marry a ghost

On the day of Ghost Festival, people in Weizhuang wake up as soon as the sky is polished, and they have to temporarily stop their busy work on this day. The doors of every house are closed, everyone quietly holds their breath, and stays at home.Therefore, the preparations for the yin marriage were also postponed. On this day, no outsiders came to Aunt Wei's sixth house.

On the day before the Ghost Festival, people in Weizhuang will clean all the bronze decorations, reliefs or woodcuts of fierce beasts in the house, and replace the portraits of fierce beasts that have been pasted for a year on the gates and windows with new ones. On the surface, these details are nothing more than that, and there is nothing special in the daytime.

Apart from being quiet, it was still quiet. Even the dogs knew how to tuck their tails and never barked.

When it was time to eat, Chen Yang realized that Weizhuang's Ghost Festival was somewhat different from theirs.In the past, every year on this day, Chen Yang's family would put up a big battle. His grandma and his mother would arrange a large table of dishes, ordering [-] different dishes, cold dishes and hot food, plus good rice wine and tea, to worship the ancestors .For the usual offerings, only four or six dishes are enough.

In the seventh month of the lunar calendar, the sacrificial activities last for a whole month, and reach their climax on the [-]th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar.This kind of tradition is too cumbersome, and the younger generation has long been reluctant to do it for a whole month, but on July [-]th, they will still worship it symbolically.

But in Weizhuang, it is still the same simple cold food as before.

Aunt Wei Six waited for Chen Yang to finish eating, while cleaning up the bowls and chopsticks, she lowered her voice as if she was afraid of disturbing something, and said to Chen Yang with a guilty face, "I can help you go to Wei Shi's house to ask him about it tomorrow." Phone, today is the Hungry Ghost Festival, so we have to stop everything we have to do."

Chen Yang knew that some seemingly absurd customs had their own reasons. If he had suffered trauma like a broken leg, he would definitely ignore this custom and find a way to leave Weizhuang to go to the hospital so as not to delay the treatment, but Now that his soul is injured, he is not so urgent.

Thinking of this, he said to Aunt Wei Six, "Aunt Six, my feet don't hurt. It's okay to wait for two or three days longer. Don't worry about it so much." Chen Yang patted himself while talking. Legs, to show that their words are true.

Aunt Wei Liu also knew something. Seeing that Chen Yang had no external injuries, she vaguely knew that maybe Chen Yang had gone away last night or some other reason, which caused his body to go wrong. Not uncommon.

She sighed, took away the bowls and chopsticks, and let Chen Yang have a good rest.

Last night, his soul left his body. During the day, Chen Yang would inevitably be depressed. He slept for almost a whole day, and it was late in the afternoon that Aunt Wei Six woke him up.Chen Yang felt that he didn't sleep for three days and three nights before, and he was not so tired and flustered now. His body was heavy from the inside out, and it was a bit difficult to even lift his hands.

Chen Yang looked at Wei Sixth Aunt, "Sixth Aunt, what's the matter?"

Sixth Aunt Wei looked a little uneasy, "Mr. Wei just came here and wanted to invite you to participate in the sacrifice of the clan. You and that—although they have changed their posts, they haven't yet become a ceremony. Call, you are not in good health now, alas, but I can't make any sense with Mr. Wei."

Chen Yang looked at his legs, "Sixth Aunt, you didn't tell him that I have a problem with my feet, so I can't go?" Even if there was no such excuse, Chen Yang would find a way to push this matter away. At night, if Chen Yang didn't know what kind of dangerous place Weizhuang was, then he would have spent so many years hanging out outside for nothing.

Aunt Wei Six sighed again, "Why didn't you say that? As soon as he heard it, he immediately called his grandson to go home and move his wheelchair."

The corner of Chen Yang's mouth twitched. As long as this old man made up his mind to do something, he would definitely do it to the end. While they were talking, a young man pushed a wheelchair into the room, and Chen Yang recognized it. It is one of the grandsons of Mr. Wei, who seems to be called Ah Feng.

Well, everyone is here, and even the means of transportation have been moved, so I have to go if I don’t.

Aunt Wei Six took out a set of white clothes from home, handed it to Chen Yang, and said to him, "You put on this dress, which was worn by Aning before." out of the way.

Chen Yang unfolded it and saw that it was a white gown similar to a gown, cut from a whole piece of white cloth, without collar and cuffs, very rough, but the stitches were quite careful, at least not many threads were exposed, Chen Yang changed his clothes, got into a wheelchair, and Ah Feng pushed out the door.

Even if it is Ghost Festival, the sun outside is still shining. It is already sunset and twilight is everywhere. However, the little afterglow left in the sky also makes Chen Yang, who walked out of the room, refreshed , giving birth to a kind of joy that the mildew is gone and the vitality is overflowing.

The wheelchair was crushed on the bluestone road, making a screeching sound. The uneven road caused some bumps, which made Chen Yang feel uncomfortable sitting on his buttocks. The seemingly invisible mist began to diffuse along the ground, but in the afterglow of the setting sun, Dyeing a little vivid color, not as creepy and cold as usual.

People in Wei Zhuang, no matter men, women, old or young, were all wearing this kind of white robes, they came out of every house silently, gathered together, and walked towards the river.

The man walking in the front was holding a white flag in his hand. The white fan looked like a soul-calling flag, but the pattern was different from the soul-calling flag. Most of the paintings on it were fierce beasts with teeth and claws, and there were even a few A white flag is a piece of white cloth.There were also a few women waiting on the side of the road. When they saw that someone was not holding a stick of filial piety, they stuffed one in.Chen Yang also got one.

The filial stick is a thumb-thick wooden stick about a foot long, with rice paste wrapped around the stick and a strip of white paper about two fingers wide, which cannot be broken. It has to be a whole stick, and the edge of the white paper strip has to be cut into whiskers, and a few white paper flowers are tied on the top of the stick to become a filial stick.

Originally, Chen Yang thought that the place where Wei Zhuang offered sacrifices was by the stream, but when he walked not far from the stream, he saw that the people in front had already crossed the bridge and walked towards the direction of Wei Qiye's house. It was not fast, and after more than ten minutes, I finally arrived at the destination.

Wei Qiye's house was built next to the mountain. When he bypassed the house, there was a mountain wall more than ten meters away, covered with thick vines and some miscellaneous trees. Chen Yang knew it just by looking at it. There is Qiankun in the mountain wall, if I guessed correctly, it should be a cave.

Facts proved that he was right. The four or five men in front carefully lifted the vines hanging on the mountain wall, revealing a dark cave. Those men lit the torches they had prepared early in the morning, Holding a few buckets, he walked into the cave first, and then saw that the stone wall was lit up for the first time. It turned out that wall lamps had been carved out one by one on the stone wall. Those men poured lamp oil in and put in the wicks .

When those men came out of the cave again, other Weizhuang people began to prepare to go in.

The first ones, of course, are the old people in Wei Zhuang, headed by Wei Qiye, followed by Wei Zhengqing, that is, Old Man Wei. Chen Yang doesn't know a few old people walking beside and behind Old Man Wei, but it's Wei Wei anyway. Zhuang's old life was right, so one after another, according to seniority, until the last, it was the turn of Chen Yang and the women in Wei Zhuang.

Seeing that he was put in the group of women, Chen Yang suddenly felt a sense of embarrassment speechless. Although he couldn't speak, the probing and playful eyes of the women around him still kept looking at Chen Yang, a different kind. The few still covered their mouths and laughed silently, even with Chen Yang's thick skin, they couldn't help but feel a little hot.

If it wasn't for the inconvenience, Chen Yang would probably turn around and leave without caring what Mr. Wei would think. It was originally a two-for-one transaction, and there was no clause in the transaction that he had to participate in the Weizhuang Ghost Festival sacrifice, so Chen Yang has a clear conscience.

However, the reality is that you can only think about it this way.

With a sullen face, Chen Yang turned the wheelchair and walked into the cave without saying a word. When he encountered a pothole that was not easy to pass, he let the daughters-in-law of Mr. Wei nearby help him and walked for a few minutes. Chen Yang felt that the cave was getting colder and colder. The stone walls on both sides were all wet, and the wind came from nowhere. , There are many shadows under people's feet.

There are obvious traces of man-made excavation on the ground and stone walls of this cave. The ancestors of Wei Zhuang must have worked hard to create the current scale. At the end of the cave, you can see a big hole the size of a football field. The roof of the cave is probably as high as a two-story building from the ground, and it is magnificent.

In the middle of the cave is a circular platform made of stones, about [-] square meters. Eighteen stone pillars rise up from the side of the platform and reach the top of the cave. , is the gloomy hundred ghosts, lifelike, as if they will jump down from the pillar and tear the people around them to pieces.

A group of two men carried live cattle, sheep, pigs and other five animals bundled into zongzi, and placed them in a circle on the altar. Then, the old people headed by Wei Qiye walked up to the stone platform hand in hand. , the other Weizhuang people surrounded the stone platform, their eyes followed Wei Qiye and his party.

The lights on the stone wall are not bright, and the cave is too big and the light is dim.

Wei Qiye was not wearing a white robe, but a black robe, surrounded by other old people in Wei Zhuang, he closed his eyes, as if sensing something, his whole body was shaking like chaff, he looked a bit like a witch Han's reaction when he asked God to get on his body, after a while, he shouted in a hoarse voice.

"The sacrifice begins, first invite the ancestors."

Wei Qiye stepped in a strange direction, like a strange door but not quite, he walked quickly around the sacrifices, raised his hands to the sky, and then clasped them in front of his chest, at this time, following the rhythm of his steps , There was a rhythmic knocking sound around, it was the sound of Wei Zhuang people kneeling on the ground with Wei Qiye moving, hitting the ground with the filial stick in his hand.

The dense knocking sound is like raindrops falling down, which makes the heart beat faster and the scalp tingle, but the eerie atmosphere is getting thicker and thicker. The faster and faster the knocking makes the blood boil, but the back is full of pain. It was as cold as being hit by a ghost.

Chen Yang shook his head, and he indeed saw countless other "things" in the cave. These things were attracted by the knocking sound, and they gathered more and more. The cave became chilly, and the ground sounded The sound of dripping water was caused by the condensation of too thick Yin Qi.

The sound of water was mixed with the sound of knocking, so Chen Yang saw that the entire cave was full of white shadows, so many, so many, that the cave was almost full, and there were still white shadows squeezing in. Not as ferocious as usual, but standing quietly in the air.

Why did people in Weizhuang invite their ancestors, but they invited these white shadows that looked like ghosts but didn't look like ghosts?

After those ghost shadows stopped floating in, Wei Qiye suddenly opened his eyes and let out a loud cry.

"Tiangangdisha, all living beings bow down, have no destination, and cannot be reborn. The descendants of future generations, worship devoutly, stand up—kneel—"

Amid Wei Qiye's protracted shout, the man in the white robe of Wei Zhuang stood up first, and then immediately knelt down.

"—Get up—kneel—get up again—kneel again—pick up—kneel down—"

Kneeling and kneeling like this, probably more than a dozen times, every time, a man held a knife in both hands, walked up to a living sacrifice, stabbed the knife into the sacrifice's neck, and blood gushed out wildly along the stone. The potholes and traces on the stage flowed all over the place.

And those white shadows stood around silently, being kneeled by the people of Weizhuang.

They flew over and pounced on the slaughtered sacrifice, the cows and sheep used as sacrifices, trembling, opened their mouths wide to let out a final neighing, but the people of Weizhuang used some method to silence them. After the white shadows bit them, they died quickly. Chen Yang saw that in a very short period of time, the corpses rotted and the blood stinks, as if they had been dead for a long time.

The surrounding Weizhuang people turned a blind eye to this strange situation, and after those white shadows finished enjoying that sacrifice, they immediately switched to the next one.

Chen Yang was at the outermost edge of the crowd. Because of his special physical condition, he did not follow him to kneel down. Chen Yang could clearly feel that those white shadows had cast their gloomy eyes on him. The living sacrifice on the stage attracts the past.

His whole body was covered in white sweat, Chen Yang wiped the sweat off his face, it was too fucking exciting.

This is a ceremony for Weizhuang people to sacrifice their ancestors. Then, there is no doubt that these white shadows are their dead ancestors. Those who died in Wei Zhuang rarely could be reincarnated.This is one of them.

Second, Chen Yang did not find Wei Linqing in these white shadows.Although the white shadows are densely packed, they are all white mist-like things. Wei Linqing's body is solid, which is quite different from those white shadows, so it should be easy to identify.

That old man Wei said that they can't go to worship Wei Linqing seems to be true.For unknown reasons, Wei Linqing was expelled from the Wei family and was not eligible to enter the ancestral grave, so he was even buried casually by the roadside.Why is that, next time I see Wei Linqing, I must ask, Chen Yang thought.

Time seemed to pass quickly but slowly, but finally it was time to slaughter all the sacrifices on the stone platform. At this time, the stench on the stone platform was already so bad that even Chen Yang, who was far away, could not smell it. His face turned blue from the rotten smell, but Weizhuang people, regardless of men, women, old or young, could kneel in the blood and carrion without moving.

Chen Yang expressed his admiration for their endurance.

At this time, Old Man Wei took a knife from a man kneeling on the ground with his hands raised high, and slashed his skinny arm. Thick blood dripped to the ground. Lifting that hand, blood trickled down his wrist.

"Enjoy it with blood, nourish it with spirit, feed it with soul, this is a sacrifice."

The surrounding Weizhuang people also slammed the filial stick in their hands for the last time, and then took out the knives they had prepared earlier from their clothes, and slashed on their arms, causing the blood to flow to the ground, and shouted in unison drink up.

"This is a sacrifice, Zu Zongyou!"