No one knows how many layers of hell there are, some say that it is eighteen, some say that it is eighteen, and some say that this underworld is nineteen layers. In the Taoist texts, it has never been mentioned how many layers this underworld is, because the world of the Tao is yin and yang.

Taoists believe that the yang world is a place where the living stay, and the underworld is a place where the dead stay. The underworld is the opposite of the yang, and what the yang world looks like should be what the underworld should be. In the yang world, there is a yamen who manages the living, there is a convicted master, and there is a quick arrest; So in this Yin Division, there is also a Yama Palace, a judge, and a yin.

In the traditional Taoist world, the underworld is a place where people go after death, just like our world, except that there are no living people there.

There are too many folk sayings, where the eighteen layers of hell come from, no one knows, but there is such a saying. Cha Wenbin is a person who has been to the underworld, and there are not a few people like him who can shuttle between the two worlds of yin and yang, because there are rules of yin in the yin division: dead people or those yin cha cannot have direct contact with the living.

Although the two worlds of yin and yang are unrelated, there are always some lonely souls and wild ghosts who often let the living people in the yang world touch, or those who died unjustly and need to be sent back to the yang world, so there is such a group of people who shuttle between the yin and yang worlds to speak for the people in the yang world.

Taoist priests are one of them, and the Maoshan technique can make the person who practices it have a stick of incense to stay in the underworld. Cha Wenbin had wanted to go to the place in his dream, the lake, and the remnants of the monument more than once. He had tried, without exception, not a failure, and even bribed the underworld who were operating in the underworld, but no one knew where this place was, just like a dream he had created himself.

There is a reason for any dream, and although the human brain can imagine any mountain, river or lake, it is because he has seen similar scenes before. This dream, Cha Wenbin has been doing it for ten years, and the lingering place always comes unexpectedly with him in his dreams, and the heart-rending cry makes him cry every time he wakes up from his dream.

This place is too familiar, every grass and tree in front of him has been seen countless times, and Cha Wenbin's heart began to float.

Is this the place? The remnants of the monument, the lake?

He walked this road countless times in his dreams, walked and walked, and ran like the plot in the dream. It's just that the cry he feared and wanted to hear didn't appear. It's better not to show up, what does it mean to appear, that means that this man will immediately fall on the verge of collapse.

Instead of the lake as in the dream, a "house" appeared.

Mixed with yellow mud and straw, this type of adobe house was common in the pre-liberation countryside. The house is not big, about eight meters of single-bay room, and the roof is not covered with tiles but the most common stone slabs in northwest Zhejiang. The house has a single door, but strangely there are no windows.

The door was left open, and the color of the wood was a little old.

Ten paces away from the room, Cha Wenbin stopped. The room was familiar, and through the door, he could imagine the furniture in it, for it looked the same from the outside as the one in which he had been married.

Cha Wenbin lost his parents when he was very young, and it was his master Ma Zhenren who brought him up.

The Taoist priest is a poor profession, and he can't save a few dollars in his pocket, Ma Zhenren is still good at drinking, and the little incense money he earns for fortune telling fortunes is only enough for him to drink some wine himself.

When he was young, Cha Wenbin, like most people of that era, would also work in the fields to earn work, and everyone was poor in that era. His wife was introduced to him, not far from their village, and in the past, most of the houses in the rural areas of northwestern Zhejiang were adobe houses, and only large families could afford to build brick houses.

During the day, he works in the fields, and at night he has to carry the soil, which is made of loess, which is common in the area. This kind of soil is highly viscous, because it is a mountainous area, the soil is mixed, mixed with small stones. The loess should be stirred into a mud form with water, and then poured in some straw and the like to make tendons, and then use two thick wooden boards to make a mold, pour the stirred loess mud into it, and then use manpower to tamp it to discharge the excess water of the mud.

Most of these houses are built by themselves, which takes a long time, because if you build a wall, you have to wait for the soil below to dry before you can continue to build it, and you have to stop building it on rainy days. In that era, Cha Wenbin could only rely on his own hands, and built his own house with loads of yellow clay in the stars and the moon.

The roof is made of slate, a black stone that is easily layered, about the thickness of an office, with different shapes and stacked on top of each other. There are people in the village who do the work of mining slates, Cha Wenbin couldn't pay the wages at that time, so he opened the slate by himself, and his hands were cut many times, and his memory of this house was too deep.

It was his wedding room, and the word "Xi" was still pasted on the door, which was cut by the village head Dong Niang.

That house was built until they came to the new house, and the house had already been demolished, so why was it here?

He wanted to go in, although there was a voice in his heart that kept reminding him: it was fake.

But he still wanted to go in, it was home, because he heard it.

He heard a woman's voice in the room, a familiar voice, and a boy talking to her.

"When will Daddy come back?" "Your daddy will be here soon."

At this time, a young girl's voice sounded: "Liar! Daddy doesn't want us anymore? ”

"Nizi is good, Daddy is busy, when he is done, he will take Nizi and her brother to the street to buy candy to eat, and buy you new clothes to wear."

With a "plop", Cha Wenbin knelt in front of the room, tears raining down. How could he control it again, he got up and was about to push the door to enter, when a voice behind him sounded again: "Slow! ”

Cha Wenbin turned around, and not far from him, a dirty old man was grinning at himself with a gourd in his hand. He was stunned, isn't this his master Ma Zhenren?

The tears on his face were still there, and he could clearly feel that the corners of his eyes were moist, and he shouted, "Master, is that you?" Is it really you? ”

The old man didn't answer, but beckoned to him and said, "Wen Bin, come here, come to me." ”

This voice, this appearance, this wine jug, that's right, he is Ma Sufeng!

The conversation between the woman and the children in the room continued, and the old man behind him was waving to himself, where to go first?

After hesitating for a moment, he still chose to go to the master, because Ma Zhenren has nurtured him since he was a child, and in his world, half of the old man is the master, and the other half is the father.

As soon as he took a step, he heard the girl's cry from the house, and the cry was so miserable: "Daddy, I'm in pain, come and save my daddy, come and save me!" ”

Cha Wenbin immediately turned around, this is his daughter's cry for help, the voice that has appeared countless times in his dreams!

"Stop!" This is Ma Zhenren's sharp reprimand, "Wen Bin, come here, you just come here, I have something to say to you." ”

Cha Wenbin was anxious: "But master, Nizi is inside, she is asking for help." At this moment, he was only a step away from the half-hidden door, and he could enter with a push of his hand.

"Come here!" Ma Zhenren was a little angry, although he rarely asked about this apprentice, but as long as he spoke, Cha Wenbin had no time not to listen since he was a child. "If you don't come, I'll no longer be your master!"

"Hey!" Cha Wenbin sighed and turned his head, he strode towards Ma Zhenren, and the cry in his ears became louder and louder.

Walking to the old man's side, Cha Wenbin asked urgently, "What's the matter?" ”

The old man called him over and looked at him playfully, then raised his neck and poured a sip of wine, smacked his mouth, and wiped his dirty sleeves and said, "Wen Bin, where did your skills go when I am not there?" ”

Seeing his expression, Cha Wenbin didn't have a good seizure, so he had to reply stubbornly: "When the master was away, the disciple didn't dare to pull down his homework, and he had to do it sooner or later." ”

"Do you remember all the things I taught you?"

Cha Wenbin lowered his head and replied, "The disciple doesn't dare to forget. ”

"Okay, let me ask you, how are the beams on the roof framed?"

"The east side is an inch higher than the west side." Most of China's dwellings choose to sit in the north and face south, and the beams of the house are horizontally placed in the east and west, high in the east and low in the west, symbolizing the sunrise and sunset.

The old man took another sip of wine and said, "Oh, it seems that you haven't forgotten it, so let me ask you again, who lives in a house where the windows can't be opened?" ”

Cha Wenbin's mind turned and he replied: "The house where the dead live does not open the window. ”

"Well, I haven't forgotten this, so why don't you look up at the room in front of you?"

After hearing this, Cha Wenbin was shocked in his heart, took out the compass in his hand and swung it, and then looked up to see that there was really something wrong with the roof of the house!

The roof of this house does not run east-west, but north-south, and this house sits east and faces west! The house of the living will never open its door to the west, which means sunset and is a symbol of death! Looking at it again, this house has no windows except that it is very similar to my own home, and my small home back then had two windows.

Cha Wenbin woke up in an instant, he hurriedly wanted to ask the master what was going on, but when he turned his head, the master behind him had already disappeared without a trace......