Luo Li and Su Chuo or Lu Pianpian talked about it for a while, then returned to the room and pulled out a pamphlet under the pillow.
Opening the booklet, several marked and highlighted records were clearly visible.
"...Cai Quan'er changed her mind when she saw something different, and fell in love with someone else, prompting her brother to get married..."
"...Xue Bingyu was dissolute and shameless, fooling around with a monk and getting pregnant..."
"...City God Xuan Qian wants to take me as his concubine..."
"...My mother was taken away..."
"...Xue Bingyu divorced my brother..."
"...Brother will blackmail me for three thousand taels of silver..."
"...Xuan Qian sent ghosts..."
As she looked at these records, her bright little face became more and more gloomy, her delicate red mouth was pursed tightly, and her pink and white fists were slowly clenched.
Then, she took out a small brush and wrote: "March 18th..."
After writing this, I looked up at the door, frowned, and crossed out the record again.
"...It is not appropriate to put this woman on paper if she is around us..."
"We can't let her discover anything unusual."
"But Su Chuo is Su Chuo, and Lu Pianpian is Lu Pianpian..."
The cardamom girl came to the yard again, looked at Su Chuo who was drying clothes in the sun, and said with a gentle smile:
"Sister Su Chuo, I forgot to remind you that you shouldn't dry your clothes today."
"Hee." Su Chuo looked back and smiled, gently flipping his hair, "Why is that?"
"Because..." Luo Li looked up at the cloudless sky, "Today is auspicious, it will probably rain."
Su Chuo suddenly remembered that today was the day when the Luo Family Band went on stage to pray for rain from the Dragon God.
…………
"The gong is about to begin! The Luo family class is about to begin!"
At a quarter past noon, the watchman in the village started shouting with gongs and drums.
The entire Gujing Village knew that Luojiaban, who had lived in the village for six or seven days, finally went on stage to entertain the gods on an auspicious day.
On the stage next to the Wang family ancestral hall in the village, a magic table has been set up, seven incense burners were lit, and smoke filled the entire stage.
A series of improvised sacred flags made by the Luo family class were placed around the stage, making the sacred scene on the stage shrouded in smoke even more solemn.
The seven actors of the Luo family class have prepared costumes, props, masks specially used for Nuo opera, horns and iron rings for swordsmen.
"Sacrifice to the Dragon God" is the most common god-inviting play in Nuo opera.
So it needs to be mysterious and ethereal.
A cloud chariot decorated with donkey carts was parked in the ancestral hall.
The donkey was blindfolded, wearing a sea animal mask, and his body was painted with lime and strange patterns.
The paper shed-like cloud chariot is also painted with colorful cloud patterns, hung with copper bells and has a built-in incense table.
According to the script of Nuo opera, this "cloud chariot" from the world of mortals will carry the ancient and mysterious Dragon God, come to the world to watch the dance, and then make clouds and rain in joy.
Luo Ning wore a ferocious dragon god mask, and was served by two children, Xiguer and Luguer, and put on a set of coarse cloth robes painted with dragon scales.
Each scale is painted with cloud patterns.
It's obviously a costume made of coarse cloth, but because Luo Ning personally supervised the production, it looks very decent.
After a while, the "Dragon God", supported by two supporting characters wearing shrimp crowns, boarded the "Cloud Chariot" and sat upright.
Two supporting characters wearing silver masks stood beside the "Cloud Chariot" and presented a patrol trident modified from a hunting fork.
"Woooo..."
"Ding ding..."
The unique horn horns and sword sounds of Nuo opera sounded, and the mysterious and strange atmosphere around the stage became even more intense.
It was obviously broad daylight, but it made people feel frightened.
Just look at the "Dragon God" sitting upright on the "Cloud Chariot" in the dark ancestral hall, looming in the swirling smoke...
Just know everything is ready.
The eight actors in the Luo Family Class, including the leading role, supporting roles, and supporting roles, are all in place. Although there are too few people, we can still perform a performance.
Luo Li, the Su brothers and sisters, and Li Dingguo came to the stage early, looking at the stage with bright eyes.
The Su brothers and sisters even brought two bottles of wine. Su Chuo was addicted to alcohol as soon as he talked about it. Since he was coming to the theater, he had to be prepared.
The villagers also came in twos and threes with their families.
The stages for social dramas in villages are usually set up in open places in the village, such as the grain drying field, beside the ancestral hall, in the cemetery, and in front of the Tutu Temple.
This is also to entertain ghosts and gods during social operas, and it means that the people, ghosts and gods enjoy watching the opera together.
Often at this time, lonely ghosts will also be happy.
After lunch, almost all the more than a thousand villagers came to the nearby area, which was packed with people. Several nearby ancestral halls were packed with people both inside and outside.
It was crowded with people, bustling and noisy.
The villagers haven't been so lively in a long time.
The children squeezed into the crowd like loaches burrowing through the mud, and it was difficult to prevent them from slipping away.
The second-rate old bachelors in the village were not ashamed, and they happily squeezed into the crowd of older girls and younger wives, causing a lot of curses.
Even those old women with deflated chests laughed and cursed and spat in shame.
But many people know clearly that today is a day of joy amid hardship!
A moment of happiness is a moment, and a moment of hunger is a moment!
I don’t know how many people will become refugees in the second half of the year.
If it doesn't rain yet, this year will be another year of drought, and if you can't pay taxes, you will really have no choice but to evade taxes.
The performance had not officially started yet, and the villagers were chatting with each other and complaining.
"This Luo family team was bought by each of us with seven copper coins, and we also provide food. They say they are entertaining the gods and asking the Dragon King for rain, but can they really ask for rain? A dead horse is treated as a living horse doctor!"
"Enemies! The Dragon Prince is very busy! From what I say, it means lively and lively, but poor and lively! Once it's lively, it ends in tears."
"Oh, I'm right. The town invited the Wang Family Troupe to sing an opera, and I went to see it. The Wang Family Troupe had a large number of people, and the performance was great, and they also paid a lot of money."
"Did you sing well? Good! I sang for a whole day, but did the Dragon Prince show any respect? No!"
"The town has spent thirty taels of silver in vain! I can't ask for a teardrop from Lord Dragon!"
Everyone frowned, sucked in the cold air as if they had toothache, and their mood for watching the show became much lighter.
Many villagers with dove-shaped faces shook their heads and sighed, feeling gloomy and gloomy.
They seem to have seen people fleeing the famine with their families and becoming refugees.
He died on the road and could not return home.
Killed by robbers, harmed by demons and monsters.
Lord Dragon, please give me a rain.
The crops in the fields are about to wither.
What's the point of hiring an opera troupe to entertain the gods? It's just money spent in vain. The Dragon King won't reward you, and if the actors sing to death, it won't rain.
Forget it, all the copper money has been spent, let's just give everyone a bowl of rice to buy and have fun. These actors who are just living in the world are pitiful.
"Let's watch the show first. The Luojiaban stage is really a bit mysterious, full of smoke and fog."
"That's right. There are only a few people in the Luo family class, and the class leader is young, but he is really decent."
Just as everyone was turning their attention to the stage and talking about it, a gong suddenly sounded.
It’s officially started!
"Woo-"
"Ding ding——"
The horns and swords sounded, and at the same time a long and ethereal voice like a spiritual caller sounded:
"Please-Dragon-God-I!"
This soul-like sound immediately attracted everyone's attention, and more than a thousand people fell silent immediately.
Immediately afterwards, the farmers played by Alu and Aji appeared on the smoke-filled stage wearing masks with sad faces and wrinkles.
"Please-Dragon-God-I!"
The voices of the two people were long and full of sadness. The masks they wore also gave people a sense of sadness and mystery.
At the same time, the stage instruments also become sad and desolate, the rhythm is slow and heavy, and it is an obvious Erhuang Ban style.
The two of them walked to a sad and slow rhythm and sang together in a crying voice:
"The sky is high and the soil is thick, the people are suffering, and farmers from all over the country are crying..."
"It's been three months since the first lunar month, and my eyes are bleeding in anticipation of rain..."
"Shout to Heaven, shout to Earth, please invite the powerful Dragon King..."
At this point, the two masked men howled loudly, beat their chests with their hands, held swords and iron rings in their hands, and danced in front of the divine case as if they were shouting at the heavens and the earth.
"Ding ding ding..." Amidst the rapid sound of the swordsman, the sound of gongs and drums also became tense and urgent.
The entire stage was suddenly filled with a tense and mysterious atmosphere.
The two of them shook the swords, danced and cried, shouting: "I respectfully invite the Dragon King! I invite the Dragon God!"
Thousands of people were immediately attracted by this tense, mysterious and strange atmosphere.
Everyone stared at the stage intently.
At this moment, a burst of ethereal copper bells suddenly sounded, and a "cloud chariot" slowly appeared on the stage.
The smoke on the stage suddenly became thicker, and the cloud chariot seemed to come through the clouds and mist...