Chapter 16 Section VIII

The swan boat is a phantom on the quiet river, just like the moon in the mirror.The stories on the boat are as magical and absurd as the Arabian Nights, but the people living on the boat are used to it.Like the blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah in the tent, they're sure life's just one dream after another.These people are marvels of the human imagination. In broad daylight, the ship was very quiet, and most people hadn't woken up yet.At night, it is also the most beautiful time for the swan boat.There are countless golden lanterns hanging on the boat, which are reflected in the water like dream shadows.On days when they don’t have to go to the shore to perform, people in the song and dance troupe, as well as those hitchhiking, go to the deck to sing, chat, or jump a few somersaults to swim in the river. Hold a few fish.

The busiest day of the year is the day of offering sacrifices to ancestors and mothers of the river in midsummer.The mother of the river is the mistress of all the elves in the river, and people who live by the river pray to her for protection.She will prevent the demon from making love with the drowned woman in the river.Legend has it that the mother of the river was born on the river bed. When she emerged out of the river out of curiosity, the first thing she saw was lilacs, so she loved lilacs the most.This day is also a birthday.The sacrificial ceremony began in the morning, and the eldest mother led everyone on the boat to throw lilacs into the river, dyeing the river a beautiful purple.The eldest mother had a reverent expression, clasped her hands together, and muttered words in her mouth, wishing for a safe year ahead.

Beibei was also very busy this day. She had to prepare plates of delicious side dishes and bring them to the deck. She also brought out her own limoncello, cinnamon wine and peach wine to try to get everyone drunk.She has a strange disease, that is, she likes to listen to people who are sober after drinking and tell the truth, and then she will write down their stories in her "book of truth after drinking".She told Lan Yueer: "In the future, I will write these stories into novels. Everyone has a devil in their hearts!" Therefore, Beibei is the person on board who knows the most secrets.Because some hitchhikers have accidentally revealed their secrets when drunk, Beibei even knows everything on the shore.Some of them felt regretful and forgot what they said, so they would find a way to get on the boat again and ask Bei Bei their secrets.Beibei had to look up the records in that book and answer these people, telling them: "You peeped at my sister taking a shower." "And you, you have a tail." Had to use a recipe in exchange.Therefore, Beibei can often make some new dishes.

The climax of offering sacrifices to the mother of the river is at night, and the workers will set off splendid fireworks in the night sky.In the first few years when Lan Yueer was on the ship, Ai squeezed onto the deck to watch the beautiful fireworks bloom in the sky. "It was more lively before, but now it's far away." Beibei said to her. In those years, the eldest mother seldom celebrated birthdays. She would only show her face on the deck on the day of the festival and sprinkle a bouquet of lilacs reverently.She told everyone with a worldly smile: "There is no food more terrible for a woman who is no longer young than her own birthday cake."

However, since the arrival of the blue moon, the eldest mother seems to be younger than before, and she often leaves her cabin, goes to the music room, and goes to the deck. Sitting in the wicker rocking chair on the deck, she taught Lan Yueer to read and teach her to observe the sky. She looked at her with halo eyes and told her: "There are ships in the sky." The singers and dancers on the boat are older than Lan Yue'er, and they love her very much.Most of them are homeless children, and some of them have left their homes and come to the Swan Boat to pursue a dream.Some of their lovers are in distant places, and they send letters every month, saying that one day they will come to marry them, but they never come, and even the letters are gone.

A dancer named Minnie, whose lover was an animal trainer in a circus, once ate his head when he put it into the mouth of a lion.The body came headless, with a lock of lion's mane still clutched in both hands, and the dancer believed he was her lover whose head had been eaten. The people on board are like a family, and Beibei will remember everyone's favorite dishes and prepare them specially for their birthdays.But Beibei often complains that Lan Yue'er eats too little. The child can go without food for several days, and only eats a little at a time, and there is no favorite dish.Later, Beibei found that although she ate less, she was stronger than everyone on the boat, and even avoided the terrible cough, so she no longer forced her to eat.

The coughing fit on the ship happened one night.But Mengsan suddenly coughed like a puppy in the music room, and couldn't even play the lyre.Big Mama gave him tea made from coltsfoot flowers, however.But Meng San continued to cough until the next day. On the third night, when the eldest mother was reading Liu Seqingqing's posthumous manuscript on the bed, she coughed twice, but she didn't take it to heart, and ended up coughing in bed all night. At dawn, Beibei, who was always the first to get up, was cooking in the kitchen.She coughed dryly for a while while stirring a pot of vegetables, and then, the coughing continued, Beibei had to cover her mouth with a handkerchief.

A few days later, everyone on board had a cough, except Lan Yue'er.The rhythm of the sailor's rowing was forced to match his own coughing.The way people say hello is: "cough cough, hello cough cough." The eldest mother ordered Beibei to cook a big pot of cough medicine, and asked everyone to eat it, even Lan Yueer was no exception, lest she would be the last one to catch cough.However, everyone still coughed, and Lan Yue'er was safe and sound.That kind of cough is not as painful as lung disease, but itchy throat. I can't help it. I only feel better when I cough with my hands on my waist and it doesn't affect my daily life. It's just that I can't sing Dance, unless someone can cough like a song.

Then the eldest mother announced: "I will suspend the "cough...cough...go to the shore...cough...cough...performance, and I will not...coughcough...let someone take a ride, so as not to spread the cough to the shore... Keke..." The eldest mother wrote a notice and hung it on the boat, stating that the swan boat will not take anyone temporarily, and because she kept coughing while writing, the fonts were crooked and looked like spells. At night, the people on the boat were woken up by themselves or others coughing, and everyone got dark circles as a result.They began to worry that the cough would not be cured, and everyone was inevitably a little frustrated.

Lan Yueer patted everyone on the back when they were coughing, talked to Dan Mengsan when he was coughing, and reported to her when the eldest mother was not coughing. " to comfort everyone.In fact, she also wanted to catch cough in her heart, so she could join them.When everyone was coughing, she went up to take a deep breath, and secretly imitated them to cough with their hands on their hips, thinking that they would cough eventually, but it was of no use at all. On Liu Seqingqing's stack of manuscripts, there are medicines for epilepsy and leprosy, but there is no panacea for cough, maybe he thinks it is too easy.The cough medicine that the eldest mother wants everyone to take is what Liu Seqingqing said casually before.

After the cough lasted for a hundred days, the eldest mother went to the deck, coughing and watching the situation.Seeing a clear phoenix blowing from the east, she ordered the captain to steer the boat to the east. She patted herself on the forehead and said, "I never thought of changing the direction of the swan boat!" After the ship sailed to the east, everyone really stopped coughing, and coughing has disappeared on the swan boat since then. After the cough passed, the swan boat picked up hitchhikers again.The first to board was a young witch with almond eyes and pointed ears.She wore a conical hat, a tattered linen cloak, a magic bag, and a broom in her hand. Beibei wanted to take the broom away from her hand and said, "You are a guest, so you don't need to sweep the floor." The young witch quickly grabbed the broom and said, "This is my flying broom." The people on the boat had never seen a witch, and she was the first person to hitchhike after coughing, which might bring good luck, so everyone gathered around her to watch. When the eldest mother heard that a witch was coming on board, she came out of her cabin and told Beibei to give the witch food. "Do you want to eat spiders or centipedes?" Beibei asked smartly. "I'm a vegetarian. I only need seven colors." The witch replied awkwardly. Beibei cooked a bowl of vegetarian noodles with four different colors of fresh vegetables and three different colors of noodles, which looked so beautiful, like a rainbow. The young witch was eating intently. At this time, Lan Yueer took Dan Mengsan and quietly walked behind the witch to peek at what was in the old magic bag, only seeing a roll of parchment. When the witch was full, she took off her conical hat to rest. A singing girl secretly took a witch's hat and put it on her head, but the hat flew back by itself. They were all amazed to see the Witch with her thick, shaggy green hair.A dancer couldn't help reaching out to touch it and asked, "Is it dyed?" "It's natural, everyone in our clan has this kind of green hair." The witch replied, turning her eyeballs to the top of her head. "Where are you going?" Big Mama asked her. "I was hunted down by a dark wizard and wanted to hide on the boat for a while. I saw that this boat cast a permanent curse on people. No one can make trouble here. It should be safe." The witch said to the eldest mother. "That must be my mother," said the eldest mother with a slight smile. "I've never eaten such delicious noodles." The witch burped silently in satisfaction, and said to Beibei. Beibei smiled so that her eyes narrowed into a line, and asked the witch: "Do you want some wine?" The people on board immediately stopped the witch from drinking. "You like to hear people tell the truth after drinking." The witch said cleverly. Bei Bei was so ashamed that she hurriedly put away the dishes and hid in the kitchen. Although the witch is a witch, she is lively and curious. During the days on the boat, she learned to sing from the singers and dance from the dancers, and she learned to be orderly. One day, the showgirl who wanted to wear a conical hat secretly asked the witch, "Can you teach us to fly?" "Yes!" the witch readily agreed. So all those who wanted to fly gathered on the deck.The first one to ride on the broom was the singing girl. The witch chanted a spell on the broom, and the showgirl flew into the air with the broom. "First of all, you must maintain your balance and believe that you can fly." The witch told them. Beibei also flies into the sky on a broomstick.Screaming as she flew, she forgot how to land and fell into the river, crushing a large fish that had just swam by. When it was Lan Yue'er's turn, the witch saw that she was young, so she asked her to hold on to the broom firmly, and then blew her up with one breath.Lan Yue'er was so nervous that she kept her eyes closed and couldn't see anything. "Big Mom, are you coming to fly too?" Lan Yue'er whispered to Big Mom after landing on the deck. "I gave up the chance to fly a long time ago." The eldest mother said, her eyes were a little difficult to understand. When people were learning to fly on the deck, Meng San hid in front of the porthole in the room and peeked.Lan Yue'er came to him and said to him: "It's fun, you can come too." "I saw you fly." Dan Mengsan said quietly. "you can also." "I don't want to fly." He slipped onto the bed and covered his head with the quilt.He wanted to fly, but he didn't want to straddle a broom with his feet spread out and remind himself that there was something about him that was different from other people. Lan Yue'er didn't know what intersex people were at that time.The eldest mother told her: "They are hermaphrodites, and God forgot to divide them into two." One month later, the witch was leaving, and everyone was very reluctant. "Where are you going?" asked Big Mama. "I'm going home, my family misses me," said the witch. "Where is your home?" Lan Yueer asked. The witch took out the roll of parchment from the magic bag and spread it out on the table. It turned out to be a map with a green mountain covered with towering trees. "My home is in a monastery on the mountain." The witch pointed to the green mountain on the map.Immediately they all saw a yellow monastery appearing there, ringing with tinkling bells. "It was the bell that called me home," said the Witch. "Aren't you afraid that the dark wizard will come after you?" Lan Yue'er asked. "My family is already waiting for me over there." The witch said, pointing to the distant sky, then rolled up the sheepskin map, said goodbye to everyone on the boat with tears, and flew to the sky on a broom. At that time, the north wind was blowing, and the witch pressed the conical hat on her head desperately, and said loudly: "There will be a time later!" Everyone stood on the deck and waved goodbye to the witch, knowing that they would never be able to fly like birds in the future. At this time, Dan Mengsan still stayed at the window of his own room, watching the witch's cloak and broom disappearing in the blue sky.His hand stroked the strings of the lyre lightly, which sounded like a sigh.