the last priest

In the blink of an eye, it was already three years later, and Hetu had started to run around. Everyone who had seen him said that the child was very handsome, but there was one thing, he was three years old, and he hadn't opened his mouth to speak yet.When he was happy, the child would grin, but when he was unhappy, he would just hang his head and never cry.

The family also took the child to visit many places, and the doctors said that the child is fine and there is nothing wrong with it.In those years, Khun Bu had begun to pay attention to reducing what people saw, and he believed that all these were punishments given to him by God.

When Hetu was four years old, Kun Bu's only son got leukemia, which at that time almost meant death.After struggling with the illness for a year, his son also passed away, leaving the grandfather and grandson to depend on each other.

These events over the years have caused the family, which has been unfortunate for many years, to be heavily in debt. As a last resort, they sold the house and the field, but all the valuable things in the house were sold.

One night before moving away from the big tile-roofed house that had just been built a few years ago, Tong Kunbu broke the mahogany sword in front of the portrait of Patriarch Ye. It was the next day that Hetu spoke for the first time and called him A crisp "grandpa".The immature voice caused Kun Bu to hold his grandson in pain, and after taking him to burn incense for the deceased relatives, the grandpa and grandson moved to the current place.That is to say, from that time on, Tong Kunbu began to suffer from illnesses. He was always a frail old man who could no longer bear the successive blows.

In the past few years, Lord Dog took time to give him some food. The two of them were childhood playmates and hard-working people, and Lord Dog always felt that he owed Kun Bu a favor.

After listening to Master Dog's story, Cha Wenbin couldn't help thinking of himself. It seemed that the two had the same fate. Could this be the fate of a Taoist priest who asked the heavens?

If there is a secret, someone will crack it.Some people use the cracked secrets to make money, while others use them to save lives.If everyone has their own well-arranged numerology, which is doomed from birth, wouldn't everyone become God's doll?

Cha Wenbin firmly believes that Taoist priests will not simply face the scriptures all day long and become enlightened through self-awareness.If the Tao is used to save oneself, not to save the world, then he would rather not be a Taoist priest himself.

Cha Wenbin silently prepared some things for the evening. He is no stranger to these procedures and is very familiar with them.Seeing this, Lord Dog also took some paper and put it on his lap to fold up the ingots, Cha Wenbin saw that his old eyes were full of tears, and asked, "This stack of ingots was also taught by Uncle Kunbu, right? "

Lord Dog didn't answer, but said with tears in his eyes: "I was the one who pissed off my parents to death. I always wanted to give them something good, and now I want to give him something good too."

This New Year's Eve dinner was tasteless.

Lord Dog originally meant to go there after eating, but Cha Wenbin suggested to leave after the o’clock. When a person is dying, there are too many things to think about, and people will be disturbed if they go. Let him go quietly.

At five minutes to twelve, Cha Wenbin and Lord Dog had already guarded the yard of the small shabby house. Not far away, the fireworks in the village began to shoot into the sky brilliantly against the wind and snow, instantly setting this quiet village on fire. To pull into the thick festival.

Hetu's cry was very small, so small that it was completely covered by the sound of firecrackers and fireworks. Cha Wenbin pushed the door open, and the white-haired old man on the bedside had closed his eyes, quiet and kind. Perhaps at this moment, this The Taoist priest really let go of the knot in his heart.

An old Taoist priest who has been liberated all his life will be liberated by a younger generation today. Taoism has been passed down from generation to generation, but the incense seems to be burning weaker and weaker. There are too few people who are willing to act with conscience like this.

In the past, according to the rules, people who passed away on New Year's Eve had to keep it secret and covered them with a quilt until the third day of the first lunar month before the white mourning began.This is because the Spring Festival is a festive festival, and no one would want to go to a funeral on the first day of the new year, which would be too unlucky.

But the Tong family is a forgotten corner in this village. It seems that his death is dispensable news to everyone. Since he fell ill, except for the old bachelor who will come, Cha Wenbin is the first guest of this family in five years.

Three signaling firecrackers were launched into the sky one by one, and the poor sound was drowned in the fireworks flying all over the sky in an instant. No one would notice that the old man of the Tong family who had helped them tell their fortunes and read Fengshui had passed away on this cold night. .

Mr. Gou helped Cha Wenbin remove the crumbling door panel. He wanted to find two benches to build a platform, but found that the house really had nothing.

In order to let him go decently, the two of them removed the only furniture in the house: the bed, in order to get some shelves.Before entering the coffin, it is usually placed on the door panel, and when the coffin arrives, it has to be parked for two days.This is because before entering the coffin, the feeling given to relatives is that he just fell asleep. Generally, people think that only those who enter the coffin can be regarded as the real death.

On New Year's Eve, everyone rested, and they even went to the coffin shop, which was closed.The carpenter in the village said that even if there is wood, no matter how much money is paid today, he will not accept the job, which is bad luck.

There is still a coffin in the dog's house. He has no old and no young, and he has to prepare it for himself when he dies.So when I was young, with some spare money in my pocket, I got myself a coffin, which I had already transported to Tong's house with Cha Wenbin on a two-wheeled cart.

Hetu just cried, holding his grandfather's cold body and crying, crying until even Cha Wenbin's heart was broken.Looking at this old man, he wondered if he would be in the same situation decades later.

Picking up the child, Cha Wenbin coaxed him that grandpa just fell asleep, and grandpa would wake up when the heavy snow melted outside and the flowers on the field ridges bloomed.

Lord Dog said that he was going to inform the people in the village, but Cha Wenbin stopped him. It's New Year's Eve, let others have a happy New Year. If you go, others will have to scold you behind your back. Sincerely, as soon as the obituary is released tomorrow, what should come will still come.

White is the main color of this season. It is said that the auspicious snow brings a good harvest, but in Cha Wenbin's view, the overflowing snowflakes are more like strings of paper copper coins falling from the sky.In the yard, Zha Wenbin stretched out his hand to catch a big snowflake, and it didn't take long for it to melt in his palm.

This is the ultimate destination of a Taoist priest, with his family destitute and a widow alone.Zha Wenbin took out a handful of white paper money and threw it in the air, and shouted with tears in his eyes: "Senior Kun Bu, go all the way!" The falling paper money and snowflakes fell together and flew to every corner of the yard.Zha Wenbin is used to such scenes of dead people. The reason why he cried was because the old man was a Taoist priest like him.

A pair of black and white couplets written by Zha Wenbin himself at the door have been pasted up. The first couplet: Peach wood envelops the sword qi that ruled the world in those days;

There was no suona, gongs and drums to be played and sung, there was no wailing brigade to shake the sky, and there was no continuous line of wreaths. When Tong Kunbu died, the family didn't even have a shroud.Zha Wenbin didn't want this senior to go too shabby, so he searched every corner of the house, and the patch-on-patch jacket that was worn on him, with the cotton already empty, was already quite decent.

For a really capable Taoist priest, it is actually easier than anything else if he wants to make money.

In the end, Cha Wenbin found out the Taoist robe he brought out from home, which was also the one his master wore in front of him, and asked Lord Dog to change it for his brother.

Lord Dog cried so much, he said that when he wiped Kun Bu's body, he found that there was only a handful of bones left in his thin body, he was hungry.

Using white cloth to make a filial piety for Xiaohetu, this child is sensible and insists on kowtowing to Cha Wenbin and Lord Dog. Even Cha Wenbin, who has seen through life and death, cannot bear to continue this kind of scene.

Master Dog was crying with the child in his arms, while Cha Wenbin stood at the door and looked at the sky and cried. He couldn't help shouting: Who did we offend as Taoist priests?

When he was sad, Xiao Hetu cried and ran over and pulled Cha Wenbin's trousers. Cha Wenbin looked down and saw that the child stretched out a pair of dirty hands. His lucky money.

He Tu choked up and said in a childish voice: "Uncle, I have money here, can you help grandpa buy a pair of shoes."

Cha Wenbin turned his head and saw that the feet of the corpse on the board were still bare. Because of the cold, the soles of the feet were almost cracked.

Slowly squatting down, Cha Wenbin hugged the child's head and put it gently in his arms and said, "From now on, uncle will take you to buy new shoes for grandpa every year."