Blue, Red and White Dark Abyss Cauldron

After a few days of nothing to do, Qin Gang led the people of the Snow Country to start repairing the boat. With the help of the islanders, everything became much more convenient.

Under the arrangement of Bai Qizhen, the residents of Nanzhai of Baihua Island are preparing for the approaching ancestor worship festival.

There are a lot of chores to do and everyone is busy and having fun.

Young people such as Chu Xiaomu, Yang Dou and Huai Xiaomeng all followed Ren Shantang's arrangements and helped to build the twenty-eight-star fire, construct temporary houses, build earthen stoves and stone stoves, brew Baihua wine, dry sea fish and wild deer and mutton, and so on.

Although he was extremely busy, he occasionally thought of Xiaoying, who had a look of anger on her face, and couldn't help but smile knowingly.

Yang Dou stretched his squinting eyes as wide as possible and asked, "Mu Tou, what are you laughing at? Is there something wrong with your brain?"

Chu Xiaomu punched him and said with a smile: "There's something wrong with your brain!"

Huai Xiaomeng frowned and said, "If you want to work, do it well. If you don't want to work, don't get in the way here!"

The two of them laughed even louder.

According to legend, the ancestors of the Baihua Islanders sailed across the ocean to Baihua Island in the autumn of a certain year to escape the war. Seeing the lush vegetation, singing birds and fragrant flowers here, the place was full of vitality, so they settled down on the island from then on.

They cut wood to build houses, piled stones to build stoves, and kneaded clay to make pots. From then on, they multiplied and reproduced. From the initial 130 or 40 people, after more than 200 years, there are now 700 or 800 people.

The population of the two southeastern villages is almost the same, both around three to four hundred people. The east village is inhabited by four surnames, Lu, Du, Tao and Gao, who are good at craftsmanship, winemaking, iron casting, weaving and other skills; the south village is inhabited by four surnames, Huai, Chu, Bai and Yang, who are good at physiognomy, martial arts, medicine and arithmetic.

The two villages in the southeast have their own strengths, so they complement each other in life and always help each other. Over the past two hundred years, they have often intermarried, and their blood has long been mixed, so they are as close as a family.

As the seasons changed, the custom gradually took shape. It was agreed that on the last three days of autumn each year, the two villages in the southeast would take turns holding grand ancestor worship ceremonies to comfort the ancestors and pray for prosperity and peace. The islanders called it the Ancestor Worship Festival.

During this period, the clan leaders of the two villages led the adult men aged 16 and above to perform the ancestor worship ceremony, and then sang and danced, shared delicious food, drank and had fun. It lasted for three consecutive days and was extremely lively.

Later, the form of the Ancestor Worship Festival changed further. Young men and women rarely had the opportunity to talk to each other on weekdays, so they would exchange glances and secretly get married during this rare gathering of the year.

Later, this small change was more accepted by everyone and gradually evolved into the current way of sending tokens as a token of love.

The ancestor worship ceremony is held alternately in the two southeastern villages. This year it is the turn of the South Village, so the South Village is the host and the East Village is the guest.

The guests from the East Village started arriving at the South Village three or four days in advance. The South Village already had many vacant houses, and many temporary buildings were built over the past few days to accommodate all the guests.

The adult women in the South Village were responsible for receiving guests and arranging food and lodging, while Chu Xiaomu and Yang Dou only did some manual chores.

The people from the Snow Country were visitors from afar, and Bai Qizheng had long ago invited them to attend the annual event on Baihua Island, saying that "friends can be made throughout the world, and joy can be enjoyed from all corners of the world."

Bai Yixing, Qin Gang and others were very happy and naturally agreed. Qin Gang suggested that the people of the Snow Country should present gifts to celebrate, one of which was to repay the islanders for saving their lives and treating their injuries, and the other was to comply with the etiquette of all quarters.

Everyone thought about it but couldn't think of a suitable gift. Suddenly, someone suggested that they could draw a picture of the structure of a merchant ship and use the shipbuilding technique as a gift. Everyone agreed that it was a great idea and Bai Yixing also agreed. He hurriedly started to draw the picture.

Seeing that Yang Dou was acting mysterious these days and was often not seen, Chu Xiaomu asked him if he had prepared the token and which daughter he was going to give it to.

Yang Dou blushed and said, "How can there be a girl I like? I'm so ugly, who would like me?"

Chu Xiaomu smiled and said, "Does it mean that you can't like girls just because they are ugly? I heard that the Du family in Dongzhai has a fourth daughter who just turned sixteen and is very beautiful."

Yang Dou stammered, "Is... is that so? How come I don't know?"

Chu Xiaomu leaned close to his ear and whispered, "I also heard that Uncle Huai's eldest son Huai Yuanbao is particularly interested in her and has even prepared several tokens of love. He has learned about 50% of Uncle Huai's medical skills, and he is also very handsome. The fourth daughter of the Tao family will definitely be attracted to him."

Yang Dou suddenly jumped up and cursed, "Bullshit! Huai Yuanbao is as fat as the beehive you made. He has to breathe heavily for a long time after walking three miles. Du...Du...would he like him?!"

Chu Xiaomu imitated his pronunciation and said with a smile: "Du...Du...what?"

Yang Dou twisted his body, shook off Chu Xiaomu's arm on his shoulder, and pretended to be angry and said, "How would I know that you, a stinky block of wood, actually came to make fun of me. I'll teach you a lesson." After that, he ran to catch him.

Chu Xiaomu ran away quickly, secretly amused in his heart. Yang Dou seemed to be a loud and noisy guy on the surface, but he was so shy when it came to girls. He should think of a way to play a good trick on him.

In fact, he himself was a more shy person, and was still ignorant about love affairs between men and women, let alone thinking about such things, so he did not prepare any tokens.

Two days later, the ancestor worship festival began with great enthusiasm.

Every islander on Baihua Island washed and dressed, happily put on clean new clothes, and had a beaming look on their faces.

Chu Xiaomu's family was relatively poor, and he could only find a piece of hemp cloth clothing from last year to wear. However, he had grown a lot taller this year, and it looked a little small on him. Although he washed it clean, he still felt a little ashamed of himself. But he had no other decent clothes, so he had to make do with it.

The first day of the Ancestor Worship Festival is a day to welcome guests. Men and women, young and old, sing and dance around twenty-eight bonfires burning high. The islanders of Baihua Island call these twenty-eight bonfires "Twenty-eight Star Fires" and the dance they perform "Star Fire Dance".

The twenty-eight stars correspond to the twenty-eight mansions. Originally, their placement was very particular. After being passed down for more than two hundred years, people no longer pay so much attention to it. They just put them wherever is convenient. Then what about "star division" and "receiving qi"?

When everyone was singing and dancing, the host would arrange people to wait by the side with wine and food. If anyone sang out of tune or danced out of step, they would be grabbed by the crowd and forced to drink from large bowls.

Except for the two boatmen who were still recovering from their injuries, seven other people from the Snow Country, including Bai Yixing, Qin Gang, and Hu Yong, were invited to dance with everyone.

These seven people were all foreigners from the Snow Country. They had never seen such a scene before. They made mistakes after dancing a few steps and they couldn't sing at all.

The people of Baihua Island caught them with laughter, some holding bowls, some pouring wine, and soon the seven people from Snow Country were drunk. Many islanders were also drunk.

Fortunately, these wines were made from flowers and wild fruits. Although they were easy to get drunk, they were not disgusting. After a night's rest, everyone had fully recovered the next morning.