Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Dog Butcher

It is said that there was a golden coffin village back then, why was it called this?Just because since ancient times, the coffin of the emperor is called "Zi Palace", and the coffin of the imperial concubine is called "Golden Coffin".Legend has it that there was a noble concubine who was favored during her lifetime, but she offended the queen mother and was given a silver bell and a golden hanging, that is to say, she was strangled to death with a rope.Because the noble concubine died unjustly, the queen mother and the emperor saw her wearing a red dress to claim her life as soon as they closed their eyes at night. In order to appease her undead, they built a tomb far away and buried the bones of the noble concubine. Before the burial, the imperial concubine's golden coffin was suspended in an ancient temple in this village. Later, even the village and the temple were renamed. The village was called Jincoffin Village, and the temple was called Jincoffin Temple.But whether there is such a thing, even the oldest old man in the village can't tell.The imperial concubine who had died had been buried underground for thousands of years, and the hills and ridges had been flat, no one knew where this ancient tomb was.Only the name of the Golden Coffin Village and the dilapidated ruined temple in the village that may collapse at any time prove it. The broken bricks and tiles seem to be silently telling that there was indeed such a past in the past years.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Taiping Rebellion broke out and swept across most of China.Because Hong Xiuquan, the leader of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was from Guangdong, this peasant uprising started from the west of Guangdong and the east of Guangxi, that is, the land of Guangdong and Guangxi, so it was also called "the rebellion of Guangdong bandits" at that time. The war lasted for nearly 20 years, and the people in Jincoffin Village suffered greatly. The official army and the rebel army fought and defended each other, and the killing was heavy.After the war, there are often dead bodies everywhere, and most of the dead bodies are left alone. Even if the nearby people want to bury them, they can't bury them. There are too many dead people. Countless flesh and blood bodies are just thrown in the wilderness like this, let the crows And wild dogs gnaw casually.

It was not only the wild dogs and crows that ate the dead, but also the domestic dogs and pigs raised by the villagers.Pigs that often gnaw dead people are definitely different from ordinary pigs, which can be seen by a discerning person at a glance.The pigs that had gnawed on dead people were frighteningly fat, their hair was shiny, and even their eyes had a fierce look when they looked at people.Although these pigs are fat, people who know what's going on will never dare to eat pork again, and they can't help but feel sick when they see others eating pork. There was an orphan in Jincoffin Village, surnamed Zhang, who was the third child. Both his older sisters died young. The braid still couldn't stay up, so I had to tie a dog's tail with a straw rope, and everyone who knew him called him "Zhang Xiaowei".

Zhang Xiaozhuan was so poor that he didn't even have half a house, so he usually lived in the dilapidated temple of the Golden Coffin Temple.He toppled the clay statues in the temple, spread some grass and slept on the mud platform, and went to various households to help fetch a few buckets of water during the day, do some chores and so on, and begged for food after the work was done.He also served as an apprentice to the master of the coffin shop, and also worshiped the old fortune teller as his teacher.But due to the bad times, the master couldn't live any longer, and he couldn't support his apprentices, so he didn't learn all these ways of making a living.Sometimes life was difficult, and he had nothing to eat for days, so he had to steal at night to satisfy his hunger.He knew that his family had fallen into the past, and that his ancestors were once high-ranking officials in the capital, but deep down in his heart he still regarded himself as the master, and was deeply ashamed of himself for sneaking around.But in the years of war and chaos, it is not easy to make a living, and when you are hungry, you can't care about anything, and you don't care about your family background.

In recent years, natural disasters and man-made disasters have continued, the food in the village is not as rich as in previous years, and it is not easy to even get a stutter.That night, Zhang Xiaozhuan was so hungry that he tossed and turned and couldn't sleep. He lay on the altar with his legs crossed, looking at the moonlight leaking from the broken roof, thinking about what to eat to satisfy his hunger, otherwise he would not be able to bear it. passed.Over the years, he is best at stealing chickens. There are many chickens in the village, and he steals one or two every now and then. He has never missed it so many times.It's not luck that he never misses, it's just because he has figured out a unique set of chicken stealing skills.

After making up his mind, Zhang Xiaozhuan took advantage of the dark moon and high wind to reach the outside of the courtyard of the widow Wang's mother and daughter in the village.There is no man or dog in this house, the door and wall are low, and Zhang Xiaozhuan knows the location of each chicken coop like the back of his hand, so he climbed over the wall without much effort and found the old hen in the chicken coop sound asleep. Zhang Xiaozhuan could see it clearly, but he didn't reach out to grab it directly, but quietly put his hand into the chicken coop, and used his unique skill to gently scratch the old hen's abdomen.No matter someone steals the chicken or a weasel gets into the chicken coop, the chickens in the coop will definitely flop and scream, and the owner will be alarmed.But Zhang Xiaozhuan had his own way, just scratched it lightly a few times, and the old hen in the coop not only didn't flutter and scream, but showed a contented expression, as if enjoying being tickled for it.

Zhang Xiaozhuo was secretly delighted, as long as he didn't miss the first time, the chicken would be considered a steal.Looking at the hen, he felt ruthless in his heart: "I can't serve you in vain. You won't be so comfortable when you go to the ruined temple to pluck chicken feathers later." He was happy in his heart, and his hands were not idle. One hand kept relieving the old hen from itching, and the other hand took off the roof of the chicken coop, intending to lift the old hen out from above.But it was probably because I hadn’t stolen chickens for a while, my skills were unfamiliar, or maybe I was hungry for several meals, anyway, my hands were weak, and when I was holding the old hen to the top of the chicken coop, one of them missed it and dropped it on the ground. on the ground.

The old hen was half-asleep and half-awake, staring dazedly at the comfort, suddenly fell down, and immediately woke up from the sweet dream.It probably also understood that there was a thief stealing the chicken, so it was not willing to give up. It flapped the chicken wings and started to make a lot of noise, which really alarmed the owner of the house.I heard Widow Wang scolding in the window: "Which little thief came to steal chickens from my mother's door again, it must be Zhang Xiaozhuan who lived in the Golden Coffin Temple and suffered a thousand knives. My mother only has this old hen left to lay eggs. I won't let it go..." As he spoke, he saw the paper window lifted, and a urinal flew out of the house.

Seeing the black object being thrown from the house, Zhang Xiaozhuan hurriedly lowered his head to dodge, the urinal was not aimed at all, it hit the courtyard wall with a bang, and the stinky liquid splashed everywhere.He was in a bad mood, he didn't expect that the third master was famous, the widow Wang knew that the third master was here as soon as she heard the hen flopping, and she beat down a smelly and smelly urinal with her head, and it was inevitable that she caught her It's a good fight, and a hero won't suffer the immediate loss. If you don't leave now, when will you wait?

Thinking of this, Zhang Xiaozhuan didn't dare to be negligent, turned over and jumped out of the courtyard wall, she could still hear the yelling and cursing of the widow Wang in the courtyard, as if calling her daughter Xiaofeng to go to the neighbor's house to borrow a dog to chase the thief.Zhang Xiaozhuan cursed inwardly: "Well, you widow, they say that there are many gossips in front of the widow's house. This statement is indeed true. I didn't succeed in stealing your chicken. Is it worth killing them all? When the third master makes a fortune in the future, I will make up for it. You purple gold urinal..."

Although he was unwilling to accept softness, he was guilty of being a thief after all.There were dogs in the neighbors' homes, and at this time they were all startled by the movement of Widow Wang's urinal hitting the wall. All of a sudden, chickens and dogs were barking everywhere, and the whole village was in chaos. People thought it was bandits who came in. The village was robbed.This time, the Lou Zi made a big fuss, and Zhang Xiaozhuan knew that he had to escape for two days, otherwise everyone would know that he would stay in the Golden Coffin Temple overnight. He ran all the way and escaped from the village. In the end, he was out of breath and stopped. The voices of people and dogs in the village were far away. A stone in Zhang Xiaozhuan's heart just fell to the ground. He wheezed and looked around, trying to see where he ran .I saw cold moon and few stars, dead trees and grass, undulating mounds among the grass, and jagged stone monuments. Just now I panicked and fled into the tombs behind the village. This cemetery is said to be a treasure land of geomantic omen, and there is no owner here. People from all over the world are buried here. Countless graves are next to each other. The fresh and clean ones are new graves in recent years, and the old ones are covered with grass There are countless graves.Some time ago, several groups of Cantonese bandits haunted this area. They fought several fierce battles with the officers and soldiers, and they just retreated. Thousands of corpses were piled up on the battlefield.The rotting and smelly corpses that were too late to bury caused a serious epidemic, so recently the people around here have died a lot more than before, and many graves have been added to this cemetery.Those who are a little richer have steles and coffins, those poor people are not so lucky, it would be good to have a thin coffin when they die, or simply dig a hole with a roll of hemp mat and bury it indiscriminately, and the grave is pitifully small , As for the stele, it can be saved, or a wooden sign can be inserted instead.Those new graves without marks soon became lonely graves without owners. At night, when dark clouds cover the moon, ghost fires flicker in the cemetery. Occasionally, one or two wild cats jump out of the grass, and there are some weird noises that don't know whether it is ghost crying or howling wolves, which come from the depths of the cemetery from time to time. Skin tingles. Zhang Xiaozhuan has always been daring. Anyway, he has a low life, and he suffers hardships to live. He is not throwing it away, so he has always been tolerant, and never avoids ghosts and gods. If he didn't have the courage, how dare he live alone at night? In the ruined temple of the gods and Buddhas.But when he saw that he had come to this cemetery, he felt a little apprehensive, and quickly bowed to the surrounding tombstones and mounds: "Big brothers and sisters, the villain Zhang San didn't dare to do anything wrong. Don't blame, don't offend..." As he spoke, he turned around and was about to leave. At this moment, he suddenly heard a bang, bang, bang sound from a mound behind him. It sounded like someone was banging hard on the wooden door.But there is no one's door in this chaotic tomb, the sound must be hitting the coffin lid. It was midnight, and the surrounding area was eerily quiet, making the sound of the coffin lid hitting particularly thrilling.Zhang Xiaozhuan felt that the little braids on the back of his head stood up, but he didn't run away immediately.Just now he ran and was panting non-stop, and he had no food in his stomach, so he couldn't move his legs, so he wiped his nose with his sleeve and looked around the tombs, wondering what kind of dead ghost this is Playing with your third master?Didn't the third master bow to you before, why didn't you refuse to let go, and wanted to scare the third master to kowtow and beg for mercy? But the sound of hitting the coffin in the grave became louder and louder. Zhang Xiaozhuan wondered if some grave robbers were trying to pry the coffin?Be sure to see what's going on.If there are grave diggers, the third master will scare him and send him a thief to call catch the thief and take his stolen goods. He turned to the back of the tomb in two or three steps, and saw that it was a new tomb without an owner, and a big hole had been dug out under the mound, and the strange sound of bang, bang, bang came from the depth of the hole. .As soon as he got closer, he heard a loud noise in the hole on the side of the grave, and a big bloody, red-haired face poked out of the hole.There was a large oval-shaped sarcoma on the forehead of that face, with a bright red tongue sticking out, blood stains on the teeth around the mouth, and fierce eyes, staring fiercely at Zhang Xiaozhuan. Zhang Xiaozhuan complained in his heart, why didn't he think of this thing!It was too late to think about it now, so I had no choice but to turn around and run away. It turns out that the wild dogs in the early years were very different from the modern wild dogs. Some species of wild dogs gradually disappeared after the society stabilized after liberation.In troubled times, human life is worthless, because there are too many dead people, and corpses are everywhere in the wilderness, so there are too many things to eat dead people.In the countryside, there is a kind of wild dog that eats the dead. It can smell the smell of the dead and dig holes in the graves. When it finds a coffin, it breaks the baffle of the coffin with its head, and then drags the dead body out of the coffin to eat the intestines.This kind of wild dog has a huge body and a ferocious nature. If it eats too much intestines of dead people, it doesn't want to eat anything else. Sometimes when it encounters a living person who is lonely, it will often rush to kill it.The wild dog with blood tumors eats dead human flesh all the year round. Its body smells like corpses, and its teeth are poisonous. If it bites you, you will die.It is characterized by a large blood-red tumor growing on its head, which is harder than a hammer.The best cheap thin coffins for the poor are "three-inch cypress boards". The coffin boards can be pierced by the dog's head without a few hits. It's obvious.The family of the deceased bought a pair of "dog meeting heads" and went back to bury the body of the deceased. The family members did their best, and then you in the coffin are waiting to feed the wild dogs.But at that time, even this kind of three-inch "dog meeting" was in short supply. This is exactly: "A man does not hurt a dog's heart, but a dog has the intention to kill a man." If you want to know what will happen next, let's listen to the next chapter.