White Bone Monkey King

Xicai Village is not big, with dozens of houses scattered at the foot of the mountain.

On the dirt road into the village, the donkey cart pulling the coffin slowly drove into Xicai Village. The donkey cart hurriedly and slowly arrived at Xicai Village before the sun was about to set.

Jin An and the old Taoist priest looked at the paddy fields on both sides of the road. Due to the continuous high temperature and drought, the paddy fields had dried up and the rice was withered and not growing well.

"It looks like this year's crop harvest will be greatly reduced."

The old Taoist priest expressed his worries: "Whenever there is a severe drought or flood, the coming year will be a disaster year and there will be a famine."

Jin An looked solemn.

The worries of the old Taoist priest are not unreasonable. The production level in this era is low and the storage conditions are limited. Therefore, when encountering such severe droughts and floods that affect a wide range, the country's harvest will not be good, and there will almost be a famine in the coming year.

The flood in Wuzhou Prefecture last year was different from the situation this year. The flood in Wuzhou Prefecture was only limited to a part of Wuzhou Prefecture. Unlike this year's abnormal weather, which almost affected the southern granary of Kangding State.

"Fortunately, the weather started to become abnormal in June, which has no impact on the early rice harvest. The biggest impact is on the late rice. When this kind of thing happens, it is beyond human intervention. Next, it depends on the court's arrangements for the major granary states. Jin An said with a frown.

As soon as the donkey cart entered the village, they saw several half-grown children running around naked in the village. Even though it was almost nightfall, these children were still too hot to wear clothes.

The villagers of Xicai Village seemed to be familiar with coffins. Except for a few children who followed them curiously, the adults watched calmly as the donkey cart pulling the coffin turned into a path and drove towards a few isolated houses in a corner. .

"Old man, this donkey seems to be very familiar with the road. It can turn corners and change directions on its own without being driven by the old man." The old Taoist priest said in surprise.

When he mentioned the donkey he raised, the old driver said proudly: "This beast has been with me for a long time and has a spirit."

The old Taoist priest gave a thumbs up and praised: "I can see it."

It was rare to meet someone who spoke to my liking. The old driver started to talk more and kept praising the donkey he raised for being so smart, diligent and sensible.

Jin An smiled and listened, without interrupting.

After a while, the donkey cart stopped in front of a large courtyard with a green brick wall. It is very rare in the countryside to be able to afford green bricks to build walls, because green bricks are a luxury item in the countryside and are not used by the rich. Sorry.

This must be the home of Cai Xu, the corpse stitcher.

Sure enough, the old man got off the donkey cart at this time and said that they had arrived at Master Cai's house.

Jin An and the old Taoist priest also got off the cart. They first looked at the corpse stitcher's house, and then turned to look at the mud-tile house opposite the corpse stitcher's door.

The mud and tile house looked like it had not been inhabited for a long time. A section of the fence and courtyard wall had collapsed and no one had repaired it. The mud and tile house also looked rickety.

In terms of Feng Shui, people generally pay attention to the fact that their homes are square and square, and their fortunes are also square and good. If they can hide the Feng Shui, they can stay away from disasters even if they are not blessed. But this family is lucky. The house is rickety and unrepaired. The house is tilted and has bad luck. It can easily attract snakes, insects, rats, ants, and unclean things to live in. People living in such a precarious house not only cannot hide Feng Shui, but also have bad luck. There is always a risk of collapse.

Feng shui may seem a bit mysterious, involving many theories about strange powers, ghosts and gods, but if you think about it carefully, you can also associate it with a lot of knowledge related to daily life. For example, if a house is rickety, it must be because termites have built hollow beams, or rats or poisonous snakes that like to dig holes have damaged the foundation, making the house unstable. If a person lives in such a dangerous house, even if he does not bump into dirty things, he will be buried alive sooner or later. .

Any house that is popular and occupied will pay special attention to preventing termites from building nests and rats and snakes from digging holes. They will not leave it alone like the house in front of them.

"Little brother, this house is tilted here and there and overgrown with weeds. It looks like it hasn't been lived in for a long time. It must be the home with the scarred eyes." The old Taoist priest whispered.

"Yeah." Jin An nodded thoughtfully, thinking about other things.

At this time, the old man had already knocked on the high-walled courtyard door of the corpse stitcher's house. Soon, a young child's figure came from behind the courtyard wall, saying that he was coming. A child of about ten years old opened the courtyard door and saw at a glance When they arrived at the coffin on the donkey cart, they said to me, "Uncle Wang, are you helping people lead the way to sew my grandfather's body again?"

Then he made way for a few people to carry the coffin through the door.

Speaking of this, we need to raise the threshold for corpse stitchers. People in mountain villages have the custom of deliberately raising the threshold, and the threshold for corpse stitchers is particularly high, almost reaching the level of a child's knees.

Jin An and the old Taoist priest took the initiative to help carry the coffin. Uncle Wang and Wang Dagang thanked him repeatedly. Wang Dagang was the biological father of the child who drowned in the coffin. The relationship between Uncle Wang and Wang Dagang was that of uncle and nephew.

The corpse stitcher's grandson was not overly curious about Jin'an and the old Taoist priest's status as Taoists. In the past, many family members of the deceased would accompany them with Taoist priests and monks, performing rituals and salvation for the deceased along the way.

The Corpse Sewer in Xicai Village was quite lively today. A few people had just sat down and drank the herbal tea brought by the Corpse Sewer’s grandson to cool down when there was another knock on the door.

The corpse stitcher's grandson opened the door, and another business came to the door. This time the people who came were a bit more powerful, with several carriages alone.

The corpse stitcher's grandson said: "My grandfather has gone into the mountains to collect herbs. Whether your coffins can come in and whether my grandfather is willing to take over the business will have to be decided by my grandfather after he comes back to see it in person. I will do it." Can’t reach the Lord.”

The leading guard was unconvinced. He pointed at the coffin and a few others sitting in the lobby and said, "Little brat, don't lie to us. Why can they get in? My husband heard that the corpse stitchers in Xicai Village are famous. That's why you took the trouble to come to Xicai Village. If you have business coming to your door, you won't let my master come in to sit down and have a sip of tea. Why should even the dead be blocked from the door? What's wrong with the corpse stitcher? Don’t you know what it means to be the dead?"

The grandson of the corpse stitcher seemed to be familiar with the scene in front of him. He said calmly: "Uncle Wang lives in a nearby village. He has helped people on the road several times and knows the basics, so you don't have to wait for my grandpa to come back. But we are out of town." Human, so it doesn’t work.”

The guard yelled: "Why can't I, a foreigner, do it? These days, even corpse stitchers discriminate against locals and foreigners!"

The grandson of the corpse stitcher replied numbly as if he had repeated it many times: "My grandfather has a few rules before sewing corpses. One is not to sew a corpse with two lives, the other is not to sew two people together, and the third is not to help each other. You are an evil person... I just can’t come in until I understand you and your feet. I can only decide whether to take your business or not until my grandfather comes."

Listening to the corpse stitcher's grandson's words, Uncle Wang, who was sitting in the lobby at the end of the house, muttered softly: "It seems that Master Cai has become a lot more cautious since he was tricked half a year ago."

Being blocked from the door, he was still making noise outdoors, but was stopped by a middle-aged voice in the carriage: "Guard Zhao, today we need to ask for help from the corpse stitcher. Let's follow the corpse stitcher's rules. It doesn't hurt to wait a little longer. ."

"I would also like to ask Guard Zhao to help me see if the young master is okay."

The guard surnamed Zhao glared at the corpse stitcher's grandson, walked outside the carriage and cupped his hands and said, "Yes, sir."

Then Guard Zhao walked to the back of the convoy to a carriage covered with bamboo poles and a tarpaulin, pulling a black wooden coffin, and inspected it carefully.

It was almost dark outside, so the time to wait for Cai Xu, the corpse stitcher, was not long. He was an old man in his seventies, and he was followed by several big dogs to protect him when he went into the mountains to collect medicine.

The corpse stitcher inquired about the situation, and then asked the other party to open the coffin and examine the body. After inspecting the body, he nodded, agreed to take the business, and asked the servants to carry the coffin in.

"Why is it drowning again? Three of them are already connected..." the old Taoist priest whispered to Jin An.

Just now, when Zhao Weiwei introduced the situation of the deceased to the corpse maker, several people sitting in the room also heard it. The deceased in the coffin was the son of the gentleman in the carriage. Last year, when he and the brothel girl were taking a boat trip on the river, a sudden gust of wind blew on the river. Strong winds overturned the boat and several people fell into the river and drowned. Their bodies were never found.

Due to abnormal weather this summer, the river dried up and the river bed was exposed. The sunken ship of that year was found, as well as several bones that sank with the sunken ship in the river. Their identities were finally confirmed through their belongings.

Because after a year of river erosion, the bones were incomplete, so Mr. Xu in the carriage took his son's bones to the corpse stitcher to ask for the bones to be reattached.

Just as the servants were carrying the coffin into the house, Mr. Xu, who was sitting in the carriage, also got out of the carriage. He was a squire with a thick waist, round shoulders, a big belly, and his neck could hardly be seen. He was dressed in jewels, which perfectly explained what he meant. A nouveau riche temperament called a country squire.

"Master Cai, I have long heard that you are highly skilled in craftsmanship, so I came here specially to hear the news. I have another unkind request today. I hope that Master Cai can understand every father's love for his son. Today I would like to ask Master Cai to take over the job for you." Is it okay to add a skin after my son's bones are regenerated? In terms of remuneration, Master Cai can rest assured that our Xu family will definitely not be short of money." Master Xu said while hiding from several big dogs around the corpse stitcher. It seemed that A little afraid of dogs.

The corpse maker stroked the big dogs he raised and said with a kind smile: "The skin bag thing is not difficult. I don't know if Mr. Xu wants to use fish skin, pig skin, cow skin, horse skin, donkey skin, or to use paper to stab people." Skin bag, linen skin bag, bamboo strip skin bag?”

Mr. Xu was surprised: "Ah? Are there so many ways to do it? My Xu family is not short of money, so we must use the most expensive and best."

The corpse stitcher smiled and nodded: "Then use cowhide. The cowhide is tough, unbreakable and complete without additional splicing and cutting. It can be as real as human skin. However, it will take some time to prepare the cowhide. Xicai Village is a small place and needs to be found. People go to the county town to find a butcher to buy it.”

Mr. Xu looked troubled.

The corpse stitcher looked at his words and asked what?

Mr. Xu: "I just happened to be worshiping my ancestors recently. I plan to move my son to the ancestral land on the day of the ancestor worship so that he can rest in peace as soon as possible. This is the last wish of us parents. I wonder if Master Cai can do it within ten days. Sewn up the body?"

This time, the corpse stitcher looked troubled: "I'm afraid this is a bit difficult. After buying the cowhide, I still have to trace the portrait of the young master. I'm afraid it won't be completed within ten days."

"In that case, let's use horsehide instead. There are ready-made horsehide in the village. And the meaning of horse is also very good. Horses are worth a lot of money. They are rare and rare. Life is precious."

Mr. Xu thought about it for a while and agreed to use horse skin instead of human skin.

At this time, Uncle Wang pulled Wang Dagang out and said: "Master Cai, Mr. Xu is in a hurry, and my Dagang is also in a hurry. We are here first. I also ask Master Cai to help my Dagang first."

Corpse stitcher: "Don't worry, Mr. Wang, there will be no delay on either side. I will sew up the corpse for you first."

After receiving the corpse stitcher's promise, Uncle Wang breathed a sigh of relief, and then took his nephew Wang Dagang and bent down to thank him.

The corpse maker did not bring the big dogs into the house, but dispersed them and let them go out to forage on their own.

Outsiders didn't pay much attention to these big dogs that were out looking for food. Only Jin An and the old Taoist priest took a few more glances, and the old Taoist priest winked at Jin An.

Jin An nodded for the unknown.

At this time, the corpse stitcher crossed the high threshold and led a few people into the lobby of the house. Perhaps even the corpse stitcher thought that Jin An and the old Taoist priests in Taoist robes were Taoist priests invited by Uncle Wang, and came up to simply beat them. After greeting each other, he did not ask about the details of the two people.

The corpse stitcher didn't ask, and the two of them didn't answer. Uncle Wang was preoccupied with stitching up his grandnephew's corpse, and he didn't take the initiative to explain that Jin An and the old Taoist priest were hitchhikers he picked up along the way.

At first, the corpse stitcher asked a few people to rest in a few rooms prepared for guests, and they did not need to stay up late to sew the corpse with him. However, they were not sleepy and insisted on staying with him to sew the corpse. The corpse stitcher did not persist in persuading him anymore and agreed. A few people stayed.

"If you can't bear the next scene, you can follow my grandson back to the wing to rest."

Even Mr. Xu and some of the guards who accompanied him were curious to stay and wanted to see how the corpse stitchers sewed up corpses.

In the summer, corpses decompose faster. As soon as the coffin is opened, the smell of corpse decay rushes out. Mr. Xu, including the accompanying servants and guards, can't help but cover their noses and run away to vomit. Only the corpse stitcher checks the corpse as if nothing is wrong.

The body decomposes quickly in this weather. Even if the coffin has been embalmed with lime powder, it is still difficult to prevent the body from decomposing quickly in the summer heat.

"It's not a big problem. I used dried straw and linen to patch the head. Mr. Wang has been here a few times, so he should already know the process. Is there any portrait of the child that he brought with him? I used it to trace the child's facial features." After the corpse stitcher finished, Uncle Wang kept saying yes, yes, and said it had been placed in the coffin.

This portrait was made by an artist after the child's death, based on his memory.

After looking at the portrait, the corpse stitcher nodded. Then he looked around, his eyes skipped over the servants and guards who were still vomiting, and fixed on Jin An and the old Taoist priest who looked as usual. He waved and said, "Taoist master, you don't mind helping me." , let’s help carry the deceased down, just carry him to the bamboo bed beside him.”

The corpse stitcher began to work. He moved out a bamboo bed, suspended it on a long bench, and sprinkled a circle of lime powder around it to prevent moisture and reptiles.

Jin An pressed the old Taoist priest's shoulder, and he stood up and walked to the coffin: "Okay, Taoist, you are weak, let me do it."