[Ancient Sword II] Morning Light Shadow

In the twelve months of the year in Liuyue City, winter lasts for half a year, spring and autumn total about three months, and summer also lasts for half a year.And spring, summer and autumn are the busiest times in the southern urban agricultural area.

Since ancient times, people have taken farming and mulberry as the basis, and put them in Liuyue City. Half of the farmers in the farming mulberry can be cut off and put in the mulberry. There is no other reason. Farming and mulberry refer to food and clothing.Diet is a rare term in Liuyue City. There is less than half a bowl of food in the stomach throughout the year - taking medicine is not counted, occasionally smashing some odds and ends into the mouth, purely to check whether the sense of taste has deteriorated.City dwellers don't need food to make a living. Before the turbid air spreads, the biggest problem is how to survive the winter... In fact, even now, winter is still the biggest problem.

The materials needed to keep warm from the cold are nothing more than clothing, fuel charcoal, and medicinal materials. As a result, the planting land of mulberry, cotton, and kudzu accounts for nearly [-]% of the agricultural area, and the remaining [-]% ​​of the land is planted with trees for making charcoal. For growing herbs and food.

Most of the Chinese nation is mainly farming. As Shen Xi knows, the past dynasties have attached great importance to farming and mulberry, which is precisely the symbolic meaning after farming and weaving.

The Lieshan tribe believed in Shennong, so they naturally attached great importance to farming and weaving.Every year in the early spring, the city lord would personally visit the farming area, plant the first seed of the year, pick a handful of mulberry oak leaves, and feed it to the first batch of ant silkworms that hatched this year.

Although it is the same as the emperors of the later dynasties plowing the land, they are all pretending to show that they value farming and mulberry. It is not necessary that the city lord really go to plow the land and reel silk in person, but it is held every year. The Qingqing ceremony of Shennong's birthday.Siqing, like birthdays, has the meaning of having fun with the people. In addition, it also contains some meanings of encouraging farming and weaving.

To put it bluntly, form is greater than substance, and where there are people, there are face projects.

——This sentence comes from Shen Xi’s diary

The day of worshiping the Qing Dynasty is scheduled to be in the beginning of spring. Although the spring is cold and cold, there are even snow that has not yet melted in the few shaded places facing north in Liuyue City, but the southernmost agricultural area has already sprouted dots of greenery.When Shen Xi went to the medicine field to dig out the winter-seasoned thousand knots, he saw that many weeds that could be named had already grown in the corner of the forest farm.

The ceremony of beginning of spring does not require the temple to do any work, so Shen Ji and Shen Ye did not rush for it. What they have to do is to attend as spectators on the day of Siqing.As for the spring plowing after the ceremony, the city lord's mansion and the shrine had to dispatch manpower and distribute materials such as seeds and farm tools, and the area of ​​cultivated land was not large enough to require all personnel to come out.Compared with the time to protect against the cold and disaster in winter, it is a little more relaxed.

On the way back, Shen Xi passed the silkworm weaving field, and remembered that silkworm chrysalis is quite a good food, so she stopped.

The silkworm room is kept warm with magic spells and charcoal fire. By adjusting the temperature, the hatching time of the silkworm eggs can be controlled, so that the first batch of ant silkworms break out of their shells just at the beginning of spring.Both Shen Xi and Yun Yu hadn't changed their winter clothes yet, and they were quite uncomfortable with the sudden change from the coldness outside to the sudden warmth.

His father is the high priest who is highly valued by the city lord, and his elder brother is the next high priest, and Shen Xi's request is not too much. The silkworm girls naturally agreed, and obediently did not ask the purpose of these silkworm chrysalis.In the past, the silkworm chrysalis left over from silk reeling were piled up as fertilizer, and giving some to Shen Xi was just an extra trip to run errands, and by the way, she could show her face to the priests of the temple, so why not do it.

Back at Ziwei Palace, it was not yet noon, Shen Xi sorted out the herbs picked this time, and read a book for a while, it was still more than half an hour before his father and brother came back from get off work.Now that Huayue has gradually begun to get in touch with some irrelevant temple affairs, the living room at the back of the palace is actually much deserted than before.

Remembering that when I went to the agricultural area in the morning, I saw the site for offering sacrifices to Qing Dynasty. Shen Xi put some snowberry berries that he picked while digging herbs in a small basket, washed them, found a belt to tie the rabbit doll diagonally around his body, and went out Go to the Jumu forbidden area on the top floor of the temple.

"Xiao Xi?" Seeing Shen Xi appearing on the platform, Cangming was a little surprised, and immediately smiled, "The weather is so good, why don't you go out to play?"

Shen Xi pulled the rabbit ears, turned around, and let Cang Ming look at the small basket: "I just went out this morning...bring something for Sister Cang Ming."

Seeing the snow-white berries brought by Shen Xi, Cangming suddenly remembered that it seems that the beginning of spring is almost here.At this time in previous years, she would preside over the ceremony of offering sacrifices to the youth together with her father, kicking off the year's farming work.And the forest farm in the agricultural area, in the spring and summer, is also a paradise for a few of their playmates to have fun...

"Thank you Xiaoxi for caring..."

Cangming wanted to reach out and touch Shen Xi's braids, only then remembered that his limbs had already merged with Jumu.

"It's too cold in winter, my brother won't let me go out, and I haven't come to visit my sister," Shen Xi wrapped a few snowdrop berries in a handkerchief, wiped off the water on the surface, and tiptoed to Cang Ming's lips, "You don't Will you blame me?"

Cangming already knew about Shen Xi's inability to grow up from Shen Ye who came to visit every day.No matter how many medicines you take, how many spells you use, the frailty that can't be improved...

Although Cang Ming intends to comfort him, but looking at his current situation, he is no better than Shen Xi.

She opened her mouth slightly, and swallowed the berries that Shen Xi had brought to her mouth.The plump and fragile peel was bitten open with a little force, and the gushing syrup was cold and sweet, with a slightly sticky taste.However, if you taste it carefully, there is a hint of bitterness. I don't know if the bitterness comes from the immature part of the fruit, or from the heart.

"Xiao Xi came to see me, I'm too happy to be happy, how can I blame you?"

As soon as the voice fell, both of them fell silent.

Shen Xi lowered her head, looked at half of the basket of snowberry berries, and decisively began to feed them.When Cang Ming swallowed the last berry, she suddenly knocked on the head.

"Hey... I fed the Gu worms before I came here, I forgot to wash my hands..."

Cangming's expression froze, and she suddenly felt a tumbling stomach. She looked at the handkerchief Shen Xi used to wipe the snowberry berries just now. It was still a little wet, and she should have washed the berries before she came here...

"……real or fake?"

"Fake." Shen Xi tilted her head, "Actually, I'm looking for something to say."

"...Well, I can tell."

There was another silence, and then both of them laughed at the same time.

"Xiaoxi can smile so happily, remember to give me something, and even joke with me, it seems that I don't blame me..."

Although Cang Ming smiled, he felt a little sore in his chest, "...that's great..."

Thinking of Cangming's visit before entering Jumu, and what Shen Ye said, Shen Xi finally realized that Cangming was still thinking about the fact that his brother and sister were testing the efficacy of the divine blood for her.

"Whether it's Daddy or Sister Cangming, actually... I don't think there's anyone to blame."

Shen Xi pinched the rabbit's ears and pulled them.

"I don't grow up or anything... When I first found out about this, I also secretly hid and cried, but compared to the clansmen who died of illness, at least I am still alive... I can't learn spells anymore, so my father tried to make me learn Gu skills Pharmacology also made me a worm flute; when I couldn't speak, my brother and sister Huayue made me a rabbit doll that could help me talk... They all said that there is no unparalleled road, maybe in a few years, there will be another What will happen?"

Shen Xi had never thought deeply about these things, and now she was asked to talk about them, but the preamble and the afterword were inconsistent, and she couldn't figure it out.

"The power of the divine blood has begun to fail. It is a waste to use it to treat diseases...My brother and I are both sick. If we want to test the efficacy, only one person is enough, but Daddy still Sent us both in... Because as long as the efficacy is verified, it will be Sister Cangming's turn next. After that, the city lord and father will probably not allow anyone to use the power of divine blood to treat diseases, so at that time... really This is the only chance my brother and I have...

"If I don't accept the burning of the divine blood, maybe I won't be able to survive this winter. This is the worst outcome. Even if the divine blood can't cure the disease, the result will not be worse than this...Obviously I have benefited, and I am still here It's a bit hypocritical to say who to blame, isn't it?"

After these words, Shen Xi didn't know what to say, her fingers slowly moved away from the rabbit's ears, and her eyes moved to the opposite direction of Cangming.

The Jimu Forbidden Land where Cangming is located is located on the top of the temple between silence and closest to the canopy of the Jumu tree. There is a large platform in front of it, and you can have a bird's-eye view of the whole city along the edge.From Shen Xi's perspective, he just happened to see the top of the tall evil stone sculpture among the sparse wooden branches and leaves below.

She still remembered that on the rainy night when Shen Ye wanted to take her away, the brother and sister were caught by Shen Ji right in front of the evil stone sculpture...

If she did it all over again, even though she knew it would become like this, she still felt that living like this would be better than dying in that past winter.