The City God Temple (Middle)

  "Who taught you this?" Shen Mo asked, his face strange as he shook off the other's hand.

  "They, those brothers in our clan school." The Fourth Master closed his golden fan and asked curiously, "Is there something wrong?"

  "Of course not." Shen Mo flipped his eyes and said: "Cut sleeve, share peach, Long Yang, three allusions say one thing."

  "What's going on?" The Fourth Young Master blinked his small eyes and asked in a naive tone.

  "Love between men." Shen Mo said in a low voice.

  Shen Jing was stunned for a moment before bursting out in a string of Shaoxing dialect curses, which Shen Mo didn't quite understand, but guessed it was something like "go settle the score with them".

  He thought this guy should go back and find a place to calm down, but unexpectedly after a while Shen Jing stopped scolding and said angrily: "Let's go, let's go to the riverbank to clear our minds."

  "Shenmo didn't smile and said: 'Why don't you go find them and settle the score?'"

  "Never mind, it's none of your business." Shen Jing muttered vaguely, obviously not wanting to say more.

  Shen Mo didn't have a habit of prying into others' private matters, so he nodded and walked ahead first. Shen Jing followed behind him with her head down, clearly still angry.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  As soon as two people went out, Shen Mo heard someone calling himself: "Chao Sheng, Chao Sheng..."

  He followed the sound and saw a tall young man standing under the shade of a tree by the side of the road, waving at him with surprise.

  "Eldest son?!" Shen Mo's face lit up with a smile in an instant, and he walked over to meet the big guy in three strides.

  This man is the 'eldest son' in Shen He's mouth, and he is indeed tall enough. At just 14 or 15 years old, his height has already exceeded six feet, and Shen Mo only reaches his nose... And Shen Mo's height is as high as Shen Jing, who is three to four years older than him, which is already considered tall in the south.

  The two of them met with a big hug, then patted each other's shoulders and said: "I'm so dead." Seeing how enthusiastic they were, Shen Jing on the side sourly said: "This is considered a broken sleeve, right?" He even used it in context.

  Chen Mo rolled his eyes and said, "No one would think that way." He ignored him and turned to the eldest son, saying, "I'm going out for the first time today, I was just thinking of coming to pay my respects to you."

  The eldest son is a typical southerner, with a round face, thick lips, big and bright eyes, he looks like a down-to-earth person. He scratched his head, smiled awkwardly and said: "It's my fault, I was busy helping my family harvest the crops in the past few days, only today did I have time to come see you." As he spoke, he took out a fish basket from behind him and said: "I caught a few live fish, to help you nourish your body."

  "No need, I'm already full of energy." Shen Mo smiled and said, "Take it back for Uncle and Aunt to eat instead."

  "They will beat me." The eldest son said: "Then just accept it."

  Shen Jing, who was standing by the side, couldn't bear their dawdling and said impatiently, "It's just two fish, isn't it? Give them to him and be done with it. At most, cut another two catties of meat tomorrow and send it to his house, that's all."

  Shen Mo looked at Shen Jing with some surprise, thinking that this guy wasn't completely useless after all, at least he was quick-witted.

  "Who's this?" The eldest son asked curiously: "Is he a relative of your family?"

  "Oh, let me introduce you, this is... " Shen Mo looked at Shen Jing, momentarily confused and said: "What do I call him?" He really couldn't figure out the complex relationships within the large family.

  "I'm not too sure either." Shen Jing said irresponsibly: "Maybe it's my older cousin."

  "It should be like this." Shen Mo nodded silently. He figured it out, Shen Jing was just trying to get close to him, so he didn't bother being polite anymore.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  "Chao Sheng, are you guys going out?" The eldest son was a sensible person.

  "Right, let's go out." Shen Jing nodded and said: "You have something to do, so go ahead and take care of it first."

  She gave him a silent stare, then grabbed her eldest son and said, "Didn't you say there was nothing going on today? Let's go for a stroll."

  The eldest son nodded and said: "All the work in the field has been done, there's nothing to do for the time being." This made Fourth Master angry, rolling his eyes.

  Seeing them walking shoulder to shoulder towards the west, that silly big guy was still carrying a fish basket. Shen Jing said in a bad tone from behind: "Aren't you tired?" and snatched the fish basket away, letting the gatekeeper send it to the Wen Tao Institute where Shen Mo lived. She walked on the other side of Shen Mo, panting with anger.

  Three men, one in a brocade robe, one in a linen garment, and one in a short shirt, representing the rich young master, the common scholar, and the poor peasant. Logically, these three people should never have walked together. But they happened to walk side by side, swaggering through the streets without distinction between front and back, attracting passersby to glance at them repeatedly.

  For Shen Jing, as long as he can attract attention from others, it's a good thing; the eldest son follows quietly, and if no one asks him anything, he won't say a word.

  As for Shen, he was already in a daze... This was actually his first time stepping onto the streets of this era. The wide and smooth stone road was crowded with pedestrians. On the left side were rows of two or three-story small buildings with white walls and black tiles, while on the right side was clear river water. The first floor of the small buildings had various shops open, with sign flags hanging above the doors, some very elegant, such as "Ju Xiang Ju" written in seal script, or "Jiu Qi Feng" written in grass script. Others were more straightforward, directly drawing pictures of the goods they sold on the flags, such as scissors or iron pots.

  The river water accompanies the road to an invisible end, and on the river, there are narrow and long black awning boats coming and going. Every ten or twenty feet away, there is a small stone arch bridge for pedestrians to pass through, and everyone goes their own way on the waterway, without disturbing each other.

  Following Shen Mo's lead in silence for a while, Shen Jing finally couldn't help but say: "I'm asking you, brother, where are you really going? Are you really just strolling along the riverbank?"

  "Cheng Huang Temple." Shen Mo said out the destination.

  "Which city god temple?" This time Shen Jing and Yao Changzi said in unison.

  "Oh..." He fell silent, closed his eyes and thought for a moment, then said softly: "The one from Yongchang Square."

  It's not surprising that they asked, because there are three City God Temples in Shaoxing. According to the saying "City God Temple inside the city, Land Temple outside the city", one temple per city is enough, so why are there three? This has to do with the City God himself, a deity whose main duties include protecting the city and maintaining public order. Before the Qing dynasty, he was just a minor deity like the Land God, equivalent to a ninth-rank official at most, or even not worthy of consideration.

  But since the founding of our dynasty, Taizu Emperor Gao knew that faith was terrible and ordered the construction of Chenghuang Temple in accordance with the scale of various government offices. He also ordered officials to take office in Chenghuang Temple when they took office, greatly elevating the status of Chenghuang Temple and making it a necessary building above the county level.

  What makes Shaoxing City unique is that it is divided into two halves by a boundary river, which divides it into two counties. The east side is Kuaiji and the west side is Shanyin. Since they are two counties, there must be two temples of the land god.

  And then there's the third one, how did that come about? Sorry to say, but this place is too good, so the prefecture government of Shaoxing also set up its yamen within the city walls. If a county magistrate has something, it's impossible for our mayor not to have it, right?

  Not only must it be big, but also better and more stylish! This is what is called Shaoxing's "one fu, two counties, three city walls"!

  Division line

  Getting better and better... Hehe... Recommendation tickets, my dears.