In this world, the most lively time of the year is the Lantern Festival.
From Chang'an to the prefecture, wherever there is room for breath, night markets will be opened, lanterns will be hung, and the scene will be lively for three days and three nights.
According to Li Changan's cheap master, there are often fairies in barren mountains and graves, and ghosts and gods in heaven and earth who can't stand their loneliness. They are attracted by the excitement of the Lantern Festival and come to the lantern market to enjoy themselves with people.
As for the thrilling, funny or sentimental stories that emerged from this, they are another legend.
But this custom, which is common across the country, changes when it comes to Xiaoshui.
The Lantern Festival was hastily arranged, and all the excitement, including lighting up lanterns and setting off the night, and even the obscure male-female blind date, were moved to this Bacchus festival.
It seems different from the Shangyuan Festival.
During the ceremony, lanterns will be lit for two consecutive days on the busiest waterway in front of the Dionysian cellar, and a grand ceremony will be held on the third day to offer wine and thank the gods.
Today is the first day of the Dionysus Festival.
So early in the morning, on the streets on both sides, the owners, shopkeepers, and waiters of various shops were not busy doing business. They were just hanging up lanterns, tying colorful ribbons, and arranging carefully prepared lanterns in front of the shops. Just waiting for the night to shine.
The water surface is even more lively. Boats of all sizes have secured their seats early. The hosts are all locals, and even entertainers, prostitutes, actors, and famous actors in various operas have come from all over the place. At the festival, we must use the program that has been carefully prepared for a year to become a blockbuster and win over the whole city!
On the street, there are naturally a lot of impatient pedestrians who wander around early, waiting to take a sneak peek.
On this festive day, everyone, whether rich or poor, naturally put on their best clothes and looked their best. Even a beggar who is hungry has to wash himself before going out to earn a favor, which is a lot to ask for two copper coins, isn't it?
But there are always oddities in the bustle and tidiness.
Suddenly a gap opened in the bustling crowd, and a beggar stumbled out on the street.
His clothes were shabby and dirty, his hair looked like knotted algae, and his face was black and had several large pustules. He was as dirty as a mire and smelled worse than a cesspit, and bugs were flying around him.
He received countless rolls of eyes and disgust, but he didn't react at all. He just stumbled forward, like a wandering corpse.
Too good to die.
Several evil boys came from the opposite side.
One side was acting recklessly, the other was ignorant. No one on either side could dodge, and they bumped into each other.
Nothing more needs to be said next.
The beggar was taken to the depths of the alley next to him by these evil young men and beaten severely.
Strange to say.
For a beggar like this who has been around for many years, being beaten is a necessary skill. At this time, it is time to gather his body, protect his vitals, and scream and beg loudly.
But this man just lay upright, letting the fists and kicks hit his body. He didn't even hum, he just hummed something in his mouth.
One of the evil boys was tired from beating him. He held his nose and leaned over to listen carefully.
It turns out that only one word is repeated.
"Hungry."
"Still calling you hungry?"
The evil boy laughed strangely.
After leaving the alley, not long after, he came back with a bowl of sour rice soup.
"Xu."
Like calling a pig or dog, he pursed his lips, blew a whistle, and poured the rice soup into the wall.
"For you to eat."
One moment, the evil boys were still laughing and joking, admiring the "humor" of their companions, but the next moment, the laughter stopped suddenly, and one after another seemed like a duck being strangled by the throat.
All they saw was that the beggar, who had been half-dead just now, suddenly rushed towards the wall like a crazy wild dog, pressed his face into the corner, and licked him as hard as he could.
Even though the hard wall squeezed out the abscess on his face and left a red and yellow stain, he didn't even notice it. He just tried his best to dig out his tongue to dig out the leftover soup in the cracks of the rocks.
"Crazy, crazy."
The evil young men looked at each other in disbelief, and they all saw a chill in each other's eyes, and even a hint of inexplicable fear.
He quickly pretended to spit a few words, said a few harsh words, and left in a hurry.
The beggar doesn't care, or in other words, he doesn't have the energy to care.
The little bit of rice soup that just entered my stomach actually ignited the hunger in my belly, and now my internal organs are burning and hurting!
At this moment, there is only one thought in my mind.
eat!
He simply peeled off the moss and wall covering that still smelled of sour rice soup, and stuffed it into his mouth.
At this time, a soft voice came from the side.
"Are you OK?"
He looked up and saw Jingmucha and green skirt. He didn't know which little girl came to show his kindness.
The beggar murmured: "Hungry."
As he spoke, a little bit of moss appeared at the corner of his mouth, and he hurriedly stuffed it back into his mouth.
The little girl looked at it and sighed.
"You can't eat that."
She took out a few coins and handed them over.
"Take it and buy a pancake."
The beggar stopped chewing.
He looked at the copper coin, or in other words, he stared at the hand holding the copper coin.
So white!
How difficult it is!
It looks like soaked chicken feet, or sheep's hooves that have been blanched and stripped of their hair.
Throat rolls.
He suddenly caught the "sheep's hoof".
…………
"What did I do?!"
"What did I do?!"
"What did I do?!"
In a dark room in an abandoned house, the beggar pulled his hair and asked himself repeatedly.
Gradually.
He hugged his body and huddled in the corner, sobbing and crying.
Although he is a beggar and has no self-respect at all, he is a bastard who lacks tears and blood.
In my bleak and mediocre half-life, I have cried so bitterly only twice.
The first time was to pay off gambling debts and sell off the ancestral property, which made my parents angry to death.
The second time, he sold his never-ending wife for gambling debts.
And this time.
He cried so miserably that it was as if the hunger in his belly, mixed with his heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys, were squeezed out of his eyes.
Just because he felt inexplicably that what he was going to lose this time seemed to be more and more important than the previous two times. It was something that a human being should have.
Just curled up, whimpering, and confused.
Absolutely cold.
There was a faint voice outside the house:
"Damn, there are so many bugs in this poor place! Catch that guy quickly and go back to deal with it."
"Did you see that he is really still there?"
"You can see clearly that the bad gambler was still in the house just now."
Bad gambler? !
The beggar was agitated.
Something happened?
The government came to the door so quickly!
He didn't care about dropping cat urine, so he quickly turned over and groped his way to the corner of the wall. He lifted up the piles of grass and revealed a dog hole.
Footsteps outside the door gradually approached.
He didn't dare to stay, so he raised his butt and got in.
However, as soon as the head was released, there was a tightness on the scalp, and someone grabbed the hair and pulled it out.
Once outside, take a closer look.
A man bared his arms and looked at himself jokingly.
Mother!
The beggar trembled from his toes to the tip of his heart.
"Hua Yan Luo" Zhang Tong!
…
"You scumbag, grandpa is looking for you, how dare you run away?"
Zhang Tong pulled the beggar's hair like a radish tassel and shook it casually, feeling secretly proud of himself.
It's ridiculous that Taoist Li still wants to eat alone, but he doesn't know that the eyes of the brothers are always watching. The Yamen over there didn't take any action, but I got the news here.
I just don’t know how a few other people got the news and came over to get a piece of the pie.
But nothing.
Who knows the urban foxes, community rats, culverts and side alleys of Xiaoshui City better than Zhang Tong?
No, this is the first, isn’t it?
He was thinking: This credit must be worth twenty or thirty taels of silver.
Suddenly.
It felt greasy in my hands and felt quite uncomfortable.
Let go and take a look.
It turned out that there were some bugs hidden in the beggar’s hair.
He grabbed it and crushed it all in his hands.
Red insect blood, yellow pus, and black dirt were stained all over his hands.
Zhang Tong was so disgusted that he flew into a rage. He raised his hand and slapped the beggar with a spinning top.
It was a slap in the face for nothing.
The beggar groaned, not daring to breathe. He endured the swelling and pain on his left face and used his hands and feet to run away.
It's a pity that I didn't climb a few steps.
"Snapped."
Another crisp slap fell on the right cheek.
Zhang Shaonan sneered and blocked him back.
Now both sides of the face were completely healed, and became swollen like a monkey's butt.
Seeing that there was no way to go from heaven to earth, the beggar fell to his knees and kowtowed vigorously.
"Master Tong, Master Nan, please give me a few more days of grace for the money I owe you. Next time... next time I will pay it back."
The beggar begged and took a moment to glance around, only to see "Hua Yanluo" folding his arms and just sneering.
His heart skipped a beat and he panicked.
"Master Tong, you are so kind and merciful, please spare my life. If you keep me, you still have money to pay; if you kill me, you won't be able to pay back the money!"
Zhang Tong sneered and was about to kick this shameless bastard a few times, but from the corner of his eye, he saw Taoist Li and a few others heading this way.
Grinning.
"rest assured."
"This time we will neither collect debt nor risk our lives."
He pulled the beggar up.
"Grandpa, I'm here to save your life today."
"ah?"
…………
The east wind blows thousands of trees into bloom at night.
That night.
The Dionysus Festival arrives as scheduled.
There are endless flowers and trees, noisy singing and dancing, bright lights, and thousands of tourists.
Not only the long street in front of the Dionysus Cellar, but also the nearby markets, it can be said that half of Xiaoshui was included in the celebration.
But where there is excitement, there is desertion; where there is prosperity, there is loneliness.
The jackdaw was mournful in the sky and landed in a heavily locked courtyard in the east of the city.
This is the prison of Xiaoshui Prefecture.
A corner that is excluded from the bustling world.
The unlucky ones inside could not enjoy the festive festivities. They could only stand through the iron bars and listen eagerly to the laughter and laughter coming from afar, as well as the annoying noises of mosquitoes in the prison.
"Buzz~buzz~"
"Snapped!"
"Shh! Keep your voice down."
"Keep it down, it's been a while now, I don't think the murderer will come at all!"
Er.
There were several noises in the deserted place, a curtain in the corner was torn open, and "Hua Yama" came out angrily.
This time in previous years.
He had already spent a lot of money on the lantern market, and then went away happily.
But today, for the sake of money, I have to huddle in this cell and wait for the fish to bite the hook.
However, at this time, it was estimated that the lantern market was about to end, but the murderer had not yet come, but he had fed the mosquitoes in the prison in vain.
"Let's set up an ambush, but put it in a prison. The murderer is not a fool, so how can he be willing to throw himself into a trap?"
He kept complaining.
around.
Zhang Shaonan is the younger brother, so he can't say much; the ranger and the swordsman maintained their masterly demeanor and just stood silently; the Taoist sat in meditation and was too lazy to talk to him.
Only Zheng Tuzi couldn't bear the noise and frowned at him and explained:
"This beggar attacked a girl during the day. Although he didn't accomplish anything, the stench knocked her out. In full view of the public, many people knew about it. If he were not put in jail, wouldn't it be even more troublesome? Are people suspicious?"
"It's better to be suspicious when you have doubts than to wait and feed the mosquitoes!"
He is well-informed, how could he not know about this? It's just that I'm anxious and act randomly.
"I don't think this thing is reliable. It must be the catcher trying to trick us. Otherwise, why don't the government send a few more people here? Are we allowed to earn this reward?"
"It's just a bait and ambush, how can it be so grand?"
Zheng Tuzi also had a bad temper. Seeing that Zhang Tong was still unwilling to forgive, he simply cursed.
"If you can't bear it, just leave. That murderer killed hundreds of soldiers and horses by himself. Just with the tricks of your two brothers, don't hold them back here and waste their lives in vain."
Zhang Tong's expression changed.
"You butcher..."
Zhang Shaonan quickly grabbed his brother.
He knew the details of this butcher, but he was not easy to provoke, so he just smiled.
"The patrol troops and horses in the city are all crooked melons and cracked dates. My brother can kill them seven times in and seven out with two sentry sticks."
He patted his chest and spoke without any shame.
"I don't think that murderer may be very powerful, but he is just using illusions to trick others. As long as you are prepared and break her trick, she will never come back!"
"Yes."
Zhang Tong supported his brothers and pointed to the "secret weapon" prepared in the corner.
"Child urine, black dog blood, menstrual cloth, incense burner ashes, let alone a conjuring murderer, even if the Celestial Master from Longhu Mountain comes, my brother will still shower him with blood."
Now, Taoist Feng couldn't sit still.
"Arrogant!"
He snorted coldly.
"The Taoism is profound and profound. How can you, a scoundrel like you, be able to talk about it?"
"Yo ho."
Zhang Tong sneered and said angrily:
"Your Taoist skills are really powerful. When you steal steamed cakes, you say you're stealing small ones but you're not going to steal big ones?"
Taoist Feng immediately blushed.
"It's an illusion, it's enlightenment... How can something done by a monk be considered stealing?"
The two brothers were just irritable, but when they saw that the Taoist priest was serious, they just used him to relieve their boredom.
He asked with a hippie smile:
"So, Taoism is more powerful than swords?"
"nature."
"Then Taoist Feng who uses magic must be better than Taoist Li who uses swords?"
Feng Daoren couldn't explain clearly, so he just raised his nostrils.
"snort."
The answer is self-explanatory.
The two brothers looked at each other, smiled, and asked seriously:
"But how come I heard that Mr. Li was invited to the yamen, but some people were tied to the government. Since this spell is so powerful, why doesn't it work in front of officials?"
Feng Daoren's face was full of embarrassment.
"We have our own rules for doing things, how can we abuse magic for our own selfishness?"
"Oh~~"
The gangster brothers deliberately lengthened the tone.
"Then steal..."
"That's the enlightenment! The enlightenment!"
The Taoist was furious and was about to continue his defense.
Sudden.
"Shut up."
The ranger drank in a deep voice, with a stern look in his eyes, pointing at his feet.
Everyone looked around.
Through the pale moonlight that filtered through the patio, I could see a thin layer of mist covering my feet silently.
coming!
