Blue, Red and White Dark Abyss Cauldron

By this time the sky was already pitch black, but the twenty-eight flames were still burning brightly after being fueled with firewood, illuminating the southern village of Baihua Island as bright as day.

Bai Yixing was already impatient, and before the ancestor worship ceremony was over, he dragged Qin Gang back to the small house where they were staying temporarily. As soon as he entered the house, he knelt down in front of him and cried, "Brother Qin Gang, you must save me."

Qin Gang was full of doubts and asked, "What are you doing? Get up quickly!" and reached out to pull him.

Bai Yixing just cried, "If my brother doesn't save me, I will never get up!"

Qin Gang said: "Your lung injury has healed, and your life is no longer in danger. The cargo ship will be completely repaired in a while, and we can go east back to the Snow Country. By then, we will be able to arrive safely at Taishun on the sea. I don't understand why you are talking about saving you at this time."

Bai Yixing said: "I'm not asking you to save my life, but I'm asking you to save my Bai family."

Qin Gang asked: "What do you mean by that?"

"I think Brother Qin Gang understands. My Bai family spent millions of dollars to prepare five ships of commercial goods. We thought we could sell them to Cangmu Country and earn some hard-earned money. But we didn't expect to encounter an accident. There was a tsunami in front and mermaids behind, so all the goods sank to the bottom of the sea..." After a pause, he continued, "I want to ask brother, compared with the lost commercial goods, what is the value of this ancient tripod on Baihua Island?"

Qin Gang was silent for a while, then said, "They can't be compared. They can't be compared at all..."

"How can they be compared? Is it that my goods are inferior to the ancient tripod... or is it that the ancient tripod is inferior to my goods..."

"The goods you lost are like dirt and stone to gold and jade, or sand and gravel to pearls. They cannot be compared."

"This... this... this is it. This is exactly where I asked my brother to save me."

"How to save you?"

Bai Yixing was afraid that someone would hear him, so he pulled Qin Gang to the corner of the room and whispered, "We have to find a way to get the tripod from them..."

Qin Gang glared at him and said, "Why, do you want to rob?"

Bai Yixing said quickly: "No, no, no, how can we rob them? They saved my life and treated us so kindly for so long, we can never do such a wicked thing."

Qin Gang asked, "Then how do you plan to get the tripod?"

Bai Yixing thought for a moment and said, "What I mean is that you can ask them if they can give me the tripod. I think... I think... Brother, you have a good relationship with their clan leader..."

Qin Gang shook his head and said, "What can I say to the clan leader? It's just some ordinary idle chat."

Bai Yixing said: "We have given them such a good shipbuilding technology, they can't be so stingy, right? If it really doesn't work, I will give them the only remaining merchant goods on this ship." He gritted his teeth and continued: "Even if I have to cut off my hands and feet and give them, I will not hesitate!"

Qin Gang laughed and said, "What do they want your hands and feet for? Wouldn't it be scary to hang them at home?"

Seeing that he was still in the mood to joke, Bai Yixing became even more impatient and said, "You...you...you have to think of a solution for me!"

Qin Gang said, "We are from the Snow Country, thousands of miles away. We are real foreigners here. Although they are polite to us, it is only for courtesy. To be honest, they must be on guard against us, otherwise they would not come to our place from time to time. If we ask for the tripod or exchange the tripod, they will definitely be suspicious and may even make things unpleasant, which is not good for everyone."

Bai Yixing said, "I see they just put the tripod in their ancestral temple and throw some useless stones and shells into it during the ancestral worship festival. It has no legitimate use at all. Why don't they change it?"

Qin Gang said: "The thinking of the Cangmu people is different from that of us Snow people. They are stubborn by nature. It is common that they refuse to give you something you say is useless."

Bai Yixing said: "Then... what should we do? We can't let the treasure stay on this nameless island forever, right? That would be too... too pity!"

Qin Gang groaned and said, "They don't recognize the treasure and just use it as an ordinary tool. It's really a waste of natural resources. It's a pity."

Bai Yixing clapped his hands and said, "That's right. Instead of letting the treasure stay here without seeing the light of day, it's better to let it go where it belongs. In the end, we did a good thing."

Qin Gang shook his head and said, "But what if they just don't want to..."

The two discussed in detail until late at night.

After ancestor worship, the third day belongs to young men and women.

On this day, unmarried young men and women will wrap carefully prepared tokens and paper signs with their names written on them with orchid grass and give them to their loved ones. If the other party feels the same way, they will open the box in public and give a gift in return, and the two will be together forever. After informing both parents and going to the clan leader to set an auspicious date, they can hold a wedding and become husband and wife.

The islanders gave this ritual a nice name, "Seeking the Heart". This day is called "Seeking the Heart Day", which happens to be the last day of autumn every year.

In the evening, a large red bonfire was lit in the middle of the open space of Dashuping in the South Village, and forty or fifty young people from the two southeast villages gathered around the bonfire, talking and joking, making it very lively.

There were also many elderly people, women and children watching, whispering and pointing, making a lively and joyful scene. The son of a family who was born tall and brave, and the daughter of a family who was born well-behaved and pretty would be magnified ten times in their mouths.

Bai Yixing, who is still unmarried, was pushed by the people of Snow Country to the middle of the young people of Baihua Island, holding a small ice spirit statue carefully carved from jade.

He didn't know that the token had to be wrapped in a bag woven from orchid grass, nor did he know that he had to write his name inside it. He just hung the Bing Ling statue with a red string as a token of trust.

Seeing Yang Dou looking around in the crowd, Chu Xiaomu pulled him over and said with a smile, "Anyway, we haven't prepared any tokens, and no girls will be interested in us, so just stand over there and watch." As he spoke, he pointed to a big tree in the distance. Standing on the trunk, one could have a panoramic view of the entire scene in the big tree garden. The two of them often climbed up and down that tree.

Yang Dou's face flushed, and he said shyly, "No... No, you go by yourself. I'm here and can see more clearly."

Chu Xiaomu pretended to be angry and said, "If you chase me away like this, are we still good friends and brothers?"

Yang Dou stretched his neck to look among the crowd and answered nonchalantly, "It doesn't count today, we'll talk about it tomorrow."

Chu Xiaomu said: "That won't do. Good friends are lifelong friends. How can it not be the same today and the same tomorrow?" After saying that, he pulled him hard.

Yang Dou slapped Chu Xiaomu's hand hard, and a small package woven with orchid grass fell out of his arms with a "pop". What else could it be but a keepsake?

He hurriedly bent down to pick it up, his cheeks flushed all the way down to his neck, and he stammered, unable to speak.

Chu Xiaomu laughed, pushed him hard, and made a gesture of encouragement.