The Secret Art of Refining the Dead: The Walking Corpse File

Chapter 6
Tan Ren is an unsmiling but very rigorous person. I didn't know about the particularity of offering incense, but he forbids me to offer incense indiscriminately, so before offering incense, he even explained the rules to me.This call was the most exchanged we have ever had. After listening to it, I deeply felt why China is called the land of etiquette.

There is too much emphasis on this incense.

For example, first of all, follow the rules of three gods and four ghosts, and the rules of offering incense to the dead are completely different from offering incense to gods.Secondly, pay attention to left and right, and don't just mess around.When burning incense, if there is a flame that does not go out, you can only fan it with your hands, and you cannot brush, shake it, let alone blow it with your mouth.

Blowing the incense of the dead is called "Duyang", while blowing the incense of the gods is disrespectful.

When burning incense, the method and height of the incense are also very particular. It is really not an easy task to burn a stick of incense according to the method Tan Ren said.

Regarding the matter of ghosts and gods, like most people, I can't say that I believe it, nor can I say I don't believe it.Therefore, after offering incense, I couldn't help but ask, "Which patriarch are we worshiping?"

But Tan Ren didn't answer me, he looked quietly at the incense stick I just put on it, looked at it, his brows frowned, and a word Sichuan was deeply formed between his eyebrows.Following his gaze, the incense was burning well and hadn't gone out. I couldn't figure out why he suddenly changed his face.

But I'm not interested in studying the mind of a big old man. Seeing that Tan Ren ignored me, I looked around on my own.

At this time, I found that the black cat was actually hiding in a corner, and now it was curled up in a ball with its eyes closed, as if it didn't pay attention to people.

In addition, there is a long table at the other end of the quilt. Only then did I see that there were some strange things placed on the long table.

A bowl of water, two paper figurines, a red string, and an incense burner.

At this moment, the two paper figurines were soaked in the water bowl, one end of the red string was in the water bowl, and the other end was in the incense burner, buried by the ashes.Such a scene is easily reminiscent of those plots of paper-making people in the movie, coupled with Tan Ren's nagging behavior, I couldn't help asking: "You were in the room before..." Hold back After a long time, I choked out a more subtle word: "how to do it?"

When I asked Tan Ren, he took his eyes back from the incense, glanced at the things on the table, and then walked over, took the two paper figurines out of the water bowl, tore off the lower half and covered them The wet part, then crumpled up the paper from that part and threw it to the black cat in the corner.

The black cat was also weird, it swallowed the ball of paper in one gulp, stretched itself after swallowing it, and continued to sleep again.

In this way, only the upper body of the two paper figurines remained. Tan Ren inserted them into the ashes of the censer, lit a candle and placed them next to him, as if roasting them with fire. Let it go.

I was curious, and asked him what he was doing, Tan Yan showed a rather strange smile, glanced at me, and said: "You will know when the time comes." Immediately afterwards, he did not extinguish the candle, and let others Burning, and beckoning me to leave.

Before leaving this room, he looked again at the stick of incense that I provided to the Patriarch, and suddenly said: "You should not go out in the near future."

I subconsciously asked: "Why?" Even the boss can't restrict the personal freedom of employees, right?
He pointed to the stick of incense and said, "See for yourself."

I looked in the direction of his fingers, and my heart skipped a beat.

Tan Ren just told me about the particulars of offering incense.

You may want to ask, why is it necessary to offer incense to gods or dead people?In traditional culture, incense is a medium through which communication between humans and gods can be achieved.Of course, another way of saying is that incense is ghost food, something that can be eaten by ghosts. When folks go to the grave of the dead, there are customs of candles, incense and firecrackers.

In recent years, some people go to the grave, and the procedure has become more and more simple, just setting off firecrackers without offering incense. In fact, this is a kind of putting the cart before the horse.

In traditional folklore, setting off firecrackers is actually for the living to see, and it is intended to remind the surrounding villages that the descendants of a certain family are filial and come back to visit their ancestors' graves.The offering of incense is for the dead, and it is for the dead to 'eat'. Now some people go to the grave just to look good, and the firecrackers are so loud that the face of the living is done enough, but in fact it is not at all. The purpose of offering sacrifices to the dead.

Of course, these are all what Tan Ren told me just now. In addition to these particularities, the ancients also had a method of "accounting for incense".

Zhanxiang, also known as inviting incense, is to use specific rituals to burn incense to the gods to predict good or bad luck. When I was offering incense just now, the method Tan Ren taught me was actually the method of "accounting for incense". I didn't pay much attention to it at the time Now, I took a closer look at the stick of incense I lit, but suddenly found that the three sticks of incense burned into a strange shape,

It stands to reason that these three incense sticks were lit at the same time, so the burning progress should be the same, but now, among the three sticks of incense, the middle one has been extinguished and hardly burned, while the left and right two sticks of incense are still burning. Nearly half of it also went out, which is called "three long and two short" in the term "Zhanxiang", which is a very unlucky symbol.

I didn't believe in these things at first, but I didn't expect that just after listening to Tan Ren's explanation, I really invited the incense of "three longs and two shorts" to come out.All of a sudden, my mouth felt a little dry, and I subconsciously said, "It's a coincidence..." Divination shouldn't be taken seriously, right?

Tan Ren gave me a cold look, re-entered the door, pulled out the three long and two short incense sticks, offered another stick, and then closed the door, and the black cat was still locked in the room.Coming out so early in the morning would make anyone feel uncomfortable. Although I said it was a coincidence, I thought in my heart that it is better not to go out recently.

Thinking about it this way, I became even more curious about the identities of Tan Ren and his group.

I didn't go out much that day. In the afternoon, Tan Ren broke a small black bag and went out mysteriously. He didn't come back until [-] o'clock in the evening. When he came back, he put the small black bag on the table at random. I went to take a shower as soon as I put it on.

I took a look and found that there was a DV in the bag, and it hadn't been turned off yet.

I thought it was strange, could it be that this person surnamed Tan ran out to take pictures all afternoon?While he was taking a shower, I curiously pressed the DV to see what he had recorded, but I found that the DV was empty and there was only one video in it.

The length of the video is more than 40 minutes, and it shows that the shooting time is around 05:30 this afternoon.

Out of curiosity, I pressed the play button. In order not to be heard by Tan Ren, I turned off the volume and began to watch the 'pantomime'.

The background in the shot is in a messy residential area, the surrounding houses are low, and it looks like it is in some places outside the customs. From the shooting angle, Tan Ren should be standing on the top of a residential building facing down Shot, the camera is facing a flat room.

At this moment, a few people appeared from the flat-panel room, and their figures were relatively vague.

Accompanied by these few people, there were several children behind them, some crawled on the ground, some limped and looked carefully, there was a wooden cart under their buttocks.

When I saw this, I was shocked for a moment. Could it be that the criminal gang was filmed in this DV?

Immediately afterwards, Tan Ren appeared in front of the camera. He was leaning halfway on the railing in front of the DV, obviously observing those people. Looking at them, he turned his head and smiled at the camera.Tan Ren seldom smiled, and once in a while, it gave people a feeling that something was wrong.

Sure enough, after laughing, Tan Ren circled back behind the DV, not knowing what he was doing.The front of the lens was cleared again, and the focal length of the DV was zoomed in, so the image of the group of people became clearer.A van was parked in front of their house, and they were stuffing disabled beggar children into the van one by one. It seemed that they were planning to send them to work, that is, to send disabled children to begging places.

Soon, several children got into the car, and there were six people beside the car, all of whom were grown men. These six people seemed to be discussing something, talking, and two more people came from a distance.

I took a closer look. Although the camera was too far away to see the appearance of the two of them clearly, wasn't this figure and dress the same as the little gangster we were following last night?

How did Tan Ren find this place?
What are these two little bastards here for?

I thought of the powder that came out of the gourd last night, and of the paper figurines that Tan Ren got in the morning. I knew there must be some connection between them, and my curiosity was extremely inflated for a while, so I looked down and forgot. time.

When I finished reading, I found that Tan Yan was sitting on the boss chair drinking coffee, crossing his legs, and asked me: "I finished reading it? Is it good?"

My head is covered in cold sweat right now, and even my legs are trembling a little. Looking at Tan Ren's calm expression, I feel my scalp go numb.

Because, in the second half of this DV, an extremely terrifying scene was recorded.

(End of this chapter)