Merchant of the Underworld

After leaving the theater, it was getting dark. A large group of people came walking down the street, wearing all kinds of strange costumes, singing and dancing. There were several floats driving slowly behind them. In some cars, there is a big drum, with a few shirtless men playing the drums there. In some cars, there is a sexy beauty in red costume with fox ears on her head and several prop tails tied behind her, twisting and turning. The snake's waist is dancing in various coquettish dances.

Pedestrians on the road cheered like crazy and gathered around the float.

This was probably some kind of celebration, because I had an appointment with Li Mazi and the others to meet here, so the man in the T-shirt and I bought some oden at a small stall and ate while watching.

The boss said something to us, and I replied that I didn't understand Japanese. He suddenly understood, took a piece of paper and a pen and wrote a line on it, and then handed it to me.

Although it is in Japanese, it contains a lot of traditional Chinese characters, and I can actually understand it. It means that this is the Inari God Festival that is held every year, and we were lucky enough to catch it.

I replied with a pen, is it related to the harvest?

The boss couldn't understand this sentence, so the man in the T-shirt took the pen and wrote it again in traditional Chinese. The boss nodded and wrote: Yes, do you Chinese also worship the Inari God?

So, I also replied to him in traditional Chinese characters, because I often read the ancient books left by my grandfather, and I can also write some commonly used traditional Chinese characters. I said that fox fairy culture was very popular in China in the past, and there were many fox fairy statues, but after the New China destroyed the Four Olds, no one believed in it. Except for the rural areas in Northeast China, this tradition was still preserved. In addition, I expressed my appreciation for their country’s emphasis on traditional culture. Respect.

The boss said "Arigado" (thank you) and wrote on the paper: He particularly likes Chinese food. There are so many varieties that he can't count. I really admire the Chinese cooking skills. It's not like the Japanese who only cook the same food over and over again. .

He also likes to watch Chinese TV series, such as "Huan Zhuge Ge" and "Nirvana in Fire", which have been popular in Japan. He feels that Chinese costume dramas are shot in a grand and majestic way and are not as petty as TV dramas from his country.

After that, he improvised a line from "Huan Zhu Ge Ge" for us, stretched out his hand and said in blunt Chinese: "Ziwei, don't leave!" It made us all laugh. I think this boss is so interesting...

I wrote on paper that I also like to watch Japanese animations, such as "Naruto" and "The Little Boss of China". Many classic animations are simply childhood memories of a generation. Japan's game industry is also very good. When I was a child I often play Super Mario, Contra, King of Fighters, etc.

Of course I didn’t say that I also have many small movies from island countries in my computer.

We had a great time chatting. Two people who didn’t understand the language actually had a friendly exchange of Chinese and Japanese culture. Later, I heard Xiao Gao say that Japanese has two ways of writing: Kanji and Katakatsu. The Chinese way of writing is basically understandable to Chinese people. There was no obstacle to communication online. Sun Yat-sen had had a pen talk with Japanese fishermen before. Another example was Liang Qichao, who had translated many Japanese books, but actually did not understand Japanese at all.

The boss gave us two bottles of soju, but I didn’t have anything to give in return. Giving money was too tacky, so I simply took out a Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Talisman from my body and handed it to him, and wrote on the paper: This is a magic talisman that can ward off disasters and ward off evil spirits.

The boss held it in his hand and couldn't put it down like a treasure, and carefully placed it on his cart.

"This boss is a nice guy." I said to the man in the T-shirt.

"Yeah." He nodded.

We drank shochu, ate oden, and continued to watch the festival, which became more and more exciting as we went to the back. There were many Japanese people acting as ancient gods, shuttled among the crowd, such as Amaterasu, Susano'o, and Kaguya, and the rest I don't know him.

On a float, two people dressed as Abe Seimei and Tamamo Mae were fighting, their movements as graceful as a dance.

The man in the T-shirt suddenly pointed in a direction and asked me to look. I saw a float slowly driving over. On a lotus platform, there was a white fox lying on its side. Next to it were several witches holding various magical weapons. Dancing gracefully, the white fox is exactly the same as the demon fox we saw in Osaka yesterday!

It saw us and squinted its eyes as if in mockery.

I quickly asked the boss, where was that fox?

The boss said that this fox was supported by the shrine. It was very famous and could manifest spirits. Many people went to worship it every day.

I asked him, has this fox ever left Kyoto?

The boss was stunned for a moment and then laughed. I looked at the float again and found that it was just a ceramic fox, beautifully made.

The boss scrawled on the paper, saying that the fox was not alive, but made of ceramics. It had been discovered in the ruins of the old palace more than ten years ago. The shrine immediately enshrined the ceramic fox as a sacred object, and it became The mascot of the people of Kyoto is only put on display once a year at this time.

"This is a femininity object, and its magic power is very powerful." The man in the T-shirt said coldly: "The white fox we met that day was probably its phantom..."

I nodded. I didn’t expect to see ghost things in Japan. A person’s professional knowledge determines what he sees, just like a geologist will pay attention to the local land wherever he goes, and a botanist will pay attention to the plants wherever he goes. .

Thinking about it this way, it turns out that after two years of training, I can be considered a qualified femininity dealer.

After the parade passed, I still felt a little unsatisfied. After a while, Li Mazi and others came back. They went to a nearby shopping mall and bought large and small bags of things. They seemed to have a good time.

I told them that they missed the most fun thing. Ruxue said unconvinced: "What's so good about the float parade? It's not like I haven't seen it on TV."

"Then let's go eat seafood tonight. You can just watch from the side. It's the same anyway." I spread my hands.

Ruxue was so angry that she glared at me and went to Li Mazi for help. Li Mazi said helplessly: "Brother from the Zhang family, can you please give in to my wife? It's not like you don't know how petty she is."

"Who is so cautious!?"

Ruxue took out a wooden hammer and chased Li Mazi all the way. Li Mazi ran and shouted for mercy. It took a long time to stop.

I secretly lamented that these two people are really not enemies.

After we said goodbye to the boss, we went to have a meal and then returned to the hotel to rest.

Everyone was very excited on this day and didn’t want to sleep for the time being, so they went to sit at the bar above the hotel for a while and ordered a few drinks.

Li Mazi kept staring at the Japanese beauties coming and going, and Ruxue grabbed her ears and gave her a lesson. Japanese girls are not so beautiful, but they are very good at dressing up. No wonder Japanese makeup has become popular in China in the past two years.

I asked Yin Xinyue for instructions: "Leader, can I take a look?"

"Look!" Yin Xinyue waved her hand magnanimously: "Actually, I think these girls are pretty good at dressing up. I really want to learn makeup from them."

After a while, Ruxue said she was tired and asked Li Mazi to take her back to rest. The young couple wanted to be alone for a while, and we were not so indifferent, so I ordered three more cocktails and a glass of orange juice.

I had just taken a sip of wine when suddenly the phone rang. It was Li Mazi calling. I thought to myself, is there something wrong with him? Even though I was still on the phone in a hotel, international roaming was very expensive.

The phone kept ringing, so I had to answer it and ask him what was wrong.

"Brother Zhang, no, we are trapped!" Li Mazi said anxiously.

"Are you trapped in the elevator? Don't worry, I'll ask the hotel attendant to rescue you right away." I shouted in panic.

"No, no, it's the stairs, we're trapped in the stairs..." said the other end of the phone.