Night Lights

Chapter 54
After death, the body is kept in the coffin, and the soul returns to the underworld, and this life ends; the family sets up a hall, wears linen and wears filial piety, sleeps next to the coffin, and mourns and chases it away; there is a lamp beside the coffin, which is always filled in and not extinguished, which is called: The ever-burning lamp is to illuminate the way for its soul, to find relatives and friends; the family guards it day and night to show filial piety; it is called: keeping the spirit, also called: trapped coffin. ——Excerpted from Tongyin Eight Volumes of "Wordless Book of Heaven".

……

Yan Zifei's ability to become a grand thieves was not just due to his keen eyesight and eccentric skills, but his deaf ears accounted for most of the credit.Among thieves and thieves, this door is called "Tunfeng"!
House thieves hide on the beams of the house, eavesdropping on the wind beside the pillow, as a thief; while Yan Zifei is watching all directions, listening to all directions, going up to the important news of current affairs, down to the parents, and snooping on all kinds of news and information, Can't escape his ears, this is a big thief!
"The song they sang on stage is worthless to put it bluntly!"

Yan Zifei placed two chopsticks horizontally on the table, then gestured with his hands and said: "That fake Taoist priest is the 'Master Dad' of the Liar Gang in Yangzhou. So he taught them to do some "stealing, cheating and robbery" business; a few days before setting up this "Fairy Boy Arrival" bureau, he brought two beggars from Yangzhou, dressed them up, and drowned the two beggars alive. dying in the water..."

Bai Shibao scolded: "It's just a beast!"

Yan Zifei paused, and continued: "Then they tied the two corpses with iron anchors and ropes, and sank them not far downstream of Nanshan Mountain, with a big boat parked on it; Two ropes were lowered from the bow, and heavy objects were tied to prevent the ropes from floating out of the water. On the day of the "Fairy Boy Coming", the people on the big boat pulled the anchor rope and floated the corpse. The upstream boat pulled the rope, and the corpse Then it went against the current..."

Bai Shibao gritted his teeth angrily, thinking that these bastards disregarded human life for money, and hated the ignorant people for giving money and incense candles one after another.If there is no way to deal with them, I am afraid that many people will be kept in the dark!

Bai Shibao lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then raised his head and asked Yan Zifei, "Brother, have you ever shown your face in front of that Taoist priest?"

The swallow flew back and said, "I never show my whiteness in front of 'Kongzi'!"

"It's just right, I'm going to prepare today, and I need my brother to help me tomorrow!"

"No problem!"

"Okay! Then we will do it tomorrow!"

Bai Shibao set up this trick, just waiting for the fake Taoist priest and county magistrate to sneak in, then strangle them and see if they beg for mercy or not!Bai Shibao and Yan Zifei said a few more words, the two nodded to each other, finalized the plan, and then settled the bill, Bai Shibao turned and went back to Guandi Temple to prepare, Yan Zifei had another place to go...

At dawn the next day, the sky was bright.

Tianning Town, Nanshan Taoist Temple.

On the long table of cloud sandalwood in the main hall, a pair of red candles weighing more than ten kilograms of dancing dragons and pearls are lit, and the flames are dazzling; There are two statues of "Fairy Boy" enshrined on the top, and the incense is constantly burning.

Beside the incense table are several large red sandalwood chairs, on which two people are sitting.

One of them has a yellowish complexion, sharp-mouthed monkey cheeks, one eye is blind, and the eyeballs seem to be covered with a layer of frost, turning into 'glass flowers', with a white goatee beard, wearing a gray sermon robe, frowning towards the side One person asked: "Is there such a strange thing?"

The person next to him was wearing a wide and fat gown, his belly was shy, he was slumped on the chair, his face was dull, his fat eyelids were covered with bloodshot eyes, and with a sad expression on his face, he replied: "If you don't believe in evil, you can't do it. Last night Scared me half to death!"

The Taoists sneered and said, "I think it's the county magistrate, you have another source of income, and you don't want to lie in this muddy water with me?"

The two who spoke were the county magistrate and the false Taoist priest named 'Zhang Blind'.The county magistrate was sleepy and his eyes were dark, obviously he didn't sleep well last night...

This fake Taoist priest is over 60 years old. His original name was Zhang Qing. He was the number one in the gang of swindlers in Yangzhou. He lied to the outside world as the guardian of the gods, and "pretended to ask the gods" to issue orders.Because he is blind in one eye, others call him Zhang Blind. Although he has the same nickname as Bai Shibao's master Zhang Yibai, they are two people.

The county magistrate said beside him: "Money still needs to be earned, but the fact that my old man cheated on the corpse is really frightening!"

"Everything we do is betraying people, but we can't betray the sky. In this case, we might as well do a 'concealing the sky'!" The fake Taoist stood up, walked to the incense burner, touched the incense burner with his hand, and thought for a while , then turned around and asked the county magistrate, "Is your father's body burned?"

"Burn it, and burn it together with the corpses of a few guys early in the morning!"

The fake Taoist nodded and said, "Burn it, it's all done once and for all!"

The county magistrate stared at the censer for a moment, then said to himself: "I'm afraid we have offended the gods in this matter. Apart from the old man's fraudulent corpse, I did something in a daze this morning." Strange dream..."

Halfway through the conversation, the fake Taoist was startled and asked anxiously, "What dream?"

The county magistrate looked around and whispered, "Just this morning, I was so sleepy that I couldn't open my eyes. I seemed to be woken up by two men, who led me to the mass grave in the east of the city. I know when they built a small hut, and the two of them pulled me into the hut, set up the dice, and started gambling. I don’t know how to do it. I lost more than 30 hands in a row. I lost more than 100 taels of silver to them, and I said I didn’t have any taels with me and I wanted to go home to get them, but those two people treated me, they went to get them by themselves, and also told me..."

The fake Taoist stared wide-eyed, and hurriedly interjected, "May I ask you to gamble there again tonight!"

The county magistrate was taken aback and asked, "How do you know?"

"You're gambling with ghosts!"

"What? Ghost?"

The fake Taoist priest nodded, looked around, and said: "To be honest, I had the same dream last night, and it was vivid in my memory, as if it was real! But after I lost the bet, I kept my eyes open and didn't directly When I went home, I went around in a circle, and when I went to the mass grave, I found that it was a lonely grave, and there was no thatched shed at all!"

The county magistrate exclaimed: "Ah..."

The fake Taoist came over to look at the two 'fairies' on the Yun Tanxiang case, frowned and said, "Did you check if the money in the house is missing?"

"Silver?" The county magistrate stood up, walked to the fake Taoist priest, and whispered, "I locked all the silver in the cabinet, and there are only two keys. My wife and I each brought one. Open it and have a look, but there is a mistake..."

The fake Taoist sneered, "Really? Did you read it this morning?"

"I'm busy with the old man's affairs this morning, so I don't have time to see it!" The county magistrate turned pale when he said this, as if he understood something, and said with trembling lips, "Could it be..."

At this time, two people came in from outside the temple, one was a disciple in the Taoist temple, and the other was a servant of the county magistrate's family.

The disciple went to the hall and bowed to the county magistrate and the false Taoist priest, saying, "Master, I can see clearly!"

The fake Taoist called the disciple aside, and the disciple whispered something in his ear. The fake Taoist was shocked and asked again and again: "Is this true?"

The disciple nodded.

The fake Taoist turned to look at the servant of the magistrate's house, and whispered something into the magistrate's ear. The magistrate's expression turned pale with shock, and he opened his mouth and stammered, "This... is this true?"

The servant of the county magistrate also nodded.

Seeing the embarrassment on the county magistrate's face, the fake Taoist walked over and asked, "If I'm not mistaken, is there a shortage of money?"

The county magistrate said blankly: "Ghost, I really dreamed of a ghost last night. My wife almost lost the family's money just now, and she lost 100 taels for no reason!"

The fake Taoist asked: "Could it be a bug check, or a house thief?"

The county magistrate shook his head violently and said: "Impossible. I was guarding the mourning hall last night. I didn't even take half a step out of the old man's corpse. It is impossible for someone to steal money. Besides, the lock is intact and has not been pried The traces of moving, now think about it carefully, the amount of money lost is exactly the same as the amount of money lost in the bet with those two ghosts last night, so it’s not obvious that it was taken by ghosts?"

The fake Taoist said: "I will sleep with one eye open in the future, fortunately, only a small part is missing!"

The county magistrate nodded in agreement, lowered his head and thought for a while, then suddenly shouted: "Oops! What should I do?"

"how?"

"I made an agreement with those two ghosts last night, and I will continue to gamble tonight..."

The fake Taoist said: "Just don't go!"

"I was dragged away by them in my sleep, I couldn't help myself, where can I not go?" The county magistrate shook his arms and spun around on the ground, muttering: "Look at this, it's useless to lock any locks. It's not safe to hide anywhere!"

The fake Taoist suddenly laughed and said: "Seeing how anxious you are, don't worry, I probably understand this matter in my heart!"

The county magistrate was taken aback, and hurriedly asked, "What do you mean?"

The false Taoist pointed to the disciple, who nodded in understanding, then turned to the county magistrate and said, "My master had a strange dream last night and told me about it. He sent me to the mass grave in the east of the town this morning to see what happened. Early in the morning, I ran out to Luan Graves, and saw two people building a hut, openly setting up a stall there to gamble, and there were piles of silver on the gambling table, probably no less than a hundred taels..."

The county magistrate angrily said, "What? Damn it, I'm going to get someone to arrest them!"

The fake Taoist stopped him, shook his head and said, "Wait! Last night I saw clearly in my dream that there was a mass grave with no thatched huts at all. Now two people suddenly came here in broad daylight and set up a hut there to open the public. Don't you think it's strange to make a bet?"

The county magistrate suddenly realized: "Could it be that these two are the two ghosts in the dream?"

The fake Taoist shook his head and said: "It is impossible for ghosts to come out in broad daylight. Since these two dare to come out, they are not afraid that we will find them. I think this matter has to be discussed in the long term!"

The county magistrate turned around in a hurry, then clapped his hands suddenly, and shouted: "Yes, it's really impossible. I will move the silver to the Guandi Temple? There is a god of Wugong in that temple, and ghosts dare not intrude. At night, I'll lay my bed there and sleep, and I'll see who dares to look for me!"

The fake Taoist thought for a while and said: "No, I can hide for a while, but not for a lifetime, I don't think I should guess wildly, why don't we go to the mass grave to meet these two people, maybe we can ask the answer then! "

"Success! Let's bring more people!"

The fake Taoist shook his head and said sharply, "No! Just the two of us..."

(End of this chapter)