Master Zhao Juan's handwriting is very beautiful. Zheng Jun picked up the note, put it under the table, and looked at me with pride.
"Now that you've begged me, you're so proud?"
"Brother, I don't dare."
Zheng Jun pulled my arm.
"release."
I got in the car, Zheng Jun got in his own car, and we arrived at the Xilai Hotel. It was that room again, the room I disliked the most. The painting there was always so weird.
Chef Zhao Juan was already there. We sat down and the dishes started to be served, and then the wine. While drinking, Chef Zhao Juan said.
"I still have two years before retirement. I will teach you all the skills I have. When you encounter something in the crematorium in the future, you must be bold and careful. No matter what happens, there will be a breakthrough point. There is no pattern to what happens in the crematorium. I am different, so I just have to adapt to the situation."
Master Zhao Juan said a lot that day and felt a little sad. She seemed not very satisfied after working in a crematorium for her entire life.
Master Zhao Juan drank a little too much that day.
We went into the dressing room and she sat for a long time before she stood up.
The shroud on the ghost corpse was no longer moving, but the strangest thing was that the white line turned into a black line again.
The master lifted the body sheet and saw white lines on it. I was a little scared, but Zheng Jun didn't notice it.
"This is a ghost button. Come and see. It will open naturally after a few minutes."
We looked at it and found that the ghost button was very complicated.
"When it's on, you can see how to do the trick, and then remember it. I won't tell you, and I can't tell you. You can't remember it. You can only wait for another opportunity like this."
The white rope slowly untied itself. Zheng Jun covered his mouth, afraid that he would scream out. After it untied, a black line appeared.
"Master, how did the white turn black? You were holding a black thread?"
"One of the characteristics of a ghost corpse is that if black doesn't turn white, and white doesn't turn back to black, then don't move the corpse. It's easy to deal with a small ghost, but if it's a big ghost, you have to find Sergeant Lin. He likes it and has a way to deal with it."
I never seem to understand things like this.
"You will understand slowly. I didn't understand it at first either. Okay, Mingzhe, you do the makeup. Zhengjun, you watch. You are so scared."
Master Zhao watched me put on makeup until I finished.
"Okay, it's over, send it back."
Originally, the ghost corpse was to be cremated today. Master Zhao went out and didn't know how to convince the family members. This was very difficult. Anyway, the family members agreed to cremate it tomorrow.
"Don't forget it tonight."
Master Zhao reminded me.
When I came out, Zheng Jun asked me what was going on.
"You are too nosy. It does no good. Didn't the master tell you not to be curious about anything?"
"Virtue."
After Zheng Jun finished speaking, he ran away.
I drove to Zhang Xiaoxue's home. That was the real Zhang Xiaoxue, I felt it when I held her hand.
I didn't expect anything like this to happen at all. It was absolutely beyond my imagination.
I told Zhang Xiaoxue that I had something to do at the crematorium in the evening, and Master Zhao let me go.
Zhang Xiaoxue has not been working since something happened. She asked to go to work, but Mao Xiaoli said that she had to wait until she got used to it, so she has not been working since then.
That day I took Zhang Xiaoxue to the crematorium, and when we were one-third of the way there, it started to fog up.
"It's getting foggy."
Zhang Xiaoxue was a little nervous, probably because she had never seen such heavy fog before, and it was not on this road. I didn't say too much to her, but just said it was a normal phenomenon and that we could pass through now without any problem.
Actually, I didn't want to bring Zhang Xiaoxue here, for fear of what might happen again. But a fake Zhang Xiaoxue appeared. I couldn't explain what was going on. I couldn't explain the connection between the man who asked me to take him to the old ashes building. I couldn't explain why such a thing happened. If it was just about the powder, it was too evil. Zheng Jun was too careless. But there was no way to say anything about it. Who wouldn't leave something behind? So, the crematorium is really a place where people will never feel at ease. I thought there would be no problem dealing with the dead, but there was a problem.
The fog was getting thicker and thicker, so we had to stop. We couldn't walk into the fog, as that would do us no good. Zhang Xiaoxue held my hand tightly and didn't let go. I could feel that she was extremely nervous.
"Don't be afraid, Master Zhao will help us."
Zhang Xiaoxue appeared in the fog. I held Zhang Xiaoxue's hand and she was already shivering.
"Mingzhe, we have to leave now, something bad is going to happen."
I also had a premonition that something was going to happen, but there was no other way now. We had to face it whether it happened or not. Escaping was never a solution to a problem. What's more, Master Zhao Juan was watching how things developed somewhere. If there were any problems, she would come out to help us. That's what I thought, but if the problem was serious and Master Zhao couldn't help us, then we would be in danger.
Zhang Xiaoxue did not smile. She appeared coldly. After standing for a while, she actually went up the mountain. There was a road leading to the mountain, which was made by people, not opened intentionally. It was a narrow path and there was no fog on the mountain. Unexpectedly, when Zhang Xiaoxue reached halfway up the mountain, a big cave suddenly appeared. Zhang Xiaoxue turned around, smiled, and walked in.
Zhang Xiaoxue and I were a little scared. Suddenly, Zhang Xiaoxue broke free from my hand and ran up the mountain. I didn't know when she became so strong, but I knew something was wrong.
I chased, but failed to catch up. Zhang Xiaoxue followed her into the cave. When I arrived, the cave was gone and the fog on the road slowly dissipated. When I was extremely anxious, Master Zhao appeared.
"That's the same temptation, it's a pink ghost, I don't know what she wants to do."
"Xiaoxue went in, won't she be in danger?"
I'm a little angry, but now is not the time to get angry.
"This is a cave. It should exist physically, but we can't see it now. Wait until daybreak and go to the market to invite workers."
It seems that this is the only way. Sometimes I can't stand Master Zhao's calmness. Maybe she has experienced too much, and such things may be very common to her.
I went home, waited until daybreak, and then went to the market to hire workers.
When I arrived, Master Zhao was already there.
"Today's work is arranged. Let's look for the cave here. This should be the location."
I don't believe there is a cave there, because there is no cave here. I pass by it every day and have never seen it. It's just a ghost. Everything is fake and does not exist. Even that Zhang Xiaoxue is fake. Maybe it's just an illusion, but Master Zhao believes it exists.
The workers searched but still couldn't find it until the afternoon. All they found were pits everywhere they dug. In the end, only a mountain was left. No matter what, they had to give it a try. The workers asked for more money, so I paid.
Unexpectedly, when the mountain was halfway demolished, they heard an empty sound. Master Zhao stopped them from demolishing the mountain and told them that everything was over.
The workers left, said Master Zhao.
"You smash it."
I knew that Master Zhao didn't want other people to know, so I started to smash the door. It was midnight when I finally broke through. I looked at Master Zhao. She went out for a while to buy some water and food, as well as a flashlight. When I shone the flashlight inside, Master Zhao shivered. I saw it.
"What's in it?"
"Stop it first, and come back at daybreak."
When I got home, I didn't expect to find Master Zhou sitting at my door.
"Master Zhou, why are you here? You didn't even call me."
"Stop talking nonsense and go into the house and get me a glass of water."
Master Zhou came into the room and said after drinking a glass of water.
"Xiaoxue is in trouble. I know. I can feel it. If she follows you, a lot of trouble will happen. But she really likes you and loves you. I can't persuade her, so I have to persuade you. Now you can be together, but remember one thing, Zhang Xiaoxue, you can't touch her now, at least for three years, otherwise you and Xiaoxue will die."
"Why?"
"Yinyan hated Xiao Zhang. When she died, she left her resentment to Xiao Xue. It will take three years for the resentment to disappear from her body."
I didn't expect this.
"You can do it by just making a phone call."
While talking to Master Zhou, he placed something there, a bright square in an antique color.
“Place it in the east corner of your house. Don’t move it. It will stay there for three years.”
"What's this?"
"I'm leaving."
Master Zhou didn't even give any explanation.
"I'll take you there."
"No, remember to call me grandma from now on."
I stared blankly at Master Zhou as he left.
I can't figure out how Master Zhou knew something had happened. Maybe it was because of the blood relationship, or he had a strange feeling. They all said that after working in a crematorium for a few years, they would have a strange feeling that ordinary people don't have. They could feel when something happened to their relatives. This might be the feeling we have about our relatives in our daily lives, but it's not obvious. But for people who work in a crematorium, the strange feeling is very obvious.
At dawn, Master Zhao and I went to that place. He also asked me to look inside with a flashlight. After I finished looking, my legs went weak and I almost fell down. I never expected that there would be countless coffins in this big cave. Those coffins should be general coffins, which are the coffins of generals who died in ancient wars. General coffins are completely different from other coffins. One side of the general coffin has a half baffle and is not sealed. The general's soul can enter and leave.
I never expected that there would be so many coffins.
"Master, what kind of coffin is that?"
"General, you should also know whose coffin it is. Let's go in and take a look."
I knocked the hole until it was big enough for a person to crawl in. I crawled in first. I couldn't let the master crawl in first, especially since I'm a man. But I was afraid, and being afraid no longer solved the problem at this moment.
I went in, and the master followed me in. I supported him and walked slowly inside. The master was going to retire in just over a year, and I felt a little bad for him for still getting involved in this matter.
In addition to this hall, this cave is filled with hundreds of coffins and thirteen passages, none of which are large enough to accommodate only one person.
"Those are the thirteen paths. In the underworld, after a person dies, there are thirteen paths to take. You can choose for yourself. Of course, you don't know where each path leads to. In the human world, there are many injustices. After you die, there will be thirteen paths to choose from. This is fair. No matter who you are, you don't know where you will end up. It's not like what people say, there is only one path leading to the underworld."
"What are the thirteen paths?"
Master Zhao looked at me and smiled.
"After I die, I will only know what one path is."
I think this question is ridiculous.
Master Zhao walked up to a coffin and looked inside from the middle.
"These are the remains of soldiers. Judging from their clothes, they should be Manchu soldiers. Judging from the coffin label, they should be soldiers who died in the battle of Suoyang City."
Coffin marks. In the past, when wars were fought, too many people died. So wherever they died, there would be a mark, which is the coffin mark. In addition to this, the location of the soldier’s hometown would also be marked so that the soldier could find his hometown after death.
I never expected it would be like this. The city I live in is Suoyang City, which was originally called Suoyang City. The Battle of Suoyang City was a complete victory for Nurhaci, but so many people died. In fact, this is not a lot. At that time, Beijing sent an army of more than 100,000, and only a few hundred people died.
As Master Zhao and I were talking, there was a strange noise and we both stopped moving. (To be continued)