Seven days after death are the first seven, fourteen days are twenty-seven, twenty-one days are thirty-seven, and so on forty-ninth day is the last seven. According to superstition. Before the first seven to the last seven, the soul of a person will go home to see his relatives, so this is also called soul return.

Meng Bangyan, the old man of Meng, died on the seventh day of the forty-ninth day, the sky was cloudy, but the sunny day was no different from the evening. According to the big arrangement, the family is rolling paper money at home.

The south burns paper for private individuals, mostly burning paper ingots, that is, using square horse dung paper, pasting a piece of golden tin foil in the middle, and the two corners are rolled up and then nested at two ends, which resembles ingots. The so-called paper money in the south is also the dark paper, which is a blank yellow paper or white paper as narrow and long as the spirit rune.

The northerners are different, especially the people of Tianjin, who pay attention to using confinement on horse dung paper to smash out the shape of copper coins. Burning paper money also has to be rolled into a hollow tube shape one by one, and the two ends are firmly grasped to fix the shape, in fact, it is mainly for good burning.

A stack of horse dung paper, after smashing the copper coin, is all stacked together. In the past, burning paper was a big bag, and it was too hard to roll it one by one, and the whole stack was not good, and it could not be burned even if it was lit.

When burning, you have to use fire chopsticks or find a stick, draw a circle on the ground, put the rolled paper money in the circle, and burn a few outside the circle, which means to the outside ghosts, as the name suggests, is to the lonely souls and wild ghosts who pass around and have no owner.

There is a little paper money in the circle, because the combustion leads to the rise of hot air, and the vacuum generated by the combustion in the middle, the surrounding air is inward, so a small cyclone is formed, so when burning paper, it always feels like a yin wind rolling the burning paper money.

Some of the family members who burned the paper also said that it was the ancestors of the family who came to get the money. Looking at the little whirlwind wrapped around the paper fire, it was said that the ancestors who took the money were holding the money tightly, but in fact, it was just self-deception.

The Meng family has money, but the paper money is filial piety to children, so the subordinates can only help, not replace. At this time, it was already April and May, and the whole family was rolling paper money in the yard. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew, and the freshly rolled paper money was blown all over the yard by the wind. When I looked up, it turned out that the courtyard door was opened, and the gloomy wind was blowing in from outside the courtyard.

I was going to roll up the paper money and take it outside to burn, so the gate of the yard was not closed, but it was hidden, and at this time the door opened, and a child walked in from outside the courtyard.

The boy looked like he was only five or six years old, neatly dressed, and combed his back at a young age. The strangest thing is that the child's right foot seems to be a little sluggish, and the action of walking into the yard is familiar.

Meng Huaiyi thought that a child had lost his way and broke into the courtyard by mistake. But after thinking about it, I felt strange that in order to be clean, Old Man Meng built a house near the suburbs.

There are few people living in this vicinity, and there is still a long distance from the nearest Balitai and the Li family's house, and on the edge of the British Concession, the British mansion "Red Fort" was also burned into a white ground because of a fire last year.

Looking at the child's dress, it doesn't look like a wandering person called Hanako.

After Meng Huaili's first husband died, she had been married to her second husband Ni Zhongkun for several years, and she didn't give birth to a son and a half daughter, and she liked children very much.

"Oops! Whose big fat boy is this, baby, is it lost and can't find a home? ”

As he spoke, he wanted to reach out and hug the boy.

But the child stepped back slightly, and then Meng Huaili suddenly heard a voice say:

"Xiaoqiu, what are you doing? So why don't you have a steady position yet! ”

This voice is old, with a bit of Hebei accent, it actually came from the mouth of the immature child in front of him, and the strangest thing is that he called Meng Huaili Xiaoqiu.

Meng Huaili was born in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and the seventh month is also called "Qiaoyue" or "Meng Qiu", etc., and their family name is Meng, so Meng Bangyan gave Meng Huaili the nickname "Xiaoqiu". This nickname is only called by his father Meng Bangyan in the family.

As soon as Meng Huaili heard the child call him Xiaoqiu, he was stunned for a moment, and sat on the ground with his buttocks, no matter how the tone and demeanor of the child in front of him was, it was exactly the same as his father Meng Bangyan.

She couldn't help but feel a flutter in her heart, her father Meng Bangyan had loved herself since she was a child, saying that she looked most like her mother Zhang, and the warm picture of playing with her father when she was a child suddenly appeared in front of her, tears instantly burst out of her eyes, blurted out, and shouted:

"Dad"!

But as soon as this word came out, I regretted it, and said in my heart, whether I was crazy or stupid, how could I call such a five- or six-year-old child in front of me Dad! But when he raised his eyes and looked at the child in front of him, the child stretched out his hand to support him, and his heart was shocked, and he hurriedly shrank his shoulders and moved back half an inch.

At this time, Meng Huaiyi saw his sister suddenly sitting on the ground, and called his father, he felt strange, so he stepped forward to help Meng Huaili up, and then asked:

"Why are you still sitting on the ground, whose kid is this?"

When Meng Huaili called his dad just now, his voice was not loud, so the people in the courtyard only saw him sitting on the ground.

At this time, Meng Huairen's son, Meng Zichao, looked at the child at the gate from a distance, squinted at the second brother-in-law Ni Zhongkun, and then looked at the child, and said lightly:

"Hey! There is no one at this door, whose child is this, why is the second aunt so scared that she fell on her ass? ”

As soon as Ni Zhongkun heard this, he also raised his eyes to look at the child, and then walked over quickly, helping his daughter-in-law with Meng Huaiyi.

Although Meng Huaili knew that it was impossible, how did the child in front of him look and feel very similar to his father, so he whispered to the eldest sister Meng Huaiyi:

"You see, this kid doesn't look like a ...... It's not like our dad......"

Meng Huaiyi said:

"You're stupid, how old is our dad, how old is this child, let's talk ......"

Meng Huaiyi thought that Meng Huaili said that the child looked like his father, but the implication was that the child was his father's illegitimate child, so he said how old is his father, and this child is so young, can he give birth?

But Meng Huaili understood it wrongly, thinking that she meant that this child was so young, how could it be his father Meng Bangyan.

Busy Road:

"This kid just called me Xiaoqiu! This nickname is only known to our family......"

Ni Zhongkun said:

"You also have a nickname named Xiaoqiu, hey! How did I not know? ”

"You're less poor, I'm serious!"

Meng Huaili glanced at his master.

Meng Huaiyi squatted down and asked:

"Kid? Where is your home, where are your parents? ”

But the boy straightened his face and said:

"Huaiyi!"

Hearing this Huaiyi, Meng Huaiyi trembled, not to mention why the child in front of him knew his name, just the child's expression when he called himself was exactly the same as his father.

This kid glanced at Ni Zhongkun on the side, Ni Zhongkun is also a spirit, this look is the same as when Old Man Meng looked at himself when he was alive, but in front of him he was clearly only a five or six-year-old child.

Then the boy said to the three again:

"Let your brother, your brother, and them collect all the paper money, even if they really die, they won't be able to collect this pile of paper ashes, not to mention that I'm back, what else to burn!"

The child's voice was old, and although the speed of speech was not fast, the words were sonorous, and there was a firm authority in his voice, as if the head of the family was speaking.

At this moment, Meng Huaiyi, Meng Huaili, and even Ni Zhongkun were acting on the spot, and they didn't know what to say.

Meng Huairen, who was still collecting paper money in the yard, saw Meng Huaiyi and the three of them standing in front of the child and were stunned, and were about to walk over to see the situation, but saw that the child separated Meng Huaiyi and the three of them, walked towards this side, and said in an old voice as they walked:

"I've said it a long time ago, I don't have to do anything in vain when I die, these are all for outsiders to see, it's useless, let's withdraw it quickly!"

Meng Huaixin, the youngest of the brothers and sisters, saw that there was a child pointing fingers at him, and he was a little annoyed, walked over and stretched out his hand to pull the child, and shouted:

"Who are you an unlucky child, how did you come here to be a senior! Beat you believe it or not! ”

He was about to scare the child, but the child stretched out his hand, and then frowned and shouted:

"You kid who lacks virtue, no big or small! The money given to you in the first two months, you said that you are engaged in research on proprietary Chinese medicine, is the money enough? ”

Meng Huaixin was also stupid when he was asked like this, the muddy and stuffy energy just now was gone, and he just replied casually:

“…… Enough! ”

Immediately after that, he reacted and shouted:

"You...... You...... Where are you? You kid......"

Meng Huaixin was originally an atheist, he never believed in any ghosts, ghosts, gods and gods, and the old man Meng's white affairs, burning paper or something, or several brothers and sisters were there, he didn't want to get involved at all.

He asked Mr. Meng for money, saying that he wanted high school medicine, which was two months ago, but at that time, there were only two people in the room, and it was impossible for others to know. And the tone and demeanor of this child's speech, although stern, carried a kind of father's kindness, as if he was his own father.

He was also stunned for a while, he didn't know what to ask or say, originally an adult, to a child, a heel behind him, but there was an inexplicable majesty in this child, which made Meng Huaixin dare not move.

At this time, the child smiled and beckoned to the eldest grandson Mencius, who was standing aside:

"Yangyang, come here, what new poems have you written recently, tell grandpa about ......"

Mencius's nickname was Yangyang, which was also the nickname given by Meng Bangyan.

The boy glanced at his eldest son, Meng Huairen, who had risen from the wicker chair, and then said to Mencius:

"Writing poetry as a poet, your father doesn't approve of it, grandpa approves of it, don't be so rigid with your father!"

Mencius heard a child say this, he really competed with his grandfather, and he said it very carefully, and he didn't know how it could be, but he just looked back at his father Meng Huairen.

The child said to Zheng Wenqing and Zheng Hao's father and daughter:

"Wen Qing, come to my study with Xiao Hao in a while, I have something for you!"

The father and daughter saw it, but in just a few minutes, everyone in the yard was stunned by a child's words, and at this time the sky was cloudy, and the yard was full of ghosts, and the father and daughter were also dumbfounded, and they didn't know what to say.

Although Zheng Wenqing is a son-in-law, since Meng Huaiyi passed the door, he rarely came to Mr. Meng's house, but only came to congratulate the old man on his birthday during the New Year's festival and the old man's birthday. Today, Wei Qi accompanied his wife and daughter to burn paper for his father-in-law, but he didn't expect to encounter such a scene.

The two servants who came out with tea had just come out of the back kitchen with tea when they heard the conversation between this child and several children of the Meng family. Look at the child again, the child is also looking back at the next person, the next person saw the child's eyes, the heart was shocked, and the teapot he was holding fell to the ground, and the "ping pong" fell to pieces.

The child frowned, showed a distressed face, and shouted to his subordinates:

"You have tofu dregs in your hands! Ay! It's a pity that I have this set of purple gold glazed pastel tea set in Yongzheng year! ”

After hearing this, the subordinate became even more frightened, and ran to the back kitchen with a snort, shouting:

"Ghosts! Ghosts! ”

The boy sighed and said:

"Where the hell came from!"

As he spoke, he looked at the children of the Meng family who were standing on the spot, and said:

"It's me! I'm back, I'm your father, Meng Rui! ”

There was a man in the courtyard, who had been observing without saying a word, when he suddenly opened his mouth and said:

"I don't believe it!"

The person who spoke was the second son of Old Man Meng, Meng Huaizhi!