Pick up my sick tablemate

When the hour hand pointed to one, Luan Cheng looked at the things on the table and yawned for the eighth time.

He was really sleepy, and he couldn't laugh or cry.

"Mom, do you think this will work?"

"Why not?" Zhao Yufen pushed dozens of gold ingot papers in front of her son, "I tell you, you have to fold at least a hundred gold ingots for me today, and don't even think about who it is for, Mom?"

"Yes yes yes, it's all for me, I fold it, can I fold it?" Luan Cheng reluctantly picked up a piece of gold ingot paper, and folded the gold ingot according to the folding method found on Baidu.

It stands to reason that he is already in the second year of high school, and he is busy with schoolwork, so it is impossible for him to fold such things, but the trouble is that he has been having some strange dreams recently.He dreamed that his grandfather, who had passed away for a full ten years, always cried poorly to him in his dream, and asked him for some gold and jade bowls.Where did he get the gold and jade bowl?At the beginning, I didn't pay much attention to it, thinking that this kind of dream would pass once.I never thought that he would dream of his grandfather every day for a whole week, and he would not let him go all night, which caused him to sleep badly, and his energy was also poor. The last two times when he played basketball, he almost threw the ball into himself several times. in the home basket.

At that time, it was almost Qingming, and his mother said that maybe the old man was short of things down there, so he had to burn some paper money for the old man.

"Your Aunt Liang said, you can just fold one thousand. Mom will fold nine hundred, and you will fold one hundred."

"It's easy to say, why didn't she say that it would be better to burn ingots when buying paper money?" Luan Cheng felt a pain in the ass thinking about it.

There is a Buddhist shop not far from his residential area. The proprietress in the shop is called Liang Miaomiao, and he usually calls her "Aunt Liang" when they meet.It was this Aunt Liang who said that burning paper money would definitely work, so he carried a big bag full of huge bills of one billion denominations to the intersection not far from home to burn for his grandfather during the Ching Ming holiday.I thought I could sleep well at night after the burning, but in the next few nights his grandfather cried even more fiercely in his dreams.No way, he started folding gold ingots with his own hands again——Liang Daxian'er said that the old man must think that it is too disingenuous to only burn paper money, and he has to fold gold ingots by himself to make the old man feel the affection of his family.

Okay, let's fold it, isn't it just a hundred!He only needs to light up new skills!

"By the way, Mom, do we have any gold and jade bowls at home?" Luan Cheng rubbed his eyes.

"Gold, gold what?" Zhao Yufen didn't hear clearly.

"Gold and jade bowl. I dreamed that my grandfather kept asking me for such a thing. Does the family really have it?" At first he thought the dream was too unreal, so he didn't mention it to his family, but now that he thinks about it, This thing appeared repeatedly in the dream, did he really have it at home?

"I think you're sleepy, right? You don't even think about gold-wrapped jade bowls and golden branches and jade leaves. If our family really had such things, wouldn't your uncle and the others have come to make a fuss?" Zhao Yufen looked at her son. After all, I felt a little bit reluctant to see the dark circles under my eyes, "Come on, you can go to bed after folding [-], and mother can fold the rest."

"Then what if my father thinks that I am not dedicated and continues to appear in my dreams?" And is there a big difference between eighty and one hundred?Luan Cheng thought for a while, "Forget it, I'd better fold it." Don't the old man feel that he is insincere, it will be fatal.If someone's poor grades in the college entrance examination can be said to be because he didn't study well, he can't say that it was his grandfather who cried in his dream, right?

Zhao Yufen thought of what the proprietress of the Buddhist shop had said, so she didn't insist anymore, but turned around to see her mother-in-law standing at the door of the bedroom, staring at the paper ingots on the table with cloudy eyes.

The old lady didn't know when she came out, she didn't move at all, she was a little thin, she was wearing dark gray cotton pajamas, her gray hair was scattered behind her head, she looked like a colored stone statue, which shocked Zhao Yufen.

"Mom, are you still awake at this late hour?" Zhao Yufen secretly calmed down her heartbeat, "Are you thirsty? How about I get you a glass of water?"

"Huh? What did you say?" The old lady suddenly recovered.

"I said, how about I pour you a glass of water?"

"Oh, no, no, I just came out to see if you have finished folding, and if you haven't finished folding, I will also help."

"No need, Mom, it's so late, you'd better go to bed early. We'll do all these things."

"Let's do it." The old lady looked at her grandson and then at her daughter-in-law, "Yufen, it's almost done, your father is not that good at it, as long as you are interested. After you finish folding in a while, let Xiaocheng take these ingots first." Send it to my house, and I have to explain something to him, but I can't just burn it casually."

"Understood, Mom, are you still going tonight?"

"I won't go tonight." The old lady shook her head, turned and went back to the house.

There was a "squeak" when the door was closed, which was particularly harsh in this silent night.

It seemed that there was no such movement when he came out.

"Mom, shouldn't the hinge of the door of my grandma's room be oiled? It's creepy to hear a 'squeak' in the middle of the night." Luan Cheng rubbed his arms vigorously, feeling uneasy about something. He looked around the house for a week.Their house has been renovated for a few years, and it is in a warm modern minimalist style, but his grandma's house is very retro in design, whether it is a bed, a wardrobe, tables and chairs, or a vanity mirror, they are all made of dark wood. Because grandma likes that.Of course, it's not bad, but sometimes it can give people a gloomy feeling.Especially in the two days since he came back, he always felt that when his grandma's room opened, the atmosphere in the whole room changed and became very strange.

"You have to go out to burn the ingots later, let's talk about the folding of the pages tomorrow." After Zhao Yufen finished speaking, she continued to fold the ingots, but she was obviously more absent-minded than before.

The couple kept folding until two o'clock in the middle of the night, and they folded a thousand pieces.Luan Cheng hadn't slept well in the past few days. It stands to reason that he should be so sleepy that he couldn't keep his eyes open, but the more he got away from the fold, the more energetic he was, and from his frowning from time to time, it was obvious that he was a little anxious.

Zhao Yufen also noticed her son's expression, but she knew the reason for his uneasiness so she didn't ask.She still remembered the old lady's words, so she put the folded ingots into two big plastic bags and asked Luan Cheng to deliver them to the old lady's room.

It's Monday morning, and although it's dark outside, it's not the best time to give money to relatives in the underworld, but Luan Cheng has to go back to school after dawn, and it will be Saturday when he returns home. Go out and burn at this time.

Luan Cheng picked up the bag of ingots: "Grandma, you said this thing is so light, and now there is wind outside, what if it is blown away by the wind while it is burning? Can my grandfather still receive it?"

The old lady looked up at her eldest grandson quietly, and said after a while: "Yes, as long as you are sincere, you will be able to." Then she took out a small old copper basin from under the bed.

The diameter of the copper basin was about [-] centimeters, and its natural color should be yellowish, but now it can hardly be seen, because the surface is covered with a large area of ​​dirt.The only thing that can be seen clearly is that there is a circle of strange patterns carved on the edge of the basin, which looks like various mythical beasts.I don't know when his grandma prepared it, and I have never seen her use it before.

"Take this with you," said the old lady, "burn it here, and remember to bring it back to grandma after it's done. Also, you should be careful when you burn it. Don't let the living take away the ingot. Burn it clean, you know?"

Luan Cheng felt a little nervous when he heard this, thinking that who would be alive to pick up gold ingots that were burnt for other "people"?But still nodded: "Understood grandma, then the rest is the same as burning paper money before?"

The old lady said "hmm": "Go and put on a coat, it's cool at night."

Without doubting him, Luan Cheng went back to his room and took a black jacket. After making sure his phone was fully charged, he took two bags of ingots and copper basins, and a handful of paper money his grandmother gave him, and went out.

The paper money was not bought from outside, but cut by his grandmother herself. It is said that this thing was not burned for his grandfather, but for the little ghosts wandering in the world, so that when he burned the ingots, these little ghosts would come to snatch them—although he It is very doubtful whether the ghosts of this cottage paper money will accept it.

Anyway, it is right to listen to the old man about these things.

What puzzled him now was that the weight of the ingot seemed to be different after it was brought into his grandma's house and taken out again.Just as he was holding his jacket and cell phone, the ingot bag seemed to be twice as heavy as before.

Could it be that there is something wrong with his own feelings?

Luan Cheng subconsciously picked up the bag and walked on the quiet cobblestone path, suspicious in his heart.If it wasn't because his father was on a business trip, his younger brother didn't come back from school, and his mother seemed to be on her menstrual period, he would definitely bring someone to accompany him. After all, going out alone in the early morning to burn paper ingots still requires courage.

Unfortunately, there are no ifs in this world.

As for now, I brought ingots, paper money, pots, lighters, and addresses...

Luan Cheng left the community and went straight to the big crossroads closest to his home.

At this time, there are few vehicles on the road. At first glance, the surrounding environment will give people a sense of uneasiness that they have suddenly broken into a strange place.

Luan Cheng went to the place where the paper money was burned the night before, looked around, and made sure that there was no one there, so he drew a circle at the old place.A gap was left in the circle towards the west, which means that all the things burned in this circle will be given to those who have returned to the west. After painting, he raised some paper money cut by his grandma to the sky, burned the envelope with the address on it, and went to Burn those two bags of ingots.

He was afraid that the ingots would be blown away, so he didn't dare to take out too many at a time, and he took out three or five ingots to burn.

It's a strange thing to say, the wind is not too small, but after the ingot is put into the basin, it doesn't move very well, it sticks to the flame, and it burns out in a moment, as if there is really someone protecting it in the dark. Like a pot of ingots.

Seeing this, Luan Cheng simply took out a few more, and burned two pockets of paper ingots in a short time.During this period, he didn't dare to raise his head, his eyes were either staring at the copper basin or the ingot bag, for fear of seeing something unforgettable.

Now that the burning was about to end, the tight string in his mind was also slightly loosened.He went to grab the last one...

"Snapped!"

When an ingot in his hand touched the copper basin, it suddenly made a loud crashing sound, and then just after burning a corner, it was blown away by the strong wind!Obviously the others were burned to ashes as before, but just this one, after being blown out of the basin by the wind, it was blown another ten meters away in an instant!

"Damn it!" Luan Cheng still remembered his grandma's words, so he ran after him in fright, but no matter how fast he was, he couldn't be faster than the speed at which the wind could take away the paper ingots. In the distance, until the last corner of the ingot was taken away by a speeding black Bentley.

"My dear uncle!" Luan Cheng stared at the car that was driving away in an instant, raised his middle finger, and scratched his head in annoyance.

"Who do you want?" At this moment, the cold feeling that dropped instantly was accompanied by a hoarse voice, and a person stood up slowly on the opposite side...

No, to be precise, it should be a bloody phantom.This phantom is about the same height as him in terms of the distance from the ground. It is a male, with no part of the body intact, and it is turned out ferociously.Luan Cheng couldn't tell how old the other party was at the moment.The point is: this guy is so off the ground! He's off the ground!

The other party stared at Luan Cheng, the bloody eyeballs seemed to come out of their sockets: "Who do you want?"

Luan Cheng's body was frozen instantly, it couldn't be more stiff!

"Yes, yes, sorry, I, I was really, really not talking about you just now." Luan Cheng waved his hands, quickly thinking about what grandma said before, and then nervously grabbed a handful of paper money from his trouser pocket and handed it over : "Will, or?"

The other party rolled his eyes to look at the paper money in Luan Cheng's hand, a trace of doubt flashed in his eyes.But he didn't say anything, looked at Luan Cheng, turned around quietly and left.He didn't take the paper money from Luan Cheng's hand, but the money drifted towards the west following the direction he was walking as if consciously.

Luan Cheng shivered violently, and took a few steps back.

"Beep!" Suddenly came the sound of a car horn behind him.

"Damn it!" Luan Cheng suddenly turned around as if the switch had been pressed suddenly, "Ahhhhhhh! Ah Piao!"

So at this second, on the silent road, a black figure was running desperately like an arrow shot out, and he stopped when he saw a living person at the sentry box at the gate of the community.

"Huh~huh~huh~" Luan Cheng desperately adjusted his breathing.

The security guard in the sentry box knew Luan Cheng, and seeing him gasping for breath at the door, after panting for a while, he suddenly raised his hand and slapped him on the forehead, and asked curiously, "What's the matter, Luan Cheng? Own?"

Luan Cheng coughed several times and waved his hands: "No, nothing."

He just suddenly remembered that he had thrown the copper basin that grandma had given him at the intersection.

Yaoshou!

Luan Cheng forced himself to turn around and look for the copper basin, but when he got there, he realized that there was no basin at all where he burned the ingots!

What about the basin? !

Well, the ingot was not burnt clean, and the basin was lost. I don't know if grandma will beat him to death.

Luan Cheng was a little flustered and a little frustrated. He walked home with a heavy heart, but he didn't know that less than 500 meters behind him, someone was pedaling southward with a basin in one hand and a bicycle handlebar in the other... Half a minute ago, this man was still waiting for him with a basin.