In the early days of the Republic of China, a village in Xin'an, Hongdong, Shanxi. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The quick knock on the door of Dangdang Dang sounded on a relatively calm night, and it was this short and hasty knock that broke the silence of the village.

"Who?" said an old, complaining voice.

"Is it Uncle Li? Come out and see, something is wrong. The voice outside the door was a young man's, and the person known as Uncle Li also knew who the person outside the door was by listening to the voice. This person is the Wang family not far from Uncle Li's house, and everyone in the village calls him Wang Si.

The "creak" door was opened, and a man who looked to be in his twenties stood outside the door,

His forehead was covered with sweat. It's late autumn now, and it's about to enter winter, and in the territory of Shanxi, it's still very cold in winter, but he is covered in sweat, obviously running over.

"What's the matter? I'm out of breath, what's wrong?" Uncle Li asked while wearing a Mao suit, his hair was a little gray, and he looked at the young man with his hands around his chest.

Wang Si wiped the sweat from his forehead, took a deep breath and relieved his heartbeat before replying, "Uncle Li! ”

Uncle Li's family lives in the north of the village, and Wang Si lives in a distance of only two or three minutes on foot from Uncle Li.

"What? Wang Si Ma died?" Uncle Li was taken aback, he remembered that he saw Wang Si Ma when he passed through the south of the village when he went to the outer village yesterday, and Wang Si Ma was still talking to him at that time, who knew that he would die tonight.

"Yes, otherwise I wouldn't be so flustered, the big guys are all in the house of the fourth grandmother, and the village chief asked me to call you. Wang Si continued, and when he turned around to leave, he turned back and said, "Come over quickly! I'll go first, I'm busy over there." ”

"Hmm. Uncle Li agreed, and then walked back to his house.

Uncle Li's full name is Li Tianyang, and now he belongs to the head of the Li family, and they are the only ones in the whole village who have the surname Li, and the others are the most surnamed Wang, and then the surname Lu.

When he came to his room, he took out a small box from under his bed, and the small box was covered with dust. Li Tianyang gently wiped the dust off the box with steps, and then carefully opened the box.

Inside the box was a book, a tattered book. The handwriting on it is also very blurry and unclear, but the words on the cover can still be read clearly "Funeral Record".

"Funeral Record" was written by the ancestors of the Li family, of course, the ancestors of the Li family are also the first generation of mourners, and the first funeral in history, which has been handed down from ancient times to modern times, and has been more than 1,000 years.

In ancient times, the mourners were also the most feared and feared people. Because they are mysterious and unknown to outsiders, there are many legends about the mourners. Some say that they can talk to ghosts, and some say that they can enter the underworld to chat with Lord Yama and other rumors.

Li Tianyang looked at the "Funeral Man's Record" in his hand and sighed, gently touched the surface of the book with his hand, and then said, "I, Li Tianyang, am sorry for my ancestors and ancestors." With that, he put the book back in the box, and then went back to bed.

Wang Sima's body has always been very good, although she is over 90 years old, her body is very tough, her eyes are not dazzling and her ears are not deaf. But he left suddenly tonight, which made Li Tianyang puzzled.

Ten minutes later, Li Tianyang came to Wang Sima's house, which was already crowded with many people, some of them standing in the courtyard and talking about how Wang Si Mao was fine during the day, why did she go at night, and some were buying something in the house.

Li Tianyang ignored others and walked directly into the house where Wang Si Ma was, and the others saw Li Tianyang's arrival and made way for him to enter, at this time the village chief Wang Wu came over and dispersed everyone after seeing Li Tianyang, and the house could only get Li Tianyang and Wang Wu, as well as Wang Si Ma, who was lying on the bed and had died.

"When did Wang Si Ma pass away?" Li Tianyang came to Wang Si Ma's side, looked at Wang Si Ma's face and asked Wang Wu behind him.

"I don't know, but we found out half an hour ago. Wang Wu took out his pipe and eye bag, added some tobacco to the pipe, and lit it with a match.

Li Tianyang didn't make a sound when he heard Wang Wu's answer, and looked at Wang Simi's appearance carefully. The expression on Wang Sima's face was a little unnatural, and there were a few small red spots on her forehead, which were corpse spots.

Corpse spots generally do not appear in a short period of time after death, generally speaking, corpse spots do not appear until thirty-six hours after death, and this is also a very hot summer time. And now it's late autumn, and the time of death is only one or two hours at most, how can there be corpse spots? This made Li Tianyang very unbelievable, a little confused.

The Li family has been dealing with the dead since ancient times, and this has never been broken, which is also a craft, something that has been handed down by the ancient generation. As the patriarch of the Li family, of course, he is also the one who inherited the mantle, and he knows these very well.

"Not true. After a long time, Li Tianyang said these two words.

Hearing Li Tianyang's words, the pipe in Wang Wu's hand trembled suddenly, and almost fell to the ground. After holding the pipe, Fang asked Li Tianyang, "What's wrong?

"Corpse spots are wrong. Normally, corpse spots do not appear until a few days after death, and in hot weather, the earliest appearance of corpse spots should be 24 hours. And the time of Wang Si's grandmother's death was less than two hours, how could there be corpse spots, and it was still late autumn. Li Tianyang explained.

"Huh, what does this mean?" asked Wang Wu a little frightened.

"This represents ......"

Before Li Tianyang's words were finished, Wang Xiaobao, the grandson of Wang Sima, ran in from outside the door, and began to cry when he saw his grandmother lying on the bed.

Li Tianyang came to Wang Xiaobao's side, stroked Wang Xiaobao's little head with a trembling hand, and then asked the village chief, "Have you notified Xiaobao's parents?"

"Ah, I know, but they won't be back until two days later, and her daughter will be four days at the earliest. Wang Wu put away his pipe as he spoke, and stopped smoking.

"Hmm. Li Tianyang agreed, squatted down and said to Xiaobao, "Xiaobao, don't cry." Your grandmother just went to another world, where there was no disease, no pain, only joy. ”

Although Li Tianyang is in his forties, he has not married a wife because he is a craftsman, let alone has children. This makes Li Tianyang very fond of children, and of course Wang Xiaobao is no exception.

"Uncle Li, where did grandma go?" asked Li Tianyang with Wang Xiaobao's fleshy little face full of tears.

"That place is called heaven. ”

Wang Xiaobao is only five years old now, and he has heard stories about everything in heaven from his grandmother, and the concept of heaven is a very beautiful place for him, as for where and how to get there, Wang Xiaobao doesn't know.

Li Tianyang has two younger brothers, namely the second brother Li Tianheng and the third brother Li Tianmo. Li Tianyang is the eldest son of the lineage, so only he can inherit the mantle handed down by the family. Li Tianheng has two sons, and Li Tianmo has a son and a daughter.

Li Tianyang wants to find a successor in the future, so the successor can only be his own descendants, not outsiders. Because of the uniqueness of this craft, you can't marry a wife and have children if you want to become a person in this trade. Even if you want to pass on this line, you can't marry a wife and have children, and Li Tianyang's successor can only be Li Qingshu, the eldest son of his younger brother Li Tianheng, but Li Tianyang has hidden selfishness, that is, he doesn't want anyone to take over and let their industry disappear from his generation.

Although it violates the ancestral teachings, the incense of the Li family is also very important. Since ancient times, the Li family has slowly declined, and now in the Republic of China, they are all superstitious and unscientific, and Li Tianyang believes that they will be eliminated by society sooner or later.

After comforting Wang Xiaobao for a while, Li Tianyang walked home alone. As soon as I came to the door of my house, I saw Li Tianheng standing there with a panicked face, and he was pacing back and forth at the door, and when he saw Li Tianyang coming back, he hurriedly ran over.

"Big brother, what's the situation with the fourth grandmother?" Li Tianheng has always been bold, although his personality is very arrogant, but he is very steady and careful in life and work.

"It's not good!" replied Li Tian with a frown.

"What's wrong?" Li Tianheng hurriedly asked.

"Walked into the house and said. Li Tianyang opened the door of his house, let Li Tianheng walk in, and then closed the door.

After the death of their parents, the second and third brothers of Li Tianyang got married, so they both lived in new houses, and the eldest Li Tianyang was alone, so he lived in the old house where he grew up, and did not build a new house or rebuild the house. Outsiders have often said that your house should be rebuilt, but Li Tianyang always said that this house is the house he has lived in for more than 40 years, and he has developed feelings with the house, and if he changes it again, he will not be used to it, etc.

After Li Tianheng came to the room, he sat on the edge of the bed and asked Li Tianyang very nervously, "Big brother, what happened?"

"There were corpse spots on Wang Simi's body. Li Tianyang replied.

"What??" Li Tianheng was a little incredulous when he heard it. Although Li Tianheng has not learned about the funeral, he knows a thing or two about at least his fur. When he heard Li Tianyang say that there were corpse spots on Wang Simi's body, he almost jumped up from the bed.

"Hmm. If I'm not mistaken, Wang Simao died three days ago or even longer. Li Tianyang took the glass of water he had just poured and said to Li Tianheng.