Liu Fan took advantage of the lack of attention, he followed the collapsed courtyard wall, quietly drilled into the old site of the Hongyun Inn, at this time this place has been deserted, the walls of the main building of the inn are crawling with green vines, the courtyard behind is full of weeds, the outer walls of the house are all falling off, the walls of the elegant courtyard have also collapsed, and there are broken walls and ruins as far as the eye can see.

There is a small door in the backyard, which can directly enter the hall of the main building, and go around the hall on the first floor, the originally lively and clean hall has become a mess at this time, the tables, chairs and benches are covered with dust, the corners of the counter are covered with cobwebs, and the windows are full of holes on the wooden flutes.

As described by Xiao Er of the Tea House, the main building of the Hongyun Inn has three floors, the main structure is rectangular, the first floor of the inn is the hall, the whole area is about more than 500 square meters, at this time there are more than 20 tables in the hall, at the edge of the left side of the hall, there are two independent rooms, look at the furnishings should be the kitchen and the warehouse.

There is a counter next to the entrance of the hall, and there is a wooden kitchen behind the counter, and there are various wine jars in the cook's space, and on the wall next to the counter are nailed four rows of palm-sized wooden signs, the upper two rows of wooden signs are written with the names and prices of various dishes, and the lower two rows of wooden signs are marked with room numbers and prices.

This counter can only be sat by the shopkeeper, that is to say, this place is where Zhu Zishan takes care of the inn's business. The pattern of the building is north-south transparent, from the main entrance of the hall to the back door is only more than 20 meters away, as long as you pass through this hall, you can directly enter the backyard, and is facing the back door is the chess number Yayuan.

Walk along the stairs of some disrepair to the second and third floors, these two floors are guest rooms, open the door and take a look, it seems that the grade of the guest rooms on the second floor is a little low, and the decoration of the rooms on the third floor is more high-end, presumably the rooms of different grades, the price is not the same, counting, all the rooms on the two floors add up to exactly thirty rooms.

After checking a few guest rooms, Liu Fan walked down alone, leaving the hall, Liu Fan began to observe the four courtyards in the backyard, the so-called courtyards are actually four independent courtyards side by side, each courtyard is four main rooms and two side rooms, there is an arch built at the door, and the courtyard door made of bamboo looks a little poetic.

Between the living room and the courtyard is an empty courtyard, also known as the backyard. The two are separated by more than ten meters, surrounded by all kinds of flowers and two bamboo forests, the ground is a cobblestone path, and there is a small viewing pool in the middle, because no one takes care of it, these flowers and bamboo forests are all dead at the moment, and the water in the pool is also dried up.

Passing through the deserted and dilapidated backyard, what catches your eye is the four elegant courtyards, from left to right are written "piano, chess, calligraphy, painting," four big characters, each elegant courtyard is all renovated chic and exquisite, the four elegant courtyards all have different styles, the piano courtyard is simple, the chess courtyard is quiet, the academy is quiet, and the painting courtyard is gorgeous, which can be said to have their own merits.

Stepping on the withered yellow weeds, Liu Fan observed around the backyard, took a look at a few elegant courtyards from outside the door, and finally walked to the door of the courtyard with the word "qin" on it, pushed open the hidden bamboo door, and walked in alone.

The renovation style of the piano courtyard is quite simple, many bamboos are planted inside and outside the courtyard, there is a bamboo forest in front of the wall of the courtyard near the chess courtyard, and a path is built with green bricks around the bamboo forest, which looks like a quiet and high festival, but at this time, the bamboo has died, and there is no longer the vigorous appearance before.

Carefully surveyed the pattern of the piano courtyard, the piano courtyard is square, the bamboo door is located on the south side, the north side is four wooden main houses, a hall and three rooms pattern, the east and west sides are close to the position of the main house, each has a partial room, the courtyard is about ten meters, there is a stone table in the middle, there are six stone benches around it, there is a piano stand opposite the stone table, but at this time all are deserted.

According to Liu Fan's understanding of this era, the main house on the north side should be where Zhu Zishan and his original wife live, arranged according to the status of dignity and inferiority, the main house on the far left lives in the original match, the middle is the living room, the bedroom near the living room lives in a personal maid, which is convenient to take care of the living, and the bedroom on the far right is where the concubine lives, as for the side rooms on the east and west sides, it should be the bedroom of Zhu Zishan's two sons.

Pushing open several doors of the piano courtyard one by one, Liu Fan checked them in turn, the west side room, the left side room, the living room, the middle side room, the right side room, the east side room, he looked at all the rooms, at this time, the furniture in each room was full of cobwebs, and a thick layer of dust fell on the bedding of the bed.

Wiped the dust on the table, gently knocked on the wooden wall, and glanced around at the exquisite decoration, Liu Fan stood in the main room on the left side and pondered secretly, looking at a Buddha statue enshrined in the room, he wiped the dust on the Buddha statue with his hands, while recalling what Xiao Er said, Liu Fan always felt that this thing was full of weirdness.

Liu Fan slowly explored from the piano courtyard, until there was a gurgling sound from his stomach, he stopped investigating, came to the courtyard to see, the sky was actually dark, touched the rumbling belly, Liu Fan groaned slightly, and then walked outside, after he left, the Hongyun Inn fell into silence and desertion again......

Back on the street, Liu Fan found a restaurant at random, ordered two green dishes and then picked up the rice to eat, because he didn't care about eating at noon, he was already hungry at the moment, and he ate three bowls of rice to fill his stomach, and he was full of food and drink, Liu Fan inquired about the location of Yizhuang, and then checked out and left.

The so-called Yizhuang was originally used to do good deeds and settle down, there was a gap between the rich and the poor in all dynasties, some people lived in poverty, and some people had a solid family, so some rich people took out money to run Yizhuang. The original Yizhuang had schools, public fields, ancestral halls and other facilities, and some of them could accommodate those who were homeless.

However, with the change of the times and people's thinking, the use of Yizhuang is gradually narrowing, and in this dynasty, Yizhuang is almost only based on ancestral halls. Recently, this year, Yizhuang has evolved into a place to store coffins, and the Ming Dynasty advocated that the dead be buried in the grave, and those who died would be buried in the family cemetery by their descendants, in order to bless future generations forever.

Those who died at the end of their lives can be buried in the ground, but those who died in an accident, as well as those who could not find the corpses of their families, had to be temporarily stored in Yizhuang, this era does not promote cremation, and whenever there is a corpse that is killed or killed in a foreign country, the government will send a catcher to clean up the corpse and store the corpse in Yizhuang.

In a sense, Yizhuang belongs to the property of the government, and each yamen has a full-time servant, who assists the catchers in inspecting the corpses, although the servants are under the jurisdiction of the imperial court, but because the servants deal with dead corpses all day long, people are reluctant to get along with them, and even if they meet, they stay away, for fear of being infected with bad luck.

Although people have a great prejudice against the profession, all yamen are inseparable from this profession. In view of this, the yamen had no choice but to hand over the Yizhuang to those servants for use, firstly, to facilitate the dispatch, and secondly, to let them guard the Yizhuang, not only to allow the servants to bring their families to live permanently, but also to issue an additional amount of money to guard the Yizhuang every month.

To put it bluntly, Yizhuang is similar to the funeral home of later generations, similar to forensic medicine and mortuary, although the funeral home is not a good place, but there are a few high-end houses that can be used, as long as you do not leave your job, you can live permanently, not only that, but there are additional funds and subsidies every month, which is also considered generous.

On the occasion of the Lunar Ghost Festival, the people who guard the Yizhuang will burn some paper money to pay tribute to the deceased, and sometimes the relatives and friends of the deceased come to worship, and they will leave some silver taels for the deceased when they leave, so that they can help worship the dead on the day of the deceased's death.

Because Yizhuang happened to be located in the suburbs, Liu Fan did not return to the city, but according to the route of inquiry, a person carried a lantern and walked alone to the place where Yizhuang was located, although it is a suburb, but the location is quite remote, Liu Fan walked for more than an hour to find this place, standing at the gate of Yizhuang, Liu Fan suddenly panicked.

"Made, why are your legs a little twisted?" Liu Fan was excited, he suddenly had the feeling of watching "Liao Zhai" when he was a child, as if he was the scholar who walked alone in the dark with a lantern, and there was a strange sound of "woo woo woo woo" faintly around him, as if someone was blowing cool air into his neck.

There are some things that you can't think about, because the more you think about them, the more scared you are. The gate of Yizhuang is somewhat similar to the archway, the towering white wall is about three meters, the courtyard wall on both sides is about dozens of meters long, the willow and locust trees are planted at the door, and a row of pines and cypresses grows in front of the courtyard wall, all of which are plants of yin attributes, and there are many dark coins and paper money scattered on the ground that are more terrifying.

Now the sky is completely dark, the starry sky and dark clouds cover the moonlight, a small wind blows gently, which makes Liu Fan have a cold feeling, shaking his body, Liu Fan strode forward, came to the door of Yizhuang, he knocked on the door of Yizhuang hard, "Bang Bang," after a few sounds, a cold voice came out: "Who?" ”

"It's me, I'm ......"

Liu Fan wanted to say that he had come to spend the night, but when he thought about it, this place was gloomy, and normal people would rather sleep in the wilderness than come here to spend the night. If it is even more nonsense to visit relatives and friends, who will run to visit relatives in the village full of dead bodies? Or do you want to visit here? It seems a little unreasonable.

Just when Liu Fan was worried because of what excuse to find? The door of Yizhuang slowly opened, and after opening the door, a middle-aged man with a cold expression appeared in front of Liu Fan, and looked at this person carefully, only to see that the other party was burly, strong, about forty years old, with an ordinary appearance and a cloth towel tied on his head.

The man was wearing a gray cloth shirt, a black linen pants on his legs, and straw slippers on his feet, it seemed that he was a little unhappy with Liu Fan's behavior of knocking on the door at night, only to see that the other party was holding a lantern in his hand, with an impatient expression on his face, he glanced at Liu Fan, and the man was puzzled: "Who are you looking for?" ”