fake god

The lights burn the night, and the drums and music blare the sky.Accompanied by drums that could shatter the night, a giant white elephant made of silk cloth appeared at the end of the alley.

The parade of Banlong has always been led by five beasts, and among the five beasts, the white elephant is the most precious.The white elephant was made of silk cloth, tall and mighty, with a long golden-red blanket hanging on the elephant's back, and golden vines adorning its head.Several strong young people pushed the elephant cart with all their strength. Firecrackers were fired wherever the white elephant passed. Several elderly people were supported by their families and walked beside the white elephant, with beaming faces.

After the white elephant, five rare and exotic animals, unicorn, lion, rhinoceros and sika deer, appeared one after another.They are all made of silk cloth, and the inside is polished and shaped by bamboo strips to support the skeleton. The shape is exaggerated and eye-catching.Around the Five Beasts, people carrying gongs, drums, and suona formed an accompaniment team, interspersed with the banner team, and heated up such a cold night.

Some young people who love to be lively rushed into the Five Beasts team with the firework cannons in their hands. After hearing a few "boom", "boom" and "boom", the firework cannons in their hands exploded above everyone's heads. Green, purple and various colors of colored paper were scattered in all directions, fluttering and fluttering, which caused a round of cheers from the children.

"Pingping, you guys go to play too." Lu's father handed over a firecracker, "You take Xiao Shen to meet the dragon, so you can feel happy."

"Okay!" Lu Ping readily responded, shouldered the long-barreled fireworks cannon, and hooked Shen Yuze.

An An originally wanted to follow along to watch the fun, but Lu's mother was worried, afraid that she would be touched and stepped on by someone so small, so she was restrained and only allowed to play at the door of the house.

An An pouted aggrievedly, watching her elder brother and elder brother Shen disappear in a blink of an eye.

……

"Shen Yuze, follow up!"

Lu Ping ran against the flow of people and ran towards the back of the Five Beasts team.It is not yet dawn, but every house is brightly lit, and the performers who make the five beasts hold silk lanterns and dance with the sound of drums.Lu Pingsheng was afraid that Shen Yuze would be lost, so he turned around to look at him while running, but he almost bumped into the person holding the banner, but it was Shen Yuze who stopped him in time to save him from making a fool of himself.

There were too many people here, and many young people of their age were playing in the parade. Shen Yuze took advantage of the situation and took Lu Ping's hand.

Lu Ping comforted himself: Now everyone is playing on their own, who cares about them?

"Where are we going?" Shen Yuze asked him.

"Go to meet the dragon!" Lu Ping said, "Both the Five Beast Team and the Banlong Team assembled at the Marshal's Temple. The Five Beast Team set off before dawn, and the Banlong Team traveled on the morning sun. You see, it's almost dawn, and we Get to the Marshal Temple before the sun rises!"

Just as Lu Ping said, before he knew it, the sky turned white. Although the sun hadn't risen from the horizon, the first ray of light had already fallen on this small town.

They held hands and ran to the Marshal Temple. Facing the first ray of winter sunshine, the colorful papers flying from the sky, and people's laughter and blessings, they kept running.

Finally, they saw the building with green walls and green tiles.

The Marshal Temple is a small courtyard with two entrances, and it is full of incense on weekdays.Enshrined inside is the Taoist Marshal Zhao, who protects the peace of the family and the country, promotes officials and makes money.However, Lu Ping told Shen Yuze that the locals would worship whenever they came to the temple, and they didn't pay much attention to it. Elderly people celebrate their birthdays, their children go to school, and even young men and women seek marriage.

Shen Yuze said: "It seems that Marshal Zhao's business scope is quite broad."

Lu Ping shrugged: "Actually, all the people who come to worship have already had the answer in their hearts before stepping into the temple. They just want peace of mind, so that they can convince themselves to go in that direction. As for what they will encounter on this road People, what kind of scenery they see is something that even the gods don't know."

On the square outside the Marshal Temple, Shen Yuze finally saw the true appearance of "Banlong" for the first time.He guessed that the local "banlong" should be similar to the popular "Dragon Dance" in China. A long dragon is supported by several long poles. The dragon dance team is dressed in gold and red. It is a Chinese show that foreigners love to watch.

But after seeing "Banlong", Shen Yuze realized that he had made a mistake.

First of all, only the head of this dragon is red, and the two golden dragon horns go straight to the sky. The left horn says "Smooth weather" and the right horn says "Guotai Min'an". , has its own simple beauty.As for the dragon body and dragon power, it is all made of white cloth and silk, with blue fins and colorful scales pasted on it. The most important thing is-these dragon bodies are actually separated one by one!

Each dragon body is about two meters long and fixed on a wooden board that is 1.5 meters long and [-] centimeters wide.In this way, each section of the dragon's body is arched upwards, like an arch bridge built on wooden boards, hence the name "banlong".From a distance, it looks like a dragon swimming in the sea, and the arched part is the dragon's body exposed on the sea level.

The whole plate dragon is composed of such a dragon head and hundreds of dragon body.When the Banlong team is on tour, each dragon body needs two strong men to carry it.In other words, this is a super long dragon that requires hundreds of people to lift it together!

Shen Yuze had never heard of such a dragon dance.

A lot of onlookers had already gathered around the square, some of them were chatting while eating melon seeds, they were locals at first glance;

Lu Ping said proudly: "Banlong is unique to our north bank, not to mention other cities, even the south bank can't see it! So every winter festival, tourists will come to watch the ceremony. In addition to the winter solstice, the Lantern Festival also There will be a parade of banlongs, but the parade of banlongs during the Lantern Festival is not in the morning. Legend has it that Chang'e missed her hometown and would stand on the moon to watch the banlongs, so we put the parade of banlongs on the Lantern Festival after sunset."

While they were talking, a Taoist priest with white beard and hair came out from the marshal's temple and stood in front of the dragon head. It seemed that he was the chief priest of today's winter sacrifice ceremony.

"The auspicious time is here——" the Taoist priest's voice was full of enthusiasm, and suddenly overwhelmed the noisy voices in the square, "—— Banlong is on tour!"

The suona and the drum sounded at the same time. In the square, the dragon dancers carried the banlong on their shoulders, forming a giant dragon that circled and swam.Tourists raised their mobile phones one after another, watching this rare scene intently.

Catering to the sound of drum music, the giant dragon slowly coiled into a circle in the center of the square. After connecting end to end, the dragon's head suddenly turned and turned into the circle.Led by the dragon head, the giant dragon circled towards the center circle after circle.After the dragon's head reached the center point, suddenly, several men who were carrying the dragon's head raised their arms high, while the performers who were carrying the dragon's body knelt down on one knee in turn, making the whole coiled dragon form a shape with a high dragon's head and a low tail.

The dragon's eye blinked—the rising sun just happened to fall into the position of the longan's eye, it was as if the heavens were giving the dragon's eye a finishing touch!

At the same time, the drum music also reached a climax!The crowd erupted into bursts of cheers!People rushed to the square spontaneously, dancing with the dragon team to the beat.

Shen Yuze and Lu Ping looked at each other, they didn't say a word, they held each other's hands tightly, and rushed into the dragon team.

They walked between the dragon's body and the dragon's body, and the white dragon's body surrounded them like waves.They stepped on the drums, stepped on the beat, and devoted themselves to this ancient and sacred ceremony. They danced, danced, laughed and made noise to their heart's content.All troubles were gone from them, and in this glorious festival they were just two foolish boys who were happy for the coming winter.

Everyone went crazy, someone took out the spray ribbon prepared in advance, and sprayed wildly into the air.The colored spray jumped in the air, fell down again, and hung on the dragon's body unsteadily.

Lu Ping shook the firework cannon in his hand, and asked Shen Yuze: "Do you want to set it off together?"

Shen Yuze readily agreed.

He went around behind Lu Ping, embraced him in his arms, and held the long barrel of fireworks with both hands at the same time.

Shen Yuze asked in his ear, "Are you ready?"

"Of course!" Lu Ping shouted excitedly, "—Come on, happy winter solstice!!"

At the same time, they vigorously rotated the cannon barrel in their hands. In the next second, the colored confetti filled in the cannon barrel rose into the air, rushed straight into the air, and then fell lightly under the call of gravity, as if only in a movie. slow motion.

Lu Ping hid in Shen Yuze's arms, trying to escape those colored papers that would stick to his hair.Shen Yuze raised his head calmly, and slightly closed his eyes in the morning light, as if waiting for their arrival.

Lu Ping's eyes fell on a piece of golden confetti, watching it being shaken by the cold wind in the morning, seeing its gentle light refracted in the sun; Under the influence of the child, it landed on Shen Yuze's cheek.

It was like a kiss from Feng'er.

Lu Ping was fascinated, if there were really little gods in the sky lying on the clouds to watch the gathering of mortals, then they would be the same as him, and they couldn't help but prefer Shen Yuze.

……

After the Panlong performance, the dragon head held high suddenly stretched out, and the dragon body lined up behind, extending out of the alley together with the dragon head.They first swim in a figure-eight shape, and then walk along the street under the leadership of the chief priest.

Then comes the highlight of the Banlong performance - patrolling the street. The Banlong team will walk a large circle around the town, send dragon spirits to every household, and finally return to the Marshal Temple at noon.

Of course, the tourists would not miss the following ceremony, and followed the dragon team to patrol the streets.Lu Ping grabbed Shen Yuze and told him not to follow the crowd.

"Passing the streets is nothing to see." Lu Ping said, "It's just a string of alleys. It's lively, but there's really nothing interesting."

As he spoke, he raised his hand, took off the piece of golden confetti that fell on Shen Yuze's cheek, and quietly hid it in his pocket while he was not paying attention: "I'll take you to the temple to burn incense."

Shen Yuze was a little surprised, and asked, "Go now?"

"Well, now everyone is patrolling the streets with the Banlong team, and there are no people in the temple." Lu Ping is very experienced, "Otherwise, after a while, there will be a bunch of pilgrims in the temple, and when there are too many people, they can't squeeze in at all. Not to mention the incense sticks."

Of course, Shen Yuze had no objection, he would do what Lu Ping said.

The two patted the colored paper on each other, and ran against the crowd to the Marshal Temple nearby.

As Lu Ping said, the Marshal Temple is now empty, except for the little Taoist priests and a few scattered pilgrims guarding here, no one else can be seen.

This temple is not big, even the ceiling of the main hall is less than five meters high.In the main hall, there is a colorful body clay statue of Marshal Zhao. For the winter festival celebration, the entire main hall was cleaned up, and all kinds of tributes on the table were piled up into hills.

Before worshiping God, wash your hands first.There is a bucket of clear water outside the main hall. It is said that it is the "long flowing water" that the chief priest specially brought back from the mountain yesterday.A long-handled wooden ladle was placed beside it.Shen Yuze took a ladle of water first, but instead of cleaning his hands, he motioned for Lu Ping to stretch out his hands.

Lu Ping: "I'll do it myself."

Shen Yuze shook his head and urged him with his eyes.

So Lu Ping stretched out his hand obediently, and the spring water in Shen Yuze's ladle fell slowly, wet his palm and the back of his hand in an instant.

He rubbed his hands briefly, and then exchanged with Shen Yuze.They took turns fetching water for each other and cleaning their hands. The cold mountain spring water washed away the dirt on their hands and calmed down their impetuous hearts.

After cleaning his hands, Lu Ping went to the next incense place to invite six incense sticks, and distributed three of them to Shen Yuze.

"Look, the incense burner is clean, we are probably the first incense." Lu Ping said happily, "The first incense on the winter solstice is said to be very effective! Even if you don't make a wish, just simply worship and say something to the gods. A word of auspiciousness, next year will be smooth."

The incense stick stuffed into Shen Yuze's hand had already been lit, and faint smoke rose from the top, and the ash was scattered lightly and skillfully.

Shen Yuze stood in front of the censer, looking up at this statue of a god who was not angry and arrogant.

He has seen many magnificent religious buildings, such as the Sagrada Familia, which has been built for a hundred years and has not yet been completed, the Christ icon embracing the world on the top of Mount Rio, or the Bamiyan Buddha in the flames of war... He visited When looking at those sacred religious statues, he never felt fluctuated in his heart, because he did not believe in these imaginary gods.

But now, when he stood side by side with Lu Ping in this small temple, he suddenly wanted to thank those illusory gods.

If there is no protection of the gods, then, that bowl of delicious leiyuan, that endlessly long plate dragon, those colored papers that fell on their heads...even their first encounter may not exist up.

Lu Ping closed his eyes reverently, held up the incense sticks and bowed to the statue.Beside him, Shen Yuze also followed his example and showed his awe to the statue.

After worshiping the gods, the two of them put the incense sticks into the incense burner in front of the altar.Lu Ping has always liked the smell in the temple, which is a quiet, deep, and mysterious aroma, mixed with hundreds of years of time and the sincerity of every devout prayer.

Lu Ping looked sideways at Shen Yuze, suddenly smiled slyly, and asked, "Shen Yuze, guess what wish I made to God?"

Shen Yuze replied: "Do you want to be admitted to the ideal university?"

When folding gold ingots last night, Lu Ping hoped that his deceased grandparents would bless him to succeed in the college entrance examination. Shen Yuze took it for granted that Lu Ping would make the same wish this time.

But the boy shook his head unexpectedly: "No."

"I hope An An will stop being naughty?"

"Not at all."

"Hmm... that is, I hope that my uncle and aunt will be healthy and open the shop soon?"

Lu Ping complained in a half-true way: "Damn, why are you more thoughtful than me, I never thought of so many wishes!"

Shen Yuze really couldn't figure it out, so he could only give him a helpless look, hoping that he would stop playing tricks and announce the answer as soon as possible.

Seeing Shen Yuze's bewildered expression, Lu Ping laughed in a good mood.His smile was like a ray of light shining in from outside the altar, and it fell on Shen Yuze's heart accurately.

The boy opened his mouth and said the answer: "My wish is - I hope you are happy."

"..." Shen Yuze was stunned.

"I hope you are happier today than yesterday, and happier tomorrow than today. I hope that the harm you have suffered from your parents can be smoothed by time; I hope that one day you can get out of that swamp and become a free person.

"I hope you can make more friends and talk to others more; I hope you can cure your seafood allergy as soon as possible, so that you can taste more delicacies; I hope you smile more, stop being so cold, and enjoy yourself Have fun."

"..."

Lu Ping stared at him intently, and the boy's figure was reflected in his round eyes: "Shen Yuze, although it's not your birthday today, I want to wish you a happy birthday in advance."

Lu Ping didn't say the rest, but it was already written in his eyes - Shen Yuze, I hope that every birthday of yours in the future will be as happy as today.

No one can remain calm after hearing this, at least Shen Yuze can't.

He wants to tell Lu Ping that there is no need to wish him a happy birthday, because he is very happy every day with Lu Ping's company.It was a kind of happiness and satisfaction rising from the depths of his soul, enough to make up for all the regrets in his short life.

Suddenly, a gust of wind passed through the hall. It awakened the copper bell on the porch, caressed the curtain in front of the statue, and wrapped the sandalwood rising from the incense burner, blowing towards them.

It seemed to be some kind of wonderful signal, Lu Ping didn't even have time to find out which direction the gust of wind was coming from, the next second, Shen Yuze's hand wrapped around his shoulder.

That hand had distinct knuckles, and the palm was hot.

In Lu Ping's line of sight, Shen Yuze leaned down, and that handsome and flawless face approached him a little bit. At such a close distance, Lu Ping could clearly see himself in those deep eyes. reflection.

Shen Yuze's movements were very slow, so slow that as long as Lu Ping raised his hand, he could push him away and stop his next movements.

He gave the boy the leeway to say no.

Lu Ping can refuse.

Lu Ping should have refused.

But... Lu Ping didn't.

——The next second, the distance between them dropped to a negative number, their four lips overlapped, and their soft lips touched together.

……

Under the gaze of gods and Buddhas all over the sky, in the quiet temple, in the curling sandalwood, they have a thrilling secret.

That secret is called the first kiss.