The old things I repaired have become fine

Chapter 435: You guys just ran away like this? Something bad is going to happen!
The efforts of one, two, thirty, five, or even ten doctors are just a drop in the bucket in the face of such a major disaster or epidemic.

Shen Le followed the group of strong men carrying offerings, and walked around in circles until they arrived at the Medicine King Temple.

The Medicine King Temple was full of people, with people coming to burn incense, kowtow, fulfill vows, and wear red robes to the Medicine King Bodhisattva.

In front of the left side hall, a group of middle-aged and elderly doctors were lined up, each with a table. In front of each table, there was a long line of people in ragged clothes, with pale faces and thin bodies, carrying the elderly and children, waiting in the line:

"Doctor, my mother has been coughing for several days..."

"Doctor, my father has been in poor health since he climbed out of the water..."

"Doctor, my little Liuzi's leg..."

Shen Le walked around seven or eight tables and suddenly realized that as a doctor and a member of the gentry group of this era, he should give back to society from time to time.

Free medical consultations and free medicine distribution - of course, local gentry contributed part of the money, and drug dealers and drugstores donated part of the money. After the disaster, we helped the affected patients recover and get out of the disaster...

Shen Le looked around and nodded secretly. However, when he walked from the left side hall to the right side hall, he felt unwell again:
"Thank the gods! Thank the gods!"

"We must pay tribute to the gods! We must perform operas in the City God Temple for three days! We must bring out the City God, Guanyin Bodhisattva, and Medicine King Bodhisattva, all for the parade!"

"And Master Dragon King!"

"With such a big flood, we still need to burn incense and perform opera for the Dragon King?"

"Of course! If it weren't for the mercy of Lord Dragon King, the walls of the county would have been washed down during this flood!"

Shen Le's head was buzzing when he heard this. In other words, he didn't need to participate in the decision-making. If he really participated, he would really want to jump up and beat up all these people -

After the flood, instead of working hard to prevent the epidemic and spend money on medical expenses, they are still thinking about performing operas to thank the gods! Can the Dragon King really control the flood?

Wait, you may not have to please other gods, but you may have to worship the Dragon King.

Shen Le suddenly remembered that there really was a Dragon King in this world. Apart from anything else, the ship he was repairing was obtained from the Dragon King...

He listened to the entire discussion and watched helplessly as the gentry of the entire county pooled together a large sum of money, played music, sang and danced, and gathered all the gods from the famous temples in the county, and paraded them through the streets in a grand procession;

After parading through the streets, they were all carried to the City God Temple, where the best opera troupe in the county was recruited to perform for three days.

However, performing operas and paying homage to the gods did not completely stop the plague. Just as this wave of plague, which might have been cholera, had passed and the people had just caught their breath, another wave of plague swept over...

This time, we did it cleanly and nine out of ten houses were empty.

Shen Le began to suspect that the feng shui here was bad. Not only the county town was plagued by the plague, but also the prefecture capital, state capital, and large areas of the place were swept by the plague.

Then, the local people, after recovering from the plague, adopted the same old response:
"How about holding another large-scale ritual to thank the gods?"

Shen Le really had a lot to complain about this measure. However, not to mention that he was separated by time and space, even if he stood in that world, he might not be able to do anything about it.

He watched helplessly as the local gentry in the state capital raised a huge sum of money, invited a Taoist priest from Mount Longhu, and set up an altar.

First, a vacant area was specially found to set up a government office for the deity and assign an attendant. People could present petitions to the government office just like they would to a real official, and the statue of the deity would be carried to the lobby to "approve official business" in a formal manner.
Where the gods live, we go to the hall twice a day, morning and evening, offer them food three times a day, change their clothes, and send them to bed. We serve them like living people - no, we serve them like real gods who have come down to earth.

Local gods and city gods from all over the country lined up to pay respect to the gods. When these gods went out on tour, they were accompanied by ceremonial carriages and seals and documents. When arriving at the "gods'" offices, they had to first hand in their greeting cards in front of the central army tent, wait for an audience, and then "walk in a sedan chair" outside the gate...

Shen Le was dazzled and dumbfounded. He followed his teacher to do a project and saw the parade when he traveled to Fujian, but he had never seen such a prosperous one.

Not only are there professional Taoist priests to give guidance, but there are also a large number of idle people from the market who either paint their faces to look like ghosts or dress up as servants, following the sedan chair and parading along the road.

Beating drums and gongs, welcoming gods, holding festivals, all kinds of competitions, there is nothing they can't do, except what Shen Le can't think of!

"Isn't this too much?"

Shen Le felt that he couldn't keep up with the pace. He went through every town and every nearby town, and in a flash, more than ten days had passed.

Then, finally, the highlight of this grand ceremony arrived:
"Send the boat! Send the boat!"

The crowd rushed out. Shen Le followed them to join in the fun and saw a huge team with no end in sight.

There were teams of about a hundred people, and each team held gongs and drums, beating them non-stop; some people carried slaughtered pigs and sheep, with red ribbons and colorful decorations hung on them, and moved forward all the way.

On both sides of the road, people were carrying the elderly and children, colorful flags were flying, gongs and drums were beating, and firecrackers were blasting. Walking all the way out of the city, from a distance, Shen Le saw a huge, beautifully decorated wooden boat:

"So you are here..."

He sighed softly. The wooden boat he had repaired with his own hands, just patching up the holes and assembling it, looked magnificent;

And now, the wooden boat standing in front of us is even more eye-catching.

On the wooden boat, the colorfully painted twin dragons playing with a pearl and twin dragons flying in the clouds are dazzling.
The flags on both sides fluttered, bright and dazzling in the sun;
The puppets on the boat were lifelike. In addition to the rice, flour, oil and other daily necessities offered by the people, there were also piles of paper money. The sunlight reflected by the golden paper money was so bright that Shen Le could not open his eyes...

The crowd rushed to the front of the wooden boat and finally calmed down. The Taoist priests in charge directed the people to place the slaughtered pigs and sheep on the altar, beat the instruments, and sing in unison:
“Please: The Great Emperor Changsheng of the Jade Purity True King of the Divine Sky, the Great Emperor of the Six Heavens Cave Abyss, the Great Ancestor True Lords of the Divine Sky, the True Lords of the Three Provinces of Thunder, and the True Lords of the Four Saints of the North Pole…”

This is to invite the gods. Shen Le stretched his neck and looked at the flags flying on the ship, knowing that they wanted to invite these gods to the ship:
and then?
and then?
The long ceremony is divided into various processes including Buxu, cleansing the altar, opening the holy ceremony, offering sacrifices to the boat, proclaiming the intention, inviting the plague to board the boat, sending the boat off, chanting the food transformation mantra, and returning the merit.

After all the procedures were completed, the Taoist priest in charge waved his hand, and the people participating in the ceremony rushed forward, carrying the huge wooden boat on their shoulders or pushing it with their hands, slowly moving forward.

As they were about to reach the shore and had prepared the firewood and fuel, suddenly a loud shout came from afar:
"Here comes the call!"

"Here comes the call!"

"Run—"

"Run quickly——"

With a loud crash, all the people and Taoist priests at the scene ran away, leaving only a large ship alone on the shore.

Shen Le couldn't call back, so he could only stare at the boat in a daze:
Hey, you guys just ran away like this?

All kinds of plague gods and demons have been invited here, and if the ship is just left on the shore, something bad will happen!

(End of this chapter)