Nuo Dance

  "That's a Lion Dance."

  "Ghost dance?" Mei Cui was curious, "Let's go take a look!" and without saying another word, she pulled Mo Xie's hand into the crowd, merging into the fervent waves of sound. This way, they could temporarily forget their worries, right?

  Thought it was just a show, but Mo Xian was frightened by those masks. The sunlight was dim, and the city's lanterns had not yet pierced through the darkness of night, so the masks of the dancers seemed particularly ferocious in the jumping flames: sharp horns, fangs, fiery eyebrows, golden faces, and they were all wearing red headscarves and green robes... as if a hundred ghosts had borrowed the underworld to break into the world!

  It was in some mythological story that it was said that at this time of day, the yin energy is the heaviest, and humans and ghosts walk together between heaven and earth.

  "Ah!" Meng Chuan was so frightened that he almost fell backward, and his hand involuntarily grabbed Mo Ye's hand again.

  He smiled faintly on her forehead, turned to her back and opened his arms wide, and she herself plunged into his embrace. Surrounded by people rubbing shoulders and heels, she had nowhere to escape. Mo Xian glared at him, using her fingernails to secretly pinch him, but it was all in vain. Mo Xian was so angry that she gritted her teeth, "Have you watched 'The Super Survival Squad' or 'Love Apartment'? How come you're like Huang Hong and Lü Zijiao, only knowing how to scare girls with ghost stories?"

  Pfft, pfft, pfft! Mei Cai regretted saying that. Huang Hong and Lü Zijiao's purpose in telling ghost stories to scare girls was to get them into bed - how could she say something like that?!

  "Don't be afraid." He smiled faintly, "Have you forgotten that there's 'Xie' in my name? They wouldn't dare to provoke me. You're safest when you're in my arms."

  Mò zhān was taken aback. She had heard that the heaven and earth were born from the two qi of zhēng and xié, all kinds of monsters and ghosts, as long as they didn't belong to the orthodox qi, could be classified as belonging to the evil door and wicked way. Wasn't he saying this, rather than referring to himself?

  His warm body wrapped around her, and Meng Xue indeed felt much more at ease, so she smiled, "You're talking as if it's true. What evil spirits or monsters, they're just acting out a play, could they really be the hundred ghosts that can't be formed?"

  He pursed his lips and didn't respond, silently gazing at her with only the flickering firelight reflected on his face.

  "Which dance is Nuó? What does it mean?"

  He grasped her hand, spread out the palm of her hand, and wrote with his fingertips on her palm. It was a ticklish sensation, as if she had been struck by an electric current, and her face flushed red as she dodged away. Yet she still cleverly remembered the strokes of that character. "What does this character mean? And why do the Qingyan people jump this ghost dance?"

  "He replied, 'Nuo, people + difficulty, the original meaning of "difficulty" is "bird of sorrowful cry", "bird to be captured", extended to refer to people controlled by evil spirits; Nuo means a person who can drive out demons and ghosts." His eyes seemed calm, but were filled with the deep mystery of night, gazing at the green-faced, fang-toothed creature in the arena, "And they, the moment they put on their masks, became ghosts.""

  "Ah!" Meng Chuan was startled and let out another low cry, "You're scaring me on purpose again!"

  The audience gradually understood the meaning of the play, it seemed to be a woman driving away ghosts, hundreds of ghosts were not willing and wanted to counterattack, but in the end, good triumphed over evil, and everyone was happy. Mo Xian also smiled, since the Nuo dance is a ghost-driving dance, the ending should follow human wishes.

  As the night deepened, the lights also became brighter, and the actors took off their masks. The audience gradually dispersed, and each person who walked in front of Mo Xie bowed respectfully. Mo Xie simply accepted it calmly. Mian Bian patted him on the back, "Hey, you're too rude, so many uncles and even elderly people, and you just raised your head like that - even if you're the village chief's grandson, you can't be like this!"

  Mò tiáo made an effort to ignore the defensive glances that fell on her face from those villagers - it was the green ant who gave her the answer, the green ant said she also looked quite like that flesh image, I suppose that's why the villagers looked at her like this?

  He surprisingly nodded in agreement, "Alright, I'll return the courtesy."

  People are like rivers, passing by in front of them, and he returns each one with a courtesy. But this return courtesy makes the villagers even more fearful. Mò Zhān sighed, "Let's go."

  All the way, Mo Xian didn't know what to say, and could only intentionally find a topic: "Hey, who was that woman in the Nuo dance who drove away ghosts? So young, yet so fierce! What happened to her later?"

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  Thank you for the big blue flower and the red envelope from Little Deer's Crazy Run.