Chapter 3 Chapter two

The Xishan area is the place where the coal city has the upper hand and the upper water. In the 1950s, the state invested in the construction of a power plant at the foot of the West Mountain, and hundreds of tombs from the Northern Dynasties were discovered at that time.At that time, there was no cultural relics protection law, and there was no strict construction approval process. Large-scale development and large-scale construction overwhelmed everything. Except for a few cultural relics that were secretly hidden by ordinary people, most of the things were backfilled. As a result, a towering electric tower was piled up above the countless tombs.

The local villagers know the foundation of the power plant best, so they called the cooling water tower of the power plant the soul-evocation tower. The Xishan Crematorium is in the valley not far from the Summoning Tower. A dry riverbed extends from the ravine, and the crematorium is located on the south bank of the riverbed, which is located in a relatively flat place.In the front is the crematorium and mourning hall, and in the back is the cemetery. Over the years, the business of the crematorium has improved year by year, and the entire crematorium has been built as beautifully as a garden.

On the north bank of the river bed, there is a row of low bungalows, which are the staff dormitories of the crematorium.Of course, the senior staff of the crematorium, that is, those management cadres, have already bought a good house in the city, and the unit is equipped with a luxury minibus to pick them up and drop them off every day.And the one who lived in the low bungalow on the north bank of the river bed was undoubtedly the most insignificant burner in the crematorium. The home of Lao Liu, the hunchback burner, is here. Lao Liu is a very delicate and very easy to satisfy person.This can be seen from his three major hobbies: smoking, drinking, and listening to Jin opera.

Although Lao Liu is an ordinary person, he smokes good cigarettes and drinks good wine because of his different jobs.Needless to say, his high-end cigarettes and alcohol were either given by the family members of the deceased, or he picked them up from the burial area. In every new grave in the burial area, there are many high-end famous cigarettes and wines, which are dedicated to the deceased by the family members.After most family members have finished crying and their loved ones leave, the offerings are still placed in place, hoping that the deceased can enjoy them.But the person who really enjoys it in the end is not the deceased, but Lao Liu, the corpse burner who comes home from get off work every evening.

Lao Liu is a man who has made a lot of money. On average, he can store a car of tobacco and alcohol in two or three months. At this time, his son would come from the mountains in a minivan and take things back to his hometown to sell. The income from this item alone is 80,000 to 90,000 yuan a year.The annual income of 80,000 to 90,000 is simply astronomical for a family in a poor mountain village.With this income, the old Liu's family took over the Sanjin courtyard of Liu Gaoyuan, the former landlord, and renovated the old courtyard, developing it into the most luxurious tourist hotel by the Yellow River.

In their village, the person who has more status than the village head and secretary is Lao Liu's wife.As long as she dislikes anyone, that person will become a street mouse in the village, and everyone shouts and beats him, and everyone resents him.The people in the village understand that all this is because of Lao Liu in the city. Their ancestors have accumulated virtues, and Lao Liu has only bumped into wealth in this life.Because of the money, Lao Liu's family has become the most powerful family in the poor areas. Lao Liu, who lives in the city, doesn’t go in empty-handed every day when he comes home from get off work. He always goes to the storage room at the back with big bags and small bags, puts away a lot of things he picked up in the evening, and then goes to the kitchen to cook. .

Lao Liu cooks well.Every day, I have to set two or three plates, drink while listening to Jin opera, and when I am exhausted from listening, I go to bed. That night, Lao Liu arranged the dishes, turned on the tape recorder, and the sonorous and powerful Jin Opera drum music sounded in the room.He had just poured Fenjiu and was about to taste it when he heard a knock on the door. Old Liu was a little disappointed, and shouted at the door: "Who is it? Come in, the door is open." The door was opened, and two unknown people entered.Old Liu was a little strange: "It's so late, and you still want to burn people?"

A fat man said, "I'm from the mine, I need to talk to you about something." Old Liu didn't let them sit down, obviously he was a bit repulsed by these two uninvited guests: "The dead people in the mine have been burnt out, why do you want me?" The fat man glanced at the short man next to him: "The dead man is burnt out. But, I want you to help me with something else." Old Liu wondered: "What can I help? Can a dead person be burned twice?" The fat man somehow took out a big paper bag from his coat and put it on Lao Liu's dining table: "Of course it can be burned twice. This is 30,000 yuan, for your hard work."

It is common for Lao Liu to accept gifts from the family members of the deceased.However, I have never seen someone so generous. He froze there: "Did I meet a ghost? Of course it doesn't mean you. I don't understand. Why, the dead can be burned twice?" The short man who had been silent since entering the door spoke at this moment: "Of course, a dead person cannot be burned twice. We want you to be burned twice." Old Liu glanced at the money on the table, then raised his head to stare at the two strangers: "Then you guys taught me a way to burn the same dead person twice, as long as I burn people's money, I want to earn it, and if I don't earn it, I don't want nothing." earn!"

Fatty finally showed a smiling face: "As long as you want to make money, it will be much easier." "Okay! I'll go with you and turn on the stove!" After finishing speaking, Lao Liu began to put on his clothes, "I saw this once three years ago. A veteran cadre died and burned it once. The family members thought it was burnt." Not completely, burn it again." The short man hurriedly stopped Old Liu: "No, no. I'll teach you a way to re-burn it, and you can do it at home." Lao Liu was anxious: "Although I am a burner, I don't have a stove at home. I can't afford it and dare not buy one!"

The short man looked at the fat man and smiled: "You burn the corpse twice, once you use the stove and the other time you burn the corpse with your mouth." Old Liu's eyes widened: "I said I encountered a ghost, but you still don't believe me, how can you burn a corpse with your mouth!" The short man took a step forward: "Of course. For example, you have burned twenty-six corpses, but if someone asks you, you say you only burned six corpses!" Old Liu suddenly understood something, and suddenly became vigilant: "This is not teaching me to burn corpses, this is teaching me to deceive people! Take the money away!" The fat man saw that Lao Liu's attitude had changed, but he didn't panic in the slightest. He pointed at the short man and said, "Old Liu, do you know who I am and who is the leader in front of me?" Old Liu looked like he refused to leave people thousands of miles away: "I don't care who, as long as you teach me to lie, get out immediately!" The short man suddenly pulled his face down: "Old Liu, you will immediately lose your job if you talk like that. Think about it carefully, how much stuff do you bring to your hometown in a year? Why does your son earn tens of thousands a year? Why does your wife work here? Do you want to be the Empress Dowager in the village? If I tell the person in charge about this situation, you can still keep this job? Can the family still make a lot of money like in the past?!" Old Liu was quite surprised, and stared at the short man with wide eyes: "How do you know my secret?" Fatty found that Old Liu was very nervous, and smiled happily: "Old Liu, no matter how secret you have, can you still hide it from the parents and officials in your hometown?" Old Liu, the corpse burner, was so startled that he almost fell over: "Could it be...you are really a...official from my hometown?" The fat man calmly said, "Of course, he is your county magistrate Liu Chunfeng!" "Sit down, sit down! Do you want to drink?" Lao Liu dared not even dream that the county magistrate Liu from his hometown would come to his home as a corpse burner in the middle of the night, "You are such a big man, why would you ask me to do such a thing?" ?” The short man did his part, sat on the sofa, looked at the food and drink in front of him: "This is not strange. The Mining Bureau has more than one Shuiyugou coal mine. Isn't there a big mine in our county? It's also the financial pillar of the county. Yesterday, I had dinner with Secretary Wang of Shuiyugou Mine. He was worried that there was no acquaintance in the crematorium, so I thought of you. In order not to let others know, he brought Secretary Wang to your house without saying hello to anyone. .” It turned out that the fat man in front of him turned out to be the chief secretary of a nearby coal mine, and the short man in front of him turned out to be his parents' officer.Lao Liu, who is a body burner, has met many big cadres, but they are in the work unit and have never received them at home. He panicked: "Magistrate Liu, how can such an official like you know that I am a corpse burner?" County Magistrate Liu raised his head and laughed loudly: "Our county is the poorest county in the whole province, there is probably no other person who can afford a landlord's rich mansion and open a star-rated resort hotel in the mountains except you! " Old Liu suddenly realized the troubles caused by wealth, and he began to resent the rural wife who didn't know how to hide the wealth, and the son who didn't live up to expectations: "Master County Chief, my wife and children have never seen the world, and I need you more Help take care." The fat man picked up the wine bottle on the table and took a closer look: "Old Liu, you are a sensible person. As long as you cooperate with the coal mine and the work of the county, you can talk about anything else. Especially your resort hotel by the Yellow River in the mountains can be our The designated reception unit of the Mining Bureau!" Before Lao Liu could react, the county magistrate stretched out his fingers and played with the number "six": "No matter who asks you how many people died, you can answer according to this number. Excessive taxes, people in our county, no matter who they are, should treat the Mining Bureau as their own family, do you understand?" This is not teaching Lao Liu to "burn the corpse", it is clearly teaching him to burn his conscience! But facing such a big parent official, such a big secretary, what can a small low-level figure do! Lao Liu realized that if he didn't follow what they said, everything he had worked so hard to save would soon be wiped out. He struggled for a long time, and finally gave in: "Both leaders, I will definitely handle the things you explained, and there will be no accidents." Secretary Wang also sat down: "The county magistrate and I can finally drink with confidence." Old Liu got up: "I'll cook some more dishes right away." The county magistrate pointed to the paper bag containing the money: "Put this away first, so that no one can come in and see it." Old Liu: "I absolutely don't want anything, you can take it away later." As soon as Lao Liu finished speaking, the sound of a car horn sounded outside, and the hunting dogs nearby heard the noise and barked wildly... All three of them were taken aback. The county magistrate was the first to react. He grabbed the money bag and stuffed it into Lao Liu's drawer: "Secretary Wang, I don't think we can eat this meal today. Let's go first. Lao Liu, remember What you just said." Secretary Wang walked out quickly, and the county magistrate followed suit. The two disappeared into the night in just a few minutes. Among the three, only Lao Liu reacted the slowest.When he was about to open the drawer and return the things, another strange voice suddenly came from outside: "Is Master Liu's house here?" Old Liu instinctively leaned against the table, behind which was the drawer where the money was placed just now, with a trembling voice: "Where...is...who...ah?" "We, Mayor Li, are here to see you, and let's learn something about it." Before Lao Liu went out to meet you, four or five people had already opened the door and entered.When the burner heard the mayor's visit, his legs were so frightened that his legs went limp. What a ghost, a small corpse burner, unexpectedly in just half an hour, saw big people he had never seen before one after another! "Are you here to find out how many people have been cremated?" Old Liu was very nervous, leaning against the table and staying close. Among the four people who came in, three were medium-sized and one tall, and the tall one was obviously the oldest. A young man was about to say something when he was stopped by an older tall man. He went straight to the point: "How do you know the purpose of our visit? Did someone come here just now?" Old Liu is usually very calm. Although he has never received important people at home, his mentality is very stable.But it was the package left by the county magistrate just now, which suddenly made him lose his usual calm, and became flustered: "I have been... no... no one has been here... I promise!" The tall man was a very smart person, and he asked with a smile, "What do you promise? You promise to be lying!" Lao Liu's face was now uglier than a pig's liver. The other three looked around the room, as if they were looking for something, and one of them asked casually, "How many corpses have you burned in total in the past two days?" Old Liu realized that they were going to ask this question, and the answer was already on his lips: "Six!" The tall man laughed as soon as he heard it, and said to the questioner: "I'm not wrong! Someone did the old man's work ahead of time, and the old man must be lying. There are twenty-six dead, but he wants to say six. If outsiders know about this, they think that I, the mayor, deliberately concealed the report. You three, one director of the Safety Supervision Bureau, one secretary-general, and one director of the Public Security Bureau, how do you deal with this matter?" The director of the Safety Supervision Bureau has seen a lot of things like concealment, so it’s not surprising: “When a case occurs in a coal mine, a few people should be underreported. In order to keep their black hats, they had to do this. As long as the compensation can be guaranteed in the aftermath, the miners have nothing to say." The mayor was obviously dissatisfied with this answer, and stared at the director of the Safety Supervision Bureau: "The coal mine is responsible, isn't the Safety Supervision Bureau not? In order to evade responsibility, you secretly conspired with the coal mine and tolerated them doing this, right? ?” The director of the Safety Supervision Bureau didn't dare to say anything, and looked at the secretary-general.The secretary-general suddenly understood, and he looked at the angry mayor: "If we talk about responsibility, our city government can't escape. Mayor, think about it, after all, the Safety Supervision Bureau is a government department. It means the lack of supervision by the city government, right?" the Secretary-General said cautiously. "The Shuiyugou Mine where the accident happened is an affiliated mine of the Mining Bureau. The province has the leading power in personnel, production, sales, etc. As a lower-level government, we don't have much to do. Mayor, you have been a deputy to the provincial government. Secretary-General, I understand the delicate relationship between each other." The director of the Safety Supervision Bureau justified himself. Mayor Li Lilin was still angry: "Of course I understand! No matter what, the local government should fully supervise production safety, and both provincial and central enterprises should do a good job in supervision." The director of the Safety Supervision Bureau continued to defend: "I understand that I have neglected my duty, but it is too difficult for us to supervise the central and provincial enterprises. Don't look at her as a young daughter-in-law, her mother-in-law is very powerful. Take the Shuiyugou coal mine where the incident happened. They Secretary Wang, and Wang Dadong, director of the Provincial State-owned Assets Bureau, are cousins, can we afford such a hard social relationship?!" The mayor was stunned when he heard this. The director of the Public Security Bureau, who was silent all the time, spoke up: "The director of the Safety Supervision Bureau is right. That year, there was a criminal case in the mine, and the district criminal police team went to arrest people, which annoyed Secretary Wang. The criminal police team has to withdraw." Seeing that the mayor didn't respond, the Secretary-General interrupted: "It's not necessarily a bad thing for them to conceal the report. As long as their responsibility is less, shouldn't our responsibility be even smaller? Even if there is something wrong with the concealment, the responsible party It’s still them, and we didn’t order them to do it!” The mayor suddenly laughed, and laughed for a long time. Suddenly, Li Lilin put away his smile and became very serious: "You are not helping me, you are hurting me! The common people don't know, don't you guys understand, who is our governor? What can escape him? The governor's eyes? The governor is jealous and merciless. If he knows that we deliberately concealed the report, I, the mayor, and even you are not simply responsible for the administration. We should be held criminally accountable by then. responsible." "Then what should we do?" The director of the Safety Supervision Bureau panicked. "What to do?! Then there is no need to ask, no matter how the coal mine conceals the report, we must report it truthfully!" the mayor said firmly. "Mayor Li seems to be more thoughtful than we thought when he said that." The secretary-general changed his opinion, "The idiots in the mine only know how to conceal the report, and they don't understand the governor's character." Li Lilin turned his head and turned to Old Liu, the astonished corpse burner: "The reason why we don't shy away from you is only one purpose, whoever lies will bear the criminal responsibility. If you want to say that only six people died, what is waiting for you is The handcuffs of the Public Security Bureau, the director of the Public Security Bureau is on the scene, I put the words here, you can figure it out!" The director of the Public Security Bureau stated on the spot: "The mayor has issued an order. No matter you or anyone in your crematorium, if you talk nonsense, you will bear the consequences." Old Liu was sweating profusely, and his lower limbs became very heavy. If he hadn't leaned against the table and cabinet with his back, he might have fallen to the ground. The visitor in the room realized that it was getting late, greeted him hastily, turned and left the room. Looking at their backs, Old Liu let out a long breath... The food on the table was already cold, and the wine bottle stood there in a daze, just like Old Liu's stiff body. Although Lao Liu is numb on the outside, he has already thought clearly in his heart. He would rather lose this job that earns a lot of money, and he has to keep his old life.Otherwise, the taste of being in prison is not pleasant. It was almost eleven o'clock, and suddenly there was another knock on the door: "Is Master Liu at home?" Old Liu's hair was almost standing on end, and he thought to himself: I must have caught up with ghosts today, and all the important people I have never seen have come to my door, so who is this?He didn't move, but shouted out the door: "Which big man is it?" "I'm Lao Zhang, a reporter from the national TV station. I can't enter the cremation site during the day, and I finally found your home at night. I want to investigate..." Before the people outside could finish speaking, Lao Liu immediately interrupted him: "Stop talking, and don't come in. I promise not to tell a single lie!" The people outside the door were very pleasantly surprised: "It's the common people of the lower class." He turned on the recording of the camera, "Tell me..." Old Liu's voice came through the crack of the door: "From the day before yesterday to yesterday, I cremated a total of twenty-six corpses from the Shuiyugou coal mine. I don't know anything else. You must not arrest me!" The night in Xishan was dark, except for the flickering lights of the coal mines in the mountains and the cremation grounds outside the mountains, the rest of the place was pitch black. In the middle of the night, there was wind in the mountain, and the mountain wind blows from the mountain to the outside. Once it hits obstacles such as woods or stones on the way, it will rub against the sound.The sound seemed a little scary, even the wild dogs and cats in the mountains could not help but shout when they heard it, to embolden themselves.