Chapter 60 Chapter Five Seeing the Dead

At this time, some people came again. All the old and young in the village wanted to see how grandpa caught the ghost that made them unable to burn paper money. Hong Danian took out more than a dozen packs of written paper money in the house, and laid them out in a row on the dry straw. Grandpa asked someone to move two door panels and stood them upright beside the dry straw, supported by two young people.Grandpa and Hong Danian sat cross-legged in front of the door respectively, with their backs to the door and amulets on their heads. The newly dead in our place have to lie flat on the door panel for two days before they can be put into the coffin.People of the older generation say that ghosts cannot pass through the door panels.So I guess the purpose of grandpa doing this is to fear that the thirsty ghost will attack from behind.

"Order grass!" Grandpa ordered, and then closed his eyes with Hong Danian. The two women hurriedly set fire to the straw that was pressed under the paper money. The flames rose up, like red tongues licking the white sealing paper.The people around fell silent, watching the jumping flames and the two sitting silently. The white sealing paper was opened by the flames, revealing the yellow paper money.The edges of the paper money began to turn black and spread inward.Grandpa read a sentence of "Hong Da Nian" followed by another sentence, and the shadows of the two of them hit the door panel behind them, floating with the flames, as if their souls had left their bodies.

Some elders said that if there is no shadow under the light or flame, it proves that the soul has dissociated. The reason why Hong Danian was asked to watch those ghosts picking up money together was because he was the only one here who knew all the people from the previous generation.If he saw a ghost he didn't know picking up money here, he could point it out to his grandpa, and grandpa would be able to tell which was the poor and thirsty ghost. The flames became more and more intense, and only the center piece of the paper money remained unburned.The straw under the paper money is surrounded by black charcoal ash, and the place where the flame burns is red, like the wire on the stove.

Grandpa snapped his fingers when he read "Apocalypse Spirit, look into my eyes", and then said, "Open your eyes." Hong Danian and his grandfather opened their eyes together, looking at the place where the flames jumped. "See?" Grandpa asked. Hong Danian gasped, his eyes widened: "I'm not dreaming, am I?" After speaking, he blinked hard twice, then raised his hand to rub again. Grandpa said calmly: "Village chief, look carefully and don't get distracted." Hong Danian really has the aura of being a leader, he calmed down immediately, and peeked forward with his head stretched forward.And the rest of us just saw the flames take over the last center piece and nothing else.

Hong Danian carefully looked at the emptiness in front of him, muttering in his mouth and pointing with his fingers, like counting the number of piglets walking around in a pigsty. "Laibao, you haven't weeded weeds on your father's grave for a long time." Hong Danian said while looking at the front sideways. Immediately, a middle-aged man bowed his head and nodded in the crowd: "Hey, hey." "Look, look, your father's clothes are covered with grass all over his body, like a beggar. Really, no matter how busy you are, you have to clean your father's grave." Hong Danian tutted.

The middle-aged man immediately bowed his waist and replied, "I will go tomorrow." The woman next to him patted the middle-aged man on the shoulder and cursed: "I told you to have time to visit your father's grave, but you didn't go. I haven't weeded your father's grave for more than half a year. People think that I am not virtuous as a daughter-in-law." Everyone was amazed. "Gensheng, where is the root?" Hong Danian asked again with great dissatisfaction. "Yes." Another man bowed and nodded, much younger than the one just now.