Chapter 22 Chapter 21: Nether Fire

After Lao Wang listened to our analysis, he immediately ran out of the house in a hurry, and hurriedly stopped the young man who was about to leave the village.However, it is impossible not to go out for a lifetime, the people in the village have to eat.For the sake of safety, Pharaoh and the other men made up their minds and decided to let the three young people go together, and brought some self-defense weapons, and then let the three young people leave with confidence. Looking at the figures of the three young men, I felt a strange feeling in my heart. I always felt that I would never see these three young men again.Because Li's mother was buried today, we stayed in the village and didn't go anywhere.Li Xiuzhu was scheduled to leave at four o'clock in the afternoon, and the place of burial was just a few hundred meters outside the village, which could be seen from the gate of the village.Zhao Shuai didn't want to see Li Xiuzhu at first, but Li Xiuzhu encountered bad luck one after another, so he didn't say any bad words, and he took the initiative to follow Li Xiuzhu to the funeral.

At noon, Lao Wang and others went to take care of the tea trees. Zhao Shuai and I felt fresh, so we wanted to follow to open our eyes.Liao Er was not interested in this matter at first, but he didn't dare to stay in the house alone, so he pouted his buttocks and walked behind us.Lao Wang's car overturned that day, and the tea leaves were wet, and the tea leaves were drying on the side of the stockade.The mountain where the tea is grown is some distance away from the stockade. It is not intentionally placed far away, but there is no suitable place nearby.Looking around, the mountains and plains are in a neat blue color, completely different from the arrogance of wild trees and thorns, as if there is an indescribable comfort.

In the past, people used to use Pu'er tea as the general name of Yunnan tea. In fact, Pu'er tea is mainly produced in the south of Changning County, Yunnan.Pu'er tea has a long history, which can be traced back to the Eastern Han Dynasty, at least in the Three Kingdoms period, but the title may be different.The origin of the name of Pu'er tea has always been different. It is more recognized that Pu'er County in the Simao area is the distribution center of Pu'er tea, and Pu'er tea is derived from the place name. In the Pu'er tea area, a legend passed down from generation to generation among tea people is also related to the name of Pu'er tea.According to legend, around the 7th century, a large-scale plague occurred in Simao and Xishuangbanna, which were under the jurisdiction of the ancient Nanzhao Kingdom.Samantabhadra Samantabhadra turned himself into an old farmer in order to save the common people, picked green leaves for the common people to boil and drink, and the plague was cured without medicine.In order to commemorate the kindness of the Bodhisattva, the local residents planted large-leaf tea widely, and named it "Pu'er" because the tea leaves resemble the ears of Samantabhadra; and because water in Buddhism represents compassion, the combination of the two is called "Pu'er". .

Lao Er Liao walked down the tea mountain. He knew more about tea than we did. After he stopped, he praised the tea here as very good and definitely the first-class raw material.My incomplete tea book is the same as the original tea book, but it mysteriously lacks the introduction of Yunnan tea, so I don't know anything about Pu'er tea.However, I heard from my grandfather before that the harvesting of Pu'er tea leaves is not only related to the quality and yield of tea leaves, but also affects the growth of tea trees. The harvesting of Pu'er tea is divided into four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. Every spring, from late February to November is the harvesting period of Pu'er tea. Spring tea is harvested from February to April, and its tea picking is divided into "spring tip", "spring middle" and "spring tail" according to the morning and evening. Among them, the spring tea harvested within 15 days after the Qingming Festival is the top grade. Pick one bud and one leaf, the bud stamen is thin and white.It was already summer when we came to Menghai. Summer tea is harvested from May to July, commonly known as rain tea, commonly known as "two water".Autumn tea is harvested from August to October. It is called scented tea, also known as "guhua", and its tea quality is second only to spring and summer tea.Winter tea is seldom harvested, and it is limited to tea farmers who harvest it in moderation and drink it for themselves.

Lao Wang saw me talking freely and clapped his hands in praise. He said he thought we were laymen, but he didn't expect to know a lot.In fact, I know so much about Yunnan tea, and I will show my feet if I continue. Lao Wang's praise came in a timely manner, otherwise I don't know how to stop.Most of the tea pickers are women or children in the village, and men occasionally come to help.When the women saw Lao Wang bringing outsiders over, they smiled and shouted at us enthusiastically, asking the five of us to come and help pick tea leaves together. We stepped forward happily, but suddenly we were all stunned. There were only four of us, Zhao Shuai, Liao's second son, and Lao Wang in total. How could the women say that there were five of us.I walked in the back, and when I heard the women's words, a gust of cold wind came up behind me.Looking back in panic, Mu Qingxiang had already stood there at some point, staring at me coldly.Mu Qingxiang must be a person, although the body temperature is a little lower, but it will not be as cold as a dead person.Liao Lao Er said that he is not a human being, maybe he did something wrong to others, so he kept slandering him.

The four of us looked at Mu Qingxiang together, Mu Qingxiang was not nervous at all, but looked at each other calmly.Seeing Mu Qingxiang, Liao Laoer took a deep breath, shivered for a while, and couldn't even speak.I don't know what Mu Qingxiang is going to do, but now I want to help Pharaoh and the others pick tea leaves, so I asked Mu Qingxiang if there is anything, if not, let's pick tea leaves together.Who knew that Mu Qingxiang didn't give face, and said lightly that tea picking should be at dawn, and tea picking should stop as soon as the sun came out. I haven't memorized the remnants of the tea scriptures, but I have a little impression of the contents of the scriptures. There is indeed a similar record of Mu Qingxiang's saying in the scriptures: pick tea at dawn, and stop when you see the sun.If Mu Qingxiang didn't mention it, I wouldn't be able to remember this passage at all. It seems that I haven't mastered it enough to apply what I've learned.Mu Qingxiang's words made Lao Wang and the others a little embarrassed. Although they are tea masters, they are not experts.I winked at Mu Qingxiang, meaning to ask her what she wanted to do, and just go and cool off when she has nothing to do.

Mu Qingxiang didn't understand what I meant, so she asked directly: "You know me?" The first time I saw Mu Qingxiang was in Menghai, I never saw her in other places, otherwise how could such a beautiful person be forgotten.Just as I was about to answer, Mu Qingxiang took a step forward. Instead of looking at me, she stared at the cowardly Liao Er Er.I stood aside discouragedly, as expected I was being sentimental, thinking that I would have an affair when I arrived in Yunnan.The second Liao didn't know his blessings, Mu Qingxiang questioned him, but he hid behind me, as if Mu Qingxiang would eat him.

"I don't know, I don't know!" Liao Er Er nervously denied. "Didn't you say..." I almost wanted to say that you knew Mu Qingxiang, but then I remembered that Liao's second son said that he would show us something after returning to Qingdao, and then the truth of Mu Qingxiang's identity would be revealed. "What?" Mu Qingxiang asked. Liao's second son rushed to answer: "It's nothing, let's go pick tea, let's go!" Before we could answer, Liao's second son ran up the tea mountain, and Lao Wang followed in a daze, leaving only Zhao Shuai and I standing in place.Zhao Shuai didn't leave because he hated this ice beauty, but he found that Mu Qingxiang had never looked at him, so he left resentfully after standing for a while.Although I am longing for love, I am not interested in nervous people, so I want to go to pick tea after leaving.

Mu Qingxiang ignored my farewell, but opened her mouth to ask: "Are you here to find the pumpkin head tea? This is the last time I tell you, leave quickly, Manlong Village will soon be in disaster, and you will find the tea leaves by then." There is no escape." "Why..." I wanted to get to the bottom of it, but Mu Qingxiang always didn't speak well, leaving a scary warning before swaggering away. Because of Mu Qingxiang's sudden appearance, I was always restless when picking tea, and Liao's second child was even more exaggerated than me. Their legs were shaking all the time, and they couldn't stand still.I thought to myself that it's no wonder that Liao's second son has no wife and is so afraid of women. He might die within a few days after marrying a wife.Second Liao asked me quietly what Mu Qingxiang said later, and I answered truthfully. Second Liao frowned thoughtfully, wondering what the hell he was planning.Regarding the "disaster" that Mu Qingxiang mentioned twice, Liao and I didn't even think about what the so-called "disaster" was.

When it was almost three o'clock in the afternoon, Pharaoh and the others called it a day and went back, and we followed suit.However, the way these people pick tea is indeed wrong, not only the picking time is not good, but even the tea picking technique is also problematic.There is a saying in the remnants of the scriptures: use claws to break the buds, do not rub them with fingers, worry about the stains caused by sweat and sweat, and the tea will not be fresh and clean.Therefore, tea workers mostly use freshly drawn water to follow themselves, and when they get buds, they throw them into various waters.The meaning here is that when picking tea, you should cut off the tea buds with your fingernails, not rub them with your fingers. If the tea buds are contaminated by human sweat, the tea will not be fresh and clean.Therefore, most of the tea workers brought fresh water from the well, picked the tea leaves and threw them into the water immediately.However, when picking tea leaves just now, many people crushed them directly, and no one brought freshly drawn well water with them.

Of course, tea-picking procedures are different in many places, and it is not necessary to follow the instructions in the fragmented scriptures.However, just now I heard Mu Qingxiang mentioned that the time for picking tea leaves was wrong, so I thought that Mu Qingxiang would not have anything to do with the remnants of scriptures.Soon, we returned to the village, and without allowing me to think too much, more than half of the people in the village followed Li Xiuzhu to bury Li's mother, including me, Zhao Shuai and Liao's second son. In the afternoon, the sky was much darker, but there was a faint blue light floating in the distance in the forest.Before we got closer, I realized that it was not a blue light, but a blue will-o'-the-wisp—the fire of the ghost.In the hot midsummer, where there are many wild tombs in the mountains and forests, there will often be flickering, blue sparks of light, which are commonly known as will-o'-the-wisps.Ghost fire is phosphorus fire, because human bones contain phosphorus, and when phosphorus reacts with water or alkali, it will produce phosphine, which is a gas that can spontaneously combust, is light in weight, and can move when the wind blows. Lao Wang told us not to be afraid, because many dead people have been buried in the village for many years, so there are often will-o'-the-wisps in the forest in summer.Sometimes not only at night, but also during the day, you can see the faint ghost fire, and the whole forest will be rendered with a layer of strange colors.Zhao Shuai and I wanted to save face, insisting that we were not afraid, but in fact we were terribly afraid.I thought that Liao's second child would be scared, because he would be so scared that his legs would limp when he saw Mu Qingxiang, and he must have fainted immediately when he saw the will-o'-the-wisp.Who knew that Liao's second child was used to this, ignoring the blue will-o'-the-wisp, his bullish expression was completely different from him just now. During the burial, the men killed a tied pig on the spot, and distributed the pork to everyone present.Zhao Shuai and I didn't want it at first, but Li Xiuzhu said we had to, otherwise we would be in bad luck for the rest of our lives.Li Xiuzhu also gave everyone five yuan, which probably has the same effect as pork, and it is also used to get rid of bad luck.It is said that money is handed over by tens of thousands of people, and it has a strong yang energy, and it may be able to drive away ghosts and evil spirits. The will-o'-the-wisps kept floating, and when the crowd moved, the will-o'-the-wisps moved with it, staying inseparable from the crowd.I have an inexplicable fear of this natural phenomenon, probably because I rarely see it, so it is more strange than rare.After the burial, everyone performed some weird rituals. The three of us outsiders stood aside like logs, as if we were watching a show.Originally, people in the village discussed burying the old man Hu Jie, but some people raised objections. They said that the three young men had gone to the police, and they should keep the body as evidence.However, some people said that the person who killed Hu Jie was not a person, but a ghost, otherwise it would be impossible for someone to hang Hu Jie on the gate of the village. The argument raged, and the men were so hot they almost fought at the funeral.Fortunately, Lao Wang persuaded them to leave, and a fight was avoided, otherwise I don't know how to clean up the mess.Until we left, the ghostly fire in the forest did not recede. I couldn't help but look back at the faint blue fire in the distance, thinking that there must be many dead people buried in the forest, otherwise such a large area of ​​will-o'-the-wisp would be difficult to form. When we got back to the village, it was already dark, and we discussed with Lao Wang in the house about finding pumpkin head tea after dinner.During the day, Liao Laoer was stimulated by Mu Qingxiang, so he ran away in a hurry to find the tea.Although Liao's second child is a master who wants money and life, he has an incomprehensible fear of Mu Qingxiang.In order to find the tea leaves quickly, Liao Laoer said that he couldn't wait any longer, and wanted to go to the demon's house at night to search carefully. "You're crazy, it's dangerous to go during the day, let alone at night?" I said in surprise. "If there is danger there, it doesn't matter whether you go there during the day or at night." Liao Er said sincerely. Zhao Shuai didn't take my side: "The old man is right. In fact, we tend to relax our vigilance during the day, but we will always be careful at night. Besides, there are no entertainment programs in the village, not even a TV. Could it be that three people a night How can a big man sit like this?" I was moved by Zhao Shuai's talk, and sitting in front of Zhao Shuai and Liao's second child all night, I definitely couldn't stand it.It's funny, I've been to Manlong Village for so long, and I've only been to the Yaozhai once.All three of us became passionate, and this time we brought a lot of self-defense weapons and lighting tools and sneaked out of the stockade.In order to avoid tiger attacks, we also brought homemade rifles borrowed from Hei, and if any beast didn’t want to live, we would feed it a handful of bullets. Traveling through the forest at night, both Zhao Shuai and I got on the sedan chair as brides, but Liao Er said that this was not the first time for him.In Qingdao Shuilao, Liao's second son kept guarding the tea and refused to leave. I thought that besides his love of money, he also had an unusual experience.In the forest, insects and birds screamed, and beasts roared from time to time, which made people frightened and excited.I don't know why I'm excited, maybe it's been a long time since the ordinary life, and I have an indescribable longing for this kind of absurd behavior. When we were about to arrive at the Yaozhai, we saw a blue light near the Yaozhai from a distance, which was hazy and unreal.I quickly realized that it was a will-o'-the-wisp, which was fainter than what I saw in the forest in the afternoon, and I'm afraid I can only find it at night.However, I stopped immediately, if there were ghost lights in the demon house, did the house bury dead people, and more than one.