Chapter 222: Leave

Chapter 222 Departure

"Lion dance?" Li Huowang's mind simply could not turn the corner; the thing slowly approaching from afar looked nothing like the lion dance in his memory.

First, in his impression, the lion dance representing celebration would not be covered in a large piece of dirty-looking thin white cloth, and this so-called lion dance had no head at all!

Inside the propped-up white cloth was a hazy white light source, illuminating everything around through the lower end of the cloth; the light he had seen just now was from below.

If it were merely a piece of glowing white cloth, Li Huowang would not have thought this was an evil spirit. What was more chilling were the shriveled palm prints reflected on the white cloth.

Under the illumination of the light source, the entire white cloth became slightly transparent, clearly presenting those palm prints, large and small, before Li Huowang.

As the lion dance approached, Li Huowang saw more details on the white cloth; there were many white tassels on the cloth, just like the white tassels on the spirit banners carried by mourners at funerals.

Li Huowang's gaze gradually shifted downward, looking toward the lion feet beneath the white cloth; what met his eyes were some bare feet covered in mud.

If there was anything that could be linked to the lion dance, it was the feet beneath the white cloth and the hands propping it up, moving simultaneously as if with some rhythm; they were indeed dancing.

With every dance and shake, a sound of wooden poles knocking against each other came from within the large cloth, as if used for accompaniment.

"Senior Brother Li, it's fine, I've seen this kind since I was small, I was scared to tears back then, but after seeing it a few more times, I got used to it long ago." Sun Baolu attempted to help Li Huowang dispel his concerns.

Li Huowang cautiously pulled the brass mask on his face with his hand, covering as much of his face as possible.

"Sometimes things one is used to are not necessarily safe, and besides, why does this lion have no head?"

"Because none of them have completed their apprenticeship; they are all just apprentices. Only the master lion dancers qualify to hang the lion head; these kids are just taking advantage of the night when no one is around to practice."

After explaining to Li Huowang, Sun Baolu looked up and shouted encouragement at the lion dance passing by. From the tone, it seemed to be words of encouragement.

However, no one responded to Sun Baolu's words from within the headless lion; they were like an elephant lying on the ground long dead, moving slowly past Li Huowang with some special melody.

After a while, the lion dance finally left, leaving Li Huowang with a back view gradually receding, without having any reaction to Li Huowang.

"Senior Brother Li, you see, Qingqiu is different from other places; protected by the Eternal Heaven, those evil spirits dare not act rashly."

Li Huowang, carrying remaining vigilance, looked up at him once, then turned and walked toward the inside of the inn.

"Is your Eternal Heaven so stingy? Only protecting this single spot?"

"This... anyway, that's what my clansmen say."

"Are these lion dancers all taught master to apprentice, generation after generation like this?"

"No, they all have inheritances; in Qingqiu there is a group of people specializing in teaching lion dance, heard it's called the Lion Dance Palace."

"Lion Dance Palace?" Li Huowang murmured, repeating the word; he always felt he had heard it somewhere, but now trying hard to think, he could not recall it.

Suddenly, just as Li Huowang was striving to think over this problem, the monk beside him counting on his fingers stomped his foot anxiously and said hurriedly: "Daoist, something's wrong! Those lion dance heads are wrong!"

"Hmm?" Li Huowang looked in astonishment at the hallucination of this monk beside him, "What's wrong?"

"Didn't you count just now? The numbers don't match! The hands propping the cloth are much more than the feet below! More hands fewer feet, the numbers don't match! Those people definitely have problems!"

"Wait!" As Li Huowang recalled the scene just now, his body went cold

If not for the monk's reminder, he almost failed to discover, why were there more hands than feet for the lion dancers?!

"Senior Brother Li?" Seeing Li Huowang standing there talking to himself, Sun Baolu retreated several steps with some fear.

Just as Sun Baolu planned that if the other party continued talking nonsense, he would immediately go back to find others to bring chains, he saw Senior Brother Li leaning on a cane, limping toward the inside.

"Baolu, don't sleep today, the two of us will keep watch!"

"Ah? Eh! Okay okay okay!" Although he did not know why they had to keep watch inside the inn, Sun Baolu complied anyway.

That night at the third watch, Sun Baolu saw Senior Brother Li, who had not blinked once, suddenly stand up, actually calling for the others to start traveling at this time.

Although the others were somewhat puzzled why travel at night, they complied anyway.

They had less gold and silver, and on the carriage were added several bags of highland barley. And dozens of sheep.

"I'm good at this, I'm good at this! When I was begging as a child, I herded sheep for a wealthy family for two years!"

Under Lu Zhuangyuan's volunteering, the position of temporary shepherd was undertaken by him.

Under the moonlight they left Woman Mountain; Li Huowang, looking behind from time to time, had an exceptionally solemn expression, paired with the fatigue of not sleeping all night, his face looked very bad.

Seeing this face, everyone felt something had happened; no one had the mind to idle about other things, the atmosphere appeared somewhat oppressive.

Puzzled, Chun Xiaoman carried her sword to Sun Baolu's side, asking in a low voice: "What's wrong with Senior Brother Li? Wasn't he always by your side? Before he was still properly accompanying Junior Sister Bai out to play, how after one night did he become like this?"

Sun Baolu hesitated somewhat, finally telling Chun Xiaoman in a low voice. "I don't know either, clearly nothing happened. Maybe....."

Speaking to this point, his voice lowered some more, almost becoming only the size of a mosquito flying.

"Perhaps Senior Brother Li has fallen ill again....... Didn't he often say before that someone was harming him?"

Xiaoman looked again at the neurotic Li Huowang, turned and walked over to Bai Lingmiao's side to understand the situation.

However, until resting by the river, Chun Xiaoman was still clueless, not knowing what had happened after all.

"Set up the pot, light the collected sheep dung beneath the pot!"

Several people scattered out, beginning to dig for wild vegetables; Gou Wa's eyes suddenly lit up, hands spreading to pounce and cover two entangled grasshoppers, he carefully used his fingers to break the grasshoppers' legs and wings, putting them into his waist pouch.

"This Qingqiu land is just fertile; in such a short time I've caught a plate of hard dishes."

After tightening the cloth bag, he lay on the ground again and continued searching through the grass.

Soon his attention came to a small clump of thorns; fingernails stuck with black grime steadily snapped off a tender thorn, tearing off the skin with barbs along the edge from the side, revealing the emerald green core inside.

Chewing this green core in his mouth, Gou Wa's face showed a satisfied expression; he had eaten this wild vegetable before, and the taste was not bad, a bit like crisp celery.

Just as he was preparing to take all these tender thorns in one go, a basket suddenly appearing before Gou Wa scared him greatly.

He lifted his head, discovering this was Chun Xiaoman's basket; after the woman put down the basket, she turned and walked toward Li Huowang sitting cross-legged in the distance.

"When going back, help bring it back along the way."

(End of Chapter)