I screamed in my heart that something was wrong. There is an old Chinese proverb called "The coffin is closed," which means that once the coffin is closed, the result cannot be changed. It is used to describe a matter that has been finalized.
In metaphysics, the coffin is also called a coffin, which is the resting place for the dead. In rural areas, coffins are usually placed after death. Because the dead person is very sick and angry, the lid of the coffin is closed after being placed in the coffin. After leaving the coffin for three days, the lid of the coffin is nailed shut before burial. During the period from when the dead person is put in to when the coffin is carried for burial, the coffin must not be moved under any circumstances. It is not only unlucky on one hand, but more seriously, it is easy to collide with the soul of the deceased.
It's like you are sleeping peacefully at home, and suddenly someone knocks down your door and wakes you up. How does this feel?
So I asked the third child, was it the child who pushed the coffin lid open? The third child shook his head and said, after I left the room just now, I asked the child while I was putting him to sleep, "Xuanxuan, did you open the lid of grandpa's coffin?" The child said it was not him, and if his mother had not told him, he would not have noticed that the coffin lid had been opened.
It didn't make sense, I thought. The coffins were all made of solid wood, and the lid weighed several dozen pounds. In theory, such a child couldn't push it open. My thoughts were stuck on this matter, because I couldn't confirm whether it was because there were ghosts here originally, and it was these ghosts who pushed the coffin lid open. At this moment, a familiar voice sounded from beside me.
"Oh, you are such a kid! I told you to hide your abilities, but you just didn't listen! It's okay now! Everyone has seen it, let me see how you explain it to your master!" From now on! With the fiery tone and anxious speaking speed, I knew it was Aunt Xu's voice. It turns out that when I was rescuing the child, Uncle Zhou disappeared. He must have rushed home and called Aunt Xu. Although she was scolding me, Aunt Xu's tone sounded anxious. She must also be worried about my safety. So I told her, I'm sorry to wake you up so late. I really couldn't do anything about this matter today. The child's condition was quite dangerous at that time. If I didn't save him on the spot, it would probably be too late.
I comforted Aunt Xu and said, I know what I did made you worried, but my master should also understand me, because even if it were him, he would definitely do this. Although we are so-called "feudal elements", we do not harm others; we save them.
After I said these few words, I felt very proud. Probably because I was young, I didn’t have a clear priority for many things, because in my opinion, rescuing the child was the top priority at that time, so I couldn’t think too much about it.
At this time, the boss and the second brother and some people who were still in the mourning hall came over and pointed and said, Aunt Xu, don’t blame this young man, we have all seen it, he is a good person, thanks to him being here today Here, otherwise, we, a group of farm men, would be helpless. The third child also told Aunt Xu, "That's right, auntie, if it weren't for him, my child would be dead."
Everyone is speaking for me. I still feel quite warm in my heart. I may have done something I shouldn't have done today, but what I did was not a bad thing. If I get caught again because of my good deeds, then I have no choice but to obey, right? Thinking of this, I suddenly became open-minded, so I said to Aunt Xu, don't worry, I did this alone, and none of you know. If someone comes to trouble me in the future, I will definitely not bring you two into trouble. The old man is dragging me down. You have been taking good care of me these days, and I will definitely repay you.
After saying that, I bowed deeply to Aunt Xu, because what I was thinking at the time was that maybe after tonight, I might not be able to stay at their house. But at this time, the boss of the Wang family said, young man, what are you talking about? Why would anyone bother you? So I briefly told him about my previous arrest, but I did not tell him about Master's "prison robbery". The boss of the Wang family is a reckless man. He patted his strong chest and said, Damn, you saved me and our Wang family today. You are the benefactor of my Wang family. Who the hell is so ignorant and dares to trouble you in the future? Let’s go through this hurdle first!
He put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Don't worry, young man, don't say that we don't have much revolution here. Even if we do, if anyone dares to bully you, I will give him a white knife in and a green knife out!"
The second child interrupted and said, Brother, isn't it right that the red knife comes out? The boss said loudly, you know nothing, I will stab you in the gut with this knife!
The boss's words aroused the support of the people present. They all said that no one would expose me and report me. If anyone did, it would be someone present tonight and they would definitely find out. As long as someone dares to do this, he will not be able to stay in this village any longer. I handed over my hands to thank everyone for their help, and turned to look at Aunt Xu. She looked at me reproachfully but lovingly and said, you bastard...Hey!
I see that although Aunt Xu is worried, she is relieved. So I asked Uncle Zhou to take Aunt Xu home first, and the old couple should rest first. I still have some things to finish here. If it's too late, I will stay here tonight. After the aunt and uncle left, I gathered the eldest, second, and third children together and told them my opinion. I also asked the eldest brother to check whether the lid of his father's coffin had been pushed open. Now that things have come to this point, I no longer need to hide my identity, so I told them frankly that there must be something evil going on in your mourning hall. If it is not resolved before the funeral, it is very likely that the old man will die. Without stability, even if you are buried in peace, there is no guarantee that nothing will happen in the future.
After the boss went to see the coffin, he came back and told me that someone had indeed pushed open a palm-wide opening. He asked me if I wanted to close the coffin again. I asked him not to be busy and let me find out what happened first. Come. Then I asked the boss to borrow a handful of flour from his house, and sprinkled it evenly on both sides of the threshold of the main room.
In rural areas, almost every household has a threshold at the entrance to the main room. The height of the threshold is usually about one foot. First, it is to prevent water from pouring into the house when it rains. Second, it serves as a road barrier. Since ancient times, China has set up thresholds at the entrance door. I don’t know the earliest era, but I once read about it in a book at Master’s house. Roughly speaking, the threshold is between the inside and the outside of the house. In other words, whether you are going in or out, you need to lift your feet to cross the threshold to avoid falling. In ancient times, if monsters wanted to enter a house, they would trip over the threshold and be unable to enter. Therefore, Chinese people often use the level of the threshold to describe whether a family is an ordinary person or a noble person. The so-called threshold here refers specifically to those who should not enter the door and can only stay outside the door.
Presumably Old Man Wang and his children only knew that the door at home had a threshold, but they did not know that this small wooden board actually contained the great wisdom of ancient China.
Since I don't have any tools with me, apart from the spells and water spells I remember, the only things I can control at this moment are my soldiers and horses. However, my soldiers and horses are only rampant soldiers due to their shallow cultivation. Now that the coffin is open and a good-looking skin is lying there, it is hard for me to guarantee that some rogue soldiers will not go astray and take advantage of loopholes. Therefore, the method of using soldiers and horses to investigate the matter is not used now, so we can only find other methods. I went around the house and sprinkled flour at several major entrances and exits, and then told everyone not to touch the flour no matter what. Then I stood directly opposite the threshold of the hall, where Old Man Wang's coffins were piled, and bowed deeply. I silently prayed in my heart, saying that I am here to solve the problem, not to cause trouble. Before you go to the funeral, I will definitely help you put these things in order. Things are dealt with cleanly. Then I placed a vinegar bottle placed upside down on Old Man Wang's coffin.
In fact, I don’t have any confidence in my heart, but I need to say this to leave myself a path with no escape, and I must go on.
Then I grabbed a large handful of incense and lit it, three sticks each, and placed one stick on the ground at each entrance and exit of the house. Every time I inserted incense, I silently recited the mantra:
"With the golden whip in my hand, the sky and the earth move, with my feet on the seven stars and five thunder clouds. Six Ding and Liujia follow me, and I turn around to summon the heavenly soldiers. The sky is bloodless, the earth is bloodless, the scales are flat, evil spirits are calm, evil spirits and evil spirits cannot come near. Divine soldiers Hurry like a law!"
This spell is commonly known as the ghost-killing spell. But the actual fight is not really necessary, it depends on the original intention of the caster. If I were to rashly use the ghost-killing spell to clean up the ghosts in this room, regardless of whether I could contain them or not, even if I could, I would still hurt the ghost of Old Man Wang. So when I recited this mantra, it was more of a scare, so that the ghosts inside would not act rashly. The content of the incantation is to respectfully invite the heavenly soldiers. Obviously, I have not reached that level, but chanting the incantation in this way can be regarded as achieving the effect of bluffing.
In fact, the purpose of my doing this is very simple. The flour on the ground is to check for traces of ghost activities. Usually, in this kind of traditional mourning hall, on the night before the funeral on the third day, the door of the mourning hall is closed and white ashes are sprinkled on the ground. It is said that on the third day, Black and White Wuchang will come and take away the deceased. When Black and White Wuchang steps on the white ashes, chicken claw footprints will appear. On the day of the funeral, if you open the door and see chicken footprints, it means that the deceased has been taken away successfully and can be buried.
As for the vinegar bottle on the coffin, I thought that after I cast the spell, the ghosts would definitely appear to be scurrying around. The upside-down glass bottle would easily be affected by the environment and knock over to the ground. From this, I could judge the presence of the vinegar bottle. The ability of the group of ghosts will determine whether I can deal with them, and breaking the bottle itself can also scare the ghosts.
Placing incense at the door is even easier, because I concluded that most of the ghosts that the children encountered inside were not harmful ghosts, but ghosts that had been dead for a long time and may not have incense to worship.
Because incense is the food of ghosts, after Old Man Wang died, the incense candles in front of the mourning hall were so strong that they attracted people from all directions, which caused the gathering of ghosts. I put incense at the door, firstly to prevent those ghosts from coming out again, and secondly to feed them, which is also a favor from me. When I deal with them later, maybe the resistance I encounter can be gentler.
After finishing it, I sat quietly and waited, but there was no movement for a long time, so I sat and waited in the cold wind all night in a daze. Suddenly, the sound of glass breaking woke me up. Looking at the sky, it was already close to 5am.
I woke up after a doze, and quickly grabbed three sticks of incense in my hand. I patted the ashes on the ground with my left hand so that my left hand would not be dirty at the moment. Then I spit some saliva into the palm of my hand, used the incense stick, and wrote a taboo on the palm of my hand.
