The door opened, and Bai Guangnian was also wearing a lion dance costume.
Seeing Zhao Yan emerge, he immediately said, "I feel this lion dance is a bit unusual. I just took a turn around it."
"On a fifty-meter open space, there are many long tables and benches around, with the spirit tablets of the deceased placed on them."
"This small village has quite a few ancestors."
"By the way, Miss Zhao, you said before that you had been to Liushui Village. Did you find anything?"
Zhao Yan shook her head and said, "When I came, I was only thirteen years old, and my master and I only stayed here for one night before leaving early the next morning."
"My master also said that one shouldn't stay in this place for too long, or one might lose their soul."
As she spoke, Zhao Yan heard footsteps and quickly put the lion's head on.
Liu Xi walked over, holding his grandson's hand, and smiled, "Master Zhao, Master Bai, it's almost eight o'clock. Shouldn't you warm up the venue first and liven things up?"
Bai Guangnian smiled and said, "Don't worry, Village Chief. We'll definitely make the venue lively later and won't let it be dull."
"Then hurry up, the villagers are all here," Liu Xi said.
Zhao Yan followed Bai Guangnian to the open space he had mentioned.
It was indeed about fifty meters in size, and Bai Guangnian was arranging the scaffolding poles.
The villagers had also built them a small stage, with many lanterns hung in the middle.
Guan An didn't want to perform the lion dance, but after Bai Guangnian persuaded him, he agreed to be the host.
Zhao Yan walked in and realized that the villagers hadn't entered at all.
The fifty-meter open space was filled with tables and chairs, and spirit tablets were placed on the tables. The more she looked, the more Zhao Yan understood.
Damn it, this wasn't a performance for the living, but for these dead people.
Now that they were in the venue, they could only go ahead and perform.
Although the villagers hadn't entered, they had prepared stools and were standing on them, watching intently from outside the fence.
"Let's play it by ear, Miss Zhao," Bai Guangnian whispered.
Zhao Yan hummed softly. At this point, there was nothing else they could do.
Bai Guangnian nodded to Guan An, who walked onto the small stage with the microphone.
"Next, please enjoy the Flying Lion Dance."
Then Guan An put down the microphone, retreated to the edge of the stage, picked up the drumsticks, and began to beat them: "Dang dang dang!"
Zhao Yan glanced back, and Bai Guangnian nodded. She shouldered the lion's head and immediately rushed towards the small stage.
She was the lion's head, while Bai Guangnian and Bai Guangyue acted as the lion's legs.
In fact, only two people were needed, one for the head and one for the tail, but they were worried that the performance might not be stable.
Moreover, some difficult lion dance moves were required.
The three of them would cooperate better.
As they were about to step onto the small stage, Bai Guangnian and Bai Guangyue lifted their legs. Zhao Yan immediately understood and stepped onto their legs, using their strength to raise the lion's head high.
As she raised it, Zhao Yan also controlled the lion's eyes, making them blink continuously.
Then she quickly retracted her legs and rapidly descended from mid-air. The moment they landed, with their coordination, they performed several quick somersaults on the ground.
"Good!" the villagers immediately applauded.
There were cheers earlier, but as the performance continued, the cheers gradually decreased. Zhao Yan turned to look, and the villagers who had been gathered outside the fence were now nowhere to be seen.
Zhao Yan looked under the small stage. The spirit tablets that had been placed there were now gone.
In their place sat figures wearing burial clothes, their gazes fixed on Zhao Yan's lion dance.
Under the lamplight, their complexions were paler than one another.
"Miss Zhao, why did you stop moving?" Bai Guangnian asked.
As they were acting as the lion's legs, they couldn't see these things.
"Dang dang dang," Guan An continued to beat the drums and gongs.
The lion dance had to move in time with the rhythm of the drums and gongs.
Zhao Yan moved a few times quickly and began the lion dance.
While dancing, she looked down at the audience.
Soon, she saw the souls of Wang Chuchu and Zhou Xiaoyue.
The two of them were following behind an old ghost.
Glancing further to the left, she saw Old Zhang and Old Li, with collars around their necks, as if they were dogs.
After scanning the surroundings, Zhao Yan tried to find Liu Tan's soul, but after looking all around, she couldn't find him.
Just then, a pair of hanging human heads suddenly fell from the sky, their eyes inverted and staring intently at Zhao Yan's eyes.
Zhao Yan knew that she had to pretend not to see anything and treat the ghost as if it were air, continuing her lion dance.
She danced for over half an hour, and her stamina was fine, but Bai Guangnian was starting to struggle.
The performance had gone on for too long, and his wound had reopened and split again.
Fortunately, this round was nearing its end. As the drums and gongs sounded their final note, Zhao Yan stopped her movements.
"Good! Good! Good!" came the applause.
Liu Xi walked in through the gate of the fence, holding several red envelopes. He walked up to Zhao Yan and immediately handed her one.
Zhao Yan squeezed it. The village chief was quite generous; the red envelope felt thick.
"Thank you, Village Chief," Zhao Yan said with a smile.
"You're welcome, you're welcome. We should be thanking you. Thanks to you, otherwise we would have had to go to the trouble of finding a lion dance troupe," Liu Xi said with a smile.
"And our ancestors are very satisfied with you. How about leaving a phone number? We might look for you again in the future," Liu Xi said.
"Okay," Bai Guangnian replied, giving out his phone number.
Liu Xi took out his old mobile phone and saved the number.
"Let's go eat together," Liu Xi said.
"Okay, we'll change our clothes first," Bai Guangnian said.
Zhao Yan went into the house and took off the lion dance costume. As she took it off, she took out the red envelope and weighed it, smiling with satisfaction.
She then opened the red envelope and looked inside.
Damn it!
It was all one-yuan bills, and even stuffed full, it was no more than fifty yuan.
"So stingy, so stingy," Zhao Yan shook her head. But even a mosquito is meat; it was enough for four bowls of lamb noodle soup.
After putting away her wallet, Zhao Yan got up and walked towards where they were eating.
As she arrived, she saw them gathered around, and behind the villagers was a large red coffin.
This large red coffin was placed in the living room, looking very conspicuous.