He rejoiced amidst the carnival and the discolored faces, thinking that if Da Liang could have a few more locust plagues, floods, droughts, or other disasters, it would be wonderful.
That way, His Majesty could exorcise the Presences every year, and he could be enthralled each and every ti.
Qi Yutai revealed a satisfied smile, feeling as if his entire body beca light and floaty, like a bird flapping its wings, wobbling as it flew towards the clouds. He comfortably closed his eyes, the silver jug slipping from his hand, tapping a puppet, making a very faint sound, quickly drowned out by the talking outside.
"This thing is quite heavy," said the Ceremonial Officer dragging the puppet.
The puppet’s white face and golden eyes were fierce, with long horns and a mouth of sharp fangs. The wheels below the wooden boards rolled, and even so, dragging it was not an easy task.
"Why don’t you take a look inside?" another person asked.
"I don’t want bad luck."
The speaking Ceremonial Officer turned his eyes away in disgust, afraid that the puppet, half-dead, would touch even a thread of his robe, saying, "Bad on!"
A few Craftsn entered in twos and threes, carrying away all the masks and oiled paper from the storeroom.
The leading Ceremonial Officer urged the few people dragging the puppet, "The Nuo ceremony is about to begin; hurry up and deliver the items."
...
At the edge of Chang Le Pond, flas suddenly rose.
Within circles of blue smoke, a group of masked figures gradually appeared.
These people were dressed in colorful embroidered clothes, holding golden spears and dragon flags. With the sound of drums and music, a hundred children, their heads wrapped in red scarves, hands holding tambourines, singing along:
"Jia acts to devour calamity. Bi Wei eats the tiger.
Xiong Bo consus the ghostly specters. Teng Jian eats the inauspicious.
Lan Zhu devours bla. Bo Qi eats dreams.
Qiang Liang and Zu Ming together eat the hung and parasitic.
Weisui devours ons. Cuo Duan eats the giant.
Qiong Qi and Teng Gen together ingest witches.
Call upon the twelve deities to chase away the evil and the calamities.
All of you embody, stretch your corpses, sever your flesh, extract your lungs and intestines.
If you do not hurry away, you’ll beco sustenance for those who follow."
This was the Nuo chant.
Twelve masked Ceremonial Officers danced the exorcising Nuo dance, surrounded by a puppet about one person tall.
The puppet was made extrely ugly, with a white face, golden eyes, and fiercely protruding fangs.
Lin Danqing fixed his gaze: "This is..."
"The Plague Deity," Lu Tong said.
Lin Danqing, surprised: "I’ve never seen this in previous Nuo rituals, this is my first ti seeing it." Curious, he asked Lu Tong, "But Younger Sister Lu, isn’t this your first ti attending the grand ceremony? How do you recognize this?"
"I saw it in books."
Lin Danqing did not doubt her and nodded, then continued watching the distant Nuo dance.
Lu Tong lowered her eyes indifferently.
She had seen the Plague Deity before.
During the great epidemic year in Changwu County, as neighbor after neighbor fell ill, the entire Changwu County was dead and gloomy. The Magistrate, desperate for a cure, invited a mountain witch to exorcise the plague. At that ti, her parents and siblings were all too sick to get out of bed, and she walked a long road to witness the witch’s exorcism ceremony.
The poor county’s witch, who knew nothing of the "grand Nuo rituals" nor had a band of wizards, hastily set up a stage, where a person wearing a white face with golden eyes mask, and another with just a staff, would perform the exorcism.
The young her, watching the witch’s long and strange incantations, asked the aunt next door, "What is that person with the mask?"
The aunt told her, "That is the Plague Deity. If the witch drives it away, the epidemic will be gone."
The Plague Deity.
Lu Tong nodded, half understanding, and murmured in her heart:
It must be driven away.
It must.
Driven away, Father, Mother, brother, and sister would get well.
Suddenly, the crowd let out another cry of alarm. Lu Tong looked up; surrounding the central Nuo dance, the dancers began to spit out fireworks from their mouths.
Lu Tong’s expression remained calm.
At the dical Officer Institute where Lin Danqing served, there were people from the Imperial City’s Ministry of Music.
A few days earlier, she went back to the dical Officer Institute to tidy up so things and had delivered dicine for Lin Danqing once, when she happened to see at the Ministry of Music’s entrance, Music Officers were bringing in this "Plague Deity."
"Be careful, don’t damage it! This is the lead actor in this year’s exorcism!"
After scolding the Servant, the leading Music Officer turned to take the prescription from Lu Tong’s hand.
Lu Tong began to smile.
It must be their family in heaven looking out for them.
Making everything go unbelievably smoothly.
Gradually, in the midst of the chant, another person, dressed in black and red robes, wearing a bear skin, holding a spear and shield, progressed slowly from the back to the front.
The weighty bear skin pressed on this person’s body, making their lean and withered fra appear even more lonely within the misty fragrance, eerie and uncanny.
The music of the Nuo dance suddenly turned shrill.
The "lead actor" FangXiang Zi was originally played by the head of the Ministry of Music, but now it was Grand Preceptor Qi Qing taking the role.
Already advanced in years, and renowned for his virtue and benevolence, Grand Preceptor had donated his wealth for disaster relief during this year’s locust disaster in Su Nan, earning widespread praise from the people.
For many years, he had built bridges and roads, and the poor who benefited from his kindness were grateful. For him to play the plague-exorcising FangXiang Zi showed the Emperor’s esteem for him.
When Lu Tong visited Qi Yutai to provide treatnt, Qi Yutai often ntioned this matter, saying that his father would play FangXiang Zi this year, expressing much satisfaction in his words.
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