If the skills I learned from Master before that were just the beginning, then these three years, even after many years, I think that they were the first stage when I began to refine my craft.

Master did not live with me in the countryside for a long time, but stayed in the village for about a month every two months, and on the rest of the day, he would return to his own house in the city. Since I was arrested before and was denounced, the day I was escorted away, I was also seen by the surrounding neighbors. Therefore, if Master does not stay in his own house for a long time, gossip, the matter of my escape will definitely fall on Master. However, when Master came to see me for the second time, I found that he had cut his hair short, was wearing an off-white shirt, and had completely lost the appearance of a Taoist, and he looked like an ordinary person.

Of course, I knew that all of this was forced by the situation, and it was all because of my involvement, so when I saw Master's new look, I was just stunned and didn't ask much. During his time in the village, Master took me to learn some new things, but most of them were the same as when I first started my apprenticeship, and I only did oral transmissions to make me memorize them. Master also asked Uncle Zhou and his wife, saying that if there is such a place in this village and neighboring villages that we can help, they can come to us at any time, and it will be regarded as our repayment.

Aunt Xu has always been very protective of me, afraid that my identity and that of Master will be heard by some people with ulterior motives and report us again. So for the first few months, she basically let me stay at home and read and study, and she didn't even let me help with the farm work, which made me feel like a casual eater. It wasn't until the end of 1966, when it was almost the end of the New Year, that something happened in the village.

That day, Uncle Zhou said to me, "Child, if you don't have anything else important, can you take some time to help me build a pile of grain and grass?" It will start to rain in a few days, and if it gets wet, it won't be high.

Continuous rain is another name for a local method of rain. Roughly speaking, the rain was not heavy or small, but it was going to rain for many days. In this case, the air usually becomes particularly humid. In Chongqing, it often rains like this in winter, so that even the quilts and mattresses at home will be damp because of this.

So I happily agreed, during that time, Uncle Zhou's son took his daughter-in-law to his daughter-in-law's mother's house, and the labor force in the family was only the old two, and there was really no reason to let me, a big living person, not use it. So that day, I followed Uncle Zhou to their crops, cut down all the grain and grass, and piled them into two tall haystacks. During this period, Uncle Zhou didn't say anything to me, just smiled silly. He is a very laughing person, even if everyone doesn't say anything funny or happy, he always keeps smiling.

After finishing his work, Uncle Zhou handed me his wine gourd, I was also happy that day, I hadn't exercised for a long time, and it was very comfortable to be so tired, so I took it and poured it into my mouth. I'm not an alcoholic, and the last time I drank before that day was when I was depressed after my first order. Looking at my distorted expression, Uncle Zhou laughed happily, seeing that the sun was about to go down, Uncle Zhou said it was time to go home for dinner, so he took me back. But not far from home, I saw Aunt Xu standing at the door, talking to a middle-aged woman dressed in black. But when we arrived at the door, the middle-aged woman had just left.

I walked to the wall by the door and hung a sickle, but I heard Uncle Zhou ask, wasn't that the one just now the three girls in Old Man Wang's house? Why hasn't it been gone for so many years, and now Ken is coming home?

Uncle Zhou's words were sarcastic, life in the mountain village was too boring, and when I heard Uncle Zhou's words, I couldn't help but continue listening. Aunt Xu said, Oh, you don't know, I almost didn't recognize this third child when I first came, and the people who have lived in the city look different from our old women in the countryside. Uncle Zhou asked, then she didn't have anything to do with us in the past, why did she suddenly come to our house, what are you looking for? Aunt Xu said, oops, this old man Wang left this morning, the eldest and second are all sons, and they want to kneel to welcome guests, no, let the third child come door to door to inform the people in the village, if there is friendship or not, take a look and say goodbye.

Dead people are originally a sad thing, but at the moment, after holding back for a few months, I heard that it was an opportunity for me to help, so I leaned over and said to Uncle Zhou, grandparents, I can help in this matter, you also know that my master and I will do this, this is the ability to eat, since this person has passed away, the family must be busy, the villagers, or go and help.

But as soon as I finished speaking, Aunt Xu sternly said to me, no, no! Your master entrusted you here to let us live in peace, don't you take the initiative to be a bird to cause trouble, you know? If you have anything, how can I explain it to your master?

Of course, I understand Aunt Xu's hard work and being entrusted by others, so I am embarrassed to continue to say anything. So I thought about diverting the topic, so I asked Uncle Zhou, the old man Wang who died, do you have a lot of contacts on weekdays? Uncle Zhou said that most of the people in this village have lived here for generations, and they all farmed for the landlord's family before liberation, so they all know each other, and they have been friends for decades. However, Old Man Wang has a withdrawn personality and is not very easy to get in touch with, so everyone is not so close to him, even his neighbors.

Aunt Xu sighed and said, this person, whether it is a cheerful personality or a withdrawn personality, he was born and went to die, no matter how he said it, he was a fellow villager.

The implication is that they must be going to pay their respects. So I said to Aunt Xu, grandma, take me too, I understand this, but I won't talk too much. Just follow along. Aunt Xu hesitated for a moment, saw that I promised repeatedly, and finally agreed.

In fact, I don't know this family at all, and I have no reason to follow the funeral, but life in the mountains is a little boring, and my daily study is still these things of Xuanmen. This time, the old man Wang held a funeral, I first wanted to go out for a walk, and secondly, I also wanted to see if there were some other ways to do the funeral customs in the countryside and the countryside, because the metaphysics said that the root is always from the people, that is, from the mountains and countryside, and the customs preserved in some small places may not seem worth mentioning to people who don't understand, but if a person like me who knows how to look at it, you can see a little way.

So that night, Aunt Xu made dinner earlier than before, after dinner, let us all change into vegetarian clothes, before leaving, Aunt Xu also deliberately took a small frame with some eggs, took some vegetables and fruits, and led us out.

So in those years, despite the bad world, the countrymen were really simple. Happy events and funerals, everyone is looking for this love, not what you sent, even if you come empty-handed, it is a precious intention.

Old man Wang's house is far from Aunt Xu's house, and it may take half an hour to walk. It's not because it's a long way, it's because the road is so narrow that it's hard to walk. It looks like the distance in a straight line is only seven or eight hundred meters, and it takes dozens of minutes to go around the ridge. In addition, it was already dark at that time, and the road was even more difficult to walk, so if I didn't pay attention, I stepped on the field and got a leg of mud. I saw a bamboo pole shelf set up outside a house, and a layer of white cloth was pulled on the shelf as a roof, and I knew that it was the old man's home. Looking at this posture, after the people left in the morning, the mourning hall was quickly built, which shows that before death, the family was actually already preparing for the future.

Most of the funerals in rural areas are relatively simple, generally set off firecrackers in the house, ask a gentleman to do a superordinate or lead the way, and the funeral will be done on the third day, and most rural customs are basically the same. This also means that if Old Man Wang's children are also people who do things according to custom, I should be able to meet a companion at this funeral. This is one of the reasons I came, because I might take advantage of my colleague's rest to ask him about the news outside.

Here I must emphasize that although my previous suffering was because I was regarded as a "cow ghost snake god", but for ordinary people who have relatives at home who have died, they will basically follow the customs, at this time those Taoist priests or Mr. Yin and Yang are indispensable, which is like going to the grave to worship on the Qingming Festival, but it is very exceptionally not regarded as feudal superstition. This is also the reason why Aunt Xu agreed with me to come along, because here, although I am worshipping the dead, I can't leave a feudal superstition for those who have a heart.

After arriving at the mourning hall, Aunt Xu handed over the things in her hand to a middle-aged woman and comforted her, that woman was the one who came to Aunt Xu's house to inform the funeral, and it was the third daughter of Old Man Wang. Both sons knelt in the mourning hall, and on one side of the father's coffin, dressed in sackcloth, with a white veil wrapped around his arm, and the center of the white veil was dipped in a red mark. They also wore white cloths on their heads, knelt on their sides, and kept burning yellow paper money in an iron basin.

Uncle Zhou and Aunt Xu asked me to wait outside the mourning hall, and the two of them walked in to put incense sticks, burned some paper, and then pulled me to sit outside. What makes me strange is that since I first arrived here, I have been looking for traces of Taoist priests or Mr. Yin and Yang, but I have never seen them. Could it be that he won't come until the first night of the funeral?

At around 10 o'clock that night, Aunt Xu said that she was tired and wanted to go back to rest first, but Uncle Zhou had a good chat with an old neighbor. I was afraid that my wife would fall while walking alone at night, so I asked me to send Aunt Xu home first, and then come over and wait for Uncle Zhou to go back together. So after I sent Aunt Xu home, I took a flashlight from home and rushed back.

But at this time, I heard the voice of a woman arguing loudly.