Holy Bone

Chapter 136 He Fu (4k, please subscribe and ask for a monthly pass)
Facing Jin An's questioning.

The old Taoist dragged Jin'an into the main hall of the Taoist temple mysteriously, as if he was afraid that the walls had ears and people would hear him.

The main hall of the Five Viscera Taoist Temple.

A total of several statues are enshrined. In addition to the saints of the Sanqing, there are also the ancestors of the Wuzang Taoism.

Under the gaze of the four statues.

Then the old Taoist said mysteriously: "Little brother, there are some secrets in it."

"It's not easy for those soldiers to die."

"The dead son of Master Ma is named Ma San, the third eldest in the family, and has been a village brave in the 'Yong Camp' in Fucheng."

"This Ma San is very competitive. Because he can eat since he was a child, his strength is stronger than ordinary people, and he has studied in a private school for several years, so he can read a few words, so he became a leader in the 'Yongying'."

"Shichang is more or less a moderate official, and he manages ten village braves under his command."

"This time, more than half of the soldiers and Xiangyong who went down to the Thousand Caves died, but the officials publicized that it was because of the sudden surge of the river that the people who went down into the Thousand Caves had no time to escape, so half of them were drowned..."

"Actually, it's not. There's something else hidden in it."

The Taoist robe of the old Taoist priest is indeed very suitable for folk activities, because it is easy to gain the psychological kindness of ordinary people.

Therefore, the old Taoist went out for a while just now, and actually got a lot of secret information from Mr. Ma's family.

"Just now, as an old man, when I was comforting Ma Shizhu's family, I inadvertently learned the truth...Those people were indeed drowned in the Thousand Caves, but it was different from ordinary drowning."

"According to the rest of the people who escaped, at the beginning, more than a thousand people set up camp, rested for a night, and after recharging their energy, they began to go down to the thousand caves before the morning fog cleared the next morning."

"It went smoothly at the beginning, and there was nothing abnormal. These more than a thousand people were scattered in the Thousand Caves. Although they couldn't explore all the caves, they had the advantage of the number of people. They continued to explore the depths steadily, and finally found the end."

"And along the way, many floating corpses were also found."

"Those floating corpses have been described by people who have escaped. Their skin is soaked and white, but there is no obvious sign of decay. In short, they are very evil."

"But when it comes to the most evil sect, it must belong to this Thousand Caves."

"There is a cave inside, and the caves are connected. The more than a thousand people walked in, the more they discovered that this underwater cave extending in all directions is so big that they can't go to the end no matter how they walk. It's like a fascinated cave. Little brother, what do you say? Is it evil or not? That’s more than a thousand people entering the cave together, not a hundred or so, and more than a thousand people is not a small number, tsk tsk.”

"As we walked further in, we encountered more and more corpses along the way. I don't know when, a thin layer of mist began to float in the cave."

"This mist is not a corpse miasma, and the people are not poisoned, and there is nothing unusual. The officer who led the team thought it was the water mist reborn from the cold air and humidity in the cave, so they didn't take it seriously at first."

"Later, the officer leading the team calculated the time. It was going to be dark outside soon, and it was not appropriate to stay in the cave overnight, so he planned to order people to retreat first, but something went wrong when they retreated."

"The caves under the thousand caves are so strange that they seem to be able to lose the five senses of people. The officer calculated that it should be daytime outside, but he didn't know that the sky outside was already dark. When more than a thousand people withdrew half of them, the flow was cut off. The river water suddenly surged without warning, pouring into the dry river bed, directly drowning the remaining half of the people who hadn't had time to evacuate under the cave, hey."

"I heard from people who escaped that the scene was horrible. Many people didn't have time to escape, and they were rushed back to the depths of the cave by the influx of river water without even screaming."

According to what the old Taoist said next, with such a heavy casualty this time, none of the dozen or so cavalry guards, including the deputy commander, escaped the catastrophe.

The officers who lead the team are at the forefront when they are advancing, so when they retreat and turn to walk in the opposite direction, they are at the end and responsible for breaking the rear.

As a result, before they had time to withdraw from the cave, they were drowned in the cave by the backflowing river water, and no one escaped.

This is a big blow to morale.

The remaining half of the people who fled in embarrassment finally fled back to Fucheng in embarrassment.

After that, in order to stabilize the hearts of the people, the government concealed this matter and did not allow it to be mentioned to the people.

Only relatives of the victims were notified.

And even the relatives of the victims didn't know about the series of strange things that happened under the cave, they only said that the river flooded them and drowned them.

Later, a neighbor next door, who was also Xiangyong, saw that Mr. Ma not only gave away the white-haired man to the black-haired man, but also couldn't see his son's last face and corpse. He couldn't bear it, so he secretly told Mr. Ma the truth about Ma San's death. family.

Those people were all drowned on the day they went down to the Thousand Caves, but the remaining people fled back to Fucheng, sent out cavalry guards to investigate and confirm, and then went to the officials to count the rosters. There was a delay of some time. , So it was not until today, two days later, that the news of the death was notified door to door.

Then, Mr. Ma's family approached the old Taoist priest.

Tell the truth.

They pleaded with the old Taoist priests to summon the soul of Ma San so that they could meet Ma San for the last time.

But even the old Taoist priests can't do anything about it.

Because Ma San died underwater, and the water is black, which can suppress evil spirits and restrain the soul. The drowned person will be trapped underwater forever, and will never be able to get ashore.

This underwater water ghost can only go ashore unless a scapegoat is found.

Therefore, even if the old Taoist wanted to summon the soul, he could not summon Ma San's soul.

This time, the water of the Yinyi River was cut off one night, and the river was restored another night, and hundreds of people were swallowed up. The city suffered a heavy loss.

How many families have experienced life and death, lost their husbands, sons, and fathers? Jin An and the old Taoist sighed.

The cries of Mr. Ma's family lasted for a whole day, which is enough to show the grief of a white-haired person sending a black-haired person.

……

It was night, and it was already dark at this time.

After nightfall, another high-rise compound in Fucheng is Hefu, one of the three major medicine merchants in Fucheng.

The style of this He Mansion is as majestic as the two Zhang-tall stone lions in front of the gate, with high walls and green tiles, circled around Liuhe, carved beams and painted buildings.

He Mansion occupies a large area, even among the prefectures, it is one of the best in the city, with rockery, bridge railings, flowing water, flower gardens, exotic flowers and trees, it is as prosperous as a small palace.

Zhen'e is a servant of the He Mansion. Because of her poor family, she was sold into the He Mansion by her parents since she was a child.When I was young, my family was poor and I didn’t have enough rations. Only by entering a wealthy family and giving it to the current people can I have enough food and a way to survive.

But Zhen'e never blamed her parents.

On the contrary, I think it's good to give people to the people in He's house, at least they can have enough food, and the master and wife of He's house are not mean to the servants.

I can go home to visit relatives for one day every month, and after working for ten years, I can still get wages every month.

So Zhen'e is really contented.

In He Mansion, the servants live in the servant rooms in the lower courtyard, and there are several servant rooms in one lower courtyard.

In the servant room where Zhen'e lived, there were a total of six people living there.

The six of them are servants in charge of washing clothes and bed sheets in Hefu Huanyifang, but for some reason, after nightfall today, Zhen'e lay on the bed tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.

On the contrary, the other five people in the same servant room all slept soundly.

Just when Zhen'e couldn't fall asleep, pat, pat...

There were footsteps outside the next room.

Zhen'e hurriedly covered her head with the quilt, she thought to herself, the only one who stayed up so late was the old lady.

I heard that the old lady has been sold into the He Mansion for more than forty years. The housekeeper of the He Mansion saw that the old lady was too old to do heavy work, so she asked the old lady to take charge of their lower house.

And the old mama is prone to insomnia when she is old, so she often wakes up at night to check on them, to see who is not sleeping and chatting, and delays getting up early the next day to serve He Fu.

The old mother is very strict with them, so the sisters in this lower courtyard are very afraid of the old mother.

Zhen'e covered herself in the quilt, and eavesdropped on the quilt with her head covered. When she felt that the footsteps of the old mother had gone away, she immediately removed the quilt.

After being covered in the quilt for a while, he was already sweating profusely from the heat.

She gasped for breath, almost suffocating herself in the quilt just now.

But I don't know, pat, pat...

She had just got her head out of the quilt, when the sound of footsteps walking far away in the yard came again, scaring Zhen'e to cover her head under the quilt again, her heart was pounding, she was extremely nervous.

It seems that the old mama saw that there was no movement in the servant room, and after the sound of footsteps lingered at the door for a while, she turned and left again.

Zhen'e secretly let out a sigh of relief while hiding under the quilt.

But the quilt is too stuffy.

His head was covered in the quilt all the time, and he was hot and suffocated.

Zhen'e didn't hold it in for a long time, and felt that she couldn't hold it anymore, so she secretly lifted a corner of the quilt, wanting to take a few breaths of fresh air quietly.

But when Zhen'e secretly lifted a corner of the quilt, there was a cool moonlight shining into the lower room through the open door.

The night wind from the lower courtyard also blows into the lower room along the open door, making the lower room a bit cold.

Zhen'e looked at the door Qing Leng pushed open, with surprise and doubt in her eyes.

When was the door pushed open by the old nanny?
The old mama was really confused. After opening the door for inspection, she forgot to close the door before leaving...

Zhen'e poked her head out cautiously, glanced at the sleeping sisters, she put on a coat casually, then got up to close the door.

Before closing the door, Zhen'e looked outside, the courtyard was dark, empty, and cold, the old lady's room was also in this lower courtyard, but it was dark there, the door was closed tightly, the old lady seemed to be asleep Falling asleep and not waking up in the middle of the night?

Zhen'e was puzzled.

call--

A gust of night wind blew into the yard, and Zhen'e shivered from the cold. She didn't think about it, and quickly closed the door, and got into the warm bed again to cover her whole body.

It's finally warmer now...

This time was also strange, she fell asleep quickly this time after she obviously couldn't fall asleep before.

Tonight, she had a very strange dream.

In her dream, she dreamed that the room was very lively, as if there were many people standing there.

Those people were talking loudly, talking loudly, talking and laughing, and pointing at her in their dreams, and then the voices became louder and louder, and the laughter grew louder.

Zhen'e really wanted to see who those people were, but those people were standing at the door, some distance away from her, and their figures were blurred from beginning to end, with a feeling of being in the fog, which made her unable to see those people clearly. people.

So, instead, she tried hard to hear what those people were saying loudly, but she still couldn't hear clearly.

It was as if... there was a hazy veil between her and those people. She could clearly see those people, but she couldn't see them clearly.

Faced with such a weird dream, Zhen'e was a little nervous and frightened.

She struggled desperately to wake up from the dream.

But people just can't wake up.

Those people who entered the room continued to point and point at her who was struggling on the bed, talking and laughing louder and louder...

……

a few days later.

Jin An, who has been eating peaches for several days, feels a little tired of eating, so he plans to change his taste today.

Today he grows apples.

The jujube tree in the front yard of the Taoist temple, the old tree blooms new flowers, but the fruit it bears is red, refreshing and crisp apples.

After Jin An finished sharing the apples with the old Taoist priest, Jian Jian, and the goat, he went on to find Uncle Lin opposite the Taoist temple to "share the spoils."

In the past month or so, Uncle Lin has taken good care of the Taoist temple. He never forgot to introduce the old Taoist priests to do any rituals, such as saving the dead, so Jin An has always kept this kindness in his heart.

Perhaps these are just a little effort for Uncle Lin, and he didn't pay much attention to them.

But Jin An always remembered.

Don't do nothing for small favors.

To be a human being is still to say how to repay your kindness.

Of course, Jin An didn't go to Uncle Lin every day out of boredom. Every time he went to Uncle Lin, he took the opportunity to inquire about various things in Fucheng, so as to learn about Fucheng.

Because he will stay in Fucheng for a long time to digest his sinful virtues and accumulate his background.

After all, no matter what, his foundation in this world is still too shallow, and this world is not peaceful at all.

Not long after Jinan and the old Taoist priests hung out in the coffin shop, and then returned to the Taoist temple, the coffin shop ushered in new business early in the morning.

It was a maidservant from a rich family.

This maid was actually one of the maids beside Mrs. He who appeared at the coffin shop a few days ago.

"Mr. Lin, my wife ordered me to order a coffin." The maid next to Mrs. He ordered a coffin as soon as she entered the shop.

The servant girl's complexion was not good-looking, and her complexion was a little pale. It seemed that she was frightened.

Uncle Lin raised his eyes and looked at the maid: "Then your wife said, black coffin, white coffin, red coffin, yellow coffin, which coffin do you want?"

"People die differently, and the color of the coffin is also different."

Uncle Lin's words seemed to mean something.

After hearing Uncle Lin's words, the servant girl's face immediately changed several times. She lowered her head to hide the fear in her eyes: "I, my wife wants Mr. Lin to come and see in person, what kind of coffin should I need..."

"At the same time, I also want to ask Mr. Lin, He Mansion to introduce an expert Taoist priest or monk to come to He Manor to collect the corpses, and practice chanting sutras to save the souls of the dead."

When Uncle Lin heard this, he didn't even think about it. He raised his hand and pointed to the Taoist Temple of the Five Internal organs opposite the coffin shop, and said, "The expert your wife needs is in the Taoist Temple of the Five Internal organs opposite."

"I'm the only one guarding this shop, and I can't leave. You can go directly to the two priests in the Taoist temple opposite. After they have seen the corpse, they will know which coffin to arrange."

Uncle Lin's words made the girl's eyes subconsciously look towards the incense and cold Taoist temple opposite the coffin shop.

(End of this chapter)