In the old days, there was a trade in the capital called shaking the small drum. To put it bluntly, he is a person who walks the streets and alleys, shaking drums and 'collecting rags'.

The line of shaking the small drum seems inconspicuous, but there are capable people in it. Those who change flowers can take the good things in other people's hands and collect them at a tattered price, and then sell them at dozens or even hundreds of times the price.

When the Qing Dynasty died, there were four alternatives in Sijiu City.

These four people also walked the streets and alleys with small drums, but they were dressed very decently, all in green clothes and robes. They never bargain with their masters, and they never take people to beat the side drums, no matter how difficult the objects are, they will definitely reach them within three days.

It stands to reason that these four people are breaking the rules, but no one in the city dares to trouble them. Because, these four people only went to the house of the person who had just died to collect things. Even if no one in that family died, and one of them went to the door of someone's house for a few days, that family would hold a funeral within three days. If any of them were at someone's doorstep, that house would surely be plagued.

Some people say that all the things that those four people collected were evil, and they were the sellers who smelled evil smells, and no one dared not sell what they wanted to buy.

The four of them not only collect evil things, but also evil people, these four people usually have their own territory, even if they meet, they don't speak. To say that they don't know each other, but these four people get together every year.

The place where the four of them meet may not be somewhere, but when they meet, they will definitely light four white cloth lanterns.

The lantern must be three feet above the ground, and if a person is one meter away from the lantern, the light will shine on the waist at most, and will never shine on the face.

No matter where the four lanterns float, it means that the four people are together again.

When the four of them gathered together, they stood on the ground with their lanterns in the wind and rain without saying a word, and did not leave until the lanterns were extinguished. Every year, every year.

They were seen partying, and at that time, there was a light rain in the sky, but none of the four lanterns were extinguished, and from a distance, only four pairs of shoes could be seen, and the four people looked like they had been half erased by the night from their waists upwards. Looking at it from afar, those four people seemed to be half in the underworld and half in the yang world.

After each meeting, the four of them would inexplicably disappear for a month or two, and then return to the capital to continue to walk the streets and alleys.

I know this because one of the people who shakes the drum is my grandfather.

No one in my family knows what my grandfather's tuba is called, only that he has a nickname called "Chen Danggu"

After my grandfather had been in the capital for a few years, he suddenly told his family that he was going to go on a long trip and that he might not come back when.

Before leaving, he told his son, my grandfather, Chen Rufei, to go under the willow tree where they had their last meeting every year to see if there were any white cloth lanterns. The lanterns are there, indicating that they are all alive. The lantern is gone, hurry up and leave the capital, the farther you go, the better, as long as you can keep the Chen family's incense, even if you change your surname, I won't say a word.

After that, my grandfather went to see under the willow tree once a year, but he never saw my grandfather again, nor did he see the other three people who were shaking drums, and no matter how early he went, all he saw was four unlit white cloth lanterns.

At that time, there was a shortage of soldiers, and even the capital did not have a place to live. A few years later, my grandfather couldn't live anymore, so he didn't care about what lanterns were not lanterns, so he signed up for the army and left the capital. It wasn't until he won the battle that he returned to the capital.

My grandfather was less than twenty years old when he left, and he was already in his forties when he returned.

My father himself said: If he hadn't missed his father, he wouldn't have gone under the willow tree again, and he wouldn't have seen the four white cloth lanterns again.

At that time, the willow tree was gone, but the lantern was still there. My grandfather kept the lantern year after year.

Five years later, there was one less lantern.

In the seventh year, there was only one lantern left.

In the tenth year, the lantern was gone.

After another two years, my father suddenly ran away from home and has not been heard from since.

Until the day I was born.

Before my dad could hug me, he didn't know what was wrong, his eyes looked at the door, and he ran out like crazy when he came back, and when he came back, he only carried a white cloth lantern in his hand. Not long after, my dad passed away.

When my dad was dying, he held me in one hand and pointed to the corner of the wall with the other, struggling to say something, and finally died and swallowed his breath.

The day after my dad left, my dad really came back, and whoever asked him anything, he wouldn't say anything. buried my father overnight, and took me out of the capital for the Northeast.