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"Take doing good deeds as the root, and accumulate virtue as the foundation."

This sentence said by Wang Shoudao later became our family's family motto and has been passed down to the present. I hope that after me, it will continue to be passed on.

From that day on, my great-grandfather officially studied art with Wang Shoudao. Let's just use the word "learning art", I really don't know what words are more accurate to use to learn these things.

At the beginning, Wang Shoudao didn't teach my great-grandfather anything, but asked him to watch the incense used for timing every night, and when the hour came, he would go out with him to play a watch.

In ancient times, it was necessary to play five shifts a night, and the first watch, called the beating shift, was about seven o'clock in the evening; The second watch, called the second shift, is about nine o'clock in the evening; The third watch, called the ghost watch, around eleven o'clock in the evening, said that at this hour, the little ghosts in the underworld will run to the yang world to play, and the living people hit the ghosts generally after the third watch, that is, after eleven o'clock in the evening; The fourth watch, called the morning watch, is about one o'clock in the morning; The fifth watch, called the last watch, also called the chicken watch, around three o'clock in the morning, not long after the end of the fight, the chicken should crow, at this time the little ghosts of the underworld go back to the underworld, the people in the yang world, basically should get up.

When Wang Shoudao and my great-grandfather walked one after the other, Wang Shoudao shouted and walked in front, and my great-grandfather knocked on the bang and walked behind, every day.

Although my great-grandfather was young at the time, he did not have the impetuous mentality of young people, he was very steady, the master did not teach him skills, and he was not in a hurry, he did what he asked to do every day.

Until one day three months later, when I was about to beat the shift, that is, when I was going to start the first shift, Wang Shoudao said to my great-grandfather: "Xuanyi, to this day you follow the master for ninety-nine days, as the saying goes, look at the ninety-nine people, and the end of the life is ugly, you follow the master for ninety-nine days, and the master also looks at you for ninety-nine days, I think you are a really good child, the person is real, it is a good heirloom, from today on, the master will pass you a simple formula, and after you memorize the formula, the master will pass you Bele." ”

Xuanyi, it is Wang Shoudao to my great-grandfather to take the word, our ancestors are not any scholarly family, the family can give a decent name is already very good, there are not so many crepe Taoists, but Wang Shoudao can not directly call his apprentice's name, so I gave my great-grandfather such a name.

Since Wang Shoudao and my great-grandfather said that sentence, every night my great-grandfather is left alone to keep vigil, in Wang Shoudao's words, this is to tell him to practice his courage, if he does not practice his courage to catch ghosts, no matter how great his ability is, it will be a useless match.

From that day on, my great-grandfather practiced his courage while reciting mantras such as exorcism, catching ghosts, and summoning spirits. Seriously, my great-grandfather has nothing outstanding except for the truth, he doesn't know a single big character, he learns these things, his qualifications are a little worse, and it took him half a year to memorize all these mantras. My grandmother only used half a month when she memorized the formula, I was a little stupid, and it only took two months, of course, this also has a lot to do with age, my great-grandfather learned relatively late, unlike us, since elementary school, the ability to accept new things is stronger.

Half a year later, Wang Shoudao began to teach my great-grandfather some of the items he actually used, in contemporary fashionable terms, that is, magic weapons, we call them "walking instruments", pronounced hang, not xing.

The general walking tools are, red head rope, peach wedge, grave willow, ink fountain line, etc., these are the most common, but also the most common, and some are not ordinary and uncommon, which will be mentioned later.

As mentioned earlier, my great-grandfather's qualifications were average, and it took my great-grandfather a total of two and a half years to fully master the formulas and these tools.

Three years later, when my great-grandfather was twenty-three years old, it was in this year that my great-grandfather officially learned some substantive things from Wang Shoudao. The so-called substantive things, in fact, are mainly practice, at this time, every time someone comes to the door for help, Wang Shoudao will take my great-grandfather with him, he has never taken him before, but he has dictated some methods of catching ghosts and exorcisms, and has never let him actually operate.

After coming into contact with the substance, it was a little more difficult, my great-grandfather watched from the sidelines, and Wang Shoudao took matters into his own hands, while performing the spell, while teaching with painstaking words, words and deeds. It's easier, my great-grandfather will do it, Wang Shoudao is watching from the side, what's wrong, and he reminds him.

It can be said that my great-grandfather's advantage over me and my grandmother is that there were many evil things in the past, and he has experienced and seen a lot, so it can be said that he has rich experience in actual combat. In my grandmother's generation, it was better, and there were a lot of evil things in the chaos, but in my generation, I didn't see it once over the years, and even if I encountered it, it was just a little fight, what got lost (ghost wall), upper body (bumper), children crying at night (adults go out at night and bring unclean things to the house), of course, I also met a few powerful ones, this, I have to wait until I talk about my own experience.

Let's go back to my great-grandfather's time. In the spring of 1855, that is, in the spring of the fifth year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty, my great-grandfather was twenty-eight years old, and my father died; In the autumn of the following year, in the autumn of 1856, my mother died. At this time, my grandfather's two younger brothers and one younger sister were all married, but my grandfather was still single and still learning art with Wang Shoudao.

In 1859, that is, the ninth year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty, the year of Yiwei, my great-grandfather was thirty-two years old, and officially became a teacher. It can be said that he has been studying art for a bit too long.

It was in this year that my great-grandfather learned the true age of his master Wang Shoudao, and it turned out that Wang Shoudao was just 100 years old this year.

Writing here, some friends may raise objections, the previous Dong Youcai was only in his fifties, and twelve years later he is only in his sixties, and it seems a bit unreasonable to call a hundred-year-old old man's cousin. This, it can only be said that Wang Shoudao is young, Dong Youcai is big, especially this kind of distant cousin, sometimes the generations are chaotic, uncles and nephews are common, but this kind of distant cousin.

As mentioned earlier, doing our business is to accumulate yin virtue for ourselves, the most obvious point is longevity, our family has a long life span for several generations, and the least life expectancy is also 85 years old, Wang Shoudao is not uncommon to live a hundred years old, plus he is a child, and he has always kept the true yuan in the body, longevity is certain.

Although Wang Shoudao has been a bachelor all his life, he doesn't want his apprentices to follow him to fight singles. My great-grandfather is thirty-two years old, Wang Shoudao is anxious for him, he has no children and no daughters, so he thinks that his apprentice can have a child to hug him.

My great-grandfather was also gone at this time, and the family was divided, so he completely followed Wang Shoudao, and took over all the matters of Wang Shoudao. My great-grandfather has regarded Wang Shoudao as his own father and mother at this time, Wang Shoudao treats him like a son, every time he finishes his errands, my great-grandfather will bring some wine and food back, and the two of them eat and drink happily in the hut, and the life is also leisurely.

However, every time Wang Shoudao mentioned the matter of asking my great-grandfather to ask for a daughter-in-law, my great-grandfather frowned, in his own words, my two younger brothers have children, my Liu family has a queen, I don't get married, as long as I follow the master.

Every time Wang Shoudao heard him say this, he inevitably beat him down. But like my great-grandfather's age, it was not easy to ask for a daughter-in-law at that time, when the girl went out at the age of sixteen or seventeen, eighteen years old is an old girl, it is difficult to find a twenty-year-old Huanghua girl, and the conditions are too poor, or a widow who has been married, Wang Shoudao still can't look down on it, for fear of wronging his apprentice, I want to find a decent Huanghua girl, people don't look down on him, mainly because he is too old, and my great-grandfather is not like those big families who are rich and powerful, and can get three bedrooms and four rooms.

Every time I hear my grandmother talk about this, I am anxious for my great-grandfather, I will say, I will not go to the mountains to buy one, my grandmother will stretch her face, severely discipline me, buy a daughter-in-law and damage the yin morality, the men in our family are singles, after the Liu family is extinct, they can't do that kind of thing!

Six years later, that is, in 1865, the fourth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, the year of Yichou. This year, my great-grandfather was thirty-eight years old, and Wang Shoudao was one hundred and six years old, and at this time, Wang Shoudao's health was declining day by day, and he had basically reached the point of running out of oil and lamps, but he had not forgotten to let my great-grandfather ask for a daughter-in-law, and said that he would hug his grandson before closing his eyes.

In the summer of the same year, one day, my great-grandfather had just come home from the fifth watch and was about to eat something to sleep, when he heard a knock on the door outside.

My grandfather opened the door and saw that there were two people standing outside the door, one in front of the other, and in front of me my grandfather knew an old man in the village of Sanwangzhuang. The one behind the old man, looking at the eyes, did not look like a local, and was dressed in a silk robe, dressed as a scholar, and his age was about forty-three or fourteen years old.

At that time, the people who wore long shirts all had status, and this middle-aged man dressed as a scholar knew that he was good at a glance, and in today's words, at least he was an intellectual with status. Mr. Lu Xun's work "Kong Yiji" clearly states that it is divided into the short-shirt gang (representing poverty) and the long-shirt gang (representing wealth), which can be seen.

Since the middle-aged man was brought by the old man in the village and knocked on the door, it means that he has something to ask their master and apprentice for help.

Grandfather Gao hurriedly invited the two into the house, at this time Wang Shoudao was still sleeping in the back room, his body was not good, he slept a lot, and he always couldn't wake up.

My great-grandfather didn't wake him up, and received the old man and the middle-aged man alone.

The accident happened to the youngest daughter of the middle-aged man, who didn't talk much, and almost all of them complained on behalf of the old man in the same village.

When the old man finished speaking, my great-grandfather frowned