Living Paper

nostalgia/article

The snow fell all night, and the firewood burned all night.

Bai Zhun leaned against Huo Zhenye's arms. He was breathing very lightly when he fell asleep. Huo Zhenye held the bamboo stick with one hand to stir the firewood, looked down at Bai Zhun, and saw the flame dancing between his eyebrows and eyes.

Huo Zhenye wrapped Bai Zhun tightly with a fur coat to protect him from the wind, rubbing his knuckles with his fingertips, counting the days in his mind, soon, the construction of the Town God's Temple will start soon.

He will be fine then.

The next day when Bai Zhun opened his eyes, the mountains and forests in front of him were covered with silver. He lay on the bamboo bed he slept in when he was a child, and he could smell the smell of sweet potato porridge in the room.

Huo Zhenye had just learned how to burn briquettes, and went to the mountains to learn how to cook porridge.

Seeing that Bai Zhun had woken up, he was a little embarrassed: "This pot is not very good." He resolutely refused to say that his skills were poor.

"But the one on top is not mushy and can still be eaten." He took out a small bowl and put it in front of Bai Zhun, ready to accept his merciless ridicule, but Bai Zhun just took a look at him and took the bowl.

There is a slight burnt smell in this porridge, just like the one cooked by the master.

Huo Zhenye watched Bai Zhun take a sip from the bowl, he knew the porridge tasted bad, but Bai Zhun even smiled after taking a sip.

He didn't put much sugar in it, so it wouldn't be sweet and silly.

Bai Zhun drank half a bowl and said to Huo Zhenye, "Let's go up the mountain."

The snow fell all night and finally stopped. There was no one in the mountains, and there was no need for Huo Zhenye to carry him. Two paper servants carried Bai Zhun to the grave.

Snow filled the hole.

"Do you want to push the snow away?" Huo Zhenye asked.

Bai Zhun coughed twice: "I don't need you."

Two paper servants jumped into the snow bank and dug the snow out of the pit. The snow turned into water and wet the paper clothes, exposing the bamboo bones in the cavity.

Seeing that the paper servant was wet, Huo Zhenye jumped into the pit, his calves were buried in the snow, and the snow in his leather shoes and trousers was full of crushed snow, which quickly turned into water, making him shiver with cold.

"You go up, I'll do it." This was said to the paper servant, who was at a loss what to do, stood in the pit for a while, jumped lightly, and jumped out of the pit.

Huo Zhenye was wearing leather gloves, and he was still freezing enough to push the snow away to reveal the dirt pit.

Naturally, nothing was left in the tomb. Originally, when he was buried, the master didn't want to be buried with him. Only his bones were sealed in the coffin.

Bai Zhun frowned, and the cold wind in the mountains brushed his cheeks and ears, and he breathed out: "Do you have any money?"

Huo Zhenye was stunned: "Your master still buried the treasure?" No wonder Bai Zhun is so rich, a vase and tea bowl are all antiques.

"I'm talking about the one in your neck, the seven stars under the coffin."

Except for a coffin, there are only seven ancient coins on the coffin lid, each engraved with a Big Dipper star, and the position of the Big Dipper is also placed on the coffin lid.

The Big Dipper marks death, and the coffin presses the seven stars, it is for the soul.

I don't know if I can still find it, even if there are not all seven, it would be nice to have one or two.

"Won't it be touched by Bai Yang?"

"No." If there is anything else, he must have taken it away, but he must not dare to touch the Seven Stars of Lost Souls.Not only did he not dare to touch it, after he opened the coffin, he also reset the Seven Stars.

How long will it take to dig such a big pit, seven small coins, I can't wait to use a soil sieve to sieve the money out.

Finding money in the soil is no different from finding a needle in a haystack, but since Bai Zhun said, he always has to look for it, Huo Zhenye didn't hold out hope, he stretched out his hand and found something.

The black mud on it was patted away, revealing a little bright yellow.

Bai Zhun raised his eyebrows slightly, why did this man's luck improve again?

"You try again."

Huo Zhenye rummaged through all the pieces, and found another one. He was panting with exhaustion, which was more tired than the bed: "It may not be here, maybe it was washed down with the muddy water."

"But it's easy to find."

"How do I find it?" It's been half a year in such a vast area, where can I find Qixing money?

Huo Zhenye took two of the seven stars, went to the head of Lingguan Village, and told him that the ancestors of the family were buried here, and the muddy water washed away the coffin, and asked the villagers to retrieve the bones.

On the lid of the coffin are the seven stars of requiem from the time of the burial, and one seven star is exchanged for ten silver oceans.

Now a piece of Yinyang can buy more than 20 catties of rice, and the village chief stood up when he heard it. Originally, the village was hit hard by this, and everyone's life was hard.

This is really "Yuan Datou" delivered to your door!

In less than half a day, half of the bamboo baskets were collected, full of all kinds of ancient coins, all washed out of ancient tombs, and these things cannot be exchanged for money or rice, so they are useless at all.

Only one of the half-bamboo baskets was what Huo Zhenye was looking for. He counted out ten silver coins on the spot, and handed them one by one to the man. The crisp sound of the silver coins colliding quickly spread throughout the village.

Huo Zhenye mobilized the villagers to look for Qixing all over the mountain, and Bai Zhun buried the third aunt.

"Third Aunt has something to do, so I don't write to tell me, so I don't need to be buried with them." Bai Zhun drank a lot of medicine made by Tan Sangu when he was a child.

While letting the paper figurine dig a hole to clear the snow and re-bury the third aunt, he sorted out the paper bamboo and tied the paper horse for her.

Tan Sangu sat next to Bai Zhun: "No gold or silver bridges, just a boy and girl." She likes children and animals.

Bai Zhun laughed, and really tied up boys and girls for Tan Sangu, all dressed in colorful paper clothes, and it was very lively at first glance.

It was already evening when Huo Zhenye returned to the bamboo house. He bought a bacon pot in the village, cut the marinated pork belly into thin slices, put it on the rice, and stewed the bacon rice for Bai Zhun.

The fat of the cured meat dripped into the rice, seeping down layer by layer, and the bamboo house was filled with the aroma of rice and meat after a while.

Huo Zhenye lifted the lid of the pot, and Bai Zhun came out of the house, feeling quite emotional, this young master can live and work in peace and contentment anywhere, nothing can trouble him.

"Eat quickly." Huo Zhenye spread out his palms, holding two seven-star coins.

The seven stars gathered four stars, some were fished out by children from the stream, and some were found when digging bamboo and cutting trees, and he collected them for a day before he got four together.

Bai Zhun put the four coins into the small cloth bag.

Axiu sat on the bamboo bed and watched from afar. When she saw the four coins, she moved her fingers slightly.

Bai Zhun turned around and saw Axiu looking out of the window. After the snow stopped, the branches were covered with powder and two fat birds were next to each other. You pecked me and I pecked you.

A Xiu's legs dangled, her eyes lit up, and she looked very happy.

He remembered, Ah Xiu wanted a smiling face.

Bai Zhun lowered his head and coughed a few times, swallowing the fishy-sweet smell in his throat. When he looked up, he saw Huo Zhenye stopped his chopsticks and was looking at him worriedly.

He stretched out the bowl: "Some more."

Bai Zhun swallowed two more mouthfuls, the rice grains were soaked in lard, chewing it a few more times, it was not too difficult to swallow.

"Do you like this?" Huo Zhenye couldn't stop the excitement in his tone, "This is too rough. Let's make it with Cantonese-style sausage and goose sausage when we get back. I don't know if you like that."

Huo Zhenye was happy that he could eat one more bite.

In the middle of the night, Bai Zhun fell asleep on the bed, and Huo Zhenye couldn't sleep with his eyes open. He got up to add fuel to the fire, and the flames were shaken by the gust of wind.

Huo Zhenye smelled a fishy smell. Since he entered the mountain, his nose seemed to be sharper than before.

He took out the ancient copper coin on his neck and saw through the money hole that Sangu Tan was standing in front of him. Huo Zhenye bit his teeth so hard that he could not back away: "Sangu, when you come, can you say hello?"

Sangu smiled: "Isn't this a gust of wind for you?"

"The third aunt is here to look for Ah Zhun?"

Tan Sangu shook her head: "I'm here to find you."

She had seen all the commotion in the village, and she was right about this kid. Sangu Tan cut to the chase: "Ah Zhun's body is failing."

Huo Zhenye clenched his fingertips, choked his throat, and said after a while: "He will recover, as soon as the Town God's Temple is completed, he will recover."

It will definitely get better.

Tan Sangu still shook her head: "With his current state, he won't last until then."

Bai Zhun was just trying to hold on and didn't want others to know, but he couldn't bear such waste.

Huo Zhenye clenched his teeth and clenched his fists, Tan Sangu glanced at him with his hands behind his back, heh, is this trying to eat people?

Who knows that Huo Zhenye asked: "Third Aunt came to me, is there a way to teach me?"

Sangu nodded this time: "I have never seen a serious illness in my life, and my medical skills are all on paper. If you want to believe me, let's try."

This is a method her father passed on to her, and it is not easy to use. Even her father has only heard of it, and has never encountered such a patient. Bai Zhun like this

The third aunt's solution is to go to the old grave in the mountains to find some herbs before dawn.

The leaves are narrow and long, and the ears bear green and red fruits, the color of which should be the same as that of cherries in April and May. The whole plant is picked and brought back, and it is decocted into a decoction for Bai Zhun to drink.

To others, this medicine is a heartbreaker, but to Baizhun, it is a life-saving medicine.

"Is this grass easy to find?"

Tan Sangu took a few steps away, looked at the increasingly golden light on Huo Zhenye's body, and clicked her tongue: "Others may not be sure, I think you can do it."

Huo Zhenye lit a torch and went up the mountain, Tan Sangu didn't give him directions, and just followed him around the mountain, his trousers, clothes and gloves were wet in the end, but he really found a plant among the rocks.

It's just that the fruit was still green, so he dug back with the soil. When he left, he didn't forget that there was a grave underneath, and he planted a bunch of incense in front of the grave.

Huo Zhenye was drenched in sweat, and his whole body was steaming. When he walked to the door of the bamboo house, he saw Axiu lying beside Bai Zhun's bed.

"Axiu." Huo Zhenye said softly, "Don't wake him up."

Axiu turned around and made a movement of covering the quilt.