dragon Palace here was rebuilt, and the peace and prosperity here slowly returned to normal.
Qingyan listened to what Wang Qingyue said was quite interesting and somewhat familiar. She seemed to have heard her mother tell her this story, but she heard it from the opposite perspective. It was from the Dragon Girl's side, and it seemed to be Liu Yijing's story.
At that time, she felt that this fairy tale was quite realistic, and it was all about love, hate, and resentment just like the human world. Of course, this was most likely imagined by the people, who wanted to explain why many places here were suffering from drought. Find a valid reason for water.
There are actually quite a few rivers here, but they don't flow through many places. There are many places where no rivers pass through.
Moreover, this side is a plateau, and it is difficult to find other water sources in places where there are no rivers passing through. Therefore, there are more dry places. It is better now, but in future generations, there will be less water here.
In later generations, many people donated money to build their mothers' water cellars. They were not wells with underground water, but were used to store rainwater. You can imagine how lacking of water resources there are here.
She came here with her mother when she was eleven years old. Her family also donated money for her mother's water cellar project and came here specifically to inspect it.
She saw that many families, especially those in remote villages, walked for several hours to fetch water. They really tried their best to save water.
To what extent? The water must settle overnight before use, because the water is very turbid and contains a lot of sediment.
The next morning, you will first use it to wash rice, cook and wash vegetables. After washing the vegetables, you will use the water to wash your hands, face and brush your teeth. Then the water will be used to wash clothes. After washing the clothes, this water does not mean that it will be thrown away. Instead, it is used to feed chickens and water vegetables.
Moreover, one basin of water is used by the whole family once, and it does not mean that one person has to change it after using it. At that time, she and her mother lived at the village chief's house, which had the best conditions in the village. Even so, one can imagine that the conditions were even worse. What do bad people look like?
It was common not to wash her face for several days. At that time, she thought about asking Xiangxiang to put some water for them. There were not only lakes and seas in Xiangxiang's space, but there was a lot of water. It was her mother who stopped her and told her not to mess up. Come on, they can't do this kind of thing. If they are discovered, they will probably be sectioned by the state for study.
Because of this, it left a particularly deep impression on her. Later, when she mentioned the northwest, she would think of water shortage.
After the five of them left the stage, there was a shop selling knickknacks in front of them, and a shop selling snacks further ahead.
They are not very interested in snacks. They are just some candy dolls and rice krispie treats made from millet. Because sugar is relatively rare, there are not many people who make these, and the prices are relatively high. A small The candy man costs ten cents.
Then a piece of rice krispie treats costs two cents, and it’s a very small piece, about the same size as a mahjong piece.
So they went straight to the place selling knickknacks, mostly handmade products, such as baskets and other wood carvings, and there were also people selling clay figurines, but they were not as colorful as the ones in later generations, and today's paints It's very expensive, so a little bit of color is already very strange, and there aren't many characters, all of which are animals.
There were many children squatting there and watching the clay figurine seller making them. Some of them had already been made, mostly lions, dogs, and tigers.
This one is not expensive, a larger one costs five cents, and a smaller and simpler one costs one or two cents.
They are all palm-sized, and the largest one is only twenty or thirty centimeters. The two-cent ones are more popular, and can be owned by many children from ordinary families, and their parents are willing to buy them for them.
The wood carvings are almost the same, but there are slightly more styles. In addition to animals, there are also mini carriages and small houses.
Qingyan fell in love with a small house because it was very similar to the wooden house she customized. She thought it was interesting and could be placed as a decoration in the wooden house.
The small house is very delicately made, and the edges and corners are smooth and not irritating at all. It is quite heavy in the hand. It seems that the wood used is good.
I asked about the price, "Boss, how did you sell this small house?"
The boss is a middle-aged man who looks to be in his forties or fifties. Of course, he should be an old man in this era.
He has a beard on his chin, his hair is a little gray, and his face has fewer wrinkles than some farmers. It can be seen that those who make money from their crafts can work at home without having to go to the fields to be exposed to the wind and sun, and they still need a little maintenance. a little better.
The other party raised his head, smiled and said: "It took me two days to carve this. If the girl likes to give it fifty cents, that's fine."
Qingyan really liked it, and the price was not expensive, so she didn't make a counter-offer and just took out fifty coins and handed it to the boss.
Holding the small house in my hand, the problem arises. Although this small house is not big, only about twenty centimeters, it is quite heavy. It is not like the later generations who would wrap things in a box or carry them in a plastic bag. With.
She couldn't keep carrying it with her hands like this. After thinking about it, she walked to the basket selling place not far away and bought a rattan basket that could be hung on her hand.
This basket is quite delicately woven. Although there is no pattern, it is very finely woven.
It's not like the ones they made randomly on the road before, where the holes can let the beans leak out. This gap is handled very well. Unless it's filled with water, it feels like it won't leak out if it's filled with flour.
This basket cost five cents, which was quite cheap. Wang Qingyue and Li Muxue also bought wooden carvings such as a small carriage and a small pavilion, and then followed them here.
Seeing that she bought a basket and put it in the small house and carried it on her back, she said, "Why don't you just let the maid hold it? Why do you need to buy a basket and carry it yourself?"
Qingyan raised her arm towards her and said with a smile: "Don't you understand this? The joy of shopping is to hold a basket in your hands, put the things you like into it, and then look at it from time to time. See, that feeling of contentment makes you feel good.”
Upon hearing this, the two of them paid for it and each bought a basket.
Wang Qingyue and Li Muxue also carried the basket on their arms, and took the wooden sculpture in the maid's hand to put it inside. Although it was a bit heavy, it was not very heavy, only one or two kilograms, and they could still carry it.
The one Li Muxue bought was slightly smaller. After all, she was smaller and it seemed difficult to carry a big basket.
After hanging the basket on their hands, they continued walking forward and bought some silk flower and wood hairpins that they liked. They were not valuable, but the workmanship was quite fine, and at least they looked pretty.
Putting them in the basket, seeing more and more things in the basket, Li Muxue said to them: "Sister Yue...eh? You two seem to have the word "Yue" in the moon. Sister Heng Yue said it very well. Yes, it’s true. From time to time, I look at the things I bought in the basket and I feel so happy. I feel very happy just by looking at it..."
Wang Qingyue also nodded beside her. Just now, Li Muxue called Yue "Yue" sister. She thought she was calling her. Then she realized that both her and Heng Yue's names had "Yue" in them. Although they knew they had the same pronunciation but different characters, But it's really easy to get confused when it comes to shouting.
"This feeling of shopping by yourself with a basket is indeed more fun than letting the maids carry it. You can try it in Nancheng in the future. There is a market there every morning and it is very lively."
Wang Qingyue said to the two of them with a smile.
After that, they went to the other side to watch the sideshow and threw a lot of coins to others.
There was a man who was playing with a machete and spitting fire from his mouth. The child Li Muxue screamed in surprise. He stretched out his hand and was about to throw out the broken silver in his purse to reward, but Qingyan was quick to stop him and threw a handful of it. The copper coins go out.
It’s not that she’s afraid of being too generous and giving too much money. The main reason is that there are so many people at this temple fair, so if she’s too generous, she’ll be targeted easily.
They were dressed very low-key today. They didn't wear anything like satin. They were just ordinary cotton jackets and skirts. The colors were not very outstanding. They looked like the kind of people who had a little wealth at home, just for the convenience of going to the temple fair.
So it's better not to be too conspicuous. She still understands the principle of keeping wealth secret.
(End of chapter)
