The Daily Life Of Mei Furen Doting On Her Husband - Chapter 100
Hearing her talk about playing, Mei Zhuyu was stunned for a moment. “Didn’t you say before that you would be very busy tonight?”
Wu Zhen said calmly, “No matter how busy I am, I can still have fun. I can work and have fun at the same time without interrupting either.”
Mei Zhuyu had never heard of such a perverse theory, but since it came from Wu Zhen’s mouth, he still tried to believe it. Anyway, whether he was going to play or work, he was ready to help that night. He couldn’t just watch his wife toil alone.
After nightfall, lights were lit everywhere because there was no curfew that night, and lights were hung on the streets everywhere. Many people walked out of the door with lights and walked on the streets. There were burnt paper scraps at the door of each house, and some families were still burning paper ingots, and the lights were white, which meant that there was a new death that year.
At the entrance of each square, there was a tall lighthouse, and paper ingots were burning next to it, which were paper money for wandering ghosts. When Wu Zhen passed by, she glanced at the paper basin, and immediately several ghosts who were fishing in the fire basin were frightened and ran behind the lighthouse. Seeing that Wu Zhen had no intention of causing trouble, they returned to the fire basin and continued to fish in the fire.
The Zhongyuan Festival was not like the Shangyuan Festival, where there were lively night markets, but there were still many stalls selling things on this night. The most common stalls were of two types. One sold ghost masks. Because the gates of hell were not closed yet, ghosts were still wandering around the world. It was said that if people wandered around at that time, they were likely to be found by ghosts, so they had to wear this kind of ghost mask so that ghosts couldn’t recognize them or mistake them for ghosts, so that everyone could live in peace.
There was another kind of stall that sold lanterns. Different from the lanterns held in people’s hands, these lanterns were mostly made in the shape of lotus flowers and were river lanterns. Almost everyone bought one or two, went to the riverside or the lake, put the lanterns in the water, and let them float downstream.
As the saying goes, the lanterns of Shangyuan Festival connect to the sky, and the lanterns of Zhongyuan Festival connect to the earth. The lanterns of Zhongyuan Festival were used to light the way for the ghosts returning to the netherworld. The dark water connects to the netherworld. Putting lanterns into the river was to guide the ghosts. Without the lanterns, the waterway was so dark and cold that the ghosts walking on the road couldn’t see the way ahead and would suffer a lot. Moreover, the lanterns represent the thoughts of the human world. When the ghosts see them, they know that their loved ones who stayed in the human world still miss them.
Wu Zhen bought two ghost masks on the roadside, and wore a green-faced and fanged ghost mask herself, and put the other white ghost mask on Mei Zhuyu’s face. The white ghost mask was a little funny, with a half-smile, which Wu Zhen found amusing, but her laughter seems muffled under the mask.
The two walked to the gate of the East Market, and Wu Zhen saw a woman in a blue dress standing under the lighthouse. Unlike most people wearing ghost masks, she only wore a veil hat with a gauze curtain that reached below her waist. Against the bright light, her figure was slender and hazy, almost translucent.
Wu Zhen approached silently from behind and was about to scare her, but the woman with her back to her said coldly, “Too slow.”
Wu Zhen still insisted and screamed loudly to scare her. But the woman just glanced at her through the curtain. Even though she couldn’t see clearly, Wu Zhen knew that those were definitely a pair of eyes that clearly said, “Is there something wrong with your brain?”
She laughed without caring and put her arm around the woman’s shoulders, saying, “Little Snake, what do you say this year I patrol outside and you guard the Monster Market?”
Liu Taizhen said coldly, “What else? Haven’t you decided to take Taoist Mei to see that thing? If I don’t stay here to watch, will you stay?”
Wu Zhen shook her vigorously, “Okay, okay, let’s switch next year, otherwise I’ll let you play outside for the next three years while I guard the Monster Market.”
Liu Taizhen: “Okay, hurry up and take him away, it’s almost time to start.”
Wu Zhen made a gesture, rushed to Mei Zhuyu, who was waiting on the side, and ran quickly around the corner with him. Above the East Market, behind Liu Taizhen, another night market with brilliant lights appeared faintly. It was the market that ordinary people would never see on weekdays.
The streets were bustling with activity, and almost everyone had left their homes. However, everyone was wearing an evil ghost mask, and unless one was familiar with them, it would be difficult to recognize their identities.
People were unrecognizable, and non-human creatures were even more unrecognizable. Many monsters took advantage of that day to go out and parade in broad daylight. Those who could completely transform into human form blended in with ordinary people. Those who were not so pure in transformation could choose remote and dark places, wear masks to cover their faces, and there was no problem at all—provided that they didn’t meet Cat Lord and others.
“This gentleman.”
Hearing the voice, a tall man turned his head, revealing a tiger mask. When he saw the person who made the sound, the tall man shrank back and seemed to want to run away, but the person had already reached out and grabbed him, pulling him into a secluded corner nearby.
The tiger monster, who had sneaked into the city and had not had time to do anything bad, felt that his luck was really bad. He actually ran into the most unreasonable Cat Lord and was pushed to the corner against his will. He didn’t even have time to resist before he was faced with a huge fist.
There was a muffled groan coming from the corner. After a while, Wu Zhen, wearing a green-faced and fang-toothed mask, strode out. She patted the corner of her robe, and the vermilion purse hanging around her waist seemed to be bulging.
Mei Zhuyu, wearing a white ghost mask, was waiting for her. When he saw Wu Zhen coming, he pointed to a slender and graceful figure in the crowd and said, “There’s another one.”
Wu Zhen took a look and found that it was indeed another person who sneaked in. She was covered in blood, which meant that she had hurt someone before, so she had to take care of her. So she appeared behind the woman, dragged her into a dark corner and beat her up, and stuffed her into the brocade bag on her waist like the tiger monster just now.
After that day, if these monsters were still obedient, she would release them back outside the city. Otherwise, they would have to say goodbye to the world.
As expected of the Zhongyuan Festival, Wu Zhen and Mei Zhuyu saw countless monsters among the crowd along the way. Monsters with the mark of the Monster Market were harmless, so Wu Zhen usually ignored them. However, when they recognized Wu Zhen, they would smile and nod. There were also two monsters that transformed into human form and set up a stall on the street to sell lotus river lanterns. When they saw Wu Zhen and her husband, they enthusiastically gave them a few lanterns.