Chapter 9 Chapter 9 Names Added to Tombstones

After thinking about it, Zhang Da finally slapped his forehead and understood.This Mr. Sun and Director Sun look alike, and they both have the surname Sun. Needless to say, they must be a family.Thinking of this broke out in a cold sweat.Although he made a fortune recently by stealing the stele, Accountant Xu's death also frightened him a lot.If you do these things in the future, you have to be on guard against this old grandson. It's not a joke to be directly reported to the director by him.I am so bold that I even dare to earn the money of the dead, and I might even lose this bowl of official food.

Fortunately, Lao Wangtou was on duty today, so Zhang Da felt more at ease.People who went to the grave before and after the Qingming Festival brought a lot of soul chickens, but unfortunately they were all taken away by cars sent by the institute to condolences to the staff.In the past few days, Zhang Da didn't even touch any meat, and he was very displeased.It just so happens that the cemetery has been deserted these days, not to mention chickens, there is not a single ghost. There was the sound of a motor in the distance, and an old-fashioned Santana drove up.Four or five grave visitors got out of the car one after another, and one of them carried a big red rooster in his hand.This made Zhang Da happy, he didn't expect someone to deliver the chicken to his door before noon, he really came here for whatever he wanted, and the smell of the stewed chicken made his mouth water.

Speaking of this, it is necessary to introduce what is called soul chicken.In the past, people regarded birds as the carrier of human spirit, and even believed that birds were the souls of the dead, and they could extradite the souls of the dead on the ground to fly to heaven.The dead are on the long road to the underworld and need a guide to attract souls.Filial men and filial women choose chickens, so the deceased must have a chicken to receive the soul, commonly known as the chicken for the soul.Anyway, that's probably what it means.Generally, the folks will choose a bright red rooster with pure coat color as the soul chicken, and cut the rooster's comb to sprinkle some blood on the ground when doing burial rituals.Most people release the chicken directly into the cemetery after the ceremony.This is why our cemetery used to eat chicken almost every day.

Zhang Da stood at the gate of the cemetery, just waiting for the baby rooster to come out quickly so that he could throw the chicken into the pot.Unexpectedly, after the family finished their visit to the grave and came down from the cemetery, they almost didn't crook his nose.Unexpectedly, this family was so stingy, and they took out the cock again after using it.Zhang Da was furious, and ran straight to the man carrying the chicken, "Stop, I'm talking about you." The man felt strange and stood there holding the chicken, "What's the matter?" "Where are you going to take this chicken?"

"Take it home, what's the matter?" Zhang Da pointed to the chicken and asked the man, "Do you know what it's called?" "Soul-leading chicken." The man quite understood. Zhang Da sneered a few times: "Hehe, you still know it's a soul chicken. You want to bring back the soul of the dead?" The man was stunned, why didn't he think of this, he quickly released the cock and thanked Zhang Da repeatedly. Watching the family leaving the chicken on the ground and leaving in despair, Zhang Da couldn't help but bawled, and cursed secretly: "Stingy, I don't even want to give us a chicken. Thanks to me, I have a clever idea." At noon today, there was finally another chicken. After eating, Zhang Daxi smiled.But the big red rooster was quite lively, it jumped left and right once, jumped three times and jumped twice into the cemetery, Zhang Da threw himself a few times but failed to catch it.

"I don't believe I can't catch you today." Zhang Da spat on both hands, and slowly approached the chicken.With a sudden force, the man and the chicken fell to the ground.The big red rooster was still bleeding from its comb, and his splash of blood splashed all over his face and body.And the worst thing is that the tombstone next to it was also spattered with blood. Zhang Da sat up with the chicken in his arms, and he was still muttering: "My ancestor, I didn't mean to offend you. Isn't this catching a chicken? I accidentally came to your place. I will bring the thinner and give the blood to you in a while. You wipe it up."

Raising his head, there was a line of blood splattered obliquely on the stele in front of him, and several large black characters were engraved on the stele: Xu Siwen's Tomb. A gust of wind blew, making Zhang Da feel cold from head to toe.The rooster in his hand was still struggling, but he had long ignored it, his eyes fixed on the monument.Ever since Accountant Xu died, he has never looked at this stele carefully. This is a white white marble stele, which is quite ordinary among the tombs.The middle of the lettering is filled with black paint on it. The paint is brand new, so black that it shines. The three big characters "Xu Siwen" were splashed with bright red by chicken blood.But, but... Zhang Da's eyes kept enlarging, as if they were about to burst.Beside the three words "Xu Siwen", there are several other words, which seem to be written by someone dipping their fingers in blood.It was crooked, but it was written——Zhang Da.

Ghost, it's a ghost!She wants my life!As soon as Zhang Da let go, the big red rooster struggled from his hand and jumped to the ground to escape.Where did he have the will to chase after him, he sat down on the ground.The cemetery was very quiet, and the rows of tombstones towering all around him stood around him like groups of wandering spirits in white clothes.Zhang Da looked at his name carefully, the blood was red, it was as fresh as the chicken blood next to it.Ah, couldn't it be written on it with chicken blood by those who went to the grave just now?Zhang Da carefully recalled the appearance of the man just now.In his thirties, with a medium build, he was the one who wrote those two words on the stele of Accountant Xu?But he didn't know me, and besides, he came with a big family, so he didn't look like a ghost.

The word "Zhang Da" is clearly recognizable, and it is engraved on the right side of Accountant Xu's name.In ancient times, the right side of the stele was Zun, and the name of the man was generally written, and the left side was the back, and the name of the woman was written.And writing his name in this position is the meaning of joint burial.Could it be a curse?No matter what it was, at least the person who wrote must know about his adultery with Accountant Xu.This was so unbelievable that Zhang Da didn't dare to think about it anymore.He found a rag from the ground next to him, and wiped it on the stele with the water in the gutter, until the chicken blood and the handwriting of his name were blurred together, and he sat beside him and panted heavily. gas.

Stop scaring yourself.Zhang Da patted his buttocks and stood up, and muttered a few words in front of Accountant Xu's grave: "I'm really sorry for the date that day. But I really didn't hurt you. If you have any grudges or grudges, you must go to the murderer. It has nothing to do with me. When walking out of the cemetery, Zhang Da saw the red rooster standing quietly in front of a tombstone, raising one foot facing the tombstone, as if in a salute gesture.Does this chicken really have a soul?These things seem to be unbelievable.Lead the soul, does that soul really exist? Zhang Da went back to the office without saying hello to anyone, just smoking a cigarette by himself, thinking wildly in his head, out of his mind.He thought he couldn't tell anyone about it.Originally, I had a problem with my life style, and my colleagues in the cemetery found out that it was hard to say.Under the eyes of the management office, someone wrote blood on the stele. Who would believe it?Could it be that accountant Xu is haunted and looking for my life?Anyway, she died because of me, and those things wouldn't have happened if I hadn't invited her to that pine forest.Alas, thinking about her death is also very strange, won't she just become a wronged soul?One day, I'll burn more paper for her, so that her life over there will be more stable, and don't come here to find me.

There are me and Brother Meng in the office. We have almost finished our work in the morning, and we each occupy a sofa to rest.Brother Meng didn't say a word to me today, even when I took the initiative to talk to him, he just hummed to me symbolically.Yu Jingjing must have misunderstood him.I really want to explain it to him right away, but this office is not the place to talk about this matter after all.At this moment, we all turned our eyes to Zhang Da who had just entered the room at the same time, his black face was purple and blue.My heart tightened, what happened to him?Is it that eccentric Zhang Shuqing?Or the big red rooster?Why didn't Zhang Da, who has always loved chicken, catch it? It's time for dinner, Lao Wang invited everyone to eat in the outhouse, and the tables, chairs, bowls and chopsticks had already been set up.The three of us sat around the table thinking about our own affairs.Zhang Da gradually returned to his normal state, but his spirit still seemed sluggish.The good weather looks like a child's face can change at any time, the wind blows outside the window at some point, and the sun loses its color, and it is inevitable that there will be another heavy rain.The temperature in the room plummeted, Lao Wang closed the window and fastened the door, and I even started to shiver.Seeing this kind of weather, we have no choice but to wait for the director's car to come back. Old Wangtou poured himself a glass of shochu, lifted a pot lid on the table, and immediately smelled delicious. It turned out that it was chicken stewed with mushrooms.Zhang Da was taken aback: "Master Wang, where did this chicken come from?" "Hehe, isn't this the one left by the family who went to the grave just now? It's a coincidence that you went to the cemetery just now to catch it, but it threw itself into a trap and wandered to our door." Old Wang headed As long as the chatterbox is opened, it is difficult to interrupt the chatter. "Oh." Zhang Da took a breath, and said to himself, "This old king led Hun'er into the pot, so there won't be any retribution." Zhang Da didn't eat chicken today, he just picked up some cold dishes.Brother Meng and I gobbled it up and ate heartily. Woo... Woo... The wind outside the window was accompanied by whistling, which was long and harsh.There is also the faint sound of thunder, like the neighing of thousands of horses and horns on the battlefield.The light in the room is getting dimmer, it doesn't look like noon, it's more like dusk.There are only some leftovers left on the table in the house.The few of us slowed down to clean up this last battlefield. The sound of the rain gradually became louder, from little noises to a line, and finally to a single sound, and then the wind and rain.There was a loud thunder in the air, as if it had been struck from the middle of the roof, and the whole bungalow of the cemetery management office trembled twice.We were all unprepared, and the bowls and chopsticks almost fell to the ground.The old Wang drank the last sip of wine and said to himself: "What the hell is this weather? Why is Mr. Sun coming to change my shift later? If you ride a bike or walk up in this weather, you can't drink it thoroughly, you must be sick No." Neither of us spoke, just stuffing the last bite of rice into our mouths. Dangdang, Dangdang... Suddenly there was a crisp knock on the door. Everyone was shocked, and a chill ran from the end of the spine to the tip of the head. When, when.The voice was so clear that everyone heard it, and someone must be knocking on the door. With such heavy rain, who would come here?We all held our breath and stopped the movements of our hands. Dangdang, Dangdang... Brother Meng looked at me, I looked at Zhang Da, Zhang Da glanced at Old Wangtou, and finally all of us focused our eyes on Old Wangtou's face.Old Wang drank some wine, his face was as red as a red light in the middle of the road.He understood why everyone was looking at him at this moment.Everyone remembered the strange thing he had told. It was pitch black outside the window, and the room was so dark that a lamp was needed.Everyone didn't want to answer the knock, or dare to go to the door.Who is outside the door?Is Accountant Xu looking for us?Is it Zhang Shuqing?Or the villagers passing by nearby to take shelter from the rain?Another thunder exploded, and the bowls on the table were buzzing.The knocking on the door became more urgent. It seemed that if no one opened the door, the people outside would never give up.After a brief silence, it was Old Wang who broke the deadlock.After all, he is a farmer, courageous and stubborn. Now there are three people in the room to encourage him, which is better than being alone in the middle of the night. Whether it is a person or a ghost, he has to go out to see what happened.He picked up the wooden stick by the door, leaned against the door, and shouted loudly: "Who, who?" The knocking on the door stopped, it must have heard the old Wangtou shouting.Everyone held their breath listening to the movement outside the door.Finally a hoarse voice came from outside: "Does Zheng Xinyuan live here?" The few of us were shocked, our muscles trembled suddenly, and we grabbed the bowls, stove hooks, and small shovels closest to us as weapons, and we didn't even feel that our hands were about to shatter.The old Wang took two steps back and shouted loudly with Jiu Jin: "It doesn't matter if you are a human or a ghost, hurry up, you are not welcome here." Something seemed to have been inserted into the keyhole, and the lock cylinder suddenly snapped aside.This is something we didn't expect, and it's too late to go up and press the door lock.The door was pulled open, and a dark figure stood there. The rain outside the door became a thread, and the rain thread weaved into a background composed of a water curtain, and a black shadow flashed into the room as the foreground.The people in the room were only focused on seeing his face clearly, but they didn't expect him to enter the room so fast.Almost everyone let out an "ah" at the same time, and immediately put their weapons on their chests, ready to fight this black shadow to the death. The black figure took off the hat of the raincoat and said, "It's me, what are you all doing?" Old Wang turned on the light, and it turned out that Director Sui was standing inside the door wearing a black raincoat, and the same black rain boots were covered with mud.Then two people ran in from the door, they were Director Sun and Teacher Guan.Only then did we notice that Director Sun's car was parked outside the door.It turned out that the thunderstorm was so loud that we didn't notice the car coming. The director looked displeased, pointed at us and said, "You guys are suspicious all day long, and Zheng Xinyuan was terrified when I heard about it. You are too embarrassed to serve the people, and you don't even believe in materialism. .Look at you, quickly put down the things in your hands, Director Sun is here." Only then did we come to our senses and put down the weapons in our respective hands.In my hand was a small shovel for adding coal, and when I put it back, I realized that my hands were red from pinching. Director Sun helped Mr. Guan into the room, and Mr. Guan's complexion was better than before he left.The director is also really, what can he do in such a scary thunderstorm day? He has to pretend to be a ghost to scare us, but who dares to teach him a lesson? He is the only one who can tell us.Fortunately, it was a false alarm, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.The few of us looked at each other and smiled, Brother Meng also winked at me, and I stuck out my tongue at him, as if he didn't hate me so much anymore. The director called us into the office and said that there was an impromptu meeting.Director Sun drank tea and listened.The director said: "A lot of things happened in our cemetery some time ago, which made the place so noisy that everyone didn't have the mood to work hard. This is not going to work. We still rely on everyone to develop here. Director Sun and I After discussing it, we need to strengthen our political and ideological education in the future, hold regular seminars, and consolidate the materialist worldview. Everyone should be clear that there are no ghosts in this world at all. The so-called ghosts are all in your In your heart. Don’t spread those so-called strange things by word of mouth. If you don’t see the strange things, they will defeat you. Accountant Xu often had hallucinations after listening to the nonsense that you people said, and he was frightened to death in the end. Tell me about this Isn’t the lesson painful enough? Starting today, whoever is a ghost, we will first persuade and educate him, and if the education is not good, he will be fired. After work, except for the watchman, other people should not stay here. For the safety of the watchmen, we can allow the watchmen not to enter the cemetery at night to watch the night. And after two days, the institute will allocate funds to install anti-theft doors and windows for the management office, so that at least the watchmen will be safer. Also, Mr. Guan’s home The matter has been dealt with, and I will resume work from today. The father of the director, Mr. Sun, has volunteered to work for our cemetery for a week these days. On behalf of the whole cemetery, I pay tribute to Director Sun and Mr. Sun for their selfless help." Individuals applauded unanimously under the leadership of the director. Director Sun stood up and returned the salute in a very gentlemanly manner. Fortunately, the director used to be a soldier, so the meeting was always concise and to the point, and the meeting ended here.There was a hint of sneer at the corner of my mouth: "Hmph, no ghosts, no ghosts, where did a living dead like me come from?" After the rain, the sky cleared, and a rainbow hung high in the clouds.The air is extremely fresh, and a breath that only belongs to spring blows towards our faces.The birds chirped to enjoy this rare and wonderful time, and the dull mountains immediately became lively. Director Sun was sent away, and we were the only ones left in the cemetery.Old Wang took a broom to clean the cemetery, and several people in the house also went to the door to breathe fresh air.I heard from the director that the funeral home is going to send an accountant to do the accounts part-time first, and the higher-ups will send a new accountant after a while.Looking at the pine forest to the west of the cemetery, everyone shook their heads and sighed. Accountant Xu was too young anyway, so it was a pity that he was buried here. I overestimated Brother Meng, but he still didn't forgive me, he just chatted with the director and didn't even look at me.In this case, I don't need to put my hot face on someone's cold ass.I chatted with Mr. Guan, and he is in good spirits, in good health, and has quit drinking.He didn't mention how his son died, and I didn't have the nerve to ask.Originally, I had too many questions that I wanted to communicate with him, but there were people around and I couldn't discuss them in depth. Old Wang came down from the cemetery with a broom. He called Zhang Da aside, and the two of them were muttering for some reason.Zhang Da's expression changed accordingly, and he quickly walked up to the cemetery.what happened to him?Several of us watched his back very surprised. It turned out that the old Wangtou said to Zhang Da just now: "Just now I walked around the cemetery and found a strange thing." Zhang Da's heart tightened, and he looked at the old Wangtou intently and asked, "What, what's the strange thing. "Old Wang's expression was very solemn, he gritted his teeth and said word by word: "I don't know who wrote your name in blood on Accountant Xu's tombstone." "Ah!" Zhang Da was not pretending to be surprised this time from.Although he knew about it before the old Wangtou, those handwritings had been wiped clean by himself, so why did they appear there again? Zhang Da was thinking about the whole incident while walking towards the cemetery.A whole family came to visit the grave, and the location was not far from Accountant Xu’s grave. Then the man came down the mountain with a soul-leading chicken and was stopped by himself. Then he grabbed the chicken and entered the cemetery. It was the chicken that led him to the tomb of Accountant Xu. Is that chicken really possessed by Accountant Xu?Thinking of this, Zhang Da shuddered, and the hairs all over his body stood on end.No one was in the cemetery when the words were wiped, and then it rained heavily. Did the red dye show up again after the rain poured on the words?While thinking about it, he has already come to the front. Not knowing how to describe the weirdness of this incident, Zhang Da's head buzzed, and he felt that the blood all over his body rushed to his brain instantly.On the tombstone of Accountant Xu, there is indeed the word "Zhang Da" in red, and the handwriting has changed - these two words were newly written by someone. A few people in the distance were still chatting nonsense.Seeing no one around, Zhang Da put his palms together and knelt down in front of Accountant Xu’s tomb, praying in a low voice: “Swen, rest in peace there, don’t come to me. I really didn’t harm you. Of course I I also have a responsibility, I will offer you more incense sticks some other day, and burn more paper for you, that’s all, don’t tease me like this.” After saying this, he picked up a rag and carefully wiped the handwriting clean.Sure enough, it was newly written, and it can be wiped off without too much trouble by the wet rainwater in the grass.After finishing all this, Zhang Da almost crawled down to the cemetery. Although we chatted about our own things, Zhang Da's every move did not escape anyone's eyes.Teacher Guan said in a low voice, "Taozi, you know, a lot of strange things have really happened recently. But I'm already my age, so I don't believe in ghosts and gods, so don't you either." I was taken aback, I didn't expect him to talk to me about this topic first, "What strange things have happened to you?" "I saw accountant Xu being frightened to death with my own eyes. That night she went straight to the pine forest after work. I thought it was strange and followed her all the time. As a result, when she ran out of the forest, she seemed to have seen something particularly frightening. Something, the whole face was distorted. Even I was frightened out for several hours. I really don’t know what could scare her like that. Could there be monsters in the woods?” Teacher Guan would rather say monsters than ghosts The word shows that he still sticks to the materialist camp.I took a deep breath and finally figured out what happened that night.It must be that I got out of the taxi because I drank too much and turned into a ghost, which scared accountant Xu to death.Yes, it must be so. Isn't there a passage in "Feng Shen Bang" that "Su Daji shows her tail after drinking".Damn, I even compare myself to a vixen, it's really pathetic.Thinking of this, I moved my mouth, but still didn't dare to tell the truth.I know the price of telling the truth: either scare people to death, or be regarded as crazy. Seeing Brother Meng and the director walking to the other end of the open space, we should not be able to hear our conversation, Teacher Guan continued: "There are even more strange things." Is there anything more bizarre than Accountant Xu's death?Now I really can't figure it out. "Do you know that my son is dead?" When he said this, Teacher Guan's expression was obviously a little sad, and it seemed that it touched his pain of losing his son. "I know, but people can't be resurrected after death, so please mourn." I didn't know how to comfort him. "My son died inexplicably in his own home. According to my daughter-in-law, it was after nine o'clock in the evening. My son was watching TV in the living room alone, and she was taking a shower in the bathroom. He heard a scream, and his eyes widened when my daughter-in-law came out again. Died on the sofa. That time was very close to Accountant Xu’s death. Director Sun and I drove there the next day and went to see his remains. His terrified expression was too much like Accountant Xu. Their The method of death seems to be from the hand of the same person." "Then what happened next?" I was confused again when I heard this.Could it be that other ghosts besides me went to Harbin at the same time and scared his son to death? "The local police also conducted an investigation, but found no clues. Indeed, no one else entered the house that day. The final conclusion was a natural death—sudden death. But I know, there must be another reason." I can't answer anything.My brain can no longer explain so many mysterious incidents, not to mention that I have been hit by these unexpected incidents almost every day recently.If this goes on like this, before he can completely transform into a ghost, he will become insane. "Ms. Guan, it's fine. The most important thing is to take good care of your body. There are many things that we can't change." "Yeah, yeah. Thank you Peach."