Hundred Ghosts

The dusk is dark, and the sun falls like gold.

Lin Zi looked at the village in front of him with only a few cooking smokes, and heaved a sigh of relief.

It's finally here.

Today is the No.30 day when he left the Taoist temple. A month ago, he took a few entanglements and the road map hand-painted by the master to bid farewell to the teacher. He walked through the rapids, swam the big river, climbed the mountain, walked through the woods, and got lost countless times. , and finally walked from the land of fish and rice to this barren land.

Lin Zi took out the road map and looked at it, then sighed involuntarily.

Master is not good at painting, the lines on the road map are twisted, he can get here all the way to ask, this village should be his last foothold, rest here tonight, ask for some food, at most You can reach the frontier in a day.

He has been hungry and full all the way. Wild animals can't do it, hares and pheasants can't catch them. Most of the food he eats is half-baked wild fruits. I don't know if they are poisonous. You can only get some in places where there are people. eat.

He walked to the house with the most smoke. The master said that this kind of house is generally richer in the village.

Can cheat.

The amount should be more than ten coins and less than one hundred coins. It can also be exchanged into eggs, rice or flour, and the money can be collected as appropriate.

In the past, when Taoist temples were prosperous, it would cost thousands of taels to perform a religious ceremony, so how could you value such a thing.

Now that the world is chaotic and Taoist temples are in decline, his entanglement is still calculated by his fortune-telling on the street for several months.

Lin Zi took out the talisman paper given by his master that turns red when exposed to water, hung it on his waist, and held it in his left hand.

The bell that was taken from the neck of the beast Rhubarb in the town gate, and the peach wood sword that his senior brother had sharpened for him in his right hand.

The master taught him a set of rhetoric. When he meets an ugly and unmarried person, he says that young people have bad luck in love. There is no way, I am afraid of retribution, and the poor say that your luck is suppressed and you must change your luck...

In short, it varies from person to person, from time to time, and from money.

But Lin Zi thinks that he is not completely a liar, the master still taught him some real things, if something happens to him, as long as the problem is not serious, he can solve it.

But there are too few people who are in trouble, and they are afraid that they will starve to death if they guard those few times, so most of the time they still deceive those who seek psychological comfort.

Unfortunately, this family was doing funeral affairs, and the big white lanterns and wreaths piled up at the door. They had finished eating, and the people in mourning clothes were busy clearing up their rice bowls and walking around. A child knelt in front of the brazier and cried bitterly Cracked lungs, but no one helped him.

In life, the saddest thing is nothing more than life and death, so it is better not to bother others at this time, Lin Zi put away his things, touched his empty stomach, and smelled the smell of food that hadn't wafted away.

It seems to be more hungry.

At this time, three aunts with mourning hats on their heads chattered past him, and Lin Zi could hear them clearly.

"Hey! She died without complaint. I see her flirting with other men all day long. Damn it!"

"...That's right, the old widower in East Village is staring at her all day long!"

"..."

According to what they said, the mistress of this family hanged herself. The reason for her suicide was that she was promiscuous and winked when she saw a man. There are many people in the village who talk badly. She couldn't stand the accusation and hanged herself .

Tomorrow is the day of the coffin.

Lin Zi didn't know what to say, anyway, the dead are the most important, so if you speak ill of others behind your back, your tongue will be wrung out after death.

He stood here for a long time, many children gathered around and looked curiously at Lin Zi who was wearing a Taoist uniform.

Shouldn't people who wear this kind of clothes dance in front of the brazier?

Dinner was about to start, and the adults who called their children to come over for dinner also looked for it, and they were also very surprised to see this pretty young Taoist priest, "The Liu family didn't invite a Taoist priest, did the priest find the wrong place?"

Presumably the Liu family they were talking about was the family that was involved in the affair. Lin Zi cupped his hands and saluted, "Misunderstanding, I'm just passing by."

"I heard that the old storytellers and preachers in the town are amazing! What do you know?" A chubby child asked him with bright eyes.

"I can tell fortunes. I can read Fengshui, know the past and inform the future, change fortunes, discover peach blossoms, and sell miracle medicines." As he spoke, Lin Zi quickly opened the package on Kang's shoulders. There were several packets of medicinal powder inside. The money raised by this medicine survived, otherwise he would have starved to death.

"What kind of medicine?" The villagers gathered around curiously, discussing a lot.

Business is coming.

Lin Zi said without changing his face, "This blue medicine pack can expel insects, mosquitoes and centipedes and other disturbing things, and this yellow medicine pack can cure acne, corns, frostbite, hemorrhoids and other difficult and miscellaneous diseases."

"Yo, then you are amazing!"

"Thank you, thank you." Lin Zi responded modestly, weighed the few packs of medicine powder left, and said, "Well, the medicine packs are given to you, can you stay with me for a meal or overnight?"

The things in the medicine bag were some ordinary herbs. The master knew medical skills, and he often fiddled with these things for Lin Zi to sell them down the mountain. If they couldn't be sold, Lin Zi took them out and continued to sell them this time.

Several medicine packs were quickly snatched up, and the villagers who didn't have any medicine packs couldn't say anything, so they called Yin Lixiu to come in and sit down, just as dinner was about to be served.

They ate at the floating mat, just now those people almost squeezed into the table with Lin Zi, all staring at him eagerly, he lowered his head and gnawed steamed buns slowly, pretending not to notice.

The aunt sitting next to him asked tentatively, "Xiao Daoist, do you think you can tell fortunes?"

"I will point."

She rolled up her sleeves and stretched out her hands, "How about the priest look at my life?"

"Okay." Lin Zi swallowed the steamed bun,

The others immediately got excited, saying that Lin Zi couldn't be partial, and had to do the math for them.

Lin Zi asked them to spread their hands holding the chopsticks, and he ate while watching. After reading the palmistry, he had almost eaten all the dishes on the table. He touched his stomach, opened his mouth and burped without changing his face.

Then spread out your hands for them to see.

His hands are very delicate, his ten fingers are long and soft, only the index finger has a thin callus, at first glance, this guy must be the kind of person who eats too much, is lazy and doesn't work, his wife's hands are rougher than his.

The people at the table looked at each other, "What does Xiao Daoist mean by that?"

"Ten pennies."

"what?"

Lin Zi gave a "tsk", and rubbed his index finger and thumb twice, "That's it, don't you understand?"

This fortune-telling is to spy on the secrets of the sky, and you have to pay a price, you can give more or less. There is an unwritten saying that if you don't pay for fortune-telling, you will die.

In the past, there was never a reminder in Taoist temples, and the pilgrims gave it on their own initiative.

The faces of the peasant women changed, and they stood up and pointed at his nose and yelled, "Listen, everyone, what are you talking about? Do you have a conscience, a liar? You still want to collect money when we give you enough to eat?"

Lin Zi said in a good-tempered manner, "There is no way to do this. After all, the rules passed down from the ancestors are like this. Money is necessary..."

"You can say this kind of thing? No! Just don't! I can tear a piece of cloth to make a suit for ten cents, so I won't waste your unjust money!"

Lin Zi hesitated, "But—"

"If you do this again, you'll get out of our village, and you won't even be able to sleep in the woodshed!"

"..."

Fine.

Lin Zi sighed, "Okay, okay, I don't take money, but if something happens in the future, don't look for me."

"What could happen..."

Anyway, there are people who rely on not giving money. The master said that reasoning with such people can make me angry, so stop entangled with them, and there will be a lesson from heaven in the future.

Because Lin Zi had to collect money depending on his fate, the villagers didn't have much affection for him left, and the originally agreed good room was downgraded to a firewood room.Fortunately, he is not a squeamish person. He was going to spread out the thatch on the ground and lie on it directly to sleep. As a result, two centipedes and a snake ran out of the thatch. Sleeping with chaimen.

Half asleep and half awake, Lin Zi felt the chaimen being pushed open hit his back, he opened his eyes, "Who?"

"Well... I have something to do with the Taoist priest..." The child who knelt in front of the brazier and cried until he was about to faint during the day said hoarsely.

Business is coming.

Lin Zi sat up straight, "What do you dare to ask Your Excellency?"

The child stumbled over and stuffed the thing in his hand without any explanation, "This is a reward."

Some moonlight shone through the window, and through the light, Lin Zi saw that he was holding several copper coins in his hand.

Remuneration should be collected, but it is too shameless to ask for a child's money.

Lin Zi grabbed his hand and stuffed the money back, "What do you want to do next?"

"I want to ask the Taoist priest to help exorcise the evil spirits. They all said that my mother committed suicide by doing something wrong, but my mother didn't." He said anxiously, "That day I clearly saw that my mother was dragged to hang herself by a woman. Yes! I did see it!"

"What kind of woman?"

The child's face turned pale, as if thinking of something terrible, he said tremblingly, "The hair is disheveled, the complexion is very pale, the eyeballs seem to protrude, and there is a long blood-red tongue in the mouth!"

Lin Zi stroked his chin and asked, "Does she still have a rope?"

"Yes!" He wiped his tears with his sleeve, and Lin Zi grabbed his wrist suddenly.

Lin Zi slowly opened his sleeves, only to see that the white and tender little arms were covered with bruises and purple pinches, which looked shocking.

"Who did it?"

"That day, my mother was pestered by the old widower who lived in front of the village again. When she came back, she beat me and said that if it wasn't for me, she would have gone down to accompany my father."

"and then?"

"Then I saw that woman come out. She was holding a rope in her hand. She said that if my mother dies, she can reunite with my father underground, and put the rope around my mother's neck." He asked Lin Zi, " Can my mother really see my father?"

"How long has your father been dead?"

He thought about it seriously, "I have never met my father. The neighbor's aunt said that my father was killed by wolves when he went up to the mountain to collect herbs to nourish my mother who was still pregnant."

He looked to be around ten years old, and it must have been more than ten years since his father passed away.

"I'm afraid it can't be done," Lin Zi patted his head with pity, "One day in the world, one year in the underworld, so your father has been in the underworld for thousands of years, and he should have been reincarnated long ago. .”