Shanhai Folklore Research Institute

! !

Lin Mian was taken aback, and subconsciously stepped back a few steps. Wu Ting lightly pressed his shoulders and looked sharply at the gravekeeper.

Lin Mian collected himself, and found that the other party was just a middle-aged man with a gloomy expression. I don't know if it was because he didn't see the sun all year round. His skin was sickly pale, his cheeks were sunken, and he seemed very thin. The abdominal muscles and arm muscles can be seen faintly below.

"Are you the gravekeeper of Banpo Cemetery?" Lin Mian was not sure. The main reason was that this man looked a little scary, and he almost thought he saw a ghost in broad daylight.

"Yes, I was sleeping just now, and I was woken up by you." The grave guard angrily took off the washed towel from the shelf, wiped his face casually, and snorted impatiently, "What's the matter?" ?"

"I want to choose a cemetery for my adoptive father." Lin Mian explained his purpose.

When the gravekeeper heard this, he didn't bother to talk nonsense with him, and pointed to the small blackboard at the door. If it wasn't for the dean behind Lin Mian who looked so unfriendly, he would have blurted out: You are blind!

Of course Lin Mian was not blind. Just as he was about to fight again, the tomb guard shifted his gaze to the white porcelain jar he held in his arms, stayed there for a few seconds, and suddenly stuck his head out of the window, saying inexplicably: "Your adoptive father is Huang Lang?"

"Yeah." The village is only this big, and Lin Mian didn't like to go out when he was a child except for going to and from school. The main reason is that there are too many free-range animals in the small mountain village, and the risk is too great.

The old teacher was different. Although he was excluded by most of the villagers, he was cheerful all day long. He liked to walk around with his hands behind his back when he had nothing to do. Mian said that this was really beyond his cognition!

Seeming to see his doubts, the gravekeeper twitched the corners of his mouth slightly, as if he was smiling, but because of his appearance and temperament, the smile seemed a bit gloomy.

"I made this urn for him." After the gravekeeper finished speaking, he opened the door for the two of them. His attitude was much more relaxed than at the beginning, but still stiff.

Lin Mian didn't care about it, he was just very surprised: "You did it?"

The old teacher went out for a walk one day and came back with a white porcelain jar the size of a football. The workmanship was not exquisite. Lin Mian thought it was a kimchi jar and said that the porcelain was not as breathable as pottery. The old man slapped him several times in anger. The back of the head: "Fart, this is the old man's urn, do you dare to try pickling pickles?!"

He found a jar for himself to hold the ashes, and Lin Mian was shocked by his old father's coquettish operation at that time.

Now when the tomb guard said that he made the jar, he was shocked once again.

"He taught me when I was in school." The gravekeeper lowered his eyelids and took out a bunch of keys from the drawer beside the Eight Immortals table.

Lin Mian took the opportunity to look at the small cabin.

The tomb keeper's income was meager, and the furniture in the house was rather shabby and dilapidated, but Lin Mian saw a gun on the wall beside the bed.

An earthen gun that has nothing to do with exquisiteness, it seems that it can only shoot birds, but it probably won't work against larger beasts.

The control of guns in Huaguo is very strict, but in a remote mountain village like Zhelin, no one would know that the villagers make some small hunting gadgets.

Noticing Lin Mian's gaze, the grave keeper's gloomy expression didn't change at all. He walked out of the cabin with the key in hand, motioned Lin Mian and the others to follow, and continued what he had just said: "He also saved me."

?

This was beyond Lin Mian's expectation. In his impression, the old teacher has always been an unreliable old man, and teaching is like a joke. He will save people...Who will believe it? ? !

"Save you?" Lin Mian's delicate eyebrows raised high.

However, the gravekeeper seemed unwilling to talk more, and just nodded slightly: "Yes, if it wasn't for him, I should have died long ago."

The grave guard led them to the cemetery, and Lin Mian reminded: "Isn't there no more pit space?"

The tomb guard didn't stop on his feet, and he didn't turn his head when he heard the words: "No one else."

Lin Mian instantly understood that the cemetery guard had left the old teacher's cemetery at some time, maybe it was for repaying kindness, or maybe it was for something else.

"You sent the old teacher's urn to Sichuan University?" Lin Mian didn't think it at first, but now the more he looked at the crooked chalk writing on the small blackboard at the entrance of the cemetery, the more familiar it was.

"Yeah." The gravekeeper didn't deny it.

After the Meishan cemetery was flooded, many tombs were dug up. The village notified the relatives who were buried there to claim them. Lin Mian was still in Sichuan City at the time, and the cemetery guard brought back the ashes jars on his behalf.

Lin Mian couldn't help but look more at the tomb guard, and was even more curious about his past with the old teacher.

Taking advantage of the situation, the cemetery was built in a ladder shape, and the terrain became higher as it went up. The cemetery left by the gravekeeper was in the top row.

The two of them saw a lot of new tombs along the way, wreaths and paper money. The summer was hot, and the wine and vegetables used for the sacrifice were not removed in time, emitting bursts of rancid smell, which attracted many insects and flies.

The grave guard led the way without looking sideways, as if he hadn't noticed this at all. Lin Mian thought for a while and asked, "It seems that many people have died in the village recently?"

"En." The grave guard responded in a low voice.

"What's the reason?" Seeing that he didn't intend to continue, Lin Mian had no choice but to ask for news.

The gravekeeper turned his head to look at him and Wu Ting, and said sadly: "This village is over, you should leave as soon as you finish your work, and don't go out at night."

Finished?

Lin Mian's heart skipped a beat, and she asked a few more questions, but the cemetery guard was unwilling to speak again. Lin Mian suspected that this guy might be socially intimidated, otherwise it would be impossible for him to guard the cemetery at such a young age.

The group of three finally stopped at the northeast corner of the cemetery. The tomb guard really put a lot of thought into it. The old teacher didn't have a family, and Lin Mian had an adopted son under his knees. Therefore, this is a single tomb with a small area of ​​two to three square meters. , a pair of stone lion cubs are placed in the front, and a cypress tree one person tall is planted next to it, the environment is quiet.

Lin Mian was very satisfied. She took out her mobile phone and scanned the QR code to pay. The grave guard's gloomy face finally eased a little, and then the two left the cemetery temporarily.

Choosing a cemetery is just the first step. Next, we need someone to engrave a stele, and then simply move the grave. It doesn’t take much time to move the grave, but you usually have to make an appointment in advance to engrave the stele. Lin Mian came in a hurry, so I can only go with Wu Ting. Try your luck at the only stone carving shop in the village.

The stone carving shop is not far from the cemetery, just a 10-minute walk away. At this time, it is almost dusk, and the golden-red sunset dyes the sunset in the sky with gradual colors. When the tired birds return to their nests, Zhelin Village is still extremely quiet, as if Lost all vitality and became lifeless.

As soon as the two of them left the gate of the cemetery, Lin Mian felt a gaze following him from behind, and turned his head, only to see the grave guard turning back to the cabin.

Lin Mian was a little puzzled, it was getting late, and worried that the stone carving shop would be closed, so he didn't care to think too much, so he hurriedly quickened his pace, and Wu Ting and Wu Ting met the only stele carving master in Zhelin Village before the sun set.

The stone carving shop was also closed, but luckily no wreaths were placed at the door, and there was tinkling knocking sound from the yard, the master was obviously working, Lin Mian yelled a few times, and the other party came out and opened the door.

This is not the first time this master Lin Mian has dealt with him. When the old teacher was newly mourned, Lin Mian asked him to carve a stele once, so the latter recognized him at a glance, and his attitude was quite warm. He said with a smile: " Summer vacation? When will you return to the village?"

"At noon today, come to relocate the old teacher's grave."

After Lin Mian finished speaking, the engraving master understood his reason for coming, and wiped his sweat with the towel hanging around his neck, wondering: "It's not that I don't want to take it, but that there is a lot of work at hand. I'm afraid you have to do it." Wait a few days."

Lin Mian glanced around the yard and knew that the other party was not lying. The stone tablet that had been engraved was placed in a corner alone, and the remaining half of the yard was full of stone materials to be processed.

In the past, when encountering such a situation, Lin Mian would probably have to wait in line honestly, or try hard to persuade the master to join him in the queue, but now it is different, he has a third choice.

Lin Mian took out his mobile phone and paid three times the deposit, and the engraving master immediately agreed to deliver the goods early tomorrow morning, so he could rest assured.

Influenced by the dean, Assistant Lin has a deep understanding of the essence of banknote ability, and uses it superbly.

After discussing the matter of the tombstone, seeing that it was still early in the morning, Lin Mian did not leave in a hurry. Instead, he chatted with the stele engraver for a while. Pick a stele.

Naturally, Lin Mian did this not because she was really idle and flustered, but because she wanted to ask what happened in Zhelin Village from the stele-carving master. At first, the other party was as reluctant to say more as the gravekeeper. Lin Mian was slightly disappointed, and kept silently following Dean Wu, who was beside the little assistant, tapped his phone lightly.

Lin Mian understood immediately, and opened Alipay with some heartache. The master laughed a few times in embarrassment, then leaned over and lowered his voice, "Do you know why so many people died suddenly in the village?"

Before the two could answer, he cautiously looked outside the courtyard wall, only to see that there was no one around, he continued: "Because they all have strange diseases."

Strange disease?

Lin Mian and Wu Ting looked at each other: "What strange disease?"

As soon as the master engraver opened his chatterbox, he stopped hiding and sat down on the half-used stone, took out a crumpled cigarette case from his pocket, and pulled out a Yandangshan stick behind his head. .

"Rat plague, people with this disease are covered with dense black short hairs all over their bodies, just like big rats, their eyes have become extremely scarlet, unconscious, and they bite everyone they see."

Lin Mian had heard of chicken plague and plague, but this was the first time he had heard of "rat plague". He couldn't help but ask, "Can it be cured?"

The stele-carving master waved his hands again and again: "It can't be cured. The barefoot doctors in the village have never heard of this disease. At first they treated it as a skin disease, but they were bitten by the patient..."

"and then?"

"Then he also got rat plague." The stele engraving master sighed, his voice was a little trembling, as if he had lingering fears.

"Is this disease contagious?" Lin Mian frowned deeply.

The stele engraving master nodded: "Knowing that the rat plague is so severe, the village chief asked the villagers to hand over all the sick people at home and put them in a separate house. This proposal is actually good, but it's a pity that everyone is reluctant to part with their relatives, so secretly Hide people."

"Hidden?"

Lin Mian knew that things were going to be bad when he heard this, so he heard the stele engraving master continue: "They thought that they would be fine if they tied up the people who got rat plague, but after a day and a night, those patients became so powerful that ordinary ropes could not Can't tie it down."

Lin Zhaosheng still remembered that at about ten o'clock that night, he was doing nothing to carve a paperweight in the main room with a cigarette in his mouth.

In Zhelin Village, where the sesame seeds are bigger, not many people die in a year. With the little money he earns purely by engraving tombstones, he must starve to death, so Lin Zhaosheng usually makes some exquisite gadgets and asks people to take them to the city to sell. , to subsidize the household.

At that time, when the carving was getting to the fine point, there was a shrill scream from the yard of a certain family not far away. The scream was so terrifying that his hands trembled, and a good paperweight was ruined. He picked up the big stone hammer leaning against the wall, and was going to have a good "theory" with the other party, and asked him what the ghost called if he didn't sleep in the middle of the night?

The author has something to say:

Ah, I'm so busy at work today, I don't have time to think of witty words, so let me give you some refills~

感谢在2021-12-2618:00:00~2021-12-2718:00:00期间为我投出霸王票或灌溉营养液的小天使哦~

Thanks to the little angel of irrigation nutrient solution: 1 bottle of Mumumumuyuxi;

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!