Ghost Blowing Lamp II

Chapter 18 Cutting Grave Bricks (Part [-])
The fat man still picked up the gold particles on the ground one by one, and comforted himself by saying that these are indeed a little short, and it is a bit difficult to support the world revolution, but it is more than enough to improve life.I see that these gold particles are very similar to what they were in the forest that night, and their shapes are extremely irregular. They seem to be silk gold particles used to inlay and decorate objects. Could it be that Huang Daxian's box is actually filled with gold ornaments, and it was found by people. In the process of stealing, the box rubbed and collided and dropped these fragments?
When I think about what treasure is in that mysterious box, I feel itchy, but I don’t know how many years that thing has been stolen. I don’t think I can expect to see it in my life. I was disappointed for a full minute. At this time, the fat man has pulled up all the things that can be pulled, and it is meaningless to stay any longer. Besides, we are afraid that the swallows will get impatient waiting on it for a long time, so we plan to leave.

When I was about to leave, I saw dead bodies all over the place, especially those four "old dicks", and I felt sorry for them, so I studied with the fat man and set fire to them. The sedan chair burned down, because there was never light in the basement, half of the jars of lamp oil were stored in the cellar, and there were many wooden structures. It was not easy to set fire to it. He kicked it down, threw the oil lamp to the ground, and immediately caught fire, and the flames made the wooden beams and citrons in the cellar rattle.

The fat man and I were worried about being choked to death by the thick smoke. We ran out of the Wong Tai Sin Temple on the stone steps. The snow outside had stopped. Stepping on logs, crossing the Chahagan River and returning to the forest farm, only then did I find that the "Huang Xiangu" caught by us was only half breathed after being frightened. Peeling the skin is worthless when it’s dead, but if you don’t have the skill to peel the skin, it’s worthless even if it’s damaged, so I fed it some rice soup to hang it, and he took the bear’s paw and "Huang Xiangu" out to the supply and marketing cooperative overnight. Changing things, braving the wind and snow to go mountain roads for a few catties of cheap fruit candies, such things are only done by educated youths who jump in line, and the motivation is not entirely out of greed, but in fact, the main reason is because of the uncomfortable idleness.

Yanzi went back to the village to find someone to fetch the bear meat, leaving me alone to guard the forest farm. After finishing all the work, we spent two days free, and we combined the yellow leather trap again, this time it was time to trap a fox, but Before we could act, the old party secretary sent someone to take us back to the village.

The branch secretary said: "I was afraid that you would stay in the village and be restless, so I sent you to the quietest forest farm to be on duty. Unexpectedly, you still refused to obey the arrangement and went to Tuanshanzi to hunt bears without authorization. Disobedient to the organization's arrangement, this is too courageous. It’s too big, if something goes wrong, who will bear the responsibility? Although you have hunted a bear, it can be regarded as supporting the agriculture, but the contribution is not worth it. I think you will have to poke a big basket sooner or later in the forest farm. Find some other job to punish you, um... what job are you looking for?"

In the end, the old party secretary assigned the three of us to participate in the work of "removing bricks from the grave", because it is difficult to open up wasteland and cultivate land in the mountains. Many tombs were dug out from the ground, because our village was formed by the gradual gathering of hunters in the Qing Dynasty, so no one can tell which dynasty and generation the former cemetery near the ravine belonged to. The cemeteries are all brick and stone tombs, most of which are dilapidated, and basically all of them have been destroyed, stolen, or soaked in water. The coffins and bones in the tombs are of no value. After cleaning out, there are many tombs left Bricks, these tomb bricks are a good thing for the local people, because there are few people in the hundreds of miles around, and there are no kilns for making bricks. The tomb bricks are large and strong, and can be directly used to build barns and simple buildings. Or there is a lot of residual mud; or the corners are missing when it is opened; or the shape of the brick body is irregular due to knocking, which needs to be removed with a trowel. It is necessary to ensure the integrity of the entire tomb brick, but it must be level and regular, so that it is convenient to build the wall.

"Cutting grave bricks" is usually done by women in the village, because men feel that this work is unlucky and too shady, so they have assigned this work to us now, which can be regarded as a lighter punishment, and the work will be done by them. The branch secretary's wife and fourth aunt came to supervise.

Although the punishment was light, I hated this kind of uncreative work the most. We had been peeling the stinky grave bricks for a long time, and my waist was sore, my hands were sore and my arms were numb. The fruit candy in exchange coaxed her to be happy, and took the opportunity to be lazy, smoking a cigarette with the fat man and resting for a while.

I vomited a smoke ring. I was dizzy and dizzy because the grave bricks were chipped that day. Although it was not time to eat, my stomach was already beating drums. I couldn't help but ask Yanzi: "Sister Yanzi, what can I do for us at night?" food?"

Before the swallow could answer, the fat man rushed to say: "You guys have caught up. Today I am treating guests. There is dragon meat in the sky and donkey meat in the ground. Yesterday there was a sick black donkey in the village. I will carry forward my fearless spirit and not be afraid to bear the burden of killing others." The reputation of the donkey helped slaughter the donkey, so the branch secretary gave me all the water from the head and hooves, and asked the swallow to cook the donkey hooves for us to eat in the evening. Think about it, do you think it’s okay to eat with soy sauce?”

Swallow was so troubled by us that he came to cut the grave bricks. He was already suffocated and depressed all the time, but when he heard the fat man said that he wanted to eat donkey hooves, he was so happy that he covered his stomach and laughed, and the fourth aunt also laughed when she heard: " This fat man, black donkey hoofs can be eaten casually? Even if you are thirsty and drink salt bittern, and hungry and eat five poisons, you can’t eat black donkey hooves. In the early years, people who dug graves used donkey hooves, but Don't eat it indiscriminately, that's what feeds the dead. The old man only eats black donkey hooves. In the underworld, the judge's palm is thin. The bull's head and horse face seduce ghosts. The black donkey spirit turned into a spirit, and the statues in the temple in the early years were all donkey heads and donkey hooves."

As soon as I heard the words of my fourth aunt, I immediately remembered the story that my grandfather once told about the story about the tomb robber Captain Mojin using the black donkey hoof to subdue the zombies in the ancient tomb. There is a huge discrepancy between what I said, but I never thought that the fourth aunt would know these allusions, so I hurriedly asked her for advice and asked her to explain it to us in detail.

The fourth aunt said: "What is Mojin Xiaowei? What kind of thing is it? I have never heard of it. I just remember that before liberation, there were a group of horse bandits in the mountains. The people in this group Wearing black clothes, black trousers, black hats, red belts, and red socks and black shoes, that attire is called an evil call. This group of people was digging graves in the deep mountains and old forests, and there was a lot of noise at that time. After the liberation, the sects of clothing and Taoism were suppressed. In the early years, all the gangsters reported their name, and I still remember the name of this gangster. It seems to be called... Nierhui."

(End of this chapter)