A full meal was definitely not an excessive request, it was even a bit humble. Liao Daqiu was deeply moved and clasped his fists and bowed repeatedly.
"Don't worry, brave men. I, Lao Liao, will definitely do it. I will definitely do it!"
The ghosts around also bowed to Liao Daqiu.
"My benefactor, please remember to find a paper craftsman to make a battle flag for you! Please remember!"
"Don't worry, I will definitely do it, I will definitely do it..."
In the inner room of Liao Daqiu's house, Old Liao was clutching the quilt tightly with both hands and shouting continuously.
"It will be done, it will be done, it will be done..."
The sound woke his wife up immediately. She squinted her eyes and looked outside the curtains of the room. There was already a hint of white light through the gap in the wooden window. It was obvious that daybreak had already begun.
The woman turned over and looked at her husband, who kept shouting "I will do it". She pushed him twice and found that her body was very tense and wet.
"The child's father, the child's father? The child's father!"
The woman sat up from the bed and shook Liao Daqiu hard, finally waking him up. The latter trembled and woke up with a cry of "Ouch".
"Huh... Huh... Huh..."
Liao Daqiu breathed slightly, looked at the beam blankly, glanced around the room, and finally looked at the mother of his child.
"Dad, did you have a nightmare? He kept saying he would definitely do something... He looked a little scary!"
The woman found the handkerchief on the bedside table and wiped Liao Daqiu's sweat while saying this.
Old Liao took the handkerchief from his wife and touched his face, only to find that his face and body were all covered in sweat. Even the quilt was damp from the sweat.
"Nightmare? I guess..."
Liao Daqiu remembered clearly everything in his dream. He saw so many ghosts, but they were all good ghosts. It was not a nightmare, but what he heard was not good.
At this moment, Lao Liao came back to his senses and suddenly asked his wife.
"Mother, do you know where to find a good paper craftsman?"
Liao Daqiu's question made his wife feel a little puzzled. There were blacksmiths, carpenters, and bricklayers in the village, and paper craftsmen specifically referred to those who made objects for the dead.
"Did something happen to one of our relatives?"
The woman was a little nervous, and Liao Daqiu quickly shook his head.
"No, no, no, it's because of the dream I just had. I dreamed about..."
Liao Daqiu paused and thought for a moment.
"Go get me the kettle first. I'm thirsty. I'll drink some water first."
"Yes, yes, yes, you have to finish drinking the water first!"
The woman quickly got out of bed and went to the outer room to get the kettle, but she also went to see her son first. Seeing that he was fast asleep, she returned to the house with the kettle and the teacup.
"Here, kettle."
Lao Liao took the kettle and teacup, poured some water and drank it. After three bowls, he finally quenched his thirst. This time it was not like in his dream where no matter how much he drank, it was useless.
"Are you back to your senses?"
"Come back to your senses!"
It was now much brighter in the direction of the outer room and the sun was rising from the horizon. Liao Daqiu calmed himself down and said to his wife.
"Last night I dreamt that..."
Liao Daqiu told his wife about his dream. The latter was also very scared and kept asking if it was just a dream.
But such a real dream made Liao Daqiu dare not neglect it. He waited until it was a little brighter, ate some porridge with pickles at home, and then hurried out.
As soon as he went out, Liao Daqiu saw his neighbor Lao Zhang, who was squatting at the door of his house and eating porridge with a snort.
"Hey, Lao Zhang, let me tell you, I had a dream last night..."
Liao Daqiu originally planned to go directly to the old village chief, but now he was full of desire to talk, especially to his good friend Lao Zhang, with whom he could talk about anything, so he just told him all about the profound dream he had last night.
Old Zhang frowned and looked at Liao Daqiu.
"Hey, Lao Liao, this is just a nightmare of yours. We have been tired of burying the remains of passers-by over the years. What you mean now is that we have to start burning things for them and offering sacrifices to them? We are all not rich. We can't even have a full meal every year. Let's not bother with this..."
Lao Zhang also advised earnestly that it is okay to do good deeds, but one must do so within one's ability.
Burying the corpse and erecting a tombstone only requires some effort. Farmers may lack everything else except strength, so this is possible. At most, they may add a broken straw mat or some hay.
But burning food and cooking soup for the dead in the mass graves? Is this even possible? There are so many bodies in the mass graves!
"Oh, Old Zhang, that's not what I meant! These are the things the ghosts in the public graveyard told me. There's a plague out there, and burning these things is helping ourselves!"
Old Zhang was also a little angry.
"You, Old Liao, are just dreaming. Do you want me to pay for making paper objects with you and set up a restaurant together? The wages of a paper craftsman are not cheap!"
Among the major events in life, weddings and funerals are undoubtedly the most expensive and troublesome. The exquisite paper items made by paper craftsmen are often only affordable by wealthy people.
"I say... Lao Zhang, of course the money is collected by everyone in the village. How could our two families... "
Upon hearing this, Lao Zhang became angry and spoke loudly.
"Who told you 'our two families'? I didn't agree to that!"
After saying this, Lao Zhang no longer paid any attention to Liao Daqiu and just ate his porridge. The latter had a troubled look on his face and he grabbed his clothes and stomped his feet.
"Hey, I'm going to find the old village chief!"
Seeing Liao Daqiu leave, Lao Zhang shouted something from behind.
"Go ahead, go ahead. The old village chief will never go crazy with you!"
Even his best brother had this attitude. Although Liao Daqiu was a farmer, he was not stupid. He knew that other people would definitely not agree with this. So although he wanted to tell everyone he knew about the dream, he held it in and walked all the way to the village chief's house.
"Morning, Uncle Liao!"
"Morning!"
The young man who had dug the corpse together before greeted Liao Daqiu who was in a hurry, but Uncle Liao, who used to be talkative, simply replied and walked away without stopping.
"Strange thing, what happened to Uncle Liao today?"
Liao Daqiu walked all the way to the old village chief's house. The old village chief lived at the end of the village, not far from the land temple at the end of the village. When he saw the yard of the old village chief from a distance, he breathed a sigh of relief, but he was still a little uneasy.
Although the old village chief seems to be reasonable, experienced and knowledgeable, but thinking back to Lao Zhang's attitude, what if the old village chief is like the same
Before Liao Daqiu could figure out a good idea, the old village chief, who saw him coming from afar, dropped the bowl in his hand, quickly walked out of the fenced yard, trotted towards Liao Daqiu, rushed in front of him and started shouting.
"Old Liao! Let me tell you, the God of Land appeared in my dream last night! It's true!"
The old village chief was even more excited than Liao Daqiu, which scared Liao who was thinking hard.
"ah?"
Liao Daqiu asked in a daze, making the old village chief anxious.
"Oh, last night, I had a very real dream. In the dream, I suddenly had a stomachache and woke up because I was suffocating. So I put on my clothes and went to the toilet. On the way, I passed the land temple and saw the land god sitting outside. He called me 'little ball' directly. This is my nickname. I am over 60 years old. Nowadays, let alone people calling me by this name, almost no one remembers it..."
The old village chief looked towards the end of the village.
"Let me tell you, the God of Land is really as the rumors say, he is quite short... Oh, yes, he told me that there might be plague ghosts coming to us soon, and he plans to help us block them together with the ghosts in the cemetery, but it is still unclear whether they can be blocked..."
Liao Daqiu, who had been listening in a daze, slapped his thigh hard when he heard this.
"Hey, old village chief, I was just about to tell you about this! I also had a dream last night. Many ghosts from the public graves came out. They were waiting for me at the door of my house and told me that the plague ghosts were coming. They wanted to fight to the death with the plague ghosts to protect the peace of our villagers, and they also wanted to burn some paper objects..."
Two people who had dreams last night and are still frightened now are now telling each other about their dreams. After they have finished telling each other, they confirm their dreams with each other. The matter is already very clear.
What else can I say? Liao Daqiu and the old village chief discussed and prepared to go to the village to mobilize. The latter went back to the yard, ate a few mouthfuls of porridge, took a loud gong, and went out with Lao Liao.
“Dangdangdangdang…”
As they walked, they banged the gongs loudly, making the sound deafening. The sound spread from the end of the village to the beginning of the village, and finally succeeded in attracting the attention of the entire village.
Soon, most of the village people had gathered in the threshing ground in the center of the village. Liao Daqiu even borrowed a table and asked the old village chief to stand on it and talk to everyone. After the old village chief finished speaking, he went up and told everyone about his own dream.
In fact, the villagers are still quite superstitious about such supernatural things. If only Liao Daqiu had said it, many people might have had the same reaction as Lao Zhang. But the old village chief and Lao Liao said it together, and their faces were serious and even occasionally frightened. Coupled with the herd effect, it was easy to get excited, and soon everyone's emotions were mobilized and everyone became afraid.
Finally, everyone decided that they had to ask the God of Land, so many people went to the land temple together and asked the God of Land by throwing the divining sticks. As a result, they threw the divining sticks many times in a row, and each time they got the holy divining stick.
At this point, most people in the village were shaken, and with the constant efforts of the old village chief and Liao Daqiu, many people were soon convinced.
Liao Daqiu and a few farmers went to the county town to find a papermaker, while the old village chief was preparing rice and soup in the village.
To make rice soup for more than a hundred ghosts, at least a dozen families have to work together to make it. After all, this time it might be a matter of life and death, so it's better to be safe than sorry. So it still takes some effort to make the rice soup, and it can't be done in a perfunctory manner. Just killing thirty or forty local chickens and ducks is a huge expense in Maotan Village.
The county town is about half a day's journey from Maotan Village. When Lao Liao, Lao Zhang and others arrived in the city, they went to the funeral shop to find the owner. Generally, in such a shop, the owner himself might be a paper craftsman, and this was indeed the case.
The people of Maotan Village placed orders for paper battle flags and paper weapons at once, which made the boss happy but also strange, as who would burn these for the dead? But of course it was good to have business, so he didn't care.
He said politely, "Goodbye, sir," and saw the farmers off before returning to the store with a smile on his face. He was seen by his wife by chance.
"Boss, you are so happy. What big business have you encountered?"
The person who just left didn't seem to be rich, so the woman was a little puzzled.
"Hehe, of course. We ordered some paper flags and paper weapons from Maotan Village. The quantity is quite large, and the deposit was also paid."
The boss weighed a string of copper coins in his hand.
"Oh, I can't tell!"
"Yeah, the time is tight and the requirements are high, but these things are much simpler than making houses and paper figures. I'll take less rest and finish them soon! Hehehe..."
"Why don't you go and get to work? I'll just watch over the store!"
The proprietress put her hands on her hips and chased the shop owner to work, and the latter hurried back to the yard behind the shop.
But when he was leaving, the shop owner was also thinking about what the farmers had said, saying that there might be an epidemic and asked him to be careful.
But in recent years the government has been very sensitive to what is spread orally among villagers. For fear of being arrested by the government and charged with spreading false information, the farmers did not dare to say too much and just left.