"According to you, this Hongjia Town is only 40 years old? ”

"Yes, this Hongjia Town was originally an unknown small mountain village, Guangxu 25 years, the rise of the Boxers, at first they played the slogan of "Fu Qing to destroy the foreigners", killed foreigners and burned foreign temples, and later the Eight-Nation Coalition used this as an excuse to invade China, signed many unequal treaties, the imperial court was angry with the Boxers, and ordered a comprehensive encirclement and suppression, and the whole country was in chaos.

Among them, Guangzhou is the most, Guangzhou since Kangxi founded the 13 lines in the 24th year, specializing in trade with foreigners, deeply infected by Western culture for many years, from the West life application things can be seen everywhere, it can be said that every family has it.

And after the Boxer Rebellion raised troops, although they shouted the slogan of "extinguishing the foreigners", they were actually like robbers, as long as they found that there were foreign things hidden in the house, even if they were smashed and robbed by foreign fires and waxes, they hurt countless people, and the imperial court was also embattled and tired of coping with it at that time, and finally simply let it go.

Later, I finally looked forward to the imperial court's encirclement and suppression of the Boxers, but who knew that it was even worse, the Boxers had to be arrested, and the people of the Yamen couldn't beat them and couldn't catch them, so they took the people to offset the number, and for a time there were unjust cases, and the people were not able to make a living.

In the end, I really couldn't get through, at that time, the men, women and children of Datian Village begged my master to take them to escape from the land of right and wrong, my master saw the suffering of the world, and led the whole village to go away from home in desperation, all the way to the north at the beginning of the period, who knew that at that time, the northern Eight-Nation Alliance, the imperial court and the Boxer Rebellion were in a three-way melee, and the fight was inextricable, especially the Eight-Nation Alliance, where they went, they were plundered and mourned, and finally turned to the country of abundance.

Although Sichuan is big, how can the world be in chaos, all villages dare not tolerate outsiders, the original more than 200 people, along the way died of illness, scattered and scattered, only half of the people remained.

By chance, my master found this place called Hongjia Village, at that time there were only dozens of families here, all surnamed Hong, the villagers went to the mountains to collect medicine, hunting for a living, my master found that the wind here is level, suitable for living, and after consultation with the head of the Hong family, he settled here and changed its name to Hongjia Town. ”

I asked curiously, "Who is your master?" Why does he have to rely on him alone for the major relocation of the whole village? ”

"My master at the age of 6 into Guangdong Luofu Mountain Maoshan Sect Qing Yiguan Cultivation, 40 years old by the master ordered to go down the mountain edge and cultivate, 99 years old when the immortal ascended, 93 years of cultivation, gossip arrangement, talisman spells are all fine, the Tao number is a real person, and he is proficient in medical skills, "Elbow Reserve Emergency Prescription" and other Taoist medical books are also well memorized, reciting like a stream, after going down the mountain has been settled in Datian Village, the villagers usually look for him to seek medical advice, preside over the red and white things are not a penny, so it is deeply supported by the people, and proficient in feng shui, That's why I begged him to lead the way. ”

The second master and I listened to the commentary, stared at the big eyes and nodded, picked up the wine bowl to thank Uncle Jiu for saving his life and taking him in, and Uncle Jiu asked: "I've been patronizing gossip, and I don't know what the two chiefs are called?" ”

After we introduced them one by one, I asked him, "You are really clever, you can see at a glance that we are soldiers, I remember you have seen his palm, is it really this palm print?" ”

Uncle Nine laughed and said: "What I see is not a palm print, it is a cocoon, ordinary workers usually have a cocoon in the palm of their hand, and this Cui Dali is not only in the palm, but also in the index finger. ”

I was stunned for a moment, the second master made a shooting motion at me, I still didn't believe that the ninth uncle could judge that we were soldiers with just a few calluses, and asked a little unconvinced: "Bandits and hunters often touch guns?" ”

Uncle Nine looked at me with a stubborn look, shook his head with a smile and said, "Whether it is bandits or hunters, although they have guns, they have very little ammunition, and they usually will not shoot easily unless they have to do so or nine times out of ten, and those who are soldiers are completely different." ”

The second master chewed the sauce beef in his mouth, glanced at the deflated me with disdain, and said to Uncle Nine: "If it weren't for Uncle Nine to rescue you today, our brothers would have been sent to Huangquan Road by the one named Ah Wei, what kind of thing is that Ah Wei?" ”

Uncle Nine sighed, put down the wine bowl he had just picked up and said: "Ah Wei is actually a poor man, he is the last male of the Hong family, this Hong family somehow, women can not give birth, my master once suspected that it is related to a kind of dehumidification soup they often drink, this dehumidification soup is added with Sichuan Wu and cinnabar, this place is deep in the hinterland of the mountains, hot and humid all year round, Sichuan Wu has the effect of dispelling wind and dehumidification, cinnabar can clear the heart and calm the shock, calm the nerves and eyes, but these two flavors of medicine contain great poison, after years of use, it is easy to cause women to not be able to give birth.

Ah Wei is the last male of the Hong family, not long after he was born, his parents both died, when he was born, my master said that he was the reincarnation of the lonely star, and he first defeated his parents and then his wife and children in his life, and finally died alone.

For this reason, no one dared to take him in, and finally in order to repay the Hong family for taking us in here for their great kindness, my master adopted him, this kid was born stubborn, stealing chickens and dogs every day, causing trouble, after adulthood, the town elected him as the security captain, on the surface to let him protect the territory and the people, but in fact, he hoped that he would be bound by the law, of course, there are also reasons to repay the Hong family. ”

As soon as we heard that Ah Wei was raised by him, we were immediately a little embarrassed, so we quickly covered our faces with wine, and saluted him with a bowl. ”

Uncle Nine got up and said: "Come with me" went straight to the middle room, the two of us followed, entered the house and lit the oil lamp, the room suddenly brightened, only to see a large offering table under the east wall, on which many spirit cards were stacked on top of each other, incense burners on the table, offerings were readily available, opposite the spirit cards, there was a black coffin parked in the middle of the room.

The name of the deceased is engraved on the spirit plate, all of which start with the word Hong, and the ninth uncle said: "These are all members of the Hong family, and they are enshrined here after their death, and they are worshiped with incense to thank them for saving their lives." After speaking, he turned to look at the coffin on the ground and said, "This is Zhao Xiaowu's corpse, by the way, Xiaofeng, help me latch the door first." ”

I answered the call to the gate, holding on to the door and looking out, it was pitch black outside, in the darkness, bursts of white fog like ghosts appeared and disappeared from time to time, I don't know what was moving, flickering east and west, flickering far and near.

The cold and damp mist hit the body, people can't help but shiver, I quickly closed the door, took the latch, and found that there was something engraved on the latch, although I couldn't see clearly, but I could touch it, I felt very interesting, I ran back to the house quickly on the door, and at night, this Yizhuang was obviously a lot more gloomy.

When Uncle Nine saw me come in, he ordered, "You two open the coffin." ”

The two of us glanced at each other, stepped forward and pushed the coffin lid hard, who would have thought that the coffin material was really not good, it was too light, just used the strength, the coffin lid flew out directly, and fell to the ground with a "bang", we looked at Uncle Nine with our tongues out in embarrassment, he frowned and squinted with a complaining face, and walked to the coffin with a lamp.

This Zhao Xiaowu looked like he was about eleven or twelve years old, and the second master asked Uncle Jiu with a puzzled face: "Is this a boy or a girl?" Why do I look like a brat? ”

Indeed, I also thought it was very strange that this child's face was a little boy no matter how he looked, but he was dressed in a girl's dress with a red background, and his face was also depicted, which was very strange, and his hands and feet were tied with thick hemp rope, which looked very strong.

What's even more puzzling is that Zhao Xiaowu can't see any blood from head to toe, so I guess that nine times out of ten he was strangled or suffocated.

I told Uncle Nine about my thoughts, Uncle Nine nodded without saying a word, and reached out to pull down the collar of the broken red clothes, revealing Zhao Xiaowu's white and tender neck: "If it is strangled, it will definitely leave traces on the neck, but there is no here, secondly, if it is strangled or suffocated, the dead body should be like a drowned person, with blue lips and red eyes, but none of these." ”

The second master circled around the coffin for half a circle, and after listening to us, he suddenly patted his head and said: "I originally heard the old man tell a story, it is about ancient times, there is a family, the husband is doing business outside all the year round, and the daughter-in-law is lonely at home, so he hooked up with a poor carpenter who came to work at home, these two people wanted to elope, but they had no house and no money, and then they planned to wait for her husband to come back, kill her husband and take money."

On this day, his husband came home from outside, and the two of them killed him while he was asleep, and the strange thing is that after these two people killed people, they neither hid their bodies nor ran away, but posted an obituary the next day, set up a mourning hall, and notified relatives and friends, after relatives and friends heard the news, they were all surprised, saying that they were still spirited and spiritual for a while, why did they go home the day before and die the next day? Hurriedly ran to see it.

The woman only said that her husband had contracted the disease and died violently after returning home, and that she was afraid that the infection would spread, so she could not stop for three days, and was in a hurry to mourn immediately.

Everyone felt that something was wrong, but no one dared to look at it, for fear that if it was true, they would get sick again. At this time, a person came in, a butcher, who had received the favor of the deceased in times of danger, and was very grateful, and when he saw this matter today, he also felt strange in his heart, so he simply went straight to the inner room of the morgue behind the mourning hall to find out.

The butcher was even more convinced that there was a ghost in it, so he broke into the room regardless of the obstruction, and examined the dead body from head to toe, but the result was no scars at all, and the woman saw the situation and did not let go, and sued him directly to the yamen, the old man heard what the butcher said, and felt strange in his heart, but there was no evidence, so he had to beat the butcher with twenty boards, but at the same time warned the woman that according to human ethics, the dead in the family should be suspended for at least three days, and they must not disobey without authorization.

That night, the dead husband told the eldest lord that he had died unjustly, begging him to call the shots, the eldest husband asked the cause of death for a long time, the husband just blindly cried, ignoring the questioning, the eldest lord woke up for a while, and thought about it all night.

The next day, the eldest lord went to the deceased's house to mourn, during the banquet, according to the instructions of the eldest lord, secretly sneaked into the inner room, checked the ears of the deceased, and sure enough, an inch-long iron nail was found deep in the ears of the dead body.

It turned out that on the night when her husband came back, the woman first drunk him, and after she was asleep, she opened the back door, put the carpenter in, nailed an iron nail in his ear, and then used another iron nail against the tail of the front one to completely smash it into the depths of the ear, and slowly wiped away the blood stains that flowed out in the night, and outsiders couldn't see it anyway, so I wonder if there are nails in Zhao Xiaowu's ears or something? ”

Uncle Nine nodded and said: "In that case, it will be troublesome, there are more places where people can hide nails than ears, we have to look carefully, and there is a very strange thing, this Zhao Xiaowu has no soul." ”