"I was thinking, if some of the three of them come back, forget it. If no one comes back, after the Ghost Festival, my fourth son and I will go to Baie Town to see where the three of them are now.

What the hell."

"Don't let something bad happen again one day, it will involve our entire old Yang family!"

Yang Ruoqing was the first to respond: "Dad, take me with you when the time comes. I haven't been to Baie Town yet. I want to go there and have a look at the swans."

…

The Ghost Festival is here in a blink of an eye.

Ghost Festival, a traditional festival of Qi State, is also the ‘Hungry Ghost Festival’ among the ‘Three Yuan Festivals’ of the year.

The term "Hungry Ghost Festival" comes from Taoism.

Among the Taoist gods there are the "Three Official Emperors", namely the Heaven Official, the Earth Official, and the Water Official.

The heavenly official blesses the world on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the earth official pardons sins on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, and the water official relieves misfortunes on the tenth day of the tenth month.

The folk saying is that every year during the Ghost Festival, the gates of ghosts are opened, and the ghosts with owners go home to enjoy the offerings, while the ghosts without owners will also come up and wander around the world, wandering around to look for anything missing.

On this day, Taoist priests will speak and recite sutras, celebrate the birthday of the local officials, save ghosts, seek blessings for ancestors, and ask the local officials to forgive their sins.

Among them, the most classic story is the legend of "Mulian saved his mother".

Mulian was one of the ten disciples of Sakyamuni. His mother committed sins during her lifetime and fell into the realm of hungry ghosts and suffered misery after her death.

Mu Lian relied on the fact that he was a disciple of the Buddha and had supernatural powers, so he wanted to use magic power to help his mother overcome her difficulties. As a result, the rice that was fed to his mother's mouth could not be eaten at all, and all of it turned into flames, which burned her mother and screamed.

, he was so miserable that he wished to live. As a filial son, Mulian was naturally grieving and blaming himself.

Later, he turned to his master Sakyamuni for help and received his enlightenment. If he wanted to save his mother, he must first resolve his sins.

Therefore, on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month every year, Maudgalyana offered delicacies and fruits to the monks from all directions, treated countless lonely souls and wandering ghosts, accumulated great merits, and gradually saved his mother, allowing her to be liberated from reincarnation.

Therefore, the Hungry Ghost Festival on July 15th is different from the Qingming Festival, which only worships ancestors. The Hungry Ghost Festival also prepares food for the ghosts from all walks of life.

Therefore, for farmers like Yang Huazhong and others, the annual Ghost Festival is a grand festival second only to New Year's Eve, and they dare not neglect it in the slightest.

Yang Huazhong prepared the things needed for the sacrifice in advance. Sun started cooking the offerings early in the morning, and the couple was very busy.

Tan and Yang Huamei also came to celebrate the festival with them.

Mrs. Tan was sitting in the main room, drinking tea leisurely, listening to Yang Huazhong beating paper money with a wooden seal, while Yang Huamei was sitting beside her, holding tinfoil paper in her hand to fold ingots. The ingots were folded one by one and placed together like a boat.

.

After Yang Huazhong knocked out rows of circular seals representing copper plates on the straw paper, he began to put them in paper bags.

Each paper bag contains the same amount of paper money and ingots, and is finally sealed with rice paste.

He was holding a pen, and the tip of the pen was dipped in ink and he wrote word by word on the paper bag, slowly writing which ancestor this paper bag would be sent to, his (her) name, taboos, and death taboos...

At the same time, in the Luo family hall separated by a wall, Blacksmith Luo was doing the same thing with Baby Luo.

Yang Ruoqing and Wang Cuilian's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, one was responsible for cooking the offerings, while the other brought the freshly mixed rice paste to the main room and helped them seal the paper bags together.

Blacksmith Luo was illiterate, so he asked Baby Luo to write the words on the paper bags and he read them.

The grandfather and grandson cooperated tacitly, and Luo Baobao's delicate and restrained words were written on the paper bag, neat and elegant.

Yang Ruoqing looked sideways at the bulging paper bags and suddenly thought of express delivery.

I don’t know if the ancestors on the other side can really receive these things, but this is the comfort of living people.

In ancient times, when rich people were exhausted, they would burn paper money, sedans and horses, terraces and courtyards, and maidservants to accompany them.

In modern times, there are many kinds of tricks.

A complete set of home appliances, the latest iPhone, beautiful cars, a certain treasure, and even a sea-view villa, a luxury yacht, and a long list of zero notes on the back issued by Tiandi Bank...

"By the way, I went to town to buy things this morning. People in the town are saying that there will be a 'city god's patrol' tonight in the town. Many people in the area are going to watch it. It must be lively."

Blacksmith Luo was talking to Yang Ruoqing and Luo Baobao about what he had seen and heard while knocking out paper money.

"The city god is out on patrol?" Luo Baobao raised his head, his eyes were bright, and he asked angrily: "Grandpa, what is that?"

Blacksmith Luo smiled and said: "This is a ritual ceremony held during the Hungry Ghost Festival in our area. It has not been held for many years. The last time it was held was more than ten years ago."

"It's like carrying the statue of the City God, draped in red and colorful decorations, and parading through the streets. Behind the scenes, people pretend to be the ghost officials and ghosts under the City God, walking on stilts and beating gongs and drums!"

"Is it held at night? No parade during the day?" Luo Baobao asked again.

"According to past rules, it usually starts when it's darkened."

Luo Baobao turned to look at Yang Ruoqing, his eyes filled with eagerness and pleading: "Mom, I want to see the City God parade through the streets."

Yang Ruoqing hesitated for a moment.

We started the tour when it was dark, and it took more than an hour or two to finish. Including the journey back to the village, it was probably close to early morning when we got home.

"Mom, just let me go. I've never seen the city god parade in the streets in my whole life. I really want to see what it's like!"

Luo Baobao put down the brush in his hand, grabbed Yang Ruoqing's hand, gently shook it and begged.

"Then where do you sleep at night?"

"I'll come back by myself at night and ride a fast horse!"

"That can't be done. It's not safe for a girl to live in a home." Blacksmith Luo quickly shook his head.

"Grandpa, with my skills, it's safe to go anywhere!" Luo Baobao raised his arm and made a fist.

The sound of the fist was unmistakable at all.

Although her boxing and kicking skills were recognized by Luo Fengtang and Yang Ruoqing, her age and experience made her family inevitably worried that she would be tricked by others.

Although everyone in the village who has dealt with Baby Luo praises her for her cleverness, as parents, Blacksmith Luo and Yang Ruoqing still cannot be completely reassured.

Don't be afraid of ten thousand, always be afraid of the unlikely event. Even if it is a low-probability event, it is still an event. Some mistakes cannot be tolerated even once.

"If you have the ability to coax your mother to nod, grandpa will accompany you. At worst, we will find an inn in the town to stay overnight."

The town has its own restaurant, but the restaurant does not operate lodging.

"Yes, let's do it!"

With Luo Baobao's promise from Blacksmith Luo, he felt more confident in negotiating with Yang Ruoqing.

Although she has more confidence, she is becoming more and more obedient in aura.

"Mother~"

"The most beautiful and considerate mother in the world~"

"Beautiful sister~"

"Okay, okay." Yang Ruoqing quickly raised her hand to stop her flattery.
Chapter completed!