Chapter 3 Chapter 2 No one in the coffin
The next day, the sky was gloomy, with dark clouds covering the sky like a layer of winter quilt, which made me feel a little breathless.It was raining heavily, and there was not even a breath of wind in the whole valley.
Grandpa got up early, sat on the stone bench in front of the door, and watched great-grandfather smoking dry cigarettes.Great-grandmother was cooking the noodle buns for breakfast in the pot, and she didn't say a word all morning.
"This is also a last resort. From now on, you will follow your master and study hard. If you have the talent to be able to learn well, that's good. If it's not for this material, you should just follow along. At least you won't starve to death. When the great-grandfather said this, he spit out a puff of smoke and choked himself.
After hearing this, Grandpa always felt suffocated, as if he was blocked by something.In his memory, he only felt this way on the day his grandma died.Grandpa was bored for nearly a minute before he replied, "Yes!"
During the dinner that morning, no one spoke.The great-grandmother had been picking up vegetables for grandpa, so much that his chipped bowl couldn't hold it, so he had to give the third grandpa all the scrambled green onions with eggs that he seldom ate on weekdays.
After the meal, the clouds in the sky didn't seem to want to disperse.Grandpa followed Yu Guangcai and Li Wei to bid farewell to great-grandfather and great-grandmother, and then the three of them walked towards Lijiawan.
The Li family is a well-known landlord in this area. Since the fathers of Li Huai'en, the master of the Li family, they have purchased hundreds of acres of fertile land in this area, and the family has hired dozens of farmers and workers.Li Huai'en treats people generously. The poor farmers nearby work for the Li family. Although the wages are not much, the treatment is excellent.Meat can be eaten every three to five days, so everyone competes for this job.But in my grandfather's impression, he was often taught by his great-grandfather that a person can only stand up straight if he can support himself.Therefore, as long as my grandfather can remember, he never thought about working for a landlord.
The landlord, Li Huai'en, has three children. The eldest is a daughter. She married a cloth merchant in Tianjin in her early years and ran a cheongsam business along the coast.The second child's name is Li Shaohua, and he is highly regarded by Li Huai'en. Everyone knows that most of this huge family business will fall into his hands.The woman who died in a foreign land this time was Li Shaohua's wife. The two had been married for several years and had a four-year-old son.The third child, named Li Shaorong, went to the provincial capital to study three years ago. This time his sister-in-law passed away, and it was the first time he returned home after going out to study.
After walking for almost two miles, I finally saw the Li family's house.Grandpa passed by here many times when he was a child. In his impression, this house is similar to the old palace compound. It is magnificent, but not angry at all.
"When you enter the house, remember to do more and talk less, and try not to inquire about other people's family affairs." Yu Guangcai instructed.
Grandpa nodded, and saw three people sitting at the door of the house from a distance, two men and one woman, all with blue gauze pinned to their left arms.Seeing Yu Guangcai coming, the three of them got up to greet each other.
Li Wei laughed: "It seems that they came earlier than us."
Grandpa walked up to the three people in doubt, and listened to Yu Guangcai's introduction.He pointed to the tall and rough man and said: "This is Zeng Yingui, our blower, he is an expert at playing suona in the vicinity."
Grandpa was a little happy when he heard the name."Real silver is not as expensive as real gold," he said.
Zeng Yingui was bold and said: "This young man has some background, I really have a brother named Zeng Jingui."
His words made everyone laugh.
A woman in her early thirties came forward who was standing next to him.She asked, "Is he a friend of the master?"
Grandpa hurriedly introduced himself: "My name is Hu Junzhi, and I live on the mountainside two miles away. I'm here to gain experience."
"Hi, hello, my name is Luo Qi, and I'm the mourner in our team," the woman said.
Seeing that his grandfather was a little confused, Li Wei took the opportunity to explain to his grandfather: "Generally, when someone dies in a family, let's go to the ceremony. This mourning is the most tiring and the most technical. After the death of ordinary people, the soul will not leave the house for too long. They want to watch their children and grandchildren cry for them, and if they cry badly, their souls will not leave, so there is such a professional mourner.”
"This is the drummer of our team this time. Although he has been with us for a short time, he is a quick learner. His name is Lin Zi." Luo Qi pointed to a young man of seventeen or eighteen years old and introduced him.
The drummer named Lin Zi didn't like to talk very much, he bowed his head slightly towards his grandpa, without showing a smile on his face, as if he didn't care too much about grandpa, a young boy.When grandpa saw this, he naturally wouldn't give him a good face. After a sneer, he turned around.
After a few people talked, Yu Guangcai asked, "How long have you three been here?"
"About an hour." Luo Qi replied.
"Then is the body here?"
"We've arrived, and we've only entered the door not long ago." That Lin Zi finally opened his mouth, "But..."
"But what?" Yu Guangcai asked.
Lin Zi frowned, smacked his lips twice, and said, "I can't tell, I just feel that something is wrong, and there is no proof."
"Well, I think so. I also encountered a strange thing last night. I'll tell you about it later. Let's go in first." Li Wei said, looking at Yu Guangcai.
"En." Yu Guangcai responded coldly, then turned and entered the door, and a group of people followed.
The area of the Li family’s courtyard is much larger than what grandpa imagined. The main house alone is larger than the courtyard of his hometown, not to mention the countless side seats, side rooms and corridors. The death of the Li family's daughter-in-law is a major event in this area. Some laborers volunteered to help the Li family, serving tea and water to the guests who came in and out, wearing white linen and green gauze.In those days, whenever someone died, visitors only needed to send wreaths and paper utensils, and very few people gave money.If the mourner in the family has a special belief, the ritual will be performed according to his belief.If not, most of the rituals are carried out according to the rituals of two religions, one is Taoism and the other is Buddhism. Speaking of Yu Guangcai, Grandpa was also confused about his religion.Perhaps it is true as he said, the basic etiquette of folk funerals is not much different.It is the purpose to be able to reassure the soul of the dead and avoid disasters for the living. Grandpa followed Zeng Yingui and stopped in the yard in front of the main house.According to the instructions of the housekeeper, Lao Mo, several people sat at the table in the right corner of the yard.Seeing a few people settle down, Butler Mo bowed and said, "Mr. Yu Guangcai, can you come with me? Our master is waiting for you in the room." Seeing Steward Mo's mysterious look, Yu Guangcai hesitated for two seconds, then nodded and followed. Grandpa sat down next to Zeng Yingui, and the atmosphere became somewhat awkward.Grandpa looked around restlessly. There was a small black-painted square table at the back of the main room, and a black-and-white photo was placed in the middle of the square table. The woman on it was exactly this woman who had died in a foreign land.In the photo, she smiled brightly, and because the distance was not far away, grandpa could see her appearance clearly.She is very young, only in her early twenties, a cheongsam sets off her undulating waist, her right hand is naturally inserted in her waist, and she poses in an extremely elegant posture, which is quite right for her attire , looks very luxurious. Thinking of this, Grandpa changed his mind: Wasn't she the one who wanted to strangle him to death in the yard last night?Grandpa couldn't help shivering, he always felt that there was a knife hidden in her penetrating smile, and there was still a cold light. "Hey, it's a bit strange for you to see this woman's posthumous photo." Zeng Yingui squinted at the photo and frowned. "Strange? Looking at the fake face on your face, don't you think it's strange to see a slightly attractive girl in any village?" Luo Qi joked with him. Zeng Yingui panicked when he heard this: "Nonsense! If your words annoy the deceased, I'm afraid you won't be able to get rid of the claws (relationship)!" Zeng Yingui fell silent for a long time, only to see that Luo Qi didn't continue to answer, but buried her head in drinking tea.Zeng Yingui began to feel complacent: "See, you know some rules." Luo Qi raised her head, flirted with him carefully, and signaled him to look behind her.Zeng Yingui and his grandfather turned around in an instant, and saw a little boy standing behind him, wearing a silk shirt, and the jade pendant around his waist showed his identity. He was only four or five years old, and it must be Li The daughter-in-law's son. At this time, the little boy was holding a piece of white glutinous rice cake in his hand, and stared at Zeng Yingui.The eyes were a little dull, showing no emotion at all. Zeng Yingui felt chills all over when he looked at it.He deliberately avoided those sharp sword-like gazes, and lowered his head to drink tea.Unexpectedly, the little boy didn't give up, he smashed the piece of white glutinous rice cake firmly on Zeng Yingui's head, and said fiercely with his eyes wide open: "I'll tell you again, my mother is not dead, not dead!"
After finishing speaking, the little boy quickly turned around and ran towards the main room, looking back as he ran, as if someone was really chasing him.When he ran to the main room, he stopped to look at the offerings on the square table, and when a fire broke out, he overturned the table. As soon as he ran away, a servant came forward to pick up the offerings scattered on the ground one by one.In the end, he hurriedly came forward and explained to the grandfather and the others: "Don't be offended, the young master can't accept this fact for a while." "It's okay, it's okay, it's understandable, it's human nature." Zeng Yingui said awkwardly. After the servant left, Luo Qi asked, "What do you think is so strange about that photo?" Zeng Yingui smiled coldly: "Thanks to you doing so many shows, you don't think this posthumous photo is different from others?" Luo Qi took a breath, looked at it carefully for a long time, and suddenly slapped herself on the forehead: "Look at me, this photo is obviously wrong, someone died at home, and the photos of the deceased are all with a big head on the front. of!" "Well, it's not just that, the young master just now was also very strange." Zeng Yingui said, "Because I don't think his words seem to be lies, as if his mother has always been by his side." As soon as Zeng Yingui's words came out of his mouth, Grandpa couldn't help but shivered.Grandpa turned his head to look at the mahogany coffin placed in the main room, and his heart felt trembling.After a long time, grandpa said: "What's so strange about this. The posthumous photos you mentioned are all prepared before the person's death, but what if something happens suddenly?" "It makes sense, the young lady in this photo doesn't look like she is seriously ill." Luo Qi nodded in agreement. At this time, Yu Guangcai came out of the room, and several people surrounded him. Zeng Yingui was the first to speak: "Master, what do you say?" Yu Guangcai took a sip of tea and said, "No big problem, just according to the master of the Li family, the young lady of the Li family went to Tianjin with the second young master Li Shaohua, and then died in an accident, and the coffin was not brought back until today." , but... today happens to be the seventh day of death." "Seven days?" Luo Qi's eyes widened after hearing this, "Then this corpse may have already..." "Rotten?" Lin Zi finally interjected. Rocky nodded. "That's not a big deal. The biggest problem is that today is the seventh day, which means tonight is the first seven days of the deceased." Lin Zi said. Yu Guangcai nodded and said, "Well, tonight, the dead come back to life." Resurrection?Grandpa's heart lighted up suddenly. I didn't see the real body of this female ghost in the courtyard of my hometown yesterday. It seems that there is still a chance tonight. "Then do we want to stay here tonight?" Grandpa asked, with excitement that couldn't be concealed in his tone. "Are you curious?" Zeng Yingui asked. Only then did Grandpa realize that there was a schadenfreude in his words, and scratched his head in embarrassment. Yu Guangcai glanced at several people, and his voice became extremely severe: "Tonight we finish our work, go to bed early, remember not to come out at night, and lie down on the bed if you can't sleep!" "Master, this time I really provoked..." Luo Qi was a little puzzled. "Let Junzhi tell you what happened last night, and you will know." Li Wei interrupted, and was pulled aside by Yu Guangcai. Zeng Yingui and Luo Qi came to surround Grandpa, Luo Qi urged: "Tell me, what happened last night?" "Well, last night..." Grandpa purposely dragged on his words for a long time, and while speaking, he glanced at Lin Zi at the side, thinking that he would also come over curiously, but unexpectedly he got up and walked to the side.Grandpa rolled his eyes at him, and told the two people in front of him about the adventure last night. During the whole process, the expressions on the faces of the two of them changed ever-changingly, and they were still stunned after listening to it. "Another strange thing." Luo Qi sighed. Her words were caught by the grandfather, and he asked: "Again? Have you met them before?" "Look at your curiosity. In our line of work, you are living between life and death. In fact, there is not much difference between the living and the dead. Last night, the master asked you to build a tile to summon your soul. It was just a simple trick. I just didn't expect Let you encounter such strange things, in the past, we have encountered many times." Zeng Yingui looked like relying on the old to sell the old, and lit a cigarette for himself, which was naturally provided by the Li family to entertain them . "Let's see, let's see, the steamed stuffed bun is blown away again." Luo Qi glanced at him, and then moved aside, "I can hear calluses in his ears." "Speak quickly!" Grandpa was very curious. The more grandpa urged, the more enthusiastic Zeng Yingui became. He smiled: "I really want to hear it? Then I'll tell you a strange thing that happened around here." Grandpa turned over and stared at him intently, expecting the story from his mouth.
"When the emperor Lao Tzu was still there, there were three gates in our town, and the westernmost gate was called the Lion Gate. Before the Qing Dynasty, a general named Zhang slaughtered Sichuan, and a subordinate once killed many people there. That place has always been very cloudy. A long time ago, there was a pole-climbing..." "What do pole climbers do?" Grandpa interrupted him and asked. "You don't even know about climbing poles? When it comes to weddings and ceremonies, a person imitates a monkey, builds a stool on the table, builds a bowl on the stool, and then stands on the bowl with a bamboo pole, and the person climbs up the pole. To put it bluntly, it is a Acrobatics. But few people can do it now." Zeng Yingui explained impatiently. Grandpa nodded. Zeng Yingui took another sip of tea and continued: "The man who climbed the pole is named Chen. Everyone called him Houzi Chen because of his agility. Houzi Chen's pole-climbing skills are superb, and many people invited him to perform. But If the owner is familiar with each other, there will be no money for inviting him to perform..." "Then what?" Grandpa asked again. "Oh, don't rush me, am I just about to say it?" Zeng Yingui rolled his eyes at his grandfather, "Because Chen Houzi likes to drink, people who invite him to perform usually don't give money. Fragrant meat, send him away." "On this day, Chen Houzi went to the town to do a pole-climbing performance. As usual, he was applauded. After that, the master prepared a jar of high-quality sorghum wine for him, which was fragrant and mellow. Chen Houzi was very happy, and said The beef started to be eaten. After the wine and meat had entered the intestines, it was getting late, so he walked home with Yangko steps. His family lived on the west side of the town, and he had to pass through the Lion Gate on his way home. It was autumn, and as soon as the sky darkened, it began to rain, and it was cold on the body. After Chen Houzi walked out of the Lion Gate, he walked into the valley. The road was not too rough, just an ordinary stone road, but the The mountain road was winding and winding with no end in sight. As he walked, Houzi Chen saw a black figure suddenly appearing in front of him, wearing a long white gown and a black hat on his head, walking lightly. Chen Houzi is fast, he is fast; Chen Houzi is slow, he is slow. Chen Houzi has been traveling all over the world for so many years, and he has heard and seen this kind of thing a lot. Although he is a little drunk, he knows exactly what is opposite. Very. Chen Houzi didn't show any fear at all, he laughed coldly, hurried forward, and walked side by side with that person..." When Grandpa heard this, his whole heart was suspended. Zeng Yingui stopped suddenly, and Grandpa couldn't wait to ask: "Then what happened later? What happened later?" "Speaking of this Chen Houzi, I admire him very much. I don't know if he was so bold because he was drunk. If it were me, I wouldn't dare." Zeng Yingui said, "After he stepped forward, he stood side by side with that person. Walking together. Think about it, how can two big men walk side by side on the narrow stone road, and Chen Houzi deliberately bumped into him. But the other party didn’t say anything, one foot deep and one foot shallow, For a while, he stepped on the stone slab, and for a while, he stepped on the grass next to him. Seeing that the other party didn't respond, Chen Houzi asked him, brother, where are you going? The other party didn't seem to hear it, and didn't even look back. Chen The monkey asked again, are you from this town? The other party remained motionless, with his head buried and walked side by side with Chen Houzi, neither fast nor slow. At this time, Chen Houzi got angry and shouted loudly, you dirty thing He dared to block my way! The other party stopped suddenly when he heard the voice, and Chen Houzi also stopped, with his hands on his hips, and looked at him motionlessly. Unexpectedly, the man turned slowly in Chen Houzi's direction, Until he faced him head-on. But he still lowered his head, and his whole face was blocked by the black bamboo hat. Seeing that he hadn't moved for a long time, Chen Houzi stretched out his hand and flipped his bamboo hat over." When it came to the crucial point, Zeng Yingui stopped, his eyes bulging round, and he asked, "Guess what?" "Chen Houzi was scared to death?" Grandpa said. "Go, if Chen Houzi was scared to death, who would know what happened that night, ghost?" Zeng Yingui patted his grandfather's head disdainfully, "It turned out that when the bamboo hat flew out of the man's head, before Chen When the monkey reacted, he babbled into the valley and disappeared." "Ah? That's it?" Grandpa seemed a little disappointed. "Then what else do you think? Anyway, few people see the filthy things in this world in real form, and the usual images are all fabricated. And my father heard this from his parents when he was young, presumably It’s all from Chen Houzi’s own mouth, this kind of drunk person likes to talk big, and it’s impossible to verify whether it’s true or not, anyway, just listen to it for entertainment.” Zeng Yingui said. Luo Qi listened on the sidelines, looked at Grandpa's appearance, and burst into laughter: "Look, you scared Xiao Junzhi." Grandpa smiled awkwardly and said, "It's scary to be scary, but it sounds quite enjoyable." "Hehe, not necessarily. I just heard such a version from another mouth, and he really saw the real... shape of that filthy thing." Luo Qi took over the conversation, and the last two words seemed to pass Only after careful consideration did he blurt out. "Speak quickly." Grandpa and Zeng Yingui urged in unison. Luo Qi laughed again: "Look at your anxious looks, the beginning of this matter is like this, that day..."
"Hurry up and set up the stage, do something!" At this time, Yu Guangcai's resonant voice came from behind, interrupting Luo Qi's narration. Grandpa was so anxious and irritable, he didn't know when he would hear the story from Luo Qi.He thought for a while and said simply: "You'd better wait until we have a break to talk about it, so as not to whet my appetite." The ritual that Yu Guangcai refers to is called "Broken Blood Lake". According to legend, once a woman in the world gives birth, a blood lake will be built for her in the underworld. After a woman dies, if she wants to enter hell and reincarnate, she must Passing through this blood lake, the sea of fire and thousands of knives are erected on the blood lake, which is impossible for ordinary people to pass through.Therefore, it is necessary to perform a ceremony of breaking the blood lake within seven days of death, and breaking the blood lake can smoothly embark on the road of reincarnation. Yu Guangcai ordered Li Jiajia Ding to prepare a rooster, a catty of white rice and a jar of spirits.Then he reached out and grabbed the white rice, and drew a lake-like pattern in front of the coffin placed in the main room. "What is this for?" Grandpa asked curiously. "Hehe, this is the blood lake. Later, the master will use chicken blood and wooden swords as sharp weapons to destroy the blood lake and save the dead. Later, there will be an episode of "Mu Lian Saves Mother"," Li Wei explained. Then, he turned to his grandfather and said, "Come on, little brother, hold this cock down and hold its wings with your hands." According to Li Wei's instructions, Grandpa reached out and clasped its pair of wings.When his fingertips passed through the thick feathers of the fat chicken, he couldn't help but feel moved: It's a pity that such a fat rooster is used as a sacrifice to the dead. If only its hair could be plucked and put into a pot for stewing After stewing, it is delicious in the world. It is best to pick a few mushrooms growing next to the old trees from the back mountain. It is simply... Before I knew it, Grandpa's saliva was about to flow out from the corner of his mouth. Li Wei saw his thoughts, stepped forward and patted him: "Don't think about it, do this ceremony well, chicken, duck, fish, there are plenty!" "Really? That's good!" Hearing Li Wei's words, Grandpa was full of energy, handed the fat chicken in his hand to Yu Guangcai, and then stepped aside. I saw Yu Guangcai took the fat chicken, pointed its head at the coffin, and muttered in his mouth.The chicken seemed to have a premonition and struggled violently in his hands.Yu Guangcai ignored it and continued to read in a low voice with his eyes closed.In the end, he stretched out his hand, covered Fat Chicken's head, and nodded in all directions.After pausing, Yu Guangcai patted its head twice again, and the chicken obediently closed its eyes without moving a bit. Hypnotism?Grandpa thought very puzzled.Before he could react, Yu Guangcai grabbed Fat Chicken's head, pulled up its neck, and exposed its throat. At this time, Li Wei handed over a sharp knife.Yu Guangcai raised the knife and stabbed the knife firmly into Fat Chicken's neck, blood spattered immediately.Taking advantage of this moment, Yu Guangcai bent down and walked the blood splashed from the chicken's neck along the pattern drawn by the white rice on the ground. After finishing the work, he threw the dead chicken aside. "Okay, boy!" After Yu Guangcai gave an order, Li Wei quickly took out his clothes from his cloth bag: a yellow Taoist robe, a mahogany sword, and an earthen bowl like an alms bowl. Within two minutes, Yu Guangcai changed his outfit, walked to the city painted with white rice and chicken blood, stood motionless and began to chant mantras. "Come on, the ceremony has begun." A servant's voice came from beside Grandpa. Before he could turn around, the servant leaned forward, as if waiting for a perfect performance. At this time, Butler Mo led two men and a little boy into the crowd.Under Li Wei's instructions, all three of them knelt down in front of the coffin.Grandpa had seen that little boy before, and he especially remembered the jade pendant around his waist and his vicious gaze.He looked very dissatisfied, no matter how housekeeper Mo coaxed him, he refused to kneel.After that, a man on the side came over and gave him a look, and he barely knelt down.From the looks of it, he is Li Shaohua, the second young master of the Li family. "There are so many disturbances in the world, don't miss it, come and find the solution, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, a sword splits the way to the future..." Yu Guangcai's voice fluctuated, and everyone present was very absorbed in listening.While speaking, he wandered around the lake, as if he was looking for something. Yu Guangcai's earthen bowl was half full of water at some point, and he dipped his fingers in the water for a while and sprinkled it around, and then swam around with the mahogany sword in his hand.But when he came to the mahogany coffin, he stopped suddenly.He opened his eyes, his brows were tightly furrowed, and his eyes stayed on the coffin. Seeing that he was not moving, Housekeeper Mo stepped forward and asked in a low voice, "Mr. Yu, is there something wrong with this coffin?" "Have!" "What's wrong?" Housekeeper Mo asked puzzled. Yu Guangcai did not answer his question directly, but shouted loudly: "Hurry up, open the coffin!" "Open the coffin?" Li Wei was very surprised. "Master, this person is dead. Unless he is buried, he cannot open the coffin. Isn't this against the rules?" "No, hurry up and open the coffin, there is something wrong with this coffin!" Yu Guangcai's words didn't look like he was joking, besides, everyone knew that such things should not be joked. Butler Mo frowned and hesitated for a long time, then turned around and ordered the servants behind him: "You guys, go, open the coffin!" The four people around were ordered to look at each other. "I told you to open the coffin, I will take responsibility for any accident!" Seeing the servants standing still, Butler Mo became a little anxious. Those four people finally took a step forward, walked to the coffin, and opened the coffin together.As soon as the coffin board fell to the ground, everyone present turned pale with fright—the corpse in the coffin was gone!
"What's going on? What do you think of this coffin?" The butler was furious, and several servants lowered their heads one after another. At this time, an old man in luxurious clothes squeezed in from behind the crowd with a cane.The beard on his chin was completely white, his face was full of dimples, and he was panting when he walked, as if he had spent a lot of effort on these few steps.When he got to the front of the crowd, everyone dispersed. He took two steps forward and asked sharply, "What's wrong?" "Master, just now we were performing a ceremony for the Second Young Mistress, but in the middle of the ceremony, Mr. Yu found something was wrong, so we opened the coffin to have a look, and it turned out..." Butler Mo bowed forward, speaking cautiously.No need to guess, this must be the well-known landlord Li Huai'en. When Li Huai'en heard this, he coughed violently without taking a breath.Under the consolation of his two sons, Li Huai'en sat down on the chair in the middle, and after a long time, he calmed down: "It's really unfortunate for the family, the family is unfortunate, housekeeper Mo, help me find out who is responsible for the delivery of a corpse?" Steward Mo took Li Huai'en's life, turned around and questioned the servants behind him: "Do you know who are responsible for transporting the second young lady's body?" One of the servants came forward with a trembling voice: "There are me, Zhang Er, Xiao Mazi and Lao Zhu." "What about the three of them?" Butler Mo's question seemed to hit the servant's weakness, and there seemed to be a lot of hidden secrets in it.The servant glanced at Butler Mo, and said falteringly, "They, they..." "What's the matter with them?!" Master Li leaned on his crutches with a "dong dong" sound. "They're sick." The servant lowered his head. Housekeeper Mo glanced at the master of the Li family, then turned to the servant and said, "Are you sick at this juncture? Take me to see them right away." "Okay, but housekeeper, this matter has nothing to do with me..." The whole thing seemed to be getting more and more strange, and everyone was stunned and discussed in low voices.Could it be that the woman in the coffin really did not die as the young master said? Not allowing grandpa to continue thinking about it, Butler Mo said to the servants behind him: "You arrange the guests, and Mr. Yu and I will follow the pillar to see what happened." As soon as Steward Mo finished speaking, the servant started to greet the guests gathered in the main room to the banquet in the courtyard. Yu Guangcai said to Li Wei: "You guys wait first, I will follow." "Ok." Grandpa was whetted by this matter, unwillingly followed Li Wei to sit on the table outside the main room. "It seems that this matter is not simple." Li Wei muttered. Zeng Yingui also took a deep breath and said: "I have been traveling with my master for so many years, and this is the first time that the corpse in this coffin has disappeared. Hey, Lao Li, you have the highest qualifications here, what do you give me?" Let's talk about what's going on here?" Li Wei frowned and said, "According to my judgment, there is only one possibility, and that is a fraudulent corpse." "There is another possibility, is this woman really alive?" Grandpa asked. This statement was obviously immature, and was quickly refuted by Li Wei and others.He said: "How is this possible? Who would give a funeral to a living person for no reason? And you forgot what happened to you last night?" His words made Grandpa speechless. After thinking for a while, Grandpa avoided the topic: "Then tell me, what's going on with this fraudulent corpse?" Zeng Yingui smiled and explained: "The so-called fake corpse means that after a person dies, the corpse is stiff. The fake corpse means that after a person dies, there is a breath held in his chest. Crawling over, the breath will come up from the chest, which may cause a fraudulent corpse. Under normal circumstances, the fraudulent corpse actually just moves like that, or sits up from the coffin, such as opening the coffin board and jumping Come out, I don’t know where I jumped to, I don’t think it’s possible.” Li Wei also nodded in agreement: "And there are still four guards." In the discussion of several people, this matter became more and more mysterious.Everyone said something to each other, but then they all stopped talking.Grandpa noticed that Lin Zi who had been sitting in the corner hadn't said a word from the beginning to the end, but the expression on his face was not relaxed at all, as if he was struggling to find an answer to this matter. "It's not good, come quickly, something has happened!" Hearing this, everyone turned their heads away.At the door of the side corridor, the servant named Zhuzi's eyes were wide open.
This time, everyone couldn't hold back their curiosity, and followed Zhuzi to the yard where the incident happened. The Li family's house is indeed very large, there are five in the side yard alone.Go through the door frame of the long corridor before, and go to the end of the long corridor, and you will arrive at the Xiziyuan of the house.All the male servants of the Li family live in the Xiziyuan, while the maids live in the Donglinyuan, which is completely separated from a large garden in front of the main house and the courtyard dam. Grandpa followed Li Wei and the others to get in. Fortunately, he moved quickly and ran in front of the crowd.In front of the fifth room in Xiziyuan, Grandpa saw Yu Guangcai with a panicked expression. "What's the matter, Master?" Li Wei stepped forward and asked. Yu Guangcai didn't look directly at Li Wei, but pointed to the back room.Li Wei didn't ask any further questions, and simply went into the room to find out.Grandpa followed closely behind, almost tripping over the high threshold because he was walking too fast. At some point, Lin Zi had already stepped into the room. At this moment, he was carefully examining the three people lying on the bed, with his right hand tightly pressing the arm of the person in front of him. Grandpa glanced at Li Wei, then stepped forward cautiously.Just as he was about to get close to the bed, the man lying in front of Lin Zi suddenly got up, screaming like crazy, and struggling desperately to bite Lin Zi.Lin Zi looked small, but his strength was extraordinary, and he pushed the man back to the bed with a wave of his hand. Grandpa and Li Wei were both terrified by the man's appearance. His eyes seemed to be smeared with ink, and the blackness emanating from the eye sockets spread to the entire face.If he doesn't move, it's hard to tell he's still alive. "Look at his neck." Lin Zi said, his voice was unusually stiff. Grandpa and Li Wei turned their heads according to what he said, and saw that there were two rows of small holes on the man's neck, forming an oval, and each small hole was very black. It is not difficult to see that the two rows of small holes are tooth marks. . What kind of monster can actually bite a person's neck? Li Wei also seemed to be puzzled by this. He stepped forward and lifted the quilts of the other two. The situation was basically the same, but the position of the row of teeth marks on the neck was slightly different, one was on the left and the other was on the right. "Isn't it bitten by a snake? They look like they were poisoned." Grandpa asked. Li Wei took a deep breath and shook his head. "It's a fraudulent corpse, and it has corpse poison." Lin Zi bent over and carefully observed the wounds on the necks of the three of them. Several people." Li Wei stepped out the door. Grandpa looked at him, then at the three half-dead people on the bed, and followed. Li Wei walked behind Yu Guangcai and asked, "Master, in your opinion, could this be done by the missing corpse?" "It's almost the same." Yu Guangcai sighed, "But the strangest thing is the whereabouts of the corpse, if she really disappeared at that time, was it her soul or her corpse that Junzhi met that night? " When Grandpa heard this, he touched his neck unconsciously, and pursed his lips: "It can't be... a corpse, right?" Neither Yu Guangcai nor Li Wei said anything more. At this time, the outside of the house was already full of people.The master of the Li family came staggeringly from behind the crowd. He waved his hand and signaled the servants to block the curious guests. The servants went forward to form a line, and also opened the way for the master of the Li family.With the support of the second young master Li Shaohua, Master Li passed the high threshold. "Zhuzi! Zhuzi!" As expected, Master Li yelled Zhuzi's name within a minute after entering the door. Zhuzi had a premonition of his troubles, and he cried when he walked. "Mr. Yu, please come in too." Butler Mo bowed down to greet him respectfully. Yu Guangcai led Li Wei and the others into the house, only to see that the pillar had already knelt in front of Master Li. "Tell me, what's going on with the three of them?" The person who asked the question was Li Shaohua, and his tone was a little angry. "Second Young Master, this is really none of my business, I..." Zhu Zi's voice choked up. "What's the matter, tell me quickly!" Butler Mo urged from behind. 柱子吸了口气，偷偷瞄了李老爷一眼，说：“那天，我和他们三人快马加鞭赶到天津，接到少奶奶的尸体之后就赶紧往回走，一天一夜我们都没有休息，到郑州我们才歇下。其实按照那个速度我们在第五天就可以赶到的，可都怪那老朱……他说咱们哥几个难得来一次城里，要在城里风流快活一下。将二少奶奶的尸体安排在客栈之后，他们三人就去逛窑子了。” “这三个兔崽子！”李老爷两只眼睛都被气得快要鼓出来了，“那后来呢？尸体怎么会不见了？你不是还在那儿守着吗？” “后来……我看他们三人都走了，我一个人留在那空荡荡的客房里也很害怕，也就出去闲逛去了。估摸着他们三人差不多是时候回来了，我才往回走，可谁知……”说着，柱子就哭出了声来，他一边擦着眼泪，一边说，“谁知，我一赶到，就看到他们三人都躺在地上，脖子上流着血，我赶紧跑到里间去，只见那棺材盖不知被谁打开了，里面的尸体竟然不翼而飞了，而且，而且那口棺材里还蹲着一只黑猫！” “黑猫？”林子抬头问道。 “对，它当时就那么一动不动地望着我，一对眼睛……还闪着绿光！”柱子的牙齿似乎都在打颤，声音断断续续的。 “你的意思是说，是二少奶奶的尸体诈尸，然后正好碰上了逛窑子回来的三人，将他们三人咬伤之后，逃了出去？”李少华急忙问道。 柱子点点头。 “我早就跟你们说过，娘亲根本就没有死。”不知道什么时候，那个小男孩又站到了人群中间。 这个时候，当他再次说起这句话，所有人都把目光投向了他，没有再去责备他。 “你看见你娘亲了？”李少华问道，语气里有些不确定。 “哼，我干吗要告诉你？你是个坏爹爹！不过，娘亲今天晚上会回来陪我玩的。”说完，小男孩就跑开了。 不容大家惊讶，李少华命令道：“传我的命令，找家丁三人沿着他们运尸回来的路去找二少奶奶，其余的人在附近搜索，一定要找到二少奶奶的尸体！” 说完，人群里的家丁都悉数散去。 “其实这事儿无须这么复杂……”喻广财正准备说什么，却被林子伸手拦了下来。 “喻先生有话要说？”李少华问道。 喻广财看了林子一眼，只见林子朝他轻轻摇了摇头。喻广财也不好多说什么，他笑了笑说：“我是想问，今天的法事是否还要继续？” 李老爷叹了口气，艰难地从椅子上站起身来，他拖着弱弱的声音说：“喻先生，这可真是让您见笑了，待我们找回尸体之后，法事再做不迟。现在就请喻先生和您的几位高徒暂且在这里歇下，吃住我们肯定会管着，工钱从你们进门的那一刻算起，直到你们跨出咱们李家的门，您看这样合适不？” 李老爷的话很是礼貌，而且已经对喻广财几人优待有加，似乎没有拒绝的理由。喻广财点头答应下来。在莫管家的带领下，几人住进了北厢的客房。
一进门，喻广财就问林子：“你刚才为何要拦下我？” “师傅难道还没有看出这其中的蹊跷？”林子问，在场的所有人都很是不解。 喻广财也摇了摇头。 林子说：“你们想想，要是在从天津出发后的第二天，那三人就被咬了，中了尸毒，那口空棺材是谁运送回来的？柱子？他一个人可不能搬动这口空棺材和三个中了尸毒的人吧？” 林子的话让几人都恍然大悟，连连称是。 “第二点，李家的那个小男孩，也就是李少华和死者的儿子，他对父亲林少华的态度和对母亲的态度相比，简直就是一个地下一个天上，这其中会不会有啥子原因？” 这一点，似乎大家也没有注意到。 “当然了，还有第三点，也就是最重要的一点，刚才我一直在仔细地看那三个被尸体咬过的家丁，我发现，除了他们脖子上的伤口之外，手臂上还有瘀伤，应该是经常被绳子捆出来的。” “啊？当真？”喻广财很是吃惊。 "It's absolutely true." “好在你拦了我。”喻广财说，“这豪门大院果真是深不可测。” 李伟也点点头，说：“这种有钱人家里，出点儿这种事情也是正常。” “这样吧，我们先在这客房里休息一阵，待会儿要是有什么情况，莫管家会来叫我们的。”喻广财说着，在房间中央的圆桌前坐了下来。 “依我看，那个柱子肯定有问题！”爷爷推断道。 “傻子都能看得出来。”曾银贵不屑地说道，他给喻广财和自己倒了一杯茶，然后抿了一口扭头问罗琪：“对了，你就把你刚才没讲完的故事讲给咱们听听嘛，正好打发打发时间。” “怎么了？你们又在胡扯什么段子？”喻广财露出一个浅笑，扭头看向曾银贵。 曾银贵解释道：“这次可不怨我，是小峻之要听的啊。” “呵呵，好吧，那你们接着讲，也让我这个老头子长长见识。”喻广财抿下一口茶，说道。 罗琪深知自己这下被捧上了一个高台，要想下这个台阶，只有把这个故事讲得更出彩才行。她清了清嗓子，说：“故事的开头呢，是这样的……对了，我先声明啊，这个故事我是从另外一个丧乐队里拉二胡的人口中听来的，我也不知道真假啊。” 大家都没有接话，把目光聚集到了罗琪的身上，只等着她嘴里的故事。 “在这个拉二胡他们的丧乐队里，有个吹唢呐的，叫郭兵，他和之前银贵说的那个陈猴子一样，也是爱喝酒。可郭兵没有陈猴子那么幸运，他家里有个妻子，一直对他喝酒这事儿管得特别严，丧乐队里的人跟他老婆也都认识，在出工的时候，他也得收敛着，不敢明着来。所以，他只能每天在回家的路上喝点儿酒。”罗琪说着，朝几人走过来，也坐到了圆桌边，“这天，他们到涪陵去出工，头天做完祭文都已经是半夜了。他作别了其他的队友，说是要到附近亲戚家去住，出了东家家门，偷偷揣着一罐酒就往亲戚家走。他一路走一路喝，当时是夏天，头顶的月光特别地亮，照在路上，可以隐隐约约看清前方大概五十米的样子。他就这么走着走着，感觉这酒很快就上了头，脑袋晕乎乎的。他在那山路边的一棵大树脚下坐下来，想好好歇一口气，把那小罐子里的酒喝光。他坐了差不多两分钟，只感觉头顶的那棵大树微微动了一下。起初，他并没有在意，以为是山里的风刮的。他又收回了目光，将手里的那罐子酒一仰头倒进了嗓子里。就在这时，那头上的大树又晃了一下。这时，郭兵才觉得有点儿不对劲儿，从那树脚下站起身来，抬起头眯着眼睛在那茂密的树冠中左看右看，看了半晌也没有看出个什么端倪。可就在他准备迈步离开的时候，那树冠里突然发出了一声嬉笑，是一个男人的声音——嘿嘿，嘿嘿。郭兵浑身一战，心想这下是碰到霉头了。郭兵也算是个老手，跟着乐队走过不少地方，见识颇多。想了想，他干脆又坐了回去。” “那后来呢？树冠里的是个啥玩意儿？”曾银贵追问。 罗琪白了他一眼，继续讲道：“就在郭兵坐回那树脚之后，那树冠就响得更加肆无忌惮了。郭兵借着酒劲，朝树上喊了一句，头上的兄弟，你倒是该早点儿来呀，这酒都他妈喝光了。树冠上的家伙好像真的听懂了他的话，从树梢上缓缓下来，和他背对背坐着。郭兵只感觉从身后传来一阵蚀骨的凉意，他忍住好奇没有回头，冷冷地问道，兄弟，你躲在这儿干吗呀？那身后的家伙不知道有没有听清郭兵的问话，又发出那阵瘆人的嬉笑。末了，他说，我在这山头等他等了六十多年了，我在这山头等他等了六十多年了，我在这山头……身后的家伙就这么不停地重复着这句话，郭兵听得浑身鸡皮疙瘩都冒起来，可老到的郭兵并未胆怯，他猛地转过身去，鬼使神差地冲到了那人的面前，就在那张脸出现在他眼前的时候，他眼睛一瞪，就被吓得晕了过去。” “啊？他到底看到了什么？”爷爷的心都提到了嗓子眼上，可那家伙的真面目却稳稳勾住了他的好奇心。 “这郭兵就这么睡了过去，当他再醒来的时候发现自己躺在几百里之外的家里。起初他以为自己是做了个噩梦，可后来听媳妇说，他就是被人在那山谷中发现的，亲戚得知这个事情之后，才通知的他媳妇。他已经在家里昏睡了整整一个月。从那以后，郭兵就再也没有跟过乐队，一直闲散在家里。至于那天晚上他看到的真相，也是在他又一次醉酒之后讲出来的。”罗琪深吸了口气，“郭兵看到的那个人的脸只有这么厚。” 几人看着罗琪伸出的两根手指，纷纷瞠目结舌。 “一张脸，二指厚？”曾银贵瞪大了眼睛，“妈的，那会是个啥样子？要是我，肯定就被他吓得醒不过来了。” 喻广财听了，微微一笑，说：“这种说法在民间倒是有，不过都是你传我，我传你。再说了，人在极度害怕的状态下，是很容易看走眼的。” 他的话也不无道理，不过爷爷听后，心里“咯噔咯噔”的，一直在想象昨天晚上遇到的李家二少奶奶，她的脸是不是也只有二指厚。 这时，房门外响起了敲门声。喻广财起身打开门来，只见莫管家站在门外。他俯身过去，在喻广财的耳边一阵耳语。喻广财听后，扭头对房间里的几人说：“也歇得差不多了，今晚是'头七'，现在着手准备吧。”
关于死者的头七，在不同的地方有不同的说法。有的认为，人在死后的第七天，其魂魄会在夜里回到生前住的地方看一看。有的又认为，人死后的前二十一天，以每七天为一个节点，都会回家来，分别叫做头七、二七和三七。 在正常的丧礼之中，能够将丧礼筹办到头七之后的情况本来不多。这一次，算是一个很特别的个例。 爷爷跟着曾银贵等人走出客房，在喻广财的带领下来到院子里。这院子与正房前的院子有所不同，主要是用来栽种花草的，花草的正中央摆放着一套石质的桌凳。如果在平时，在夏夜里能够端一壶茶或者拎一坛酒，在这院中小酌三分，再配上这样的花色和月色，肯定是一种不错的享受。 喻广财让罗琪拿出准备好的工具，几个人开始制作天灯。 所谓天灯，在他们的说法中，是用来为魂魄领路的。用油纸叠成油灯的样子，在中间放一小截蜡烛，从李家大门口一直沿着平时的必经之路，每三步一盏插在地上，一直延伸到两里之外。等到天黑了，将这些天灯点上，便形成一条由灯火标记出来的路。 听着曾银贵的讲述，爷爷在脑子里描绘出一幅画面来，在一条大路的两边，每隔三步就亮着一盏天灯，一直蜿蜒到看不到边的山谷里。这时，一个白色的身影从那天灯隐去的地方缓缓走来，披头散发，越走越近…… “你干吗呢？”曾银贵见爷爷有些发愣，伸手推了他一把。 爷爷回过神来，不知道怎的，他对刚才在脑中幻想的画面非常期待。想着想着，他突然来了动力，加快了手上的动作。 那一整个下午就用来叠天灯了，一边叠，爷爷一边还想从这几人的口中套点儿好听的故事出来。可不管怎么问，大家都不吱声。后来李伟告诉他：“专心叠，这事儿不能马虎了。” 爷爷也是后来才知道，做丧礼本来就有不少的忌讳，当时没有人会在这种事情上大费口舌，就好像在进门前，喻广财叮嘱他的也只有短短一句话：少说话多做事。 好不容易等到了晚上，爷爷草草地吃过了晚饭，就来到客房外的石凳上等着。 曾银贵笑他道：“你就这么着急？” 爷爷笑了笑，直接问道：“咱们什么时候可以开动？” “嗯……等着天黑吧。”曾银贵说完就走出了那个侧院。 爷爷看着天上的浓云，心里有一种怪怪的感觉。这时，一个李家的女仆提着一个水壶走进来，给院子里的海棠浇水。 “这些是什么花呀？颜色很好看啊。”爷爷有一搭没一搭地跟她聊了起来。根据爷爷的回忆，那是他第一次主动跟女孩子说话。 那个女仆笑了笑：“这叫海棠，以前二少奶奶活着的时候，最喜欢的花。” 爷爷点了点头，被那女仆扑闪着的眼睛吸引住了，那眼睛又黑又亮。爷爷努了努嘴，又问：“我怎么觉得你们家二少奶奶死了，二少爷一点儿都不难过呢？” “呵，还能怎么难过？你也看见了，老爷的身子越来越差，这整个李家偌大的担子就要落到他身上了，哪还能容得他难过？”说完，她继续手中的动作。 “那你知不知道，你们二少爷跟二少奶奶是为啥去的天津呢？”爷爷问完之后就后悔了，这毕竟是人家的家务事，连喻广财都没有多问，自己却不分轻重地开了口。 女仆放下手中的水壶，说：“那天，也是老爷的安排，让他俩带些家什去天津看望大小姐，我看二少爷和二少奶奶并不太乐意，可后来还是去了。谁知中途会发生这样的事情。” “这样的事情？”爷爷当然是知道她指的是什么，可他的好奇心驱使他继续往下探究。 女仆说：“还不就是二少奶奶过世的事儿嘛。你说这人怎么能倒霉到这个地步，走在路上还被车给撞了，现在竟然连尸体都不见了，这事儿真是越来越玄了。” “那后来……”听到这里，爷爷的心里生出一个疑问来。昨晚在院子里，爷爷假装土地公跟死者的魂魄交流时，她明明说的是在一个饭店被人捂晕过去的。爷爷本来还想继续往下问，这时林子走了进来，爷爷一见他就闭上了嘴巴。 那女仆也从两人的眼神中看出了端倪，提着水壶低着头就跨出了院子。 女仆走后，林子冷冰冰地提醒他：“有力气就做好你自己的事儿吧！” 爷爷听了这句话，心里像是被噎了一下，看着林子那张冷若冰霜的脸，爷爷当时只想一拳头砸过去。 这时，天色已经暗下来。爷爷好不容易咽下了胸中的闷气，曾银贵从廊口跨进来问道：“天黑了，林子、峻之，你们跟我一起去点灯不？” 林子摇了摇头：“不了，我还要去布置死人屋呢！” 曾银贵将目光落到了爷爷身上，爷爷二话没说就迈步上前，对曾银贵说：“看什么看呐，走吧！”
两人一走出那个院子，爷爷就闷声闷气地说：“那个人怎么那么怪啊？总是一副得意兮兮的样子，真想揍他！” 曾银贵笑了两声说：“你也别见怪，林子就是这种性格，不过听师傅说，林子是很有慧根的，说不定以后在这方面的造诣会超过他呢。” “就他？”爷爷露出一副非常不屑的表情。 见爷爷这副模样，曾银贵反问：“怎么了？你现在对师傅心服口服了？” 爷爷心知这下露出了马脚，赶紧摆了摆手：“才没有呢，我只是觉得林子更加不靠谱，自以为是的样子看着就气人！” “好了好了，他也没有什么坏心眼，以后你就知道了。” 爷爷自知多说无益，只好乖乖地跟在曾银贵身后，提着两大口袋天灯往李府门外走。此时，天色已经暗了下来，连月亮都被头顶乌黑的云层挡住了脸，只在云边泛出微微光线。 走到门外的那条大路边，两人蹲下身来，准备插天灯。 曾银贵不解地问：“你是要从这里开始插？” 爷爷点点头：“不然从哪里？” “哎呀，我说你能不能动动脑子，你现在从这里往前插，插到半夜的时候，应该是可以插到两里之外。那个时候，你想想是什么时辰？”说着，曾银贵笑了笑，“不过你正好能碰上那个回魂的二少奶奶！” 曾银贵的话倒是点醒了爷爷，他的一张脸羞得通红。 两人沿着那条大路一直走了差不多二十多分钟，终于走到了山谷的一座大岩石下。曾银贵放下手中的口袋说：“就从这里开始吧。” 爷爷跟着弯下腰，接过那些天灯，从路的另一边开始插。插着插着，爷爷突然想起了什么，问道：“对了，什么叫做死人屋啊？” “死人屋，就是死者生前住过的屋子，在头七之夜，死者回魂一定会去那间屋子。所以在此之前，我们就需要在那间屋子里铺满石灰，如果第二天去看有脚印的话，就证明魂魄回来过，不然就要等着二七、三七。三七之后，亡魂的力气会衰弱，所以做七一般只到三七。”曾银贵解释道。 “那如果二七和三七魂魄都没有回来的话怎么办？”爷爷追问。 “要是那样……”曾银贵停下手里的动作，一双眼睛在脚下火光的映照下，非常吓人。爷爷只听见他幽幽地说，“要是那样，就证明死者不愿投胎转世，定是死者有冤，这家人可就要小心了。” 听完他的话，爷爷忍不住打了个寒战，觉得身上的汗毛都竖了起来。 “怎么了？你这就害怕了？”曾银贵一边加快手中的速度，一边问道。 爷爷冷笑了两声，说：“才没有呢！除非真让我看见了。” 爷爷说完，只见曾银贵站在面前一动不动，目光死死地盯在爷爷的身后。慢慢地，他的眉头越来越紧，嘴巴朝两边张开。 “你怎么了？”爷爷有些莫名其妙。 曾银贵缓缓抬起手来，指着爷爷的身后说：“你……你身后！” “啊！”爷爷还没有回身，就被他的样子吓得不行，赶紧躲到了曾银贵身后。 他这么一来真的逗笑了曾银贵。曾银贵捂住肚子，大笑不止：“你还说你……说你不怕？” 爷爷看着他的样子，很是气愤，可他还是抬着脑袋看了看刚才曾银贵手指的方向，在确定没有什么东西之后才站回了原来的位置。 刚才的一幕，让曾银贵一直不得安分。在空荡荡的山谷里，没过两秒就能听见他的笑声。爷爷也不好再多说什么，只好埋头插天灯。 当两人将天灯插到谷口的时候，爷爷突然停下了手里的工作。他说：“早知道这么累，我就不跟你来了。” 曾银贵立起身子站到了他的面前，说：“你待在那大院子里也没事儿干，还不如跟着我出来呢！” 爷爷正要往下说什么，却突然瞪大了眼睛，目不转睛地看着曾银贵的身后，慢慢地他的嘴也张得老大。他的双唇打着战，说：“看你身后……” 曾银贵依旧站着，甩了甩手上的口袋，说：“喂，你想吓我，也好歹换个招数嘛，刚刚才用过。” “不是，真的，你身后有东西！”爷爷整张脸因为害怕都变得扭曲起来。 “哼，我才不信呢！”曾银贵说罢，弯身要去继续插灯。 爷爷急了，干脆一下掰住他的肩膀，使劲儿往后一转，将他转向了山谷的方向。曾银贵只一放眼，就被视线里的那个东西吓得说不出话来。 就在那山谷转弯的地方，也就是他们插灯的起点，此时正有一个白蒙蒙的影子沿着大路朝这边走过来。那影子像是穿着一件白色的长裙，在天灯映照之下，显得异常诡秘。而且那影子走得非常慢，脚下似乎没有半点儿挪动的痕迹，与其说在走，不如说在飘！
“那……那到底是什么东西！”曾银贵虽然这样问，可他的心里想必早就有了答案。 爷爷看着他的样子，应该是给吓得慌了神，一双手直发抖。爷爷问他：“现在怎么办？” 只见那个白影越来越近，她一走过那天灯，天灯上的灯火就微微颤动起来。 曾银贵紧张得咽了口唾沫，他像是在背书：“头七点灯，不可多言，不可嬉笑，否则定会招来不测，如遇不测……如遇不测……” 说到这里，曾银贵突然卡了壳，支支吾吾背不出后面的话来。 “如遇不测怎么办，你倒
The area of the Li family’s courtyard is much larger than what grandpa imagined. The main house alone is larger than the courtyard of his hometown, not to mention the countless side seats, side rooms and corridors. The death of the Li family's daughter-in-law is a major event in this area. Some laborers volunteered to help the Li family, serving tea and water to the guests who came in and out, wearing white linen and green gauze.In those days, whenever someone died, visitors only needed to send wreaths and paper utensils, and very few people gave money.If the mourner in the family has a special belief, the ritual will be performed according to his belief.If not, most of the rituals are carried out according to the rituals of two religions, one is Taoism and the other is Buddhism. Speaking of Yu Guangcai, Grandpa was also confused about his religion.Perhaps it is true as he said, the basic etiquette of folk funerals is not much different.It is the purpose to be able to reassure the soul of the dead and avoid disasters for the living. Grandpa followed Zeng Yingui and stopped in the yard in front of the main house.According to the instructions of the housekeeper, Lao Mo, several people sat at the table in the right corner of the yard.Seeing a few people settle down, Butler Mo bowed and said, "Mr. Yu Guangcai, can you come with me? Our master is waiting for you in the room." Seeing Steward Mo's mysterious look, Yu Guangcai hesitated for two seconds, then nodded and followed. Grandpa sat down next to Zeng Yingui, and the atmosphere became somewhat awkward.Grandpa looked around restlessly. There was a small black-painted square table at the back of the main room, and a black-and-white photo was placed in the middle of the square table. The woman on it was exactly this woman who had died in a foreign land.In the photo, she smiled brightly, and because the distance was not far away, grandpa could see her appearance clearly.She is very young, only in her early twenties, a cheongsam sets off her undulating waist, her right hand is naturally inserted in her waist, and she poses in an extremely elegant posture, which is quite right for her attire , looks very luxurious. Thinking of this, Grandpa changed his mind: Wasn't she the one who wanted to strangle him to death in the yard last night?Grandpa couldn't help shivering, he always felt that there was a knife hidden in her penetrating smile, and there was still a cold light. "Hey, it's a bit strange for you to see this woman's posthumous photo." Zeng Yingui squinted at the photo and frowned. "Strange? Looking at the fake face on your face, don't you think it's strange to see a slightly attractive girl in any village?" Luo Qi joked with him. Zeng Yingui panicked when he heard this: "Nonsense! If your words annoy the deceased, I'm afraid you won't be able to get rid of the claws (relationship)!" Zeng Yingui fell silent for a long time, only to see that Luo Qi didn't continue to answer, but buried her head in drinking tea.Zeng Yingui began to feel complacent: "See, you know some rules." Luo Qi raised her head, flirted with him carefully, and signaled him to look behind her.Zeng Yingui and his grandfather turned around in an instant, and saw a little boy standing behind him, wearing a silk shirt, and the jade pendant around his waist showed his identity. He was only four or five years old, and it must be Li The daughter-in-law's son. At this time, the little boy was holding a piece of white glutinous rice cake in his hand, and stared at Zeng Yingui.The eyes were a little dull, showing no emotion at all. Zeng Yingui felt chills all over when he looked at it.He deliberately avoided those sharp sword-like gazes, and lowered his head to drink tea.Unexpectedly, the little boy didn't give up, he smashed the piece of white glutinous rice cake firmly on Zeng Yingui's head, and said fiercely with his eyes wide open: "I'll tell you again, my mother is not dead, not dead!"
After finishing speaking, the little boy quickly turned around and ran towards the main room, looking back as he ran, as if someone was really chasing him.When he ran to the main room, he stopped to look at the offerings on the square table, and when a fire broke out, he overturned the table. As soon as he ran away, a servant came forward to pick up the offerings scattered on the ground one by one.In the end, he hurriedly came forward and explained to the grandfather and the others: "Don't be offended, the young master can't accept this fact for a while." "It's okay, it's okay, it's understandable, it's human nature." Zeng Yingui said awkwardly. After the servant left, Luo Qi asked, "What do you think is so strange about that photo?" Zeng Yingui smiled coldly: "Thanks to you doing so many shows, you don't think this posthumous photo is different from others?" Luo Qi took a breath, looked at it carefully for a long time, and suddenly slapped herself on the forehead: "Look at me, this photo is obviously wrong, someone died at home, and the photos of the deceased are all with a big head on the front. of!" "Well, it's not just that, the young master just now was also very strange." Zeng Yingui said, "Because I don't think his words seem to be lies, as if his mother has always been by his side." As soon as Zeng Yingui's words came out of his mouth, Grandpa couldn't help but shivered.Grandpa turned his head to look at the mahogany coffin placed in the main room, and his heart felt trembling.After a long time, grandpa said: "What's so strange about this. The posthumous photos you mentioned are all prepared before the person's death, but what if something happens suddenly?" "It makes sense, the young lady in this photo doesn't look like she is seriously ill." Luo Qi nodded in agreement. At this time, Yu Guangcai came out of the room, and several people surrounded him. Zeng Yingui was the first to speak: "Master, what do you say?" Yu Guangcai took a sip of tea and said, "No big problem, just according to the master of the Li family, the young lady of the Li family went to Tianjin with the second young master Li Shaohua, and then died in an accident, and the coffin was not brought back until today." , but... today happens to be the seventh day of death." "Seven days?" Luo Qi's eyes widened after hearing this, "Then this corpse may have already..." "Rotten?" Lin Zi finally interjected. Rocky nodded. "That's not a big deal. The biggest problem is that today is the seventh day, which means tonight is the first seven days of the deceased." Lin Zi said. Yu Guangcai nodded and said, "Well, tonight, the dead come back to life." Resurrection?Grandpa's heart lighted up suddenly. I didn't see the real body of this female ghost in the courtyard of my hometown yesterday. It seems that there is still a chance tonight. "Then do we want to stay here tonight?" Grandpa asked, with excitement that couldn't be concealed in his tone. "Are you curious?" Zeng Yingui asked. Only then did Grandpa realize that there was a schadenfreude in his words, and scratched his head in embarrassment. Yu Guangcai glanced at several people, and his voice became extremely severe: "Tonight we finish our work, go to bed early, remember not to come out at night, and lie down on the bed if you can't sleep!" "Master, this time I really provoked..." Luo Qi was a little puzzled. "Let Junzhi tell you what happened last night, and you will know." Li Wei interrupted, and was pulled aside by Yu Guangcai. Zeng Yingui and Luo Qi came to surround Grandpa, Luo Qi urged: "Tell me, what happened last night?" "Well, last night..." Grandpa purposely dragged on his words for a long time, and while speaking, he glanced at Lin Zi at the side, thinking that he would also come over curiously, but unexpectedly he got up and walked to the side.Grandpa rolled his eyes at him, and told the two people in front of him about the adventure last night. During the whole process, the expressions on the faces of the two of them changed ever-changingly, and they were still stunned after listening to it. "Another strange thing." Luo Qi sighed. Her words were caught by the grandfather, and he asked: "Again? Have you met them before?" "Look at your curiosity. In our line of work, you are living between life and death. In fact, there is not much difference between the living and the dead. Last night, the master asked you to build a tile to summon your soul. It was just a simple trick. I just didn't expect Let you encounter such strange things, in the past, we have encountered many times." Zeng Yingui looked like relying on the old to sell the old, and lit a cigarette for himself, which was naturally provided by the Li family to entertain them . "Let's see, let's see, the steamed stuffed bun is blown away again." Luo Qi glanced at him, and then moved aside, "I can hear calluses in his ears." "Speak quickly!" Grandpa was very curious. The more grandpa urged, the more enthusiastic Zeng Yingui became. He smiled: "I really want to hear it? Then I'll tell you a strange thing that happened around here." Grandpa turned over and stared at him intently, expecting the story from his mouth.
"When the emperor Lao Tzu was still there, there were three gates in our town, and the westernmost gate was called the Lion Gate. Before the Qing Dynasty, a general named Zhang slaughtered Sichuan, and a subordinate once killed many people there. That place has always been very cloudy. A long time ago, there was a pole-climbing..." "What do pole climbers do?" Grandpa interrupted him and asked. "You don't even know about climbing poles? When it comes to weddings and ceremonies, a person imitates a monkey, builds a stool on the table, builds a bowl on the stool, and then stands on the bowl with a bamboo pole, and the person climbs up the pole. To put it bluntly, it is a Acrobatics. But few people can do it now." Zeng Yingui explained impatiently. Grandpa nodded. Zeng Yingui took another sip of tea and continued: "The man who climbed the pole is named Chen. Everyone called him Houzi Chen because of his agility. Houzi Chen's pole-climbing skills are superb, and many people invited him to perform. But If the owner is familiar with each other, there will be no money for inviting him to perform..." "Then what?" Grandpa asked again. "Oh, don't rush me, am I just about to say it?" Zeng Yingui rolled his eyes at his grandfather, "Because Chen Houzi likes to drink, people who invite him to perform usually don't give money. Fragrant meat, send him away." "On this day, Chen Houzi went to the town to do a pole-climbing performance. As usual, he was applauded. After that, the master prepared a jar of high-quality sorghum wine for him, which was fragrant and mellow. Chen Houzi was very happy, and said The beef started to be eaten. After the wine and meat had entered the intestines, it was getting late, so he walked home with Yangko steps. His family lived on the west side of the town, and he had to pass through the Lion Gate on his way home. It was autumn, and as soon as the sky darkened, it began to rain, and it was cold on the body. After Chen Houzi walked out of the Lion Gate, he walked into the valley. The road was not too rough, just an ordinary stone road, but the The mountain road was winding and winding with no end in sight. As he walked, Houzi Chen saw a black figure suddenly appearing in front of him, wearing a long white gown and a black hat on his head, walking lightly. Chen Houzi is fast, he is fast; Chen Houzi is slow, he is slow. Chen Houzi has been traveling all over the world for so many years, and he has heard and seen this kind of thing a lot. Although he is a little drunk, he knows exactly what is opposite. Very. Chen Houzi didn't show any fear at all, he laughed coldly, hurried forward, and walked side by side with that person..." When Grandpa heard this, his whole heart was suspended. Zeng Yingui stopped suddenly, and Grandpa couldn't wait to ask: "Then what happened later? What happened later?" "Speaking of this Chen Houzi, I admire him very much. I don't know if he was so bold because he was drunk. If it were me, I wouldn't dare." Zeng Yingui said, "After he stepped forward, he stood side by side with that person. Walking together. Think about it, how can two big men walk side by side on the narrow stone road, and Chen Houzi deliberately bumped into him. But the other party didn’t say anything, one foot deep and one foot shallow, For a while, he stepped on the stone slab, and for a while, he stepped on the grass next to him. Seeing that the other party didn't respond, Chen Houzi asked him, brother, where are you going? The other party didn't seem to hear it, and didn't even look back. Chen The monkey asked again, are you from this town? The other party remained motionless, with his head buried and walked side by side with Chen Houzi, neither fast nor slow. At this time, Chen Houzi got angry and shouted loudly, you dirty thing He dared to block my way! The other party stopped suddenly when he heard the voice, and Chen Houzi also stopped, with his hands on his hips, and looked at him motionlessly. Unexpectedly, the man turned slowly in Chen Houzi's direction, Until he faced him head-on. But he still lowered his head, and his whole face was blocked by the black bamboo hat. Seeing that he hadn't moved for a long time, Chen Houzi stretched out his hand and flipped his bamboo hat over." When it came to the crucial point, Zeng Yingui stopped, his eyes bulging round, and he asked, "Guess what?" "Chen Houzi was scared to death?" Grandpa said. "Go, if Chen Houzi was scared to death, who would know what happened that night, ghost?" Zeng Yingui patted his grandfather's head disdainfully, "It turned out that when the bamboo hat flew out of the man's head, before Chen When the monkey reacted, he babbled into the valley and disappeared." "Ah? That's it?" Grandpa seemed a little disappointed. "Then what else do you think? Anyway, few people see the filthy things in this world in real form, and the usual images are all fabricated. And my father heard this from his parents when he was young, presumably It’s all from Chen Houzi’s own mouth, this kind of drunk person likes to talk big, and it’s impossible to verify whether it’s true or not, anyway, just listen to it for entertainment.” Zeng Yingui said. Luo Qi listened on the sidelines, looked at Grandpa's appearance, and burst into laughter: "Look, you scared Xiao Junzhi." Grandpa smiled awkwardly and said, "It's scary to be scary, but it sounds quite enjoyable." "Hehe, not necessarily. I just heard such a version from another mouth, and he really saw the real... shape of that filthy thing." Luo Qi took over the conversation, and the last two words seemed to pass Only after careful consideration did he blurt out. "Speak quickly." Grandpa and Zeng Yingui urged in unison. Luo Qi laughed again: "Look at your anxious looks, the beginning of this matter is like this, that day..."
"Hurry up and set up the stage, do something!" At this time, Yu Guangcai's resonant voice came from behind, interrupting Luo Qi's narration. Grandpa was so anxious and irritable, he didn't know when he would hear the story from Luo Qi.He thought for a while and said simply: "You'd better wait until we have a break to talk about it, so as not to whet my appetite." The ritual that Yu Guangcai refers to is called "Broken Blood Lake". According to legend, once a woman in the world gives birth, a blood lake will be built for her in the underworld. After a woman dies, if she wants to enter hell and reincarnate, she must Passing through this blood lake, the sea of fire and thousands of knives are erected on the blood lake, which is impossible for ordinary people to pass through.Therefore, it is necessary to perform a ceremony of breaking the blood lake within seven days of death, and breaking the blood lake can smoothly embark on the road of reincarnation. Yu Guangcai ordered Li Jiajia Ding to prepare a rooster, a catty of white rice and a jar of spirits.Then he reached out and grabbed the white rice, and drew a lake-like pattern in front of the coffin placed in the main room. "What is this for?" Grandpa asked curiously. "Hehe, this is the blood lake. Later, the master will use chicken blood and wooden swords as sharp weapons to destroy the blood lake and save the dead. Later, there will be an episode of "Mu Lian Saves Mother"," Li Wei explained. Then, he turned to his grandfather and said, "Come on, little brother, hold this cock down and hold its wings with your hands." According to Li Wei's instructions, Grandpa reached out and clasped its pair of wings.When his fingertips passed through the thick feathers of the fat chicken, he couldn't help but feel moved: It's a pity that such a fat rooster is used as a sacrifice to the dead. If only its hair could be plucked and put into a pot for stewing After stewing, it is delicious in the world. It is best to pick a few mushrooms growing next to the old trees from the back mountain. It is simply... Before I knew it, Grandpa's saliva was about to flow out from the corner of his mouth. Li Wei saw his thoughts, stepped forward and patted him: "Don't think about it, do this ceremony well, chicken, duck, fish, there are plenty!" "Really? That's good!" Hearing Li Wei's words, Grandpa was full of energy, handed the fat chicken in his hand to Yu Guangcai, and then stepped aside. I saw Yu Guangcai took the fat chicken, pointed its head at the coffin, and muttered in his mouth.The chicken seemed to have a premonition and struggled violently in his hands.Yu Guangcai ignored it and continued to read in a low voice with his eyes closed.In the end, he stretched out his hand, covered Fat Chicken's head, and nodded in all directions.After pausing, Yu Guangcai patted its head twice again, and the chicken obediently closed its eyes without moving a bit. Hypnotism?Grandpa thought very puzzled.Before he could react, Yu Guangcai grabbed Fat Chicken's head, pulled up its neck, and exposed its throat. At this time, Li Wei handed over a sharp knife.Yu Guangcai raised the knife and stabbed the knife firmly into Fat Chicken's neck, blood spattered immediately.Taking advantage of this moment, Yu Guangcai bent down and walked the blood splashed from the chicken's neck along the pattern drawn by the white rice on the ground. After finishing the work, he threw the dead chicken aside. "Okay, boy!" After Yu Guangcai gave an order, Li Wei quickly took out his clothes from his cloth bag: a yellow Taoist robe, a mahogany sword, and an earthen bowl like an alms bowl. Within two minutes, Yu Guangcai changed his outfit, walked to the city painted with white rice and chicken blood, stood motionless and began to chant mantras. "Come on, the ceremony has begun." A servant's voice came from beside Grandpa. Before he could turn around, the servant leaned forward, as if waiting for a perfect performance. At this time, Butler Mo led two men and a little boy into the crowd.Under Li Wei's instructions, all three of them knelt down in front of the coffin.Grandpa had seen that little boy before, and he especially remembered the jade pendant around his waist and his vicious gaze.He looked very dissatisfied, no matter how housekeeper Mo coaxed him, he refused to kneel.After that, a man on the side came over and gave him a look, and he barely knelt down.From the looks of it, he is Li Shaohua, the second young master of the Li family. "There are so many disturbances in the world, don't miss it, come and find the solution, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, a sword splits the way to the future..." Yu Guangcai's voice fluctuated, and everyone present was very absorbed in listening.While speaking, he wandered around the lake, as if he was looking for something. Yu Guangcai's earthen bowl was half full of water at some point, and he dipped his fingers in the water for a while and sprinkled it around, and then swam around with the mahogany sword in his hand.But when he came to the mahogany coffin, he stopped suddenly.He opened his eyes, his brows were tightly furrowed, and his eyes stayed on the coffin. Seeing that he was not moving, Housekeeper Mo stepped forward and asked in a low voice, "Mr. Yu, is there something wrong with this coffin?" "Have!" "What's wrong?" Housekeeper Mo asked puzzled. Yu Guangcai did not answer his question directly, but shouted loudly: "Hurry up, open the coffin!" "Open the coffin?" Li Wei was very surprised. "Master, this person is dead. Unless he is buried, he cannot open the coffin. Isn't this against the rules?" "No, hurry up and open the coffin, there is something wrong with this coffin!" Yu Guangcai's words didn't look like he was joking, besides, everyone knew that such things should not be joked. Butler Mo frowned and hesitated for a long time, then turned around and ordered the servants behind him: "You guys, go, open the coffin!" The four people around were ordered to look at each other. "I told you to open the coffin, I will take responsibility for any accident!" Seeing the servants standing still, Butler Mo became a little anxious. Those four people finally took a step forward, walked to the coffin, and opened the coffin together.As soon as the coffin board fell to the ground, everyone present turned pale with fright—the corpse in the coffin was gone!
"What's going on? What do you think of this coffin?" The butler was furious, and several servants lowered their heads one after another. At this time, an old man in luxurious clothes squeezed in from behind the crowd with a cane.The beard on his chin was completely white, his face was full of dimples, and he was panting when he walked, as if he had spent a lot of effort on these few steps.When he got to the front of the crowd, everyone dispersed. He took two steps forward and asked sharply, "What's wrong?" "Master, just now we were performing a ceremony for the Second Young Mistress, but in the middle of the ceremony, Mr. Yu found something was wrong, so we opened the coffin to have a look, and it turned out..." Butler Mo bowed forward, speaking cautiously.No need to guess, this must be the well-known landlord Li Huai'en. When Li Huai'en heard this, he coughed violently without taking a breath.Under the consolation of his two sons, Li Huai'en sat down on the chair in the middle, and after a long time, he calmed down: "It's really unfortunate for the family, the family is unfortunate, housekeeper Mo, help me find out who is responsible for the delivery of a corpse?" Steward Mo took Li Huai'en's life, turned around and questioned the servants behind him: "Do you know who are responsible for transporting the second young lady's body?" One of the servants came forward with a trembling voice: "There are me, Zhang Er, Xiao Mazi and Lao Zhu." "What about the three of them?" Butler Mo's question seemed to hit the servant's weakness, and there seemed to be a lot of hidden secrets in it.The servant glanced at Butler Mo, and said falteringly, "They, they..." "What's the matter with them?!" Master Li leaned on his crutches with a "dong dong" sound. "They're sick." The servant lowered his head. Housekeeper Mo glanced at the master of the Li family, then turned to the servant and said, "Are you sick at this juncture? Take me to see them right away." "Okay, but housekeeper, this matter has nothing to do with me..." The whole thing seemed to be getting more and more strange, and everyone was stunned and discussed in low voices.Could it be that the woman in the coffin really did not die as the young master said? Not allowing grandpa to continue thinking about it, Butler Mo said to the servants behind him: "You arrange the guests, and Mr. Yu and I will follow the pillar to see what happened." As soon as Steward Mo finished speaking, the servant started to greet the guests gathered in the main room to the banquet in the courtyard. Yu Guangcai said to Li Wei: "You guys wait first, I will follow." "Ok." Grandpa was whetted by this matter, unwillingly followed Li Wei to sit on the table outside the main room. "It seems that this matter is not simple." Li Wei muttered. Zeng Yingui also took a deep breath and said: "I have been traveling with my master for so many years, and this is the first time that the corpse in this coffin has disappeared. Hey, Lao Li, you have the highest qualifications here, what do you give me?" Let's talk about what's going on here?" Li Wei frowned and said, "According to my judgment, there is only one possibility, and that is a fraudulent corpse." "There is another possibility, is this woman really alive?" Grandpa asked. This statement was obviously immature, and was quickly refuted by Li Wei and others.He said: "How is this possible? Who would give a funeral to a living person for no reason? And you forgot what happened to you last night?" His words made Grandpa speechless. After thinking for a while, Grandpa avoided the topic: "Then tell me, what's going on with this fraudulent corpse?" Zeng Yingui smiled and explained: "The so-called fake corpse means that after a person dies, the corpse is stiff. The fake corpse means that after a person dies, there is a breath held in his chest. Crawling over, the breath will come up from the chest, which may cause a fraudulent corpse. Under normal circumstances, the fraudulent corpse actually just moves like that, or sits up from the coffin, such as opening the coffin board and jumping Come out, I don’t know where I jumped to, I don’t think it’s possible.” Li Wei also nodded in agreement: "And there are still four guards." In the discussion of several people, this matter became more and more mysterious.Everyone said something to each other, but then they all stopped talking.Grandpa noticed that Lin Zi who had been sitting in the corner hadn't said a word from the beginning to the end, but the expression on his face was not relaxed at all, as if he was struggling to find an answer to this matter. "It's not good, come quickly, something has happened!" Hearing this, everyone turned their heads away.At the door of the side corridor, the servant named Zhuzi's eyes were wide open.
This time, everyone couldn't hold back their curiosity, and followed Zhuzi to the yard where the incident happened. The Li family's house is indeed very large, there are five in the side yard alone.Go through the door frame of the long corridor before, and go to the end of the long corridor, and you will arrive at the Xiziyuan of the house.All the male servants of the Li family live in the Xiziyuan, while the maids live in the Donglinyuan, which is completely separated from a large garden in front of the main house and the courtyard dam. Grandpa followed Li Wei and the others to get in. Fortunately, he moved quickly and ran in front of the crowd.In front of the fifth room in Xiziyuan, Grandpa saw Yu Guangcai with a panicked expression. "What's the matter, Master?" Li Wei stepped forward and asked. Yu Guangcai didn't look directly at Li Wei, but pointed to the back room.Li Wei didn't ask any further questions, and simply went into the room to find out.Grandpa followed closely behind, almost tripping over the high threshold because he was walking too fast. At some point, Lin Zi had already stepped into the room. At this moment, he was carefully examining the three people lying on the bed, with his right hand tightly pressing the arm of the person in front of him. Grandpa glanced at Li Wei, then stepped forward cautiously.Just as he was about to get close to the bed, the man lying in front of Lin Zi suddenly got up, screaming like crazy, and struggling desperately to bite Lin Zi.Lin Zi looked small, but his strength was extraordinary, and he pushed the man back to the bed with a wave of his hand. Grandpa and Li Wei were both terrified by the man's appearance. His eyes seemed to be smeared with ink, and the blackness emanating from the eye sockets spread to the entire face.If he doesn't move, it's hard to tell he's still alive. "Look at his neck." Lin Zi said, his voice was unusually stiff. Grandpa and Li Wei turned their heads according to what he said, and saw that there were two rows of small holes on the man's neck, forming an oval, and each small hole was very black. It is not difficult to see that the two rows of small holes are tooth marks. . What kind of monster can actually bite a person's neck? Li Wei also seemed to be puzzled by this. He stepped forward and lifted the quilts of the other two. The situation was basically the same, but the position of the row of teeth marks on the neck was slightly different, one was on the left and the other was on the right. "Isn't it bitten by a snake? They look like they were poisoned." Grandpa asked. Li Wei took a deep breath and shook his head. "It's a fraudulent corpse, and it has corpse poison." Lin Zi bent over and carefully observed the wounds on the necks of the three of them. Several people." Li Wei stepped out the door. Grandpa looked at him, then at the three half-dead people on the bed, and followed. Li Wei walked behind Yu Guangcai and asked, "Master, in your opinion, could this be done by the missing corpse?" "It's almost the same." Yu Guangcai sighed, "But the strangest thing is the whereabouts of the corpse, if she really disappeared at that time, was it her soul or her corpse that Junzhi met that night? " When Grandpa heard this, he touched his neck unconsciously, and pursed his lips: "It can't be... a corpse, right?" Neither Yu Guangcai nor Li Wei said anything more. At this time, the outside of the house was already full of people.The master of the Li family came staggeringly from behind the crowd. He waved his hand and signaled the servants to block the curious guests. The servants went forward to form a line, and also opened the way for the master of the Li family.With the support of the second young master Li Shaohua, Master Li passed the high threshold. "Zhuzi! Zhuzi!" As expected, Master Li yelled Zhuzi's name within a minute after entering the door. Zhuzi had a premonition of his troubles, and he cried when he walked. "Mr. Yu, please come in too." Butler Mo bowed down to greet him respectfully. Yu Guangcai led Li Wei and the others into the house, only to see that the pillar had already knelt in front of Master Li. "Tell me, what's going on with the three of them?" The person who asked the question was Li Shaohua, and his tone was a little angry. "Second Young Master, this is really none of my business, I..." Zhu Zi's voice choked up. "What's the matter, tell me quickly!" Butler Mo urged from behind. 柱子吸了口气，偷偷瞄了李老爷一眼，说：“那天，我和他们三人快马加鞭赶到天津，接到少奶奶的尸体之后就赶紧往回走，一天一夜我们都没有休息，到郑州我们才歇下。其实按照那个速度我们在第五天就可以赶到的，可都怪那老朱……他说咱们哥几个难得来一次城里，要在城里风流快活一下。将二少奶奶的尸体安排在客栈之后，他们三人就去逛窑子了。” “这三个兔崽子！”李老爷两只眼睛都被气得快要鼓出来了，“那后来呢？尸体怎么会不见了？你不是还在那儿守着吗？” “后来……我看他们三人都走了，我一个人留在那空荡荡的客房里也很害怕，也就出去闲逛去了。估摸着他们三人差不多是时候回来了，我才往回走，可谁知……”说着，柱子就哭出了声来，他一边擦着眼泪，一边说，“谁知，我一赶到，就看到他们三人都躺在地上，脖子上流着血，我赶紧跑到里间去，只见那棺材盖不知被谁打开了，里面的尸体竟然不翼而飞了，而且，而且那口棺材里还蹲着一只黑猫！” “黑猫？”林子抬头问道。 “对，它当时就那么一动不动地望着我，一对眼睛……还闪着绿光！”柱子的牙齿似乎都在打颤，声音断断续续的。 “你的意思是说，是二少奶奶的尸体诈尸，然后正好碰上了逛窑子回来的三人，将他们三人咬伤之后，逃了出去？”李少华急忙问道。 柱子点点头。 “我早就跟你们说过，娘亲根本就没有死。”不知道什么时候，那个小男孩又站到了人群中间。 这个时候，当他再次说起这句话，所有人都把目光投向了他，没有再去责备他。 “你看见你娘亲了？”李少华问道，语气里有些不确定。 “哼，我干吗要告诉你？你是个坏爹爹！不过，娘亲今天晚上会回来陪我玩的。”说完，小男孩就跑开了。 不容大家惊讶，李少华命令道：“传我的命令，找家丁三人沿着他们运尸回来的路去找二少奶奶，其余的人在附近搜索，一定要找到二少奶奶的尸体！” 说完，人群里的家丁都悉数散去。 “其实这事儿无须这么复杂……”喻广财正准备说什么，却被林子伸手拦了下来。 “喻先生有话要说？”李少华问道。 喻广财看了林子一眼，只见林子朝他轻轻摇了摇头。喻广财也不好多说什么，他笑了笑说：“我是想问，今天的法事是否还要继续？” 李老爷叹了口气，艰难地从椅子上站起身来，他拖着弱弱的声音说：“喻先生，这可真是让您见笑了，待我们找回尸体之后，法事再做不迟。现在就请喻先生和您的几位高徒暂且在这里歇下，吃住我们肯定会管着，工钱从你们进门的那一刻算起，直到你们跨出咱们李家的门，您看这样合适不？” 李老爷的话很是礼貌，而且已经对喻广财几人优待有加，似乎没有拒绝的理由。喻广财点头答应下来。在莫管家的带领下，几人住进了北厢的客房。
一进门，喻广财就问林子：“你刚才为何要拦下我？” “师傅难道还没有看出这其中的蹊跷？”林子问，在场的所有人都很是不解。 喻广财也摇了摇头。 林子说：“你们想想，要是在从天津出发后的第二天，那三人就被咬了，中了尸毒，那口空棺材是谁运送回来的？柱子？他一个人可不能搬动这口空棺材和三个中了尸毒的人吧？” 林子的话让几人都恍然大悟，连连称是。 “第二点，李家的那个小男孩，也就是李少华和死者的儿子，他对父亲林少华的态度和对母亲的态度相比，简直就是一个地下一个天上，这其中会不会有啥子原因？” 这一点，似乎大家也没有注意到。 “当然了，还有第三点，也就是最重要的一点，刚才我一直在仔细地看那三个被尸体咬过的家丁，我发现，除了他们脖子上的伤口之外，手臂上还有瘀伤，应该是经常被绳子捆出来的。” “啊？当真？”喻广财很是吃惊。 "It's absolutely true." “好在你拦了我。”喻广财说，“这豪门大院果真是深不可测。” 李伟也点点头，说：“这种有钱人家里，出点儿这种事情也是正常。” “这样吧，我们先在这客房里休息一阵，待会儿要是有什么情况，莫管家会来叫我们的。”喻广财说着，在房间中央的圆桌前坐了下来。 “依我看，那个柱子肯定有问题！”爷爷推断道。 “傻子都能看得出来。”曾银贵不屑地说道，他给喻广财和自己倒了一杯茶，然后抿了一口扭头问罗琪：“对了，你就把你刚才没讲完的故事讲给咱们听听嘛，正好打发打发时间。” “怎么了？你们又在胡扯什么段子？”喻广财露出一个浅笑，扭头看向曾银贵。 曾银贵解释道：“这次可不怨我，是小峻之要听的啊。” “呵呵，好吧，那你们接着讲，也让我这个老头子长长见识。”喻广财抿下一口茶，说道。 罗琪深知自己这下被捧上了一个高台，要想下这个台阶，只有把这个故事讲得更出彩才行。她清了清嗓子，说：“故事的开头呢，是这样的……对了，我先声明啊，这个故事我是从另外一个丧乐队里拉二胡的人口中听来的，我也不知道真假啊。” 大家都没有接话，把目光聚集到了罗琪的身上，只等着她嘴里的故事。 “在这个拉二胡他们的丧乐队里，有个吹唢呐的，叫郭兵，他和之前银贵说的那个陈猴子一样，也是爱喝酒。可郭兵没有陈猴子那么幸运，他家里有个妻子，一直对他喝酒这事儿管得特别严，丧乐队里的人跟他老婆也都认识，在出工的时候，他也得收敛着，不敢明着来。所以，他只能每天在回家的路上喝点儿酒。”罗琪说着，朝几人走过来，也坐到了圆桌边，“这天，他们到涪陵去出工，头天做完祭文都已经是半夜了。他作别了其他的队友，说是要到附近亲戚家去住，出了东家家门，偷偷揣着一罐酒就往亲戚家走。他一路走一路喝，当时是夏天，头顶的月光特别地亮，照在路上，可以隐隐约约看清前方大概五十米的样子。他就这么走着走着，感觉这酒很快就上了头，脑袋晕乎乎的。他在那山路边的一棵大树脚下坐下来，想好好歇一口气，把那小罐子里的酒喝光。他坐了差不多两分钟，只感觉头顶的那棵大树微微动了一下。起初，他并没有在意，以为是山里的风刮的。他又收回了目光，将手里的那罐子酒一仰头倒进了嗓子里。就在这时，那头上的大树又晃了一下。这时，郭兵才觉得有点儿不对劲儿，从那树脚下站起身来，抬起头眯着眼睛在那茂密的树冠中左看右看，看了半晌也没有看出个什么端倪。可就在他准备迈步离开的时候，那树冠里突然发出了一声嬉笑，是一个男人的声音——嘿嘿，嘿嘿。郭兵浑身一战，心想这下是碰到霉头了。郭兵也算是个老手，跟着乐队走过不少地方，见识颇多。想了想，他干脆又坐了回去。” “那后来呢？树冠里的是个啥玩意儿？”曾银贵追问。 罗琪白了他一眼，继续讲道：“就在郭兵坐回那树脚之后，那树冠就响得更加肆无忌惮了。郭兵借着酒劲，朝树上喊了一句，头上的兄弟，你倒是该早点儿来呀，这酒都他妈喝光了。树冠上的家伙好像真的听懂了他的话，从树梢上缓缓下来，和他背对背坐着。郭兵只感觉从身后传来一阵蚀骨的凉意，他忍住好奇没有回头，冷冷地问道，兄弟，你躲在这儿干吗呀？那身后的家伙不知道有没有听清郭兵的问话，又发出那阵瘆人的嬉笑。末了，他说，我在这山头等他等了六十多年了，我在这山头等他等了六十多年了，我在这山头……身后的家伙就这么不停地重复着这句话，郭兵听得浑身鸡皮疙瘩都冒起来，可老到的郭兵并未胆怯，他猛地转过身去，鬼使神差地冲到了那人的面前，就在那张脸出现在他眼前的时候，他眼睛一瞪，就被吓得晕了过去。” “啊？他到底看到了什么？”爷爷的心都提到了嗓子眼上，可那家伙的真面目却稳稳勾住了他的好奇心。 “这郭兵就这么睡了过去，当他再醒来的时候发现自己躺在几百里之外的家里。起初他以为自己是做了个噩梦，可后来听媳妇说，他就是被人在那山谷中发现的，亲戚得知这个事情之后，才通知的他媳妇。他已经在家里昏睡了整整一个月。从那以后，郭兵就再也没有跟过乐队，一直闲散在家里。至于那天晚上他看到的真相，也是在他又一次醉酒之后讲出来的。”罗琪深吸了口气，“郭兵看到的那个人的脸只有这么厚。” 几人看着罗琪伸出的两根手指，纷纷瞠目结舌。 “一张脸，二指厚？”曾银贵瞪大了眼睛，“妈的，那会是个啥样子？要是我，肯定就被他吓得醒不过来了。” 喻广财听了，微微一笑，说：“这种说法在民间倒是有，不过都是你传我，我传你。再说了，人在极度害怕的状态下，是很容易看走眼的。” 他的话也不无道理，不过爷爷听后，心里“咯噔咯噔”的，一直在想象昨天晚上遇到的李家二少奶奶，她的脸是不是也只有二指厚。 这时，房门外响起了敲门声。喻广财起身打开门来，只见莫管家站在门外。他俯身过去，在喻广财的耳边一阵耳语。喻广财听后，扭头对房间里的几人说：“也歇得差不多了，今晚是'头七'，现在着手准备吧。”
关于死者的头七，在不同的地方有不同的说法。有的认为，人在死后的第七天，其魂魄会在夜里回到生前住的地方看一看。有的又认为，人死后的前二十一天，以每七天为一个节点，都会回家来，分别叫做头七、二七和三七。 在正常的丧礼之中，能够将丧礼筹办到头七之后的情况本来不多。这一次，算是一个很特别的个例。 爷爷跟着曾银贵等人走出客房，在喻广财的带领下来到院子里。这院子与正房前的院子有所不同，主要是用来栽种花草的，花草的正中央摆放着一套石质的桌凳。如果在平时，在夏夜里能够端一壶茶或者拎一坛酒，在这院中小酌三分，再配上这样的花色和月色，肯定是一种不错的享受。 喻广财让罗琪拿出准备好的工具，几个人开始制作天灯。 所谓天灯，在他们的说法中，是用来为魂魄领路的。用油纸叠成油灯的样子，在中间放一小截蜡烛，从李家大门口一直沿着平时的必经之路，每三步一盏插在地上，一直延伸到两里之外。等到天黑了，将这些天灯点上，便形成一条由灯火标记出来的路。 听着曾银贵的讲述，爷爷在脑子里描绘出一幅画面来，在一条大路的两边，每隔三步就亮着一盏天灯，一直蜿蜒到看不到边的山谷里。这时，一个白色的身影从那天灯隐去的地方缓缓走来，披头散发，越走越近…… “你干吗呢？”曾银贵见爷爷有些发愣，伸手推了他一把。 爷爷回过神来，不知道怎的，他对刚才在脑中幻想的画面非常期待。想着想着，他突然来了动力，加快了手上的动作。 那一整个下午就用来叠天灯了，一边叠，爷爷一边还想从这几人的口中套点儿好听的故事出来。可不管怎么问，大家都不吱声。后来李伟告诉他：“专心叠，这事儿不能马虎了。” 爷爷也是后来才知道，做丧礼本来就有不少的忌讳，当时没有人会在这种事情上大费口舌，就好像在进门前，喻广财叮嘱他的也只有短短一句话：少说话多做事。 好不容易等到了晚上，爷爷草草地吃过了晚饭，就来到客房外的石凳上等着。 曾银贵笑他道：“你就这么着急？” 爷爷笑了笑，直接问道：“咱们什么时候可以开动？” “嗯……等着天黑吧。”曾银贵说完就走出了那个侧院。 爷爷看着天上的浓云，心里有一种怪怪的感觉。这时，一个李家的女仆提着一个水壶走进来，给院子里的海棠浇水。 “这些是什么花呀？颜色很好看啊。”爷爷有一搭没一搭地跟她聊了起来。根据爷爷的回忆，那是他第一次主动跟女孩子说话。 那个女仆笑了笑：“这叫海棠，以前二少奶奶活着的时候，最喜欢的花。” 爷爷点了点头，被那女仆扑闪着的眼睛吸引住了，那眼睛又黑又亮。爷爷努了努嘴，又问：“我怎么觉得你们家二少奶奶死了，二少爷一点儿都不难过呢？” “呵，还能怎么难过？你也看见了，老爷的身子越来越差，这整个李家偌大的担子就要落到他身上了，哪还能容得他难过？”说完，她继续手中的动作。 “那你知不知道，你们二少爷跟二少奶奶是为啥去的天津呢？”爷爷问完之后就后悔了，这毕竟是人家的家务事，连喻广财都没有多问，自己却不分轻重地开了口。 女仆放下手中的水壶，说：“那天，也是老爷的安排，让他俩带些家什去天津看望大小姐，我看二少爷和二少奶奶并不太乐意，可后来还是去了。谁知中途会发生这样的事情。” “这样的事情？”爷爷当然是知道她指的是什么，可他的好奇心驱使他继续往下探究。 女仆说：“还不就是二少奶奶过世的事儿嘛。你说这人怎么能倒霉到这个地步，走在路上还被车给撞了，现在竟然连尸体都不见了，这事儿真是越来越玄了。” “那后来……”听到这里，爷爷的心里生出一个疑问来。昨晚在院子里，爷爷假装土地公跟死者的魂魄交流时，她明明说的是在一个饭店被人捂晕过去的。爷爷本来还想继续往下问，这时林子走了进来，爷爷一见他就闭上了嘴巴。 那女仆也从两人的眼神中看出了端倪，提着水壶低着头就跨出了院子。 女仆走后，林子冷冰冰地提醒他：“有力气就做好你自己的事儿吧！” 爷爷听了这句话，心里像是被噎了一下，看着林子那张冷若冰霜的脸，爷爷当时只想一拳头砸过去。 这时，天色已经暗下来。爷爷好不容易咽下了胸中的闷气，曾银贵从廊口跨进来问道：“天黑了，林子、峻之，你们跟我一起去点灯不？” 林子摇了摇头：“不了，我还要去布置死人屋呢！” 曾银贵将目光落到了爷爷身上，爷爷二话没说就迈步上前，对曾银贵说：“看什么看呐，走吧！”
两人一走出那个院子，爷爷就闷声闷气地说：“那个人怎么那么怪啊？总是一副得意兮兮的样子，真想揍他！” 曾银贵笑了两声说：“你也别见怪，林子就是这种性格，不过听师傅说，林子是很有慧根的，说不定以后在这方面的造诣会超过他呢。” “就他？”爷爷露出一副非常不屑的表情。 见爷爷这副模样，曾银贵反问：“怎么了？你现在对师傅心服口服了？” 爷爷心知这下露出了马脚，赶紧摆了摆手：“才没有呢，我只是觉得林子更加不靠谱，自以为是的样子看着就气人！” “好了好了，他也没有什么坏心眼，以后你就知道了。” 爷爷自知多说无益，只好乖乖地跟在曾银贵身后，提着两大口袋天灯往李府门外走。此时，天色已经暗了下来，连月亮都被头顶乌黑的云层挡住了脸，只在云边泛出微微光线。 走到门外的那条大路边，两人蹲下身来，准备插天灯。 曾银贵不解地问：“你是要从这里开始插？” 爷爷点点头：“不然从哪里？” “哎呀，我说你能不能动动脑子，你现在从这里往前插，插到半夜的时候，应该是可以插到两里之外。那个时候，你想想是什么时辰？”说着，曾银贵笑了笑，“不过你正好能碰上那个回魂的二少奶奶！” 曾银贵的话倒是点醒了爷爷，他的一张脸羞得通红。 两人沿着那条大路一直走了差不多二十多分钟，终于走到了山谷的一座大岩石下。曾银贵放下手中的口袋说：“就从这里开始吧。” 爷爷跟着弯下腰，接过那些天灯，从路的另一边开始插。插着插着，爷爷突然想起了什么，问道：“对了，什么叫做死人屋啊？” “死人屋，就是死者生前住过的屋子，在头七之夜，死者回魂一定会去那间屋子。所以在此之前，我们就需要在那间屋子里铺满石灰，如果第二天去看有脚印的话，就证明魂魄回来过，不然就要等着二七、三七。三七之后，亡魂的力气会衰弱，所以做七一般只到三七。”曾银贵解释道。 “那如果二七和三七魂魄都没有回来的话怎么办？”爷爷追问。 “要是那样……”曾银贵停下手里的动作，一双眼睛在脚下火光的映照下，非常吓人。爷爷只听见他幽幽地说，“要是那样，就证明死者不愿投胎转世，定是死者有冤，这家人可就要小心了。” 听完他的话，爷爷忍不住打了个寒战，觉得身上的汗毛都竖了起来。 “怎么了？你这就害怕了？”曾银贵一边加快手中的速度，一边问道。 爷爷冷笑了两声，说：“才没有呢！除非真让我看见了。” 爷爷说完，只见曾银贵站在面前一动不动，目光死死地盯在爷爷的身后。慢慢地，他的眉头越来越紧，嘴巴朝两边张开。 “你怎么了？”爷爷有些莫名其妙。 曾银贵缓缓抬起手来，指着爷爷的身后说：“你……你身后！” “啊！”爷爷还没有回身，就被他的样子吓得不行，赶紧躲到了曾银贵身后。 他这么一来真的逗笑了曾银贵。曾银贵捂住肚子，大笑不止：“你还说你……说你不怕？” 爷爷看着他的样子，很是气愤，可他还是抬着脑袋看了看刚才曾银贵手指的方向，在确定没有什么东西之后才站回了原来的位置。 刚才的一幕，让曾银贵一直不得安分。在空荡荡的山谷里，没过两秒就能听见他的笑声。爷爷也不好再多说什么，只好埋头插天灯。 当两人将天灯插到谷口的时候，爷爷突然停下了手里的工作。他说：“早知道这么累，我就不跟你来了。” 曾银贵立起身子站到了他的面前，说：“你待在那大院子里也没事儿干，还不如跟着我出来呢！” 爷爷正要往下说什么，却突然瞪大了眼睛，目不转睛地看着曾银贵的身后，慢慢地他的嘴也张得老大。他的双唇打着战，说：“看你身后……” 曾银贵依旧站着，甩了甩手上的口袋，说：“喂，你想吓我，也好歹换个招数嘛，刚刚才用过。” “不是，真的，你身后有东西！”爷爷整张脸因为害怕都变得扭曲起来。 “哼，我才不信呢！”曾银贵说罢，弯身要去继续插灯。 爷爷急了，干脆一下掰住他的肩膀，使劲儿往后一转，将他转向了山谷的方向。曾银贵只一放眼，就被视线里的那个东西吓得说不出话来。 就在那山谷转弯的地方，也就是他们插灯的起点，此时正有一个白蒙蒙的影子沿着大路朝这边走过来。那影子像是穿着一件白色的长裙，在天灯映照之下，显得异常诡秘。而且那影子走得非常慢，脚下似乎没有半点儿挪动的痕迹，与其说在走，不如说在飘！
“那……那到底是什么东西！”曾银贵虽然这样问，可他的心里想必早就有了答案。 爷爷看着他的样子，应该是给吓得慌了神，一双手直发抖。爷爷问他：“现在怎么办？” 只见那个白影越来越近，她一走过那天灯，天灯上的灯火就微微颤动起来。 曾银贵紧张得咽了口唾沫，他像是在背书：“头七点灯，不可多言，不可嬉笑，否则定会招来不测，如遇不测……如遇不测……” 说到这里，曾银贵突然卡了壳，支支吾吾背不出后面的话来。 “如遇不测怎么办，你倒