Paper money!
This is paper money for dead people!
How could this thing fall from the sky in the middle of the night?
In addition, the night snack stalls in the town are different from those in big cities. There are no bright lights, only a few dim incandescent lamps against the boundless darkness, which itself seems a bit strange. At this time, looking at the paper money in my hand, I feel A ghastly feeling swept through his body in an instant.
I looked up subconsciously, and I didn't know it. I was shocked when I saw it. In the sky, everywhere I looked, there were yellow earthen paper money stamped with money!
They are smaller than the paper money usually burned, only about the size of two palms. They float in the air, swaying left and right, like butterflies in the night sky, and are indescribably weird.
Dark coins dropped at night?
What's the point?
I told Zhang Hazi what I saw, and found that he also had a puzzled expression on his face. I had to call the owner of the late-night snack stall and ask him what was going on.
The boss was not tall and had a beer belly. Because it was summer, his belly was exposed and was shiny and wet.
He first glanced at Zhang Hazi and me, and then said with a smile, are you two from outside the city? This is a custom here. When going up the mountain (for a funeral), paper money is scattered. This is money to buy the way, so that the ancestors can walk easily on the road without being made things difficult for them.
I said that people from other places also have the habit of scattering paper money at funerals, but this is the first time I have seen paper money scattered in the middle of the night.
He said that our place is different from the outside world in that ghosts go up the mountain in the middle of the night, so they always send their ancestors up the mountain in the middle of the night.
Send your ancestors up the mountain in the middle of the night?
I have lived for so many years, and the only person who knows about midnight funerals is Wang Xuemei, Wang Ergou's sister. The reason why I remember it so clearly is because the day of her funeral was my birthday.
And I still remember that when Chen Enyi heard my mother say this answer, he fell directly from the bench to the ground.
So I think it would not be a normal thing to send the deceased up the mountain in the middle of the night, otherwise the original Mr. Chen Enyi would not be so frightened.
But I looked around and found that those who were eating late-night snacks were only focusing on the late-night snacks in front of them, and seemed to turn a blind eye to the paper money falling from the sky.
Just when I thought it was incredible, a team appeared at the end of the street. Each of them wore a mourning handkerchief and mourning clothes. The person walking at the front was holding a photo frame in his hand, followed closely by a group of people. Mourners carrying wreaths.
Is this really a funeral in the middle of the night?
But I didn’t see the person throwing money to buy roads. I only saw paper money falling on the other side of the street. It seemed that the person throwing paper money was the first to spread money to pave the road.
I thought it was weird to have a funeral in the middle of the night, but what was even weirder was that the procession didn't make a single sound from the time it appeared until now.
You know, during funerals in our country, firecrackers are set off along the way, and if possible, the husband will be asked to play and beat along the way, in order to show the filial piety of future generations and the glory of the ancestors.
But in this team, except for the rustling of footsteps and the rustling of wreaths in the wind, there was no extra sound.
Even the Eight Immortals carrying the coffin who were supposed to be shouting slogans kept their mouths tightly closed and moved forward steadily with their heads buried.
Can you imagine that? In the dark night, you sit under the dim incandescent light and watch a funeral procession suddenly appear at the end of the street, all wearing white mourning clothes. They move forward quietly and slowly, like a shady soldier taking advantage of the road.
The dark night and the white mourning clothes, two completely opposite colors, brought a huge visual impact, making this already weird scene full of eeriness and terror.
Even though I have experienced a lot in the past five years, I am still a little unaccustomed to this situation, so I subconsciously lowered my head and pretended to look at the menu on the table seriously.
I waited until the funeral procession passed by this late-night snack stall, then I called the boss and ordered two staple dishes and some barbecue.
While waiting for the food to be served, I asked Zhang Hazi, have you ever heard of midnight funerals before?
I think that Zhang Hazi is well-informed after all. He should have seen or at least heard of things that I have not seen.
But this time Zhang Hazi shook his head and said, I know there is only Wang Xuemei like you.
Zhang Hazi's words stunned me. It seemed that a midnight funeral was indeed unusual.
But since people here don’t have any opinions on this matter, it might be a local custom.
But Zhang Hazi shook his head again and said that no matter how different the customs were, it would be impossible to go up the mountain in the middle of the night.
I was stunned when I heard this, and then asked him why he couldn't go up the mountain in the middle of the night?
He said, because no matter you are a yang person or a yin person, you have to keep a low profile.
Zhang Hazi's words are always so elusive that you have to turn several corners to figure it out. But you can't blame him, because a lot of what he said, he directly stated the results, and he didn't care whether you understood or not.
So I said a long time ago that Zhang Hazi himself is highly skilled in craftsmanship, but he is not necessarily a good teacher.
Faced with Zhang Hazi's situation where he only talks about results, over the past five years I have also found a way to deal with it, and it is very simple. There are only three words in total: speak human words!
Zhang Hazi said, have you rushed to the scene? (Go to the market, meaning to go to the market)
Let me tell you, there are 369 people in our village, so we can get by naturally.
He said, if you are rushing to the venue and a team suddenly rushes in and knocks you around, do you think you will hate those people?
Let me tell you, this is not nonsense? With the tough folk customs over there, we might have surrounded them and beaten them up!
Zhang Hazi listened to what I said, nodded, and said, So Sa, you should be low-key when you are a Yang person, and you should be low-key when you are a Yin person.
After turning such a corner, I understood what Zhang Hazi wanted to express.
What he meant was that it was three o'clock in the middle of the night and a hundred ghosts were walking at night. Everything was fine, but then a funeral procession rushed over and knocked out all these sinister people. How could things be okay?
But funerals are different at four or five in the morning. At that time, the Yin people have to go back to their old houses. The funeral procession is walking along them. Not only will it not collide with them, but it will also make them think that the funeral people are one of their own. It will be easier to accept it, and naturally nothing will happen.
Zhang Hazi said, "So you know now, why did those people go up the mountain in the middle of the night, but they didn't dare to say anything?"
I nodded to show that I understood.
If you bumped into those evil people, it was a taboo in itself. If you show off yourself by bragging and beating again, do you think those evil people will turn around and punish you?
Zhang Hazi said that this was only for those mourning the funeral, and the most serious consequences would be for those who went up the mountain.
This is not difficult to understand. After all, the person in the coffin is the real owner, which is equivalent to the master who rode the horse to commit murder in ancient times. Those mourning the funeral are just his servants. Once public dissatisfaction is aroused, the master will naturally bear the greatest consequences.
So I asked, what are the general consequences?
Zhang Hazi turned his head, glanced at me, and said, I will cut off my descendants!
I was stunned when I heard this, looked at the team getting further away, and asked Zhang Hazi in a low voice, it shouldn't be so serious, right?
Zhang Hazi said, what time is it at midnight?
I said, Zishi, what happened?
He said that when the child is buried in the earth, it blocks the yin and yang. Isn't that the child's break, is it the child? The grandson of Haoyue covers the sky and the earth, what kind of son is he if he is not the 'unparalleled grandson'?
When Zishi was buried, everyone knew that the bright moon's position meant that the moon began to shift to the west. Sun is a polyphonic character, pronounced as Xun here. But in Jiangmen, when Haoyue abdicates the throne, it is written as Haoyue grandson.
I thought it was strange before, but now that I think about it, I guess the ancestors wrote it like this on purpose to warn future generations not to have midnight funerals.
However, even excluding the child who was buried at the time and the grandson of Haoyue, and only the funeral at midnight before, he would have offended so many Yin people at once, and may have no descendants. Now coupled with these eight words of criticism, the probability of annihilating his descendants is almost 100%.
But if that's the case, then they all hold funerals at midnight here, wouldn't they all...?
Zhang Hazi shook his head and said, "So this is what I don't understand. It's impossible for a big town to not have even one knowledgeable person."
I couldn't figure this out either. When the boss served the food, I took out the barbecue and put it on top of Zhang Hazi's egg fried rice, and chatted with him while eating.
I asked him, according to what you said, a midnight funeral basically does no harm but no benefit at all. Is there no benefit at all?
If there was really no benefit, why did my grandfather let Wang Xuemei be buried at midnight? Is it just to prevent her from having any descendants? But at that time, Wang Xuemei was just a child, and it was impossible to have any children. It made no sense to her to cut off her children.
Zhang Hazi said, of course there are advantages, but it depends on whether the person sleeping in the coffin is lucky or not.
I asked, how about a lecture?
He said that it was very simple. If a county magistrate's son rode a horse in the street to commit murder, it would most likely cause the people to rise up and resist; but what if the person crossing the street was an emperor? Do you think those ordinary people will have a sense of revenge?
When I heard this, I understood. Only when a person's fate is strong enough can he be high-profile after death without causing dissatisfaction from other Yin people. Otherwise, the more lively it is after death, the more severe the backlash will be.
And Wang Xuemei's fate was comparable to that of Wu Zhao and Wu Zetian. If she was to be buried at midnight, the sinister people on the road would only worship her. Who would dare to be jealous and revengeful?
But why did my grandfather insist on letting Wang Xuemei have a funeral at midnight?
Zhang Hazi said, "Don't ask me, I don't know either."
Even though five years have passed, I still can't see through the game my grandfather left behind. Not only me, but even Zhang Hazi can't understand it many times. In other words, he is still the same as before. He understands many things but is unwilling to tell me.
I couldn't understand why he did this before. It wasn't until I went through a lot of things in the past five years that I realized that not talking was the greatest respect for the other person. After all, preconceived notions have a huge influence in the world of craftsmen.
There are many things that you can only make your own judgment by experiencing them yourself and seeing them with your own eyes. Otherwise, listening to and believing things will make you lose your true heart, and you will be like a flash in the pan on the road of Jiangmen.
After simply filling my stomach, I called the boss to check out. I thought I could scan the QR code with my phone to pay, but I found that the boss hadn't touched these things yet and said he only accepted cash.
In desperation, I had no choice but to go back to the car, take out one piece of real money from each of the money piles, and then hand it to the boss to settle the bill.
After the boss gave me the change, I asked for directions to the hotel in the town, and then I drove there with Zhang Hazi.
But what none of us expected was that after spending so long at the supper stall, we actually caught up with the funeral procession.
And when I drove past them, in order to find my way back to the main road, I glanced at the leader of the team through the reflector. As a result, I almost hit the Hummer into the curb. superior.
Through the light of the Hummer's taillights, I saw that the man walking at the front of the team had his head lowered, but in the photo frame he was holding, there was actually a black and white photo of me!
And when I looked over, the man also raised his head and looked over. After noticing my gaze, he looked at the Hummer reflector and showed an extremely weird smile...
What’s even weirder is that the face of that person turned out to be the cashier in the service area!
