the last priest

This incident of falling into the water was not a trivial matter for the villagers. Cha Wenbin originally intended to gradually fade out of people's sight, but he had no choice but to come out of the mountain again.

Two of the three children were cousins, and children who died young, especially those who died suddenly, were not serious, but they were troublesome.Children's playful nature is destined to remain the same after death. Maybe they set their eyes on the children of a certain family in the village when they were looking for companions. Name.

Because about half a month had passed since the incident, the children who fell into the water were also taken away by their families for burial.Generally, the death of a child is not a trivial matter, and the family usually digs a hole to bury it quietly, because since ancient times, there has been no reason for a white-haired person to send a black-haired person.

The three newly erected small earth mounds are standing on the opposite side of the village halfway up the mountain. Maybe in another ten years, the rest will be just weeds.

Zha Wenbin knew about that school, and all the villagers came from there, and the feng shui of that place was really not very good as the river map said.

The river channel here is a half-moon shape, forming a pool in the middle, which is also called a murder pool in Feng Shui.The crescent moon is like a knife, and the pool is the place where the head falls. If there is no stone bridge and stretches of willow trees, it will be fine.

The stone arch bridge is just connected to the path leading to the school. The bridge is originally a yin bridge. As the saying goes, people walk during the day and ghosts pass at night.Therefore, people of the older generation often tell those who enjoy the cool air on the bridge in summer that they must go home no later than twelve o'clock.There is no particularly good place in the village to have a tryst. In the second half of the summer night, there are often young couples who fall in love on the bridge, but those who decide to live on the bridge privately will probably have some disasters in the future.

Especially some old old bridges are very prone to accidents. The sun under the bridge is not exposed to the sun all year round, and it is affected by the current, so the bottom of the bridge is very cold, and most of the estuary is on the windward side, so these places are very dangerous. A favorite of the dirty stuff.

If the willow sticks are broken off, they can exorcise ghosts. Some dancing gods often use willow sticks to beat those who seem to be possessed, but the willow itself is extremely yin.Most of the willows are planted by the river, the water is yin, and the willows that grow in the shade are naturally tainted with yin. In the past, there were many willow forests. Those places look picturesque during the day, but you are required to go in at night. Then, [-]% of the time, you will encounter things you don't want to encounter.

The older the willows are, the more powerful they are. Those willows with crooked necks and mutilated bodies have cracked bark and intertwined roots. If the willow branches praised by poets are removed, it will not have the slightest sense of beauty, so the willow forest Also known as the gathering place.

The willow grove next to the school was planted by some generation. Very early on, a person died in the grove, and that person was more than ten years older than Cha Wenbin.

Willow trees are easy to be bored. The largest willow tree in this forest can hold two people together. There was once a villager with a brain problem who climbed into one of the tree holes to sleep in winter. When the family found him, After the heavy snow melted, he froze to death like someone who got into the refrigerator.

When He Tu was in school, he felt that the geomantic omen of this place was not good, and he told Cha Wenbin about it when he got back.But Cha Wenbin explained to him that it was indeed just right to set up a school here.Feng Shui believes that the school is a symbol of righteousness, and the loud reading voice of the students is the most positive representative, which can overwhelm everything. It is very suitable to suppress this kind of feng shui. I did not expect that something went wrong after all. .

No one dared to sit on the ancient stone arch bridge anymore, and the weather in late October had begun to turn cold. Cha Wenbin was entrusted by someone to do a ritual ceremony.Early in the morning, the parents of the children who fell into the water came to Cha's house with various gifts. They hoped that the Taoist who had not been out of the mountain for a long time could save the dead children.

Zha Wenbin has never been overstepped, and he did something that these parents couldn't accept, that is, they dug up all the corpses of these children who had been buried in the soil for less than half a month.This matter was opposed by almost all the parents, but Cha Wenbin said that if you are not willing to dig, then he will not do this ritual.

Although Cha Wenbin's name is resounding thousands of miles, his deeds are widely circulated in the provincial capital, not to mention the village. I don't understand why Zha Wenbin did this.

In the end, Cha Wenbin only said one sentence: "If you want your child to be soaked in water for a lifetime, then don't dig it! If you don't believe me, open the tomb and see if the child inside is wet from head to toe." of."

The final turning point of the matter came from a parent who received a dream from his son at night. In the dream, his son stood in front of him, with water dripping from the ends of his hair, on his clothes, pants, shoes, face, in short. Water was everywhere, and the water on the clothes couldn't be wrung dry.

Later, the parent was the first to open the tomb and pried open the small coffin. Sure enough, the corpse of his own child had been completely soaked in the coffin liquid, and the corpse was floating on the water.You know, the cemetery is on the back of the mountain, and there is no river here!

After the other two families heard about the situation, they also opened their graves. The situation inside was basically the same. The bodies of the three children were all soaked in water. It was strange that the bodies of these children were not swollen at all. It feels like it just fell into the river when it was picked up.

The location of the ceremony was chosen to be on the bridge, because it was a matter of the village, so many people came to help that day, set up a platform, set up a shed, and all kinds of spectators surrounded the bridge. There were people standing on the balcony and on the roof.

He Tu was only a spectator that day, and this was the first time Cha Wenbin had opened a forum in front of him, and he had a lot to learn.

Choosing the place where the children fell into the water, Cha Wenbin asked someone to build a raft with moso bamboo on the water and fix it.On the raft were several dishes of cooked meat and wine, as well as two bowls of toutou rice with incense sticks on it, which was regarded as a tribute to the three children.

There is also another altar on the bridge, and there are also wine and meat tributes, but there are more candles, paper money and colored paper.The west side of the bridge has been emptied of crowds, and in that corner are the clothes of the three children, as well as some toys and books.

Three temporary small wooden boards were placed on the altar, with the birthdays of the three children written on them, and a large incense burner was placed in front, with incense sticks from the children's relatives stuck in it.

In the first half of the night, Cha Wenbin sat by the altar and recited scriptures. Whenever he rang the bell, the relatives of the children continued to offer incense.At around twelve o'clock, Chao Zi, Zhuo Xiong and Da Shan began to clear the scene.

Most of the people were driven back home, leaving only seven or eight young adults and a person in charge of the village. The children's family members were only allowed to leave one person from each family, and they could only be male, while the rest were They were all asked to close their doors.The few nearby families had to go to relatives' houses with their quilts to spend the night under Cha Wenbin's persuasion. Everyone likes to watch the excitement, but it is said that they will run faster than rabbits if they hear that they are going to cause bad luck.

Before the start of work, Dashan brought wine and food, and invited the people present to eat and drink. These things were brought by the children's relatives, which can be regarded as helping wine.After drinking wine and eating meat, you have to do things for others, and there is no way out. This is also called fortifying wine, because ordinary people can't do this job.

Because this place is originally a place for gathering shade, and children who fall into the water here will not be able to dissipate their grievances.In a short period of time, at best, there will be some noises to scare passers-by. After a long time, it will become a disaster. This requires artificially diverting the resentment from here and leading it to other places. This is different from the general salvation after death. Also called "Water Fishing Ghost"

The unjust souls formed after drowning are generally called "water ghosts". People who die in the water almost commit suicide or die by accident.If the wronged soul persists, it will linger in the drowned place and become a water ghost.

Then they patiently wait in the water, lure, or force people to fall into the water and die, to be their own scapegoats. For thousands of years, water ghosts have been reincarnated carefree by this method to get rid of the suffering from hell.But finally someone found out a way to deceive water ghosts and lure water ghosts to let them be caught like fishing. People call this method "fishing for water ghosts".

Hetu has now taken off his clothes, and according to Zha Wenbin's instructions, he put on a set of clothes made of tung oil paper, which has the advantage of being waterproof.There was a dark compartment inside Hetu's clothes, which contained three paper symbols that Cha Wenbin had written in advance.

Since it is fishing, there will be bait, and this bait is none other than Cha Wenbin's apprentice: Tong Hetu!