Chapter 43 Chapter Two

Disobedience, a profession that specializes in dealing with the dead and dealing with the funeral affairs of the dead, also served as an autopsy in the era when there was no forensic doctor.When they chant scriptures for the dead, they often recite scriptures beginning with "Nam" such as "Nam Amitabha" or "Nam Avalokitesvara", so they are usually called "Nam Master" or "Nam" locally. guy". In order to investigate the case of the boy Jiutian turning into a corpse, Zhenzhen and I visited an old man nicknamed "Nan Muzhi".However, when I knocked on the riddled wooden door, what I got was an unceremonious expulsion order: "I will not care about the affairs of the dead, and I don't want to intervene in the affairs of the living, please go back!"

"We are the police, open the door for me immediately!" Zhen Zhen's majestic order, in exchange for the other party's sneer: "I just won't open it, I have the ability to tear down the door!" When Zhen Zhen heard the words, she immediately raised her foot and really wanted to kick the door open. Seeing this, I quickly hugged her from behind, so as not to be reprimanded by the boss for breaking into the house.However, in desperation, my hand seemed to be in an inappropriate place—hey, why does it feel so soft... Zhen Zhen hit my face with an elbow and almost knocked out several of my teeth. Judging from her reaction, I just touched her chest.Although it is through the bust, it feels quite firm. If I knew it, I would have touched it a few more times. Anyway, I would still be beaten.Her cheeks were as red as the sunset, and she would be pretty if she was only shy, but her shyness was full of anger, and she glared at me viciously, as if the lack of an elbow had relieved her hatred.

"If you kick the door down, people won't even pay attention to you! You're lucky if you don't complain." Thieves shout and catch thieves is the life-saving skill of a flower picker. "Hmph! I'll see how you trick the door open." She walked aside angrily, and kicked away the gravel on the side of the road. The poor little stone suffered for me. I rubbed my cheeks that seemed to be swollen, and knocked on the door again: "Uncle Zhi, hello! I'm Mu Shenyu, an agent from the Criminal Investigation Bureau. A murder case happened nearby. I'm here to ask you some questions."

"Didn't I just say that I don't care about the dead anymore, and I don't want to bother with the living, ahem..." There was a violent coughing sound from inside the door, and the physical condition of the person inside seemed not to be ideal. "Then what should I do with these two bottles of Erguotou? I originally planned to give them as a gift to you." When I asked the villagers about his situation, I learned that he was very good at wine, so I bought it from a small shop on the roadside Two bottles of Erguotou and appetizers such as raw peanuts and preserved eggs.

Although Erguotou is not a good wine, it has a strong taste and is more attractive to alcoholics than high-end low-alcohol wine.Just like a person who is used to eating pickles, if you give him the precious matsutake, he will feel that it has no taste at all. I unscrewed the cap of one of the bottles of Erguotou and spilled half of it on the ground. The thick and impure aroma of the wine immediately permeated the surroundings. What a waste to see it being thrown away!" As soon as the play hard to get strategy was implemented, the door opened within a moment.Inside the door was a thin old man. He had an obvious hunchback. He stood up and his head only reached between my chest and abdomen. He seemed to be in poor health. His face was pale and he was coughing all the time, but his eyes were surprisingly bright. god.After he opened the door, he didn't speak, just stared at the Erguotou in my hand.Although this kind of wine is not expensive, it is not often available to the elderly who live on the subsistence allowance.

I handed him the unscrewed bottle, and he took it without saying a word, raised his head and took a sip, then turned around and went back into the room without speaking or closing the door.I waved my hand to Zhen Zhen and walked into the house. This is a house that couldn't be more shabby, built with green bricks, without any decoration, and you can directly see those green bricks that are "older" than me inside and outside the house.The layout of the house is very simple, one living room, one bedroom and one kitchen.There are only a handful of wooden furniture in the living room, and the "age" is not young, as if it will be scattered at any time.

Zhibo sat at the square table that seemed to often appear in the taverns of costume TV dramas, pointed to the opposite seat, and then raised his head and drank heavily.Just now he had a hostile expression on his face, but after drinking the strong wine, his face gradually showed joy.From this alone, I can be sure that he is not the murderer, because the deceased still has ten yuan in his pocket, which is more than enough to buy a bottle of Erguotou.Alcoholics never miss an opportunity to drink. I sat down and put the appetizers and another bottle of Erguotou on the table, and Zhenzhen stood by the door angrily. It’s not that she didn’t want to sit, but there was no place for her to sit. There were only two stools in the small living room. .Zhibo drank down the bottle of wine in his hand, his face became paler instead of rosy, but his cough was much less than before.He unceremoniously unscrewed another bottle of Erguotou and continued to drink. This time, he was not in such a hurry as before. He ate food and wine while drinking. His slightly red eyes shone with a mysterious light. He stared at me for a long time before speaking: " I don't like to owe others, if you have anything to ask, just ask, just treat it as if I paid for your drink."

Most people who like to drink are more straightforward. Since he asked me to ask, I was not polite and asked directly: "Why don't you do it anymore?" It is a profession with a long history, and there are many rules and taboos. , so it attaches great importance to the succession of master and apprentice.Although he is over seventy years old and cannot do many jobs that require physical strength, he has experience. As long as he is willing to teach apprentices, he must be able to continue to gain a foothold in this industry.If you have a clear mind and don't suffer from dementia or other diseases, it is not difficult to work until you die in a hundred years.

He was stunned for a moment, a slight fright flickered in his eyes, but he recovered immediately, and said with a wry smile: "It's been more than twenty years, maybe I should bury this terrible experience in my heart for more than twenty years Say it..." Then, while drinking, he told me the reasons for his inappropriate disobedience. Although alcohol can strengthen his courage, his thin body still often trembled in the process of telling—— Being a mutter is not an easy job. You have to deal with the dead all day long, and you can't do it even if you are timid.My parents died young, I had no relatives, no relatives, and I was not very literate, so when I was ten years old, I became a mummy with my master.

I learned a lot of practical things from the master, especially bone harvesting. Before the master passed away, only two masters in this area knew this skill.Later, the master passed away after a hundred years, and I was the only one who knew this skill.In fact, taking bones is not difficult to say, but it is not easy to say, the key is to see if you have the courage. When I got the bone for the first time, I was still very young, but I had been with the master for a while, and the time to see the dead was not necessarily less than the time to see the living, but I was required to scrape the flesh and bones of a rotten corpse with my own hands. , it's really not easy to start.But the master took a stick and insisted that I take out the bones of the corpse.At that time, I hated the master quite a lot, but when I grew up, I realized his intentions. If I didn’t learn this skill well, it would not be easy for me to have enough food and clothing in the future.

The master passed away when I was in my twenties, and he had taught me everything before that.Because I am the only one in the vicinity who can take bones, many people will come to me first when they want to have a funeral. Sometimes the business is too busy.Therefore, I was living a good life at that time, but unfortunately I was born with a hunchback, and I worked as a dead man, so no girl was willing to marry me... The reason why I stopped being a mummy is because a terrible thing happened more than 20 years ago.I still remember that it was winter, it was still raining that day, the weather was very cold, and I wanted to make a bone for my sixth wife.The bone-cutting must be carried out at dawn, before the sun rises, and I went to the place where Liu Po's six sons were buried - a lush lychee forest. After performing the worship ceremony and burning incense candles, we began to dig out the coffin, but we were stunned when we opened the coffin.The sixth woman's body showed no signs of decay, just like when it was just buried. What's even more frightening was that her right hand was pressed on her left chest, and I clearly remembered that her hands were placed on both sides of her body when she was buried. Although I have been a murmur for many years, the situation in front of me still terrified me, and it took me a while to come back to my senses.The sixth wife's six sons were all pale with fright, and everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, and for a while, no one knew what to do. Although I don't know feng shui, years of bone-building experience let me know that this place must be a place for raising corpses. The sixth wife has been transformed into a dead body. If she is not cremated immediately, the corpse will definitely be blown up.So I told her son that they should bring firewood and burn the body immediately.But it was raining at the time, and it was not easy to start a fire, and the rain did not know when it would last. If the corpse was left alone, it was very likely that the thunder would sound and she would "wake up". According to the rules of burial, once the coffin is opened, it cannot be buried back, because the opening of the coffin has disturbed the rest of the ancestors, and it is inevitable to open the coffin again.Therefore, after the coffin is opened, the remains of the ancestors must be properly disposed of.I suggest that the body of the sixth wife be parked at the home of one of her sons and cremated immediately after the rain stops. However, none of the six filial sons was willing to take their mother's body home. They were all afraid that the mother would "wake up" when the thunder sounded.After discussing for a while, they decided to give me double the reward and asked me to take the bone for the sixth wife immediately. Although I am very reluctant to take bones for the sixth wife in this situation, there is no other way. In this thunderstorm weather, she will explode at any time because of a thunderstorm.If she blew up the body because of my handling of the bones, then I will be guilty of a serious crime. In the process of taking bones, filial sons need to avoid them, so I can only take bones for the sixth wife alone in the lush and gloomy lychee forest.Occasionally, there will be cases where the corpse does not rot, so I have prepared the tools for taking the bones. As soon as the dutiful son leaves, I will immediately take the bones for the sixth wife. Before that, I had already taken bones from countless ancestors. Compared with those rotten corpses, this time it was much easier to take bones.However, I didn't feel relaxed at all. Every time the thunder flashed, my heart seemed to be tightly held by an invisible hand, and it felt like I was about to suffocate, because I didn't know if the corpse in front of me would be affected by it. And bomb the corpse. I will scrape the flesh and bones for the limbs of the sixth wife first, which will make me feel safer.However, in the process of taking the bone, I discovered another thing that made my heart palpitate - the blood that flowed out from the cut flesh turned out to be bright red!Three to five days after death, and ten days and a half months later, the blood will turn black, but Liu Po ​​has been dead for more than three years, and the blood is still as bright red as a living person. Fear has numb my nerves, I just want to finish my work as soon as possible and take out Liupo's bones as soon as possible.I took the bone for the sixth wife as quickly as possible, but it took a whole morning to completely remove the flesh and internal organs of the limbs, body, and finally only the head remained, which has not been peeled and scraped. However, this is also the most troublesome bone extraction. , the most time consuming. The rain was getting heavier and heavier. Although I was wearing a raincoat, the rain still drifted in from the collar and wet my clothes.Sweat and rain were pinching inside and out, drenching my clothes almost completely, and my hands were dulled by the chill.And although it was noon, the sky was full of thick dark clouds, and the only light blocked by the lush lychee trees was not much brighter than a moonless night. In this situation, I scraped the flesh and bones of the sixth wife's head, and the inflexibility of my hands made me anxious and unable to come.It took me a long time to scrape off the skin below the nose, and when I was about to scrape it up, the surroundings suddenly became bright, and a thunderous thunder exploded on the top of my head, making my ears buzzing.The terrible thing happened at the moment when the thunder rang, the face in front of me that lost nearly half of its flesh suddenly opened its eyes, and the angry eyes shot out from the wide-open eyes, as if it could penetrate the flesh, and even penetrate me. soul…… I can't remember clearly what happened after that. I seem to throw away the head of the sixth wife and run in the rain like a madman. I don't know how to get home.Since then, I have drunk myself with white wine every day, so that I can temporarily forget that terrible scene, the face that lost half of its flesh but its eyes are wide open.This kind of drunkenness lasted for several years, until I spent all my savings.The money is gone, but people are still alive, they have to eat, and they have to live, but I dare not touch anything related to the dead, so I can only do some dirty work.Later, when I got old and couldn't do anything, I just lived on the subsistence allowances issued by the village... During the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Yu was defeated and fled Maicheng and was captured by Lu Meng's design. Later, because he would rather die than surrender, both father and son were beheaded by Sun Quan.Sun Quan knew that Liu Bei would not give up easily after losing his righteous brother, so he followed Zhang Zhao's plan to set the blame and sent Guan Yu's head to Cao Cao.According to the unofficial history, when Cao Cao opened the wooden box containing Guan Yu's head, Guan Yu's eyes suddenly opened with anger, which made Cao Cao seriously ill, and urgently ordered him to be buried with royal ceremonies.However, there is no official history saying that the head opened his eyes. The burial of Guan Yu was not only because of the close friendship between Guan and Cao, but also because Cao Cao had an insight into Sun Quan's intentions. Whether the theory of the head opening his eyes is credible, maybe Fleeting Years can give some opinions, but whether it is true or not, it seems that it has little to do with this case.Although Zhibo should have nothing to do with this case, Yuetong's test has not yet come to fruition, and he is idle anyway, so I chatted with him for a while.After all, he has been dealing with corpses for more than thirty years, so he can help us more or less. However, when I told him about the skeleton found on the hillside, he insisted that it was impossible: "It is a fantasy to say that a corpse can be decomposed into a skeleton in nine days. If the corpse can be decomposed so easily, it is still useful." Is the bone taken? Know that the bone is usually taken after the body has been buried for more than three years, and it is still not completely decomposed." "What do you think is the reason for the corpse to be turned into a skeleton in such a short period of time? Could it be that someone skinned and scraped the flesh?" I asked. "It's impossible. I have done bone extraction, so I know very well that although bone extraction is not difficult, it will inevitably leave knife marks on the bone during the bone extraction process. And bone extraction is like a bone. It is impossible to maintain a complete human shape when it is taken out, and it is even more difficult to put clothes on the skeleton." Zhibo has more experience in this field than anyone else, and his opinions are very valuable for reference. "If it's not being skinned and scraped by someone, what is the reason?" This question made me feel like I had three big heads. At this time, Zhibo had already finished his drink, and after thinking for a moment, his face suddenly turned cold, and he said in a trembling voice: "I remembered that something similar happened more than fifty years ago..."