We walked out of the guest house, feeling extremely disappointed.
It seems that this guest house really has no fate with him, and his childhood dream will have to wait a little longer.
"Little doll, I'm really sorry, the room is full."
We were standing on the ninth day of the lunar month, not far from the entrance to the second hotel.
The owners of guest houses and hotels said that in the past two days, many fellow villagers have returned to Yunnan and Guizhou, and many chose to rest here as a stopover. There was no business at all some time ago.
"Guo Guo, is it possible that we have to travel all night? We haven't bought anything to eat on the road yet, and we still have to walk for more than ten hours."
Just when we were all ready to walk a certain distance.
Not far from the hotel, a man wearing a cotton hat and a shabby cotton coat waved at us and shouted:
"Little one, do you want to stay in a hotel? I'll take you to a place that's ten yuan cheaper than here."
"What kind of place? Aren't there only two places to live in our county?"
Chujiu walked towards the middle-aged man and asked where he lived.
After walking in and taking a look, I saw that the cotton-padded clothes worn by the middle-aged man were even more worn out than I imagined. There were several patches that had been sewn and mended, so they must have been worn for many years.
When the middle-aged man spoke, he showed his yellow teeth so that his face could be kept clean.
The middle-aged man told us directly that in the county town, which is close to the national highway, a new hotel was built in August with more than 20 rooms, guaranteeing a place to stay.
He can lead us, but each person must pay him one dollar.
Chujiu nodded in agreement without even thinking about it.
After following the man for a while, Chujiu took off the travel bag on his back and placed it on the ground.
I just discovered that there is a small hidden pocket on the side of the travel bag.
After Chujiu dug out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, he winked at me and motioned for me to carry the travel bag for a while.
"Uncle, smoke a cigarette." Chujiu caught up with the middle-aged man, took out a cigarette from the cigarette case, and handed it over.
More than ten minutes later, Chujiu came back and took the travel bag from me.
I suddenly felt a lightness on my body. The travel bag weighed at least thirty or forty kilograms. Chujiu casually threw it on my back.
"Guo Guo, there's something wrong with that new hotel." Chujiu lowered his voice and pointed at the middle-aged man walking in front.
Chujiu now fully agrees with what the magazine said, "Cigarettes can shorten the distance between men."
Maybe it was because the man was given a cigarette on the ninth day of the lunar month, or maybe it was because they spoke the same dialect.
The middle-aged man chatted with him for a while, and he told Chujiu that he was a local farmer.
After harvesting in autumn, I wait for spring to start working in the fields again. I have no income this winter, so I usually do temporary work nearby to earn some extra money.
When the third hotel was being built, he worked as a laborer here, helping with some chores and taking care of the food and earning twenty yuan a day.
Some time ago, I met the owner of a hotel on the street. I told him that the hotel business has been booming recently and asked him to help attract guests near the guest house. He would be given 3 yuan for each person he attracted.
The man thought that he would have nothing to do at home anyway, so he agreed to the boss.
Sure enough, in the past few days, he has met many guests who can't find a place to stay. In one day, he earns more than he did as a small laborer at that time. His wife at home is now smiling at him.
After the man finished smoking a cigarette, Chujiu immediately handed over another one.
The man stared at Chujiu for a few times, sighed, and told Chujiu that he must not live in the innermost room on the second floor.
Chujiu asked why he said that, and the man shook his head and told Chujiu that he didn't know the details.
Anyway, there is definitely no harm in not staying in that room. Two deaths occurred in a few months, both times after falling asleep at night, and they did not wake up. People in the county said that the room was haunted.
I thought it was nothing, but since it was haunted, I felt relieved.
Looking back, probably after returning from Anhui, I have never been as afraid of ghosts as I was before.
"Chujiu, you don't smoke, how can you buy cigarettes?"
Chujiu told me that he saw a sentence in a magazine: Men don’t have to smoke when going out, but they must bring a pack of good cigarettes with them.
"The good cigarette mentioned in the magazine is not the Ashima in your hand, right?"
I was laughing so hard that I was out of breath. I was probably reluctant to spend money on the ninth day of the lunar month, so I lowered the standard of good cigarettes again and again.
"Who said Ashima is not a good smoker? Have you never heard of the five famous cigarettes in China: Yiyun, Second Gui, Three Zhonghua, Hongtashanxia Ashima, Guoguo?"
"Did you get this ranking from Zhang Feng?"
"Guo Guo, how do you know?" Chujiu's eyes showed disbelief, and his face was full of surprise.
"The complete jingle is: One cloud, two nobles, three China, peonies under the yellow fruit tree, Ashima under the Red Pagoda Mountain, Marlboro with three, five, and seven stars, the big red eagle is screaming, Jiaozi rides the little panda, let's go see the red golden dragon together, in the Seven Wolves
When you leave the general, there is a jade stream outside the Hade Gate, and there are golden leaves on the lotus king."
I laughed like crazy again. This jingle was clearly Liu Yang telling everyone about the number of famous cigarettes at the mall counter. Zhang Feng learned the first two sentences, turned around and lied to Chujiu.
"Guo Guo, I saw an article in a magazine about the taboos of staying in a hotel written by a Hong Kong Feng Shui master."
Chujiu rubbed his head in embarrassment, preparing to divert my attention with topics.
"Come and let me listen."
Chujiu thought about it and said that he mainly wrote down a few points. The first thing he said was that he would not stay in the back room of the hotel.
Because the hotel is rarely full, when allocating rooms to guests, they usually start with rooms near the elevator lobby.
The reason is that by centralizing the guests, it will be faster to provide room service and more convenient to clean the room after check-out.
Relatively speaking, the occupancy rate of the rooms at the end of the corridor will be lower, the popularity will be weaker, the yang energy will be insufficient, and the yin spirits will easily gather. The master said that if you are assigned to the last room, you may wish to change the room.
After entering the room, you should turn on all the lights in the room, then go to the toilet and flush the toilet. Then lift up the quilt and pat the pillow to let the spirit know that a guest is staying.
But remember, do not open all wardrobes and drawers at once. This will not only avoid disturbing the spirits and allow them to adapt to the presence of living people, but also leave a small amount of space for them to hide.
If you are a single person staying in a double room, or two people staying in a room with two beds but want to share a bed.
Be sure not to choose the bed next to the wall, but also to mess up the pillows, bedding, and sheets of the bed next to the wall, or put the pillows into the cabinet to let the spirit know that the adjacent bed will also be occupied.
After entering the room, if you smell a strange smell, feel uncomfortable all over, or even find the bed vibrating for no reason, or the TV and lights turning on and off by themselves, these may be signals from the spirit body.
It's possible that they don't want to be harassed, so it's necessary to ask for a room change.
Before going to bed, do not turn off the lights in the whole room. Turn on at least one light to retain some yang energy and make yourself feel a little safer.
In addition, shoes should not be placed neatly beside the bed to prevent the spirit body from easily putting them on at night, so it is best to place the shoes in a mess or in reverse order.
One positive and one negative, arranged in a slight eight-figure shape, which is more in line with the Bagua talisman drawn by Taoists. It has the meaning of yin and yang harmony and can prevent spirits from approaching.