Some people say that this thing is innate, and some people say that it is practiced, but at least I didn't know much about fear since I was a child. The road to the old tomb mountain is not very easy to walk, yellow mud, and drills back and forth in the tea groves as high as the tombstones. In addition to the cries of insects, the grave mountain at night is more about the snoring of owls squatting on the boss's chestnut tree.

Cha Wenbin held a basket in one hand and led me with the other, where are the graves, and who are lying inside, I told him one by one, I am too familiar with this land.

At that time, the grandfather had not been buried with the grandmother's grave, and the grandmother's grave was located below, and the grandfather's was above. In front of my grandmother's grave was a row of plum trees, all of which were old trees, and I don't know which dynasty or generation planted them, and those trees were so old that they didn't bear much fruit. Because of these things, during the summer vacation, I would touch this cemetery to pick plums and eat them, although the fruits were small, but they were all big and sweet without exception.

Grandpa's grave was calculated by Cha Wenbin back then, and before it was time to be buried together, he had to lie alone in this loess for seven years before he could be buried with his grandmother, otherwise he would not be able to shelter his descendants. At the junction of a bamboo forest and a tea field is the grandfather's grave, built with a turning head, there is no grave pit, the coffin was only cushioned with bricks at the four corners, and the coffin itself is not clay.

Around the hanging coffin, the exterior is made of bricks, the top is covered with black stone slabs, and the exterior walls are plastered. Not all people can be buried immediately after death, if the time of death does not match the eight characters, you must let the bones off the ground and borrow a few years of false yang life, and wait until the auspicious time and auspicious moment to enter the earth, these things are also Taoist priests will inform the master.

Cha Wenbin is also familiar with this place, when his grandfather was he to arrange the burial, there is a lonely grave a little higher than the grandfather's grave, the thatch is blown by the wind "whirring", this tomb is the drowned young tiger.

His grave was poured with cement, in the shape of a half-moon bag, and the state had not yet required cremation at that time, so his coffin was buried in the ground, because he was a half-grown child, and the family did not invite anyone to do a ritual, so he found a place and buried it according to local customs.

There are no less than twenty or thirty grave buns along the way, and no matter which one of them, there are some remnants of incense, candles, and cannons in front of them, but this one is barren, and no one has come to take care of it.

Cha Wenbin put down his things, taught me to stand aside, and took a straw knife himself, which is the kind of scimitar used to beat pigweed and cut weeds in the countryside.

The moon that night was very round, and the whole tea field was snow-white, and there was no need to light it at all. Cha Wenbin bent down like an old farmer and cut off the weeds on the grave bag piece by piece. After clearing it for a while, the tomb bag completely revealed its original appearance, Cha Wenbin touched the cracked cement and sighed: "Children, don't blame the family for not coming, they are also afraid of seeing sadness." ”

This tiger is drowned, that is, he dies unexpectedly, but whoever dies in this way is the easiest to stay in the world, because he still has too many things to experience, how can he be willing to leave this world?

Cha Wenbin put out all the vegetable bowls again, then lit incense and candles in front of the grave, and then shouted to me: "Xiaoyi, you come here." ”

I knelt in front of the grave as he commanded, and at that time I was far less aware of the act of kneeling than I am now, and my mother used to make me kneel when I made mistakes.

Honestly knelt down, burned paper money, and read the words he taught me: "Huzi, we came to see you, you eat more, drink more, the person you are looking for has asked me to come to see you, if there are any other requirements, just tell me in your dreams, I will meet you." This kind of ritual is called "send" in the mouth of the Taoist priest, which means to repay the wish.

It is usually said that someone is found by someone, it is usually because that person has a certain wish that has not been fulfilled, as long as the wish of the unjust soul is satisfied, he will usually leave on his own. Not all Taoist priests directly kill ghosts with the Great Sword Seal when they see them, more often they are willing to adopt this way of negotiation, killing is never a good thing after all.

When all the paper money I brought was burned, Cha Wenbin patted me on the head and said that I could go home. When he was cleaning up the dishes and chopsticks, I asked a strange question: "Uncle, you said that these bowls are covered with paper ashes and look dirty, how can the tiger eat them?" ”

Cha Wenbin smiled "poof", maybe he was amused by my childish words, maybe he really hadn't relaxed for too long. He didn't answer me, maybe he didn't need to answer it, but I still have the same questions about it.

When the moon was dark, he carried me on his back, and then rode to his neck, and we laughed like my father and his own son.

"Uncle, where is the tadpole in your house, is it still there?" I asked, riding on his neck. I've always wanted to keep that golden tadpole for myself, but it's almost his most precious thing.

Cha Wenbin tilted me on my shoulder and said, "Well, it's still there, you'll go over and watch it when it's over." ”

But later, this little promise was not fulfilled.

That night, Abba was really dreaming.

Huzi came looking for him, the young man dripping with water, and his arms were still stretched upwards when they first came out of the water. He said that his house was constantly leaking and there was water everywhere, which made him uncomfortable.

Abba told Cha Wenbin about this dream, and the next day they went to Huzi's house together.

Huzi's family is in the next village, and he is not in the same production team as us, and his parents are also honest farmers. Abba and Cha Wenbin didn't go around the pass, so they told me about it, which made Huzi's mother cry out for guilt with tears in her eyes. In fact, it's no wonder that Huzi's mother, the two husbands and wives actually want to burn paper on their son, but there is an old lady at home who just refuses. At that time, our village had already begun to have some religious beliefs, and this Huzi's grandmother Dou Da couldn't read a word and joined with a group of people. As for the true meaning of religion, no one knows how much the old lady understands, but she remembers some religious regulations, and the religion she believes in does not advocate burning paper money for incense, so this tiger has never received half a cent for the New Year's holidays.

This kind of conflict over the question of faith in the countryside was not uncommon at the time, and the missionaries had good intentions, but for a group of older rural people with a general education level below primary school, they could understand too little and too little.

In the end, Huzi's father ignored the old mother's objections, and planned to find someone to renovate the tomb, Cha Wenbin suggested that it was best to find a person to open the museum and collect the corpse, he said that Huzi's coffin must be soaked in water, and the child will still be cold underneath. Originally, Huzi's father wanted to ask this Taoist priest to help open the coffin, but Cha Wenbin politely refused, he said that it was not a big deal, as long as he picked an auspicious day of the zodiac, it would be the same for anyone, which was one of the few refusals of Cha Wenbin. Later, I learned that at that time, the situation of Cha Wenbin's youngest son had begun to be not optimistic.

However, Cha Wenbin still gave Huzi's family advice, he suggested that Huzi's father move the grave and move back to their family's ancestral cemetery, he said that Huzi is easy to be lonely when he stays there alone, and he has to let him return to the ancestral grave is the right way.

These words made Huzi's father blame himself a lot, yes, whose child can be alone and floating outside. Sometimes it's not that the loved ones don't want to, it's that the loved ones don't want to think about it.

Huzi's grave was pried open within a few days, and according to the person who opened the coffin, the coffin was indeed full of water, and Abba also went to see the scene that day. He said that when the tiger was fished out of the coffin, it was the same as when he was fished out of the reservoir, and it was still in that position, and the flesh did not rot much, but it had been soaked for too long and was completely out of shape.

After the tiger was buried, Abba also dreamed that he was dry, and he retreated towards Abba while making a gesture until he disappeared. The itching on Abba's body has been getting better since then, and almost overnight all the lumps have disappeared without a trace, and it has never recurred until now.