Between the vast sea of ​​clouds

The clear river flows slowly, and on the other side of the river is a piece of neat crops, which are still green and yellow, blown by the wind, one after another is like a wave.The sun shines on the river bed, a few green algae are stretched and swayed in the water, and silver light spots are shining in the river water. If you look closely, you can see a few small fish swimming beside the stones.Suddenly one hand scooped up the river water, and the fish fled in fright, swimming towards a deeper place.

Qingping took the river water and washed her face. Fortunately, she was wearing a riding uniform, so she could move more easily.After washing off the dust on her face, she dabbed some water and patted the dust on her trousers. Suddenly, she felt a chill on her calves. When she stood up, she saw that the trousers on her right leg were torn open, and the rags were hanging on the pitifully. on the legs.

She was almost speechless and burst into tears. She didn't expect the wild dog in this village to be so aggressive. She just patted the puppy's head. After catching up, the dog has sharp teeth, and it must have been bitten by it at that time.Finally, he met a villager who was returning from chopping firewood, and the dog left unwillingly under the threat of a hatchet.

Qingping sighed, feeling that he was really ill-fated.Standing by the river and looking at the distant place, she only saw the vast mountains under the clear sky, and the river meanders like a silver belt, flowing to an unknown distance amidst the beautiful scenery of mountains and fields.

So where is this now?She didn't have a map in her hand, and she didn't have a guidebook, how would she go to Zhaoye?

Zhao Ye.

Qing Ping was thinking of this name in her heart as she walked. She didn't dare to go back to that village. She was afraid of meeting those assassins on the way back, so she chose to walk in the opposite direction. She touched the purse hidden in her chest, which contained her The monthly money when she was in the palace, and a piece of jade pendant given by Wu Yue, these seemingly dispensable things at ordinary times, but she is used to being careful, and always keep it close to her body, she never thought that it would be a life-saving thing at a critical moment.

Qingping took the silver and exchanged it with a family for a set of coarse clothes and some dry food.She changed the ragged riding uniform, the family saw that she was small, and handed her a cloth bag to hold things, Qingping bowed gratefully, put the riding uniform and dry food into the cloth bag, and carried it on her back.

She took the things and left quickly in case anyone followed.She walked to the next night alone in the wilderness of the deserted village, seeing no one anywhere.When it was dark, he passed a field where the freshly cut wheat straw still exuded a faint plant aroma. There were several huge haystacks piled up on the field. Qingping walked over carefully, hid in the haystacks, and hugged the cloth bag Just slept through the night.

She woke up at dawn the next day. The wound on her lower back was burning and painful. Qingping touched it, and it felt that the scab had formed, but the edge of the wound was red and swollen.Before the sun came out, she walked for an unknown distance. When she was hungry, she ate a few mouthfuls of dry food, and when she was thirsty, she drank the water from the mountain stream.The scorching sun, Qingping swallowed his thirsty throat, and finally saw a few families in the scorching heat.The mud house and hut are surrounded by a fence made of branches, and a few chickens are walking around inside. A dog is lying under a big tree at the entrance of the village, and a group of children are chasing and playing under the tree.

Qingping walked over cautiously, a child spotted her with sharp eyes, stopped playing around, and tugged at the elder child who was the leader.The other children followed suit, and the older girl wore two pigtails and said in a crisp voice, "Who are you?"

Qingping bowed slightly to her, and said: "My family and I got separated on the way to Zhaoye, passing by here, how far is it from Zhaoye?"

The girl tilted her head, looked at Qingping carefully, and saw that although she was wearing coarse clothes, she was very handsome, and her sincerity made her feel good, so the girl said: "You come with me."

A group of children looked at Qingping curiously, and surrounded her and the girl. The girl bounced all the way, brought Qingping to a green brick house, and shouted inside: "Master Lizheng, someone is here!"

She barked several times, and the children around her also found it amusing and learned to bark together.After yelling for a while, a white-haired old man came out of the house, covered his ears and said, "It's alright, alright, I heard it, the deaf will be deaf again by you!"

The girl giggled, flicked her pigtails, and said, "Someone is here, she wants to ask something, please help her!"

Qingping made a big salute to Zhengzheng there, Lizheng was slightly taken aback, looked her up and down, and said, "I don't know...guest, what do you want to ask?"

Qingping said: "I'm passing through your place, I'm bothering you, I want to ask how far it is from Zhaoye."

Lizheng pondered for a moment, and said: "If there is an ox cart, it will take three days and three nights to get to Zhaoye."

Qingping nodded, thanked her, and asked: "My family and I met bandits on the road and got separated on the way to Zhaoye. At this time, I don't have documents to guide me. I don't know how to enter Zhaoye?"

Li Zheng was surprised and said: "There are bandits!" She panicked, and said to the girl: "Go and call your mother! Tell her that I have something to do! Go!"

The girl nodded, turned and ran away.Li Zheng leaned on his crutches and said: "If guests want to enter the city, they must have a guide. If there is no way, as long as they are from Chenzhou and show their ID, they can go in. But judging by your appearance, you are not from Chenzhou. stop?"

Qingping nodded and said, "I'm from Yunzhou."

Li Zheng said: "The New Year's Eve is coming soon, many caravans are going to Zhaoye, no wonder you ran into bandits on the way. If you want to enter the city, there is still a way, find a caravan and see if they are willing to take you in You, take you into the city."

After hearing this, Qingping shook his head in embarrassment, the caravan would never bring people of unknown origin into Zhaoye, if something happened and they were questioned, wouldn't it be asking for trouble?

Lizheng thought about it, and said: "In the open space in the east of the village, there is a juggling troupe going to Zhaoye, presumably to win a good place in the annual 'Watching the Sea Banquet', you go and ask them No one."

Qingping's eyes lit up when he heard the words, he thanked Lizheng, and walked towards the east of the village.

There are dense forests in the east of the village, but there is an empty sandy field near the river. Qingping walked over and saw a few tents. When she approached, she heard a person say: "After seven days, there will be a sea-watching feast. What do you have?" Didn't find anyone?"

The person who spoke was a middle-aged woman. On such a hot day, she was still wearing a cape and clothes made of colorful cloth, which looked nondescript.Standing beside her was a woman wearing a wooden crown, and she said lazily: "Do you think this person is so easy to find? He is only fifteen years old and has a well-proportioned body. Hearing that she is here to pretend to be a dragon girl, I don’t want any money for being scared!”

Qingping walked over slowly. After listening for a while, she didn't understand what was going on, but she also knew that they were looking for the child of Shiwuyi. She thought for a while and made up her mind. Li is saying that you are recruiting people." She smiled shyly and said, "Look at me, can you do it?"

The two women were taken aback by Qingping's sudden appearance, and the man in colorful clothes asked suspiciously, "Lizheng asked you to come? You—"

The woman wearing a wooden crown next to her looked Qingping carefully from head to toe, and happily said: "How old are you this year!"

Qing Ping said: "Thirteen."

"Okay, okay!" The woman looked up to the sky and laughed loudly, and said, "We are looking for someone to play the role of a dragon girl at the Wanghai Banquet, are you willing?"

Qingping didn't know what Longnu was, but he nodded when he heard them say that he looked like a character in an opera.

The woman in the colorful dress frowned and said, "Is this good? My child, what about your adult? Will you come out and play the dragon girl?"

"Okay, don't talk about it, since people got the news from Lizheng, how could they not know about it!" The woman wearing a wooden crown warmly pulled Qingping and said: "Please follow me."

Qingping followed her into the tent, and the woman wearing the wooden crown said: "My surname is Wang, and I am Master Wen of this juggling troupe. The one next to me is Master Wu, surnamed Zhang."

She nodded, Master Wen taught the libretto, and Master Wu naturally taught the movements.The tent was in a mess, Master Wang rummaged through a pile of clothes, picked out a short shirt, handed it to Qingping and said, "Go to the back and change it."

This blouse is very strange, it is sleeveless, and the overlapped part of the skirt is covered with golden thread sleeves, but the clothes only cover the chest, and the navel and waist are exposed to the air.After Qingping changed, the eyes of the two masters lit up, and they said in unison: "It's you!"

Qingping calmed down and changed into her original clothes.Master Zhang leaned over and said enthusiastically, "What's the girl's name? Where does she live?"

She replied: "My name is Qingping, and I live in the west of the village."

Qingping had made up his life experience on the way here, he only knew that he was an orphan and had no one to rely on, and when he heard that the juggling troupe was accepting people, he wanted to come in and learn some skills.

Master Zhang said: "Okay, since you've come in, just follow me and study hard." He gritted his teeth and said, "Wan Ling, that damn girl, I don't believe we can't do it without her!"

Master Wang persuaded: "People go to high places, but water flows to low places. He has real skills and was poached by a big troupe. You can't help it, right?"

Master Zhang said angrily: "What is the real skill! It's not all taught by me. Why did I put down the burden and leave such a group of people when it came to an end? A month's hard work was wasted! If it had been earlier He said, we can still look for another person, but it is only ten days away from the Wanghai Banquet, and she just left like this!"

Master Wang shook her head, and the wooden crown followed suit, she said in a deep voice: "In that case, you and I will teach her well, get a good ranking at the Sea-Watching Banquet, and teach her a lesson! "

After saying this, he patted Master Zhang on the shoulder with hatred, and Master Zhang glanced at Qingping aggressively. His serious expression made the ridiculous colorful clothes on her a little useless. She said to Qingping: "Come on, come with me." .”

Qingping obediently followed her, Master Zhang said: "Do you know the legend of the Dragon Girl?"

Qingping actually didn't know, but said: "Know some."

Master Zhang smiled, and said: "Ordinary people naturally only know a little bit, but people from Minzhou may need to know a little bit."

After finishing speaking, he told Qingping about the legend of the dragon girl in detail.

Born from the sea, Dragon Girl is a goddess who controls the power of the sea.She lives in the vast sea where the water and the sky meet, and the rising water vapor in the sea turns into clouds in the sky. She often drives the clouds at the place where the sea and the sky meet, and turns them into various images to guide the way for travelers lost at sea.

Every 500 years, the dragon girl will be reincarnated in the world to experience the sufferings of the world.There are many rumors about the dragon girl, and the story versions are not the same. The most famous one is the third reincarnation of the dragon girl. The fisherman then turned into a human body and drank on the ground. After drinking heavily, he turned into a gangster and returned to the sea to make waves.The girl reincarnated from the dragon girl proposed to compete with Jiaolong. On the eve of the competition, she drugged the evil Jiao's wine. As a result, Jiaolong lost the next day, kept her promise, and retreated to the deep sea.

In the second generation, the dragon girl was reincarnated as a man, and the dragon came to make trouble again, and wanted to marry a beautiful young man to be his lord.The dragon girl pretended to marry her and wanted to kill the evil dragon on the wedding night. The dragon begged hard, but the dragon girl couldn't bear to kill her, so she was imprisoned in the sea.

In the third life, the Jiaolong knew the identity of the dragon girl, so he wanted to snatch her reincarnation spirit orb and prevent the dragon girl from reincarnating for revenge.But the evil God Luodan who lived in the far North Sea knew about this, so he pretended to win over Jiaolong. Finally, the evil god got the dragon girl's spirit orb and overturned the ocean, intending to flood the world.Aware of her intention, the evil dragon risked his life to get back the spirit orb for the dragon girl. Finally, the dragon girl regained her god body and sealed the evil god with supreme power.At the same time, she also revived Jiaolong. From then on, Jiaolong surrendered to Longnu and became the envoy to protect the reincarnation of Longnu, walking with her in the vast sea.

In order to be grateful for what the goddess has done, the people living by the sea make these stories into dramas, and jugglers are invited to perform every year.There will be performances about the legend of the dragon girl at the annual festivals in Chenzhou and Minzhou. The most famous one is the Wanghai Banquet in Zhaoye. The three most outstanding dragon girl performers at the annual festival will be selected and bestowed by Zhou Mu himself. Food and drink and rewards, No.1 and his team can also get the honor of touring in Chenzhou.

When Master Wang talked about the excitement, he seemed to have won the first place in the sea-gazing banquet. Qingping reluctantly took the short shirt and looked at it over and over again, and finally interrupted Master Wang's beautiful fantasy: "Master Wang, But me, I can't act."

In her understanding, isn't it a professional person to perform juggling?Even those who join the battle temporarily have to go through a month of training before they can do some complicated movements well.

Master Wang was stunned, as if she never thought that Qingping would ask this question, she looked at Qingping's face, and said sincerely: "I don't want you to act, as long as you look good."

Qingping was confused, and said: "Then what do you want me to do?"

Master Wang said: "If I teach you to dance and sing now, you may learn it in seven days?"

Qing Ping shook her head, she didn't have such a great ability by herself.

Master Wang clapped his hands and said: "That's right, our group leader has already made arrangements, as long as we find suitable children and teach them some movements of hands and feet, you don't have to worry about the rest."