You are not allowed to worship the gods in Xi Liang. But this couldn’t stop people from being pious to the gods.
Rumour had it that during the worship of the gods, as long as you tie a red ribbon to your wrist, dance around the bonfire, and throw the red ribbon into the bonfire to burn it after the dance, you can convey your wishes to the gods who come to Wuyue Island as guests.
Wen Chan had never heard of this custom before. Looking at the red ribbon worth half a tael1about 0.68 grams of silver in the vendor’s hand, Wen Chan felt a little hesitant.
“I want two.” Liang Yanbei generously took out a tael of silver and handed it to the hawker in exchange for two brightly coloured red ribbons.
“We are not from Wuyue Island. So the gods may not acknowledge us.” Wen Chan muttered in a low voice.
Because the singing around them was too loud, he just guessed what he meant and reached out to tug on his arm, “These are all just rumours. If there is anything credible in it, we can just ask for some good luck.”
He wrapped the red ribbon around Wen Chan’s wrist a few times.
Taking advantage of the gap, Wen Chan raised his eyes to look at him and saw that he looked serious with a faint smile in his eyes. He seemed to be in a pleasant mood.
The scarlet colour stood out sharply against his fair skin. It was tied with a small knot, and the long ribbon swayed between the sleeves.
“It looks good.” Liang Yanbei praised it inexplicably before reaching out his hand to Wen Chan and saying, “Tie it for me.”
Wen Chan shook the ribbon in his hand. And then, with a smile on his lips, he took his ribbon and tied it to his wrist. As soon as the knot was tied, he heard a familiar voice coming in from the side.
“Oh, what a coincidence.” Tang Yixiao walked in slowly from the side with a smile and raised the red ribbon tied to his wrist, “You are here too.”
He seemed to be alone. When he approached Liang Yanbei, he first glanced at the red ribbon from Wen Chan’s wrist and then gave Liang Yanbei an ambiguous smile and said, “You are in a good mood.”
“It’s nothing compared to yours. All day, you sit idle with nothing to do. Where can you join in any excitement.” Liang Yanbei lowered his head, touched the ribbon in his hand, and smiled at Wen Chan, “It’s so beautiful.”
Well, it was a tight knot.
“It’s just a knot. How can you praise it?” Tang Yixiao felt it to be a bit amusing.
Liang Yanbei clicked his tongue and looked at him with disgust, “What’s wrong with you? We’ve clearly met each other today, and we’ve said everything that needs to be said. Why do you still want to come up to us when you see us? Why don’t you take a detour?”
Can’t you take a hint?
“I did this out of courtesy.” Tang Yixiao stood with his arms folded, “You seem to have a lot of opinions on me recently?”
When Wen Chan saw the back and forth between the two of them and couldn’t get a word in edgeways, he just stood aside silently and watched the two argue.
“You still have an account to settle with me. After the matter is resolved, I will settle the matter with you.” Liang Yanbei pointed at him with his finger, thinking: I remember clearly all the things you did. Don’t even think about denying it.
When Tang Yixiao heard this, he immediately glanced at Wen Chan. And as if he understood something, he said to Liang Yanbei, “Okay, you have strong fists. I won’t argue with you. You two take your time having fun.”
After saying these words, he turned around and left. After taking two or three steps, his figure disappeared into the crowd. And in the blink of an eye, Wen Chan could no longer see him.
He looked around but didn’t see Tang Yixiao’s back. And he thought that he really walked away too fast.……
When Liang Yanbei noticed him glancing around, he reached out his hand and pulled the red ribbon on his wrist. He then leaned closer to him and whispered, “Everyone has gone. What are you looking at?”
“Don’t you think he walked away too fast?” Wen Chan’s head was full of questions.
“He has always been like that.” Liang Yanbei didn’t take it seriously. He caught a glimpse of a man on the side preparing to beat the drum, so he pulled his wrist and said, “Stop looking around and come dance.”
Wen Chan found that he had been doing a lot of small actions to him for the past two days, either poking his forehead or pulling his wrist. He had grown more bold as his attitude towards him softened.
While reflecting on this, he took Liang Yanbei’s hand in his own and corrected him, “Everyone else is holding hands.”
Liang Yanbei’s hands were much larger than his own, and since he wielded knives and spears on a regular basis, there were some calluses in his palms too.
Wen Chan’s hands were pampered, with fine skin and tender flesh. So the moment he grasped the other’s hand, the delicate flesh was able to feel the slightly hard callus and warmth emanating from his palm.
His heart started beating like a drum. Its rhythm was changed suddenly, and it beat frantically.
His face remained expressionless, but the movements of his hands did not pause at all. He immediately tightened his fingers and clasped Liang Yanbei’s palm hard.
When Liang Yanbei looked down, their two hands were firmly locked together. Wen Chan’s hands were very white and delicate, which made Liang Yanbei’s skin look a little yellow.
The initial daze only lasted for less than a moment. And Liang Yanbei hurriedly returned to the grasp and held Wen Chan’s hand, saying in his heart: You brought this up yourself.
Liang Yanbei seemed to be smiling without a smile, and his handsome eyebrows were gleaming. His black eyes reflected the flames and shone brightly. People around him couldn’t take their eyes off him when they looked at him. This was true for both men and women.
Wen Chan was only sixteen years old, and his face, hands, and feet were not fully matured yet. When he smiled, he would only look cute and pretty. And if he put on a skirt and braided his hair, he could easily be recognised as a girl by others.
Unlike Liang Yanbei, who was very tall. Even though he was only eighteen years old, he was a bit taller than his peers. His face was handsome, but not gorgeous. His expressions were never displayed ostentatiously. And when he smiled, there was always a bit of an invisible temptation.
When the two of them stood together, it gave people the illusion that they were brothers.
Many girls were eyeing their sides.
However, Wen Chan didn’t pay much attention to this. Although his eyes were fixed elsewhere, all his attention was focused on his palm. He wanted to rub and squeeze them. But he didn’t dare to move at will.
Liang Yanbei looked down on him inadvertently and found him staring at a place in a trance. He squeezed his hand and asked, “Are you thinking about Tan Yuji?”
Wen Chan’s heart skipped a beat when he was squeezed by him, and he raised his head in confusion, “Ah? What did you say?”
“What are you thinking about?” Liang Yanbei leaned towards him slightly and raised his voice, “It’s time to start dancing.”
After hearing this, Wen Chan realised that the holding of hands was for dancing, but he couldn’t dance at all. So he immediately panicked and tried to break away, “I can’t dance.”
But how could Liang Yanbei let him go? He gripped his palm lightly and said, “As if I can dance. Only if you dance around the bonfire can you pray to the gods for blessings. You can just jump around it a few times.”
“Didn’t you say that those are just rumours and cannot be trusted?”
“When you enter a village, follow the local customs2(idiom)When in Rome, do as the Romans do.. After all, I have spent a tael of silver.” Liang Yanbei casually made an excuse and stood in front of him. He didn’t care about following the local customs or that one tael of silver.
He just saw that Wen Chan liked to join in the fun, so he just took him to have fun.
The folk customs in Xi Liang were not restrained by convention. Even in the capital, there were many men practicing dance and music, so no one objected to men dancing.
In addition, most of the people who came to Wuyue Island were people of Jianghu who were not bothered by trifles. So when they gathered in front of the bonfire, many of them held their hands together and formed a huge circle around the bonfire.
When Wen Chan saw that there were so many people, he no longer wanted to escape. What’s more, there was laughter and noises in his ears. He felt at ease inexplicably, and even without noticing, Wen Chan smiled so much that he showed his white teeth.
Two drums were beaten, and the rhythm suddenly came out. The locals of Wuyue Island and the outsiders took steps to the sound of the drums and moved around the bonfire with the sound of the qin.
It was actually very simple. You just took steps, shifting between your left foot and right foot. The people of Wuyue Island followed the music and sang songs together, making their voices blend, which was quite beautiful.
Wen Chan followed and jumped around for half a circle. Then suddenly, he heard the singing voice rise up as if it had reached the most critical part. At this time, from the night sky that was shrouded in thick darkness, pink petals started floating down.
The pink petals fluttered down one after another, coming in overwhelming numbers with the wind, like an unexpected rain of flowers. People on Wuyue Island were no strangers to this scene. Seeing the petals floating down from the sky, they quickly raised their arms and started singing louder. Most of their faces were flushed, and they looked very excited.
Wen Chan reached out and took down a petal that had fallen on top of his head. When he took a closer look, he realised that it was peach blossom.
“The gods are descending! The gods are descending!” He heard someone shouting next to his ear.
When he looked up, he saw that many people had actually stopped jumping around and dancing. They were taking off the red ribbon and throwing it into the bonfire before putting their palms together piously.
Wen Chan looked at the petals flying all over the sky in a daze, wondering: Is there really a god descending? Then I have to make a wish quickly.
He tried to pull out his hand, but even after trying twice, he wasn’t able to pull it out. He looked at Liang Yanbei doubtfully. But as soon as their eyes met, Liang Yanbei’s hand loosened, and Wen Chan was free. Without thinking too much about it, he hurriedly untied the red ribbon on his wrist, kneaded it into a ball, and threw it into the bonfire.
He then put his hands together and thought silently in his heart that since the gods had given him a chance to start over, he didn’t dare to ask too much. He said that he just hoped that this life could change the nightmare of his previous one and make the people around him less miserable.
After a pause in his thoughts for a moment, Wen Chan took a deep breath and quickly added — — I hope Liang Yanbei will never marry Situ Zhoulan again in this life.
Bah, bah, bah! As soon as he made this wish, Wen Chan immediately regretted it and spat a few times in his heart.
Turning his eyes, he found that Liang Yanbei was still untying the red ribbon on his wrist. Wen Chan took a closer look and realised that he had tied it into a tight knot.
He felt a little apologetic. So he stretched out his hand and forced Liang Yanbei’s hand away, “I’ll help you.”
He didn’t know whether he had tied it so tightly from the start or if Liang Yanbei had pulled it a lot. But the knot turned out to be so tight that it couldn’t be untied, no matter what.
“Forget it. Don’t worry about it for now. You can just find me a pair of scissors after taking me back.” Liang Yanbei pretended to put it off.
In fact, he could easily break it off. But seeing Wen Chan’s anxious look, Liang Yanbei had another hidden agenda and deliberately pretended to be helpless, and said, sighing.
“That won’t work. Then you won’t be able to make a wish.” Wen Chan took the bait at once and went straight to bite the knot.
The soft lips rubbed lightly on Liang Yanbei’s skin. And for some reason, Liang Yanbei suddenly felt a little hot.
Wen Chan’s teeth were much stronger than his fingers. So he easily bit them off. Finally, he used his sleeve to wipe the remaining moisture on Liang Yanbei’s wrist, thrust the ribbon into his hand, and urged, “Quick.”
“There is no hurry. No need to hurry.” Liang Yanbei comforted him, stretched out his hand, and threw the ribbon into the bonfire to burn.
“God, oh god, I have nothing else to ask for. I just hope that our Young Master Wen will talk to me more in the future……” Liang Yanbei said openly.
“What nonsense are you talking about……” Wen Chan didn’t expect him to say this. He was both annoying and amusing at the same time. And his ears turned red, “Be serious when you are making a wish. Others are not saying their wishes out loud. How can it be effective if you say it out loud.”
“Okay, I won’t. I won’t say.” Liang Yanbei immediately compromised and closed his mouth.
Wen Chan realised it later and added, “Make a normal wish.”
Liang Yanbei didn’t answer, and he didn’t know if he changed his wish. Anyway, after being quiet for a while, he clapped his hands and said, “I have finished making a wish!”
Translator’s corner
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