Night Lights

Chapter 17 Bai Shibao's Insect Gu

On a cloudy and rainy day, when you see thunder and thunder, you choose a remote road, burn your umbrella and burn paper, wait for the happy sound of blowing and beating, wipe the paper ashes and smear your eyes, and you will see a hundred ghosts wearing linen, paper horses and candles, carrying coffins and blowing funerals. This is a lunar marriage; When ghosts come, pick up paper ashes as a gift, and invite them to the banquet; the dishes at the banquet are all clay, and the cups of wine and wine are all insect juice. The process of Yin marriage is the same as that of Yang. , close the umbrella and leave quickly; the name is: eat ghost banquet. ——Excerpted from Tongyin Eight Volumes of "Wordless Book of Heaven".

……

Bai Shibao sat up, feeling an indescribable soreness all over his body, and his legs were as heavy as lead. He untied the red rope that bound his soul, struggled to get off the kang, put on his shoes, looked around the room, and asked :"Where are you?"

"My body is in Miaojiang! How did you bring me here?"

A half-cut candle was burning on the table, the candle flame flickered, and the flame fluttered, as if being blown by someone.

"I sprinkled Yingou's bone meal at home earlier, and Yingou came back after looking for it. How could it know where you are?"

Bai Shibao stared at the half of the candle, and saw that the candle was moving slowly on the table, he was startled, thinking this is the candle wax of a human being, a ghost moving the lamp?

"I don't care, since you promised to help me recover my yang, you must help me to the end. Now my body is not here, so you take me to Miaojiang in southern Sichuan to find my body!" Lan Xin'er's ghost sat on the chair, fiddling with her hands Candles on the table, puffed cheeks blowing the candles.

"You want me to go to Miaojiang?"

Bai Shibao couldn't help sighing: Southern Sichuan Miaojiang is thousands of miles away from here, and it will take a few days to reach it at a fast pace, let alone dragging two legs that seem to be cast from lead.

"Why, you won't help me?" Lan Xin'er inflated her face like a balloon, and blew on the candle, causing the flames to shoot up half a meter high.

As the saying goes: It is easy to invite God, but it is difficult to send God off.

Bai Shibao thought that Lan Xin'er was not a good stalker, he recruited her ghost at home and caused a whole lot of trouble, if he didn't agree to her, I don't know what kind of trouble she would cause, if I let that black snake bite me, it would be too much for me.Then he lied and said: "How about sending you to Miaojiang after I bury Master at the funeral?"

"No... I won't be able to beat her when my senior sister's poisonous Gu is refined later!" Lan Xin'er's voice echoed in the room.

Bai Shibao didn't have the white eyes of Zhang Blind, and couldn't see ghosts. He took out an old book from his pocket and opened the back page, and saw the method of clearing Yin written by Zhang Blind: Take willow leaf gravy and smear the eyelids to clear Yin.

Bai Shibao opened the door, picked two willow leaves from the willow tree in the yard, chewed them in his mouth, spit out the sticky gravy, wiped it on his eyelids, walked into the room, and saw Lan Xin'er squatting on a chair, Playing with the silver bracelet on his wrist, he pouted and said, "How about it? If you are willing to help me return the sun, I will reward you with plenty of silver when I get to Miaojiang!"

"My master hasn't passed away yet, how can I leave his dead body here?"

"That's good! I'll wait for you to attend Master's funeral before leaving..." Lan Xin'er said, holding a candle with her fingers and lighting it curiously in the room.

Bai Shibao flipped through old books, looking for the method of exorcising ghosts on it, and saw a record on it: Yin things are afraid of the sun, so they draw amulets on yellow paper and make them as "Zhong Kui's ghost charm". On the ghost body, the ghost power is lost...

Looking back, Gogou hastily recorded the drawing and spelling.

"What are you looking at?"

Lan Xin'er saw Bai Shibao holding the book, standing there looking lost in thought, she tossed the candle in her hand, the flame flew onto the candle and ignited.

"Ah, it's nothing. I'm looking to see when it's a good time for the funeral!"

Bai Shibao hurriedly put the old book into his arms, tilted his head and looked out the window, saw that the sky had turned pale, and thought that it was almost time for the rooster to crow at Chenshi, so he asked, "The sun is shining brightly at Chenshi, don't you need to hide?"

Lan Xin'er was startled and said, "I didn't think of that."

Lan Xin'er looked around the room, but couldn't find a bottle, and thought: Bai Shibao is really a poor man!
"At dawn, I'll go out to hold Master's funeral. You can hide in the rice vat behind the stove!" Bai Shibao thought to copy the guy during the day and draw a ghost-exorcism amulet outside, and see if you dare to rely on me. Walk!
Lan Xin'er smiled and said: "This is a good idea, but you have to hurry up, finish it in the daytime, and take advantage of the darkness at night, so we can hurry!"

Bai Shibao nodded in agreement, washed the empty rice vat with water, and carried it to the corner of the room. Lan Xin'er ghostly walked around the room, jumped into the rice vat, and laughed loudly: " Spacious..."

Bai Shibao was lying on the kang, turning it over and over again, unable to fall asleep, all he could think about was trying to drive away Lan Xin'er's ghost, and after a while, sleepiness came late, Bai Shibao blinked his eyelids just about to fall asleep When he got down, he heard a rapid knock on the door.

Bang bang bang!
"Master Bai! I am Bai Shi from Su Ji Coffin Shop, here to carry the coffin!" Someone shouted outside the door.

Baishi is a general term for organizing funerals and carrying out coffins.At that time, people who did funeral affairs were all recruited by the coffin shop. When someone ordered a coffin, and there was a funeral business attached, the funeral service received some money for the effort, and then used the legs to carry the coffin to help handle the funeral and carry the coffin.Bai Shibao ordered birthday materials for Zhang blind man at the Suji coffin shop in the city, and gave him a silver dollar as a reward, and helped with funeral arrangements.

No, I came to knock on the door early in the morning to mourn.

Bai Shibao got up and looked at the rice vat, thinking that Lan Xin'er's ghost must be fast asleep, so he picked up his coat, put on his shoes, went to the yard and opened the door.

When the people outside the door saw the door open, they cupped their hands and cupped their fists, and the first thing they said was: "Master Bai! Please mourn..."

"Grandpa, my condolences!"

"Please grief!"

A total of five people entered the hospital one after another. A thin middle-aged man was nothing but the four people behind him with round waists and broad arms who had the leg strength to carry the coffin. One cannot do the job of carrying the coffin without good physical strength.

Bai Shi went around the coffin, and after burning three sticks of incense in front of the coffin, he got up and asked Bai Shibao, "Have you chosen the burial place?"

Bai Shibao said: "My master ordered to be cremated at the end of his life!"

"The east slope on the outskirts of the city is the hillside of Xifeng Guankou, where we can hold funerals," Bai Shi said.

Bai Shibao nodded, looking at Zhang Blind's coffin, his eyes turned red.

Bai Shi touched the coffin with his hands, and asked, "Master Bai, are the ancestors all ready?"

Funeral affairs means to ask whether the old people in the house follow the funeral etiquette, whether they have put on their shrouds and pillows, and whether the things they miss are also sent out with the coffin.

Bai Shibao nodded, saying that everything was done according to Master's instructions.

Bai Shi took out five long nails from his bosom, and ordered the four coffin bearers to seal the nails on the four corners of the coffin, and nailed another nail in the front of the coffin.

There is some saying in it, it is called "five nails to seal the coffin", and the four long nails have a part left outside, which cannot be nailed to death, otherwise it will be bad for the deceased.According to legend, after a person dies, the three souls return to the Yin, and the seven souls dissipate with the body. The long nail in front is only nailed in half, and it is placed on the forehead of the person in the coffin.

Bai Shibao knelt in front of the coffin and burned paper to worship.

Seeing that the five nails had fallen, Bai Shi fled the cloth strips torn from the white cloth from his bosom, handed them to Bai Shibao to tie them on, and then shouted at the top of his voice, "Lift the coffin..."

After hearing this, the four strong men each carried a corner of the coffin, waved their strong arms to put the coffin on their shoulders, and shouted in unison: "Let's go!"

Bai Shi took out a trumpet and walked in the front to blow the funeral. If the funeral music has a happy tune, it is a happy funeral. The harder Bai Shi plays, the more rewards the employer will give, so Bai Shi all It's puffing up the cheeks and blowing desperately.

A group of people walked to the east slope of the city suburbs in a whistling manner.

Bai Shi ordered the four strong men to lower the coffin, searched for dry firewood and dead wood, and set fire to the coffin of Zhang Blind Man.Bai Shibao saw that the green hillside here was a good place, and thought that Master had been running around in Yin and Yang all his life, so it was time for him to come here for a rest.

After burning for several hours, Bai Shibao collected the ashes of Zhang Blind Man among the sawdust and ashes, then walked to the top of the slope, scattered the ashes in the wind, and said: "My ancestor Zhang Yibai, I wish to fall to Here, please let the wind god protect you and the mountain god protect you, so as to live forever!"

After the incident, Bai Shi took the four coffin bearers back to the coffin shop, and Bai Shibao stayed behind to burn paper to worship.

"Huh? What is this?"

Bai Shibao rolled up his cuffs and was about to burn the paper, but he saw a bright red spot on his arm, like a birthmark, faintly itchy.Maybe it was caused by wind and eczema when walking in the shade last night?Bai Shibao scratched to relieve the itch, but he didn't care, and continued to burn paper to worship for Master.

The sun is shining brightly in the sky, and the grass and trees bow their heads in the sun.

After worshiping, Bai Shibao got up and returned to the city, went to the paper shop in the city, cut out the yellow paper, found a place where no one was around, took out an old book and drew amulets according to the method of exorcising ghosts recorded by Zhang Blind.

"I want to study Master's method to catch ghosts and increase my life. Tell me to follow you to Miaojiang. My Yangshou will die halfway this year. This matter is not negotiable..."

Bai Shibao copied a piece of "Zhong Kui's Ghost Suppressing Talisman" according to the gourd painting, pinched his fingers and chanted the mantra, bit his middle finger and dripped a few drops of Zhongyang's blood, then put away the talisman and carried it in his arms.

"Wait for me to persuade you tonight. If you don't listen, see how I can treat you!" Bai Shibao felt hungry at this moment, and strided towards the restaurant while thinking.

After walking a few steps, Bai Shibao felt itchy again on his arm. He rolled up his cuff and was shocked. The bright red patch on his arm had turned into a purple-black patch, and a pustule swelled up. The blood vessels inside were protruding like It was bitten by a giant insect, but there was no wound.

Bai Shibao went to a pharmacy and asked for a prescription for removing bruises, and pasted it on the pustules on his arms, the itching seemed to have subsided somewhat.

Bai Shibao ordered wine and meat at the restaurant, and heard someone chatting at the table next to him: "Do you know, recently I heard that there was a dead body in the general's mansion in the city?"

"Which general's mansion?"

"Which one else? Commander Xu Kunzheng Xu..."

"How can a good person make a corpse?"

"I don't know about that. I heard that Commander Xu's beautiful concubines were all dead, and the youngest concubine was pregnant with a ghost... Later, two masters, one old and one young, came to collect the corpses, and the corpses were collected. Dissolve this matter!"

Bai Shibao was startled when he heard this, and thought to himself how did this get out?

How can I still think about eating, for fear of being recognized by others, I got up and walked home.Just as he opened the door and was about to sit down, there was a wave of unrest and another wave, only to hear Lan Xin'er's laughter coming from the water tank...

"Is your arm itchy?"

Bai Shibao hurriedly rolled up his cuffs, and saw that the medicine bag had been soaked in thick black blood. When he opened the medicine bag, his skin was festered, corroded and bloody, and Bai Shibao was shocked: "Ah? ?”

(End of this chapter)