Tonight's Dionysus Festival was particularly lively.
On the waterway.
The Taoist priest and the ghost-faced girl chase each other among the boats.
long street.
Bo Ziyu led a group of government servants to break up the crowd and run wildly.
"Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"
"The Yamen is handling the case."
The government officials were breathing heavily and staring at the grimacing woman in front of them as if they were looking at a pile of silver, their eyes glowing green.
But when Bo Ziyu looked at the two people who were gradually moving away from them, his scalp went numb and he complained secretly.
These two people are both unscrupulous masters, and they make great moves on the boats. However, they don't know that any of the guests who can board the boats are either rich or noble?
No, the ghost-faced woman got on the boat and pushed all the guests behind her to use as a shield. Several young men were unlucky. One moment they were chanting at the railing, and the next moment they were all swept into the water.
Bo Ziyu was terrified.
Suffered.
They were the sons of academic politicians and a group of scholars from the academy.
In the blink of an eye, the Taoist priest rushed into a painting boat again. Unable to hold back his momentum, he smashed a screen on the table to pieces.
Bo Ziyu's scalp felt numb.
It's over.
It is an authentic work of Wu Daozi, a treasure that the county magistrate shows off every year.
After a while, the two of them moved to another boat and frightened a naked man and woman.
Bo Ziyu was confused.
Weird.
That's not the county magistrate and his wife... Huh?
Bo Ziyu's complicated mental journey aside, Li Changan couldn't guess it and couldn't care about it.
He flew between the boats, sniffing the scent of the toilet water left by the ghost-faced girl, which was gradually fading away.
She was thinking about whether she should kill her with pain, for example, give her a blast of wind, fire and thunder!
But firstly, being in a busy city, I'm afraid of hurting innocent people; secondly, there are indeed many unanswered questions in my heart.
Finally pressed my mind.
Another hard leap.
With a "bang", it crashed into the poop of a boat.
Ignoring the chaos of shouts and screams around him, he followed the smell and rushed forward again, but he ran into a cloud of smoke.
…………
Tonight.
The most popular show, apart from Mrs. Hu's unique skill of wearing a pole, is the smoke illusion performed by Shi Huoluo, an illusionist from the Western Regions who was hired with a large sum of money, on the Li Family Painting Boat.
This person seemed to have tall eyes and a deep nose, a big beard, and was wearing a fluffy and loose robe. He stood calmly on the stage. There were no other props around him, only seven gooseneck jars of different colors.
Only his hands were seen forming the lotus seal.
Flip your wrist and move your fingers.
A wisp of white smoke emerged from the white jar and gathered on the top of his palm. As he changed his gestures, the clump of smoke turned into a flower bud, slowly blooming.
When the flower bloomed to its peak, the gesture changed again, and the petals closed and turned into a pure white bird. It flapped its wings and circled around him, landed on his shoulder, and jumped back lightly into the palm of his hand.
Looking forward with excitement, every movement and every feather seems full of interest.
He moved his fingers again.
Cans of various colors spit out smoke of corresponding colors and converged on his palm.
When gray comes in, the bird in the palm becomes a sparrow; when it comes to black, the sparrow becomes a swallow; when it is coated with yellow, the swallow becomes an oriole; when it is dyed blue, the oriole becomes a lark again...
At the end, the smoke gathered into a colorful appearance.
But he snapped his fingers.
"Snapped."
The small bird suddenly grew open and turned into a big peacock, fluttering its colorful feathers, then spread its wings and soared into the sky. Under the illumination of the street lights, the wings showed an intoxicating light.
Suddenly.
Shi Huoluo pressed his hands.
The peacock cried silently, then swooped down and hit the deck with its head.
The smoke immediately dispersed from the body, and the smoke turned into water waves, spreading across the boat and onto the stage. And its feathers turned into many fish with colorful scales, swimming slowly in the water with their heads and tails swaying.
Shi Huoluo raised his hand.
The fish in the water immediately swarmed out of the water and transformed into goddesses, holding a pipa, a jacquard basket, or a flute, their clothes and belts catching the wind, and their postures were graceful.
The water waves also surged and roared, gathering into the shape of a mountain peak, which was full of pagodas and temples. The smoke was thick, and there seemed to be countless little people burning incense and worshiping in it.
And Shi Huoluo put his hands together again.
The vast mist on the mountain transformed into a majestic Buddha, with his lips open and closed, as if he was preaching. The goddesses were flying around one after another, and many Bodhisattvas and Arhats were vaguely hidden in the surrounding smoke.
Astonishingly, it was a picture of the Dharma lecture at Lingshan that came to life.
…………
Shi Huoluo's smoke illusion is indeed wonderful, but it's hard to avoid aesthetic fatigue after watching it too much.
The most intuitive manifestation is that the cheers and applause on the shore are gradually weakening.
The onlookers on the side were watching everything through the water and the lights. In addition, it was almost midnight, and there were always flowers, birds, fish, insects, Buddhas, and spiritual mountains. They came and went, and they gradually became tired and bored.
The crowd will disperse before there is anything new to see.
Absolutely cold.
There was a burst of noise on the boat, which stopped people in their tracks.
Then, on the stage shrouded in smoke, two uninvited guests suddenly bumped into them.
A short-haired Taoist holds a long sword and has exquisite sword skills; a ghost-faced woman holds a short sword and has ghostly skills. Wearing plain linen robes and a gorgeous red skirt, two sharp swords, one long and one short, were strangled repeatedly.
All of a sudden.
The sword light spread across the sky, twisting the Lingshan, the Goddess, and the Buddha to pieces. The illusionist's hands and feet were so frightened that he froze in place and did not dare to move.
The people on the shore were frightened by this sudden change and were stunned for a long time.
Er.
"good!"
There was thunderous cheers.
"That's how it should be played! There are always birds, flowers, and monks. What's the point?"
"That's right. Where can a monk chanting sutras and a Taoist priest fight a demon girl look good? Hey, look at that figure."
"Yes! Yes! Listen carefully, yo! There is still a sound."
There are also serious people in the crowd.
"No, those two people seem to have jumped up from somewhere else. It doesn't look like they were created by the smoke."
Someone immediately laughed at him for making such a fuss.
"Do you know this is an illusion? Look at the illusionist. The sword almost hit his neck and he didn't even move. Look at the ghost-faced man floating back and forth in the smoke. Doesn't he look like the goddess before? "
"If this isn't an illusion, what is it?"
Zhen was immediately relieved and joined the cheering crowd.
…
According to the custom of the festival.
The program on the boat has reached a wonderful point, allowing people to row the boat to the shore and say a few auspicious words.
At this time, the spectators on the shore will take out the reward money and throw it into the boat depending on the excitement of the show and the size of their wallets.
usually.
If the show is exciting.
Before dawn, the ship will be loaded with a pile of golden copper coins. If you are lucky and meet someone who is generous, you can also mix in some shining silver.
Then it was illuminated by the lantern carried on the bow of the boat.
The bright and clear boat is really beautiful!
As a result, this small boat for collecting rewards got a nice name, called "Treasure Boat".
On Shi Huoluo's side, it was his young disciple who arranged to go boating to collect treasures. A child of eight or nine years old is the age when he becomes sleepy. More than half of the night passed, and the little guy was already in a daze, half asleep and half awake.
Absolutely cold.
Let the applause of the spectators scare away the sleepyheads, he quickly wiped the dream saliva from the corner of his mouth, set off the boat and arrived at the shore, with a high face without saying a word of good luck.
Then he realized at a loss that the cheers, applause, and rewards and money on the shore had all stopped abruptly.
He turned around and looked.
It turned out that a white jar had been smashed on the boat, and a large amount of white smoke suddenly poured out, covering the entire boat. It was so foggy that it was impossible to see anything clearly.
The audience looked at each other.
Is this... part of the show?
But they were not asked to wait any longer. They could only hear "clang", "clang", "clang"... in the white smoke.
All of a sudden.
Black, yellow, purple, green, blue... all kinds of smoke surged out together, and then entangled and gathered together, creating all kinds of strange and weird images on the boat.
For example, a peacock has lost its feathers and exposed its bare buttocks; a fat pig wears a feathered coat and holds a pipa behind its back, performing a flying dance; the solemn Buddha has lost its head and is replaced by a huge fish head; but the Buddha's head grows on a yellow stripe. On the dog, he wagged his tail for a while, raised his feet to urinate, and then held down the flying pig, grunting and doing the work...
The messy monsters made people on the shore gape.
The serious people have already hidden their faces and left by scolding them for being "immoral". However, the majority of the unseemly people are here.
So, immediately, applause and laughter burst out.
On the young disciple's side, money was pouring in, and after a while, the boat's draft tightened a bit more.
Even if some of them stopped laughing, misdirected their hands, and threw money at the young disciple, it would still hurt his body and bring sweetness to his heart.
But also at this time.
"Ouch!"
A cry startled everyone.
It was Shi Huoluo who was kicked off the boat by the ghost-faced man.
"Why?"
The young disciple looked back and saw this scene, full of doubts.
"Does our family still have this show?"
Is there any?
no.
Should I row the boat to rescue the master?
But the reward here is really fun, a lot of money.
Still wavering between the master and the reward, the cheap master over there has already pulled himself out of the water.
He took off the fake beard that hung down on his chin, hurriedly wiped the makeup on his face, and screamed in an authentic Lao Qin accent:
"Don't smash the colorful jar!"
There was a sound in the smoke that answered him.
"Clang."
immediately.
A thick black color spread from the center of the smoke.
Wherever it goes, it swallows the Buddha, merges with the goddess, and transforms it into an erotic palace. In the blink of an eye, the colorful colors and strange images on the stage were all swallowed up and merged into a chaotic thick black smoke, which quickly swept towards both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The audience on the shore has long been holding their breath and paying attention.
What unexpected and wonderful show is this about to start?
But without waiting for the show, I saw the nobles at the stern of the boat jumping into the water. Everyone looked at each other, and the black smoke had spread to the shore.
Some of the brave ones, or those who were short-sighted, took advantage of their long necks and leaned out first to face him.
As soon as he got close to him, he suddenly retracted and lay on the ground without saying a word. He only coughed desperately and shed tears.
The crowd was immediately confused.
Haven't reacted yet.
"Run!"
Everyone looked over and saw that it was Shi Huoluo who threw away his arms and rowed the boat, carrying his apprentice and the rewarded copper, desperately escaping from the spreading black smoke. When he had time to draw, he roared and added.
"Smoke is poisonous!"
The crowd was instantly in an uproar, and then scattered like birds and beasts amid screams and panic.
…………
"The Yamen arrests the criminal!"
"Spread out!"
Bo Ziyu led a group of government servants upstream against the flow of people, but finally arrived too late.
But the first kick was so fierce that everyone rushed to be the first to avoid falling behind; the next kick was all about you looking at me and me looking at you, and no one dared to step forward.
The black smoke has spread, completely blocking the streets on both sides of the river, and even seeping into the houses on the street.
To pass.
If you don’t want to take a long way around, you have to charge hard.
But look at the crowds running away, and look at the thick and frightening blackness in the smoke.
Do you have to eat food when you are on duty? Do you have to work hard?
In the end, Bo Ziyu was still stunned. He stamped his feet, cut off a piece of his sleeve, covered his mouth and nose, and rushed in.
But as soon as he touched the smoke, he knew why those pedestrians were crying and shouting.
This smoke is very poisonous!
As soon as the eyeball hit him, it felt like someone was stabbing it with a needle; he screamed, and subconsciously covered his eyes. Black smoke took the opportunity to slip into his mouth and nose, blocking his scream, and then grabbed him. The trachea was pulled hard.
It was a heartbreaking cough.
When the government officials saw this, they quickly snatched him back, rushed to the shop next to him and asked for a ladle of water to rinse his mouth and eyes with him.
At this time, black smoke suddenly surged.
But it was Li Changan who covered his nose, closed his eyes and was knocked out.
Bo Ziyu pushed the water ladle away. With a pair of red eyes and a hoarse voice, Bo Ziyu went up and asked:
"What the hell did you do?"
He angrily pointed at the smoke that was still rolling and spreading.
"That poisonous smoke..."
Before he finished speaking, the Taoist priest raised his hand and waved.
Strong winds gathered against the water surface, carrying the black smoke straight into the sky, and then dispersed by the strong wind.
The policeman was stunned for a moment, and then asked: "Ghost face..."
As soon as he opened his mouth, the Taoist priest threw an object into his arms.
He quickly caught it and saw that it was an evil ghost mask with broken corners and some blood stains.
"This is?"
He stared wide-eyed and was about to ask.
The Taoist had already bent his knees and jumped straight to the top of a three-story attic on the street.
From a high position, overlooking the long street.
What he saw in his eyes were those who were pointing at him, those who were unaware, those who were greeting guests, those who were performing arts for rewards, men, women, old and young, rich and poor... all kinds of people on the long street and on the boat were all caught in his eyes, but there was no one there. The figure of the ghost-faced man.
The Taoist priest habitually urged Chonglong Yu, but found to his embarrassment that the smoke just now had numbed his nose.
To make matters worse, he took off his calf armor.
There are already many cracks on the armor, and there is not much mana left on it.
Li Changan frowned and looked back to the east of the city.
The prison in the government office was silent in the night.
…………
Two flowers bloom, one on each side.
The government prison.
The government officials were blown over by the strong wind. After getting up in a daze, they found that everyone was injured. The unlucky ones had broken bones and cracked their heads, and the lucky ones were covered in bruises.
Seeing that the Taoist priest was chasing the ghost-faced man and disappeared, he simply dispersed to seek medical treatment, leaving only a few injured beggars behind. The guards locked the beggars back in the depths of the prison.
The few people who stayed behind were not idle either. They took out the food and wine they had prepared earlier, opened the stall, and started playing Pai Gow in the messy cell.
"Duo!"
The dominoes quickly hit the table.
The horse-faced government servant cursed loudly.
"Damn it, where are all these bugs coming from? You can't even live in peace even if you play cards."
It turned out that a large red-headed centipede was trapped under the domino. Its head and poisonous hook were pressed down, and its body curled up, and its dense abdomen and legs were wrapped around the domino.
The companion next to him was also impatient.
"Who knew that even though it wasn't clean in the past, we wouldn't see so many bugs."
As he spoke, he pushed his lips deeper into the prison.
"Maybe it was that cheap beggar who brought it here."
Although his words were filled with emotion, they were not without purpose.
I don’t know if the beggar grew up in a cesspool, but his whole body stank. Even if he was locked in the deepest part of the prison, from a long distance away, you could still smell the stench on his body and see the flies flying around him. Mosquitoes are really annoying!
"That's pretty good."
Another yamen servant next to him laughed.
"When I was first locked up, this guy wasn't that smelly. He just kept shouting that he was hungry. The noise made my ears hurt."
"I heard that this guy was so hungry that he attacked a girl on the street and almost wanted to eat human flesh."
The yamen officer frowned and spoke nonsense.
"Why don't we give him some chicken bones, so that he won't get hungry and come here to eat the human flesh of our brothers."
The horse-faced yamen officer suddenly sneered.
"Chicken?"
He grabbed the half-crushed centipede and threw it at the beggar.
"Go eat the worms!"
The few people laughed for a while, and then began to happily drink, eat, play cards and gamble for money.
But didn't see it.
After the big centipede landed, it rolled up and struggled a few times, then suddenly unfolded and crawled towards the beggar quickly.
It climbed up the calf, got into the trousers, climbed over the neck, and finally coiled around the ears, shook its feet a few times, and actually got into the ear canal.
Er.
The beggar who had been motionless suddenly trembled, and a pustule appeared on his cheek, which grew in size at a speed visible to the naked eye until it was as big as a fist.
Under the swollen and translucent skin, you can see yellow pus, red bloodshot eyes, and faint squirming insects.
Just a few breaths.
The pustule gradually became smaller, and finally it was retracted under the skin, leaving only a yellow stain.
But a piece of skin on the neck began to slowly bulge.
