According to him, their family used to be small, although it was not a real big family, at least it was a name for themselves at Tianjin Wei Wharf.

Tianjin Weiben is a land and water wharf, and the residents are mixed in all directions, and their personalities are different. Ran Yan Zhao's hometown, the blood is strong; The water is salty and alkaline, and the wind is strong. In the past 100 years, all the catastrophes in China have borne the brunt, because of the birth of all kinds of strange characters, not only in the upper class, but also in the market.

At that time, living in all walks of life among the people, there were always a few living immortals with all kinds of skills, such as this carved brick Liu, clay man Zhang, kite Wei, machine king, brush Li and so on.

Tianjin people are good at this kind of people's surnames, and they are good at the profession together, called for a long time, but no one knows their name, only this one nickname, called loudly on the dock. The fifth Zhang Tianxiao, his grandfather, used to be such a 'strange man in the world'.

Zhang Tianxiao's grandfather is actually not surnamed Zhang, but surnamed Chai, named Chai Zhouyun.

It is said that when Chai Zhouyun was four or five years old, because his father offended a local big family, he was retaliated against and framed by the big family, and their whole family was the remnant of the White Lotus Sect. At that time, when the Qing government was eradicating the remnants of the White Lotus cult, Chai Zhouyun and his father were framed as the leaders of the remnants, and the whole family was arrested and sent for trial by officers and soldiers on the same day, and the next day they were sent to the streets to be beheaded for public display. Chai Zhouyun was hidden in a rice jar at home at that time, but he has been living on the streets since then, begging for a living.

It was also a coincidence, at that time, there was a white craftsman surnamed Zhang at Tianjin Wharf who saw that he was pitiful and adopted him, this white craftsman surnamed Zhang had no children under his knees, and now he is old so he wants Chai Zhouyun to be his son, and there will be someone to send him to the end in the future. also changed Chai Zhouyun's surname to Zhang, and from then on he was called Zhang Zhouyun.

Many years later, this Zhang Zhou Yun also learned a lot of paper-tying skills from the person who adopted him, and became a paper-binding person.

At that time, there were many people who made a living from funerals, and Zhang Zhouyun tied some paper men and horses at home for the funeral people to make a living. Although there were a lot of people who could tie paper at that time, but in terms of quality and appearance, very few people could compare with Zhou Yunzha, and he also had a nickname after a long time, called Paper Man Zhang.

Zhang Zhouyun is a little ambitious, after he became famous in Tianjin, he wanted to take his adoptive father to live in the capital, but others recognized him in Tianjin, but who knew him at the bottom of the imperial city? I have to start from scratch honestly.

said that a large family in the capital had just turned one year old, and the youngest son was seriously ill and could not be cured for a long time, and finally failed to survive and died.

In the old days, there was such a particular, saying that men who have not yet married must have a secret marriage after death, and they must have a companion after death. Otherwise, his ghost will come out and make trouble and disturb the house. In the old days, people were generally superstitious about the so-called tomb feng shui, believing that the appearance of a lonely tomb would affect the prosperity of the descendants of the family. Some feng shui masters were known as Kanyu in ancient times, and in order to earn a little more money, they also tried their best to encourage this kind of secret marriage.

Secret marriages are mostly found in nobles or wealthy families, and poor families rarely engage in such activities. Because of this, some people started the idea of a female corpse that had just died. Taking advantage of the fact that others are not paying attention to the burial, they secretly dig up the body at night and sell it to the middleman 'ghost matchmaker' in exchange for money.

In the Qing Dynasty, this kind of digging up graves and exhuming corpses flourished for a time, and some outrageous and foolish behaviors appeared. It was rumored that many underage girls in Hebei were abducted and killed as ghost brides because of their secret marriages. In fact, this kind of thing has always happened everywhere, and it was not until after liberation that a very small number of people still believed in the theory of secret marriage.

The surname of the big family who died in the capital is Huang, and the Huang family has opened a pawnshop and antique business for several generations.

The old man of the Huang family was very sad when he lost his grandson, and when he was doing the funeral, he asked for a secret marriage, and the white thing should be done as a popular thing. The current head of the Huang family is the eldest son of Mr. Huang, who read books in the Catholic Church when he was a child, and learned a lot of Westerners' thinking, and he strongly opposes the idea of secret marriage, saying that it is pedantic and ignorant superstitious activities, but Mr. Huang is old, and he doesn't want to upset him, so he has an idea in his heart.

He plans to let the best hand among the paper-making people tie a paper ghost bride for him, and when he is buried, he will be far away so that Old Man Huang can take a look at it and fool him, so that he and the old man can feel at ease.

On the same day, the trustee found Zhang Zhouyun, a good hand among the paper people, and asked him to tie the paper man within two days, and also paid the deposit in advance. Zhang Zhouyun was not ambiguous when he received other people's money, put down the other work in his hand, and concentrated on the paper figure that Master Huang wanted.

If you want to talk about paper people, Zhang Zhouyun also learned a unique trick from the master who adopted him. The paper figures tied by others are all made in advance with a human-shaped bamboo frame, pasted on white paper and painted on the facial features of the clothes, which can be regarded as Qi Huo. But Zhang Zhou used a special technique, the joints of the paper figures that were pierced out could be moved, although the joints could be moved, but they could stand still. The most strange thing is that after burning the paper figure with fire, the paper figure can run in a circle on the spot, which is both magical and terrifying.

People who have seen it say that Zhang Zhouyun has Taoist skills, and the paper figure that was pierced out was burned by the fire and ran in circles. In fact, Zhang Zhouyun used bamboo wire and iron bars to create a kind of tension at the joints, when the outermost layer of bamboo cracks and breaks, the inner metal structure like a winding begins to rotate rhythmically, thus driving the legs of the paper man, running like a living person, but it can only last for a few seconds.

It was also this skill that he learned, and after the death of the master, he began to take over the work alone, and he couldn't be idle every day. After working for many years, seeing that people are almost over 30 years old, they have saved a lot of savings, and they should find a daughter-in-law to live a good life. But what he did was for nothing, it was all related to the dead, and he felt bad luck when he heard it, and no girl was willing to marry him, and he had been a bachelor for so many years.

Because of the urgency of this trip, Zhang Zhouyun tied up the entire frame in only one day, glued white paper, and after eating in the evening, he sat by the candle and traced the facial features of the paper figure.

I was distracted by the painting, and I imagined that there was a little daughter-in-law at home who was cooking for herself, and the little daughter-in-law was very good-looking, and I couldn't help but be a little excited. Thinking of this, I looked back in the direction of the stove, where the light of the candle flame could not be reached, it was pitch black and nothing, and the house was so deserted that I couldn't help but be very depressed, so I turned back and continued to work.

I wanted to take a pen to continue to paint the face of the paper man, but found that the original painting had been completed, and a closer look found that I actually painted the face of the little daughter-in-law in my imagination on the face of the paper man, and I don't know if it feels better today, and the face of the paper man is painted vividly, and the demeanor is natural.

Then make up two big red faces, make hair out of paper and stick them on it. Now I am waiting for the Huang family to send a set of funeral clothes tomorrow, and it is completely possible to make the real thing when you put on the clothes.

This job is considered to be done well, and my heart is still beautiful. Thinking about it, this Huang family is really generous, just the deposit given is enough for me to usually tie ten paper figures, and when people come to get it the day after tomorrow, I guess I can give some more rewards.

Thinking of these, Zhang Zhouyun was in a very happy mood, and brought out the dishes he ate at night from the stove house, and filled himself with a bowl of wine. At first, I drank less and was still happy to make another sum of money for myself, but after three rounds of drinking, I couldn't help but drink a little too much, and the wine I drank became extremely bitter.

Although he has earned some money and fame by relying on his good craftsmanship over the years, because others are taboo that he is doing white things, he has not even married a mother-in-law in the end, and he doesn't know when the life of this kind of bachelor will be the end.

Then he filled himself with a bowl of wine, raised it to his lips and drank it all. Just as he raised his head to drink, the paper figure placed not far away was staring at him as if he was alive by the flickering candlelight.

Zhang Zhouyun couldn't help but put down the wine bowl and shouted to the paper man: "What are you looking at? Even you look down on me as a paper man? Believe it or not, I'll paint you with a big beard on your face? After shouting this, I felt that I had really drunk too much, and I couldn't help but laugh when I talked to a paper man. Then he blew out the candle like a bean and went into the back room to sleep.

Just when he was sleeping like thunder, the paper figure standing in the outhouse was illuminated by the moonlight, and his original natural expression began to change, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly, and his expression was very weird.

Two days later, the Huang family did not come to pick up the paper man, which made Zhang Zhouyun feel very strange, so he wanted to go to the Huang family to ask, could it be that people were too busy and forgot about the future? Before he went out, he carried the paper figure to the yard and put it away.

When I went to Huang's house to find the steward, I found out that the old man Huang, who had been asking for a secret marriage, suddenly changed his mind yesterday and said that he would not do a secret marriage, which saved a lot of unnecessary rituals and troubles, and of course, he forgot to be a paper man to fool the old man to the back of his head.

It wasn't until Zhang Zhouyun came to inquire that the housekeeper remembered this. But I heard that the paper man has been done, and the person in charge still gave Zhang Zhouyun a reward, as for the paper man, let him deal with it himself.

Zhang Zhouyun got the reward, and they don't want the paper people anymore, and then sell the paper people to others after two days, which is equivalent to the Huang family's money earned for nothing, if there is such a thing every day, wouldn't he want to get rich.

Then he went straight to a nearby tavern, drank from morning to night, and woke up drunk. This is also the benefit of bachelors, no one disturbs and there is no worry about playing and drinking outside all night. Finally, I drank until late before leaving the tavern to go home, as soon as I went out, I found that it was raining lightly outside, and then I suddenly remembered that the paper man was still in the courtyard, and hurriedly raised my legs to rush home, thinking that this is over, the paper must be wet, and I have to peel it off and stick it again, but it's a pity that the painting is good.

Hurried back, pushed open the courtyard door and found that the place where the paper figure was originally placed was empty, and the paper figure was gone. Just took a few steps in front of the statue, and suddenly a lightning bolt crossed the sky, illuminating the originally dark surroundings, and Zhang Zhou used the afterglow of his eyes to see a pale person standing next to him.

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