Record of Yin and Yang

Hearing that the servant came to report that a Taoist had come to the door, Patriarch Lai had already been waiting in front of the hall, seeing that Gu Jiu and Gu Jiu were young, there was inevitably a little disappointment on their faces.It's just that now he can't care much about it anymore. He chatted with Gu Jiu and the others in a cursory manner, and then led them to visit their youngest son.

The youngest son of Patriarch Lai is called Lai Changxiao, who will be about five years old, lying on the bed in a small ball, with his eyes closed and unconscious, breathing weakly.A beautiful woman was sitting on the head of the bed, holding a handkerchief and looking at Lai Changxiao, her eyes were red and swollen from crying, she sobbed from time to time, she should be Lai Changxiao's biological mother, Liniang Lai's concubine.

Before coming, Gu Jiu and Shao Yi had inquired about the general situation of the Lai family.

The two sons of Patriarch Lai were not born to the same mother. The eldest son is called Lai Changjing, who was born to his original spouse.Lai Changjing's first spouse died not long after he was born. The owner of the Lai family has not remarried yet, but there are several concubines in the family. The most beloved is Lai Changxiao's biological mother, Liniang. Liniang entered the Lai family when Lai Changjing was three years old. , A year later, she became pregnant and gave birth to Lai Changxiao.

The eldest son who had high hopes was always sick, and the younger son who was more partial to him was also unconscious. Patriarch Lai had only two sons under his knees. If anyone in the Lai family was the most anxious and sad, it must be Patriarch Lai.He was already worried, but seeing the weeping Liniang, he became even more worried.If you cry, you know how to cry. Can crying solve troubles?

Patriarch Lai scolded her impatiently for getting up and going aside, giving up the seat to Gu Jiu and Shao Yi.

Liniang didn't care about grievance Lai Patriarch's attitude towards her, she just looked at Gu Jiu and Shao Yi, saw Gu Jiu sitting in front of the bed to feel her son's pulse, and questioned: "Can you cure my son?"

Gu Jiu didn't speak, just took a look at her, then continued to look at Lai Changxiao, then lifted the quilt, lifted Lai Changxiao's clothes, touched his swollen belly, and asked, "Is his belly always like this?" ?”

Liniang said in a nasal voice, "It's been like this since Xiao'er fainted."

Gu Jiu put his hand on Lai Changxiao's belly, then raised his hand to raise Lai Changxiao's jaw, making him open his mouth. Gu Jiu slightly moved closer to sniff, and frowned.

Putting down Lai Changxiao's clothes and covering him with a quilt, Gu Jiu asked someone to bring over half a bowl of warm water.

Liniang hurriedly sent someone to fetch water, while Patriarch Lai asked Gu Jiu who was holding a talisman pen and began to draw talismans on the table: "Master Daoist, what is the matter with my child's illness?"

Gu Jiu said, "I ate too much."

Liniang retorted: "Impossible, Xiao'er can't even feed the medicine these few days. Didn't you see that his cheeks are sunken?" Liniang was so excited that she almost called Gu Jiu a liar. People's false priests.

Gu Jiu ignored Liniang for the time being, he pinched the drawn talisman paper on his fingertips and twisted it lightly, and the talisman paper ignited, startling everyone in the room to take a step back, take a breath, and look at the talisman again. Jiu's eyes were full of fear and surprise.

Gu Jiu burned the talisman paper in a bowl of warm water, then helped Lai Changxiao up, squeezed his cheeks slightly to make him open his mouth, and then slowly fed the talisman water into his mouth.

Liniang hurriedly stopped, "What is this, how can you just feed it to him!"

Standing in front of the bed, Shao Yi stretched out his hand to stop him, "He ate ghost food, and the talisman water can wash away the ghost energy hidden in his internal organs."

Patriarch Lai said: "What is ghost food?"

Patriarch Lai had a look of anticipation, he knew that his youngest son's illness was unusual, so he already had a premonition in his heart that something about gods and ghosts would be involved, and he was not as excited as Liniang at this time, just waiting for their explanation.

Lai Changxiao was in a coma, his stomach was bloated, and it was difficult to eat any more. He drank half a bowl of talisman water very slowly. Gu Jiu said, "The reason why you can't feed anything these days is because the young master is there. I have eaten a lot of things before, this thing is not fed by people, it is a ghost."

Gu Jiu's tone was very ordinary, saying that the weather is not bad today, but it made everyone including Patriarch Lai shiver uncontrollably.

Ghost food, as the name suggests, is something that ghosts eat.Every time they get together, the offering that Gu Jiu makes to the two patriarchs is a kind of ghost food, and the special incense that the four little ones eat is also ghost food.When they found Chen Yinling who was mistakenly taken away by the old ghost in Fengdu, if Fang Taihe hadn't realized that she was stopped by a living soul, Chen Yinling would almost have eaten the ghost food.

The things that ghosts eat have a ghostly smell, so how can living people eat them?Once eating ghost food and being eroded by ghost energy, even Gu Jiu and others who practice Taoism will have problems, let alone a child who is only five years old.

When Gu Jiu said something, Patriarch Lai’s face was serious, and he recalled: “On the day of worship, because the ceremony process was relatively long and Xiao’er was young, I was worried that he would be hungry on the way, so I asked someone to prepare food for him in advance. However, Xiaoer said that he was full. I didn't think much about it at the time. I just thought that a servant had already fed him food. Now that I think about it, Xiaoer said that he was full that day. What I ate before was probably not People eat."

Liniang's face lost all color, her body trembled slightly, "Ken, it must be the old man."

"The old man is Xiao'er's grandfather, no matter how unhappy he is, he will not harm his own grandson." Patriarch Lai retorted Liniang's words a little displeased, but his tone was not very firm.

Liniang's face turned even paler.

Gu Jiu said: "The young master behaved differently in the ancestral hall at that time, the reason why he fainted was because of his father's upper body. On the anniversary of his death in the past, did your father ever get on the eldest young master's body?"

"No." Patriarch Lai said.

The reason why the Lai family continued this sacrificial tradition was because the ancestors had a "corpse" that was put on the body by the ancestors, and made some forward-looking reminders to the family. Therefore, the Lai family has continued for more than ten generations. Although there is no major achievement, The family situation has never been ruined.Because of this precedent, Patriarch Lai also knew that being possessed by ghosts was harmful to the living. The ancestors loved their descendants very much, and they would not be possessed by their descendants unless necessary.

Patriarch Lai had high hopes for Lai Changjing, and the deceased old man had the same expectations for his eldest grandson. Patriarch Lai knew how happy his father was when his eldest son was born, and he absolutely couldn't bear to have his eldest grandson.So Lai Changjing has been acting as a "corpse" since he couldn't walk, and the sacrifices in the first nine years have been held smoothly.This year he had to change people. Patriarch Lai knew that his father, like him, could not treat the two sons equally. After all, one was the eldest son and the other was the concubine, but he would not harm his grandson disproportionately.

"My father must have given me some hints." Patriarch Lai said, he pinched his forehead with a headache, "But the sorceresses and sorceresses invited earlier said that my father is unwilling to show up."

After Fu Shui was finally fed, Lai Changxiao, who hadn't moved before, suddenly burped for a long time, and a rancid smell came out of his mouth.With a wave, Gu Jiu threaded a talisman paper with a red string and hung it around his neck, then laid him flat.

Gu Jiu handed the bowl to the servant, glanced at Liniang who was standing silently beside her, and saw that her mind was not in her brows, her eyebrows were hiding anxiety, Gu Jiu asked her: "Did you feel a little unwell these days?"

Liniang seemed frightened by his question, her body trembled.She squeezed the handkerchief tightly, looked slowly, thought carefully, and said: "It may be because of You Xinxiao'er's body. Recently, I always feel headache easily, especially when I sleep at night, and I wake up several times from the pain."

Gu Jiu gave her a meaningful look, took out a defensive talisman and handed it to her, "You wear this with you, don't take it off even when you sleep."

Liniang stretched out her hand to take it apprehensively, "What does the Taoist priest mean? Could it be that there are... ghosts harming me?"

Everyone knew that what she really wanted to ask was whether the old man wanted to harm her.

Patriarch Lai shifted his gaze from the talisman paper to Liniang, his eyes thoughtful.Liniang met his eyes inadvertently, forced a smile, and hurriedly looked away to look at her son.

Gu Jiu said to Patriarch Lai: "I heard that the eldest young master is also sick, do you want me to take a look at him?"

Patriarch Lai did not refuse, and stepped forward to invite: "I'm sorry, please come this way, both of you."

Patriarch Lai's way of educating his two sons is completely different. As Lai Changxiao is the son of a concubine, Patriarch Lai only asks him to grow up safely and live a prosperous life in the future.And Lai Changjing will inherit the Lai family in the future, and he has received strict education since he was very young.So even though he was only ten years old, he was already very sensible. When Gu Jiu and the others went, he was leaning on the bed and reading a book. When he saw them, he hurriedly put down his book and wanted to get out of bed to salute.

Although Patriarch Lai was too strict with Lai Changjing, he usually behaved less like a father and more like a strict teacher, but seeing his son's sick face, his heart still felt distressed and let him continue to lie on the bed.

Lai Changjing kept coughing, breathing heavily, and his throat felt as if something was blocked.Gu Jiu took his pulse and said that although the problem is small, it still needs to be taken care of carefully. If it is not cured for a long time, it will easily leave sequelae to the lungs, and it will easily recur every spring in the future.

Patriarch Lai said yes, and then Gu Jiu asked about Lai Changjing's prescription, saying that there was nothing wrong with it, and he would be fine after taking it.

Just at this time, a servant came in with a medicine bowl and said that it was time for Lai Changjing to drink the medicine.

Traditional Chinese medicine is generally smelly and bitter. Even an adult like Gu Jiu, when he drank the traditional Chinese medicine Shao Yi boiled for him in winter, he couldn't help frowning when he saw the medicine bowl. When he took the bowl, he didn't change his face.

When Lai Changjing was about to drink, Gu Jiu suddenly reached out to stop him. He raised his head and looked at Gu Jiu inquiringly.

Gu Jiu took the warm medicine bowl and held it in his hands to warm his hands, smiled: "It's still a little hot, you can drink it later."

Lai Changjing looked at his father and saw that his father looked more serious than before, so he said "oh", sat there and looked around, didn't know what to say, and couldn't leave them to read, so he had to start a blank, but he was always caught by surprise. His cough was interrupted, and his little brows finally furrowed impatiently.

Patriarch Lai asked the servants in the room to go out, and after the door was closed tightly, he turned to Gu Jiu, "Why doesn't the priest let the dog drink this bowl of medicine? There is something wrong with this medicine?"

Gu Jiu picked up the medicine bowl, and under Lai Changjing's slightly rounded eyes, he brought the medicine bowl to his mouth and drank a big mouthful of the bitter medicine, then frowned in disgust, "This medicine nourishes the body, there is nothing wrong with drinking it. , but it is not the medicine for the young master's illness."