Chapter 1: Xuanhuang Flag

My name is Zhang Santong, born in September of the lunar calendar in 1982, the third in the family, according to my grandfather, I hit the five elements of the lack of wood, so I named Santong.

I was born into a strange family of six uncles, my grandfather was still alive, and there were more than ten brothers of the same generation, and almost all the men in the family were engaged in a business called "yin and yang" in my hometown. Moreover, the male members of the family have to learn calligraphy, recite scriptures, step on yin and yang steps and practice Zhangjiaquan since they were young. It can be said that doing "yin and yang" starts from the baby, and studying does not achieve "yin and yang".

This "yin and yang" is a profession that engages in transcending the dead and looking at feng shui, somewhat similar to that of Taoist priests. If there is no old man in that family, they will ask "yin and yang" to recite scriptures and practice things to surpass the dead, and if the family is poorer, they will invite three "yin and yang" for funerals, which are called "light and light scriptures". If the family background is slightly better, please ask for five or seven "yin and yang" for the funeral, which is called small three yuan or ******. If the family is wealthy, in addition to inviting more than ten "yin and yang" to the funeral, the same number of monks are invited to practice together, this kind of scene is called the dojo, it is said that when the old man who died in the dojo enters the underworld, the bull head and horse face lead the way, and the ten halls of Yama greet him.

Whether it is the Light Sutra, the Big and Small Sanyuan and the Dojo, my family's 'Yin and Yang' can provide customers with the best candidates, and the business is prosperous.

My hometown is also a strange place, located in the Qilian Mountains of the two provinces of Qinggan in the northwest of the motherland, called Jiusizhang, the name of Jiusizhang has a big head, there is a Wolong Mountain in the Qilian Mountain, the whole Wolong Mountain is steep on all sides, the pine forest is a piece, more than three-quarters of the mountain seems to have been cut alive with a knife, forming a square top of 900 zhang wide, Jiusi Zhang is named because of this.

According to my grandfather, this birch stake used to be a nine-zhang high birch flagpole, every time a thunderstorm is about to rise, the people of Jiusi zhang will hang a flag on the birch pole, this flag can block the thunderstorm, so that Tian He is protected from hail attacks, and all of them will work. How long this flagpole was old, my grandfather said that it already existed when he was a grandfather, and the history of the flag is unknown.

Another said, according to the old man in the late Qing Dynasty, a certain day sudden thunderstorm to Wolong Mountain nine four zhang above the sky, dark clouds rolling, lightning and thunder, no rain flag, a few hours later, the dark clouds slowly rise, many people see with the clouds rise with a serpentine big thing very strange to the ground, everyone said: "This thing is a dragon undoubtedly!", so people call this mountain Wolong Mountain.

In the seventies, this birch flagpole was sawn to make a girder of the commune, and the whereabouts of the flag are unknown.

There is a river called Datong River under Wolong Mountain, and the economic rise on both sides of the Datong River in the 80s, a flat highway spirals up from Wolong Mountain to Jiusizhang, which drives the development of Jiusizhang. My third uncle Zhang Youfu became a member of the highest level of education in Jiusizhang, he boldly walked out of Jiusizhang and opened a timber processing factory at the foot of Wolong Mountain. Several times the third uncle wanted to move the whole family to the provincial capital to enjoy the blessings, but was sternly rejected by my grandfather, my grandfather said, this mountain and this place is a rare blessed land, and lying on the dragon, destined to be an earth-shattering big man, my grandfather said that he would not leave, and let my father have more children, maybe I can get a little blessing and give birth to a big man.

I am one of the members of my grandfather who urged my father to give birth to more, family planning has been implemented in the 80s, and my birth belongs to overcrowding, therefore, the family has been fined a lot of money, and many of my cousins and cousins are also overstaffed, and these overcrowding fines, my grandfather let my third uncle pay.

When I was five years old, the third uncle sent a black and white TV to every family in the family, and as soon as the TV series Huo Yuanjia was staged, the boy of the Zhang family of Jiusizhang was proud, because our Zhang family also has a set of boxing techniques, and the reason for doing yin and yang is that the peach wood sword in the family is the eldest and youngest, and under the leadership of my two brothers and a few cousins, I almost beat the boys with other surnames in Jiusizhang.

When I was a child, my temperament was the most flamboyant among my peers, but I was also the most loved by my grandfather. I clamored to ask my grandfather to make me two fire wheels and Qiankun circles, my grandfather was helpless, the fire wheels could not be done, so he used steel wire to circle me a "Qiankun circle", those days, I held the circle to play with the child, but accidentally broke the nose bridge of a child surnamed Yang, just like that, I was sent by my grandfather and his family to the third uncle's house in the provincial capital to go to school.

My grandfather and father told me to study hard, otherwise I would grow up to be "yin and yang", but I was determined to be a "yin and yang" like my grandfather since I was a child, so when I went to school in the provincial capital, I almost fished for three days and dried nets for two days.

The third uncle's youngest son, Zhang Fuhong, is about the same age as me, and we are in the same class, he is always the first in the exam, and I am the last, the third uncle said, I am destined to be the "yin and yang" life, I was not convinced, although I am determined to be an excellent 'yin and yang', but he can't say the same about me! So I studied hard, when I was in junior high school, 30 classmates, my grades rose to 25, and when I was admitted to high school, I was a few hundred points short of being admitted to a key middle school. In the end, the third uncle had no choice but to move his relationship and let me become classmates with my cousin again.

In my freshman year of high school, around mid-October, my cousin and my third uncle and I received a phone call saying that my grandfather was dying, and when we returned to Jiusizhang, my grandfather had passed away, and dozens of people in the family were there. Our whole family wears filial piety, although many people in the family are "yin and yang", but Dai Xiao's can't be yin and yang, and my grandfather hates monks the most, so monks must not be invited.

In the end, my grandfather's funeral was very cold, and the third uncle was furious, saying that the Zhang family would no longer be able to do "yin and yang" in the future, and whoever did "yin and yang" would cut off relations with whom. Everyone can't help but listen to the words of the third uncle, the third uncle is the god of wealth of the family!

In this way, the Zhang family no longer does the business of "yin and yang", and we cremated all the things that our grandfather used during his lifetime, as well as the robes and peach swords that made "yin and yang" in the family, in front of my grandfather's grave.

When my grandfather died, I cried the saddest, after my grandfather's burial, I stayed alone in front of his grave for several days, and when I left my grandfather's grave, I found that among the ashes in front of my grandfather's grave, there was a pennant made of unknown material that had not been burned, and I was curious and took it out of the ashes.

This flag is only the size of a palm, the earthy yellow flag has no traces of being burned at all, it is full of twills like black lightning slashing, the side of the flag is a dragon-shaped pattern, and the small flagpole like chopsticks does not know what the material is, but it has not been burned.

I was holding this little flag at the time, and thinking that it was the only thing my grandfather left in the world, I stared blankly at the little flag, biting my lip and crying silently. Tears dripped on the small flag in my hand, and I stared at the flag, thinking about my grandfather's words and smiles, not knowing that I had bitten my lip and a few drops of blood had dripped on the flag.

At that time, I had a feeling that this flag seemed to be connected to my flesh and blood, just like my grandfather and I, so intimate.