the last priest

"Xiao Yi, what are you doing here!" The roar was like thunder, and I, who was eating candy in my dream, jumped up all of a sudden, and then my forehead hurt, and my head hit the small pavilion on top of it.

I rubbed my scalp, and suddenly a big lump swelled up. With a blushing face, I pointed at the brass bell hesitantly and said, "Look at this, will it ring..." After that, I still thought I was smart. He added: "Uncle Zha, Hetu didn't tell me, so don't blame him."

Zha Wenbin didn't say much, he just rubbed the big bump on top of my head for me. After pressing it for a long time, he put me aside and sighed: "It would be great if he had your talent."

He took out the wine and meat, lit incense candles, and two sets of bowls and chopsticks. Cha Wenbin sat under the small pavilion and drank with the copper bell.Now I noticed that the copper bell didn't ring, it just hung there quietly.

It was getting dark, and Cha Wenbin put away the bowls and chopsticks and carried me down the mountain. When I reached the chestnut forest, the copper bell behind me made a clear and sweet tinkling sound again. This time I looked up at the branches above my head, and even The leaves are not moving, and there is no wind now. . . . . .

I don't know if Hetu was beaten after I went back, at least I was beaten.After looking for my grandma's family who couldn't find me for a day, I went around in a hurry. When Zha Wenbin sent me back, I knew I was going to die today.

Sleeping on the cool bed in a daze the next morning, I heard three firecrackers sounding. The biggest problem with this kind of bed made of bamboo is that it is easy to get meat, but it is very cool to sleep in summer. , Also called a cool bed.

Being so surprised, I turned over and felt severe pain in my buttocks. I knew I was trapped again. When I was about to pretend to be pitiful and call for help, my grandma rushed in and shouted: "Get up quickly, the cousin and grandpa on the opposite side After passing away, your father and mother will also come later."

I don't know what cousins ​​and grandparents are. I know a lot of relatives on my grandmother's side, but I don't know many.Anyway, this kind of thing is for children to watch the fun, and I am no exception. Those who screamed followed the big guys to watch the fun. When I arrived, the body of the uncle and grandpa was still lying on the wooden board, covered in blood. Soggy.

This uncle and grandpa was an alcoholic and addicted to alcohol. When he was young, he had conflicts with others because of drinking, and was stabbed blind in one eye with a stick. Later, he married a mute wife.I gave birth to a pair of children, because the adults in the family are in this condition, so the children did not study, and they dropped out of school early to help the family work.

This uncle and grandpa are grandma's cousins, because the family members are crooked, so the funeral mainly depends on grandma's help.

The course of the matter is a little strange, but also a little comedy.This is because my cousin and grandpa became addicted to alcohol during dinner, so he sent his youngest son to the store to buy some liquor and returned, and gave the youngest son two yuan.The place where the wine is bought is my uncle’s house. At that time, the uncle’s house opened a canteen. There was a kind of cheapest wine in the store called "Zaoxiang". It costs [-] yuan a catty, and the taste is not very good, but it tastes spicy and enjoyable.

His youngest son was greedy when he arrived at the commissary, so he bought a popsicle for [-] cents, and hid the [-] cents for another day, so he only bought half a catty of wine.

This half catty of wine can't be used for business, but this kid is smart, he ran to the river and poured another half bottle of water, which became a full catty of wine.

Although his alcoholic father has bad eyesight, he is a first-class expert in wine tasting. After taking a sip, he felt that there was something wrong with the wine. Find trouble with my uncle's canteen.

Pitiful for his dumb wife who was following behind and gesturing desperately to tell his husband that she saw moss in the wine, but the owner really had bad eyesight and couldn't understand the dumb wife's intentions, so he rushed to the shop angrily to ask for a drink. statement.

Because there were other people in the canteen enjoying the cool air at that time, a few people confronted each other, and the matter soon came to light. The uncle and grandpa were so angry that they had to go home to clean up their son. Wine, the money for this wine is still on credit.

When walking back, the master was very angry. He happened to meet a bachelor in the village who was also going to get a drink, and the two greeted each other after seeing each other.

"Second Master Hai, where are you drinking?" My cousin's name was Second Master Hai.

"Ok!"

The bachelor was also a poor man with no money in his pocket, and was thinking about going to the canteen to buy wine on credit. When he saw this bottle of wine, he rolled his eyes and said, "The pig I raised died of illness this afternoon. I found a few people to clean it up, and got seventy to eighty catties of meat, if Second Master Hai didn’t eat, would he go with him?”

This second master is very good, when he heard that there is meat, it doesn't matter if it is sick or slaughtered, he immediately smiled and put the matter of cleaning up his son behind him, and the two went to the bachelor's house with each other's shoulders on their shoulders.

There were a total of four people sitting in the room, Erye Lianhai, all of whom were poor and settled households in the village.The four of these brothers drank heavily, ate large chunks of meat, bragged about bullshit, and sang songs. A catty of baijiu was not satisfying.Hai Erye wanted to save face, so he ate other people's meat and pretended to be a hero, and went to buy another four catties on credit. In the middle of the night, everyone was staggering, and he was ready to go home with the remaining half bottle of wine.

At that time, rice was popular in the countryside. In the mountainous areas of Northwest China, the rice fields were scattered here and there.In order to have a good harvest of rice, ditches are dug along both sides of the road. These ditches are not deep. I often touch some loaches and small fish in them.

That night, the sluice above was closed, and the water in the canal only reached the ankles.

The second master Hai held a piece of pork head in one hand and a wine bottle in the other, took a sip of wine, gnawed a mouthful of meat, and staggered back.He had poor eyesight, only one eye left, and he couldn't see the road under his feet even more after drinking too much wine in the middle of the night.After his staggered body fell into the air, Erye Hai fell into the ditch and did not move. Maybe he drank too much and used the somewhat cold ditch as a cool bed. In short, he never Woke up.

It was not until the next morning that the people who went to drain the water in the fields saw it. When they pulled it up, their noses and mouths were covered with mud, and there were still many leeches crawling in their ears. They had already begun to harden.When the corpse was carried home, the second master Hai was still holding the pig's head and the wine bottle. He really thought he would rather be a dead man than a starving ghost.

Hai Erye is the perfect representative of the proletariat. Apart from a dark stove and two broken beds, the only thing worth anything in the house is less than ten catties of rice in the jar.His family, let alone a white funeral, even if they invited someone to a meal, there was no table to put dishes on.

The mute wife and her two children cried into a ball. It was useless for anyone to go, and she couldn't communicate with others at all.Later, several relatives discussed together and discussed with everyone to pool some money for the funeral. The funeral money was put forward by several people first, and when the show was over, they would get the share money first, and the insufficient part would be considered as a contribution.

Everyone in the village also knows the situation of his family. The two disabled people are also well-known five-guarantee households in the town.So the east family took a table, and the west family borrowed some bowls and chopsticks. After a busy morning, the scene was really set up.

At that time, a few people in charge had a small dispute. If the second master Hai died in the first half of the night, then today would be considered the next day, and he could be taken to burial tomorrow, so that the corpse would stay at home for one less day. Those who help will save one day, and the expenses will naturally be saved a lot.If it died in the middle of the night, then the corpse would have to stay at home for three full days. According to the custom, most people in the village would have to eat and drink at this house for three full days, which would cost a lot of money.

According to the old bachelor, they were all drunk at the time, and no one knew when Second Master Hai left, maybe it was the first half of the night, or maybe it was the second half of the night.

Although Hai Erye has no status in the village, everything should be kept simple in this white funeral, but according to the custom, anyone who dies has to wait for three days. If it is brought forward or delayed, it is disrespectful to the dead. It's going to break the rules.

When the dispute was over, someone thought of whether to find someone to settle the matter, who to turn to?Of course it was Cha Wenbin.

At that time, Zha Wenbin seldom went out. Later, his grandfather made a trip in person, so Zha Wenbin came here with a set of things.Zha Wenbin also knew that this family was in difficulty, so he prepared all those joss sticks and paper money by himself, and the only request he made was to take a bowl of rice from Hai Erye's family.

Then he set up a simple desk in the house, set up joss sticks, placed offerings, and then took out twelve copper coins to form a circle on the ground in front of the coffin. . . . . .