I didn't respond directly. I looked at the middle-aged man with confusion and asked the question in my mind. He said that he believed in the old scholar.

After hearing this, I probably knew something in my heart. I was afraid that this middle-aged man was financially strapped and could not afford professionals, so he hired amateurs to do the funeral at low prices. The old scholar recommended me to him.

After thinking about this, I happily went on, just to get an experience for no other reason. An old man like this who has returned to his old age will generally not cause any weird things as long as there are generally no mistakes.

Next, we negotiated the price with the middle-aged man, but we didn’t know what was going on. Lao Wang asked for 15,000, and the middle-aged man agreed without even thinking about it. He asked us to take care of everything from the encoffining to the burial of the old man.

Lao Wang added: "Some necessary red envelopes have to be calculated separately." We are all rural people, middle-aged men understand these rules, so let us not dislike the small red envelopes.

After we negotiated the price, the middle-aged man stuffed a red envelope for each of us, a pack of Baisha cigarettes costing five yuan. The red envelope contained twenty-four yuan. According to the custom here, the twenty-four yuan was called

For full filial piety, twelve yuan is half filial piety. The size of the red envelope is entirely up to the wishes of the host family. For some well-off families, the red envelope will be given at least 200 yuan.

Although the red envelope was a little smaller, Lao Wang and I were still very happy. After all, this was the first time that we, the Eight Immortals, had taken on a funeral order, and the price was only 3,000 yuan lower than that of those professionals.

Later, the host invited us to have a meal at his house. After thirty years of drinking, Lao Wang and the host were a little too drunk. Lao Wang said: "Lao Li, I don't understand. The funeral fee of 15,000 yuan is a bit too much."

It’s low, but we can talk about the price with those professionals and possibly invite them, so why should we contract it to the Eight Immortals?”

The host took a sip of wine, was stunned for a moment, and said: "Brother! I won't hide it from you. Before asking you, I found someone to settle the matter. The person said that the time of the old man's death was not good, and the mortuary time at home was a bit long.

.”

When I was about to go out, the old scholar stopped me and said: "Jiuyaozi, you must choose the tomb well, don't ruin the master's family's queen!" After saying this, he sighed.

He frowned and said, "I didn't believe it at first, but then I asked the old scholar to find out. He also said seven days."

It's okay if he doesn't speak, but when he speaks, I really want to beat up the old scholar. MD, once a funeral like that happens, the person who organizes the funeral will have a life span of less than three years. As long as the etiquette is not thoughtful, it will be easy.

Being remembered by the deceased will bring bad luck to you in the future. MD, is there anyone so deceptive? There are so many Eight Immortals who don’t deceive me. They caught me and bullied me!

When I was about to go out, I was so angry that I had no place to vent my anger, so I kicked the door of the old scholar's house again. I don't know whether it was broken or not, but I heard the roaring curses of the old scholar coming from behind me.

Lao Wang was worried at the side and asked me if there was anything wrong. I didn't answer him. I put down the bowl and chopsticks in my hands and asked him to wait here while I went back to the village to lie down.

At first glance, there is nothing wrong with this birth date. When I calculated it using the ten heavenly stems and the twelve earthly branches, my face darkened. The seventh year of the Republic of China was 1918 AD, which was the year of Wuwu, and June was the month of Wuwu.

, the 20th is the Wuwu day. If I guessed the time correctly, it should be the Wuwu hour, and the time of his death should be 11 o'clock at noon, not more than a minute and not more than a second. Only in this way can it comply with what is said in the burial scriptures.

That kind of fate.

The so-called birth date is simply eight characters. In fact, it is another way of saying the four pillars in the Zhouyi term. The four pillars refer to the time when a person is born, that is, the year, month, day, and hour. Each of the ten heavenly stems and the twelve earthly branches has one.

The characters are combined to represent the year, month, day, and hour respectively (the ten heavenly stems are: A, B, B, D, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui; the twelve earthly branches are: Zi, Chou, Yin

, Mao, Chen, Si, Wu, Wei, Shen, You, Xu, Hai) such as Jiazi year, Bingshen month, Xinchou day, Renyin time, etc.), including the basic state of the celestial movement when a person is born, each year

There are two characters for pillars, and four pillars have eight characters in total, so they are also called "eight characters". According to the relationship between the heavenly stems, the earthly branches and the attributes of yin and yang and the five elements, we can infer the faults, misfortunes and blessings of the human body.

When Lao Wang asked how long it would take, his expression changed and he said, seven days.

I was extremely unwilling to admit this, so I asked my host: "Did the old man die at eleven o'clock?" He said he didn't know, and he didn't look at the time. It was probably eleven o'clock.

The host told me that the deceased’s birth date was Wu o’clock on June 20, the seventh year of the Republic of China, and he died at noon o’clock.

I glanced at the host's house and felt a little angry, but since I had agreed, I definitely couldn't go back on it, so I had to grab Lao Wang, who was about to get angry, and said: "Tell the birth date of the deceased to the hour of death, and I will calculate it again!"

After arriving at Licun, I said nothing with a stern face and asked Lao Wang to give me all the red envelopes and cigarettes. I didn’t tell him the reason. Although Lao Wang was a little surprised, he still gave me the red envelopes and cigarettes and asked.

Why, I said, I won't harm him, I will take care of him if anything happens.

"What?" Lao Wang exclaimed, "Seven days? You didn't lie to me?"

When I returned to the village, I first looked up the burial scripture at home and read it once. Yes, it matched the fate mentioned above. Then I went to the old scholar to ask about the situation. The answer he gave me was also the fate, which made me sincerely

There shouldn't be any problem if you prepare this funeral well and carefully select the Eight Immortals.

After knowing the fate of the deceased, I have no confidence in this funeral, let alone carrying the coffin. I really want to reject this funeral, but I can't find a suitable reason, not to mention that according to our customs,

No one is willing to accept the second mourning. (Second mourning: one funeral for two groups of people.)

Thinking of this, I felt a little better. I found some funeral tools at home and hurried to Licun. Since I have taken over this funeral, I must not let it happen unexpectedly. As for the short three-year life span, it is only dozens of years.

Whatever happens after the year, I won’t care about it for the time being.

Then, I asked the host to take me to the room of the deceased. The host nodded, his eyes showed infinite sadness and sadness. It was an indescribable look, cruel and realistic. Presumably, the host’s feelings for the deceased should be very deep.

deep.

I followed the owner's house anxiously, but Lao Wang was not afraid at all and walked in swaggeringly. If I told him the fate of the deceased, I wonder if he would do the same.

The house where the deceased lived was not big, about ten square meters, with a few stools on the right and a wooden bed on the left with a black mosquito net hanging on it. Kneeling beside the bed was a little girl of seven or eight years old.

Burn something.

When the little girl saw us coming in, she raised her head and continued the work at hand. I walked closer and saw that it wasn't yellow paper, but a test paper. The most annoying thing was that the little girl was burning and muttering:

"Grandpa, you are getting older. You need to use your brain more when you get to the underworld. Shuyan will burn some test papers for you to do. If you encounter something you don't understand, take my class teacher down and ask her to teach you how to do it."

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Chapter completed!