Volume 3 The Ghost Boat of the Sand Sea Chapter 32 Pressing the Money
"Hey~ Look, it seems to be holding something in its hand!" The jar walked back and forth along the coffin, and when he walked to the head of the corpse, he saw that the corpse seemed to be hiding something in its hands.
Xu Yunshu and I hurriedly ran over, wrenched the corpse's hands, and sure enough, we saw that it was holding a small scroll in its hand!
"The Art of Immortality!" The jar screamed.
Xu Yunshu and I immediately took the scroll aside to look at it, but the altar didn't follow, because he knew that even if he followed it, he wouldn't understand, so it was better to stay here and wait for the result, because I would definitely not hide it from him.
Xu Yunshu opened the scroll extremely carefully, and saw that there was no text in it at all, only a map with a place marked on it. Xu Yunshu and I were confused, we didn't understand what this map represented, and we didn't know what the owner of the tomb wanted to express? Could it be that this map depicts a location where the art of immortality is hidden?
Xu Yunshu and I discussed for a long time without coming to a conclusion, and finally she took a picture of the map in the scroll with her camera, wanting to do research after she went back...... At this time, none of us noticed that the few points of fluorescent light that had just floated out of the jade bottle suddenly reappeared. This time, they floated above the skins, hovered over them a few times, and then split into four parts and burrowed into the skins......
Tanzi was fascinated when he saw me and Xu Yunshu studying the scroll over there, and he observed the dead body in the coffin when he had nothing to do. Although the man's corpse has been dead for an unknown number of years, because the corpse has not decomposed, his appearance is still the same as it was back then. This man looks quite good, except for being a little thin, but the altar sneers at this: "What's the use of being good-looking, in the end, you don't have to lie here obediently......" As he was saying, he suddenly paid attention to the mouth of the dead body, and he remembered a custom, all people must put money after death, of course, this is for ordinary people, the more dignitaries and dignitaries are, the more valuable things are used.
In fact, the custom of pressing money is preserved in many places. When a person has just taken a breath, the family should quickly put the prepared "pressure money" into the mouth of the deceased, "pressure money" is a copper coin or other metal coin, put on the red line, put the deceased in the mouth, and tie another section of the red line to the shroud cloth belt to prevent it from slipping into the abdomen, and pull off the red line when the funeral is held. "Mouth money", also known as "mouth" and "rice", refers to the custom of giving the deceased something in his mouth. There is a record of "mouth" in ancient Chinese books, "The Book of Rites: Miscellaneous Notes": "Chisel a towel to eat." The Book of Etiquette of the Later Han Dynasty also says: "Dengyao, the rice contains pearls and jade like a ceremony", which is also intended to let the deceased cross the River Styx smoothly. The ancients believed that if there was a boat on the River Styx, there must be a boat dedicated to ferrying. When the undead cross the river, of course, they should also pay the boat as they do in the human world, otherwise they are likely to be reprimanded by the boat, and they will not even be able to cross the river, and they will come back to find trouble with their children and grandchildren. The money in the mouth of the undead is the fare paid to the boat of the Styx. Another theory is that the "pressure money" is used to buy the life of the imp, so that the imp can keep it secret from the king of Hades for three days, so that the soul of the deceased can stay in the world for three more days. There is also a saying that the reason why "pressure money" is put into people's mouths as soon as they lose their breath is to suppress the grievances of the deceased and prevent the corpse from becoming a corpse. However, the customs of different places are very different, so the interpretation of "pressure money" also has different interpretations...... This money used to be generally put into people's mouths, but later because ordinary people were not rich in their families, it gradually evolved into copper coins, but pearls and jade are still used in the homes of rich people.
"I remember that Cixi's mouth seemed to be a night pearl, and I don't know what this corpse would have in its mouth. Xu Yunshu said that his status is not low, so he shouldn't be too shabby, right? The jar muttered to himself.
Tanzi glanced at me and Xu Yunshu, and seeing that we didn't notice this, he directly put his hand into the coffin, pried the corpse's mouth open, and used his fingers to cut into the male corpse's mouth. He thought while buttoning it, if there was nothing valuable in it, he would lose a lot of money, and he would lose more than he gained by doing such a disgusting thing......
At this time, he suddenly felt a thin, flat thing in the mouth of the corpse, and then he directly pinched it out with his fingers. It was a large coin, and the words on it were worn out so that it could not be seen clearly, but what could be vaguely seen was that the big coin was engraved with a town charm......
"Damn, it's so unlucky, the shell lang met a sparse - a trip for nothing!" The altar was a little angry, and was about to throw away the big money in his hand, but suddenly stopped his hand again: "The mosquito is not big and it is meat, a little more!" Thinking of this, he put the money into the pocket of his clothes.
At this time, Tanzi thought about why Xu Yunshu and I were still discussing it endlessly, so he looked up at me and Xu Yunshu.
It didn't matter if he looked at it, the altar directly exclaimed: "Poor...... Poor ghost, watch out for ...... behind you"
After I heard the cry of the jar, I didn't think much about it, and directly pulled Xu Yunshu to roll on the spot...... Even though I thought I was reacting quickly, I still felt a pain in my right shoulder. It turned out that when the altar looked up, he saw four white figures standing behind me and Xu Yunshu, and he didn't have time to think about it and immediately reminded him loudly.
I had climbed a few meters before I stood up and looked back, and saw that the four figures were the four human skins we had found in the wooden box. It's just that the four human skins seem to have been put back into their owners, and they have become humans, holding rocks and sharp steps that have fallen from the giant worm's body behind us.
One by one, they were naked, waving the weapons in their hands, and they walked towards us step by step. At this time, their eyeballless sockets flashed with a red and strange light. We don't know what the skins were draped over or where the red light came from, but there is no doubt that they came to life.
The altar also rushed to our side and asked me worriedly, "Are you okay?" ”
I moved my arm, but I didn't delay the activity except for a little pain: "It's okay, I can't die!" I replied as I drew my dragon sword. The altar also took out the machete: "Let's not suffer three against four!" As he spoke, he glanced at Xu Yunshu, who was powerless, and immediately changed his words and said, "Uh...... Two against four, you may have to suffer a loss! ”
As soon as the altar finished speaking, the four human skins on the side had already begun to move. At first, the altar and I thought it was just four human skins that had gone around in the wind, how powerful could it be? But when they moved, they were much faster than we thought. A few arrows had already rushed in front of us, each step seemed light, but after one step, it was already several meters out. In particular, the two human skins holding the feet are even faster. In the blink of an eye between me and the altar, the sharp steps were already stabbing at us.