The weather was sunny and the sun was blazing. At ten o'clock, the sun already made people feel a little hot.

Donglin Street is no longer as lively as it was in the morning, and the flow of customers is visibly scarce.

The hawker on the side of the road didn't have much energy to shout loudly, but just looked for a shady place to rest, and waited for the occasional customers to drink the water he brought with him, leaving only Zhizhi in the shade of the tree by the roadside, and began to cry hoarsely.

Got it! Got it!

Zhang Jiao rubbed his still hangover head with sleepy eyes, and while greeting the shopkeepers sitting idly on both sides of the street, he quickly took out a xiaolongbao filled with red chili water from the plastic bag in his hand, chewed it twice quickly, took a mouthful of soy milk and swallowed it, and accelerated his pace towards the front.

There seemed to be someone waiting in front of his store, and the business of coming to the door was naturally important.

After more than a minute, Zhang Jiao walked to the front of his store, stood in front of the short-haired man who was more than an inch taller than him, fanned the oncoming second-hand smoke, and asked casually.

"Didn't you quit? I'm here early in the morning, aren't you afraid that your daughter-in-law will make trouble with you again?"

Seeing that the person he was waiting for was coming, the short-haired man didn't speak, he casually snuffed out the cigarette butt in his hand, and swept the cigarette butt thrown on the ground to the side together, stunned without saying a word.

Zhang Jiao didn't care, and handed over the plastic bag in his hand while opening the door and asked, "Have you eaten it, do you want to have some of it, the Sun family's xiaolongbao, I waited in line for half an hour to buy it." ”

The man shook his head and said in a low voice, "No, you can eat, I have something to tell you after eating." ”

Hearing this, Zhang Jiao stopped his pace and turned around, looking at the old guy with a gloomy face in front of him, and then he felt that something was wrong.

He drank a little too high with a few of his brothers last night, and the top of his head is still stuffy, and he hasn't woken up yet.

"What's wrong, what's wrong? ”

Guo Chenglin looked at Zhang Jiao's somewhat anxious expression, and after being silent for a while, he said slowly, "Miaozi, Miaozi, he's gone." ”

"Gone, where did he go, which female netizen did he go thousands of miles to see again?" Zhang Jiao didn't react for a while, and habitually complained.

"Miao Zi died, he left last night. ”

"Dead, dead?" Zhang Jiao muttered Guo Chenglin's words, and stood in place, suddenly completely sobering up from his hangover.

He subconsciously asked, "How is this possible, I came here last morning chatting with Miaozi." How did Miaozi die? Miaozi really died?"

"Hmm. ”

Guo Chenglin sniffed and said slowly. "Last night, I called Miao Zi to come out for supper, but his mobile phone kept ringing in the room but no one answered, and then Uncle Zhou heard his mobile phone ringing all the time, and called him to answer the phone and there was no response, so he took the spare key to open the door of Miao Zi's room, only to find that Miao Zi died suddenly in front of the computer. ”

"Aunt Lan was stimulated and suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on the spot, and she was rescued at five o'clock this morning, and she is still observing in the ICU, and Uncle Zhou is now there with her and can't leave. But Miaozi's future affairs can't be delayed, you also know the situation of his family, Miaozi and their family are from other counties, and there are no relatives and friends in the local area, and he is the only one in the family, and now Aunt Lan can't leave in this situation, Uncle Zhou will let me ask you for the future, after all, there are many people in your family who know this aspect. ”

As he spoke, Guo Chenglin handed over a bank card, "The password is six eight, Uncle Zhou said, this was originally intended to marry a daughter-in-law for Miaozi, but now it makes no sense to save it, just let Miaozi go in a beautiful scenery." ”

Zhang Jiao rubbed his eyes and was silent for a while, silently took the card, turned around and walked towards the store, "Lao Guo, come to help." ”

Paper wax, wreaths, white cloth, paper people, paper horses, shrouds and other mourning items were constantly moved out of the back warehouse by Zhang Jiao and Guo Chenglin and piled up outside the door.

Seeing that he was almost done, Zhang Jiao threw a bunch of car keys towards Guo Chenglin,

"Your car probably can't fit these, go to the old yard and drive my pickup truck." I'll call Yang Shi and them to see if they're available. ”

Guo Chenglin didn't say much after taking it, turned around and walked to the old courtyard of the Zhang family.

Zhang Jiao quickly took out his mobile phone and turned it on.

In order not to ruin the fun when he drank last night, the whole table turned off his mobile phone, but after he drank high, he forgot to turn it on again.

After turning on the phone, more than a dozen text messages and missed calls popped up first, Zhang Jiao swept his eyes and didn't pay attention anymore, opened the contact information, and quickly crossed the list of numbers.

"Master Yang, I'm Zhang Jiao. I don't know if you have a field today, but if not, I have a field here to tire you out. ”

"I didn't show up, that's good, I'll tell you the address, you just have to wait here, okay, then I'll trouble you. ”

Twenty minutes later, by the time Guo Chenglin drove a half-new pickup truck to the door of the store, Zhang Jiao had already made seven or eight phone calls, and the entire funeral process was basically completed.

The manager, the mat master, the erection of the mourning hall, the location of the tomb, the selection of the urn, the scheduled time of the crematorium, etc., have all been passed, and it can be said that they are familiar with the road.

"How's it going?" asked Guo Chenglin as he got out of the car and helped carry his things.

"It's basically almost, I'll go find a few masters when the mourning hall is finished, go to the north slope to see which cemetery is better, buy it and then repair it, basically there will be no problem." ”

Zhang Jiao said as he locked the door of Zhang Kee's shroud shop, and then sat in the passenger seat.

"How did Miaozi die?"

Guo Chenglin didn't answer, just drove intently.

Zhang Jiao didn't ask, and the car fell silent for a moment, only to hear the roar of the engine buzzing.

After the atmosphere was silent for a while, Guo Chenglin suddenly said, "The autopsy said that it was cardiac arrest. ”

"Cardiac arrest?" Zhang Jiao twisted his head, looking incredulous. "How is it possible, I haven't heard that Miaozi has heart problems? When did he have heart problems? We only organized a group to do a physical examination last September. ”

"He's not sick, he's scared. Guo Chenglin looked ahead and said quietly.

"Are you saying Miao Zi was scared to death?" Zhang Jiao looked incredulous, suspecting that he had misheard.

His family's shroud shop has been open for several generations, and since he was a child, he has seen and heard about all kinds of dead people, and it is the first time he has heard that someone will be scared to death.

Shouldn't being scared to death be a story in opera interpretation, can a living person really be scared to death?

As if feeling Zhang Jiao's disbelief, Guo Chenglin continued, "Miao Zi was really scared to death, Yingzituo showed me the records after the Yamen inspection, he was playing with the computer at the time, and he died in front of the screen without closing the folder." ”

"The folder is called Spellcasting Materials, and there are hundreds of movies downloaded from it. are all classic horror movies such as "The Shining", "Corpse Grudge", and "Seven Days of Soul". ”

"The final conclusion is that Miaozi was intensely frightened in an extremely relaxed situation, and the heart contracted sharply, which led to death. ”

After saying this, Guo Chenglin stopped talking and concentrated on driving.

Zhang Jiao was speechless for a while, and he didn't know what to say.

He naturally knows what the spell casting materials are, and in the private chat groups they built on weekdays, they will also share some small videos from time to time, among which Miao Zi is the most enthusiastic, and every time there is something popular, he will bother to find out and don't forget to share.

It's just that he didn't expect his generation of old drivers to overturn to the low-level joke of "gourd baby".

In the end, he actually played himself to death.

"Damn!! me... ”

The words were held in his mouth for a long time, and in the end, when he thought that there were no people, Zhang Jiao could only sigh and slump back in the seat, not knowing what to say.

The pickup truck slowly drove out of the old street and rushed in the direction of Miaozi's house.

More than two hours later, in the courtyard of an old house in the middle of Tianyuan Lane, a mourning hall composed of steel frames has been quickly completed, and on the roadside outside the courtyard, two large black pots have been set up on the stove that has just been built, and the mat master is busy boiling the stove and washing the whole frame of dishes.

At the entrance of the courtyard, a white cloth hung on the threshold, and the couplets in black and white were pasted on both sides of the gate, and bursts of mourning music continued to float out of the mourning hall.

Zhang Jiao looked at the mourning hall that had basically been built, and said to Guo Chenglin and the invited chief steward Yang Shi, "Old Guo, you can watch it here first, if you don't know anything, you just ask Master Yang, I'll go to the Beipo cemetery first, and then take back the urn just booked by the way." ”

Zhang Jiao said to Guo Chenglin, and said to the elder who was sitting at a small table not far away, "Master Yang, please take care of it." ”

Master Yang raised his head and waved his hand, continuing to record the bill and gift list.

"Go ahead, I'll take care of it here. ”

Zhang Jiao didn't say much, turned around and drove out.

At ten o'clock in the evening, Zhang Jiao, who had been running for almost a day, returned to Miaozi's house with a finely carved sandalwood urn.

In the courtyard where people came and went at noon, there were not many people at the moment, and the invited master also went home, only a few people sat on the table in front of the mourning hall, guarding the spirit of the seedlings.

Zhang Jiao glanced at it, that is, a few of them played well, and there was no one else. There were eight cold dishes on the table, and two bottles of liquor were opened, but no one drank them.

Everyone was sitting there silently, not saying a word.

Zhang Jiao strode over, pulled over a bench and sat down, poured a cup of herbal tea and took a big sip of it and asked.

"Uncle Zhou, who went to see it?"

"Haozi and I went to see it in the afternoon, and Aunt Lan's condition has stabilized, but she hasn't woken up yet, and she is still living in the ICU. Just now Uncle Zhou came back, looked at it and rushed back to the hospital. ”

The man with glasses sitting opposite Guo Chenglin replied, "Don't worry about the hospital, I'll ask my sister to take care of it, and let her call us if something happens." ”

"Okay, that's good, it's good to have Sister Xi watching. Zhang Jiao said as he broke open the disposable chopsticks, picked up the cold dishes in front of him and ate them.

He hadn't eaten since he had eaten in the morning, and he was so hungry that he fainted.

"Okay, then you all go back, I'll keep vigil for Miaozi here tonight. Zhang Jiao said to everyone while eating.

"I'll accompany you to keep vigil for Miaozi tonight. Before Guo Chenglin finished speaking, Zhang Jiao interrupted him.

"You ran all night last night, go back and rest. Don't let you guys, I'm here tonight, change Haozi tomorrow night, there are still a few days ahead, when everyone contributes. ”

"Okay, that's it. I'll come to you early tomorrow morning. Guo Chenglin didn't say much, so it was decided.

After all, there are families and jobs now, and it doesn't make sense to pile them all here, and there are still a few days to come, and there is no hurry to leave at a moment, so everyone will slowly leave before or after.

By the time Zhang Jiao had eaten and drunk enough, the time was already more than eleven o'clock and almost twelve o'clock.

He got up and went to the water pipe in the courtyard to wipe his hands and face, put four pillars of incense in front of Miaozi's spiritual seat, and then came back and picked up the wine bottle and poured a full cup of paper in his hand, and came to the back of the mourning hall.

In the ice coffin, Zhou Damiao was lying in it as if he was asleep, and the Rong Master cleaned it up for him very well, and he didn't look like he was scared to death.

Zhang Jiao quietly looked at Miaozi's body, thinking of his death, he had a lot of thoughts for a while, and all kinds of messy memories and thoughts kept coming up, making him feel depressed, and subconsciously yelled at the dead man in front of him.

"You're so ashamed of your ancestors!"

After yelling, Zhang Jiao was silent for a while, then raised his head and drank the wine in the paper cup, slowly breathed a long sigh of relief, and said slowly with a look of memory.

"When we used to worship the son, we said that we were blessed and enjoyed together, and we didn't want to be born on the same day and month in the same year, but we wanted to die on the same day and month in the same year, but now it seems that we can't do it. But don't worry, you can't forget your piece of paper during the New Year's holidays, and we can help more uncles and aunts, so you can rest assured below, don't worry. ”

Just when Zhang Jiao was chattering with the ice coffin, he didn't notice that he had just finished saying that he died on the same day, the same month and the same year.

The lights of the entire mourning hall suddenly dimmed, as if the voltage was unstable.

On the offering table in the mourning hall, a gust of wind blew, and the miserable green fire suddenly burst out, and the white wax with the thickness of the child's arm and the incense candle that had just been lit were burned out in an instant.

Between the smoke, the posthumous photo of Miao Zi placed in the middle seemed to grin at the corner of his mouth, and a figure gradually appeared in his black and white pupils.

The figure is impressive, Zhang Jiao.