"On the eighth day of the lunar month, there are two days left."
In the mourning hall where mourning flags were hung, a man wearing a black gauze hat rushed back from the Yamen, covered with travel.
A woman wearing a mourning hat and mourning clothes counts the days.
"Two days..." Qiu Zhongsheng frowned, his face looked as if he had aged dozens of years instantly, "They will arrive tonight."
"What should we do?" Mrs. Qiu walked back and forth anxiously, "Will it affect your career?"
"What's the difference between this and fooling them!"
"Here, what should I do?"
Qiu Zhongsheng was even more helpless and simply gritted his teeth and said, "Follow the rules of the countryside."
Mrs. Qiu's eyes widened in surprise, then she nodded.
——Now, this is the only way.
"The sky is dry and things are dry, be careful about the fire."
On the eighth day of the lunar month, Mao hour has arrived.
People in Qiu Mansion began to do things, wear mourning clothes and perform funeral rites.
It was still dark at Mao hour, and white lanterns were lit and hung all over Qiu Mansion. The wind blew the mourning flags on the beams, and a sound was heard like mourning.
Guapi is a son of the Qiu family. He has been working as a servant in the Qiu family since his grandfather's generation and has won the trust of the Qiu family.
When Mao hour arrived, Guapi helped his grandfather to the mourning hall.
Mr. Qiu passed away and was buried on the eighth day of the Lunar New Year. Yesterday, he suddenly asked Grandpa Guapi to go to the mourning hall to nail the coffin.
Guapi didn't know that it was enough to nail the coffin before burial. He felt that it was too early to get up at this time, and grandpa's body couldn't bear it.
Master Qiu didn't know what he said to his grandfather. Grandpa's body began to tremble and he muttered, "It's all life, it's all life."
Before Mr. Qiu left, he glanced at Guapi, who was sitting on the ground with his knees in his arms, holding a pancake in his hand and chewing on it.
The silly look made Qiu Zhongsheng feel relieved.
After Master Qiu left, Grandpa Guapi took several finger-long nails and hammered the coffin.
When Guapi saw this, he wanted to step forward to help his grandfather nail the coffin. Before he could reach the coffin, he was scolded by his grandfather and backed away.
He obeyed and continued to pick up the pancake and gnaw it.
The mourning flags above the head were blown by the wind and kept ringing.
Guapi raised his head and looked at it. Clusters of white strips of linen were entangled with each other, making him doze off.
Suddenly, there was a jolt.
Guapi looked at the coffin, then quietly crawled under the coffin.
There was a piece of yellow paper pasted on the bottom of the coffin. On the yellow paper were symbols that Guapi couldn't understand. As soon as his hand touched the yellow paper, the yellow paper fell off and landed on his face.
"Click--"
——What is that sound?
Guapi put his ear close to the coffin and listened.
——The sound of a knife carving on wood.
But why is there a knife in the coffin?
No, it was the sound of nails scraping across the coffin.
The sound rang in Guapi's ears, as if he would be caught in the coffin in the next moment.
Guapi was scared and wanted to crawl out from under the coffin, but he heard other sounds.
Children always have great curiosity.
Guapi's fear was masked by his curiosity, and he leaned closer to the coffin again to listen.
"No."
"No."
"No."
With only this word, Guapi didn't know what he was talking about, what the hell?
But the voice inside just repeated this one word.
The light on one side under the coffin suddenly disappeared, and Guapi subconsciously turned his head to look over.
His grandfather, who was full of wrinkles and had stiff features, was also lying on the ground looking at him.
His back was hunched, like a full stomach lying on the ground, but his head and limbs were still lying down.
"Grandpa, someone is talking in the coffin."
"Shh-"
Grandpa put his index finger tremblingly on the mouth where only four or five teeth were left, and suddenly reached out and pulled out the melon rind.
It's snowing in Yin'an City.
It snows at the beginning of winter. It starts to fall before noon, and after noon the sky is covered with snow.
The snow attracted many people to Yin'an City, including Yan Yu.
What’s the best thing to eat on a snowy day?
Hot roasted sweet potatoes and fragrant fried chestnuts.
Yan Yan can now find the most delicious roasted sweet potatoes and fried chestnuts in Yin'an City just by relying on his sense of smell.
On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, Yan Yan once again went to the spot where the vendors often set up stalls and waited. After waiting around, he realized that no vendors were setting up stalls today.
Yan Yan turned around and was about to leave, but happened to be facing a team returning from a funeral.
She is dressed in black, and the other person is dressed in white.
At the front of the funeral procession was an old man holding a memorial tablet. Yan Yan glanced at the memorial tablet.
Many people in the team looked at Yan Yan while throwing paper money into the sky.
Yan Yan stepped on the plain white paper money, and the hem of his skirt swept the snow, covering half of the paper money.
Not having eaten the roasted sweet potatoes, everyone was exhausted and walked around boredly stepping on the paper money on the ground.
Unknowingly, I walked to a hillside and encountered two ghosts trying to wrap a soul chain around an elderly ghost.
Those who die of old age, illness, or have resentment when they die will not have their souls dispersed after death.
The ghosts did not want to go to the underworld and were struggling under the hands of the ghosts. The ghosts almost locked the soul-locking chain, but when they saw Yan Yan coming over, they were so frightened that the soul-locking chain in their hands was in vain.
Yan Yan conveniently helped to lock the soul chain to the ghost.
After the two ghosts knelt down and worshiped, they quickly disappeared with the ghosts in tow.
Yan Yan blinked.
What comes to mind is the ghostly hand of the old man just now.
The bloody hands and nails were all broken and pierced into the flesh. The flesh on the fingertips had turned into pulp, and the white bones inside could be seen.
Seeing that the old man was well dressed, with a jade in his mouth and a jade finger ring on his hand, why did he suffer the pain of amputated fingers during his lifetime?
Yan Yan glanced at the grave where the old man came out just now.
At this glance, she was stunned for a moment and looked at the words on the tombstone carefully.
The name and date of birth on the tombstone were exactly the same as those on the memorial tablet held by her husband in the funeral procession just now.
Those who died on the fourth day of the lunar month were buried on the eighth day of the lunar month. This is consistent with common sense.
But - why was the soul taken away on the eighth day of the lunar month?
In Yin'an City, there are many families in the courtyard next to the lake in the city.
Here comes a very strange pair of siblings.
The younger brother never goes out, and the older sister is away from home every day.
Before noon that day, I saw the sister running back to the yard. Instead of fragrant roasted sweet potatoes, she had strong-flavored white wine.
"Xiaobai Xiaobai, look what good things I have brought back!" Yan Yan put down the wine pot and set up the small stove.
Pour the white wine into the ceramic teapot, light the fire and start cooking. Then take out the dried meat from Bingshou and place it next to the fire to heat it up.
"I went there early and was the first in line. The people behind me queued up on the street next door. This jerky is also delicious. You try it first. I'll pour you a glass of soju later and we can eat it together."
Xiao Baizhu's gaze shifted from the shochu to the dried meat, and then to Yan Yan.
"Didn't you say you were going to buy roasted sweet potatoes before you went out? Where are the sweet potatoes?"
"There was a funeral in that area, but no stall was set up." Yan Yan took a chopstick and stirred the wine, "Tell me, I encountered a strange thing."
Yan Yan told Xiao Bai Zhu that the man who died on the fourth day of the lunar month had his soul left on the eighth day of the lunar month.
"Can the soul be trapped in a corpse for so long?"