Unmarried people were not allowed to carry the coffin. The eight men who carried the coffin were all married. They walked all the way up the mountain. After walking for a while, they made two weird "ooh" sounds, a bit like monkeys.
After going up the mountain, the host held hundreds of dollars in his hand and quickly ran to the coffin. He smiled and said loudly: "Pick up the money, pick up the money."
Then he took out one or two hundred yuan and threw it into the straw nest.
At this time, a woman will run out, pick up the money, run back, put the money into the pockets of the coffin bearers, and then repeat this process until all eight coffin bearers have money in their pockets.
.
Er Pengju made his words clear this time. He told me that the women who helped pick up money from the grass were all the wives of the coffin bearers, and they were wages for helping others.
It rained heavily the day before yesterday, and it was difficult to walk in the mountains because of the mud. However, these eight strong men were very steady on their hands and feet. They were even more careful after collecting the money, because they all knew that it was taboo for the coffin to fall to the ground during the burial.
When we arrived at the reservoir and carried the coffin onto the earthen bag, my heart skipped a beat.
On the west side of the earth bag, a shed was built with raincloth to block the sun. It seemed that he was really going to be buried on the earth of the ancient tomb.
"Slow down! Slow down on the other end!"
"Aim at the bricks and loosen the stick!" Mr. Song greeted people and placed the coffin on the bricks.
Seeing that the red coffin was put down smoothly, he first breathed a sigh of relief and then shouted: "Where are the chickens and sheep! Come out! Dig a hole!"
As soon as he finished speaking, four or five people ran out with shovels in hand and started digging.
this
Is the digging done now?
They dug a rectangular pit in about ten minutes. I was stunned when I saw it. It was too shallow. The depth of the pit was only half a meter from the ground.
"Er Pengju, do you bury people so shallowly here?" I asked.
Erpeng muttered an explanation.
I understood. What he meant was that the burial was so shallow. When visiting the grave, a branch would be inserted into the soil. Because the burial was shallow, the branch could touch the coffin underground. He would knock the coffin with the branch, which meant to tell
We are here to visit the graves of the people inside, and you come out and get money to spend.
At this time, Mr. Song read loudly: "Heaven has no restraints, earth has no restraints, yin and yang have no restraints, children's words have no restraints, today we break the ground, good luck and good fortune will come."
"The auspicious time of that day was not more than noon, and we opened the business on the ground. On the ninth day of July in 2003, Li was buried. He told the God of the land in this mountain that if the earth is started, there will be descendants, and if the ground is started, there will be descendants. Earth is blessed with fortune and wealth. The earth is moved by the three elements. Gold and silver are there. They will be steamed and tasted through the ages. The family and home will be stable and prosperous forever."
After he finished reciting, he threw a handful of grains into the pit and shouted in a long tone: "Fall."
Several people carried the red coffin and slowly lowered it into the pit.
Next, Mr. Song took out an ink fountain from his bag. It was the kind of ink fountain that could pull out the thread. He asked someone to pull the thread and draw on the coffin.
Damn it, I’ve never seen it before, so I thought to myself, what is this doing? Isn’t this a zombie with an ink fountain? Could it be that Grandma Li in the coffin is going to become a zombie?
After looking at it for a long time, I understood that the ink pipe line was not used to pop the coffin, but was used to pull it out and find the center line in the pit.
The process of the coffin falling down is called "sitting in the hall".
It would be very unlucky if one end of the hall is high and the other is low, or if it is tilted, so Mr. Song used the ink fountain in his bag to find the center line to ensure that the coffin finally landed in a horizontal position, just like hanging a thread when building a wall.
"Um."
He squatted at one end of the coffin, looked at the ink line and said, "Use the stick on the other end and move it three centimeters to the left."
Immediately, someone started to chase him away with poles.
"good!"
"Stop moving! That's it, just right."
He stood up and said: "The immediate family members come over and touch the coffin one last time."
Several men and women reached out and finally touched the coffin lid.
It was 11 o'clock at this time. The local rule is that the burial must be completed before 12 noon. The sun was strong and it was hot even under the shed. Mr. Song wiped his sweat and said, "Let's bury the body."
Because the burial was too shallow, the ancient tomb under the earth bag was not dug out, but it happened to be on top. After filling in the soil, when viewed from a distance, there was a small earth bag on top of the big earth bag.
People slowly dispersed and went back to have lunch. Only the family members were left burning some paper money in front of the new grave.
"Mr. Song, we're done."
He was sweating profusely, fanned himself with a fan and said, "It's over."
Then he immediately said: "This is a geomantic treasure land. I will use the new coffin to press the old coffin, which is equivalent to putting the entire
Thanks to the mountain's feng shui opening being blocked, it will be good for the descendants of the Li family over time."
"Sir, you are so considerate. I wonder if the gift is generous?" I asked him.
"Oh, that's all a trivial matter. My gift this time is only five hundred yuan." He said with a smile.
I cupped my hands and said, "Thank you very much, sir. I'll thank you for my grandma Li." (Actually, I still don't know what grandma Li's name is.) .??.
He shook his head and smiled, carrying the cloth bag and going down.
The food was prepared last night, and a table was set up at the door. At noon, there was a large group of people eating and drinking. The women chatted about home affairs, and the men boasted and drank.
My face didn't turn red and my heart didn't beat. No one knew me anyway, so I thought to myself, "I should be able to dig at another spot. It's just a matter of how one can do it alone without being discovered."
You need to study this carefully. If you are caught, you will probably be beaten to death.
"What's your name, please?"
Suddenly, a young girl at the next table asked me.
I ignored him and continued eating.
"Can't you tell me your name?" she asked again.
I turned around and said, "Who are you? Can you please leave me alone while I'm eating?"
The girl rolled her eyes and said to me with her chopsticks: "I saw you coming down from Milky Mountain that day, carrying a bag and holding a bamboo pole. At that time, I thought you were from out of town collecting skins."
"The skin collector?"
"What's the point?" I really didn't understand.
"Then it seems you are not. I was wrong."
She said: "Collecting skins means collecting toad skins. There are a lot of toads in the reservoir. Few people have come to our village to collect skins this year."
"Oh, then I'm not a skin collector."
I turned around and continued eating.
There are a lot of toads in the wastewater reservoir this month. I live behind an Internet cafe, a few miles away, and sometimes I can hear their croaking at night.
Tianjing Village has been harvested in the past few years, but there are fewer this year. Toad skin is toad clothing, which is a kind of medicinal material. After catching it, they will peel off the skin with a knife and sell it for money. This is what this girl’s family does, so she asked me
Are you here to collect the skin?
Seeing that I didn't speak, she didn't say a word either. After dinner, there were activities at the mourning hall in the afternoon and evening. I called Er Pengju to the corner and asked him in a low voice: "Er Pengju, do you want to make some money?"
He immediately nodded and said, I think so, but I can’t do anything.
"How old are you?"
"I'm 28."
"Then you are much older than me, so don't call me brother, just call me brother Feng."
"I'll have a job here soon. I'll give you 300 yuan as a salary. How about it? It's quite a lot."
"Holy crap! So many! What kind of job is this?" His face turned red with excitement.
"I haven't thought about it yet. I'll contact you when I think about it, and you can tell me whether I want to do it or not."
"Dry!"
"Don't worry about the work! Just give me thirty dollars and I'll do it!"
"Okay, wait until I notify you."
I was not here at the mourning hall that night. I am now an IP customer of Xiaoqiang Internet Cafe, because it costs one hundred yuan per press.
After coming out of the Internet cafe at around 10 o'clock, I walked to the reservoir at night with a flashlight in hand.
The toads screamed loudly. I just arrived at the reservoir and before I walked up the slope, I suddenly saw a large group of people walking down with flashlights, shouting and carrying a red coffin.
I was startled and quickly moved out of the way.
I thought to myself, is this a fellow traveler? A tomb robber? Who is so awesome and blatant?
That was Nai Li's coffin that had just been buried in the morning.
After the group of people carried it down, another pickup truck came and they wanted to load the coffin into the truck and take it away.
At this moment, another large group of people came running, they were descendants of the Li family.
They looked angry, holding sticks and poles in their hands, and asked loudly: "Do you want to die? What are you doing!"
The man in the pickup truck was not afraid and shouted back: "Lao Quan! I have notified your family several times that burials are prohibited! Burials are prohibited! Not only did you not listen, you buried them next to the reservoir!"
"Don't you understand the law?"
"Tourist attractions! Both sides of the main road! Water sources! No burial!"
"We warned you three times but you didn't listen!"
"It's too late now, we have to take him to the crematorium for cremation."