Folk customs begin with the entire funeral procession

Chapter 45 Yin Qi Concentration
Xie Songde forced a smile as he watched Chen Miao approach.

"Mr. Chen, this is my brother-in-law Leng Zhiyuan. Please make do with this room tonight, two people per room."

Chen Miao nodded to Leng Zhiyuan without asking about what had just happened.

Afterwards, Chen Miao carried the coffin into the room where the old man was.

Nearly forty hours had passed since his death. Even though the temperature in the mountains wasn't as high as outside, there was still a faint smell of cadaverine in the old man's body, which was a mixture of rotten eggs and fishy smell.

After discussing it with Xie Songde, Chen Miao went into the room and took off his outer clothes.

Then, wearing a mask and gloves, he took the alcohol and began to wipe the elderly man's body.

Come to think of it, Chen Miao had never done anything like this before.

In rural areas, when an elderly person is being buried, either family members are asked to clean the body, or other kind and willing people from the village are asked to do it.

After the ceremony, the host family will give the people who helped with some tokens of appreciation.

At funeral homes, this kind of work is usually done by the mortician (body embalmer). If the mortician is unwilling, the cold storage manager can do it and will also receive some 'gift' in return.

That condition was not available this time.

Since the host family paid such a high fee this time, Chen Miao wouldn't be careless about what needed to be done.

It took Chen Miao a full half hour and half a bottle of alcohol to completely wipe the old man's body clean.

After dressing the old man again, Chen Miao had the coffin brought in.

After opening the lid of the coffin, Chen Miao rearranged the scattered packets of medicinal herbs inside before lifting the old man into the coffin.

Not long after, the quilt that Xie Songde had bought arrived.

Cut the quilt in half with scissors and stuff the pieces around the old man's body to secure him in place.

After finishing, Chen Miao laid down another layer of medicine packets and a blanket.

In this way, once the lid is closed, the elderly person will not be disturbed by shaking.

By the time all this was done, it was completely dark.

After washing up, Chen Miao went with Xie Songde to another family's house for a meal.

At the dinner table, Xie Songde recounted what had just happened to Chen Miao and the others.

It turned out that the bald man was none other than one of the corpse carriers that Xie Songde had initially found in the village where he parked the car.

Later, Xie Songde left because the other party was too greedy.

They thought they would never have any further contact, but who knew that the other party was actually from Qingshi Village, and even more coincidentally, Xie Songde was staying at their house!
It's unclear how the other party found out about Xie Songde's situation, but they came directly to Qingshi Village and found Xie Songde's brother-in-law, Leng Zhiyuan.

Originally, the bald man still wanted to carry the body after he arrived, and said he would give it a discount, only 100,000.

But Xie Songde was already on his way back at that time, so Leng Zhiyuan naturally wouldn't agree.

After realizing he couldn't make money, Baldy turned his attention to other things, claiming that Old Master Xie's body had been kept at their house, bringing bad luck to their family.

But clearly, Xie Songde had already made an agreement with the woman's mother beforehand that she would give her two thousand yuan as a token of gratitude when she left.

This is utterly outrageous, but what can we do?
Then, this is what Chen Miao saw.

Upon hearing this, Jiao Zhiyong, the hearse driver, clicked his tongue in amazement, but said nothing.

Cao Jun simply frowned.

Kong Fang, on the other hand, got a bit angry and blurted out, "We shouldn't have given them the money! I don't believe they'll be so lawless! There are six of us and four of them, I don't believe we can't beat them!"

Upon hearing this, Leng Zhiyuan's gaze towards Kong Fang became much more amiable, and he agreed with Kong Fang's words.

"Yeah, what's there to be afraid of! Bro, let's just leave tomorrow!"

Upon hearing this, Xie Songde frowned: "What are you saying? They're all hooligans and thugs, and you are too?"

"Haven't you learned that saying? A wise man doesn't stand under a crumbling wall!"

"Even if we can beat them, do you think none of us will get hurt? In this remote mountain village, if we get injured and the treatment is delayed, do you want to be disabled or lose your life?"

"Just for 100,000 yuan?"

"Furthermore, Mr. Chen and his team came to help us take the old man home, not to fight with us!"

"Stop thinking about those things. If you really want to do something, you should do it after you've settled the old man's affairs."

Xie Songde's words silenced Leng Zhiyuan. Chen Miao, who was standing nearby, admired Xie Songde's attitude; if it were someone else, they might have already started a fight.

But judging from Xie Songde's words, is this a plan to settle scores later?
Judging from the fact that the other party could come up with 100,000 yuan to hire a funeral home to transport the body, they might actually be able to settle the matter.

It was already 9 p.m. when they finished their meal, and the group returned to their respective rooms.

Chen Miao and Kong Fang shared a room, just big enough for two people to sleep side by side.

Chen Miao didn't expect anything else from these conditions.

"Brother Sanshui, I'm going to sleep now. I'm tired after walking all day on mountain roads."

"Okay, then you can sleep inside. I'll be there later."

After Kong Fang finished talking to Chen Miao, he went to bed. Before closing his eyes, he saw Chen Miao take a book out of his bag.

Kong Fang marveled at Chen Miao's habits as he drifted off to sleep.

Chen Miao opened the book and felt much relieved to see that nothing had changed.

"In this way, after this trip, after deducting the hard work of the three people and Kong Fang's commission of 10,000, the funeral home will still have 60,000 left."

His uncle had told him before that when the accounts were settled at the end of this year, the money would be distributed according to the previous agreement.

But it's already July, which means Chen Miao only needs to work for half a year to earn a year's worth of money, so he's actually taking advantage of his uncle.

His uncle didn't care, but he couldn't feel at ease.

At this point, Chen Miao earned 60,000 yuan in one trip, which made him happy and relieved at the same time.

From this perspective, he should at least ensure that the funeral home's revenue is not lower than last year's by the end of the year, which can be considered as living up to his uncle's expectations.

Chen Miao put away the book and glanced at the time; it was only 9:30.

There were no materials here for him to practice drawing talismans or carving. After thinking for a moment, Chen Miao left the room, opened the door, and walked out.

The nights in the mountains are much quieter and cleaner than outside.

Without the light pollution caused by neon lights, and with a sky full of stars overhead, Chen Miao's mood calmed down without him even realizing it.

After walking about ten meters forward, Chen Miao sat down on a large rock.

Raise your right hand to activate the Yin energy gathering.

A chilling aura rapidly gathered in Chen Miao's hand. After sensing it for a moment, Chen Miao deliberately stopped the gathering of yin energy.

"The rate at which yin energy gathers is twice that inside a funeral home."

After nightfall, the temperature in the mountains dropped, and Chen Miao wondered if there was more yin energy in the mountains than outside.
It has now been directly confirmed.

With nothing else to do, Chen Miao, based on his experiences over the past period, classified the concentration of Yin energy into levels.

If the concentration of yin energy in a funeral home is set as Level 1, then the concentration of yin energy in the mountains is Level 2.

Although the Yin Gathering Talisman gathers a larger area than Chen Miao's Yin Gathering State, it cannot condense the Yin energy into a ball the size of a palm like the Yin Gathering State.

Generally speaking, the Yin energy gathered by the Yin-gathering talisman will eventually be contained within a radius of two to three meters.

Therefore, the concentration gathered by the Yin-gathering talisman is approximately level eight.

The concentration of the small ball of yin energy gathered in the hand during the yin-gathering state should be level ten!
Now, Chen Miao only needs to encounter a Yin place to know the level of his Yin gathering ability and whether it can compare to the concentration of Yin.

According to the "Zhong Family Corpse-Driving Secret Records", only when the Yin energy gathered by the Yin-Gathering Talisman takes effect can ghosts be born. In other words, ghosts can only be born when the concentration of Yin energy is at level eight.

"So, under normal circumstances, it's quite difficult for a ghost to appear."

"At least, the chances of something like the old corpse in the mountain village happening are slim."

Chen Miao sighed.

If it weren't for Zhong Fa, he probably would never have encountered a ghost in his entire life.

Shaking his head, Chen Miao went back to his room to rest.

Meanwhile, in another house in Qingshi Village, Xie Yong, the bald man, was discussing the next day's actions with three other people.

……

(End of this chapter)