Beipai Tomb Raiders Notes

"Bang bang!" I knocked hard on the door twice.

The man with glasses turned his head and looked over when he heard the voice.

"Fuck!"

"What are you doing! Why did you come in without knocking!"

He threw away the earphones and put on his pants in a panic.

"I knocked on the door, didn't you hear it with your headphones?"

"Is it you? A relative of the Bai family?"

"What are you buying?" He recognized me.

"Wreath," I said to buy a better wreath, a bigger one, maybe it will be used in a day or two, and you can send it to me when the time comes.

The man with glasses put on his down jacket and said with a smile: "Brother, you really came to the right place. The quality of the wreaths in my store is the best in Xianyang. They are big and round."

"The wreaths take up space in the next shop, come with me brother."

When I came out, I was a little curious, and asked casually, "Why does your door open upwards, it's inconvenient."

"You don't understand that, do you?"

He pushed the door up casually, and turned around and said: "360 lines, this is the rule in the industry. Although our Baishi shop is in the business of dead people, we don't welcome things that are not human. The door is made to open up and down, and there are some bad things." I can't come in at night."

His two stores are next to each other, just outside the door. The other store has no signboard, and there are many ready-made wreaths and paper dolls against the wall in the room.

Nowadays, many funeral shops don’t sell paper figurines. There are dozens of paper figurines standing in this room. If you don’t turn on the lights, you can only see their outlines in the dark.

Why do I say scary, because the paper figurines here are all more than one meter tall, with round faces, and the paper figurines all have the same expression, wearing blue clothes and white clothes, with eye sockets painted on their faces, but there are no eyes, and some of them are not placed well. , fell to the ground.

There are two big white paper horses in the north corner. A pair of boy and girl paper figurines are holding the paper horses. On the left side of the paper horses is a paper cow. Have you ever seen a paper cow?I also saw it for the first time.

He casually picked up a paper figurine that fell on the ground, and said, "All the wreaths are here. You can choose which one to choose. There are big ones and small ones. They are all new. The big ones are 60 yuan, and the small ones are 35 yuan. You need paper." It can be cheaper if you use paper horses, leave an address and I will deliver the goods to your door."

"Just that one," I randomly picked the biggest one.

"Where are the paper bundles? Do you want them?"

I said: "Let's just tie the paper together, it looks uncomfortable, what's the matter with your cow, there are still people buying paper cows," I pointed to the corner of the wall and said.

He explained: "Paper cows are not called paper cows in our funeral industry, but Yin buffalo cows. They are rarely used in the north, but sometimes people want them. Did you buy one without looking at it? When it is sold, it will be bought."

I asked, "What is a yin buffalo? I only know buffalo."

He continued: "In the funeral business, this yin buffalo can only be burned for women. It is a bad thing if it is burned for men, because there are golden bridges and silver bridges in the underworld. They will go up the bridge separately, the men will go to the golden bridge, and the women will go to the silver bridge."

"There is a pool of bubbling hot blood in the middle of the Silver Bridge. Some women waste a lot of water in cooking and washing clothes. Only by letting the buffalo drink up the blood can they get over it. Your feet are scalding."

I laughed dumbfounded after hearing this.

I said what are you talking about, who said that only women waste water, but men don't waste water?Oh, according to what you said, the men who scrub in the bathhouse and the men who drive the sprinkler don't waste water every day.

"Hey, brother, don't argue with me. What I'm talking about is just a saying passed down by the elders. If you want to know the truth, you will know it after you die."

I was too lazy to argue with him, so I took out 100 yuan and gave it to him, saying that I would buy a wreath and give me the rest of the money.

"Got it brother."

He took the money, then grabbed another paper figurine with a round face, and said with a smile:

"Look at how good and cute this is. This is for you. Don't ask me to give you change."

He was about to slap the paper figurine in my face, so I took two steps back and cursed: "You fucking take it away, I don't want it if I say no, change the money, I'm leaving."

"Got it, I'm looking for you."

He gave me some change and asked, "Where will I send it? Please leave the address."

I didn't know where to order the mourning hall of the Bai family in two days, so I said, "I'll call you when the time comes, won't you deliver the goods for free?"

"It's free, but it's only in Qindu District. If you go too far, I'll have to charge you extra. Otherwise, I won't be able to earn enough gas money by selling you a wreath."

"Got it, let's go."

The next day was fine.

There is news.

I heard from other people that Mr. Bai made a will. He said that he should not be cremated after death, but buried, and he told future generations that he must be buried in a piece of wasteland north of the No. [-] National Cotton Factory.

He persisted for another day and a half, and at 71:[-] p.m. on the third day, the old man Bai Tingli passed away in the intensive care unit of Tonghui Hospital. He died in the first month at the age of [-].

According to the customs here, a mourning hall will be set up the day after a person dies, and some things that the old man used before must be burned outside the mourning hall, mainly quilts, pillows, clothes and so on.

At that time, the city did not allow burials, but when Bai Tingli was young, he built a large auditorium from scratch. He had connections in the local area, and he settled it with a little money.

The mourning hall is located downstairs in the old community, and the entire Bai family is busy with funeral affairs for the elderly. Her father went out to find someone to buy a coffin overnight. I called the funeral store owner and told him the address to deliver the wreath. Then he helped Baiyanqiong move things.

The old lady of the Bai family kept wiping away tears, packed up some clothes, bedding and other things of the old man, and then I moved downstairs to the mourning hall.

"Grandpa, go over there and take good care of yourself. If you have anything to say, just entrust it to me."

As the flames grew stronger, Baiyan Qiong took a step back with red eyes, and took from me the clothes worn by old man Bai before his death.

One by one, she burned one, and I picked it out of the box and handed it over.

The box was almost empty, and when it got to the bottom, it was an army green cloth coat, which used to be very old-fashioned. I felt something hard in the pocket of this old-fashioned coat.

When I took it out, I saw that it was a small flat iron box, which was full of rust, with a row of small red characters printed on it.

"The commemoration of the third group of the Science Popularization Committee of the Second Northwest National Cotton Factory."

Seeing that Baixiong Qiong was kneeling on the ground staring at the fire in a daze, I quickly stuffed the iron box into my clothes.

"The dead cannot be resurrected, condolences."

Bai Xiqiong wiped away her tears, "Thank you for helping me."

"You're welcome. Is there a toilet near you?" I asked.

She said: "There is a family upstairs, and there is a public toilet downstairs in No. 5."

"Then I'll go to the bathroom and come back later."

After leaving the mourning hall, I walked quickly to Building No. [-] and entered the toilet.

The public toilets in the old community are all squatting pits. When I went in, I saw an old man squatting to relieve himself and went out to wait.

I took out the iron box and tugged on the small lock, but found that it couldn't be opened.

This lock is not big, just one size bigger than the kind that locks notebooks. I put the iron box on the ground, found half a brick and smashed it open two or three times.

At this time, the old man who was going to the toilet came out with his trousers in his pocket, and I went into the toilet with my things.

Opening the tin box, there was a plastic bag inside, and it could be seen that there were several photos and stacked letter papers in the plastic bag.

The photo is a black and white photo, which has turned slightly yellow. It seems that the old man took good care of it, and there is no crease in the photo.

In the first black-and-white photo, there are three people, two men and one woman, all young, estimated to be about 20 years old, one man with thick eyebrows and big eyes wearing an old-fashioned green military uniform and a hat on his head, the other man is a little thinner and taller A little taller, the girl has braided hair and is wearing a floral padded jacket, standing between the two men, all three of whom are laughing, with the cotton field in the background.

The background of the second photo should be in a certain factory workshop, or there are two men, one woman and three people. I found the problem. There is a small cart in the corner of the background of the black and white photo. Iron lump, looking closer, it seems to be a Buddha statue. This Buddha statue only shows half of its face, so you can't see the whole picture clearly.

The third photo was taken at night, the light is very dark, there is a person in the photo, the head of this person was wiped off by a pen smudge, only the body can be seen, the white things piled on the ground should be stretched cotton , In addition, there is a portable horse lantern on the ground.

There was only one folded letter paper left in the plastic bag, and I took out the letter paper to open it.

"Hey."

Suddenly someone patted me on the back.

"Happy New Year."