Chapter 4 The Ghost Blows Out the Lamp

Summer is long, and the sky gradually gets dark after seven o'clock.

The countryside is different from the city. There are no colorful neon lights and colorful lights. When it gets completely dark, you can't even see your fingers.

I placed the paper bundles brought from the store in front of the villa and lit them with candles. According to local custom, if the deceased was a male, a horse and a groom leading the horse would be burned. If the deceased was a woman, a horse and a groom would be burned. It is necessary to burn a white paper sedan and four paper horsemen. If you want the deceased to live a better life, you can also add a few paper maids to serve around him.

Hong Wei operated according to the highest standards, burning a total of eight bearers and six maids. During the burning process, the children had to announce the birth date of the deceased and shout "Go to the southwest" to guide the soul.

"Meow~"

Following a sudden meow, a figure rushed into the fire from nowhere.

"That's it, that's it!" Hong Wei shouted after seeing the appearance of the cat. He said that this was the white cat that Hong Yan had raised before his death. When the fire faded, the white cat had been burned into pieces. A black mass of burnt meat.

Why?

Why did it suddenly appear after it had disappeared?

Why does it set itself on fire?

" Master Zhang... " Hong Wei looked at me eagerly, and I was a little uneasy, "It's useless to ask more, it's better to be buried as soon as possible."

This phenomenon has been recorded in the book, which is similar to a kind of substitute technique. If a dead person comes back to life with the breath of an animal, this is a violation of yin and yang, and he will be arrested by ghosts. However, there is a way to avoid ghosts, which is to use an animal to replace him. When a person dies, the prerequisite is that you must successfully resurrect the soul, but in Hong Yan's case, it should be regarded as a failed rebirth unless...

I have a bad feeling, because cats are very evil animals. As the saying goes, cats have nine lives. In the past records of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio and Unofficial History, cats are very easy to become sperms. Hong Yan’s pregnancy was quite strange. , not to mention that the head of the fetus is a cat's head, which makes people have to wonder who borrowed whose body and returned whose soul?

Damn it, why do I think so much? The most important task right now is to complete the whole process, take the money and leave, the rest is none of my business!

After giving directions, I took the Hong Wei siblings to the nearby Tu Tu Temple to pray for the deceased. It was said to be a blessing, but in fact it was a bribe.

I ordered the cook to specially cook nine dishes that the locals love to eat, pair them with fine wine, and respectfully place them on the altar for them to enjoy.

The Earth God is also called the Kitchen God. Although his official position is not high, he has good connections in heaven and earth. The starting point of the bribe is to let him say hello and take care of the ghost on its way to the underworld. This is like when you take the driver's license test. Treating the coach to a meal is almost the same. It doesn't have much effect, but it is somewhat convenient.

After the food and wine were put on the table, we started lighting incense.

Many people don’t know that offering incense is very particular. Offering incense to Taoist gods must be in odd numbers.

One incense represents devotion to God, three are public incense, five are peace incense, seven are marriage incense and promotion incense, and nine are the top incense, which is called the supreme incense among the people. In ancient times, only people with imperial power and wealth were eligible. Don't order it lightly unless it's an urgent matter. It is said that eating too much will shorten your life. If you don't believe it, you can try it and you will understand what "dying young" means.

According to my request, Hong Wei held the incense stick with one hand in his left hand, inserted the incense burner and stepped back before he could thank me before I noticed something was wrong.

Usually after incense is added, the cigarette will float upward with the top. If the smoke rises in a curl, it means that the gods have received your message, but they may not respond.

If the smoke rises in a straight line, it means that the gods have granted your request.

But at this moment, the smoke from the incense unexpectedly floated downwards, going against the trend. This was an ominous sign, and it was the first time I saw it. When I was a child, I heard my father say that when such a situation occurs, it means that the gods have rejected your request!

Are there really gods?

After a day of tossing, I really can’t say anything.

Hong Wei looked unhappy. He lit three more incense sticks, but the smoke still drifted down. He wanted to change the brand and light it again, but before he could do anything, a gust of evil wind blew in from outside the house. He arranged the altar All the wine and food were knocked to the ground, and the six incense sticks in the incense burner were inexplicably broken at the waist.

"Stop it!" I stopped him in a hurry. Broken incense is a bad omen. The Earth Temple has three solid walls and the door faces north. Normal wind can't blow in at all. How could such a coincidence happen? If I guessed correctly, this It was the land god who was angry.

In unofficial history and folklore, the land always appears as an amiable person, and generally does not get angry easily unless your behavior violates his bottom line.

I have brought some family members of the deceased to "bribe" the Land Master before, but this has never happened before. There must be something wrong with Hong Yan's body or soul.

"Master Zhang, what's going on?" Hong Wei asked anxiously.

"Maybe... the Heavenly Court has tightened its control recently and is trying to catch corrupt officials, so we mortals have no choice but to take advantage of the situation." I kept talking nonsense, thinking in my mind that I would finish the job quickly and get the money. I didn't want to do anything like this. Too much blending.

Back at Hong Yan's house, it was almost twelve o'clock after burning the gold ingots. Logically speaking, the Hong family's children should stay near the funeral bed, but after a series of strange things, they did not dare to live in the house or in the car. Played on the phone all night.

Er Mazi and I found a shabby hotel in the village for a night. When it was dark, I received a call from Hong Xin. She spoke urgently, saying that Da Kui was possessed by evil spirits and asked me to come over quickly.

When I arrived at Hong Yan's house, a group of people had gathered at the door of the villa, and there were many villagers watching around.

When I got closer, I saw a strange Dakui at a glance. He was leaning on a bamboo chair, his head tilted to the left, his temples almost touching his shoulders. His whole person was listless and sluggish, and he looked like a seriously ill person. Yesterday's energy.

"What's going on? Are you having a stiff neck?" I felt a little nervous and asked sarcastically. There is nothing to be polite to such an immoral person.

When Hong Xin saw me, she almost knelt down, took my arm and started talking.

Da Kui was fine when he came yesterday, but he started to have problems after he returned.

At first, he felt pain and numbness in his left shoulder, and he didn't care about it at first. But as the day gradually darkened, his left shoulder and his arm slowly lost feeling, and the muscles in his neck involuntarily leaned to the left. At first, he thought it was due to excessive force during the fight during the day and didn't take it seriously. He thought it would be fine if he took a nap, but he didn't expect that when he woke up, his entire left arm was numb, black and stiff. Uncontrollable, like a prosthetic limb.

What's even more painful is that his neck became crooked and he couldn't control its straightening. He went to the hospital for a checkup early in the morning. The doctor couldn't figure out the reason. The advice he gave him was to amputate his arm and strengthen his neck.

After hearing what the doctor said, Dakui, a man in his thirties or forties, cried on the spot. When he told Hong Xin about it, Hong Xin couldn't help but tremble, and concluded that it was Hong Yan's ghost who did it, and complained that he was pretending yesterday. Da Kui was so frightened when he thought of a woman's voice calling his name in front of the funeral hall yesterday that he immediately bought a lot of spiritual supplies and ran back to Hong Yan to kowtow to apologize to Hong Yan, causing his face to swell. It was still of no use, so he invited me over.

Da Kui probably told Hong Xin about my background and abilities. He seemed to have grabbed a life-saving straw, gave up his dignity, knelt on the ground and called me "immortal". As the saying goes, don't hit the smiling person with your hand. Seeing him look like this , I also had some sympathy. After pondering for a while, I said, "There are gods and gods above, and ghosts below. You are afraid that the ghost will blow out the lamp."

"Ghost blows out the lamp? Isn't that a movie?" Da Kui looked at me with ignorant eyes. I shook my head and explained, "The old people in the village often say that children have three fires in their butts. In fact, everyone has three fires in their body." Fire, respectively on the left shoulder, right shoulder and top of the head, is also commonly known as the three oil lamps, representing the Yang fire in the human body. There is a folk saying that if you hear someone calling your name when you are walking at night, do not look back, because the person calling you is fire. It doesn’t have to be a human being, and don’t let others pat you on the shoulder or cover your head with a hat easily. It will easily extinguish the Yang Fire. Once it is extinguished, you will lose your energy and spirit at the least, and you will be overwhelmed by ghosts at the worst..."

When he heard the words "ghost pressing on his body", Dakui became excited instantly and became even more convinced that a ghost was possessing him. He begged me to help him like a dog. I only heard about it and was not completely sure, so I didn't dare to agree immediately. , just say give it a try.

Er Mazi took this opportunity and tried another way to defraud Dakui out of tens of thousands of dollars. I wanted to stop him, but when I thought about the pressure from my girlfriend's family that my tight financial situation came from it, I could only keep silent, comforting myself in my heart. My family’s inheritance is several million, and it’s nothing if I just take a few out of it.

In order to settle Da Kui's matter, I went back to the shop and looked through the notes left by my father. The notes were actually handwritten by my grandfather. They recorded all kinds of knowledge. It is said that some of them were adapted from the "Burial Sutra". Not very deep, but very practical.

Soon, I found a solution to the "ghost blowing out the lamp", just relight it.

Hearing that the "oil lamp" could be lit, Da Kui impatiently took out a lighter and started burning it on his shoulder, almost scorching the hair. I couldn't laugh or cry at the sight, so I stopped him and said, "You need sun fire to light it. Your three lamps have been extinguished." I bought two lamps, and if I don’t ignite them as soon as possible, I guess it won’t be long before you can say hello to your mother-in-law down there.”

Da Kui was so frightened that he asked me where the sun fire was. I told him that the best sun fire was the sun. He asked him to find a place with strong sunlight and stay in the sun for three days and three nights, and he would be able to "cure the disease" with the medicine.

In the afternoon of that day, Da Kui got on a plane and went to the Massawa region in Africa to bask in the sun. In this season, the temperature there should be around 35° . This degree should be enough for him to change his mind ...