Living Paper

nostalgia/article

Bai Zhun spoke more and more quietly, and fell asleep at the end.

Huo Zhenye covered him with a soft quilt and sat beside his bed for a while.

Bai Zhun has always been light-headed, and usually wakes up immediately if there is a little movement, but tonight he tried his best to sleep very peacefully.

Huo Zhenye gently moved the wooden bed in and slept next to Bai Zhun's spring bed, a little shorter than him, so he could see him when he woke up tomorrow morning.

The two paper servants standing in the room stared at Huo Zhenye. Huo Zhenye stretched out his arms, lay down comfortably, and smiled: "Don't look, we will be a family from now on."

The two paper servants turned their faces away again.

Bai Zhun slept until it was three o'clock in the morning, and woke up lazily yawning. When he opened his eyes, he saw Huo Zhenye sleeping beside his bed. He frowned: "Why are you here?"

Huo Zhenye sat up, he had actually woken up a long time ago, but seeing that Bai Zhun was sleeping so peacefully, he was reluctant to wake him up.

"Which little apprentice doesn't bring tea and water to the master to watch the night and beat his back, do you want to try my craft?"

Seeing his glib tongue, Bai Zhun took out a thin bamboo strip and nodded at him: "Go, buy a bowl of small wontons for Teacher Wei."

Crepe leather, wrapped in a little minced meat, he will eat a hot bowl in the morning, and his stomach will be more comfortable.

Huo Zhenye never expected that on his first day as an apprentice, the first task would be to buy small wontons for his master, but he immediately laughed: "Then master, would you like to try the shredded duck porridge from Guangzhou Tea House?"

Nowadays, Cantonese restaurants are very popular in Shanghai. Bai Zhun definitely likes steamed dumplings filled with meat and sweet stuffed buns.

As expected, Bai Zhun nodded in satisfaction, he is a good apprentice who knows and understands.

Bai Qiye's mouth is very picky, and he never wants to drink bland white porridge, but as long as he eats wontons for two days, he doesn't like to touch them again.

Huo Zhenye and Bai Zhun prepared a table, and bit into a steamed stuffed bun by himself, but Bai Zhun tasted a little of each, and after tasting, he asked, "What kind of stuffing is this steamed stuffed bun?"

Huo Zhenye sighed, split the bun from the middle, revealing the meatballs inside, put the whole thing into Bai Zhun's bowl, and ate the skin of the bun himself.

Bai Zhun used a chopstick to poke and eat. The food taken from other people's mouths is always more delicious. He said while eating, "That person came after me."

Sure enough, Huo Zhenye guessed it.

"Rival? Is there a festival? Or...you don't like it?" With Bai Zhun's temper, Huo Zhenye is probably the only one who can look down on him.

"It's all possible."

Huo Zhenye was drinking tea and almost choked, but he didn't expect that he had a correct understanding of his popularity.

Bai Zhun took another bite of the minced meat, and slowly glanced at Huo Zhenye, that paper spirit had been raised for a year.Three punks, four virgins, and seven lives together will make a fortune.

But it was interrupted by Huo Zhenye.

"What do you see me doing?" Huo Zhenye asked.

Bai Zhun withdrew his gaze: "I think you have a really good life." He has earned enough of the merits of four lives in one go.

Huo Zhenye felt that this was not a good word: "... I'm sorry."

Bai Zhun frowned slightly: "I'm going into the temple tonight."

The papers for the meeting to welcome the gods are tall and must be tied in the Temple of the City God. When the day comes, the God of the City God will go on a tour, and these paper offerings will be carried out first to clear the way.

Go around the ghost altar in all directions, and finally burn it in front of the gods.

"I'll go find him." Huo Zhenye chewed off the bun skin in two bites, stood up and prepared to go out.

"You?" Bai Zhun glanced at him.

Huo Zhenye chuckled, he took out a small square box, with a flick of his fingertips, the lid opened, and a "cluster" of flames ignited in the silver box.

"I've analyzed it. That thing was not frightened by my gunshots, but by the smell of gunpowder. It's afraid of fire." What's more, it's this kind of fire that can't be extinguished easily.

Considering he was a little clever, Bai Zhun lowered his head and took a sip of duck porridge.

As soon as Huo Zhenye opened the door to leave, the little oriole jumped on his shoulder again, and he asked, "Are you going too?"

The little squirrel jumped lightly.

Huo Zhenye smiled: "Okay, I'll take you there."

After speaking, he looked at Bai Zhun who was inside the door and smiled, Bai Zhun knew he was looking at him, but he didn't look at him: "Hurry up and get out."

Huo Zhenye grinned, staggered, and rolled away with a smile on his face.

He drove to Sanguantang Road.

The entire street is engaged in the business of funeral supplies, some selling coffin shrouds, some selling tin foil ingots, and some selling various paper bundles.

In front of the paper-making shop, baskets of gold ingots and jade girls are hung, and there are paper figurines with blushes on their faces.

When a big family holds a funeral, even the drum band has to tie up and burn it.

After looking at the paper bundles made by Bai Zhun, and looking at these again, Huo Zhenye thought for no reason of the hypocritical new school poem "No Soul".

He searched carefully one by one, number 75, number 79.

77 number.

The gate of No. 77 was closed, Huo Zhenye went to the shop next door, and asked the boss next door, "Why isn't No. 77 open?"

The boss looked at him suspiciously, seeing his attire as a rich man's son, and asked, "Are you looking for Lao Zhou? Are you a relative of Lao Zhou?"

Huo Zhenye took out a cigarette from the cigarette case and handed one to the boss, who waved his hand: "No, those in our business don't smoke this."

The store is full of paper bundles, fearing that a spark will catch it.

"Lao Zhou is getting older and has returned to the countryside. This shop has been rented out for more than a year." The boss is honest. There are paper ties on the street. It depends on who is skilled and sells expensive ones. Law, cheap also has cheap sales.

Haven't opened it for a year?So where did Song Fusheng and his wife buy the paper puppet?

Huo Zhenye walked out of the store and walked to the front of store No. 77. The red paper that was transferred to Wangpu a year ago was still stuck on the tightly erected wooden board, and the color of the red paper had faded.

It looked like an empty shop.

But the front door is too clean.

Huo Zhenye took a closer look. Although the red paper had faded, there was no ash floating between the wooden boards.

When he was inspecting the facade, the little squirrel suddenly flew up and pecked in with its sharp beak. There was a soft sound of paper bamboo behind the wooden door, and there was indeed something inside.

Huo Zhenye borrowed a phone from the shop next door, and called the big head: "Check for me, who owns this shop."

He sat in the car and waited.

The big head came back quickly: "Mr. Huo." He looked at him in confusion, "This street belongs to your Huo family, right?" and asked him to make another trip.

The entire Sanguantang Road belongs to the Huo family, and the house deed and land deed are all inscribed with the word Huo.

Huo Zhenye really didn't remember it. When he returned to Shanghai, his elder brother told him to learn how to do business. If the rice factory and cloth factory didn't like it, he could collect the rent.

"I forgot about it for a while." Huo Zhenye cleared his throat, "Call a few brothers to pry this door open for me."

The big head opened his mouth slightly, how many lands should there be in this house to forget the whole street, since it is the Huo family's land and the Huo family's house, then pry it.

Datou asked several brothers to pry open the door. The moment the door opened, there was a rustling sound in the room, like many small animals sneaking into the shadows, and it quickly subsided.

The house is full of paper bundles, this is indeed not an empty house.

Looking at Huo Zhenye: "Young Master Huo, why are you demolishing this store?"

"The rent was delayed."

Datou guessed that the rental money for this year would not be enough for Mr. Huo to carry a pen, but he was embarrassed to say that there was always some reason for Mr. Huo to do strange things anyway.

Huo Zhenye walked around the store, but the man just refused to show up. He raised his eyebrows and smiled: "Brothers, please move out all the things here and burn them."

Since he didn't show up, he had to burn things, so as not to have any more paper spirits to harm people.

Huo Zhenye was also very forthright as the first few obeyed orders, since they were asked to help, they had to treat guests to dinner, and wrapping a red envelope counted as hard work.

Everyone worked hard when they heard that Cuicui Building was open.

The big head carried a paper figure out, Huo Zhenye glanced at him and stopped him: "Wait, put this down."

The big head put the paper figurine down: "What's the matter, Mr. Huo?"

Paper figurines dressed up as maids in the Qing Dynasty, with green tops, rose red trousers, earrings in their ears, and thin and dense bangs, tied very delicately.

But one of its eyes is bad.

It looks like... it was pecked by something sharp.

The little squirrel raised its head on Huo Zhenye's shoulder, and Huo Zhenye raised his eyebrows. The paper figurine was peeping at him through the crack of the door just now.

He rubbed the head of the oriole: "Move this to my car."

Huo Zhenye saw with his own eyes that the things in this shop were burned bit by bit, the whole room burned from morning to afternoon.

He threw a cigarette to Datou and asked, "Has Song Ying's autopsy report come out yet? How is this case going to be concluded?"

The case has progressed to this point. It may or may not be determined. It depends on Mr. Song's intention of arresting one person. After all, all the children have been recovered, and Song Fusheng is a very good comprador businessman.

Datou lowered his voice: "Boss Song means that Song Fusheng will be sentenced for not reporting the crime, and if he pays a fine, he will be... released in a few days."

But the murderer who killed Song Ying is still on the hunt. The testimony of the Indian concierge and the hotel waiter can prove that Song Ying was still with a little boy at that time.

The child may have been taken by the murderer.

Huo Zhenye also guessed that Song Ying is dead, Song Fusheng can always get back his freedom as long as he pays a large sum of money.That's probably the end of the case.

Datou sucked in two puffs of cigarettes, and then slowly exhaled: "I just can't figure it out, who the hell wants... and skinned." The death was too miserable.

Huo Zhenye saw that all the paper bundles were burnt, and patted the big head on the shoulder: "This store is closed, brothers are tired, please treat them to dinner for me, I will go back first."

The big head smiled: "Mr. Huo is too polite, it's okay for brothers to help out with such a small matter, but everyone wants to hear from you how you found the corpse?"

Huo Zhenye waved his hand, got into the car, and drove back to Bai's house.

While waiting for the traffic light, the paper girl in the back seat of the car sat up suddenly, stretched out her hand straight out, as if to pinch Huo Zhenye's neck.

Huo Zhenye drove the car with one hand, and opened the silver box with the other. As soon as the flames appeared, the paper figurine immediately lay down again.

When entering Yuqingli, Huo Zhenye wrapped the paper maid's head with a cloth, put it under her arm and brought it into the small building of Baijia.

As soon as the paper maid came in, Bai Zhun came out, frowning: "What did you bring back?"

Huo Zhenye shook off his suit and showed a smile, "Knife technique is the key to seal carving, brushwork is the style of calligraphy and painting. You are an expert at piercing this paper. If you look at bamboo and paper, you can always tell who made it."

"You don't need to look." Bai Zhun waved his hand while covering the tip of his nose, frowning tightly, signaling Huo Zhenye to place the paper figurine in the courtyard.

"Just by smelling it, I knew it was him."

"Him? Who? Which him?" Huo Zhenye held the paper-tied maid, fixed his gaze on Bai Zhun, feeling a little uneasy in his heart, did he even smell like someone else?

The author has something to say: Huo · house demolition expert · jealous expert · seven