Chapter 85 - 69 Temple Fair_2
Today he’s not here to listen to the storytelling, but as the host, he wants to invite Xu Qing and a few others to join him in watching the Baishui Festival.
The so-called Baishui Festival is the ceremony at the mouth of Baisha River to worship the River God. The Crown Prince chose to hold the Qushui Liushang two days later also for this reason.
Today the Dayong Dynasty is troubled with disasters, half natural and half man-made. The people are ignorant of the truth and mostly lean towards superstitions of ghosts and gods. Emperor Longping, worried about finding a reason to shirk blame, happily embraced this convenient excuse, pinning the years of bad fortune entirely on external forces like ghosts and gods.
Thus, the Imperial Court has spent large sums of money over the past few years to build a Heavenly Sacrifice Platform over a hundred feet tall and promote ceremonial rituals, advocating sacrifices where things go awry.
Now that the Crown Prince has arrived at Jin Sect, naturally he must worship the White Water River God to show the Imperial Court’s concern for the common people.
Zhu Huai’an didn’t have so many thoughts; his interest in the Baishui Festival was purely because there was a temple fair.
How lively a temple fair is! Not only are there food and games, but performers from various backgrounds and strange talents from three religions and nine schools putting on shows. It’s much more fun than staying in the prince’s palace!
When the chubby boy arrived at the teahouse, he just wanted to find Xu Qing and the others to stroll around the temple fair. But then he saw the teahouse staff looking like a bitter, resentful woman, saying, "You’re late! An hour ago, Mr. Guo and our shopkeeper took them to the temple fair for some fun, leaving me here alone to look after the place..."
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Outside Baishui Temple, Xu Qing and the Wu family brothers had just come out of a tent that looked like a Mongolian yurt.