It's late autumn, and the already lifeless village is becoming more and more lonely.

The village is located in a ravine in the western part of Hunan Province, and the inconvenient transportation means that few outsiders have set foot in it, and in recent years, the young people in the village have left to work or move to the town.

In dozens of villages, only a dozen elderly people who really can't walk are left.

At this moment, there are a few old people sitting on the barn basking in the sun that is about to go down, smoking homemade cigarettes, and talking about some homely things.

"Today I saw the little doll of the old man's house at the east entrance of the village come back."

"I saw it too. The doll is also in her twenties, and her body is still as thin as when she was a child, and she is afraid that she will not be able to do farm work. ”

"Hey, what kind of farm work are you doing? Since the son of the old man Qi's family ran away from home, he moved to the town with this little grandson, and it has been more than ten years now. According to my boy, they have a funeral shop in the town, and they occasionally take on some Dharma dojo work, and they are better than us anyway. ”

"I didn't see Old Man Qi come back today, and I don't know how he is. Speaking of which, he is also a person with real skills, and I am still thinking about asking him to come and give me the bridge after I go. ”

"Yes, back then, whoever encountered a small disaster or illness in the village went to him to ask for advice. Don't say it, although his talisman water is undrinkable, it is really useful. ”

"It's a pity that since his daughter-in-law died in childbirth, he has only done yin things in the dojo regardless of the disease. In this way, his son still had trouble with him every day, and then he simply ran away. ”

"Alas, every family has a scripture that is difficult to read."

……

Just when the old men in the village were reminiscing about the past and lamenting their lives, a yin ritual was being done in the old house of the Qi family.

In the middle of the house, there are a few wooden cases, each with flags on the side of the case, and the shrine, offerings, expressions, incense burners and a blue and white porcelain altar are placed on the table in a regular manner.

Qi Zihuan stood in front of the desk with a solemn face, wearing a crown on his head, wearing a French uniform, wearing boots on his feet, and holding a whisk in his hand.

With the dust in his hand, he stepped on the step, and read aloud in his mouth: "Go to Jinqiao, Le Pingkang, step by step, don't panic." Yin and Yang don't want to see each other, holding the spirit card in tears. There is a land lord at the head of the bridge, with white hair and a happy face. Lead the undead to pray, and cross the bridge without fear. Lead the undead across the south of the bridge and listen to the murmuring of the water under the bridge. Worship Tianzun waves, and walk like boarding a human ship. The soul of the dead turned from south to west, and the ladder to heaven appeared. If the Holy Truth is compassionate, why not forgive sin......"

In fact, Qi Zihuan didn't believe in this.

Even though he didn't continue his education after graduating from high school, he still believed that man was transformed from a monkey and that death was nothing more than the cessation of bodily functions caused by illness or other accidents.

What kind of Zhai Jiao ritual, what kind of Fu Danding, is just a kind of psychological sustenance.

To put it bluntly, it's all a trick to deceive people and cheat money.

Qi Zihuan is quite good at this kind of trick, because he still points to this trick to eat. Since he was a child, he followed his grandfather everywhere to do yin affairs dojos, at first he could only move the table to arrange chores, but when he grew up, he gradually learned some routines, and he could wear a legal uniform to undertake some ritual procedures.

Later, the town began to enforce civilized funerals, not allowing private sheds on the streets, all the processes were handled by the funeral parlor one-stop, and there were fewer and fewer people asking the mage to do the dojo, and the grandfather and grandson opened a small shop of funeral supplies near the town hospital.

Although it has become rusty in recent years because of its limited use, Qi Zihuan still meticulously completes every link such as playing, opening, dying, and giving the disc.

Because the blue and white porcelain altar on the case contains the ashes of the grandfather.

Qi Zihuan has had no mother since he was a child, and when he grew up and almost began to remember, his father left home one day and never came back, and it was his grandfather who pulled him up with a handful of and urine.

He still remembers the bedtime stories about demons and monsters that his grandfather told him every night in his bedside in this old house in the mountains, and the creaking sound of the broken bicycle that his grandfather picked him up and dropped him off every day after moving to the city.

Half a year ago, when the grandfather, who has always been healthy, introduced the new paper iphone 6 plus to the guests, he suddenly fell to the ground holding his stomach and was diagnosed with advanced stomach cancer after being sent to the hospital.

After half a year of painful treatment, grandpa probably knew that he had reached the end of his life, called Qi Zihuan to the bed, and explained in detail: "Little Zihuan, grandpa has no relatives except you, and my friend is an old yellow man who often plays chess, and he also left first last year." I'm alone, don't do anything for me, let's listen to the government, if you die, you will be cremated directly, and the ashes will be buried under the locust tree in the courtyard of the old house in the mountains, just under the tree due west. I remember that the locust tree was planted by your father when he was a child. ”

Grandpa, I listen to you, if you don't do anything after that, only Xiao Zihuan will make a dojo for you and see you off. Qi Zihuan said to his grandfather in his heart.

……

By the time Qi Zihuan sent the gods to withdraw from the altar and completed the whole process, it was already 6 o'clock in the morning the next day, and the roosters outside the window began to crow one after another, and the sky was cloudy and white.

Qi Zihuan walked out of the old house in a trance, and splashed a scoop of well water on his face from the well at the entrance of the village, and the cold and piercing feeling made him sober up a lot.

Then he returned home, pulled out a rusty shovel from the pile of debris covered with cobwebs, came to the locust tree in the courtyard, distinguished the lower position, and began to dig a pit.

As soon as he dug down a finger's height, Qi Zihuan felt that the shovel had touched something, and when he dug it carefully, he found that it was a wooden box with iron edging, and a rusty iron lock hung on it.

Qi Zihuan then woke up to why his grandfather specially designated to bury the ashes directly west under the locust tree, not because of the good feng shui here, but because he wanted to leave this box to his grandson.

But at this time, he didn't have time to open the box, just put the box aside. Then go back to the house, carefully hold the urn of the ashes, put it in the soil pit, and kneel aside without a shovel and slowly fill in the soil with both hands.

According to the grandfather's meaning, he did not make a round grave bag after filling it up, but just found some stones to build a triangular grave, and there was no tombstone inscription, nor incense candles and wreaths, so he simply buried the life of an old man under the locust tree.

After doing this, Qi Zihuan knelt down and knocked three times, took out a bottle of Lao Baigan and two wine glasses that had been prepared, and sat in front of the grave like this, drinking a glass by himself, and pouring a cup for his grandfather to drink, while drinking, he shed tears.

Sorrow is the most intoxicating. After drinking a bottle of wine, Qi Zihuan could no longer bear the alcohol and the fatigue of the past few days, and with tears and dirt stains on his face, he directly lay on the ground and got drunk.

The sun rises in the east, and a new day has arrived.