Time: The third day of the Lunar New Year.

Location: Paradise Hill, on the reservoir embankment.

Weather: Sunny and slightly warm.

The night's time soon slipped away to the drumming noise.

In the morning, the drums go out, the murmur begins to rest, and the practice of chanting begins again in half an hour.

Today's weather is good, blue sky, white clouds, light wind, warm sun.

Unknown flowers bloom in the mountains, carrying bursts of fragrant fragrance.

When I walked out of the room, I saw Yan Xiaoying fiddling with breakfast, and when she was busy, the four strong guys had already arrived, and at this time, they were drinking old wine in a sullen voice on the table opened in the courtyard.

The Murmurs are at the other table, they are different from the Mighties, and they are no different from ordinary people when they take off/off their robes and hats. Even last night I saw them playing poker in the Shed.

Walking out of the house and going up to the embankment, I found Li Chong and his wife standing by the coffin, their eyes red/swollen, their expressions haggard, and obviously they had not slept all night.

For these two days, they had to guard Li Guofeng's coffin, which is the so-called wake.

In front of the big red coffin was a white curtain with many words written on it. There is an offering table under the curtain, and a paper house is placed on the table, and there are two paper figures on both sides of the room, one on the left and one on the right, a man and a woman.

There is a photo in front of the paper house, it is Li Guofeng, there is a stove and bowl in front of the photo, and there are two candles in the bowl, and a high incense.

The candle flame swayed, and the second master stood in front of the offering table and chanted a mantra, stepping on the figure-eight steps, holding a copper coin sword in his hand, and a bench beside him.

There is a dustpan on the stool.

There are four bowls in the dustpan, one bowl of meat, one bowl of vegetarian food, one bowl of white tofu, and one bowl of white rice.

If my guess is correct, what the second master is doing now is to open the throat of the deceased. The so-called throat opening is to give food to the deceased, and of course, it is naturally impossible for the deceased to get up and eat again.

The meal is eaten by relatives, and every time the person who guards the soul eats, he should first ask the deceased who is lying in the coffin to eat first, which is to open the throat.

Li Chong supported his wife, trembling to the bench and knelt down, Li's mother looked at the food on the dustpan in front of her, looked dull, glanced at the photo of her son on the table, and said as if muttering: "Feng'er, it's time for breakfast......"

As she spoke, she reached out and grabbed the food in the bowl and stuffed it into her mouth indiscriminately, tears already piercing her face.

I turned my head sideways, unable to bear to look at it again.

The second master took off his robe and hat, took a deep breath, walked over and patted me on the shoulder, and whispered, "Young man, Xiao Ying told you about that incident last night, right?" ”

I nodded and said, "She told me." ”

"Do you have any ideas?"

I shook my head and said, "I don't know much about funerals, the second master is a respected senior, and everything is up to you." ”

"Hehe, it's not that you are highly respected, but you live a little longer."

As he spoke, the second master picked up the big bamboo tube, sat on the low stool, and smoked it.

He spat out a puff of smoke, looked at me and said, "Speaking of which, I also have a friendship with the old man of your family, and when your grandmother died, I still did the rituals. But the old ghost always said that I put up a show, it's just a whole kind of hypocritical play, and it's useless bullshit. ”

I said respectfully: "The old man loves to talk nonsense, saying that others are useless, and he himself is not the same. ”

The second master laughed when he heard this: "You kid has a lot of appetite for me, but your old man's ability is not small, he has guarded Heavenly Mountain for decades without accidents, do you think it's just luck?" If you want to become a real mountain guard, you still have a lot to learn, remember, don't underestimate anyone, and don't underestimate yourself. ”

"Yes!" I nodded.

"Actually, the old ghost is right, we are like a bunch of plays. not only acts for the living, but also for the dead, to say that the effect is really small. ”

I was stunned and asked, "Why do you say that?" ”

"There are very few things that have really been passed down, and many have even been lost. In order to make a living, we have to be flexible, integrate the strengths of each family, and cater to the needs of customers, but now cremation is popular, saving money and effort, and maybe in a few years we will cease to exist. ”

"In any case, the so-called practice of opening the altar is nothing more than seeking peace of mind for the relatives of the deceased.

The second master smiled slightly, and suddenly changed the topic and said: "I see that you are quite talented and can endure hardships, do you want to be my apprentice and inherit the essence of our murmur?" In a sense, this is also a cultural heritage. ”

"You want to take me as an apprentice?"

I was surprised, "But...... I've taken over the old man's position, and I still have a mountain whip, I'm afraid I can't be a mutter. Besides, I am so stupid that I can't even memorize the scriptures. ”

"Haha, if you kid doesn't want to do it, just refuse, why bother going around and around, for fear of hitting me?"

The second master swallowed the clouds and spit out the fog and said: "I'm afraid that Heavenly Mountain is not calm during this time, I just want to pull you out of this whirlpool of water and heat, but now it seems that you can't extricate yourself." ”

"Let's not talk about those, we have six secret burial methods, and the Qingzhu burial method is one of them. Li Guofeng died unexpectedly, and his internal organs were dug up and he disappeared, and he was most likely to turn into a corpse. Since you don't cremate, you have to use the green bamboo burial method, which is the most indispensable thing for this method. On the day of the funeral, you let people cut down fresh green bamboo and bring it to the new grave, I have a great use. ”

"Thank you for getting old!"

I nodded, puzzled in my heart, and asked, "I heard Yan Xiaoying say that using the Qingzhu burial method can only trap him inside, and after a long time, will there be any changes?" ”

"No, I have seen the cemetery chosen by Xiaoying with the deceased's parents, the front of the hall is open, there are no old trees, bald ridges, and cracked stones around, and yang energy gathers. When the time comes, I will bury the Nine Palaces Bagua Mirror in front of the tomb, and the daylight will shine on it, which can slowly dissipate the evil qi in the corpse. In this way, it only takes 7749 days for the evil qi in the corpse to be annihilated. ”

I don't know anything about feng shui layout, but when I heard what the second master said, I couldn't help nodding secretly.

I didn't expect Yan Xiaoying to be so careful, and she had already helped me take care of everything.

After the conversation, the second master went into the house to have breakfast, and after resting for more than ten minutes, the sound of gongs and drums sounded again.

At this time, I noticed that someone had climbed the mountain, probably hearing the sound of drums, and came up to see the excitement.

I muttered in my heart, why don't I go to visit my relatives during the Chinese New Year, why do I have so much time to go up the mountain to join in the fun? Don't you know that being contaminated with mourning is the most unlucky?

Of course...... Not all mourning is mournful.

If the deceased is a young man, or a person who died in vain, unjustly, or in an accident, most people will not approach, and even feel bad luck when they see their coffin.

However, it is different if the deceased is an old man who has reached the end of his life. For the relatives of the deceased, this is a happy event, a white happy event.

For such a white happy event, the funeral will become a wedding wine, and there is an endless stream of people who come to mourn, and in front of the coffin hall, everyone laughs and laughs. Because those people believe that the funeral of the elderly who is dying is a joyful funeral, and those who go to mourn can be blessed.

In this kind of thing, relatives and neighbors will even drag their families to watch the ceremony and compete for the glutinous rice cakes distributed by the relatives of the deceased.

This is not an exaggeration, but it is real. It's just that in a person's life, there are too many accidents, and there are very few people who can really live to the end, so such white happy events are very rare.

While I was thinking, the people who went up the mountain had approached, and I saw that their figures were quite familiar, and when I rubbed my eyes and looked closely, I couldn't help but be stunned.

Although I expected someone to come up the mountain, I never imagined that it would be my mother and Xiaoya.

I walked up quickly, and from a distance, Xiaoya ran over, hugged my legs at once, and took out a thick stack of red envelopes from her pocket as if showing off: "Brother Tianyan, you see, I received a lot of red envelopes during the New Year, hehe!" ”

"That's great! My brother also prepared a red envelope for you, but I have been too busy recently and don't have time to go home. ”

I touched Xiaoya's little head, took out two red envelopes from my pocket and handed them to Xiaoya, one was a red envelope for the New Year, and the other was a red envelope prepared for the funeral.

Whenever a funeral is held, for those who come to mourn or help, the relatives of the deceased will prepare small red envelopes and distribute them to them, giving them smooth sailing and smooth sailing.

"Mom, why do you have time to go up the mountain?"

I picked Xiaoya up and asked as I handed over the red envelope.

My mother took the red envelope and put it in her coat pocket, stared at the mourning shed built on the embankment and said, "Last night I heard the sound of drums coming down from the mountain, and I was worried that I couldn't sleep all night, so I went up the mountain to see whose funeral was being held?" ”

"It's a long story......"

I explained what happened to her, of course, I didn't dare to tell him about Li Guofeng's death, only that he accidentally fell into the reservoir and drowned, and that all the expenses for this funeral were paid by me, and I didn't dare to say this.

Otherwise, if my mother knows, maybe she will quarrel directly with Li Guofeng's parents in the spiritual shed.

"It's pitiful, the white-haired man sends the black-haired man." The old mother sighed, and then said with a calm face: "If you had listened to me, if you didn't guard this mountain, An An would have used the money left by the old man to do business in the town, so many strange things would not have happened......"

When I saw that my mother was about to start chattering again, I couldn't help but have a big head for a while, and interrupted her: "Mom! How can business be so easy to do, besides, Jingmei is in the mountains, I won't go anywhere. ”

At this time, Lao Fei, Yan Xiaoying, and Lin Miao heard the news and walked out to greet my mother.

After chatting for a while, the second master came to us and said, "It's time to start suing the temple, you guys are ready to prepare!" ”

The so-called sue temple is to go to the temple in the village to inform the gods what the name of the deceased person is and when he died. To put it bluntly, it is the check-in procedure, the procedure for moving into the underworld.

Every village has its own temple and deities to be worshipped, but Li Chong's village is quite far from here, and the ceremony is held on Heaven Mountain, so it is impossible for us to carry a spirit flag and a tablet of the deceased to parade down the mountain to the village where they belong.

So according to the pre-plan, we only need to walk around the reservoir, drop off the paper boat halfway, and pray to heaven and earth.

Fortunately, Li Chong didn't tell his relatives, only two of the spirit flags I bought, and a red cloth main flag, a few of us are enough, otherwise if one of his relatives brings a black cloth spirit flag, we really can't find anyone to carry the spirit flag.

Before the flag-raising procession, I asked my mother to take Xiaoya down the mountain, I was very busy for the past two days, and I will go down the mountain to visit them when the time comes.

My mother wanted to speak and stopped, but when she saw that I was really busy, she had to sigh helplessly and lead Xiaoya down the mountain.

Li Chong held his son's god tablet, his wife held a black umbrella for him, I followed behind with a photo of Li Guofeng, Lao Fei held the red cloth main flag behind him, Yan Xiaoying and Lin Miao each had a spirit flag to support.

Although there were more than a dozen murmurs supporting the scene, it still looked quite shabby.

If there are enough people, the funeral is really held in public, the procession is held to the temple, and the people who carry the spirit flag will form a long line, and from a distance, the black canvas will float in the air, accompanied by the drums and cries of the dead, like a ghost procession......