Chapter XXIII. Lonely old man

The aunt went on to say that she was also frightened when she noticed it, so she quickly notified the surrounding neighbors, everyone was enthusiastic, and helped find someone from the hospital, and after examination, it was found that the old man had been dead for a while, but due to the cold weather, the degree of decay of the body was not high. Everyone was talking about it, but many people said that they had seen Old Man Zhang hanging around here in the past few days, and they asked him why he didn't go to work, but he ignored it.

Under such discussions, everyone soon came to a conclusion that the old man Zhang that many people saw was actually the ghost of the old man Zhang. So everyone was scared, the hospital helped contact the people of the civil affairs and the funeral home, but the family needs to be notified to verify the identity and evacuate the family, but this old man has lived here for more than 20 years and knows that he has a son, but no one has ever seen his son, and no one can contact him.

So the neighbors pooled money to give Old Man Zhang a funeral, and handed it over to the civil affairs staff, who were sent to be cremated and buried collectively.

My aunt told me that everyone knew that they had more or less hit ghosts, but Old Man Zhang was kind and had a good relationship with the neighbors, so everyone couldn't talk about how scared they were. However, not long after the cremation, someone saw Old Man Zhang wandering on this bluestone road at night, and it was particularly scary on the premise of knowing that the other party was dead.

After speaking, the aunt turned to the other aunt who was sitting on the side and peeling potatoes. The aunt took the aunt's words and told us that she was the one who saw the old man Zhang wandering around at night, and she was going to pour the water into the drainage ditch outside the door after washing her clothes that day, and she saw a slightly hunchbacked figure walking from one end of the alley to the other, and then turned back and walked again. At that time, the aunt didn't realize that it was an old man Zhang, and thought that it was a guy who was drunk, so she was curious to look at it for a while, but soon the figure walked towards the old man's house, and then went directly through the door panel and disappeared.

At this moment, the aunt was frightened, and hurriedly ran home, and recited Amitabha Buddha under the quilt for a while. From that day on, I didn't get a good night's sleep for many days. I asked my aunt, where does your family live? Auntie pointed behind her and said, Isn't this my home? So I stood next to her and looked towards the end of the alley, and found that this position happened to be able to see the bend of the alley, and that place happened to be the old man's home.

The neighbors continued to talk nonsense, as if some old-fashioned nonsense, they were tired of hearing each other for a long time, and suddenly two outsiders came, so they knew everything and said everything. At this moment, the aunts and aunts have long forgotten that Master Ma and I trespassed on the house just now, which has added a lot of basis to my investigation, and I also know that from these neighbors who know Old Man Zhang, we can learn more about him.

So I asked the aunts and aunts, what does this old man rely on to make a living on weekdays? Listening to the aunts, he has no relatives, but he has to live. I've just learned about the situation in his family, and it's basically a family with four walls. So how can its life be guaranteed?

The aunt who peeled potatoes told me, what is the guarantee? With the last meal and the next meal, the neighbors all see that he is a lonely old man, more or less help on weekdays, whoever has excess food at home, just send him a little past, he can't eat much as an old man, he doesn't smoke or drink on weekdays, and he doesn't spend any money, so that he always wears his clean body, and his beard and hair are neatly trimmed, this person just loves to be clean, and anyone in the neighborhood has sores and diseases, he is also anxious to run up and down with his own family, running up and down in a panic, helping to cook, helping to find a doctor, He has bad ears, he can't understand what he talks to, he just laughs stupidly...

When the aunt said this, she suddenly became sentimental, stopped the action of peeling potatoes in her hand, grabbed the knife in her hand and began to wipe her tears on her sleeve. It didn't matter if she cried, several aunts and aunts around her also became emotional, sobbing their noses and beginning to wipe their tears.

That's it, this man. Once sadness comes to mind, it is easy to cry as a catharsis. This cry likes to talk to people about their hearts. But if this group of aunts and aunts in front of me want to pull me to talk about my heart, then I can't say that I haven't played for three days and three nights? So I quickly interjected and asked, then he loves cleanliness so much, where does the money come from, and are you all helping?

Fortunately, I didn't let this piece of sadness continue. The aunt said that the old man Zhang worked as a handyman at Wanglongmen Wharf, so he helped the cargo ship pick up sand, coal or something, and did some manual work. He is such a thin body, and his work is definitely not as good as those young people, so he doesn't earn a lot of money, and the people on the dock see him as a lonely old man, and his ears are deaf, and they all sympathize with him, so let him follow and do as much as he can.

At this time, the aunt before said that this old man goes out early and returns late every day, and he carries a few steamed buns as a meal. After work, he didn't go home, so he sat on the dock and didn't go home until it was almost dark and there were no ships in or out of the port.

Auntie's words caught my attention, if a person is tired from work, just rest for a while, why does this old man sit until the evening? And must you wait until there is no boat to come home before you go home? Why did he choose the dock to work? And why do you have to wait for the ship? Does it mean that he is waiting for a ship to come to shore and that there are people on that ship that he cares about?

It suddenly occurred to me that the aunt just now said that the old man Zhang could not be contacted when he died, but everyone had heard that he had a son, but no one had seen him. Could it be that Old Man Zhang is waiting for his son?

However, when I was at Old Man Zhang's house, I saw the image in the round light, but it was a rifle, and this clue obviously did not match my guess. After thinking about it for a long time, I was still confused, originally I thought it was a simple order, but there were so many objective factors in the assassin that I didn't know how to judge. Master told me that although the way ghosts are treated in the end, there are different ways to choose according to their specific circumstances, such as the wicked should be punished, the good people should be better, and so on. Master said that you don't need to know the person you are going to take away, but you should try your best to resolve its obsession, which is a matter of accumulating virtue, and people will be grateful to you for doing ghosts.

So I have always insisted on doing this, unless I have no clue and no progress, I will choose the most common way, to overkill Old Man Zhang.

Seeing that we couldn't get more clues from my aunt and aunt, Uncle Ma and I quit and went back the way we came. When passing by Old Man Zhang's house, Uncle Ma still couldn't hold back, so he asked me, what should I do now, do you still want to continue the investigation? Or do you just do things and solve this matter completely?

Actually, my Dharma is not fierce, after all, I haven't reached Master's level yet. And the whole process of treating this matter, I was executed in accordance with the norms, the soldiers and horses also led the way, and Yuanguang also gave clues, but I couldn't understand this clue myself, so how could I just end this matter so hastily?

No, I can't. So I said to Uncle Ma, you just wait for me here, I'll go find someone, and I'll be back soon. Without waiting for him to say yes, I ran out of the alley.

The person I am looking for is one of those strange people introduced to me by Master a while ago, Mr. Wang Chengqian. His teacher is Pu'an Dharma, which is a folk Dharma school, which seems to be indistinguishable from Buddha or Tao, because Buddhism and Taoism both have the existence of Pu'an Dharma. However, Mr. Wang Chengqian was a teacher when he was a child, and after learning the methods of his own school, he began to walk the rivers and lakes at the age of 14. But I heard from the master that this person had an adventure, it is said that when Mr. Wang Chengqian was sixteen years old, he slept one night and dreamed, and dreamed of the true body of the Fuhu Arhat, and this Fuhu Arhat taught him the art of heavenly eyes in the dream.

Master said that Wang Chengqian had never admitted these things himself, but whenever others asked, he only smiled and did not give a positive answer. I've heard of this kind of thing many times before, but most people just spread it orally, and there is no way to prove whether such a thing really exists. And Mr. Wang Chengqian's refusal to admit or deny it happened to give people on the rivers and lakes more rumored topics. But Master told me that this Mr. Wang Chengqian really opened his eyes overnight, and no one can say whether it is an Arhat dream or not.

I'm a latecomer, so it's unreasonable to ask an old-timer to help me so recklessly. According to the rules of the rivers and lakes, if I want to seek help from my seniors, at least I should inform my master first, and then bring news to the other party's seniors, saying that my master already knows about it. Otherwise, other masters are generally unwilling to help, because if they help me, even if they are helping my own master educate the disciples, it will seem that my master is incompetent, and the old-timers will offend people, and the master will not be able to hang his face.

But I didn't think too much about it at the time, I just felt that Mr. Wang Chengqian could help, according to what Master said, this order is a time for me to regain my confidence, and I have to solve it myself.

At Mr. Wang Chengqian's house, I panted and expressed my intention, and what I encountered seemed to him to be a pediatric, so he jokingly said, I said that this Lin Taoist is really weird, and he delves into the length of his singing every day, and it is not good to teach his disciples such an easy little thing. I was embarrassed by what he said, so I didn't speak. He probably sensed my embarrassment, so he said to me, hahaha, I'm joking, Lin Qishan is an old friend, and this favor must be helped. I laughed and said that of course I knew it was a joke, but it wasn't that funny.

Mr. Wang Chengqian said to me, I won't go to you personally, I will let my apprentice go with you, he has been studying for about the same time as you, but when he joined the teacher, he was much younger than you. After speaking, he shouted towards the house: Da Mao, you come out quickly and go to help the master do something!

"Oh!" A childish-sounding voice came from inside the room. Soon a little boy came out, about thirteen or fourteen years old, and asked Mr. Wang Chengqian, Master, what are you doing?

This little boy is nicknamed Da Mao. He apprenticed at the age of 8 and opened his eyes at the age of 10. Today, he is not yet 14 years old.