the last priest

Since a long time ago, the Chinese believed that people have souls.

For the first birth of a person, seven days are considered wax, one wax and one soul is formed, so the life is 49 days and the seven souls are complete; death is taboo for seven days, one taboo and one soul is scattered, so the person dies 49 days and the seven souls are scattered The meaning of seven is to sacrifice to the dead.In addition, as the sky uses the two qi of yin and yang and the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth to create all things, they are called "seven states". Also only seven.

There is basically a tradition of "making seven" everywhere, but it is different in different places. In Northwest Zhejiang, the first seven, three seven, five seven and last seven are more important.Among them, the first seven and the last seven are the most important, and the first seven and the last seven are also called "big seven". The rich people attach great importance to these two days.The first seven is usually done by daughters, and those who have no daughters are replaced by nieces or nieces; and the last last seven is presided over by sons. In addition to the priests, the "King Kong" who is in charge of carrying the coffin on the day of the funeral needs to be entertained during the seven. For the guests on the table, those who are more generous will also give money and things to show their gratitude.

The daughter of Lao Yu's family has already done the first seven, and the last seven is mainly done by these sons.

During the day, Zha Wenbin was led by one of his sons, and went to the cemetery first. There were sparsely destroyed wreaths and paper money floating on the simple and newly piled grave, not even a tombstone.He believes that within three years, this place will become an abandoned grave covered with weeds.There was no particular emphasis on the site selection. It was originally Lao Yu's own contract mountain, that is to say, he was buried in a random place, and not far away was his wife's grave.Zha Wenbin did the math, this year Lao Yu will not be able to move his grave, he plans to find a good day to bury Lao Yu and his wife together in three years.

That night was the highlight of the event. Most of the things left in front of Lao Yu were burned on the day of the funeral. The only thing that remained in the hands of the second son was the bamboo knife. He took it back and said he would use it for chopping firewood.

If it were someone else's house, no one would come to join in the fun. This kind of thing is generally regarded as unlucky, because Cha Wenbin is here, and he hasn't shown up for a while, so there are many people who come to watch the fun .

The newly built bamboo and wood processing factory is a collective industry in the village. When Cha Wenbin said he wanted to use this factory, the half-built factory stopped immediately.Three tables of Eight Immortals were put together, and the tributes placed on them were almost piled up into a hill, with vegetables, melons, fruits, chickens, ducks and fishes all available.

People who die with regret either have unfulfilled wishes, or are resentful to the gods. Those who die with resentment will develop hostility, and the hostility of old people has already begun to cause trouble.No matter how good a person was in life, he may become a ghost after death. People have good and evil, and those who suppress the evil are good people; but after death, without subjective consciousness, resentment will be infinitely magnified. No matter how honest a person is, no matter how honest they are, they will turn into ghosts. Therefore, no matter how you behave or do things, you must not use your power to bully others.

The Yu family's old house was originally relatively remote. After a high-wattage incandescent lamp used for construction on the construction site was extinguished, only paper money was left for burning in the brazier in front of the table.The three brothers of the Yu family spent a lot of money today, and the paper money they bought was picked up with poles, piled up on one side like a hill.Right in front of the table is the portrait of the deceased. Lao Yu's eyeballs are indeed a bit big, and they look a little bit piercing at night.

And what about Cha Wenbin?Get a small stool to sit on the side, and he has a strip knife in his hand, which is exactly the one that Lao Yu had before his death.There was a small broken bamboo on his leg, and he was cutting bamboo strips at the moment, a job he learned from Lao Yu.The cut bamboo strips were divided into small strips by him, interspersed with each other and folded a few times to form the skeleton of the lantern. After finishing, stick it on the outside with white paper and stick it on a small bamboo pole, and put a candle inside. , the lantern is ready.

There are big characters written on each lantern, with the word "Yu" on one side and the word "Dian" on the other side.

The three sons and their daughter-in-law knelt on the ground and kowtowed to burn paper all the time, their legs were already numb, if it wasn't for the vicious masters standing behind them, they would have wanted to take a walk a long time ago.At the third watch, Cha Wenbin got up slowly this time and said, "Women can stand up now."

After kneeling for a long time, I really couldn't stand up all of a sudden. The three daughters-in-law groaned and rubbed their knees. Cha Wenbin handed them a lantern and said, "You three can go home separately first. Everyone starts by hanging the lantern at the gate first, and the other two are waiting at the gate. After you enter the house, call out: Dad, come in and have a cup of tea. Then, light this stick of incense and put it on the On the shrine in the main room, the lights are not allowed to be turned on, and the incense is extinguished before being sent out, and then the daughter-in-law of the second family continues to take the lantern to her own house, following the practice of the eldest daughter-in-law, and finally the third family."

The second daughter-in-law belongs to the type with a big mouth, she held the lantern and said in a low voice: "Master Zha, don't make such a scary move, okay, dad will really go?"

"Whether you want to go or not, wake up tomorrow morning and see for yourself. The men in your family will not go back tonight. They have to stay here. After they are sent out, the women can go back to their rooms to rest. Don't come out no matter what movement you hear outside. .” He glanced at the indifferent eldest daughter-in-law and said, “In order not to encounter any dirty things!”

After all, this woman is still timid. After being choked up by him, the faces of the three daughters-in-law turned pale.The one from the third family immediately started to work, lifted up the collar of her husband who was kneeling on the ground, and shouted: "Kneeling here and burning paper for him all night is already giving him face. Who are you to scare with such big eyes when you die! You and Won't you come with me? If you really dare to squat here all night, don't come back to me tomorrow morning, and wait to go back to collect the corpse!"

Lao Yu's youngest son had studied a little before, and even taught in the village primary school. Since he married this woman, he has been instigated day and night to fight with his two brothers for the family property.Before his death, Lao Yu loved this youngest son the most. I don't know if he still has a little conscience at this time, or he couldn't lose face when he was scolded by his wife when he was surrounded by people. He stood up and rushed to Cha Wenbin without warning. He picked up the bamboo knife and threw it on his mother-in-law's neck, cursing fiercely: "If you dare to speak back again, I will let you lie dead now!"

His daughter-in-law was dumbfounded at the time. Since getting married, this man has been obedient to her, and usually dare not even fart, why is he suddenly so cruel.Fortunately, Chao Zi and Zhuo Xiong took the knife, and the frightened third daughter-in-law was rushed away by the two sisters-in-law. In the chaos, the woman's cries of "I'm dead, I'm rebelling" gradually faded away. , I must have followed what Cha Wenbin said.

The people who watched the excitement were always busy, some urged the third child to go back to clean up his wife, some said he was a man, and some said he would be punished to kneel when he returned tomorrow.Only Zha Wenbin, he saw that although what the third child said just now was very fierce, but his eyes were slack and without light. The moment he knelt down to burn the paper again, Zha Wenbin saw a figure flashing by the brazier But passed by, and followed the women carrying lanterns.

Each of the three families prepared a separate table of food and wine in advance, with seven dishes, two bowls of down-to-earth rice, and three glasses of wine, with a raw egg on top of the rice.This table meal has its own way, it is called "sangeng meal", also known as "huimen meal".

Erqi is usually the night of returning to the soul, and it is said that the ghost who died on this day will be escorted home by the ghost, mainly to bring him back to see if there are any unfulfilled wishes.But on the last day of the seventh day, it is said that if the children are filial enough, they can call the ghost back again.At the third watch of the day, the children opened the gate and shouted three times to the west: "Come back so-and-so!" Then they cried bitterly to the spirit, and at the same time served the prepared wine and vegetables, and set up libations and sacrifices. Three night dinner".

After the elders arrived, the eldest daughter-in-law put a lantern on her gate and walked into the house. She thought to herself: When I was alive, the old man saw me just like a mouse saw a cat. Even if I opened the door today, you still don’t care. Dare to come to my house to eat and drink.

After walking to the door of the inner room, the woman turned her fat buttocks and yelled westward with her horn-like voice, "Father! Come back!" Her voice was loud enough , even the people in the dojo listened to the truth, she did this on purpose, the purpose was to let people know that she did it, in order to gag other people's mouths.

The daughter-in-law of the second family poked the daughter-in-law of the third family who was still sobbing and said, "Sister-in-law, I saw that lantern flicker just now."

The woman immediately stopped crying, looked around and said: "Don't scare me!"

Indeed, the light from the lantern in their hands was yellow, while the light from the lantern hanging at the door of the old man's house was green, and the flame was much smaller and very dim.

At this moment, the wife of the old family was trying to light the stick of incense with a match. She didn't know whether the match was damp or she was nervous. After rubbing three or four sticks, she didn't light it. She muttered: "Damn it..." Soon, her words were reported by the world...