I nodded, and looked at him, this man was about fifty years old, slightly bald, but his body was very clean, and it was worth mentioning that he had a faint smell on his body, which was a bit like the stench of dead bodies. The sense of professionalism tells me that this person should be engaged in the same job as me, the Eight Immortals, otherwise, there would be no such smell on his body.

Discovering this situation, I have some doubts in my heart, according to the custom of our side, if an outsider comes here to do a funeral, it is out of bounds, and the local eight immortals should be particularly disgusted, and even drive us away.

However, the attitude of the middle-aged man in front of him is not very enthusiastic, but he is definitely not cold.

When the man saw that I didn't speak, he said, "My name is Wang Fangmin, I don't know your surname?" ”

After listening to his name, I was stunned for a moment, this person in front of me is actually a generation higher than Wang Chengcai, I will think so, because Wang is a big surname, there are fifteen generations in modern times, namely: Qiao, Duan, Xi, Jia, Qing, Jun, Xiu, Ji, Fang, Cheng, Yi, Yuan, Yu, Yi, Hui.

In some rural areas, after giving birth to a child, the names are arranged according to the generation, the first word is the surname, the second word is the generation, and the third word is taken by the parents, and Wang Cheng belongs to the Cheng generation, the person in front of him is the Fang character generation, and the generation is one generation higher, but the age of the two is about the same, which makes me a little puzzled. (Note: The names of the older generation are arranged according to the generation, and now some parents have left these generations behind in order to make the names of their descendants sound good and have personality.) ）

Remembering that it was now a matter of discussing the lifting of the coffin, I suppressed the doubts in my heart, smiled awkwardly, and said: "Don't have your surname Chen, a single name is a nine, you can call Xiao Jiu." ”

"That's okay, I'll call you Xiao Jiu, this time the dragon coffin is carried by our people, I am the professional weight lifter in our village, that is, the eight immortals you said over there, the rest of those people are all villagers of our wax tree village, they are usually fine, and they will also carry the dragon coffin, do you calculate them first?" That Wang Fangmin said straight to the point.

I smiled slightly, he was testing me, wanting to see if I was qualified for a funeral, I didn't say anything, just roughly calculated the eight characters of the combined birthday, and said: "Dragon and tiger rush together." ”

He nodded with satisfaction and said, "This time to carry the dragon coffin, everything is up to you." ”

I smiled and glanced at it in surprise, this Wang Fangmin is a cheerful person, not dragging his feet at all, presumably his reputation in Wax Tree Village should be good.

Thinking of this, I didn't be polite to him, so I asked them to tie the dragon frame with a dragon rope, because the deceased fell into the water and died, and I asked him to spread a layer of plastic film on the coffin lid, which means that this plastic film shelters the deceased from the wind and rain.

It only took about ten minutes for them to cover the coffin with plastic film, and then tie it to the dragon frame with a dragon rope.

After doing all this, we are ready to go out of the funeral, Qing Xuanzi said before, he walked in front of the leader and led the way to recite the scriptures, so the leader is Qing Xuanzi.

In this way, I found that I had become an idler, there were already eight people carrying the coffin, carrying stools, scattering yellow paper, and other chores, a middle-aged man in Wax Tree Village, and I became an idler.

If I don't work, I will definitely not work, and in desperation, I have to find a pair of gongs and act as the one who strikes the gong.

When everything was ready, Wang Fangmin walked up to me and asked, "Xiao Jiu, the tomb is on a mountain on the left, and it is only less than two hundred meters away from here, should we go directly to the tomb with the dragon coffin, or how to get it?" ”

Hearing him say this, I was stunned for a moment, carrying the coffin to avoid a short circuit, the same sound to break the road, meaning, the deceased will not live long in the next life, will kill himself for a short circuit, to put it bluntly is suicide, this is not a good luck, just say to him: "The road is too close, it will definitely not work, try to take some detours, let the funeral lively." ”

He thought for a while and said, "If you take a detour, you can only walk along the river, and then calculate, there is about 800 meters of the road, which is in line with the normal funeral distance." ”

To tell the truth, every time I mentioned the river, I was a little scared, and I always felt that there was something wrong with the river, so I asked him, "Is there any other way?" ”

He shook his head and said, "No, if you want to take a detour, you can only turn to the cemetery by going to the river, and the other roads, not to mention lifting the dragon coffin, it is difficult to walk even alone." ”

After hearing this, I weighed it in my mind for a while, and finally I could only adopt this opinion, after all, funerals are mainly for the deceased.

After telling the way out of the funeral, I asked the deceased's relatives to kneel behind the coffin, and I stood on the threshold of the hall with a gong and a porcelain jar, and took out my mobile phone to check the time, which was only a minute away from four o'clock.

When the time of the mobile phone jumped to 04:00, I slammed the porcelain jar in my hand at the door of the hall, stretched my voice, and shouted: "There is no wind in the sky, the sun does not rise, the sun is like water flowing fast, I don't realize the front of the line, the mother wants to return to the west to the journey, but call the peace to send relatives, all the neighbors are like gold, not afraid of the cold and hardship of the night, enthusiastically help each other to carry the dragon coffin, all the filial sons thank you sincerely, and the West leads the way with the spirit." ”

After shouting this, I struck the first gong, and the sound of this gong was followed by the sound of firecrackers and the crying of my relatives.

I didn't dare to be careless, I raised my eyes and glanced into the hall, the eight people who carried the coffin shouted in unison, and the coffin was slowly lifted, their faces were relaxed, and the steps under their feet were particularly brisk.

This makes me very puzzled, although the coffin only put some of the deceased's clothes, but, the well-dressed coffin should not be so light, even if the coffin is only 178 pounds, but, as long as you put some things of the deceased into it, plus some funeral ceremonies, the coffin will become heavier, this weight is exceeded, the weight of the coffin itself plus the weight of the clothes, as for why, I can't say clearly.

For a simple example, the weight of the coffin is 178 catties, the weight of the deceased and some items in the coffin is 122 catties, and the weight carried by our eight immortals at the time of the funeral is far more than 300 catties.

In the words of our Eight Immortals, there is a turbidity in the coffin, and when the funeral is released, the turbidity sinks, which will make the coffin extremely heavy. As for how much more weight it will have, it depends on the wishes of the deceased, the filial piety of the descendants, and some external factors.

Of course, these are the internal statements of our Eight Immortals, which are not recognized by the outside world, after all, in the eyes of some people, we are a group of peasants who do not enter the stream, and what we say has no weight, and it is not as good as a letter from those authoritative departments.