Living Paper

nostalgia/article

Through the copper coin hole, Huo Zhenye saw Sangu Tan standing in front of Bai Zhun across the temple gate. She was not as vicious as Mr. Xu said, but her face was serious.

Seeing that Bai Zhun lowered his head and coughed, Tan Sangu sighed leisurely.

A gust of wind blew across the threshold of the temple gate, blowing the snow foam on the ground.

Bai Zhun was wrapped in a fur coat, still bowed his head and coughed due to the wind, Huo Zhenye took off his own fur coat, covered Bai Zhun's lap, and carried him into the temple gate.

A fire was lit in the temple, and the two sat by the fire, listening to Tan Sangu talk about Lingguan Village.

The cemetery in Lingguan Village is a good place to store wind and gather Qi. People in the village are buried here after death.

When the mud and rocks came, most of the tombs were washed away, and the mud water soaked the coffin lid and rolled down the mountain. The villagers searched for several days, but they still couldn't find everything.

The villagers all said that it was because of the anger of the mountain god, who sacrificed animals and rebuilt the mountain temple.

Tan Sangu became a ghost after her death, and she still lived in the small bamboo house where she lived. Others had descendants who retrieved the coffin corpse, and she wandered all over the mountains looking for her own coffin.

After finally finding my own, it got stuck between the rock cracks and trees, and was just about to roll down the hillside and be smashed to pieces.

She found hers, and then she looked for Bai Qi's. Only she in Lingguan Village knew where Bai Qi was buried. Every Qingming and Winter Solstice, she would visit Bai Qi's grave and offer some water and wine.

She drifted far away, but she didn't find Bai Qi's coffin. She found Bai Qi's coffin at the lower reaches of the stream that was about to leave the village.

After a few days, the water in the stream became clear, and it was stuck by the big stone pier in the stream. With the current, it was about to fall apart with every bump.

The third aunt became anxious, the head of the seventh sect must not die and the coffin fell into the water. She attracted the villagers, and the villagers thought it was an ancestor of a certain family in the village, so they hurried down the river to pick it up.

Several young men went down the river, one grabbed the coffin, the others swam to hold it up, one of them exerted too much force and almost slipped and fell into the river.

"This coffin is not quite right!" said the villager, "Why is it so light?"

People are dead and fleshy, and it is impossible to be so light in the coffin.

They took the coffin out of the water, hung it on the river beach, pried off the coffin nails one by one, and opened the lid to find that there was nothing inside, just an empty coffin.

The villagers didn't know where this coffin village came from, and they were so frightened that they read scriptures for several days.

The people debated endlessly. Some people said that it was an empty coffin without an owner, so they could just burn it. Others said that if someone slept in it, they would not be able to go back without the coffin, and they would cause trouble in the village.

Finally, the village head decided to put the empty coffin in the Lingguan Hall.

Tan Sangu had no choice but to go to Mr. Xu at night and ask him to write a letter to Bai Zhun.

Sangu pointed to the inner hall: "Your master's coffin is inside."

When I opened it, it was an empty coffin, and I don't know how long Bai Qi's bones had been gone.

"Thank you, Sangu." Bai Zhunzhu's wheelchair rolled into the inner hall, and the master was going to be buried in Lingguan Village without even a stele.

Except for Bai Zhun, the mourners were all paper figurines. They dug the grave and filled it with soil, played drums and gongs, and finally burned it in front of his grave without disturbing anyone.

Bai Zhun stretched out his hand to caress the wooden coffin, with a serious expression on his face. He knew who stole Master's bone, but the question was what would he do with this bone?

Huo Zhenye stood by the door of the inner hall and watched, a gust of wind blew the hanging curtains in the hall.

Huo Zhenye turned around and saw nothing. He took out the bronze coin and looked into the hole. Tan Sangu was standing in front of him, and suddenly smiled: "Who are you from Ah Zhun?"

Such a pale grimace approached, Huo Zhenye was so frightened that he took half a step back, he thought for a while, and did not hide it from Tan Sangu: "We, we are partners."

Sangu Tan seemed to have guessed it a long time ago. She raised her eyebrows, looked Huo Zhenye up and down, and walked around him, nodding with satisfaction: "Young man is in good health."

After speaking, he glanced at Bai Zhun who was sitting beside the coffin, and said to Huo Zhenye, "Ah Zhun, this child has always been in poor health."

Tan Sangu said: "When his master first brought him back, he often ran to my place. Except for the three of them, there is no man in Lingguan village who has let me see a doctor."

Tan Sangu recalled the past, with a smile on her face: "He refuses to drink medicine, refuses to see a doctor, even a piece of caramel can't trick him into drinking a bowl of medicine."

Fear of bitterness and love of sweetness are the faults developed at that time.

Huo Zhenye didn't smile, he couldn't laugh, he knew that Bai Zhun's health was getting worse and worse, he even mentioned going to the hospital for some examinations.

But Bai Zhun didn't even pay attention to him.

Tan Sangu was reticent when she was alive, and she talked a lot when she was a lie. She babbled about Bai Zhun's past to Huo Zhenye: "No matter how many medicines he drank, it didn't work. Later, his master adopted him to the City God, and his body recovered."

Huo Zhenye's eyes lit up, as long as the Temple of the City God is built and the golden body of the City God is erected, will Bai Zhun's body be healed?

Bai Zhun came out from the inner hall: "Third Aunt Lao, let's go to the old house first, and we'll pick up the coffin tomorrow."

Although the bones were gone, there was always something to clean up in the grave, and the old house, which Axiu and Paper Servant should have cleared out.

Tan Sangu sent them to the gate of the temple, watched them go far away, and lay back in the coffin. After death, people can see many things that they couldn't see when they were alive. There is golden light.

I don't know what kind of meritorious deeds they have performed. Little ghosts and evil things dare not approach people like this.

It is always a good thing to have him with Ah Zhun.

Huo Zhenye carried Bai Zhun on his back and walked towards the bamboo house. Bai Zhun lay on his back: "There used to be a slide here, which was made by Master just for me."

It's a pity that as time goes by, tree roots and weeds grow, and the slideway is no longer usable.

"Aunt Tan and your master are friends?"

"Sangu's father turned out to be the master of the second sect."

Ermenpi, a doctor who sells medicine.

Master Tan got a daughter when he was old, and passed on the position of master to his disciples. He took his little daughter to live in seclusion in the mountains, and taught Tan Sangu all the skills of seeing a doctor.

But Sangu Tan has only been able to see women's diseases for women in the village in her life.

Huo Zhenye walked slowly up the mountain. He had never climbed this kind of mountain road. It was dark and snowy, and bamboos and trees were growing on both sides of the narrow road. He walked very slowly with every step.

The snow was getting less and bigger, and Huo Zhenye breathed out clouds of white mist, and he stopped after walking a few steps, groping for a path with his feet.

"Are you going here?" He asked Bai Zhun.

Bai Zhun didn't answer for a long time, he turned his head to look, Bai Zhun was lying on his back with his eyes closed, snowdrops were condensed on his long eyelashes, his skin was almost transparent.

"Bai Zhun!" Huo Zhenye suddenly called out.

The birds and beasts in the forest were startled, and Bai Zhun woke up suddenly. He exhaled a cloud of white air, and said dissatisfiedly: "Why are you so slow? Haven't arrived yet?"

Only then did Huo Zhenye feel at ease: "I can't see clearly, I'm asking you for the way."

Bai Zhun lay on his stomach, moving his fingertips slightly, Axiu quickly appeared in front of them, reached out to take Bai Zhun, and climbed up the mountain path with a "chuo bao".

Huo Zhenye stood on the narrow stone road, seeing Bai Zhun getting further and further away: "Hey! What about me?"

The two paper servants came down and lifted him up. Bai Zhun was already sitting comfortably in front of the fire, and ordered the paper figurines to steal some sweet potatoes, bury them in the fire, and wait for the sweet potatoes to be roasted and eaten.

"Do you still have a conscience?" Huo Zhenye went in and shook off the snow.

Bai Zhun narrowed his eyes and said, "No."

Huo Zhenye walked up behind Bai Zhun, hugged him, grabbed Bai Zhun's hands with both hands, and exhaled, "Then let me warm up."

His hands were not cold at all, much warmer than Bai Zhun's.

The two of them watched the snow falling on the bamboo mountain outside the door through the fire.