White Bone Monkey King

The butcher looked at a circle of coffins.

He didn’t immediately say which color he would choose.

Instead, he turned back to look at Jin An and the old Taoist priest who were still eating and drinking as usual: "Boss, can we come to the store to burn incense, paper money, and ingots?"

Jin An was startled, this request was a bit interesting.

"Do you want to say that there is a one-stop service for the burial, wake, funeral, coffin carrying, funeral, and burial? Of course." Jin An became interested in this special request.

After receiving a positive answer, the pig butcher looked up again at the coffins above his head. His face, numb from pain, ignored Jin An, giving the impression of being withdrawn and rude.

The two people sitting in front of the Eight Immortals table continued to eat and drink by themselves, while the undertaker looked at the coffin.

The pig butcher just stared at it for a long time, and finally made a decision: "Boss, I've made my choice. Order a yellow coffin for me."

The two people, who had been eating and drinking as usual, heard that the other party only wanted the yellow coffin, chopsticks and wine glasses in their hands. They both looked at the butcher in surprise.

Then the pig butcher came to the shelves again. There were a dazzling array of products on those shelves, such as coins with ten thousand taels of silver notes, coins with one hundred thousand taels of silver notes, coins with one million taels of silver notes... Zhendian The treasure is a ghost coin worth 100 million taels of silver notes.

In addition to the ghost coins, there are about a hundred pieces of one-pound copper coin paper on the shelves, about three hundred pieces of three-jin copper coin paper, and about five hundred pieces of five-jin copper coin paper...

Small ingot paper, medium ingot paper, large ingot paper, gold foil ingot paper...

Small gold bar paper, medium gold bar paper, large gold bar paper, gold foil gold bar paper...

Gold foil is easy to understand. It is an object with gold foil paper on the surface. This is real gold, and ordinary families and well-off families can't afford it.

Not only are the paper money divided into three, six or nine grades, but even the incense candles on the shelves are also divided into three, six or nine grades. For example, they are divided into large, medium and small sizes, and they are also divided into smoke, thick smoke, light smoke, sandalwood type, and honeysuckle type. , osmanthus scent, etc. In addition, candles are also divided into words, no words, gold foil words, lotus lanterns, lotus lanterns, seven-star lanterns, etc...

Do you think the grades of incense candles are that simple?

That could not be more wrong.

The doorway to these incense candles is much more complicated than the doorway to paper money. In addition to the above mentioned, it also depends on whether the incense candles come from a century-old workshop or a large temple. It is said that it is not only the quality of the materials, but also whether they are from that workshop. It is related to worshiping Yin gods, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. According to the vernacular, it is a one-to-one special service fee.

Isn’t there a popular saying——

People compete for a breath and Buddha competes for a stick of incense.

Don't ask Jin An how he knew this. Back when he was at Uncle Lin's coffin shop, he had curiously asked about this and was educated by Uncle Lin.

However, the incense and candles in this coffin shop are all from ordinary market workshops. There is no purchase channel from temples or century-old workshops. There are only some ordinary small local workshops in Jinyuanzhai, Xiaoshi Pavilion, and Qicai Baoguangxuan.

There are also lanterns, Kongming lanterns, incense burners, lamp holders, shrines, insect repellent sachets, yellow charms, simple Feng Shui ornaments, paper maids, paper mansions, paper BMWs, and eight-carriage sedans, etc. , although it is not all available, it is almost complete. If the sales are good, buy more and display them in a conspicuous position. If the sales are not good, just put them in the corner to gather dust all year round.

Fortunately, every product has a wooden sign indicating its price, so there is no need for Jin An, a layman who opened a coffin shop halfway, to remember it.

This is not only convenient for Jin'an, but also for customers to buy directly. Compared with the long pause to pick up the coffin, the pig butcher picked these paper money and incense candles very quickly: "Boss, I have chosen, fifteen kilograms of copper money paper, There are three thousand gold-leaf ingot papers and a bundle of five million taels of Tiandi Yinzhuang silver notes."

Jin An: "This is a big deal. Even middle-income families are not willing to spend so much. This amount of paper money is enough for several people, and it is enough for them to bribe all kinds of difficult people on Huangquan Road."

"Why don't you pay half of the money to choose a coffin with a better opening? The living have a balcony, and the dead have a shadow. No matter the living or the dead, they all want to live comfortably and have a better place to shelter from the wind and rain. ."

The pig butcher replied with a numb expression: "No money."

Well.

This is really a simple and honest answer.

Jin An: "Can I ask out of curiosity, how many people did you burn so much paper money for?"

The pig butcher did not answer directly this time, but kept talking to himself: "Boss, please send these paper money to a house named Tieshuan in the sixth house of Jiutan Street, Shengpingfang Street in the south of the city, and burn it to Miss Song and Song Zong respectively. The lady’s personal maid.”

"The yellow coffin was sent to the mass grave in the western suburbs of the city. In a rainwater puddle, we found a man wrapped in a straw mat. Just bury him in the mass grave. Thank you very much, boss."

Jin An was startled for a moment: "Don't you need to give money for burning incense and candles to the people in mass graves?"

The pig butcher shook his head: "No, he doesn't deserve it. He has been used to being alone since he was a child, so he doesn't need to use these."

Hearing this, Jin An and the old Taoist priest were both surprised.

It turned out that the reason why the butcher chose the cheapest yellow coffin was to use the money he saved to buy paper money for Miss Song and the maid. This made the two of them look at each other with admiration.

The butcher continued: "Hidden under the fifteenth brick from right to left under Tieshuan's bed was all his savings. After buying incense, paper and coffins, I also gave the remaining money to the boss. He is considered the boss. of hard work."

It was as if the pig butcher had finally finished confessing everything and no longer had any concerns about this world. No matter how curious Jin An and the old Taoist priest were, he would not say another word. Jin An could tell that the other party did not want to talk anymore. So he wrote down a piece of paper, listing the other party's specific requirements and payment methods one by one, and finally handed the pen to the other party for his signature.

The butcher was illiterate, so Jin An asked him to draw a circle instead, so the contract was concluded.

Ding, ding, ding, the sound of chains dragging heavily on the ground, the two watched the butcher leave, leaving traces of water wherever he passed.

"Little brother, I see in this donor that there is no greater sorrow than death." The old Taoist priest who is most prone to sentimentality said with some sympathy.

Jin An nodded thoughtfully.

After this incident, the two of them had no intention of eating or drinking anymore. After finishing the leftover food and wine, they started to prepare paper money for incense candles. They had to get up early to deliver goods tomorrow.

In front of the shelf, Jin An looked at the treasure of the store, the 100 million tael of silver coins, and couldn't help but muttered: "Any coffin shop has 100 million taels of silver coins. I wonder if there are any in the underworld." Regarding inflation, does Tiandi Bank have any policy on raising interest rates?"

The old Taoist priest who was walking over holding several packages of copper coins happened to hear Jin An's muttering and asked out of curiosity: "Little brother, what is inflation? Why do we need to raise interest rates after inflation?"

Well.

Jin An casually made a few nonsense remarks to the old Taoist priest, and couldn't help but asked curiously: "Old Taoist, you said that there are hundreds of incense and candle shops, Fushou shops, Ming shops and so on in the capital of Jiangzhou. If everyone writes 10,000 With hundreds of millions of taels of silver notes and hundreds of millions of taels of silver notes, wouldn’t the money in the underworld have long been overflowing?”

The old Taoist priest rarely became serious and serious: "These banknotes burned to the underworld cannot be written by just anyone. They must be stamped with the seal of the Lord of Hell to be recognized. This consumes a person's moral virtue and fortune." "

"The second-rate hard currency in the underworld is gold foil gold bars and gold foil gold ingots. Little brother, don't look at me like that. No one will steal tributes or burn sacrifices to the dead. Such immoral things are both Losing one's lifespan and damaging one's Yin virtue is to use one's Yang life and Yin virtues and blessings to support the deceased. At the least, bad luck will happen one after another and one will be in poverty all his life. At the worst, it will lead to bloody disasters."

"The third-rate coins in the underworld are those copper money paper and ordinary ingot paper and gold bar paper. This is why there are always cases where descendants just burn money to their ancestors, and the ancestors tell them in dreams that they don't have enough money. ."

"But the most valuable ones are the underworld coins that are written on the name of Tiandi Yinzhuang, stamped with the seal of the Lord of Hell, and recognized by the underworld."

"As for how to obtain Yin virtue, it is naturally to do more good deeds to accumulate virtue for yourself and others. In the hands of the Yin Shen Judge, there is a book of life and death, which is used to record a person's longevity, blessings, and life deeds. ."

After listening to the old Taoist priest's detailed explanation, Jin An frowned: "I remember that when you were practicing in the Tian family, old Taoist priest, you took out the seal of the Lord of Hell and wrote on the underworld coins on the spot?"

Jin An rubbed his chin and couldn't help but wonder, was the Yin De that printed the Heaven and Earth Yin Zhuang Ming Coin the same as the Yin De he understood? With his current net worth of over 100,000 yuan, how many underworld coins can he print?

Jin An knew better than the old Taoist priest. The old Taoist priest looked at Jin An angrily: "Little brother, what do you want to do?"

"Every Prince of Hell's seal has a name and a surname. Even if others take it, they can't use it."

All right.

Jin An knew that there would not be such big flaws in this world. If a few people with evil intentions snatched a seal of the Lord of Hell and raised a group of good people in the third and fourth generations, it would be easy for them to speculate and make money in heaven and earth.

The two of them had been awake all day and night, and there were only two and a half hours before dawn in the second half of the night. Jin An asked the old Taoist priest to go back to sleep and rest his mind while he cleaned up the debris and closed the door.

…

The next day.

The weather is sunny, but the wind is a bit strong today.

After Jin An explained a few words to the craftsmen, he led the sheep cart and the yellow coffin covered with cloth, and headed to Shengpingfang in the south of the city with the old Taoist priest.

According to the address, the two of them could easily find the delivery place, but looking at the scene in front of them, they frowned. This was a house that collapsed due to fire. The fire had been extinguished, but the smell of burning could still be faintly smelled when people got closer.

At this time, a neighbor lady happened to go out with a bamboo basket. There were some packed shoe soles in the bamboo basket. She seemed to be going to the market to sell the soles to earn some living expenses. A good-looking old Taoist priest came up and asked a few words. He easily asked for information and walked back to Jin An with a heavy face.

"Little brother, I asked. The house that burned down is Tieshuan's. Tieshuan is thirty-one this year. He is a single man who lives alone and makes a living by killing pigs and selling pork."

"Well, he is also a miserable man. His parents died young. When he was a teenager, he died in a fire while cooking dinner on the stove. In the end, only he and a few pigs and poultry were left and were rescued by neighbors. And just before A few days later, there was another fire in his house. This time he was unable to escape. He, the daughter of a local wealthy businessman who was kidnapped for ransom, and his maid were burned to death in the house. The Chengnan Yamen has already decided the case, and this pig butcher I have been single for a long time. Because I was greedy for the beauty of the daughter of the Song family, I planned to kidnap and defile her. Later, because I was drunk, I accidentally knocked over a lamp and lit a fire and burned three people to death. There were three deaths in one case, and the evidence is conclusive."

"Because it involves a local wealthy businessman, this case has a great impact in the south of the city. There have been a lot of rumors in the city recently. People say that this iron bolt is a lone star of evil. It killed my parents when I was a child. Fortunately, I was not burned to death by the fire. He escaped the disaster, and now he deserves to be taken away by the Lord of Hell. Many people say that he deserves it. He has done so many bad things that even the Lord of Hell can't stand it anymore. He also innocently implicated Miss Song and that maid... "

The old Taoist priest glanced at Jin An, who was frowning, and said in a serious tone: "But according to the neighbor's aunt, although Tieshuan is usually silent and doesn't like to talk, he has always taken care of his neighbors and never bullied them. He is definitely not The kind of ruthless murderer who can kidnap and kill people."