The tower is lost in the fog.

In the thick fog, Xiaobao and his party of five boats slowly left the shipyard. The lights on the bows of the boats did not shine into the water, just to let the nearby boats see and avoid scratching each other.

On the outside of each ship's hull is a wooden board hung with a rope, on which are placed five offerings: an incense burner, a pair of flower goblets and a pair of candlesticks.

This is a temporary altar set up to worship the walking gods.

"The Traveling God is also called the Road God," Li Hu was "promoting" boating knowledge to Xiaobao: "Legend has it that Lei Zu, the son of the Yellow Emperor, died on the road after traveling far away, so he was regarded by future generations as the Traveling God and one of the five gods of wealth.

one;

The Five Gods of Wealth include the House God, the Kitchen God, the Earth God, the Door God, and the Walking God. The so-called Five Ways refer to the east, west, south, north, and center, which means that you can get wealth by going out in any of the five ways."

Xiaobao asked: "Do you think these gods of wealth really exist?"

Li Hu smiled: "It's just a wish, or a prayer. After all, we always hope that everything goes well when traveling. This altar must be placed before departure and after arrival;

Also, the people all believe in this and will build altars. If we don’t do it, the people who see it will feel unhappy. Those who are more peaceful will criticize you for being unsophisticated. Those who are more anxious will think that you are disrespectful to the gods.

It will involve them;

So, no matter which way you look at it, it’s not a bad thing to go with the flow.”

These words reminded Xiaobao of a joke his mother once told:

It is said that there is a place where the custom is "not to shave your head in the first month" because "shaving your head will kill your uncle".

Originally, hundreds of years ago, in order to express their longing for their old masters and resist the rule of foreigners, people spontaneously grew their hair during the first month of the year when they did not have to go out.

As a result, this "nostalgia" was passed down through the mouths of the people, and hundreds of years later it became a rumor, saying that "the uncle will die by shaving his head."

So no matter how much trouble people have with long hair, they dare not shave their heads during the first month of the year. Otherwise, if my uncle sees me during the New Year greetings, not to mention not giving me New Year's money, I will get a beating.

Although Xiaobao doesn't understand why people in that place don't have long hair, he still feels that such things are a bit coercive and kidnapping.

However, do as the Romans do, as my mother also said, "Don't go against the general environment."

Li Hu continued: "There are many ways to sail boats, and there are also many ways to be escorts. If you don't believe me, just watch, it will keep you fresh for a few days."

This is because I treat Xiaobao like a child, fearing that he will find the journey difficult.

The bow of the ship is very bright. There are two three-legged iron stoves there, which are "gifts" given by Chu Qing. These small iron stoves do not take up space and can be moved anywhere. It is very convenient to light a fire for cooking.

In an iron pot on the stove, porridge water was gurgling and steaming. On the other stove was a flat-bottomed frying pan with a thin layer of oil brushed inside. Gan Laizheng roughly took two eggs in each hand.

Knead the egg juice in the pot.

Soon, the pan looked like gold ingots growing out of the snow. There were ten round, golden egg yolks on the white bottom that were already half-cooked. Gan Lai picked up a spatula and lifted them up to turn them over. There was a pan next to the stove.

Bucket of raw eggs.

The fragrance steams along with the heat, making the thick fog seem to flow.

With a "crash" sound, the sound of sizzling fried eggs was covered by a burst of water. A man emerged from the side of the boat. He was holding a basket in one hand and wiping water on his face with the other hand. Half of his body was floating on the water.

It's like there are roots under your feet.

Xiaobao was amazed that this man was so good at treading water that he could stand firmly in the water and pull the water with his legs, but his upper body did not move at all.

"It smells so good! Can I have some?" the man said.

Gan Lai held a shovel in one hand and was about to cut a large omelette with ten yolks into several pieces.

After hearing this, he simply lifted up the whole thing, grabbed a piece of mat, and with one strong pull, it tore off a piece about two feet square, put the omelette on it, rolled it up, and threw it at the man.

The man laughed loudly and raised his hand to take it. It was not in vain. He threw the basket on the boat and said, "It's a change!" He actually ate it while standing in the middle of the water.

A boatman went over and opened the basket, and there was a drop on his forehead! What was tangled and twisted inside was a basket full of eels, weighing more than thirty kilograms!

It's only the end of February, but it's not easy to get so many eels!

Xiaobao watched with goosebumps all over his body, it was so disgusting. But the boatman smiled so hard that he narrowed his eyes: "At noon, I will make you an eel vermicelli pot!"

The man in the water finished the steaming omelette in three mouthfuls. Gan looked dazed: How could he swallow it when it was so hot?

Before Gan Lai could ask, the man had already sunk into the water and swam far away, leaving only one sentence: "If you don't want to eat now, tie the basket to the side of the boat. You won't die in the water. There's not enough food left!"

"

"Water monkey people." Li Hu said.

The man just now said, "There's not enough food left," which meant that someone was following the fleet at any time.

"Gan Lai, how do you know that person is from the Boat Gang?" Xiaobao asked puzzledly, Gan Lai gave him an egg without even asking who he was.

"I don't know." Gan Lai had already brushed another layer of oil on the pot and started beating eggs in it from side to side.

Xiaobao pointed to the egg bucket: "Then how do you give him eggs? It's so expensive!"

"It's so pitiful to be soaked in water and begging for food in the cold weather!" Gan Lai sucked the egg liquid on his fingers with his mouth.

Chu Yuan frowned when he saw it: "Are you disgusted? It's raw!" He said and used a rag to wipe Gan Lai's hand.

Gan Lai avoided him and had already grabbed four more eggs and knocked them into the pot: "Hypocritical! When I was in the mountains, it would be nice to be able to eat eggs. Not to mention bird eggs, even snake eggs are eaten raw!"

For breakfast, the porridge consisted of pancakes, fried eggs, and Nanping County's special pickles. Everyone found a place to sit and eat at every opportunity.

Southerners are much more particular about making pickles than northerners.

This kind of old pickles is made from green cabbage heads harvested in spring, peeled, ribs removed, broken into two pieces, and spread out on the stone ridge of the house to dry.

After removing some of the water, cut it into pieces or filaments, and wash it repeatedly with spring water to remove the residue.

Then spread it out with a bamboo sieve, take it outdoors to dry the moisture, and then add an appropriate amount of salt, herbs, ginger, garlic, spices and many other ingredients, and store it in a jar.

After pickling, the green cabbage heads become bright red in color, fragrant in aroma, crisp and tough when chewed, and taste extremely delicious.

The fog is getting thinner and the sky is getting brighter. The sun seems to be hungry for the hot breakfast and wants to rush to share it.

Li Hu looked at his eggs with dissatisfaction, and Gan Lai scratched them with a shovel. The good yolks were all broken into pieces: "Boy Gan, next time you just stir the eggs evenly and then fry them."

For the convenience of traveling, Gan Lai is called a boy.

Gan Lai just ignored him, huh, he was just as pretentious as Chu Yuan.

It would be nice to eat some, what else do you want?

Li Hu added: "It is estimated that someone approached our boat and was killed by the water monkeys."

Xiaobao was also dissatisfied with his eggs. He didn't control the heat well, and the half-cooked eggs turned out to be watery. When he heard Li Hu's words, he stopped thinking about the eggs and asked, "Why didn't I notice?"

Li Hu said: "Me neither, but someone must be approaching, otherwise the Water Monkeys wouldn't show up so early."

It seems that, as Li Hu analyzed early in the morning, there is only danger when the ship is stopped, and it is not optimistic when the ship is sailing now.

Gan Lai didn't care about this: "Just come, there are still a lot of eggs."

She was saying that the worst possible thing to do is to fry eggs for the Water Monkeys so that they don't waste their efforts.

Chu Yuan remained silent.

Back then, he traveled around with his master and went to the Jiangnan area. It was at that time that he mastered water-based skills.

So he knew that even though the river seemed calm, the bottom of the river was undulating, with rapids and deep troughs crisscrossing up and down, and countless aquatic plants, whirlpools and silt.

The Water Monkeys can solve their troubles without anyone noticing, which shows that this boat gang is also capable.

The boatman and escort of Sanshun Escort interjected at this time: "I heard that the boat gang recruited a large group of water thieves in the past, and they were all people with excellent water skills. I used to think that water thieves were not very hateful, but now I see this one

He has a good temper."

Another escort patted him on the shoulder and said, "I heard that you were a bandit before. We are all thieves. If an old bird falls on a pig, no one will laugh at you!"
Chapter completed!