And said you're not a fairy

Chapter 92 Sleeping with a Corpse

Chen Yuan walked hundreds of steps forward and was at the gate of the courtyard of a household in the village.

He found an old man with a wooden stick beside him, his face was full of vicissitudes of time, he was wearing common clothes, and his forehead was covered with age spots, sitting on a small stool.

"Old man, Pindao is a Taoist who is going to the next county. Can I stay in the village for one night? Pindao can pay some money."

Chen Yuan walked up to the old man and saluted him.

"Our village is prosperous, and each household has no spare rooms. If the Taoist priest wants to stay overnight, he can only go to Wei Xiaoyi's house."

The old man saw that a Taoist had come to the village, he looked very respectful, he stood up and said.

Chen Yuan asked, "Where is Wei Xiaoyi's house?"

The old man pointed in the direction: "Just follow this road and keep going. There are two white lanterns hanging in front of the door. The house where the funeral is going is Wei Xiaoyi's house."

Chen Yuan thanked: "Thank you, old man, for your guidance."

After saying thanks, Chen Yuan followed the old man's guidance and walked less than thirty feet, and found the yard in the village where the old man said, with two white lanterns hanging in front of the door.

As he approached this courtyard, Chen Yuan found that the mourning sound he heard just now was heard from this courtyard.

Chen Yuan stepped forward to knock on the door, and it opened after a while.

A short man came out, with two moles on his chin, and a middle-aged man with a bit of a mischievous look. He was wearing filial piety clothes, and looked at Chen Yuan up and down.

"who are you?"

The middle-aged man saw a Taoist priest standing outside the door, who looked like a mouse but not a mouse, and asked Chen Yuan's identity.

"Poverty Daoist Qingming, a Taoist priest who passed by here, saw that it was getting late, and it was about to get dark, so he planned to spend the night in the village. An old man just said that your house is the only one in the village that has a vacant room, so Just come over."

Chen Yuan reported his name to the other party, plus the purpose of knocking on the door.

"It turned out to be the Taoist chief who came to stay in the village. Please come in quickly. No one in the village knows that I, Wei Xiaoyi, are the most hospitable."

Hearing that Chen Yuan was here to stay overnight, the middle-aged man's eyes lit up, as if he had thought of an excellent idea, and then he immediately opened the door and welcomed Chen Yuan into the yard.

After entering the yard, Chen Yuan took a glance, only to find that there were not many guests in the whole yard, it was empty.

The corpse was parked at the door of the west wing, in an uncovered coffin.

A tung oil lamp was lit at the foot of the coffin, and a square table was placed under the coffin, on which were placed the old man's memorial tablet and some tribute fruit meals.

There is also a broken bowl filled with spiky plant ash, which serves as an incense burner for sticking incense sticks.

In front of the square table, there is a pottery brazier for burning paper.

Except for a few relatives and friends in the yard, there were only four invited folk craftsmen, two of whom played flutes and two sang mourning songs there.

Before, Chen Yuan thought that all those who closed their doors in the village came to attend the funeral, but it seems that it is not the case.

"Did they all hide?"

Chen Yuan said in his heart.

He took an extra look at Wei Xiaoyi next to him. He was able to hold a funeral at home, but the whole village avoided him. It seemed that Wei Xiaoyi must have a problem with his behavior.

"Okay, Xiaoyi, you are willing to find a Taoist priest to build a dojo for Niang!"

Seeing Wei Xiaoyi bringing in a handsome young Taoist priest wearing a Taoist robe, several relatives and friends of Wei Xiaoyi surrounded him and praised Wei Xiaoyi.

Wei Xiaoyi didn't deny it either, but looked at Chen Yuan helplessly, as if he had just invited Chen Yuan in for this idea.

"I'm sorry, Pindao is still young, he hasn't studied with his master, and he doesn't know how to do a dojo."

Chen Yuan shook his head and refused.

The so-called Daochang is a kind of Dharma meeting to save the dead when the mourning family invites Taoist monks to come and hold funerals.

It is expensive to run a dojo, and it is standard equipment for a big family.

It is also a source of income for many temples and Taoist temples.

This Wei Xiaoyi wanted to use the mouth of relatives and friends to ask Chen Yuan to help him set up a dojo for free, but Chen Yuan couldn't do it.

"It turned out to be a Taoist who just learned Taoism."

Wei Xiaoyi's relatives and friends suddenly realized.

"That's all, Taoist priest, you can sit around casually first, and I will ask my wife to help you arrange a place to stay in the evening."

Seeing that there was no advantage to take advantage of, Wei Xiaoyi's face changed, and he left directly after leaving a word to Chen Yuan.

Wei Xiaoyi's relatives and friends also dispersed at once.

Chen Yuan didn't feel embarrassed either, so he found a cleaner place nearby, sat on the ground, and patiently waited for the dark.

As soon as Chen Yuan came in for a while, it was completely dark.

Wei Xiaoyi's friends bid farewell and left one after another, and the courtyard, which was not crowded with people, suddenly became even more empty.

Seeing that the sky was getting dark, the four people who sang the funeral songs also took up their duties one after another, and all stopped.

The funeral home didn't even light up the lights, and the yard was pitch-black.

At this moment, a woman wearing a sarong with her hair rolled up, with a fat body, a big face, and an impatient expression, walked towards Chen Yuan.

"Hey, Taoist priest, we don't have any extra rooms in our house, and the west wing where the funeral is now closed is still empty."

"But fortunately, the coffin only occupies half of the room, and the other half has bunks. You and those who sing the mourning can live in that room together. Five people can just live there."

The woman walked up to Chen Yuan and said to Chen Yuan.

"I'm OK."

Chen Yuan stood up from the ground, indifferent.

Anyway, he came to stay for the night. The host's welcome is hospitable, and it is reasonable not to welcome him.

Anyway, he stayed one night and left tomorrow morning.

"Why!"

"We are paid to sing funerals, why should we live in the same room with the dead?"

"That's right, let's forget about dinner, and arrange us in the room where the dead live. This is too much."

"It's unlucky for the living to live in the same house as the dead!"

Chen Yuan didn't mind, but the four people who sang the funeral were not happy, and they all expressed their dissatisfaction.

"Just because you took the money and didn't come to my house to help, why should my family manage dinner for you and let you eat and drink for nothing?"

The woman retorted.

The four of them were speechless for a moment, but their faces were flushed red with anger.

"Our house is only half empty. If you like it, you can live there. If you don't like it, it's unlucky. You can go to another house in the village."

After the woman left such a sentence, she turned and went back to the main house. There was the sound of the door being bolted and locked, and then there was no movement. Only Chen Yuan and the other four mourners were left in the whole yard, standing in the dark. And stand in the night wind.

Only in the west wing of the old man's mortuary, the dim long-burning light placed at the foot of the old man's coffin, and the afterglow of the burnt incense candles, are particularly dazzling in the yard with no lights at all.

"It's unlucky, if we knew it was Wei Xiaoyi's funeral, we wouldn't accept the order."

"That's right, it doesn't matter if we don't eat at night, and let us live in the same room with the corpse."

"We also ate with their family during the day, eating the leftovers."

"Sleeping in the same room with the corpse at night, how can I sleep this night?"

"Let's go, there are so many of us, don't be afraid of this, we can't really live in other villagers' homes, right? With Wei Xiaoyi's popularity in the village, I'm afraid no one is willing to accept us."

"Isn't there a priest here? I don't think it's a problem to have him here."

The four mourners discussed.

Then they looked at Chen Yuan.

"I have to trouble the Taoist priest tonight, take care of us."

Among the four mourners, one of them had a horse-faced middle man holding a suona and cupped his hands to Chen Yuan.

"no problem."

Chen Yuan agreed with a smile.

After all, unlike him, the Taoist priest who came to stay overnight, these four sang sang people were, to put it bluntly, working for the bereaved family.

But this family made it difficult for them on purpose, arranging them to sleep with the dead body, which is indeed a bit outrageous.

According to Chen Yuan's observation, these four are ordinary people without cultivation, so it's no wonder that they are afraid when encountering such a thing.

While speaking, Chen Yuan took the lead in walking towards the west wing and disappeared from the sight of the four people.

Seeing Chen Yuan go in first, the four mourners looked at each other for a while, and after mustering up their courage, they also walked in.

After Chen Yuan walked into the west wing, he realized that what the woman just said was completely exaggerated.

Because this west wing room is not big at all, it is no more than three feet wide and less than one foot long. The coffin for the old man is placed in the center of the room. A pile of wooden boards, some dried hay was stacked on the wooden boards.

"Is this the Tongpu that the woman mentioned?"

The four mourners who followed were also dumbfounded, and one of them said angrily.

Today is also their first day here, so they don't know what's going on in the room.

There is obviously only one-third of the sleeping space in front of me, less than half.

"That's right, there's not even a bedding."

The other one also said angrily.

"Forget it, don't complain, hurry up and clean up together, or you can't sleep standing up at night, right?"

It was the same middle-aged man with a horse face holding a suona, who looked more openly, and he comforted everyone.

Then, under the help of everyone, the bed boards were quickly paved, and a layer of hay was spread on the bed boards, which could barely accommodate people.

During the whole process, no one dared to take a look into the uncovered coffin next to it.

Chen Yuan, who is not afraid of the dead, glanced into the coffin after finishing all this.

(End of this chapter)