The bright moon hung high, casting silvery light over Wuchang City.
Today was the fifth day of the fifth month, marking the start of "Early Dragon Boat Festival," a grand festivity that had continued for several days, and was officially now beginning.
The townspeople got up early in the morning and began to get busy.
They hung the harvested mugwort over their doors, sprinkled realgar beside their hos to ward off the miasmic airs, and hung a portrait of "True Man Zhang" in their hall, while the people from the City God Temple went door to door distributing "Dragon Boat Festival talismans."
Relatives and neighbors visited each other with gifts, which were simple—just realgar wine and zongzi. The children at ho, up early, had realgar applied to their foreheads and earholes, or a character for "king" written on their foreheads, and they also had to wear incense bags and tie five-colored silk threads.
Of course, the young n and won were also busy.
The n bought beautiful round fans and cloth umbrellas to give to their fiancées, while the won knitted hat ties, trouser belts, incense bags, and other items as return gifts.
By evening, Wuchang City beca even livelier.
The streets and alleys were decorated with lights, and lanterns dotted about like myriad stars.
In every corner of the city, theatrical troupes perford.
Besides the Han tunes and Chu lodies, Huang i operas were also quite popular. "White Fan Tale," "Black Gold Record," "Zhang San Invites the Bodhisattva"... Performances occurred in every street, their lodic singing flowing throughout the city.
Li Yan and Wang Daoxuan returned to Wuchang City by evening. Although the city gate was not yet closed, the streets and alleys were crowded with tourists, and it took quite so ti to return to the Ezhou Chamber of Comrce clubhouse.
"Young Hero Li, Dao Master is back!"
The people from the Tian Family inside the courtyard ca out to welco them.
The crisis had not yet been resolved, so they dared not go out, and simply set up a family banquet in the courtyard to celebrate the festival.
Though it was sowhat modest and this Dragon Boat Festival felt sowhat rugged, the reunion of the three brothers after many years was also significant.
Li Yan and the others had no ti to catch their breath before the Tian family invited them to sit at the head of the table, toasting one by one to express their gratitude.
The wine was fine, and the banquet even finer.
In addition to the staple food, there were twelve side dishes and ten main dishes, such as small fish cooked in its juice, sea cucumbers laid over noodles, whole chicken stewed plain, pork braised in soy sauce... Dish after dish was arranged haphazardly, filling an entire table.
No fires could be lit atop Gui Mountain, so even though the Chamber of Comrce had made provisions, Li Yan had been making do haphazardly these past few days, and had not eaten a grain of rice since noon.
He didn’t stand on ceremony; while clinking glasses and joking with the Tian family, he wolfed down his food, finally appeasing the worms in his belly.
"How is Uncle Sha doing?"
After eating his fill, he asked Lv San.
Lv San was busy tearing chicken legs to feed the little white fox and responded in a muffled voice, "Early in the morning, the Jinzhou Chamber of Comrce sent festival gifts, saying they are still busy over there, probably won’t get to sleep all night."
"Oh."
Li Yan thought for a mont then turned and spoke, "Landlord Tian, could you arrange for the Chamber of Comrce to prepare a gift for ? I’d like to check on him under the pretext of delivering this gift."
Today was the Dragon Boat Festival. Calculating the days, Sha Lifei had been gone for seven or eight days. Li Yan was indeed a bit worried; it was a good ti to visit under the guise of giving gifts.
"Of course."
Landlord Tian imdiately nodded, then hesitated a bit before speaking, "Young Hero Li, there’s a ritual happening outside the city."
"After all, we make our living on the waters. Every year, my family participates to pacify those wandering ghosts. Now that we can’t go out, I’m always anxious about it."
"I intend to take so folks out of town to participate, and it will soon be over. I wonder if you..."
"That’s fine."
Li Yan smiled, "Actually, I planned to leave the city tonight to head to Yuquan Temple. I can provide protection for you, but we can’t have too many people."
Landlord Tian was delighted, quickly nodding, "Of course, just and a few servants."
Having said that, he promptly got up to make arrangents.
The Ezhou Chamber of Comrce was wealthy, so these preparations were nothing. Before long, they had prepared a full cart.
In addition to the offerings and incense used for feeding, there were many other miscellaneous items.
Landlord Tian, having money, was naturally generous. After leaving the Chamber of Comrce, he would stop at every street corner, set down an offering, light incense, and burn paper while bowing earnestly.
Li Yan watched with interest.
It was rumored that so wandering ghosts often got trapped at crossroads and found it difficult to leave. If they lingered too long without the supervision of the City God, strange incidents could occur, disorienting passersby.
This thod of feeding was more commonly used by Buddhists, demonstrating a heart of compassion. "Buddha’s Sutra for Delivering the Hungry Ghosts" contained detailed thods for this.
Yet, the thod of burning paper ca from native practices.
This was a characteristic of Divine State’s Mystical Sect, where Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism borrowed from one another. Hence, there were argunts among them, but the three teachings always converged.
Thus, in so worldly Taoist temples and monasteries, it was common to see this vibrant scene: on one side honoring Laozi and on another, the Supre Sage, while the Buddha also held a place.
After entering the temple, whether people wished for children, sought marriage, or fortune, they would worship whoever they wanted to—it was all about one temple handling it all.
In Wuchang, Buddhist incense was prosperous, but even in the Baotong Zen Temple, when it was ti to discuss Fengshui, they would, and people adopting Taoist customs just turned a blind eye.
At every street corner along the way, there were those burning incense and making offerings.
After these events, the poor families would wait to collect them, while the rich would leave right after praying. When the candles and incense had burned out, the nearby beggars would swarm in, filling their bellies.
In the netherworld, there were hungry ghosts, and so it was the sa in the world of the living...
Of course, Landlord Tian knew ti was pressing, so after making offerings at each corner, he would quickly move on, and the group gradually left the city.
By the riverbank outside the city, the area beca even more bustling.
Around them, various monasteries had set up magic platforms by the bank, and quite a few Taoists were sending off the plague gods.
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