Ghost Blowing Lantern II - Chapter 18 Cutting Grave Bricks (Part 2)

The fat man still picked up the gold particles on the ground one by one. He comforted himself by saying that these were indeed a little lacking and could not be used to support the world revolution, but they were more than enough to improve life. I saw that these gold particles were very similar to what I saw that night in the forest. They were very irregular in shape. They seemed to be gold particles inlaid with silk to decorate objects. Could it be that the box in Wong Tai Sin was actually covered with gold ornaments? During the theft, the box rubbed and collided and dropped these fragments?

I felt itchy when I thought about what treasure was contained in that mysterious box, but I don’t know how many years ago that thing was stolen. I probably never expected to see it again in my life. I was disappointed for a minute. By that time, the fat man had pulled up everything he could pull in. It was pointless to stay any longer, and besides, he was afraid that the swallows would get impatient waiting for him on top, so we planned to leave.

When I was leaving, I saw dead bodies all over the ground, especially the four “old men”. I felt bad for them, so I decided to stop working with the fat man and set fire to them. The underground sedan chair burned down because there was never any light in the basement. There were half a dozen cans of lamp oil stored in the underground cellar, and there were many wooden structures. It was not easy to set fire to it. I scooped out the lamp oil and poured it around, and finally the oil cans were thrown away. He kicked it down and threw the oil lamp to the ground. It immediately caught fire, and the flames made the wood beams and citrons in the cellar crackle.

Fatty and I were worried about being choked to death by the thick smoke, so we ran up the stone steps out of Wong Tai Sin Temple. The snow outside had stopped. We first found a tree hole to hide the bear skin and bear meat, and sealed it with stones. After crossing the Chahagan River and returning to the forest farm on logs, we found that the “Huang Xiangu” we had caught was frightened and had only half a breath left. The fat man saw how it was possible, Huang Xiangu. If the skin is dead, it won’t be valuable if you peel it off, but if you don’t have the skills to peel the skin, it will be even less valuable, so he poured some rice soup into it to die, and he took Bear Claw and “Huang Xiangu” out to the supply and marketing cooperative overnight. To change things, to walk on a mountain road in the wind and snow for a few kilograms of cheap fruit candies, only educated youths who jumped in line would do such a thing. The motive was not entirely due to greed, but in fact, the main reason was that it was uncomfortable to be idle.

Yanzi went back to the village to find someone to get the bear meat, leaving me alone to guard the forest farm. After all the work was done and two days of free time, we worked together to trap Huangpizi again. This time it was time to trap a fox, but Before we could take action, the old branch secretary sent someone to move us back to the village.

The party secretary said: “I was afraid that you would remain restless in the village, so I sent you to the quietest forest farm to be on duty. Unexpectedly, you still disobeyed the arrangements and went to Tuanshanzi to hunt bears without permission. You disobeyed the organization’s arrangements. You are too courageous.” It’s too big. If something happens, who will bear the responsibility? Although you hunted a bear, you can still support the farmers, but the merit is not worth the effort. I think if you are left in the forest farm, you will have to dig a big hole sooner or later, and you will have to pay. I’ll punish you by finding some other job, um… what job are you looking for?”

Finally, the old party secretary assigned the three of us to participate in the work of “cutting bricks for graves”, because it is difficult to open up wasteland for farming in the mountains. There are only dozens of acres of thin fields here and there. This year, another piece of land was leveled out of the ravine. Many tombs have been dug out of the ground. Because our village was created by hunters gradually gathering during the Qing Dynasty, no one can tell which dynasty and generation the former graveyards near the ravine belong to. This old and ownerless land The cemeteries are all masonry tombs, and most of them are dilapidated. Almost all of them have been destroyed, stolen, or soaked in water. The coffins, utensils, bones and debris in the tombs are not valuable. After cleaning them out, many tombs are left. Bricks, these tomb bricks are a good thing for the locals, because there are few people around for hundreds of miles, and there are no brick kilns. The tomb bricks are large and strong, and can be directly used to build livestock sheds and simple buildings, but the tomb bricks are There may be a lot of residual mud; or there may be missing corners when it is opened; or the bricks may be knocked apart and the shape of the bricks may be irregular. In this case, you need to use a tile knife to remove them. Any irregularities will be cut off, not necessarily It is necessary to ensure that the entire tomb brick is intact, but it must be flat and regular, so that it is convenient to build a wall.

“Cutting grave bricks” is usually done by women in the villages, because men think this work is unlucky and has too much yin energy, so now this job is assigned to us. It is considered a light punishment, and the work is done by The fourth aunt, the wife of the branch secretary, came to supervise.

Although I was given a light punishment, I was most disgusted with this kind of uncreative work. We spent a long time cutting the stinking tomb bricks, and my back was sore, my hands hurt, and my arms were numb, so I found an opportunity to treat my fourth aunt to eat a few pieces and use “Huang Xiangu” The fruit candy she got in exchange made her happy, and she took the opportunity to be lazy and smoke a cigarette with the fat man to rest for a while.

I blew out a smoke ring. It was a rough day and I felt dizzy. Although it wasn’t time to eat yet, my stomach was already beating. I couldn’t help but ask Yanzi: “What can sister Yanzi do for us tonight?” food?”

Without waiting for the swallow to answer, the fat man rushed to say: “You guys have caught up. Today I am treating you to dragon meat from the sky and donkey meat from the ground. Yesterday there was a sick black donkey in the village. I will carry forward my fearless spirit and will not be afraid of the burden.” Because of the reputation of the donkey, I helped to kill the donkey, so the party secretary gave me the head, hoof and water. In the evening, I asked Yan Zi to stew the donkey’s hooves in a stew pot for us to eat, and braise them. The donkey’s water will be cooked into soup tomorrow morning. As for how to eat the donkey’s head, I haven’t yet Think about it, can you eat it with sauce?”

The swallow was forced to cut the tomb bricks by us, and he was already suffocating and unhappy. But when he heard the fat man said that he wanted to eat the donkey’s hooves, he was so happy that he covered his stomach and laughed. The fourth aunt listened and also laughed: ” This fat man, can you eat black donkey hooves at will? Even if you drink salt brine when you are thirsty, or eat five poisons when you are hungry, you can’t eat black donkey hooves. In the early years, people who dug graves used donkey hooves, but Don’t eat randomly, that’s what is fed to the dead. Only the old man eats black donkey’s hooves. In the underworld, the judge’s palm is thin, and the bull’s head and horse’s face attract ghosts. If General Jiuyou descends his corpse to destroy the evil, then General Jiuyou will become an immortal. The black donkey turned into a spirit. In the early years, the clay statues in the temple had donkey heads and donkey hooves.”

As soon as I heard what my fourth aunt said, I immediately remembered the story that my grandfather once told me about the tomb robber Captain Mo Jin who used a black donkey’s hooves to suppress the zombies in the ancient tomb. There was a huge discrepancy between what was said, but I never expected that the fourth aunt actually knew these allusions, so I quickly asked her for advice and asked her to tell us in detail.

The fourth aunt said: “What is touching the gold captain? What is this whole thing? I have never heard of that. I only remember that before liberation, there was a group of bandits among the bandits in the mountains, and the people in this group were They all wore black clothes, black trousers, a black hat, a red belt, and red socks and black shoes. Their outfits made them look evil. This group of people specialized in digging graves in deep mountains and forests. They were very noisy at that time. , after the liberation, all the sects and sects such as the Clothes and Guan Dao were suppressed. In the early years, all the disciples had to report their font size. I still remember the font size of this disciple, it seems to be called… Ni’erhui.”