When I was about to eat dinner, it had been raining heavily all day, and finally stopped, and the cool breeze was very refreshing.

Old man Liu and the others rejected Cadre Wang's plan to open another small stove for them, and only said that the meal was ready, and they just served it to the house.

When it was time to eat, Cadre Wang had to accompany him as usual.

And Cadre Wang saw it very clearly, such a simple meal, but Old Man Liu seemed to have a very appetite for it, which could not be pretended.

The only thing that is strange is that Old Man Liu and they eat very slowly, as if they are deliberately waiting for something.

It wasn't until the people who ate left one after another that Old Man Liu put down the dishes and chopsticks, looked at Cadre Wang and said, "Brother, don't be in a hurry to leave, there are still some things to trouble you!" ”

Cadre Wang struck a clever slap violently, and his head shook like a rattle: "No trouble, no trouble!" The old gentleman just said! ”

What Cadre Wang said came from the bottom of his heart, how much did these people in front of him help him, he knew very well in his heart, where would he be troublesome.

Old man Liu wiped the rain stains in the cigarette pot with the corner of his crumpled clothes, took out the golden tobacco wrapped in oiled paper from his arms, filled it in, and took a few puffs of the firewood that had not yet burned at the bottom of the stove, before he asked in a smoky manner: "Are there any craftsmen near the village?" ”

Cadre Wang was confused and stunned: "Hand...... Craftsman? What does the old gentleman mean? ”

"Craftsmen who can tie paper people and paper horses, you find a few, paste a paper boat out, and fold some gold ingots, remember, the paper of the paste boat must be made of white paper, the whiter the better!"

"Sir, these are all things for the dead......"

Halfway through Cadre Wang's words, he suddenly stopped stiffly, as if he realized something, the hair in his heart for no reason, a layer of sweat oozed from his forehead, and he said clearly: "I'll go find ......."

With that, he went out of the house.

It was about eight o'clock or nine o'clock, and the sky was completely dark, so the Wang cadre came back with a bamboo basket on his back, followed by two people, carrying a paper boat more than five feet long, Bai Sensen's indescribable weirdness.

Old man Liu glanced at it a few times, nodded, and pointed in one direction: "Carry it over!" ”

In that direction, it's the riverside!

The muddy path that had rained was unusually uncomfortable to walk on, and the soles of sticky people's shoes were heavy and slippery.

Cadre Wang played a miserable yellow flashlight, but he still didn't press it: "Old man, even if it's for the dead, aren't they all all bells and whistles, this ...... It's not good-looking, can people be happy? ”

Old man Du put his hands behind his back: "Willing?" Why do you want it to be happy? Hurt people, it's ...... on the other hand"

Cadre Wang was silent, except for wiping the cold sweat on his head over and over again, he really couldn't find the words to say.

At night, if there is no moon on the river, it will be particularly treacherous, and the yellow light of the flashlight will shine on it, and even the color of the water will be the same as yellow pus.

When he arrived here, Old Man Liu motioned to put down the paper boat, folded a few pieces of yellow paper and stuffed them into the commune cadres, and his tone was extremely solemn: "Don't talk when you see anything for a while!" ”

Cadre Wang and the two men who came with him looked at each other, and finally nodded.

Seeing the nervousness of several people, Old Man Liu shook his beard and smiled, and said to himself: "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, this paste paper, red yellow, blue, white and black, red and multi-main fire, yellow multi-mega years, green main wind, white main water, black main epidemic...... Since this thing on the water refuses to show its face, I'll lure it out today, old man, and see what kind of thing it is......"

As he spoke, Old Man Liu took over the bamboo basket behind Cadre Wang and lifted the white cloth on it, which was a gold ingots folded from yellow paper, a bamboo basket full of them.

At that moment, the wind on the river suddenly became stronger.

"Hey, people are greedy for money, ghosts are money-loving ghosts, it's the same when you live and die......"

Old man Liu glanced at it, and took care of himself and put the gold ingots one by one on the white paper boat.

Ye Qing and Song Cheng also came to help, until the base was high, like a pyramid, Old Man Liu raised his hands and gently put the paper boat into the water.

The paper boat, but it was just rickety.

Old man Liu not only found a finger-long piece of white wax out of nowhere, lit it, and welded it on the bow of the paper boat with candle tears: "There is no lantern, the white wax can be used!" ”

Strange to say, the moment the candle was soldered, the paper boat seemed to stabilize plainly.

A green and faint candle flame swayed, struggling in the river breeze, flickering left and right, bright and uncertain.

Old man Liu stood up, looked at the river for a while, opened his mouth as if singing, and the tone was very strange: "Who does paper money and paper money, people can't use ghosts to have fun, the bow candle leads the waylight, and the lonely soul in the stern rolls in the wind......"

The sound of vicissitudes of life is unusually distant on the river at night.

What frightened the cadres of Wang was that with the strange tone that sounded in the mouth of Old Man Liu, the candle on the bow of the paper boat, the green flame seemed to be bent by something, and the fire head skimmed to the front of the paper boat, and then, the white paper boat full of paper ingots moved by itself......

It floated slowly into the middle of the water.

The originally calm river surface suddenly became a little restless.

Old man Liu snorted his cigarette stick, his eyes motionless as he looked at the paper boat wandering and drifting towards the middle of the river.

The restlessness on the surface of the river became more and more intense, so that more than just strange winds from nowhere blew the dead grass and branches along the river, hitting the face and causing pain.

But the river was pitch black, except for the unextinguished candle flame, there was nothing to see, only the sound of the wind, terrible and piercing.

Old man Liu, old man Du, and the old monk didn't speak, and the atmosphere was very stuffy.

"Old man, this paper boat has also been released, shouldn't we go back......?"

Cadre Wang hesitated a little, this kind of hairy feeling in his heart was really unbearable.

"Go back? It's so lively on the river, it's okay to go back, but in the future, you still have to do something! ”

The meaning of what Old Man Liu said was unclear.

Cadre Wang didn't seem to understand when he heard it, stared at it with big eyes and looked around in the dark night, and said with a bitter face: "Oh, the old gentleman is not joking, except for a few of us, there is not even a ghost shadow, how can it be said to be lively......

Speaking of this, Cadre Wang's words stopped, and his mouth and throat were like a ball of cotton.

Because the paper boat on the water suddenly caught fire, and the gold ingots that were built into a pyramid on the paper boat burned very vigorously on the surface of the river, and the same green fire.

The sudden flash of fire slightly dispelled the darkness and illuminated a small patch of water near the paper boat.

And by the light, the scene that Cadre Wang saw made him think of it for the rest of his life, and the backbone of the pole would swish out.

He could see clearly that on the surface of the water where the firelight was illuminated, black shadows surrounded the paper boat, and they densely put their hands into the green and faint firelight, as if they were grabbing something.

It's those gold ingots folded on yellow paper.

Every time the gold ingots were snatched away, a large piece of ash fluttered from the paper boat and fell on the river......

With two pops, the legs of the two people behind Wang Gan were weak, and they fell to the ground, smelling of urine.

"Xiao Song, Ye Qing girl, you two are watching these two folks on the shore, Cadre Wang, I bother you to take a few of our old guys to the middle of the river by boat! Let's see, what is it that can attract a hundred ghosts to gather here......"

Old man Liu inserted the cigarette stick into his waist.

Cadre Wang was a hundred unwilling, but he was a man who could distinguish between interests and disadvantages, and he was also a gentleman, so he gritted his teeth and endured the trembling knee bend, and responded to Old Man Liu's request.