Chapter 20 Chapter 20 The Gunner's Funeral

The night in this village surrounded by mountains is much darker than the night in the outside world.In the world smeared with black, there is no starlight to be seen.The whole village was immersed in a thick silence.It seems that at night, everything rushes into the black dreamland, making a mysterious date with the night. But in a forest, several piles of vigorous bonfires were lit.All the people in the village gathered together, and they were going to see off a soul here.A gunman is about to hit the road, and his soul will return to the sequence of the distant ancestors, and the people in the village will send the gunman for the last journey.

The people gathered around the fire did not have the sadness and grief of losing their loved ones. They all looked solemn and silently watched the people who were preparing for the gunmen to go on the road. The gunman who died was named Doro, the father of two boys. His Lusheng was the best in the village, and his love songs were also the brightest in the village.He is also the man who is the best and most affectionate towards women in the village. Whether it is his wife or other women in the village, he likes them from the bottom of his heart. He loves these women more than himself.And tonight, this Doro, who likes women more than his own life, is about to go on the road. He will leave these women he loves and go to the sequence of ancestors.Those beautiful women who were once loved by him, all wearing peacock blue homespun clothes, holding a bowl of clear spring water in their hands, walked silently around Doro's body, watching the brave man with gentle and quiet eyes. Pray for this man with the softest part of his heart, may he be full of flowers and joy along the way to the soul residence of his ancestors.The women dipped their slender hands into the clear spring water in the bowl and sprinkled it on Doro's face. Doro's dark face was as calm as a cold lake glowing at night, mysterious and deep.

Beside a blazing fire not far away, some people are lighting the fire, killing pigs, and making pilaf with mellow glutinous rice. They are making adequate preparations for Doro to return to his ancestral homeland. Everyone in the village must be buried on the same day after dying, this is the rule set by the ancestors.They must rush to send the soul of the deceased away quietly before the mountain gods and wild ghosts get the news of the death of the deceased.They are afraid that after the mountain gods and wild ghosts get the news that the deceased is going to leave, they will set up obstacles and traps for the dead souls on the way, so that the souls of the dead will get lost in the mountains, and finally become the servants of these mountain gods and wild ghosts, and live on this side of the world. people know nothing.

At this time, several young and beautiful girls walked to Doro's side with the help of an old woman with an ebony crutch.The old lady is Doro's grandmother, Grandma Thorpe.Grandma Thorpe is over one hundred and twenty years old.The passing of more than a hundred years has compressed her originally slender and straight waist into a bow that can never be straightened again, making her walk like an old egret. Grandma Thorpe's husband has entrusted her with many dreams, and he wants to take Grandma Thorpe to her ancestors.But Granny Thorpe always told Master Thorpe that if she went with him, who would take care of the juniors in the village.These juniors can't do without her care!

Grandma Thorpe just got the news that Doro was going to the ancestors.So she entrusted Doro to carry the news from here to the ancestors.Grandma Thorpu wants to beg her ancestors, since Doro's soul has been taken over by her ancestors, she will ask the ancestors over there to send another descendant.Incense continues, lives and reproduces, from generation to generation... Inheritance is an eternal code from generation to generation, which can only be comprehended without deciphering... Grandma Thorpe was supported tremblingly by Doro's side. Looking at Doro, who was upright as if she was asleep, she took a bowl of clear spring water from a woman, dipped her dry fingers in the spring water and sprinkled it on Doro. Luo's face was dripping wet, and he said to Doro in a vague old voice: "Duoluo! Good boy, let's go on the road, be careful, don't let the beautiful goblins transformed into those jackals, tigers and leopards in the mountains fascinate you Don't be playful, don't be naughty, don't fall in love with a woman who has nothing to do with you on the road, just go straight to your ancestors, and tell your ancestors, we cut down a tree, and we will plant another tree , can't let this stockade lack the shade of trees..."

The tree that marked Doro hadn't fully grown up, so the people in the village cut down the tree that marked Grandma Sopu to build a house in the underworld for Doro - a coffin.In the future, if Grandma Thorpe leaves, she will use the tree of Doro to build the house of the underworld. The meat is cooked, chopped, and served in fragrant glutinous rice, wrapped in fresh zongba leaves.At this time, Riwobuji cut a few green bamboos from the forest, and built a bridge for him beside Doro, so that he could cross thousands of mountains and rivers and go back to the place where his ancestors lived.He picked up the glutinous rice wrapped in Zongba leaves and picked it up with a wooden spear gun, pinched it in Doro's hand, and asked Doro to carry the glutinous rice to honor his ancestors.Afterwards, Riwobuji walked into the depths of a dense forest by himself, calling Doro's name one after another, and after calling for a while, he stopped to listen again. Finally, there was a crisp bird song from the forest.The mountains and forests at night were extremely quiet, and the clear and crisp birdsong sounded far away. All the men and women in the village gathered around the fire heard the clear and clear bird's song, and everyone's faces immediately surfaced. A layer of relieved smile.Everyone knew well at this time that Doro's soul had already possessed the bird, and no one in the village could use guns or slingshots to shoot the bird that made such a cry.

It was the men in the village who organized Doro's entire funeral, from lighting the fire and cooking to dressing the deceased Doro and building bridges. Now, everyone in the village is waiting for an hour. As long as Riwobuji gives an order, several men in the village will go up together to pull Doro up, wrap Doro tightly in black earthen cloth, and then use morning Duoluo was tied to a wooden pole for drying rice with strips of thin bamboo strips. The wooden poles for drying rice are also bridges connecting the two realms of life and death. A slight cold wind began to blow in the dark air, and the mysterious bird was still singing from time to time in the woods, as if Doro's soul was saying a final farewell to the folks in the village.

At this moment, Riwobuji took out a brass bell from his bosom, rang the bell, and two strong young men lifted up Doro, who was firmly tied to the wooden pole, and walked briskly towards the depths of the dense forest, which had already been dug. to a hidden cemetery. Under the deep night, the men, women, old and young in the village held up the torches and followed silently. Passing through the dark forest, the light from the torches made the group of people in the village seem to have come from a long time ago. Riwobuji shook the copper bell in front of him, chanting buzzing secret words, in the silent surroundings, those creatures who had not fallen asleep seemed to be listening to the sound of a soul on the road.

Doro's tomb is about three meters long, one meter wide, and two meters deep. The people in the village made brooms out of glutinous rice seedlings and cleaned Doro's tomb carefully. The empty coffin was put in, and Doro was untied from the wooden pole, and carefully put Doro into the empty coffin, with his head facing the rising sun in the east and the direction where the ancestors lived.His blunderbuss was purposely placed by his hand. When everything was ready, Riwobuji shook the brass bell in his hand for the last time, and shouted loudly: "Let's go..." Everyone on the side echoed.

"Let's go..." Mixed shouts echoed among the mountains... Doro's tomb was quickly buried with soil, and a small tree was planted on it. When midnight came, the people in the village quickly evacuated from the cemetery. They put out the torches in their hands and disappeared into the deep and deserted night. When the sun rose over the mountains the next day, amidst the mist, it looked like nothing but a verdant forest where Doro lay. Gunner Doro has come and gone, just like this newborn vigorous sun, fresh and vigorous when it comes, lonely and lonely when it goes...