Chapter 10 Chapter Nine: Cutting Grave Bricks

I said to Fatty and Swallow: Only the fire kang can hide things in this cellar. In addition, I seem to remember seeing similar records in "Sixteen Characters of Yin and Yang Fengshui Secret Art".The incomplete book mentioned the theory of yin and yang houses. The yin house is a cemetery and is prepared for the dead, while the yang house is the residence of the living. In the basement with completely symmetrical sides, it is very likely that someone has cast a yin and yang mirror array, which is similar to the trick of defeating the enemy used by carpenters in ancient times.There are people with spirituality in Huangpizi, who can use the nightmare to intimidate people and souls here, but I just flipped through the remnants of the book, and never read it carefully. The basement was destroyed, so that no one would get caught in the future.

I don't believe that Huang Daxian has any treasure chests, but I guess that because people seek good luck and avoid evil, and dare not provoke Huang Daxian, some people hide some valuables in the basement of the temple in the name of immortality. Well, this kind of thing is not surprising, and that box is probably related to the golden vein in Tuanshanzi in ancient times.If we can find this thing, then we have made great contributions, and we may be able to join the army. A red flag is worn on the head, and the revolutionary red flag is hung on both sides.Wearing a military uniform is not only Fatty and I, but also the biggest dream of our generation.Thinking of this, I couldn't help being a little excited, wishing I could tear down the kang right away. When the fat man heard that there might be an interlayer in the kang, he suddenly became energetic, pulled himself together, and swung his long-handled ax to smash the brick wall of the kang.The earthen partition wall under the cellar is built by dry basement. The kangs on both sides are connected to this wall. Although it is strong, it cannot withstand the fat man's heavy blow. After a few axes, the earthen wall collapsed. The bottom of the kangs on both sides was empty, and they were also sunken to reveal the dark flue. A puff of black smoke came out of it, mixed with the pungent stench and dust, and we had to step back a few steps.Wait until the dust is gone before going over and working together to move the knocked bricks away.

The fat man hurriedly walked in front, he held up the oil lamp and went over to have a look: Yo!There really is something in here.So I stretched out a hand to feel inside, and pulled out a black pile of things. When I saw what he pulled out, the swallow screamed in fright. I haven't seen what is under the kang. Things, but I was startled by the swallow first.Taking a look under the dim light, it turned out that a fat man had pulled out a headless male corpse from the chimney under the kang. Originally it was built in the flue, but at this time, half of its body was pulled out by the fat man, and the lower half was still in the kang.

Seeing that what he dragged out was a headless mummy, the fat man spat in anger and cursed bad luck, but he still didn't give up. He used the ax as a hammer and smashed and knocked again and again. It was completely smashed, and there was another headless mummy buried under the kang, but judging from the clothes, this mummy was a woman. I was wondering how this heated kang became the joint burial coffin for the husband and wife, the fat man turned over the bricks inside, and made a fuss to let me see the things on the mummy's cavity.On the cavity of the headless mummies of men and women, there are two well-preserved human heads, a man and a woman, with disheveled hair, but they have been buried in the kang for an unknown number of years. Although the skin of the heads has been embalmed , still has collapsed and shrunk, and its color is as dull as withered wax.

I had the courage to look at the two heads, and found that the inside of the heads had been hollowed out. There was no skull and flesh at all, but they were stretched with copper wires, just like human flesh and skin in a puppet show. There is a dead yellow skin in each of the empty human heads.The three of us were horrified and disgusted at the sight. I heard that when Huang Daxian was enshrined in the mountains before, Huang Daxian could appear in the form of a human with a celestial spirit. blindfold?Swallow said that this time it was a big disaster, and it disturbed Huang Daxian's bones, and he was afraid that his life would be shortened.

I comforted her and said, "Don't believe this, it's all done by those temple priests in the temple to cheat incense money, pretending to be gods and ghosts to fool ignorant people."There used to be a similar thing in our hometown. There was a White Snake Temple in the mountains, and the incense custodian in the temple claimed that the White Snake Goddess appeared to dispense medicine. In fact, he found a snake charmer to cheat the common people out of money by exorcising snakes.One more thing, I heard that there was a mouse fairy temple in Yandang Mountain before liberation. The reason is that some mountain people caught a big mouse. Because it was so big, they didn't kill it at that time, but caught it for everyone to watch. However, there are local magic sticks pretending to be gods and ghosts, taking the opportunity to talk about the big mouse, insisting that it is a mouse fairy, who came to help the mountain people to eliminate disasters and problems, and then cheated many good men and women of incense money.Later, the big mouse that was offered by the god died, and the god stick said that the mouse fairy had made so many blessings for everyone, and before leaving, he should put a human skin on it, so that it could go up to heaven after death and walk more decently. He picked up an ownerless corpse, peeled off the human skin and buried it for the mouse fairy.The more uncivilized places in the deep mountains and old forests, the more weird and bizarre customs there are. It is estimated that the yellow leather in the dead man's head is similar. They are all props for the gods to cheat money. Four old troubles.

Yanzi was dubious about what I said. She is from the mountains. Although she was born after liberation, she didn't believe in these crooked ways at first, but she still had some scruples in her heart, and she was worried about the two holes that were hollowed out for use. The head who pretended to be the yellow corpse was extremely frightened and couldn't stay any longer.I had no choice but to ask her to wait outside the stone gate of the Daxian Temple temporarily, and the fat man and I tore down the other half of the kang and immediately went up to join her. After I sent her away, I told the fat man that Huang Daxian was really buried under Huang Pizi's grave, so the legend about Huang Daxian having a treasure chest is probably true, and finding it is to support the world revolution.So the two of us did not rest, and started to dismantle the other half of the kang.

But things didn’t go as smoothly as we imagined. When the heated kang was demolished, there were only some broken porcelain bowls inside. There was no box containing gold veins and gold. There were only some rice grain-sized gold scattered on the ground. A big hole was punched, and the outside of the hole had collapsed and was tightly blocked.Seeing this, the fat man and I immediately understood everything, and sat down on the ground. It's over, the four men in black who were hanged were indeed accomplices. They must have discovered the people who went down the stone steps into the cellar All of them went without returning, knowing that there was a talisman below, and ended up digging into the cellar by digging a tunnel from the mountain, and dug out the mountain god's box. Comrades, the work was wasted.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 decorative 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 kind of treasure is in that mysterious box, I feel itchy, but that thing has been stolen for many years, and I probably don’t expect to see it in my life, so 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. Before leaving, I saw dead bodies all over the cellar, especially those four old fools, and I felt sorry for them, so I decided to study with the fat man and set fire to the cellar. up.Because there is never light in the basement, half of the jars of lamp oil are stored in the cellar, and there are many wooden structures. The oil lamp fell to the ground, and immediately caught fire, and the flames made the wooden beams and citrons in the cellar crackle.

The fat man and I were worried about being choked to death by the thick smoke, so we ran out of the Wong Tai Sin Temple on the stone steps.The snow outside had stopped. We first found a tree hole to hide the bear skin and bear meat, and sealed it with stones. Then we stepped on the log and crossed the Chahagan River back to the forest farm. Only then did we find the animal we caught. Only Huang Xiangu, even frightened and frightened, has only half breath left.The fat man saw that it was not worth the money if the yellow skin was dead, but it would be worthless if the skin was damaged without the skill, so he fed it some rice soup to hang himself, and he took it with him overnight. Xiongzhang and Huang Xiangu went out to the supply and marketing cooperatives to exchange things, and braved the wind and snow to walk the mountain roads for a few catties of cheap fruit candy. Only educated youths who jumped in line would do such things. The motive was not entirely because of greed, but in fact, it was more important. The 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 all the busy work was done, after two days of idleness, we made up our minds to trap the yellow leather again, this time it was time to trap a fox, but before we could act, the old branch secretary sent someone to call 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 listen to the arrangement and went to Tuanshanzi to hunt bears without authorization. Disobedient to the organization's arrangement, this is too courageous Well, if something goes wrong, who will bear the responsibility?Even though you have hunted a bear, it is considered a support to the farmers, but the credit is not worth it. I think you will have to poke big baskets in the forest farm sooner or later, and you will have to find other jobs to punish you. Well, what kind of job are you looking for? In the end, the old party secretary assigned the three of us to participate in the work of cutting grave bricks.Because it is very difficult to open up wasteland and cultivate land in the mountains, there are only tens of acres of Susukida in the east and west. This year, another piece of land was leveled out from a ravine, and many tombs were dug out of that piece of land, because our village was established by hunters in the Qing Dynasty. Gradually agglomerated, so no one can tell which dynasty and generation the former cemetery near this ravine belongs to.This old unowned cemetery is full of brick and stone tombs, most of which are dilapidated, basically all of them have been destroyed, stolen, or soaked in water. The coffins and bones in the tomb are of little value. After cleaning them out There are only a lot of tomb bricks left.This tomb brick is a good thing for the local people, because there are few people in the area for hundreds of miles, and there is no kiln for making bricks. The tomb bricks are large and strong, and can be directly used to build barns and simple buildings. There is a lot of residual mud; or the corners are missing when it is raised; or the shape of the brick body is irregular due to knocking, which needs to be removed with a trowel. The entire tomb brick is complete, but it must be level and regular, so that it is convenient to build walls. The work of cutting grave bricks is usually done by the women in the village, because the men feel that this work is unlucky and too dark, so they have assigned this work to us now, which can be regarded as a lighter punishment, and the work is done by the secretary His wife and fourth aunt came to supervise. Although the punishment was light, I hated this kind of uncreative work the most. We peeled the stinky grave bricks for a long time, and my waist was sore, my hands hurt and my arms were numb. The fruit candy made her happy, and she took the opportunity to be lazy and smoke a cigarette with the fat man for a while. I vomited a smoke ring. I was dizzy from cutting the grave bricks that day. Although it was not time to eat, my stomach was already beating drums. I couldn't help but ask Yanzi: What delicious food will Yanzi give us at night? ? Before the swallow could answer, the fat man rushed to say: You guys have caught up. Today I treat guests with dragon meat in the sky and donkey meat in the ground. There was a sick black donkey in the village yesterday. Because of my reputation, I helped slaughter the donkey, so the branch secretary gave me all the head and hooves.In the evening, let the swallow cook the donkey’s hooves for us to eat, braised in soy sauce is also good, and the donkey’s water will be cooked in the soup tomorrow morning. As for how to eat the donkey’s head, I haven’t figured it out yet. Do you think it’s okay to eat it with sauce? Swallow was so troubled by us that he came to cut the grave bricks. He was already full of anger and depressed all the time, but when he heard the fat man said that he wanted to eat the donkey's hooves, he was so happy that he covered his belly and laughed. The fourth aunt also laughed when she heard: This fat man , Black donkey hooves can be eaten casually?Even if you drink salt brine when you are thirsty, or eat five poisons when you are hungry, you can't eat black donkey hooves. In the early years, people who dig graves used donkey hooves. Don't eat them randomly, they are what feed the dead, old man Diao Ye only eats black donkey hooves.In the Yincao Difu, the judge's hand is thin, the bull's head and horse's face seduce ghosts, General Jiuyou's corpse is exterminated, and that General Jiuyou is transformed from a black donkey who has become a fairy. In the early years, the statues in the temple 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 is the whole thing?I’ve never heard of that, but I just remember that before liberation, there was a bunch of horse bandits in the mountains. The men and horses in this bunch were all dressed in black clothes, black pants, black hats, red belts, and red sash. Socks and black shoes, that attire is really evil.This group of people dug graves in the deep mountains and old forests. At that time, there was a lot of noise. After the liberation, the sects of clothes and clothes were suppressed. In the early years, all the gangsters reported their names. I still remember, it seems to be called Sha Nierhui.