In the next few days, I had a very comfortable life, my debts were paid off, and my relationship with Huang Lijun was gradually heating up. Master's business was finally over, and he dragged me into the mountains to catch snakes and insects. I held my back and used the weekend to grab a few sacks and come back, intending to make a big profit on the next ghost market.

It's about to be the Dragon Boat Festival, so I thought about it again and wanted to make some dishes that fit the occasion. In previous years, there were also people selling zongzi in the ghost market during the Dragon Boat Festival, but they were all traditional zongzi, which was not very attractive in the eyes of ghost customers. So I thought about changing and making a few "special" flavors of zongzi.

I shared this idea with Master, and Master agreed, and he was very satisfied with the "positive" attitude I have now. So, after a few days of tossing and turning, the master and apprentice experimented with such a few new varieties of zongzi.

The first is the dragon and phoenix dumplings. The dragon and phoenix are just a figurative metaphor, in fact, they are snakes and chickens. We mix snake meat and chicken, marinate them in oil and salt, and then make the filling to make meat dumplings. In fact, the practice of dragon and phoenix brown is not much different from ordinary pork dumplings, and taking such a name is just a gimmick. Not only ghosts can eat it, but people can also eat it, so Master and I tasted two of them first. Don't say it, it tastes really good!

If there are meat dumplings, there must also be sweet brown! I imitated the practice of bean paste dumplings and made fragrant ash dumplings. When incense is lit, it can play a role in communicating yin and yang, and delighting people and ghosts. The incense ash left by the burned incense is used by some gods to fool people, and it is sprinkled into a bowl of water and said that it is divine water, which can cure all diseases, which is of course a deceptive thing. But the ghost likes to drink like this, it is no different from drinking tea, and there are no side effects. I kneaded the fragrant ash with sugar and water, and stuffed it into the zongzi as a filling, which is the fragrant ash zongzi.

Then there's the slightly more flavorful sugar maggot dumplings. At first, I just wanted to find some aged glutinous rice to wrap zongzi, because some ghosts like to eat things that are old and overnight, and what they want is that kind of rancid taste. As a result, I went to the vegetable market for a day to find out that I received half a bag of old glutinous rice, and there were worms in it. At that time, the owner of the rice shop saw it and said that it was impossible to eat it, and he had to throw it away and not sell it. I hurriedly said that since I wanted to throw it away, give it to me, and I will take it back and feed it to the chickens. The boss didn't suspect anything, so he agreed, and didn't take any money from me.

People can't eat it, but ghosts can! When I took it back and poured out the old glutinous rice with worms and picked up the worms, I suddenly had an inspiration. The insects are kept and not lost, so they are directly wrapped in the zongzi. Even I thought that the rice worms were too few and too small, so I ran to XX and fished out a lot of fat big white maggots. Of course, this still has to be washed with water, otherwise I can't stand it myself! After washing, I brush the white maggots and rice worms with syrup, and then wrap them in the rice dumplings, and when cooked, they become sweet sugar maggot brown, which is an absolute high-protein and nutritious food.

Nowadays, people are on the mood to eat some healthy meals, nourishing soups or something. I asked Master, do ghosts have any needs for nourishment, beauty, aphrodisiac, etc.? Master said: "Ghosts belong to yin, so there is no need for aphrodisiac, but there is still some truth in nourishing and nourishing the skin." "I asked what things were good for the ghosts? Master listed a lot of things with yin attributes, but I thought about it, and the only thing that can be added to the zongzi as a filling and easy to obtain is probably yin wood.

Yin wood is wood that does not get sunlight all year round, especially the kind that is buried in the soil and rots. The wild ghosts in the mass graves sometimes can't find a wild grave to live in, so they will possess the yin wood and spend the night temporarily. Including the coffin buried in the tomb for a long time, it actually belongs to a kind of yin wood.

Master and I went into the mountains to pick out the old dead trees or roots that had been knocked down by lightning, blown off by the wind, and cut down, dug them up and carried them home, and then smashed them with a wooden pestle. Finally, we wrap the muddy sawdust in the rice dumplings and cook them, then put them in ice cubes to make them cooler. When the time comes, the whole foam box containing ice cubes and shade wood brown will be transported to the ghost market, and it will definitely be cool! I even thought of the advertising slogan for greeting business: cool and sticky teeth, nourish yin and nourish deficiency!

On the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifth month of May, the Dragon Boat Festival just happened to be a holiday, so I went to Master's house early, worked all day, and finally prepared all the ingredients in the evening. In order to make a lot of money tonight, I even took leave from Huang Lijun in advance, and promised to accompany her to go shopping this weekend, and I should have money in my wallet by then, and I am not afraid to eat, drink and have fun!

Huang Lijun is actually still a little unhappy. Because I went into the mountains last weekend and didn't accompany her, the Dragon Boat Festival happened to be Wednesday and I said that I was not available, and I had to wait until Saturday to have time to date. But she complained twice, and just told me not to turn off the phone tonight. She said that her parents have been quarreling more and more fiercely recently, and they are arguing almost every night, which annoys her and sometimes she doesn't want to stay at home for a moment, and I can't be with her and be ready to chat at any time. I was a little embarrassed, after all, in the ghost market, Master would definitely not give me a mobile phone, so he told her that I kept my mobile phone with me and called me if I was in a hurry. But from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., it's not easy for me to chat on WeChat. Huang Lijun nodded reluctantly and agreed.

At ten o'clock in the evening, Master and I went out early. Because there are so many things to bring today, I can't finish a car, so Master advised me to bring less, and if I am willing, I will say that we will go early, and I will come back again in a while to pick up the rest. Master shook his head helplessly, and let me be.

The master and apprentice pushed the cart from Paiwei Village to Paitou Village. Tonight, my master behaved a little strangely, always turning his head to look left and right and behind him for some reason. I turned my head to look and didn't find anything. People in the countryside generally go to bed early, either going to bed or watching TV at home, and few people will go out for a stroll after 10 o'clock. I asked Master what was wrong, but he shook his head and said nothing, only frowning.

When I walked to the ancestral hall of Paitou Village, even I could see that something was wrong. A pair of middle-aged uncles and aunts dressed in bubbling soil sat on the edge of the stage opposite the ancestral hall to enjoy the shade, and each shook a fan. It's not too much of a problem to take a fan at night, but the problem is that we have never seen the uncle and aunt, and they are dressed a little dirty! It looks a bit deliberate. You must know that my grandmother's house is in Paiwei Village next door, and my master has lived in Paiwei Village for almost 20 years.

I looked at Master to see how He reacted. Master motioned for me not to speak, and secretly changed the direction of the cart, and instead of pushing it up the hill behind the ancestral hall, it went directly to the entrance of the ancestral hall. Master stopped the car, stepped forward and knocked on the door of the ancestral hall, shouting, "Old Tan! It's open! It's open! ”

Soon, the old man came and opened the door, poked out his bare head and looked at us, and asked, "What's the matter, what are you doing here?" ”

The master used his body to block the view behind him, quietly compared his fingers behind him, and whispered, "Tonight, I can't open it." ”

The old man who looked at the grave immediately understood what the master meant, nodded and said, "Got it!" He opened all the doors of the ancestral hall, took out the incense candles from them and began to burn them, and asked me to help him insert them into the incense burner. When he had done this, the old man brought out two benches and sat down at the door to smoke a dry cigarette. Master and I sat with us, chatting nonsense from time to time. The uncle and aunt on the other side didn't make any movement, and they were still fanning and chatting.

At this time, Uncle Li also came alone with a cart stall. Uncle Li usually came early, just waiting for us to go to the mass grave together. He was a little surprised to see that Master and I had also arrived so early tonight, but he still greeted him with a smile. When he opened his mouth to ask the old man when the grave man was going to open the market, the master interrupted him in time.

"You go back, just have us tonight, I don't need you." Master said to Uncle Li.

Uncle Li was a little puzzled, and asked again, "Why?" My car is still full of freshly baked goods, and if I can't sell them tonight, I'll lose money! ”

"I'll go back if you tell you to go back! Don't ask so much! Don't talk nonsense! The old man got impatient and began to chase people away.

"Your steamed buns or something, hurry up and push them to the county pedestrian street, maybe you can sell some. Let's go, next time! Master's tone was a little better, and he also advised him to leave quickly.

Uncle Li was still confused, but he didn't dare to object, so he could only push the cart back with a mutter. Just as he pushed the cart to the corner of the opposite stage, several people suddenly rushed out of the shadows and surrounded him.

Uncle Li was startled and asked tremblingly, "What are you going to do?" ”

One of those people took out a document and said to Uncle Li, "We are policemen!" I'm going to check you! ”

"Police?" Uncle Li was stunned, and felt a little inexplicable. My master and the old man also looked at each other and were a little surprised. I thought to myself, how can the police be in charge of everything now?

The plainclothes policemen were no longer polite, and directly lifted the gauze and steamer on Uncle Li's car stall to check the contents of the goods. But Uncle Li sells serious noodles in the ghost market, and there is nothing to check. The one who showed the ID asked, "What are you doing here in the middle of the night pushing these things?" ”

Uncle Li was timid and a little frightened, and he hesitated for a long time before he replied, "I...... It's going to push it to the side of the pedestrian street...... Selling late-night snacks. ”

The plainclothes people couldn't find anything strange or ask anything, so they had to let Uncle Li go. But then, they walked straight towards the ancestral hall. The two uncles and aunts who were "taking advantage of the cold" couldn't pretend to be able to do so at this time, so they also came along.

"What about you? What are you doing here? The aunt asked. It turned out that she was the leader, which surprised me.

"Ancestor worship!" My master replied naturally.

"Come to worship your ancestors at night?" The aunt definitely didn't believe the master's words, and looked at the old man who was looking at the grave. The old man glared at her and said, "What's the matter with you?" That's where I live! Then he continued to smoke his dry cigarettes, not at all of the policemen.

Auntie waved her hand and motioned for the others to check on our cart. A young plainclothes man had just opened a sack under my car stall when he was startled and took a few steps back, his face turned white!

"Snake!"

Now the plainclothes policemen began to be a little nervous, the uncle looked bolder, took the handle of the fan and went to the mouth of the sack again, took a closer look, and then breathed a sigh of relief: "It's all dead snakes!" It's all skinned! ”

I sat down and snickered to myself, besides the dead snake, I have a lot of good things in my stall!

Sure enough, the plainclothes in the back were scared a few more times. All they found were dead snakes, dead toads, dead geckos, scorpions, centipedes, cockroaches, and so on. One of them was the most unlucky, he found a litter of rats, and he was still alive! He yelled, threw the rat away, ran into the corner and threw up.

The aunt who led the team didn't look very good, stared at my master very seriously and asked, "What are you doing with these rats, scorpions, snakes, and insects?" ”

My master was still unmoved, and continued to talk nonsense with his eyes open, "The taste of our ancestors is quite unique. We specially prepared these things and brought them over as offerings for our ancestors to taste! ”

The aunt didn't have much to do with my master, so she simply nodded at me and the master, and said, "Summon these two back first, the things in this car are all detained, and take them back to check if those snakes, insects, or something are national protected animals!" ”

The plainclothes listened to the aunt's order and began to stuff back all the things they had just turned out. Two of them also came and searched my body and Master, and searched my phone and wallet, and put it in a clear plastic bag. At this time, I saw that the screen of my mobile phone was lit up, and it was Huang Lijun who was sending me WeChat, but I couldn't see what was sent. I told the plainclothes guy to show me, and he glared at me fiercely and told me to talk less nonsense! Here's the evidence! Then they took our master and apprentice and the cart back to the county public security bureau.