When we returned to my grandfather’s house, four tables had been opened, but no one had touched chopsticks yet. It seemed that they were waiting for the two leaders, Fatty Sun and me. However, the village chief and third uncle were not present. According to my biological father, , they were still comforting the father whose son drowned in the manure pit.
Seeing Fatty Sun and I arriving, grandpa greeted us both with a smile and sat at his main table. He boasted to the people around him: "This is my eldest grandson, and that is my grandson's good friend, Sun Desheng Sun Ting" Chief, he is now the director of the police department. Yes, my grandson is the one who served as a soldier in the early years. I am not boasting, everyone from our old Shen family can stand out there..."
While grandpa was fuming in vain, a man walked in from outside the door and took up what grandpa said: "That's right, the old Shen family is now a prominent family name in Qinghe County, and all the people they produce are talented people. Let's not talk about the recent ones. It’s Mayor Shen who was involved in land reform..."
"Monk Xiao! If you have wine, drink it. Why are you farting? Is it interesting to dig out old accounts from many years ago?" Grandpa yelled at the person who spoke.
The person who came was none other than Monk Xiao, who had disappeared since the play ended. He was talking about the first cadre from our old Shen family, the deputy head of the township who was kicked out for his lifestyle problems during the land reform period. How is this happening? For ten years, we people named Shen have been unable to hold our heads high. It was not until my third uncle became the captain of the armed police that we suppressed the matter.
Monk Xiao strolled over to the main table. When one of my cousins at the main table saw him coming, he quickly stood up and gave up his seat to Monk Xiao. Mr. Xiao was not polite and sat on it in a grand manner without caring. Before anyone else could use their chopsticks, I tore up a chicken thigh and started chewing it as if no one was watching.
My friend came to disturb the situation, and it was hard to get angry in front of outsiders. Grandpa's face turned green and red. The leader of the theater troupe walked through the rivers and lakes, surrounded by beautiful people. He toasted Grandpa with a glass of wine, and the two of them clinked their glasses. The banquet is open.
Although this meal was a late-night snack, the dishes on the table were still very rich. Because they had to sing in the evening, the actors could not eat too much. The meal in the evening was just a snack, and this meal was considered the main meal.
After drinking for a while, the drinking got messy. People chatting about each other's backs, going around the table to have a drink, all kinds of things started. Drinking in rural areas is like this. It's fine at first, but after three rounds of drinking, it becomes like that. When wine covers your face, some old principles are not so important anymore.
But with this police uniform next to me, no one dared to come over with a bottle of wine to challenge me and Fatty Sun to have a drink. Seeing those tables already filled with drinks, I looked funny and didn’t have much time in my hands. Then, he pulled out a tendon on the plate and put it into his mouth, chewing it slowly.
Before I could swallow the tendon, Fatty Sun suddenly poked me with his elbow. When I looked at him, he raised his chin and was looking at my grandfather and Mr. Xiao opposite. Monk Xiao had arrived at some point. Grandpa sat down next to him, and the two brothers were talking quietly with their heads down. It was completely invisible that they were almost quarreling just now.
"Just now, Monk Xiao was talking about things in the river," Fatty Sun said in a low voice. I nodded calmly, pretending that there was a plate of food that I couldn't reach. When I stood up to pick up the food, I listened to a few words between them. content of speech.
"Old Shen, don't hesitate, someone will die tomorrow if you do this..."
"Is what you said reliable? I don't have any confidence in my heart."
"Don't worry, as long as the ghost show starts...
Judging from the situation, Grandpa was already tempted by what Xiao Laodao said. After searching around several wine tables with wide eyes, he said to my father, who was blushing and thick-necked from drinking at the wine table opposite: "Boss, you
Go get the third uncle back." Ever since the third uncle became the deputy battalion commander and returned home in glory, as long as the third uncle is at home, grandpa must discuss any major issues with the third uncle.
My own father was in the mood for drinking and was reluctant to leave the wine table, but he didn't dare to offend his own father. He couldn't help but muttered: "It's already midnight, why are you looking for him? Maybe the third child is already asleep." I saw his eldest son.
He had no intention of moving. With a "pop!", Grandpa slapped the table: "Little bastard, are you going or not?"
As soon as my father put a glass of wine into his mouth, he was startled by my grandpa's slap. The whole sip of wine he just drank came out with a "poof..." "Cough cough cough...go...I"
Go right away... cough cough"
The drinkers didn't know what was going on. Suddenly, everyone in the room was holding up their chopsticks, and no one dared to move them. Grandpa was a little embarrassed: "Move your chopsticks, move your chopsticks, brother, don't be stunned, follow me."
Second uncle, let’s have a drink. Mr. Sun, please use your chopsticks..."
About twenty minutes later, my father returned to my grandfather's house with his third uncle. His face was tired and his eyes were red. It was obvious that he was also very sad about the tragic incident at his friend's house.
Grandpa called his third uncle to his side and lowered his voice and said: "Third uncle, come with me to the back room to discuss something with you." After saying that, grandpa stood up and left the wine table. Xiao Laodao coughed, and grandpa looked helplessly.
I glanced at him, turned to me and said, "Little Lazi, you can come too."
Fatty Sun was looking at me with a smile, and I guessed what he was thinking: "Ding Sun, have you eaten and drank enough? Get up and move around." When he saw me pulling up to Fatty Sun, Grandpa was stunned and immediately looked over
Seeing Monk Xiao, Mr. Xiao nodded slightly: Grandpa smiled and said: "If my grandson... the director doesn't mind the old man nagging me, let's sit together in the back room."
The back room was Grandpa's bedroom. After entering the house, Grandpa invited us to get on the kang, and finally locked the door bolt with his own hands.
Grandpa said to Xiao Laodao: "You better tell me, I can't explain your matter clearly."
Xiao Laodao was not polite: "Then I will make a long story short. You have all seen it with your own eyes. Three people died after the opera was sung for three days. But I can make it clear that this is not the end yet. There are still seven days of opera left.
, if the rest of the play continues, people will die. This is a taboo of ghosts. If more people die, they may not die every day. When the ten days of the play are over, it will be good if half of the people in your village are left."
After hearing this, the expression on Third Uncle's face was ugly. Grandpa had heard him say it many times before and was already prepared. He was not too surprised. The remaining Fatty Sun and I stared at him, and the other
He said with a smile: "You want to make a long story short? Three words would have been enough - it's haunted..."
I was afraid that Fatty Sun would spill the beans, so I quickly interrupted him and said to Monk Xiao, "What do you mean? The show won't be sung?"
Monk Xiao said: "It's too late, let's stop the show now, let alone whether your county magistrate agrees or not, even the innocent ghost in the river can't do it."
Grandpa sighed and said to Xiao Laodao: "Stop being so nagging, just say what you say."
Xiao Laodao said: "I have thought of a way to overcome the ghost taboo. Tomorrow night, after the show is over, I will sing another ghost show..."
I understood what Monk Xiao meant. Originally, our village, Xiaoqinghe, had always been peaceful and without any major incidents. The reason why people were killed one after another in the past few days was entirely due to the boat drama in these ten days.
There are also rules for singing boat opera, but the boat opera has disappeared in our Xiaoqinghe Village for too long. It is not easy to simulate the scene of the Hundred Days Boat Opera hundreds of years ago. The original rules are almost no longer used.
knew.
According to Xiao Laodao, just singing a big opera won't cause any trouble. But the time and place of singing are very problematic. The boat opera is performed in the evening when the lights are turned on and the gongs are turned on, and the singing must be continued until after twelve o'clock in the evening. This belongs to Yang people
Occupied the yin hour.
Moreover, the place where the opera is performed is on the river. The river water belongs to yin. In the yin time, the yin place performs opera for the yang people, which is tabooed by ghosts. In addition, the time of singing the boat opera was not chosen well. The gong started on the first day.
It actually caught up with the Yin time. Once the boat show started, it was like a magnet, gathering all the Yin energy from hundreds of miles around. The ghosts followed the Yin energy, and the Yin energy near the boat was so strong that it was natural to be sneaky. I
The mist that Fatty Sun saw was the crystallization of Yin Qi. According to Xiao Laodao, the figures shaking inside were sneaky people watching the drama of the Yang world.
Fatty Sun was disapproving when he heard this: "You said that the root cause of the accident was singing the boat opera for a few days, but this is not the first time I have heard this boat opera being sung. Didn't I sing it once hundreds of years ago? It seemed like that time
I sang for a whole hundred days and I didn’t hear anything happened that time?”
Xiao Laodao looked at Fatty Sun and smiled slightly: "Because the person in charge of that time knew the rules of the boat opera. Before the boat opera officially started, three animals had to be placed by the river, and paper and incense were burned to borrow time from the people in the underworld.
Not to mention, after every twenty-four days of the boat opera, they had to avoid the people in the Yang world and sing a ghost show for the people in the Yin world. At that time, it was said that the opera was performed for a hundred days, but in fact it was only performed for ninety-six days for the living people.
....."
After Master Xiao said these words, no one in the room spoke again. It was just Fatty Sun who shook his big head, seemingly wanting to say something more, but he seemed to be unable to find anything to refute Master Xiao.
For a moment, there was silence in the room, and the third uncle suddenly remembered something: "I..." He only said one word, and nothing more happened. Grandpa glanced at him: "Third uncle, what do you want to say?"
The third uncle shook his head, glanced at Fatty Sun intentionally or unintentionally, and said: "I... haven't thought about it yet, let's talk about it later."
Before the third uncle's words came out, I remembered something: "Old Xiao, your rules for rapping about boat opera have been lost. How did you know that?"
Monk Xiao did not answer my question directly. Instead, he took out an old thread-bound book and said, "I knew someone would ask. I brought the things. You can read them for yourselves."
It can be seen that this book has been aged for some time, and the paper has become yellow and brittle. Xiao Laodao also had a way to dismantle the pages of the book, press a film on each page, and then bind it into a volume again.
The surface of the book was written in small regular letters - Lingyun Guanzhi in four big characters. Monk Xiao opened one of the pages: "Read it for yourselves." Grandpa seemed to have already read it, and directly handed the book into the hands of the third uncle, who
After reading for a while, he sighed and passed the book to my hand again. Fatty Sun turned his head sideways without noticing, and stared at the opened pages with his four eyes.
Contrary to what I thought, the booklet was actually written in vernacular. It was an unknown generation of Lingyun Guan owners (it was considered the last generation when Xiao Laodao came here, and it was changed to Lingyun Guan Film and Television Entertainment Group) describing the Hundred Years held by Prince Yi.
The scenes of the Japanese drama, especially the scenes of worshiping ghosts and gods before and after the drama, are described quite clearly, and are consistent with what Monk Xiao just said.
Grandpa looked at his third uncle and then at me: "You two are considered the most promising people in our old Shen family. Now let's discuss what we should do."
The third uncle raised his head and said to his grandfather: "Dad, you know, I am also a believer in ghosts and gods. Since Uncle Xiao said so, just do what Uncle Xiao said."
Grandpa looked at me again: "Xiao Lazi, what do you think?"
I said: "Singing ghost operas is fine, it's just one thing. We are very good at talking about it here. What do other opera troupes do? They are singing operas for ghosts. Do they dare?"
Xiao Laodao chuckled: "You don't need to worry about this. Why do they come all the way to sing operas here? They travel thousands of miles just for money. As long as the price is right, let alone singing ghost operas, they even accompany ghosts to sing and dance.
question."
"You don't have to worry about arranging the ghost show. I'll talk to the troupe owner about it, old Taoist priest," Xiao Laodao said with a bit of excitement.
Grandpa was still a little worried: "The money..." Before Grandpa could finish speaking, Monk Xiao stopped him and said, "Saving your life is important. How long has it been? Do you still care about money? Money is just a ball?"
"...You can figure it out." Grandpa had nothing to say. Seeing Xiao Laodao volunteering to discuss with the troupe owner, he was in such a state as if he had been injected with chicken blood. I was really impressed. What did it have to do with him?
thing?
After the five of us left the back room, Monk Xiao found the owner of the troupe and pulled him into the back room. The two of them talked inside for more than half an hour, although I don’t know exactly how Xiao Laodao talked with him. I only know that
When they came out of the back room, the troupe owner's face was red, he patted Xiao Laodao on the shoulder, twitching with joy: "Is this a big deal? Leave it to me, brother, isn't it just an extra night show? Don't tell me that you guys will give me back
Money, just don’t give money. With our relationship, what can we do if we sing for nothing? But, Master (monk Xiao still wears Taoist attire), you also know, brother and I, a big family, are fed by horses.
....”
Xiao Laodao also smiled happily: "How can you work for nothing without paying me? Brother, I have lived for so many years and I have never done that kind of thing! But, big brother, I'll leave the night show to you, you just hang around in the circle.
After so many years, I know what’s going on here, so I don’t dare to delay it any longer.”
The opera troupe boss nodded: "Brother, I understand." He turned his face and shouted to the opera singers in his troupe: "Boss, you will be rewarded with an extra show. If there is an extra night show tomorrow night, you will be rewarded with a double share of the show."
"Reward," and then bowed to the position where my grandfather was sitting: "Thank you, old man, for the meal!" The actors and actresses who were still eating, drinking and chatting stood up at the same time, bowed in unison, and said, "Thank you.
The old man is appreciating the meal..." It sounded to me like it was rehearsed.
Grandpa stood up and returned the gift. The troupe owner said to Monk Xiao: "There will be a night opera tomorrow night. Now we have to prepare before it is still dark. According to the rules, I have to send someone to follow..." As the troupe said
The boss glanced at Grandpa.
"Third uncle, you just follow and watch. Don't move around. You're breaking the boss's rules." Grandpa said to the third uncle.