Wang Yang hesitated. "There's no need, is there...?"
"There is, there is! Come here, young master!"
"I don't believe in these things anyway..."
"Oh, we've already got everything ready!"
"They do this in the capital too!"
"If everyone does it, there must be a reason!"
"Just think of it as asking for a little good luck!"
In the inner courtyard of the Wang Residence, Little A-Wu crouched down to arrange a brazier and set up a peachwood figure; Chen Qing Shan held a peach branch in one hand and a jujube branch in the other; Xie Xinghan and Xiao Ning tied reed ropes to the door, all urging him on.
With a helpless smile, Wang Yang spread his arms and watched Chen Qing Shan carefully sweep the two branches over his entire body, like an airport security check. He could not help reciting, "Peachwood bows and jujube arrows, loosed without a target. Flying stones scatter like rain; the fierce pestilence must fall."
Chen Qing Shan, Little A-Wu, and Xiao Ning looked utterly baffled.
Xie Xinghan said, "Blazing fires race like streaming stars, driving the red plague to the four frontiers. Those are lines describing the Great Nuo rite in Zhang Heng's Rhapsody on the Eastern Capital. The Great Nuo was an ancient ceremony for driving out plague demons, and it's still practiced today. 'Peachwood bows' are bows made of peachwood, and 'jujube arrows' are arrows made of jujube wood. Since both woods ward off evil, their branches are also used to cleanse someone of impurity after leaving prison. Things like lighting fires and setting up peachwood figures have their counterparts in the Great Nuo rite too."
Little A-Wu listened in a daze, both amazed and admiring. "So that's why! What about the reed ropes?"
Xiao Ning brought over a celadon