Chapter 138 Chapter 21 Purple Star

The dead man in the red coffin has not been decomposed yet, it seems that it has been embalmed, and the whole body is covered with a transparent film.I've heard of embalming in funeral homes, one where you inject the body with a potion and then put a sealing wax film on the body.In fact, this kind of treatment method can also be done by the people, but there will be odor, which is not considered advanced anti-corrosion treatment.Of course, the uncorrupted corpse in the red coffin cannot frighten me. It frightens me because the person in the coffin has a close relationship with me. Seeing my intense reaction, Li Xiaobei hurriedly asked, "What's the matter, Xiaolu? Are you afraid?"

I shook my head and said, "He...he is my father!" For a time, the world became clean, even the sound of the cold wind blowing the leaves disappeared.I knelt down involuntarily, staring at my father's remains, with complicated emotions beyond description.At that time, I met my uncle in Huangcuoli on Xiamen Island, and Zhao Shuai came all the way from Beijing to find me.At that time, I heard Zhao Shuai say that his father's grave had been dug up and the coffin was empty. I once thought that my father was still alive.Now, my father's body is actually presented in front of my eyes, and my illusions are also shattered.

Since the father had already been buried, why did he have to be dug up and buried here again?Could it be that the Lu family has other incense, and they thought my burial place was wrong, so they forced my father to be buried in the abandoned ancestral house?If that's the case, then just tell me, why sneak around.If it wasn't for the construction of the cemetery and the coffin was accidentally dug out, I still don't know that my father was buried in the ancestral house of Tianmen. After racking my brains, I can't think of who did it. The Lu family has no relatives in China.After recovering, I said sin, sin, dad, don't blame me, I didn't know it was you lying in it.As soon as Li Xiaobei heard that it was his father, he also knelt down and begged his father to have a large number of adults, and not to make things difficult for the younger one.As I bowed, I remembered what Lin Tu said, that bastard probably said those words on purpose, so as to trick me into digging out my father's coffin.The old fox was threatened by someone, and he couldn't get angry, so he encouraged me to go to the ancestral house to have a look.In this way, Lin Tu may have known that his father was buried, but it is unlikely that he was playing tricks, because he just came back from the desert a month ago.

I prayed eight times, muttering in my mouth, and was about to close the coffin lid when I suddenly felt a person standing behind.Looking back, Mu Qingxiang came back at some point, standing behind me at the moment, staring at his father's body with frosty eyes.When I saw Mu Qingxiang came back, I recounted the scene to her just now, but she was not surprised at all, as always calm.I sadly wanted to close the coffin and let my father rest in peace again, but Mu Qingxiang suddenly stretched out her hand and blocked the lid that was about to close on the opposite side. "What's wrong?" I couldn't figure it out.

"Didn't you find that Lu Liancheng's stomach is strange?" Mu Qingxiang asked back. Li Xiaobei took a closer look and said, "That's right, the clothes on the stomach are a little bit loose." I heard that I hurriedly removed the coffin lid again, and I really found that there was a hollow feeling in my father's stomach, as if a piece of meat was missing there.I couldn't help touching there, but it didn't matter if I touched it, it frightened me.My father's stomach had been hollowed out. If it wasn't for the tight film, my hand would definitely have penetrated into his stomach.For fear of damaging the anti-corrosion, I only unbuttoned a few buttons and looked at my father's belly.Sure enough, there was a round hole in that place, and it was even as bright red as fire. After one glance, I dared not look again.

I'm not sure about anything else, but I'm pretty sure my father was buried with his belly intact.During the rescue, my father underwent heart surgery, but the chest cavity was also stitched up later, and the abdomen did not move at all.Now that my father's whole body has been embalmed, even if the body rots, it is impossible that only a large piece of flesh is missing from the abdomen.I thought about it for a long time, and I was 100% sure that there was no piece of my father's flesh missing during the burial. This must be a good thing done by the person who moved the burial.

"Hey, close it, we will get him a decent tomb when we come back from Mount Meng." I sighed. Li Xiaobei said in admiration: "Xiaolu, I've heard your story a long time ago, and I'm really amazed everywhere!" Mu Qingxiang looked at me complicatedly, then helped close the coffin, and buried the red coffin under the loess.My mind was in a state of confusion, and I couldn't think of who did it. Could it be that my father didn't die of illness that day, but something else was hidden.Helplessly, the old house was full of dilapidated walls and ruins, without any useful clues. I let out a long sigh, and then started a fire.According to common sense, it is not suitable to talk and laugh in front of relatives' graves, and I am not in the mood. I just want to catch up with my father in front of the grave.

Li Xiaobei and Mu Qingxiang are people who are not afraid of ghosts and gods, they do not object to my decision and let me make the decision.As soon as it got dark, red flames flickered in the old house, as if traveling through time and space, arriving hundreds of years ago.Li Xiaobei noticed that my eyes were dull, and maybe he wanted to cheer up the atmosphere, so he asked me about the origin of Lu Yu, the tea saint.I snorted coldly, that old fox deliberately made fun of me, now nearly a thousand years have passed, even if it is really after Lu Yu, there is no definite clue. It was quiet at night, and I was in a panic when I was idle. Many past events flashed in my mind, and I started talking without knowing it.

Although Lu Yu, the tea sage, has a long history, his background is not noble, and it can even be said that he does not know his origin.According to records, Lu Yu was an abandoned baby who was picked up from the river by the monks of Jingling (now Tianmen, Hubei) and grew up in the temple.Lu Yu liked reading since he was a child, but he didn't want to learn Buddhism. Later, he secretly left the Buddhist temple and hid in a troupe to learn opera, and that troupe was called Zixing. Zixing was very famous in Jingling City, and the people who watched the show were all high-ranking officials and dignitaries with prominent status.Once, during a performance, Lu Yu was discovered by the prefect Li Qiwu, and he had to help him abandon his acting career, and since then he has embarked on the path of a literati.According to the book, Lu Yu was not handsome, but eloquent and upright, so he was taken away by Li Taishou.After Lu Yu left, the Purple Star Troupe was still in operation, and there were a few actors surnamed Lu later, but they were all minor troubles and couldn't make a big difference.

The Zixing Opera Troupe lasted until the Ming Dynasty, but was shut down by the court for unknown reasons, and the troupe has been disbanded ever since.It is said that the person surnamed Lu was in charge of the Zixing opera troupe at that time, and some of those people were arrested after they were shut down, and those who escaped also changed their names and hid in the village. Speaking of this, my heart tightened, thinking of what Lin Tu said to me, could it be that he was implying that the Lu family is the aftermath of the Purple Star troupe.I wondered suspiciously that the Purple Star Troupe committed a crime and had to change their surname, perhaps choosing a homonymous surname——Lu.Whether it was such a coincidence, I am not sure yet, but the question has been lingering in my mind.In a trance, I talked farther and farther away, and I was circling around the Purple Star troupe.

Li Xiaobei heard that I was getting further and further away, and hurriedly asked: "Xiaolu, why did you get involved with the Purple Star Troupe, why don't you continue talking about Lu Yu!" I absent-mindedly continued to explain to Li Xiaobei, and then looked at Mu Qingxiang who closed his eyes and meditated, feeling a strange feeling in my heart.That night, I got up secretly by myself and rummaged through several gray brick houses, hoping to find some remaining clues.But I either turned over a hibernating grass snake or touched a toad, which scared my soul away.There was nothing left in this abandoned old house, only my father's deserted tomb. I gave up and went back to sleep in the middle of the night. Li Xiaobei's wife is pregnant, so it's inconvenient to stay away for too long, so I can only stay at Tianmen for two nights, and leave for Sichuan Mengshan soon the next day. On the train, Li Xiaobei drank again, and Mu Qingxiang always opened and closed her eyes.I couldn't bear the smell, so I squeezed to the window to breathe the cold wind blowing in.But some women were afraid of the cold and yelled at me to close the window, but no one told Li Xiaobei not to drink.I couldn't bear it anymore, so I wanted to dig out the mints in my bag and eat a few to relieve my dizziness and chest tightness.However, my bag was squeezed into the corner of the seat, and it was very difficult to pull it out. I had to ask Li Xiaobei to stand up. I had the cheek to ask people to stand up, but everyone in the car was affected, and everyone complained about my trouble.When I found the backpack, I had no choice but to hold the bag instead of putting it back in its original position in order not to be confronted.Li Xiaobei seemed to see that I couldn't stand the smell of alcohol, so he finally calmed down a little, and stuffed the wine bottle into his arms. Li Xiaobei said to me: "Xiaolu, I have been to Sichuan several times, but I have never been to Mengshan Mountain. Is the tea there famous?" I nodded and said: "Yes, in the Tang Dynasty, Mengding tea was the first of the fourteen kinds of tribute tea, and it was also a tribute tea in the subsequent dynasties. Chairman Mao and his old man also said that 'Mengding tea must be developed, and it must be developed. To meet the masses, to meet international friends', I haven't changed a single word of this sentence!" Mu Qingxiang also nodded, and said to Li Xiaobei that I am not exaggerating, it is true. Sichuan Mengshan is located in Mingshan County, which is a branch of the Qionglai Mountains. Mengding tea, also known as Mengshan tea, is produced in the mountains.From the Tang Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty for more than a thousand years, except for the special historical environment of the Yuan Dynasty, Mengding tea has always been the most important tribute tea to the court.In the more than one thousand years of tribute tea, there have been countless tribute teas from all over the country, but there are few tribute teas like Mengding tea that have always maintained their status as tribute teas and are exclusively used by the royal family to worship heaven.Mengding tea can be called fairy leaves by the royal family. Most of the reasons are inseparable from the good ecological environment of Mengshan area and the long history of tea cultivation. Chairman Mao went to Sichuan during the Central Work Conference in 1958 and tasted Mengding tea. He praised it as a peerless tea, and also mentioned "the water in the Yangtze River, the tea on the Mengding Mountain".Later, Chairman Mao even issued a special instruction that "Mengding Tea must develop, meet the masses and meet international friends". I was talking non-stop, and suddenly I was thirsty and wanted to find some water to drink.Li Xiaobei handed over the jug, I quickly said thank you, and then pushed the jug back.My backpack was stuffed with a lot of things, and it was bulging, and things kept falling out after I opened it.I picked up a bunch of miscellaneous things, piled them all on the table, and then slowly stuffed them back into the bag.Mu Qingxiang saw that I was in a hurry, so she helped to sort out the things that fell out, but she was stunned when she got a photo. That is my family portrait, taken in Nanyang when I was a child, including my uncle and other relatives.Because I was going back to my hometown in Tianmen, I found that photo and wanted to take it with me.I looked at Mu Qingxiang's expression a little strangely, and thought that she hadn't seen my father and uncle before, so she deserved such a big reaction.I wanted to take the photo from Mu Qingxiang's hand, but her hands trembled a little, as if she was very excited.Since I met Mu Qingxiang, she has always been calm about changes, as if she was not surprised when I became a woman. At this time, Mu Qingxiang asked me anxiously: "Have you seen all the people in this photo?" "This is my family photo, of course you have seen it?" I asked anxiously, "What's wrong, you look so ugly." Li Xiaobei also asked curiously: "Is there anything wrong with that photo?" Mu Qingxiang's breath was disturbed, and she frowned and said: "Why have I never thought about it, but I ignored it!" It was the first time I saw Mu Qingxiang so excited, and I hurriedly asked: "What's the matter? Haven't you met almost all of my family members?" After a long time, Mu Qingxiang finally looked away from the photo, and said to me: "You are my aunt's son!"