Sun Nong and his wife lived in Tuhai Village for a month. Sun Nong would go out with Chujiu’s grandfather to collect herbs every day. He would drink at night and get very drunk. When he was drunk, Sun Nong would always say that before he died, he hoped that every old man would
All friends can meet up.
Sun Ming followed Chujiu around the village to play every day. People in the village liked this shy little boy very much, because wherever Sun Ming walked, there were no mosquitoes for many days.
Once, Chu Jiu persuaded Sun Ming to gather all the snakes nearby and show him how many there were.
Sun Ming took Chujiu and ran into a bamboo forest. He took out a bamboo tube from his pocket and sprinkled a layer of black medicinal powder on the ground. Then he hid with Chujiu not far away. Sun Ming picked up two bamboo leaves and
Put it on your lips and blow out a special rhythmic sound, a "hissing" sound, very much like the sound a snake makes when it walks.
Chujiu felt goosebumps on his arms when he heard it. Not long after, a "hissing" sound really came from around the bamboo forest, and Sun Ming smiled at Chujiu with a proud look on his face.
Later, there were so many snakes in the bamboo forest that my scalp felt numb on the ninth day of the lunar month. I had never seen so many snakes in such a big life. They swam to this place from all directions. Hundreds of snakes, both poisonous and non-poisonous, were wrapped around each other.
Together, it finally formed a one-meter-sized ball. Chujiu even suspected that all the snakes from miles around the village had gathered here.
What made Sun Ming feel that the scene was out of control was that a big snake that was as thick as the mouth of a bowl and nearly ten meters appeared. The big snake was sitting on the ground where Sun Ming had sprinkled the powder. Its two-foot-long triangular head stood up high and was red with blood.
The letter kept spitting out from his mouth, staring at Chujiu and Sun Ming with cold eyes.
The snake repellent that Chujiu and Sun Ming carried seemed to have lost its effect. The two stood still, staring at the giant snake motionless.
"Xiao Ming, what should I do? I feel like it can eat me easily."
Chujiu stared at the giant snake intently and whispered to Sun Ming.
"Brother Chujiu, I don't know why this big guy was attracted. It's something I've never encountered before. I'm also very scared. I want to go back and call grandpa, but I don't dare to move. I'm afraid it will rush over if I move.
.”
Sun Ming's voice was filled with tears.
Later, it got very late. Seeing that Chujiu hadn't come back yet, Chujiu's grandfather was worried about Chujiu, so he and Sun Nong went out to look for him.
After seeing the scene in the bamboo forest, the two old men quickly ran over and stood in front of Chujiu and Chujiu. Finally, when Ji La couldn't help but apologize, the giant snake raised its head and swam deep into the mountain forest.
That night before dinner, Sun Nong beat Sun Ming and Ji La beat Chujiu. The two children cried so miserably that the whole village could hear them clearly.
That night, Sun Nong and Jira drank a lot of wine, and they laughed and cried. Sun Nong said that the next time we see each other, maybe we will be down there.
Ji La held the wine jar and kept pouring wine into her mouth, and pointed at Sun Ming: "Sun Nong, we were both young when we last met, and now my grandson is so old."
"Do you remember how we met?"
"How can we forget this?"
Western Hunan has been a poor mountainous area since ancient times. The mountain conditions are steep and rugged, making it difficult for residents to make a living. Therefore, many people in Xiangxi went out to work and eventually died in other places.
At this time, the side industry of transporting corpses back to their hometown in western Hunan for burial came into being.
Since the western Hunan area has narrow mountain roads that are difficult to navigate, it is impossible to transport them by livestock carts.
However, the waterways in western Hunan are well developed, and people in western Hunan have always had access to waterways. When a person dies in another place and is transported back to western Hunan, he first has to take the waterway to the boundary of western Hunan, and then the body transporter carries the corpse alone on a one-to-one basis and transports it back to the mountains.
steep mountains.
It is inevitable that there will be some talented strangers among the corpse transporters. As generations of corpse transporters continue to improve the methods and tools of corpse transport, gradually there will be "corpse transporters".
Sun Nong has no idea how many generations of corpse hunters he has been in his family. He only heard vaguely from his father and uncle that his family has been in this business since the Ming Dynasty.
There are many people in the business of expelling corpses in western Hunan, but when it comes to exorcism, the most famous one in western Hunan is the Lao Sun family, and the one with the best business is the Lao Sun family. Although the Lao Sun family wants more money, they have never paid it.
If there is any problem, no matter it is windy or rainy, it can be transported back to Xiangxi on time.
"Nong, your uncle and I have discussed it. I'm afraid we have to act separately this time. We took on three businesses at once, in three places, and it's not going well. Originally, you can only drive away corpses alone when you are 16 next year. Your uncle
I insist on saying that you already have the ability to drive away corpses independently. I still have to ask what you mean? Don't force yourself and ruin the sign of the old Sun family."
There were three people sitting in the hall of an old house. A young boy was Sun Nong, and the other two men, about forty years old, were Sun Nong's father and uncle.
"Dad, uncle, don't worry. I've been working with you since I was eight years old. Besides, it's often not me who leads the corpses. Are you following behind to watch? Just tell me the place and the situation. There will be no problem."
Compared to his father and uncle, Sun Nong, who is slightly thinner, smiled and told them that he could do it.
The order that Sun Nong was required to go to was the closest of the three. It was close to Sichuan. A small merchant ship had an accident. After it hit a reef and sank, six of the seven people on board were killed. The surviving person left the other six.
The bodies were hidden in a broken house by the river, and they rushed back overnight to notify their families.
The heartbroken family members went to Sun's house and paid a deposit, hoping that the body could be transported back to western Hunan so that they could see him one last time and return to his roots.
Sun Nong frowned. Drowning is indeed a troublesome thing. It requires one more process than normal death. It took the surviving person a day and a half to come back. It would take at least a day for him to go there.
In other words, we only have three nights to collect the corpses, and if we drive non-stop, we can return to Xiangxi before the first seven days. This is even if the weather does not affect it, if it happens to rain.
"I'm really pressed for time. If I can't do it, I'll find someone from other families to help."
Sun Nong's father sighed. This was the last thing the Sun family wanted to do, even if other corpse exterminators often cooperated with each other. The Sun family has not had the habit of cooperating with others since ancient times. No matter how difficult the business is, they always do it independently.
Done, the name of the first person to remove corpses is not for nothing.
"I'll leave now!"
Sun Nong got up and ran to the house, took out a big cloth bag, and checked the tools inside, including cinnabar, a writing brush, a soul-inducing bell, a special thin rope, a peach wood hammer, a peach wood wedge, and a special map.
After confirming that nothing was left behind, Sun Nong ran to the kitchen and put a few steamed buns and a bag of dried meat into the cloth bag. He filled the kettle with water, confirmed the detailed address of the hidden body with his father, and then went out.