Chapter 8: The Coffin Feast

After listening to the story of the dog baby's night walk in the City God's Temple, Luo Sanpao and the three of them have gradually walked into the depths of the Devil's Valley, the road in the mountains has gradually become rugged, dozens of meters high sky trees rise from the ground, standing unevenly around everyone, dense branches cover half of the sky, the mountains are full of stones, and a few fat hares pop out of the weeds from time to time. The chill in the wind increased sharply. Hu Biaozi looked at the dense weeds in front of him, shook his sore arms and said, "Let's take a few rests and eat a fruit to quench your thirst." Sanpao and Wazi readily agreed, and the three of them chose a large leeward rock to sit together and eat the fruit. Those who hunted and collected medicine in the mountains were accustomed to squatting and sitting, and that was out of a habit of self-defense. There are many wild beasts in the mountains, and they are extremely cunning, and they often attack when the prey drinks water and swallows, and the blow is fatal, so experienced people like to rest and eat in the mountains, and use the way of squatting or kneeling on one leg to carry out, which is to facilitate it to observe the surroundings more easily and avoid the attack of wild beasts. Hu Biaozi gnawed on the fruit, a mouthful of fresh juice rushed out, smashed it and said: "I don't enter the temple at midnight, and I meet the judge when I enter the temple, I did talk about it before, but most of it was to prevent thieves from coming to Shun in the middle of the night to pay tribute and money and food in the Chenghuang Temple. But I, Hu Biaozi, not only met the judge, but he also invited me to dinner!"

Back then, Hu Biaozi wore open-wind shoes with his head on his head and open-wind shoes, and knelt at the entrance of the vegetable market in the north of the city with dozens of beggars and children in the cold wind to beg for food. In those years, there were many conflicts, the people in the city were displaced, the prices in the city continued to rise, many people lost their jobs and land, some fled to other provinces, some became beards, and some became beggars. Hu Biaozi was only eleven years old that year, and he had no relatives and no support, so he became a beggar with a group of brothers around him. That day, Hu Biaozi was also lucky, an old lady who was a big official in the city died of illness, and he needed to find a child to pretend to be a filial son to cry and mourn. It is said that the old lady was tyrannical during his lifetime, killing countless people, often killing innocent people, and the means were extremely vicious, recently somehow suddenly died at home, the fortune teller said that the old man's life and killing are too heavy, and after death he will be disturbed by the ghosts of the underworld, and he needs to find a bitter child with a hard life to help him cry and mourn, so he is not satisfied with finding more than a dozen children, so the official sent an old woman to the street to find, and at a glance he fell in love with a hair between Hu Biaozi's pair of tiger eyebrows, according to the Buddhist classic "Lotus Sutra" The Wheel of the Holy King has 32 phases, one of which has a white hair, which refers to a thin white hair between the two eyebrows, and it is said that those who have this face can not suffer from the 10 billion Ganges sand tribulation after death. At the moment, he bought a big white steamed bun in a steamed bun shop on the street and asked Biaozi to follow him. As soon as Biaozi saw that there was food, he didn't care about thirty-seven twenty-one, and followed and left. The old woman was also a shrewd person, and did not take Biaozi back to the house directly, but took him to the bathhouse and instructed the little servant to rub him with mud, and asked a head shaving master to shave his filial head, and after buying a well-fitting and clean clothes, he took his little hand and walked into the mansion of the big official. When the senior official saw that this child had tiger eyebrows, tendon eyes, and tiger heads, he liked it very much, so he made him a filial son, and learned filial piety from the funeral of the eldest man.

At night, the bright moon is in the sky, the stars are brilliant, the breeze is slowly drifting, on the empty mourning hall, the candle flame is faintly flashing with erratic light, a coffin is placed horizontally in the center of the lobby, and the black lacquer-colored coffin board reflects the candlelight of the ever-bright lamp from time to time, flickering bright and dark. The two little servants stood there dozing against the pillars of the mourning hall, and Hu Biaozi was asked to kneel on the mourning hall and hold the ever-bright lantern until the rooster crowed until dawn. At this time, it was close to midnight, Hu Biao was wearing a snow-white filial piety suit and half kneeling in the lobby, arching his waist, with his left eyelid and his right eyelid, plus the old woman took him to the back kitchen in advance in the afternoon.

Hu Biaozi held on there and waited for the rooster to crow, suddenly a strong wind blew in the mourning hall, the everlasting lamp in Hu Biaozi's hand "snapped" and went out, the stars and moon were dark in an instant, and the surroundings were pitch black, only the lamp and candle on the mourning platform still had some miserable white light illuminating a little black, Hu Biaozi raised his heavy eyelids and looked in the direction of the candlelight, and in a flash, the slight white immediately turned into a faint green, Hu Biaozi suddenly lost consciousness, and it was the right time.

When Hu Biaozi woke up again, he found himself sitting in a sedan chair staggeringly, the drums outside the sedan chair sounded, the sedan chair followed the rhythm of the drums, shaking unhurriedly, Hu Biaozi was a child at the time, and he didn't feel afraid, he used to be only in the begging time, and saw those old ladies who had made a sedan chair, and now he can try it himself, but he feels very novel, especially under the buttocks, a big red satin surface of satin Rong is spread on the sedan chair, soft and comfortable, sitting on it like a spring, Hu Biaozi touched left and right, looked up, looked down, so unhappy。 After a bumpy road, the drum beat quietly disappeared, and the sedan chair was firmly placed on the ground. I only heard one person say in a sharp voice, "Please filial piety." At this time, the car curtain door was also slowly opened by a slender hand, and a small face full of ** and dark red lips appeared in front of Biaozi, only to see that this person had a big red dome crown on his head, wearing a sapphire soft robe embroidered with a python, wearing white boots with black faces, and a red silk corset belt on the waist knot. I saw that the man turned sideways, made a gesture of invitation with his left hand, and motioned for Hu Biaozi to get off the sedan chair.

Hu Biaozi walked off the sedan chair in filial piety clothes, only to see that in front of him was a big mansion similar to the architectural style of the temple, there were two large lanterns at the door of the house with a slight glow, and there was a circle of all kinds of people standing in front of the gate, there was a goddess who was wearing red and green and missing an arm but was still dancing the god, and the little girl who was smeared with red rouge but burned half of her face and kept kowtowing, and the back of her bare arms was indeed poked in a hole and kept ** The blacksmith of the hammer, the man who wore his leggings and kept bowing and saluting but who had the appearance of a soldier with blood bubbles on his head, and so on, all stopped in front of the gate, and made great movements, but there was no sound in their mouths or hands. It is particularly strange that there is a carriage in the midst of this group of people, and the ox-cart keeps shuttling among the people, and the cart keeps dropping some gold and silver treasures, pearls and agate, but the people do not look at it, and they do not look at it, and the ox-and-horse carts come out of the darkness of the south and disappear into the darkness of the north. Although Hu Biaozi is a child, he has grown up in the pile of dead people since he was a child, and he is not panicked by the absurd and strange scene in front of him, but he is very interested in those gold and silver treasures, and wants to reach out and grab one, but because of the eunuch-like person in front of him, he is embarrassed to pick it up. The man didn't say much, and bowed down to signal Hu Biaozi to follow him in.

The man gently pushed the door, and it creaked open. A bone-piercing cold wind blew straight towards Hu Biaozi, and goosebumps all over Biaozi's body rose at that time. One look inside the gate, is a huge courtyard, the field of vision is extremely wide, only to see that there are seven pieces of rosewood high stilt round wooden table in the middle of the courtyard, each table is equipped with seven mahogany high-backed chairs, seven people wearing the same style of filial piety clothes as Biaozi sit around the round wooden table, their eyes are wooden, stunned, sitting silently. Around the courtyard, it was pitch black, and only a little candlelight on the round table could illuminate a little abbot. From time to time, a little man in a black cloth dress came from the darkness with melons, fruits, pears and peaches, put them on the table, and then left quietly.

The eunuch-like man led Biaozi to the round table in the middle, pointed to an empty seat, and motioned for Biaozi to sit down. Biao Zi looked around at the people around, and found that it was a little familiar, and then took a closer look, only to find that it was no one else who was sitting on the top and hanging his hands, it was the senior official himself, and the person sitting next to him was not someone else, it was the old woman who pulled him into the door in the morning, although the rest of the people Biaozi did not know, but it was speculated that they were probably the housekeepers and servants of the official master's house, and I don't know why everyone gathered here in the middle of the night to see the posture, as if they were going to eat. The eunuch-looking man saw Biao Zi sitting on the chair, nodded with satisfaction, and quietly left, disappearing into the darkness. In the courtyard, there was silence, and the forty-eight members of the official lord's family were all sitting in the dark, and no one made a sound, not even the sound of panting.

About half a cup of tea later, some footsteps were faintly heard in the darkness, and a man wearing a dragon body uniform embroidered with a python slowly emerged from the darkness surrounded by a group of people who looked like servants and hunters. I saw that the man was holding a large black and shiny brush in his left hand, holding a thick book full of pages in his right hand, stepping on the double dragon and phoenix tiger head boots, wearing a black and white yin and yang official hat, his face was dark and shiny, and there was a hole in the intimidation between his eyebrows; The man sat down firmly with his back against the Taishi's chair, and the surroundings suddenly became silent again. The man raised his eyes and looked around at the crowd, nodded, picked up the brush in his left hand, and made a dozen strokes on the scroll in his right hand. When Hu Biaozi saw the dark red lotus, his heart couldn't help but feel a pimple; when Hu Biaozi and a group of children were raised by monks in the mountains, they inevitably had to deal with Buddhist scriptures, and Buddhism has a close relationship with the lotus, there are Manjushri Bodhisattvas who step on the white lotus, there are semi-reclining water lilies to the Bodhisattva, there are also sitting on the altar of the green lotus to preach the Buddha, there are also Guanyin Bodhisattvas holding lotus flowers, the north of the lotus gesture is not empty to become Buddhas, and the Puxian Bodhisattvas who scatter lotus flowers to the world. In Buddhism, the lotus flower represents goodness and goodness. However, this dark red lotus flower is not among the many types of lotus flowers, and this lotus flower has another name, called the blood lotus. According to legend, there is a heinous wicked person who met the incarnation of Guanyin Bodhisattva, was enlightened by the Bodhisattva, hoping to mend his life, the Bodhisattva gave the wicked a snow-white white lotus, the wicked man reached out to take the lotus, the big white lotus instantly turned bloody, and a drop of crimson blood flowed out of the lotus. The Bodhisattva told him that this blood was the evil of the first half of his life, and that if he could turn this blood lotus into a great white lotus in his lifetime, then he would be considered atoned for his sins and would be spared the suffering of hell, but if he couldn't, he would go to the jaw-nose hell and be tortured inhumanly. As soon as Hu Biaozi saw this drop of blood lotus, a chill surged into his heart, and then looked at everyone present, at this time, everyone was still motionless, but their faces did become very pale. At this moment, the official-like man finished the last stroke, put the pen in one hand, and shouted: "Feast." ”

As soon as the words fell, a black wooden coffin appeared in the middle of the courtyard out of thin air, seven black-clothed little guys walked out of the darkness, opened the black coffin together, and brought out a pot of vegetables from the coffin, a black-clothed little guy said: "The first dish "Golden Rooster Independence", a human leg is placed on the breakfast plate, a small guy brings the plate to a dining table, the table person looked at the plate, suddenly like a mouse saw the rice bowl, everyone tore the meat and ate it, "the second course" Golden Dragon Probe Claw" , an arm appeared on a dinner plate, and was sent to another table by another small servant, the third "thousands of purples and thousands of reds", stomach: the fourth "immortals offer peaches", kidneys, the fifth, "the beauty of the rivers and mountains", heart, liver, spleen and lungs, the sixth, "Wujiang self-slaughter", head and neck; The seventh way, "One Family in the World", head. The seventh dish was brought to the round table where the big official was, and when Biaozi looked at it, his stomach couldn't help but stir up a stream of sour water. It turned out that the owner of the other end was none other than the old lady who had long since died. And as soon as this dish was served, the eyes of the big official and the others shone brightly, and they all reached out and tore their heads with their hands. Hu Biaozi was nauseous for a while. But his legs felt like they had been filled with lead, and he couldn't move. The seven plates were divided in an instant, but everyone still seemed to be unable to stop. At this time, the color of the blood lotus on the ground became more and more vivid, and the person holding the pen shouted at this moment: "The eighth dish, the sword mountain and the sea of fire." As soon as the words fell, the people who had just been separated and eaten rushed towards the people around them, and everyone began to tear each other apart. "In an instant, there was a river of blood and bones all over the ground. Hu Biaozi was also pressed under the old woman sitting next to him at this time, and the sharp fingernails had already scratched deep scratches on Biaozi's face. Thanks to Hu Biaozi, who had eaten and drank a lot of food and sea in the back kitchen that afternoon, his stomach had been uncomfortable, and his life had been in an instant. As the saying goes, a child has three treasures: child urine, child, and child fart. The boy is originally a pure yang body, full of pure air, ghosts and gods are not taboo, and the three treasures can destroy ghosts and demons. This Hu Biaozi's fart smoked the old woman away, and the old woman ran away from Hu Biaozi madly and tore it up with someone else. As soon as Hu Biaozi saw the old woman leave, his whole body relaxed; just now he used too much force, and he immediately fainted to death, and this and urine came together. On the contrary, it makes it impossible for others to get close.

When Hu Biaozi woke up again, he found that he was still wearing filial piety clothes, half-kneeling on the mourning hall, holding an everlasting lantern in his hand, and there were still scratches of blood on his face, which had already scarred. At this time, the sky was just dawning, and the tributes on the mourning hall were indeed blown up by yesterday's strong wind, but the little girl who slept last night was gone. Hu Biaozi loosened his muscles, slowly straightened his waist, and looked around, but there was no one in sight, and the coffin on the mourning hall was gone. Hu Biaozi was bold and shouted twice, but no one answered, and he walked around the courtyard a few times, but still didn't see anyone. Hu Biaozi remembered all kinds of strange things that happened yesterday, and his heart was furious, feeling that this big official's yin qi was too heavy and too unlucky. Hurriedly went to the kitchen and took some steamed buns and put them in his arms, and rushed out of the door.

The next day, when Hu Biaozi went out to beg with his buddies again, he heard an iron buddy say that he heard someone talk about when he went to the vegetable market in Dongcheng of the county this morning to beg for food, where the dead bodies of the whole family of the big officials were found in an abandoned paper paste shop, and it is said that when the corpses were found, paper people, paper horses, paper cows, paper carts, melons and fruits were scattered everywhere, mixed with the fragments of the corpse. The strangest thing is that the old lady's coffin is also there, there is only one arm and leg in it, and the rest of the corpses are missing, but there is a lot of gold and silver for the burial, and in the end, the coroner found the old lady's body fragments in the intestines of some dead corpses. It's a pity that this old lady has done too many evils in her life, and she didn't leave a whole corpse until she died. This matter was spread by the people and became a strange talk.