I rest on Saturday and let the director arrange work.
I took Liu Yang to the columbarium. Liu Shougui was reading a book. Perhaps the only thing he did when he had nothing to do was to read. The books he read were a bit random, he read all kinds of books.
That day I showed one of the diaries to Liu Shougui, and he looked at it for a long time and shook his head.
"I don't know. I don't recognize the handwriting on this diary. But judging from this situation, it must be an old man who knows everything about the crematorium."
I also know that it must be an old man from the crematorium, but the strangest thing is that the diary was thrown in the warehouse. What does that mean
I didn't get any results that day. A few days later, I went to Mao Xiaoli's place. She finished reading the diary, threw it aside, looked a little disdainful, drank a sip of tea and said.
"The man died a long time ago."
I was stunned.
"who?"
"It's useless for you to know. She's just a woman in an urn. It's enough for you to know her diary."
Mao Xiaoli always avoided questions so simply. The simpler her answer was, the more it showed that something was wrong. She was always like this, so I didn't ask any further questions.
"Is it comfortable to be the manager? But it's pretty impressive. It's a bit unexpected that he became the manager all of a sudden."
"Me too, but I still like makeup, or refining, I feel like that's the real thing."
"Okay, the director's feeling is still the best."
I didn't feel good, maybe I didn't feel it, or maybe Mao Xiaoli's words were sharp. This woman is like this, there is always sharpness in her words.
I wanted to ask about this, but no problem came out. It seems that Mao Xiaoli is no longer happy with me. I haven't had the chance to have the last skin cutting, which is normal.
Mao Xiaoli was quite dissatisfied with this matter, but it was not my fault last time. I had no idea why the corpse became like that and why it was so wrong.
Li Xiaohuan got into trouble again, and I'm very angry.
That day Li Xiaohuan said she could do it alone, and I wanted to give her a try. I taught her very hard, and she was smart and learned quickly, but she just couldn't change her careless habit, which was what I was most worried about. I checked that day and found that there was no difficult makeup, just ordinary makeup, so I let her do it by herself.
The female makeup artist must stand on the right side to apply makeup to the deceased. I have emphasized this point many times. This rule was taught by the master, and it has always been done this way. As for what will happen, no one knows because no one stands wrong. We know there will be consequences, but the master never told us what the consequences are. We asked, but he never told us either.
But Li Xiaohuan put it to the test, and it was so infuriating.
When Li Xiaohuan got into trouble, people from other dressing rooms came to tell us. We have two dressing rooms and we operate them at the same time, fearing that there would be major makeup or complicated situations.
I rushed into the dressing room. Li Xiaohuan had no shadow under the dressing light. If a person has no shadow, then he will die. In our daily life, in fact, there is also a sign of death. The first sign is no shadow. If you walk under the sun without a shadow, then death is coming and you are going to die. This is something that cannot be changed. At this time, you have to arrange things for your afterlife. There are many other signs of death. Another one is that you cannot see the stars at night, but others can see them. So, at this time, you can do whatever you want, but it will only take a few days, and the longest will not exceed twenty-two days.
Li Xiaohuan had no idea what was going on and was still putting on makeup stupidly. I glared at her.
"Wait for me in my office, don't mess around."
Li Xiaohuan looked at me blankly and left.
After I finished my makeup, I returned to the office.
Li Xiaohuan was actually putting on makeup there.
"Stop. Didn't I tell you that you can't put makeup on yourself in the crematorium? One is to respect the deceased and the family members. What do you want to do by putting red and green on yourself?"
I was very angry and Li Xiaohuan was a little at a loss. She still didn't know what had happened.
"Change your clothes immediately and follow me."
Li Xiaohuan took a shower, changed clothes, and then got in the car. I drove out of the crematorium and found an open space.
"You did the worst thing today. I'm telling you, your carelessness will cost you your life. I'll help you this time and I'll tell you if you can get through to the place where you can count your fate. Then you can go to the refining room or other departments. You can't be a makeup artist anymore."
"What's wrong with me?"
Li Xiaohuan stood in the sun.
"Look, do you have a shadow?"
Li Xiaohuan took a look and there was really no shadow. He looked at me and saw that the shadow was there. She was stunned for a moment and then started sweating.
"What's going on? Ghosts don't have shadows. I, I..."
"You stood on the left when you were putting on makeup. That's where the male makeup artist stands."
"I, I, sometimes I can't tell left from right, just sometimes."
Li Xiaohuan never told me that because she was smart and had always been with me, she knew it was the left when she saw me standing on the left, and she stood on the right, who knew it would be like this? I sighed and shook my head.
"Master, am I going to die?"
"It depends on your fate."
It seems that I have to find Mao Xiaoli. Only then did I realize that Mao Xiaoli seemed to be very important in my life. I would go to her for everything. It was like this anyway, and it would be a waste not to find her. As for the skin cutting issue, it seemed that I could not escape it even if I became the mayor. After all, it was the last time.
I took Li Xiaohuan to Mao Xiaoli's house. She was drawing. I was not afraid that Mao Xiaoli would be angry. I just watched her draw. I would feel stunned when she drew. I didn't know what weird picture she would draw. This was the scariest thing.
Mao Xiaoli said after hearing the story.
"You can get things like this wrong. You are a rare disciple. A stunning product."
Li Xiaohuan didn't dare to move at this moment. He sat half-hanging, nervous. Who wouldn't be afraid of death? His shadow was gone. Only ghosts have no shadows. It seems that he is not far from death.
Mao Xiaoli said.
"I really can't do this, but I can find someone. This person is interesting. He is the oldest refiner in the crematorium and should be considered the first generation of refiners. However, this person has a problem, a bit evil. I want to ask him to do something, but there is a condition, which is also quite strange. This person's surname is Huang, Huang Bo. However, this person is not easy to see. I will make a phone call and you can go there between 9 and 10 o'clock in the evening. He only sees people at this time."
I don't know Huang Bo and have never heard of him. The strangest thing is that in the crematorium display, all the old employees have photos, but some don't. There must be some reason for not having them.
Mao Xiaoli gave me a black bag, not big, which contained something.
"Just give this thing to Huang Bo, he will agree to it."
I didn't know what it was, so I took Li Xiaohuan home, and Liu Yang cooked at home. Li Xiaohuan and Liu Yang met, and the two of them were able to chat together.
Go home and tell the story, Liu Yang said.
"This girl is like this all day long, so carefree. I have never seen a girl this carefree. If she finds a husband in the future, she might end up losing him."
While the two were talking, I went into my father's room and opened the paper package. I was stunned. It was mouth money. The dead would have this kind of money in their mouths, the fifty-cent coin. There was a saying about this money. Whoever took it would benefit from it and avoid harm and disaster. As for other sayings, I had never heard of them.
We have seen this kind of thing a lot. When putting on makeup, you have to take the money out of your mouth and put it back after finishing the makeup.
At nine o'clock in the evening, I took Li Xiaohuan to Huang Bo's house. Huang Bo lived in a separate courtyard next to a ditch. There was nothing special or strange about it.
I knocked on the door and it was opened by Huang Bo, an old man in his sixties.
He looked kind, which made me feel relieved. Maybe he was not as weird as Mao Xiaoli said.
We entered the room and the furnishings were no different.
"Where's the stuff?"
I was stunned and remembered the money in my mouth. I took it out and handed it to him. He opened the paper package, looked at it for a long time and said.
"good."
I can't see what's good about it. It's just a fifty-cent coin in a dead person's mouth.
"This is one of my conditions, but your case is very troublesome, not just ordinary trouble. I have to add one more condition. Tomorrow someone will be sent to you, and I need the money in that person's mouth. Of course, I don't care how you switch the money or how you do it."
I was stunned. Here comes another condition.
"But… "
"I don't have any buts. It's settled. But I do want to show you my stuff. It would be a shame if no one saw it."
Huang Bo took me into a room. I didn't feel anything special, but on the wall of the room and on the table in the middle, there were coins. The difference was that there were gold coins and silver coins. In addition to the 50-cent coin, there was also foreign money.
"This is all the money I earned from burning people to death. Isn't it a lot? Of course, I'm not doing this anymore, but I'm still collecting it. I just like it. I can't explain how much I like it. In this life, my wife is so angry about this thing. My children don't want to visit me. They say I'm too evil and they're afraid I'll get unlucky."
Actually, I didn't think there was anything wrong with it. It was just that I really didn't know and had never encountered such money in the mouth. I always thought it was just a 50-cent coin, but I didn't expect it to be like this.
"Don't underestimate these mouthfuls of money. They are very useful."
I don't know what it is used for, but these coins should be worth a lot of money if converted into RMB.
Huang Bo did not say any other uses for the money that day, and perhaps he would never say it.
When we got back, Li Xiaohuan went to my house and slept in the same room with Liu Yang.
I didn't think much about this matter, but I was worried that Li Xiaohuan's shadow was gone, and whether Huang Bo could find him back? I didn't know, it was unpredictable.
The next day at work, I entered the dressing room and saw Li Xiaohuan standing aside.
Huang Bo gave me a name, and I had already looked it up in the registration office, in the hall, the Pine and Cypress Hall.
I went in, saw the man, pushed out, and went into the dressing room.
I took out the money from the man's mouth, and it turned out to be black, a black metal, the size of a dollar coin. What was that? I didn't recognize the words on it at all, and it looked a bit strange.
I couldn't replace the coins I had on hand.
"I'll push the body over and put it on another makeup bed. I'll be out for a while."
I had to find such a black coin, but I couldn't figure out how to find it. Finally, I used something to dye a one-dollar coin black. Then I went back, put on makeup, and put it in my mouth. This mouth-filled money was not originally burned. Over the years, I don't know what happened, but people started to burn it. It wasn't the family members who took it home. It was really not easy for Huang Bo to get these mouth-filled coins in the early days.
I think this money is no different from ordinary money, it's just that this one is a little special.
That day I was worried that something might go wrong, but nothing happened. I waited until the refining was completed, and then I felt relieved, thinking that the matter was over.
I took Li Xiaohuan there at nine o'clock in the evening. This Huang Bo is really weird. He only sees people from nine to ten o'clock. And the weirdest thing is that he is absolutely not seen on Wednesdays.
We went in, and I put the black coin wrapped in black paper on the table. Mrs. Huang picked it up, opened the paper and looked at it for a long time, then turned off the light and looked at it for another long time.
"It's this thing, no mistake, no mistake, hahahaha... I've waited my whole life, and finally got it."
That smile was weird, and my heart couldn't help but tighten when I saw it. (To be continued)