Chapter 15 Chapter 14 The Encounter of the Torch Festival

We didn't understand what he meant, so we asked, "Are you taking us to hunt snakes?" Heizi smiled and replied, "We don't fight snakes locally. The day after tomorrow is the Torch Festival. There is nothing interesting in the mountains. Seeing how busy these days have been, you just happened to catch up, let's have fun together!" Only then did I understand what he meant, and I looked at the date. Today happens to be the 22nd of the sixth lunar month, and the Torch Festival is mostly on the 24th or 20th of the lunar calendar. Different ethnic groups choose different dates. The Yi, Naxi, and Jinuo ethnic groups hold festivals on June 24th of the lunar calendar, the Bai ethnic group on June 25th, and the Lahu ethnic groups on June 20th. The festivals generally last for three days.

We rested at Heizi's house and looked forward to it. That night, as Heizi said, it was really lively and lively, and it really lived up to the reputation of "Oriental Carnival".If it weren't for these nasty sores on our bodies these two days, those of us who are used to living in the city would never have the opportunity to appreciate such exotic customs.But at this moment, the sores on our bodies really subsided slowly. While I was thanking them, I couldn't help secretly marveling at their unique treatment methods. All the previous doubts disappeared all of a sudden, and I began to admire the greatness and magic of Chinese culture.

As night fell that day, people in the village built an altar at the location selected by the old people, lit the holy fire by striking stones in the traditional way, and the bimo (folk priests of the Yi nationality) in the village chanted scriptures and offered sacrifices to the fire.Then, every family, adults and children took the torches made of wormwood from Bimo one by one, and wandered around the fields, imitating the legend of Ashmoo using fire to drive away insects. Er Xia and Mao Jindao, I, and I followed the example of the villagers, holding torches and wandering around the edge of the field.We all like to be lively. We have never seen such a scene when we grow up, and we are very excited. Only these simple villagers in the mountains have the opportunity to experience and enjoy such a festival.I looked up at the starry sky and silently prayed for them.

This is the scene of the first day of the torch festival, which can already be called very lively, but it is obviously not as good as the second day's fire transmission. The fire transmission can be regarded as the climax of the torch festival. People gathered around the altar Under the sacred fire, various local traditional festivals are held.Although the scale of the local village is limited, all the ceremonies are in accordance with the tradition and are very serious and lively, including wrestling, singing, bullfighting, sheepfighting, and cockfighting.Strong young men, beautiful girls, people of all ethnic groups held hands around the bonfire and sang happily, reveling in carnival. The singing wafted in the wilderness and mountains, turning into wisps of evening wind blowing everything.I was immersed in this joy, and my tense nerves were greatly relaxed in the past few days. I held the hands of the two mountain people on the left and right, and jumped with emotion.

The bonfire was blazing, and it was shaking happily. Er Xia and Mao Jindao had gone somewhere for fun. I raised my eyes and scanned the crowd around me, trying to find them.Suddenly, a familiar figure jumped into my sight, it was not Er Xia, nor Mao Jindao, but I was also so familiar!I was shocked, rubbed my eyes quickly and took a closer look, the figure seemed to have disappeared into the crowd again, lost sight of. Am I reading it wrong and it just looks like it?But this feeling is too real!I promised myself that I would let myself relax during the Torch Festival these few days, why did this kind of thing happen again!While thinking about it, Er Xia ran over panting and patted my shoulder out of breath.

"What's the matter? Where did you go? What's the rush?" I asked him hastily when I saw his appearance. Er Xia slowed down, pointed to the other side of the fire and said, "Look, Huanzi! I saw him, why is he here?" I hastily said, "Er Xia! Who did you see? I saw someone too. You can't believe it! I wonder if I misread..." Before I could finish speaking, Er Xia said first: "How many of them came, Liu Shisan and the girl next door are here, do you think they followed us? How could it be such a coincidence that they saw me just now?" I was taken aback!" He said while pointing at the reveling crowd not far away.

"What? You saw them?" I was shocked, and then I looked in the direction of Er Xia's finger, and I saw that familiar face. The girl next door was wearing a casual camouflage uniform, leading two Yi people. The girl's hands danced happily. What I saw just now was not them at all. I was so surprised by Er Xia's discovery, and my attention immediately turned to this side: Damn it!How did they catch up?I immediately asked Er Xia if they really found us, because I thought our whereabouts were already hidden enough. I didn’t even go to the county town for the sake of secrecy, and went directly to the mountain road. Maybe they put tracking monitors on us?

Er Xia rolled his eyes, pulled me aside and said to me: "Why don't we hurry up and get out of the way in the dark, you wait here first, I will call the Maojin knife!" After finishing speaking, he was about to turn around, but Seeing Mao Jindao leading Liu Shisan, the girl next door, and two other people wearing sunglasses walking directly towards us, Liu Shisan approached, stood with a fan and smiled, which made me very unnatural . Looking at Maojindao's expression, I suddenly realized that I had believed in the wrong person, and I regretted it, so I said to Maojindao: "Maojindao! We brothers trust you so much, I didn't expect you to betray us!" After speaking, I turned around and left angrily. If the situation didn't allow it, I would have wanted to go up and beat him up.

Er Xia was about to open his mouth to say something, Liu Shisan reached out to stop him, stepped forward and said to me: "Thank you for your trust in Dahui (Maojindao), isn't it a pleasure to cooperate with you? One is not welcome?" The girl next door also stepped forward, pointed at the Maojin knife and said, "This is my brother! Now you know what's going on!" After she finished speaking, she smiled at us, with a smug expression on her pretty face. When I was angry, I quickly recalled some details, and then I fully understood why it was so coincidental. Mao Jindao's surname was Liu, and they both happened to be named Liu. Liu Shisan's ancestral home was in Shanxi, and Mao Jindao was also from Shanxi.No wonder Mao Jindao persuaded us to cooperate with Liu Shisan several times, and why Liu Shisan knew about our inversion and managed to find our whereabouts in the end. This is undoubtedly what Mao Jindao told him.

Immediately, I felt like I was being teased, so I turned around angrily, and greeted Er Xia to come out.Mao Jindao just lowered his head in embarrassment. Seeing that we really turned our faces, he immediately stepped forward and grabbed us and said loudly: "Two brothers, don't worry! Listen to me to explain clearly, there is a reason for this, don't you?" As you can imagine! Besides, what good will I gain by betraying you? My grandpa really wants to cooperate with you!" Er Xia and I looked at each other, then turned back, Liu Shisan stepped forward and pulled us over, looked around, and signaled us to go to another place to talk.Several people came to an old tree away from the carnival crowd and sat down around the stone plinth. Liu Shisan lit a cigarette for Er Xia and me.

"Uh! I'm talking about Mr. Liu, just tell me what you have to say!" I was obviously still dissatisfied with their actions, and at the same time I was eager to know what their purpose was, so I put on a posture and asked bluntly. Liu Shisan waved his hand with a smile, took out a tablet from his pocket, and handed it over to us to look at it. We could clearly see several large bold characters on the tablet under the distant firelight and moonlight: China Association for the Protection of Cultural Relics of Minority Ethnic Groups. I looked up at him, a little surprised, but at the same time a little disapproving, who knows if you have made a fake to fool us, and I heard Liu Shisan said in doubt: "Actually, after the master left, I obeyed the master's instructions." I was ordered to wash my hands in the golden basin immediately. After more than 20 years of fighting, I joined this association and began to do some work to protect the tomb. My ancestors have a secret volume, which is the volume that Dahui showed you. The secrets in it It was also uncovered by you, and the country also protected it. However, this process is extremely dangerous, and it is really not easy for you to come out alive, and this is what I value about you!" His words brought me back to the previous situations, and immediately made me panic again. To be honest, I don’t know how I got out. When I woke up, I found myself lying on the vegetable field intact. Here, no one knows what it was that brought us out. Liu Shisan continued: "Since then, I have turned to protect the cultural treasures of those ethnic minorities, because compared with the Han culture, it is much more remote, so it is easier to be ignored! But we have investigated and studied the historical materials. , confirming that there was indeed a dynasty in a large area on the China-Myanmar border in Shejuo Mountain!" After speaking, his face became heavy and his expression became sad. The girl next door patted him gently, and then he continued: "Actually, for many years after Master died, I have always wanted to find a chance to get rid of the old man from Shehoushan Mountain. After understanding the situation, at least I can give Master an explanation, and I will feel better. Finally, one day, I got an opportunity. We received a mission to conduct an archaeological survey in the mountains on the border between China and Myanmar, because According to reports, tomb robbery activities have been rampant here for a period of time, and foreign tomb robbers are eyeing this place!" Er Xia asked, "Then did you find anything during this survey?" "Yes!" Liu Shisan paused, and then continued, "Our group came to this deep mountain. At that time, funds were insufficient, and I provided a lot of equipment myself. The conditions were relatively difficult, but that era was the era of hard work. Of course, difficulties can't dampen our enthusiasm! We groped in the mountains for a whole week and found a low-lying land. The opening of the gate is like a city gate. I didn’t have the bird’s eye view of the sky that I showed you at the time, so I didn’t know the mystery of it. I only found out later that it turned out to be the temple gate of the temple on the picture!” I asked, "Then what did you find?" Liu Shisan replied: "We didn't dare to take it lightly at the time. We checked the place carefully and found that there was a place with soft soil, which turned out to be a deep hole. At that time, the younger members of the team were frightened because there were big snakes in the area. Legend has it that they all thought it was a snake cave. I checked and concluded that it was a stolen cave, so I took two people down the cave and stepped on a stone slab. It felt very thick to the touch, but it didn't look like a tomb. The top of the tomb. I was wondering. In a blink of an eye, I suddenly saw two dead people beside me. The corpses had rotted and were already caught in the soil. There was also a tattered canvas bag. I opened the bag and saw some tools inside. , it was determined that it was two grave robbers who died here for unknown reasons. Besides the tools, there was also a piece of light yellow cloth in the bag, which looked like it was torn from clothes! The words were written in pencil on the cloth , with a strange pattern drawn, I immediately knew it was something recorded by these two tomb robbers during their lifetime!" Liu Shisan stopped, staring at us, took a deep breath, and suddenly said to us: "Guess what is written on that cloth?"