It is recorded in the book "Qing Pi Banknotes, Agricultural and Commercial Goods": "There is a so-called bar house in Beijing, that is, the honor guard store is also dedicated to the funeral of others", that is, the shop rents out funeral equipment and arranges funeral matters such as honor guards and drum music on behalf of others.

Why is it called the bar room, its untie bar is the stick that carries the coffin, the "heart piercing bar" carried by two people, the "bull head bar" carried by three people, these are some poor people's homes, in addition, there are eight bars, sixteen bars, twenty-four bars and so on. Jingshi bar room is not all opened by Beijingers, at that time there was a franchise bar house industry called Zhili house, among which there are also some Baoding people, when the plaque in front of the door directly wrote a certain bar room, at the same time in front of the door to put some large and small sticks, used to solicit business.

Recently, I watched some news that a certain resident opened a funeral shop downstairs, and the residents felt unlucky and besieged the funeral shop to close it, and the funeral shop owner thought that he was legal and compliant, and he could open it wherever he wanted. If this kind of thing was placed in the past, it would be a very inconspicuous triviality, on the contrary, in that era when human life was like mustard, this kind of industry was a relatively popular and money-making industry.

In a funeral shop in the west of the city, Mu Lin lit three pillars of incense and worshiped the poor god of the ancestor on the offering table three times, and then after inserting the incense, he bowed again, and then turned around and opened the door of the store to start business. The funeral shop in Mulin is an ancestral heirloom, the last five generations have been engaged in this industry, and the old bar house has been renovated to Mulin here, and the sign on the top of the door has also been changed to five big characters of a funeral dragon.

Although it is an old store with a new look, the store is still open for business according to the old rules set by the ancestors, that is, three openings and three closings, and the son does not ask the name of the visitor, which means that it is open at three o'clock in the afternoon until three o'clock in the morning, and the customer who comes to the door does not ask his name. This rule Mu Lin heard from his father that what they do is to make money from the dead, and they deal with the dead every day, and the tomb gas on their bodies is too heavy, so they have to open the door to do business after the strong sun in the afternoon. The reason why it is open until three o'clock in the morning is that most of the funerals for the dead were prepared at night, so the more the evening, the better the business.

"Boss Mu, is there a God of Wealth coming to the door today?"

As soon as the door opened, the owner of the store next door shouted to Mu Lin, since taking over the family shop, Mu Lin's surroundings have gradually become deserted, and his former friends have stopped contacting each other. And the shopkeeper next door has become one of the few people he has to talk to in a day, Mu Lin also enjoys this environment, eating and drinking without worry, few people and few things, thinking of this, Mu Lin smiled slightly.

"Business hasn't been good lately, but it's good, no business means that everyone's life is peaceful."

The shopkeeper laughed, stretched out his hand and handed over a cigarette, Mu Lin skillfully took it and put it in his mouth, took out a lighter from his pocket and lit it, and took a long puff.

"I said, the last time you took over the business was on the 14th of last month, it's been more than a month, there is no business, you are not in a hurry, stay up from three o'clock in the afternoon to three o'clock in the evening every day, it is better to change the business hours."

The shopkeeper looked at the furnishings in Mu Lin's store that were almost covered with a layer of dust, and said with some sympathy, Mu Lin didn't reply in a hurry, just smoked by himself, and after a while, he spit out lightly.

"The rules set by the old man can't be broken."

At this moment, a few customers walked into the store, and the shopkeeper glanced at Mu Lin and hurriedly returned to the store. Mu Lin looked up at the sky, the dark clouds were very low, and he saw that the heavy rain would come soon, and after taking three or two puffs of the remaining half of the cigarette, he rubbed his hands and returned to the store.

Under the blessing of black clouds and heavy rain, it was dark very quickly, less than six o'clock, and the neon lights on the road outside the door were already bright, Mu Lin sat at the cash register at the door and stretched out his head to look out, and then turned on the headlight of his door. Not long after, the shopkeeper next door suddenly had a head out of the door, Mu Lin was startled, and was about to ask, when the shopkeeper spoke.

"Lao Mu, it's raining too much today, I'm closing the door and going home, you continue to stay up."

Mu Lin smiled and nodded, waved at the shopkeeper, and after saying hello, the shopkeeper held up his umbrella and disappeared into the rain and fog of the night. The pedestrians on the road became fewer and fewer under the urging of the cold and rainy night, as if time had also been accelerated, and the wood forest squinted for a while, and it was already past eleven o'clock.

"It's another ineffective day at work..."

Mu Lin said to himself helplessly, while getting up and preparing to put away the things at the door, seeing that there would be no guests coming in this situation, he stretched out comfortably, and then moved his stiff body. At this moment, the glass door was suddenly pushed open from the outside, and Mu Lin looked over and saw that the person who came was a woman in a black dress, wet all over her body, and her body was still dripping with water.

"Is there anything you can help me with?"

Mu Lin was the first to ask, and after the woman entered the door, she didn't know whether she was afraid of getting wet and dry ground, or worried that Mu Lin would kick her out, so she stood at the door with her head down and was silent. Mu Lin was a little speechless, in the middle of the night, I'm afraid this thing is not a little sister who drinks too much in a bar, he is a person who is very afraid of trouble, so he hurriedly asked again.

"Beauty, may I ask you what's the matter?"

This time the woman was not silent, she shook her hair on the spot, and the rain was scattered from the ends of the woman's hair, and a few drops even fell on Mu Lin's face, Mu Lin frowned, a little unhappy, and he seemed to smell a faint smell of blood from it. Before Mu Lin had time to think about it, the woman in front of him brushed her wet hair to both sides, revealing her face, Mu Lin was stunned, this woman was quite beautiful.

"Boss, I'll buy something."

A timid voice appeared in Mu Lin's ears, and after the woman finished speaking, seeing that Mu Lin was still in a daze, she raised her voice and said it again.

"Boss, I'll buy something!"

"Oh, oh, okay, okay, you come in and see what you want."

Mu Lin suddenly felt that he was a little out of shape, and quickly replied in a panic, the corners of the woman's mouth twitched, and she showed a strange expression with a smile, and then looked up and looked around the store. Mu Lin saw that she seemed to be looking for something, and leaned to the side, thinking of beckoning her to come in to see, but when he glanced at it, he saw that a small pool of water had accumulated under the woman's skirt, and it looked a little slimy.

"Boss, do you have any flashlights?"

The woman asked again, but the person still stayed where he was and did not move, Mu Lin was a little confused by the question, he turned his head to look at the funeral supplies in his store, and his eyes swept to the woman again.

"Yes, yes, but let me make it clear first, it's not you who want to use it, right?"

"Okay, get me one."

The woman didn't seem to hear Mu Lin's question, and immediately spoke, Mu Lin saw that the woman's tone was urgent, and quickly took out a paper flashlight from the shelf, turned around and handed it to the woman. The woman who took the flashlight looked left and right, nodded in satisfaction, and muttered a "giggle" laugh from her mouth.

"Now I finally don't have to be afraid of the dark..."

Mu Lin looked at the woman strangely, always felt that something was a little abnormal, the woman with the paper flashlight muttered while slowly turning around and walking towards the door, only to hear the "snap" in the woman's hand, a faint fluorescence from the flashlight. Seeing that the woman was about to leave without paying, Mu Lin walked quickly towards the woman in a hurry, and shouted loudly.

"Hey, beauty! You haven't..."

Before he finished speaking, Mu Lin stayed in place, and then he reacted, the woman could actually press the flashlight on the paper, then, then she is not a dead person, just such a stunned look, the woman who was still at the door just now has disappeared. Mu Lin looked at the door in front of him without the slightest trace of pushing, a chill rose in his heart, he often walked by the river and finally got his shoes wet, but all this was just the beginning for him...

What is life and death? What is a ghost? Everyone can't escape the fate of the last death, and even if you really become a ghost in the end, you'll always be a stranger who is afraid of you.