I was so frightened just now that I ran away without knowing where I threw Nai Li. Anyway, she must have lost it.
I said to look for it quickly, it didn't take me very far, it should be nearby.
I started looking with a flashlight and finally found it in the grass nest.
Mr. Song apologized to Nai Li repeatedly and scolded me for not being careful. He also said that we would be in bad luck in the next few days.
After crossing Langpo and arriving at Tulingou, I saw a large pile of dry firewood piled in an open space, which had obviously been prepared during the day. There was also something made of wood placed next to the pile of firewood.
The triangular shape looked like a small house in ancient times, or the sedan chair with a triangular roof in the past. It was engraved with such-and-such year, such-and-such month, and used by so-and-so. I didn’t dare to ask any more questions.
The mountains are very quiet, and from time to time you can hear the calls of strange birds.
Two people carried Nai Li to the firewood pile, and Mr. Song kowtowed three times respectfully.
He said before that our cremation is different from the cremation in the crematorium brought by the Cultural Affairs Bureau. Yes, it is completely different.
I have never seen this form of cremation.
After Mr. Song kowtowed, he lit three incense sticks, and when he got up, he took off all the clothes on Nai Li.
Not only the shroud, but all the clothes inside and outside were taken off.
Then, he called his junior brother to help with the household registration check. The two of them bent Nai Li's body hard into the position of a fetus in the mother's belly, with her whole body curled up.
Due to the stiff joints of the dead man's body, this step alone took the two of them more than half an hour. I was extremely uncomfortable watching on the sidelines. I can imagine the scene. The old man who had been dead for a long time was being folded with great force. Sometimes the force was too strong, and even
The cracking sounds of bones and joints can be heard.
Mr. Song wiped his sweat and took out a large handful of ropes from the cloth bag he carried with him. Each rope was more than half a meter long, and there were more than a dozen ropes.
He used a rope to tie knots on Nai Li's wrists, joints and other parts. I roughly counted, and there were a total of 13 knots tied before and after.
Without hesitation, after doing this, he took out his lighter and lit the hay directly.
The fire increased, igniting the wood again, and within a few minutes it was already a sea of flames.
The dry firewood crackled and burned, and the heat wave hit our faces a little painfully. The three of us took a few steps back.
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Come clean, leave clean. Let's go."
I looked at the raging fire and asked why it was burning like this.
Mr. Song explained: "This is a burial method of the Tujia people. They believe that people should "come in" and "go out". The purpose of tying knots is to keep the body in the posture and burn it completely.
, so that the soul will be as pure as a newborn baby and will not have any nostalgia for the human world.
The Tujia people do have this kind of burial method, which local folklorists call "returning the earth burial". Similar ones include the "returning the tiger burial" of the Yi people and the "squatting burial" of the Mosuo people. The returning tiger burial is the method used when burning the corpse.
Putting a robe embroidered with a tiger on a person, and squatting to bury the person, as the name suggests, means squatting on the firewood to burn the person.
After adding more firewood two or three times, the smoke billowed and the fire shot into the sky. It took more than an hour to burn, and Li Nai was burned to ashes.
He used a wooden stick to pick out the agglomerated ashes and let them dry for a few minutes. Mr. Song put the ashes into a small wooden sedan and covered it with a red cloth. He explained that this is called a coffin. Many people don't know that it is used for dead people.
This is better than using an urn.
When the fire went out, Mr. Song held the wooden sedan in both hands and said, "It's okay. Thank you for your hard work."
"What will the Cultural Affairs Bureau say when it comes tomorrow?" I asked him.
He said: "We have all been burned, so what else can they do? The worst result is to pay a fine and be criticized."
"By the way, young man, you rest at home in the morning and come to see me in the afternoon after lunch. We need to get rid of the bad luck, otherwise we may have bad luck in the near future."
"Okay, then I'll go see you tomorrow afternoon."
"After all this work, I will be leaving the day after tomorrow."
"Where to go?"
"Of course I'm going back. I'm not from Tianjing Village. I live in Huacun. If you need to do anything in the future, you can come to me."
I said that's not necessary. I'll try not to look for you. After hearing this, he shook his head and smiled.
Actually, what is the name of what we did tonight?
This is called serious feudal superstition.
As for whether it's useful or not, I don't know, but I still have a dubious attitude.
I went back to boil water and take a shower. I sat in the big basin and rubbed my body all over. I threw away the clothes and didn't even bother to wash them because they always smelled like corpses.
After finishing all this work, it was around three o'clock in the morning, and I fell into a deep sleep.
.....
It was three o'clock in the morning and the sun was shining down on my buttocks. I got up dizzy and put on my shoes.
My feet hurt, my legs hurt, and the muscles in my calves were sore and numb. I was really tired last night.
"ah......"
I opened my mouth and stretched. I put on my clothes and wanted to make something to eat. But then I thought, it was almost time for dinner, why should I cook it myself?
I should go get some food.
Ye Zi’s cooking is delicious, so go to her house to eat.
"Ye Zi, what are you doing?"
I just arrived at her house and saw Ye Zi wearing an apron and chopping vegetables.
"Xiang Feng, you're here. I'm going to make Xianxian dishes for lunch."
"What dish is that?"
The leaves are said to be a kind of wild vegetable in the mountains. They grow in crop fields and are the tenderest in this month. They are delicious stir-fried with garlic or chopped into steamed buns.
"Have you eaten? Why don't you try it for lunch?"
"Well... I'm not too hungry. It's okay to eat something." I said.
At noon, I had two large bowls of fiber-rich vegetables with rice.
Her dad carried the bowl to the door, and we ate in the room. I found that Ye Zi still wanted to seduce me, because while eating, she always looked at me and shook her chopsticks vigorously.
"Xiang Feng, didn't you say you would give me money today?" Ye Zi suddenly asked me.
"Why are you panicking? I'm not running away. It's just for a day or two. Don't panic. I'll go when I have time."
Ye Zi smiled, put down his chopsticks and said, "Then you must remember to give me 80,000 yuan."
"I know. I'm going to go now that I'm full. I still have something to do."
Mr. Song and his junior brother both lived in Nai Li's house. The whole family went through a lot of bleeding in order to prepare for this funeral. Not counting the medical expenses, the Cultural Affairs Bureau alone fined them more than 3,000 yuan.
"Here comes the young man. Have you eaten yet? We are just about to have dinner."
"have eaten."
"Then you wait until we finish eating."
I want to "get rid of bad luck" in the afternoon. This is what Mr. Song taught me. I think the meaning is very good. Friends who feel that their careers and studies are not going well can try it. Anyway, it doesn't cost anything. If it works, you will make money.
Find an egg, pour out the yolk and white, leaving only the empty egg shell.
Cut off two pieces of your own hair, rub it and stuff it into an egg shell, then smash a piece of briquettes, grab a handful of coal and stuff it into the egg shell.
Mr. Song used nail clippers to cut off bits of hair. The length was less than one centimeter. He looked very distressed.
Finally, go out with the egg shell, face west, and throw it out as hard as you can.
If the eggshell is smashed on the ground and the coal is thrown out, it means that "bad luck" has gone and good luck is coming.
