Brother Yu patted me and motioned to look outside.
I looked and saw a small truck parked behind our car, with a pile of wood tied to the truck.
"Brother, what about your car?"
"Yes, I shouldn't block your way, right?" He glanced outside.
I asked what kind of wood that was? It looked smooth.
Before the guy could say anything, the owner of the small supermarket said: "If you read it correctly, the thicker one is Sailimu and the smaller one is Longan wood, right?" He asked the man: "Are you going to send it to Zhangzhou?"
Lake Town?”
The man paid for the cigarette and said, "What Sailimu and Longan wood? You are mistaken. They are all ordinary rotten wood. I will take them back to burn firewood." After saying that, he went out and drove away in a small truck.
"Settling accounts."
The boss was doing the same thing, so I asked casually: "Boss, that guy just now, how did you know he was going to send the wood to Zhanghu Town?"
The boss raised his head and said: "You can tell at a glance that those wood are used for making snake boards. My wife is from Zhanghu Town, how could she not know this?"
"Snake board? What is it?" I asked.
"you do not know?"
I shook my head and said I didn't know.
He told me: "Every year on the seventh day of July, we have a unique grand festival in Zhanghu Town, Nanping City, called Snake Festival, also called Liangong Festival, which is second only to the Spring Festival in terms of liveliness."
"Snake lanterns are put out at night during the Snake Festival. Snake lanterns are put out twice a year. The first time is from the eighth to the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, and the second time is from the seventh to the tenth day of the seventh lunar month. They are both put out at night."
"Huh? Why should I tell you this when you're out of town?" The boss shook his head.
"Go on, I want to understand."
He shook his head again and said that our local customs are generally not told to outsiders.
"Take two huazi." I said.
He immediately gave me a cigarette and then said: "This snake board is a rectangular wooden board with four wheels on the bottom. A lantern is made of paper on the board. At night, the candle is placed in the paper lantern."
I lit a cigarette and threw the lighter on the table. The boss gestured to me and said, "When you use it, you tie it with a rope and drag it on the street at night."
"I'm not bragging to you. The most I've ever seen was more than 900 people dragging boards together on the street. It was a sea of fire, like a flaming snake."
"One more thing, starting from May, my wife and her family will go to the mountains to catch snakes. The caught snakes will be taken to the Snake King Temple in Zhanghu Town. You outsiders may call it Liangong Temple."
"There are about a dozen large black jars in the temple. In the end, whoever catches the most snakes in the jar will win and receive a bonus of 5,000 yuan."
I was amazed to hear this.
It is true that the soil and water support the people, and there are all kinds of strange folk festivals.
I asked again: "Doesn't it start in July? It's only April."
He said: "The production cycle of snake board is long, and the demand will be huge by then. How can it be used if we don't make it early? The snake board made of longan wood and Saili wood is the best, does not crack, and sells for the highest price."
"Honey, I'm back, how is business today?"
While we were talking, a woman in her thirties came in with a child in her arms.
"Haha, business is pretty good today."
"By the way, wife, do you think you can see a snake girl at the Snake Festival in your town this year? But I haven't seen one in several years."
The woman bumped the child up, frowned and said, "Snake girl... I don't want to see her. I saw her once when I was a child, and I didn't dare to go to school for several days."
"What is a snake girl?" I asked again.
The woman turned around and said, "Stop asking around and leave after shopping. If you really see the snake girl from Liangong Temple, she might scare you to death."
