I don’t even believe what he says. I’ve seen this trick before, and it’s the same as the old chicken feet lady.
I have 800 yuan. I can eat, drink, or smoke. Why should I give it to him?
After sending away Manager Niu, I found a remote place again and read the letter.
When the letter was opened, it had deep creases and the edges were yellow and dry. It was showing its age.
Very strange.
A wasteland was drawn with a pen on the paper. A tree was drawn on the ground, and a circle was drawn on the tree to represent fruit. It might be a pear tree or an apple tree. The drawing on the entire paper was very scrawled, just like a child's drawing.
Also, next to the tree, three small words were written, "Not me."
not me?
What does this mean?
I dug out three more old photos and looked at them, but still had no clue.
Think about it.
Tian Sanjiu said that he had investigated and found that there were only three people involved in the cast iron Buddha incident, and the Science Popularization Committee of the Second National Cotton Factory no longer exists.
Young Wang Xiaoqin died in 1958, Tang Xin died in 1999, and now Mr. Bai has also died.
Fifty-eight years later, the cast iron Buddha and pagoda disappeared, and no one knew where they went. I heard that there was an investigation into the matter after the establishment of the Xianyang Museum, but in the end there was no result and nothing was known.
I have a vague feeling that there is something Tian Sanjiu doesn’t know about, and what secrets Mr. Bai brought to the coffin.
...
Bai's father bought a coffin from other places that day. It was a good-quality nanmu coffin. It was unpainted and had original color.
In the past two years, Xianyang City has begun to crack down on rural burials and promote environmentally friendly cremations. It is said that this is to reduce unnecessary waste of land area and facilitate the construction of rapidly developing cities.
I went to help carry the coffin. The good nanmu is not heavy and can be lifted by four people with just a dime each. I also watched the process of dressing the old man with a shroud in the corpse room.
It’s very troublesome because after death, the arms and legs begin to become stiff. When the person is wearing the shroud, the corpse always falls on top of the person. It takes more than half an hour to put on the shroud. The shroud has twelve layers inside and out. After the old man puts on the clothes, The face still looks so thin, but the body looks fatter, and the whole thing is a bit uncoordinated.
I asked a local man who was carrying the coffin why he was wearing so many clothes.
The man explained: "The number of shrouds we wear here is all even numbers, not odd numbers. The reason why we wear more shrouds is because corpse fluid will leak out after death. If you wear too few shrouds, they will leak out from both sides of the body." , so wear more layers to prevent side leakage.”
Grandma Bai Shiqiong found a gentleman from Xianyang. The gentleman looked at Mr. Bai's birthday and said: "If the burial time is an odd number, avoid even numbers. This is called avoiding disasters in even numbers. Your husband died on the 20th. I'll make a living. Burial time It should be scheduled for 6:15 in the evening on the 23rd, that is, after the sun goes down, the coffin will be lowered and the earth sealed."
The old lady wiped away her tears and said yes, I will listen to you sir.
At around four o'clock in the afternoon on the 23rd, the Bai family started to leave. There were four cars. The extended Jinbei car had large white flowers tied to the front, and the coffin was pulled in the car. The other two cars pulled some immediate family members of the Bai family.
The last car was pulling people to help with the work, and I was in the last car.
"Where does the young man live?"
"Brother, I'm not a local. I'm from the Northeast. I came to Xianyang for business. I stopped by to help a friend."
"Oh, I think you are not as big as Xiaoshi. I am her second uncle. Young man, I think you are a good person. You can endure hardships and are not afraid of tiredness. If you really catch up with our Xiaoshi, treat her well and wait for two years. Once the auditorium is demolished, Xiaoshi and she will have enough money for more than a dozen houses."
"ah?"
I knew this was a misunderstanding by her second uncle. Maybe it was because I ran around to help, which made people think?
Also, Bailashqiong's tone of voice when talking to me has become gentler in the past two days. Could it be that she thinks so too? Think I want to chase her?
A little after five o'clock, the funeral convoy arrived at the Second National Cotton Factory in the northwest. At that time, the Second National Cotton Factory had no gate, just a few pillars. There was a cement guard box at the door, and there was a security guard in his fifties, carrying Sitting under the guard box listening to the radio.
The security guard looked up. He didn't stop the convoy and let us in. The person in charge must have taken care of it.
After entering, the factory area was very large and empty with almost no one around. I asked Uncle Baishi Qiong what was going on, and he told me the reason.
It turns out that the Second Northwest National Cotton Factory was established in 1953 and was changed to Northwest Second Cotton Co., Ltd. in 1996. That is, last year, in June 2002, it was reorganized into Northwest Second Cotton Group and integrated Shaanxi Modern Textile Factory. Ermian Import and Export Company, Daxing Dyeing and Weaving Industrial Company, Ruijun Trading and several other units.
We buried the old man in the first month of the year. The expansion of the Second Cotton Factory had not yet finished the holiday. It would be until March. There were only some decoration workers in the factory area.
The convoy made several turns and stopped after walking for nearly ten minutes. I remember that after getting off the bus, there was a large wasteland on the left and a building of workers' dormitories on the right. The factory was on holiday and there was no one in the dormitory except for an old man who was a janitor. .
The burial pit had been dug in advance. Father Bai looked at the time and said, "Everyone, there are still twenty minutes until the auspicious time. Let's take a break. Those who should smoke should smoke a cigarette, and those who are thirsty should drink water. Thank you for your hard work. .”
I got out of the car and walked towards the staff dormitory.
"Uncle, would you like to take a pill?"
The old man looked to be at least seventy years old. He was wearing a starched military coat with black and shiny sleeves.
"It's a nice cigarette. Let's take one."
"Here, let me order some for you."
The old man immediately covered the lighter with his hand.
"Huh...it's such a nice smoke..."
"How long have you been here, uncle?"
"me?"
The old man smiled and said: "I have been here for almost fifty years. I have been working in Ermian since I was a teenager."
"Hey," I said, then you are really a veteran employee.
The old man held a cigarette in his mouth, waved his hand and said with a smile: "You don't dare to say anything, elders. Anyway, when the chairman of Ermian sees me, he has to give me a cigarette and call me Mr. Xing."
"sharp."
"Hey, uncle," I pointed to a large piece of wasteland and said, "We are going to bury people there later, you know, right?"
"I know, the deputy director told us to leave it alone, but..."
"But what?" I asked.
The old man pointed to the wasteland, "But the feng shui of this place is not good. Old Man Bai is buried here. It seems that he has something else on his mind..."
"Uncle, do you know Mr. Bai?"
"Nonsense, he also worked in Ermian back then. How could I not know him?" The old man said: "But after that incident, he resigned and went into business. Later, he did well and built a big house in Nanshan. hall."
I asked: "Uncle, what do you mean by that thing you are talking about? Do you know why Mr. Bai wanted to bury himself here?"
The old man flicked the ashes of his cigarette coquettishly.
"I told you, I have been in Ermian for fifty years! There is nothing in Ermian that I don't know about! Go outside and find out who I am, Master Xing of Ermian."
"Have you seen the dying pear tree?" The old man pointed at it and said.
"I saw it, what's wrong?"
He looked at the pear tree quietly, the cigarette in his mouth burning to the butt of the cigarette, as if he was remembering the past decades ago.
"Why......"
The old man sighed heavily and said: "49 years ago, Wang Xiaoqin in our factory hanged himself on that pear tree."
"The director of the factory at that time was Wang Xinggui. He has died long ago. During the steel-making operation, someone reported Wang Xiaoqin, Tang Xin, and Bai Tingli to steal scrap metal. After Wang Xiaoqin was caught, he issued a loudspeaker and criticized him. At that time, the entire Ermian, People say behind their backs that they are thieves and their hands and feet are dirty.”
My heart skipped a beat.
The word "scrap iron" caught my attention.
The old man recalled: "The scrap iron the factory bought from Hanzhong at that time lost more than 700 kilograms. I have never seen it before. I heard that it looked like a big iron Buddha. Wang Xinggui's wife was the director of the Work Style Committee, so she forced Wang Xiaoqin to Hand over the stolen scrap metal.”
I frowned and interjected: "Is it because of this that Wang Xiaoqin was forced to hang himself?"
"No, that's not the main thing."
"Later, rumors spread in the factory. They said it was Bai Tingli who made a secret report and reported the matter. I don't know whether this rumor is true or not."
"Wang Xiaoqin was stimulated by the successive blows. I remember that one night in the twelfth month of 1958, she hanged herself under a pear tree with her feet dangling in the air. I was fetching hot water in the water room in the North District, waiting for me When I ran over to take a look, the person had already been taken down, and only a noose was left on the pear tree."
"Do you know why that wasteland remains unused?"
I shook my head.
The old man said: "In the third year after Wang Xiaoqin's death, the factory planned to build a toilet there, but a worker died while digging the foundation. The cause of death was myocardial infarction. In 1971, the factory built another toilet, and another person died."
"Later, some timid female workers in Ermian said that when they were fetching water at night, they saw Wang Xiaoqin himself under the pear tree. They said that Wang Xiaoqin was wearing the clothes before her death, with her tongue sticking out, and walking in circles around the pear tree at night."
"There have been many rumors. People in Ermian say that there are living people living here in the dormitory and dead people living there in the pear tree."
"And where we stand now."
"It's this factory road that separates in the middle."
"It's called Yin Yang Road."
