Chapter 7 chapter Five

Tell me about my home. Tell me about my dad. Tell me about the dream my grandfather had about my father and my family.There are dreams of ten miles or twenty miles long.Father is determined to move my family away from Dingzhuang.Dingzhuang has been desolate.It was barren.Humanity has declined.Most of the sick people went to primary schools outside the village.Those who didn't go also stayed at home all day.Zhuang Street was so deserted that it was rare to see a person move, and it was rare to hear a person's voice.I don't know from which day, when someone died in a family, the white door couplets were no longer pasted.The death of a person is a household matter, so I don't bother to post it anymore, and there is no need to do the earth-shattering burial.There is no need for relatives and friends to come to the funeral.Dying is like going out a lamp.It's like falling leaves in autumn.In Zhuangzi, I was always lonely and quiet.Silently the silence in the cemetery.On Xinjie, several families have already moved to the county town of Wei County, and one family has moved to Tokyo.

He moved away in a hurry. Leave the village and the courtyard with the new tile-roofed house behind. People leave and the house is empty. Dingzhuang is desolate and cold.It's tasteless. Ever since my father heard about my grandfather trying to strangle him to death, he has made up his mind to leave Dingzhuang.After a calculation, if I really want to move to Wei County or Tokyo, the family is still short of a lot of money.If the money is not enough, Dad can't sleep all night.That night, after rolling in bed all night, he came out of the house just after dawn, stood in the courtyard, and then went from home to the village.Passing through Zhuangzi and standing on the entrance of Zhuangzi, I saw the morning coming from the east of the plain, followed by a bitter smell of boiled Chinese medicine.Father was standing on an open space in Zhuangxi, smelling the smell of the medicine, and knew that the sick people in the school got up early in the morning to make the medicine.But when he put his eyes on the smoke rising from the boiled medicine, Dad's heart moved for a moment.

It moved with a bang, as if someone poked his heart with his hand. Staring at the thick and faint smoke above the school, the golden and silvery smoke, my father Leng Ding'er remembered that so many people died in the village, and so many fever patients were waiting to die. It's time to say something to the Zhuang people.It's time to do something for the villagers. There is no such thing as not saying or doing, or not watching. Dad was born to accomplish great things. Father came to this world to accomplish great things, and he came to Dingzhuang to be my father's son and my father.Originally, in Dingzhuang, my father was not only in charge of the blood and lives of people in Dingzhuang and Dingzhuang's dozens of miles around.In the future, father will still be in charge of the coffins and graves of these people after death.Dad didn't expect that he would be in charge of so many things while alive, he just wanted to give it a try.I went to the Wei county government to try it out, and I didn't expect that it would succeed after I tried it, as if the daylight came into the room as soon as I opened the door.Dad went to the county seat of Wei County.

Dad found the county magistrate Gao in the already prosperous county.The county magistrate Gao was the Director Gao of the Education Bureau back then, and now he is the deputy county magistrate Gao.It was the person in charge of the County Fever Committee. He talked a lot with my father and discussed a lot of things. Magistrate Gao said—— Dozens of people have died in Dingzhuang, why didn't you come to me sooner? You Ding Hui didn't know that I, Deputy Magistrate Gao, had feelings for Dingzhuang, and your father, Teacher Ding, didn't know that I had feelings for Dingzhuang? Dad turned his head to look at the face of deputy county magistrate Gao.

Magistrate Gao said—— For every person who contracted a fever, the county will take care of a coffin for each person who dies. Don’t you know in Dingzhuang? Has no one conveyed the spirit of this document to Dingzhuang? Magistrate Gao and my father sat and talked a lot. Magistrate Gao said—— Forget about those who have died before, but for those who are dying of fever in the future, as long as the procedures are complete, the government will take care of them in a black coffin. My father looked at the face of the county magistrate Gao. Magistrate Gao said—— Go back, I want to eat the nepeta you planted in Dingzhuang, next time you come, bring me some young nepeta.

My grandfather knew that he was dreaming, and what he saw were all things in the dream. He didn't want to go down to see it, but the dream was strange and rare, so he couldn't help but walk into the compound. Inside the compound is a coffin factory. Coffin factory.Not sure where this is.In the dream, the master knew that it was in the dream, but he didn't know where the dreamed place was.After passing through the wilderness of a plain, there is an open and small basin in the flat land where the sand dunes are spread on the ancient Yellow River road, and in the gully formed by the sand dunes.It is said to be a small basin, but it can't see the side at a glance.On this endless plain, among the slowly rising and falling sand dunes on the plain, my grandfather saw the coffin factory.The surrounding area is surrounded by barbed wire, and in the flat area surrounded by it, there is a large black coffin that has been prepared.The size and thickness of the coffins are all different. Because of the differences, the words A, B, and C are written in chalk on the coffins.It was noon, the sun was on the top of the plain, and golden rays shot down in bunches, like countless straightened gold bars and golden wire mesh in the sky.On the ancient road and plain of the Yellow River in the distance, through the rusted barbed wire, you can see the sun shining on the sand in waves, as if a flood is coming from a distant place.

Grandpa was standing on the large flat ground where the coffins were placed in the coffin factory, and saw hundreds of thousands of black coffins, placed in yards on the concrete floor that was bigger than a village, black and shiny. A large area, exposed to the sun at noon, each coffin has a pot of sacrificial characters or libation characters on the top of the coffin, with fonts as thick as arms and brushes.The golden sacrificial characters and founding characters gleamed dazzlingly under the white light.The Lord knew that this was a coffin factory specially built by the government for fever patients.When I entered the door just now, I saw a large couplet written on the coffin factory. The first couplet is for the patient to love you in the world, and the second couplet is for you to go all the way and send you to heaven.On the side of the couplet, my grandfather asked the person guarding the gate, what kind of factory is this? The person said a coffin factory.I asked where it was done? They said it was in the county.Can I go in and take a look? If someone wants to visit the coffin factory, how can I not let it go.My grandfather also came in, and saw hundreds of thousands of coffins, arranged and paved in black, like a black lake that grew out of the ground, and those luminous funeral and sacrificial characters, In the water of the lake, it is like a piece of boa constrictor and the head of a goldfish swimming on the surface of the black oil lake.

Then he continued to walk forward, and heard the rumbling sound of the machine, which came over like a thunderclap. He raised his head, walked around a sand dune along a cement road, and saw two rows of large machine rooms from a long distance away. Busy carpenters, painters, and carvers coming and going.The carpenters were busy making white coffins from the wooden boards lifted from the machine, and the carvers were busy carving sacrificial characters or libation characters on the top of the white coffin.The painter was busy carrying the engraved white coffin to the shelf outside the machine room, and then painted and sprayed the coffin.After the black paint had dried, someone painted gold powder water on the words on the front of the coffin.After all this was done, someone wrote Grade A, Grade B, and Grade C on the finished coffins according to their quality.

In the workshop of this coffin factory, the carpenters and painters working in the assembly line are all sweating profusely, and no one has time to talk to my grandfather, and they just look at him and are busy with their own affairs.Master walked over from that workshop to another coffin workshop. On the way, he met a middle-aged man who wrote A, B, and C on the coffin, and asked whether the coffins were still graded? The answer is that there are still thicknesses to eat food. The man left after saying that, and the master stood there dumbly for a while, and entered another workshop room built of pine wood and steel frames, only then did he realize that although this workshop also made coffins, the coffins were completely different from the ones outside. no the same.In front of more than a dozen black coffins, my grandfather saw that three coffins were made of paulownia planks four inches thick, and two were made of red pine wood four and a half inches thick.Buried in the ground, red pine wood is not eaten by moths, and is resistant to moisture and decay. It is the top-grade wood for coffins in the Central Plains.Moreover, on the finely crafted coffin, not only are the characters for offering sacrifices or sacrificial offerings carved on the top of the coffin, but also lace with dragons crouching and phoenixes are carved around the characters. The picture and the picture of heaven welcoming relatives in the sky.The flowers are green and golden, making the coffin look like the garden of the palace.Going forward, there is a larger coffin on two benches. Four carvers carved pictures of souls ascending to heaven, pictures of immortals welcoming, and a hundred birds on the two sides of the coffin. Chaofeng Garden and Paradise Garden.In the Garden of Natu, the lacquer craftsmen painted gold and silver, showing extreme wealth and luxury.There is another sculptor, who leans the coffin lid against the wall and carves a grand banquet for descendants and a homecoming dance. The old people, children, and women are all sculpted to look like they are alive.All the maids who danced for the honored master who returned to their hometown were all too beautiful to describe, just like the maids of the Tang Dynasty in the early dynasties.Look at the careful and pious manner of the engravers, it seems that the coffin is not to be buried in the ground, but to be placed somewhere for display.My grandfather was surprised, so he walked towards the carvers and saw that the coffins carved by the five people were all made of cypress wood, and each coffin board was a single piece, and no side was joined by two cypress boards .My grandfather stopped in front of the cypress coffin, held his breath in front of the coffin, and saw that someone carved the golden dragon and silver phoenix in this picture and that picture on a coffin board, and engraved the flowing water in this garden and that garden. High mountains, fields and mountains in this village and that village.And on another coffin board, on the picture of the banquet in heaven, there are also engraved Dazhong brand cigarettes, Moutai brand wine, roasted chicken in a barrel and Yellow River fish on a plate.There are also mahjong tiles, playing cards, and the maids and servants around the emperor of the Tang Dynasty who fanned the emperor and beat his back.The weirdest thing is the person who engraved the Paradise of Paradise. He engraved TV sets, refrigerators, washing machines, and home appliances and machines that my grandfather had never seen before. He also engraved a statue beside the machines. In an antique room, the upper room of the door is an ancient semi-circular tile, and the door frame under the tile is engraved with the six characters of the People's Bank of China.Each of them is carved with concentration and precision, as if a sculptor is sculpting a Buddha statue. There is fine sweat hanging on the forehead of each of them, and the eyeballs are bulging out of the eyes because of the daily carving.Some of the carving knives in their hands are flat, some are crescent, and some are as sharp as a knife for cutting feet.Snow-white and golden cypress flowers flew up and down from under their knives, and the ground was covered with a thick layer of flowers and rice grains.There was a fragrant smell of cypress oil, flying up from the coffin and cypress flowers, circling around the room for a while, and then drifting out from the gate.My grandfather didn't know who this coffin was for, which fever patient was blessed with the emperor's burial, so he took advantage of a carver to sharpen his knife and said, this coffin is really good.

People looked at him and said it was a dragon coffin. It turns out that this is the dragon coffin.My grandfather turned around and said, what kind of coffin is the coffin with the welcoming picture painted on the pine coffin? People say it is a unicorn coffin.Q: The paulownia coffin in front is only carved on the rails? It is said to be the coffin of the beast king. My lord, let me ask, who will use this dragon coffin? The engraver lost his patience and looked up at him as if he had asked something he shouldn't have asked.Grandpa just stood there sullenly for a while.Walking out of the workshop for making dragon coffins, unicorn coffins and beast king coffins, I saw that the sun had moved from the top of the dunes to the west of the dunes.In the warmth of winter, there is a cold wind.The large black coffins of Class A, B, and C in front no longer looked like a coffin lake, but like a coffin array.At this time, someone was walking back and forth among the coffin array, pointing to this coffin, talking about that coffin, as if they were choosing a coffin.

On the edge of the coffin array, a large truck full of coffins was parked. The truck didn't seem to be pulling a coffin, but a black mountain.On that mountain, someone carefully carried the coffin that was finally selected towards the top of the mountain.In order to prevent the coffins from grinding and bumping, a person under the car directs the coffin loaders to place straw mats and mats on the sides and ends of each coffin.The commanding person was wearing a small blue overcoat with a red fur collar on his neck. He spoke in a rough voice, gesticulating, and sounded familiar, as if my grandfather ran into his family when he went out. My grandfather turned to look at the man. Sure enough, I saw a family member. I saw that it was my father who directed the loading of the car there.The grandfather stood there in amazement for a while, and walked towards his son.But when he hurriedly passed through the coffin array, he was almost in front of the truck full of coffins. Not only had the truck been loaded, but the coffins on the truck were also tied up with thick hemp ropes. .As soon as the car started, there was a puff of smoke and it drove towards the gate.The people who loaded the truck disappeared with my dad on the truck in a blink of an eye. My grandfather stood on the spot where the truck had parked just now, looking at the car going away, Hui—— woke up. After waking up from the dream, Grandpa saw his father standing in front of his bed, with a smile on his face, calling his father affectionately, saying that he went to the city and met the county magistrate Gao in the city.It is said that the county magistrate Gao is the original director Gao of the Education Bureau, and now he is the deputy county magistrate and the head of the fever committee.Said that deputy county magistrate Gao asked him to come back to say hello to his father, and also promised to give five catties of oil to each family in Dingzhuang who were sick, and a whip for each family during the Chinese New Year, so that the people of Dingzhuang could have a good New Year. Grandpa sat stunned on the edge of the bed, looked at dad, and thought about the dream of the coffin factory, as if he was still in a dream.