Wu Ruo was speechless as the guards were holding more and more toys and snacks. But he didn’t stop them since the boy was so happy.
As they got closer to the temple fair, the street got busier, packed with more people. From a distance, they could already hear the drums.
Eggie sat on Hei Gan’s shoulders and shouted excitedly as he heard the drum, “Uncle Gan, come on. Let’s get closer.”
“You got it.” Hei Gan elbowed through the crowd and finally made it to the roadside in front of the temple fair.
The folks all made space for the parade to pass through. Kids on the roadside applauded and shouted excitedly as the lion dance team was passing by. In the team, the lion dance consisted of two people acting as one lion; one waved the lion head and the other controlled the lion’s body, doing all kinds of lion actions.
Following the lion dance was the land boat dancing. The performers didn’t row a real boat. The fake boat was made of two thin boards which were fixed by bamboo and wood into a shape of boat, and covered by a piece of colorful cloth. A girl wore it around her waist as if she was sitting in a boat, holding paddles in her hands, singing local tunes while dancing. There was also a man character who dressed like her passenger. He acted funny to make people laugh.
The next was stunts walking on stilts. The performers on the stilts wore heavy makeup, danced while singing a song, as they were giving an opera show. And none of them was the same characters or same tall.
At the end of the parade, a team of beautiful women dressed up like fairies that the folks could pay homage to, followed by waist drummers and fan dancers. It was a super long parade that dazzled the public’s eyes.
When the parade came to an end, people all flocked into the temple to burn incense to pay worship to gods.
As too many incenses were being burnt, the smoke was too strong, making one nearly choking.
Wu Ruo even had tears in his eyes because of the heavy smoke. He and Hei Xuanyi hurried out of the temple as quickly as possible.
It was already lunch time by then.
Hei Xuanyi and the rest of the team went to the private room that he had already reserved for lunch. After lunch, they went to the river outside the city to drive ice cart.
It was still winter time. It was snowy outside, a total world of white. And there was nothing to stop the wind in the countryside. People had to bite their chattering teeth against the cold wind. Even though, it never stopped them racing ice carts. Many of them even bought their own hand-made ice cart. And some bought a small ice cart from the vender.
Wu Ruo wished he could join the ice-cart racing but it was too sad the cart was too small for him.
Hei Xuanyi gave it a look at Wu Ruo who was suddenly down and said to Hei Gan, “Go get our ice cart.”
“We have our own ice cart?” Wu Ruo was surprised.
“My lady, we ran up the whole night last night to make this ice cart. It is specially designed for you and the little master.” Hei Xin smiled.
“Really?” Wu Ruo’s eyes sparkled brightly again.
Before long, the guards carried a giant purple-dragon-shaped ice cart toward them. All people on the ice were casting their eyes at it.
“Wu Ruo?” Suddenly someone called.
Wu Ruo looked over and saw a good-looking young man in dark blue robes.
He frowned. It took him quite a while to remember that he was a cousin from East Courtyard and his name was Wu Sheng.
“Sheng, are you ice-cart racing here too?”
Wu Sheng nodded and asked as he laid his eyes on Hei Xuanyi, “So is this your husband?”
Wu Ruo gave a brief introduction, “Yes. He is my husband, Hei Xuanyi, and Xuanyi, this is my cousin Wu Sheng.”
Hei Xuanyi and Wu Sheng nodded to each other as a greeting.
Wu Sheng gave it a look at their ice cart, “Ruo, my younger brother and his friends are over there. They are going to have a race. Are you interested in joining us?”
Wu Ruo hesitated and thought it might be boring to row the cart on the ice, but it would be much more exciting to race against others.
“Ok.”
“There is a wager. We bet on each game for 100 taels of gold. What do you say?” Wu Sheng said.
The people nearby gasped when they heard that their wager was a hundred taels of gold, which would be enough for their families to spend a lifetime on.
“Do you bring any silver or gold with you?” Wu Ruo asked Hei Xuanyi.
Hei Xuanyi turned to look at Hei Xin.
Hei Xin took out a ten thousand taels of silver-worth banknote and gave it to Wu Sheng, “Sir, can you take silver banknote?”
Wu Sheng smiled and took the banknote, “Sure. It will do. Allow me to talk to my brother and others first.”
He went back to his brother Wu Xia and whispered, “Wu Ruo has promised to be in. and he gave me a banknote worthy ten thousand taels of silver. You can never lose.”
“He is so fat. Do you think he could move the ice cart a bit?” Wu Xia sneered.
“He will probably crush the ice.” Wu Xia’s friends all laughed.
“It’s even better that his cart won’t move. We will win this game at ease.” Wu Sheng said.
Wu Xia agreed and raised his eyebrows to his six friends, “Do you get what you should do later?”
His friend Chen Hou promised while chest thumping, “I will make him lose every penny and even his underpants.”
The eight of them laughed out loud again.