Back behind the bar, Zhou Ze poured himself a glass of water. Just after taking two sips, the old Taoist came back.
"Posted?"
"Yes, boss."
The Taoist priest scratched his head and asked again, "Boss, why are there so many wreaths behind their cars?"
And that was not a real wreath, it would not be visible at all without the cow's tears.
All Chinese people know that wreaths are for the dead and are very unlucky for the living. It is definitely not a good thing to suddenly see these things on the back of a car.
Therefore, even though the two young urban management officers almost caused him to get into trouble at the hands of his boss, they were well-intentioned, so the old Taoist still willingly donated the talisman paper hidden in his crotch.
"It happens when people spit on you from behind many times."
Zhou Ze smiled and didn't take it seriously. He wanted to ask Bai Yingying to make him some tea, but then he remembered that Yingying was still fighting in the Internet cafe.
"Make me a pot of tea."
"Oh, okay."
The old Taoist was also very skillful and was very good at making tea. He actually knew a lot and was good at learning. Zhou Ze had seen the old Taoist mixing cocktails for guests when Xu Qinglang was not around.
"Boss, what do you mean by being scolded too much?"
"People often see the city management vehicles and spit on the back of them, then curse, 'die soon and be reborn soon.'
Gradually, there were more and more wreaths. "
"Cursed?"
“I guess so.”
"But those two young city management officers are pretty good."
"The teacher who committed suicide by jumping off a building was also a good person."
"Um... this..."
"Don't worry, that wreath won't kill anyone. At most it will weaken their luck. Once you stick the talisman on it, there shouldn't be any problem."
"Alas, I feel sorry for those two kids. Why should they bear the bad reputation of the urban management?"
“Because most people like to pick up the bowl to eat and put down the chopsticks to curse;
If you are driving or walking and the road is blocked by street vendors, you should curse;
If you see videos of urban management officers ‘beating’ people or reports of ‘bullying’ street vendors online, you should also curse them.”
"Alas, people's words are scary, people's words are scary.
Boss, the tea is ready."
The old Taoist brought the tea and even picked up the rag again and started wiping here and there with a serious face. Even though the bookstore was cleaned spotlessly by Deadpool, the old Taoist felt uneasy, fearing that Zhou Ze would bring up the matter of his "son" again.
Boss Zhou lay down on the sofa. Just as he lay down, Xu Qinglang came down from upstairs.
"Did you eat outside at noon?"
There was a hint of urgency in Xu Qinglang's words.
"Um."
"hehe."
The old Taoist walked away tactfully.
"Old Zhou, come with me and do me a favor." Xu Qinglang said to Zhou Ze.
Zhou Ze opened his eyes helplessly, looked at Xu Qinglang who had changed into a neat outfit, hesitated for a moment, and nodded.
As a friend, now that the other person has asked, you would be too embarrassed to refuse him/her in person, especially since you are lying on the sofa, acting like nothing has happened.
I wanted to find an excuse to cover it up, but I couldn't find any.
And no matter what, Lao Xu has always helped Zhou Ze a lot.
Xu Qinglang was driving and Zhou Ze was sitting in the passenger seat.
The car was heading for Xu Qinglang's hometown, Menhai County, which was not far away. There would be basically no traffic jam in Tongcheng unless there was a traffic accident. It was estimated that it would take less than an hour to drive there.
"That's the thing. The problems we encountered during the last grave relocation are starting to ferment now."
Xu Qinglang just told Zhou Ze what happened.
Zhou Ze knew about this. In the past, Xu Qinglang had left the bookstore and returned to his hometown more than once to busy himself with the relocation of graves. Although Xu Qinglang's level of metaphysics was only half-baked in the eyes of Zhou Ze and the little loli, his level was much higher than that of the rural funeral directors and the so-called wandering Taoist priests.
Therefore, the relocation of the grave was also presided over by Xu Qinglang himself. He calculated the location and date, and everything was done step by step, but problems still occurred.
First, water came out from the ancestral tomb. According to Xu Qinglang, it was like an underground hot spring gushing out. The water was hot and emitting white smoke.
Later, during the excavation, an unknown landslide occurred. Although no one was killed, the villagers who were in charge of relocating the graves were scared to death.
In the end there was really nothing else to do but perform rescue excavations, which unearthed a pile of bones and the like. Some of the coffins had rotted away over time, with the bones buried in the soil. Some were so poor that they didn't even have a coffin for burial, and were simply buried on a rolled-up straw mat.
Except for the graves with inscriptions on them in recent years, the families themselves had no way of telling whose ancestors most of the other bones belonged to. Since most people in a village had the same surname anyway, it didn't matter. They were all moved to another location and buried collectively.
As for whether there are any remaining corpses in the old grave that have not been moved away, no one has bothered to look for them anymore, and it is too difficult to find them. It is impossible to just call an excavator to turn the land over again, right
But after that, strange things started happening. Things started to be lost in the village, and some people's livestock began to die suddenly for unknown reasons. Some people even dreamed of their great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers coming to them to cry and complain. In short, it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that the village was in turmoil, but at least people were afraid of enemies everywhere.
Xu Qinglang tried every possible way to solve the problem, but to no avail, so he had to ask Zhou Ze for help.
When we arrived at Xu Qinglang's village, it was already past three in the afternoon. Although it was a village, every household basically had a two-story Western-style building. There was a highway not far away outside, and the village was paved with cement roads. Many people had nice cars parked in their yards.
There is still a big difference between the rural areas in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai and those in the southwest. One reason is the local economic development, and the other is the geographical environment. It is indeed much more convenient and suitable for development than the mountainous environment in the southwest.
Xu Qinglang parked the car on the cement road beside the ridge of the field. He was very straightforward. He didn't even mention going back to his hometown to take Zhou Ze to meet some elder relatives or anything like that. He just took Zhou Ze directly to the grave.
The area around the old ancestral graves is overgrown with weeds and looks very desolate.
"The reason for the relocation of the graves is because of land acquisition. A high-speed rail line will pass through here. The villagers were not very willing at first, but after receiving a sum of compensation, everyone agreed."
Xu Qinglang squatted on the edge of the field and lit a cigarette.
Zhou Ze walked around the grave circle, then shrugged and said:
"I didn't find anything wrong, nor did I sense any ghostly aura. This place is as clean as you after putting on a facial mask every night."
"I tried to look for it, but I didn't find anything here. I originally thought that I was not good enough. Since you can't find anything, the problem may not be here."
"What happened to the bodies that were dug out earlier?" Zhou Ze asked.
"Except for those who could be clearly identified and buried separately, the rest were basically buried together." Xu Qinglang said.
"Then maybe Gossip Girl and Gossip Girl were enemies when they were alive, and they were accidentally buried together after death and had a quarrel?"
Zhou Ze said half-jokingly.
"It's not that simple. Ghosts eat livestock?"
Just as the two of them were smoking and talking about this matter, a loud shout suddenly came from a distance:
“Diving! Diving! Diving!!!”
The one shouting was an old woman. Although she was very old, her voice was still loud. Her shouts were enough to alarm half of the village.
Xu Qinglang and Zhou Ze ran over immediately. Several men had already gone into the pond. Without waiting for Xu Qinglang and Zhou Ze to react, those men pulled a woman out of the pond.
People in rural areas of Jiangnan like to build their own ponds so that they can raise fish and make some aquatic products.
When the woman was pulled up, her face was pale, but she was still awake. Her hands were unconsciously grasping something, as if she was still in the desperate stage when she was just drowning.
Xu Qinglang immediately went over to check on her condition, and the surrounding villagers also greeted Xu Qinglang one after another.
Zhou Ze was standing on the side watching, and suddenly he thought of a question. Didn’t Lao Xu get more than 20 houses because of the demolition? And this is his hometown, so why hasn’t it been demolished
Or maybe, this is indeed his hometown, but when he lived with his parents, he did not live in this village
Zhou Ze didn't have the courage to ask Xu Qinglang this, as the other person was in a hurry, and he wasn't in the mood to show off his twenty or so houses.
Suicide by jumping into water is not uncommon everywhere. Zhou Ze squatted down beside the pond. The water in the pond was not very clear and there were a lot of green algae floating on it.
Reaching out and pushing aside the green algae in front of him, Zhou Ze slightly tilted his head and looked under the water, but still found nothing and saw nothing. Although the pond was dirty, it was definitely not dirty in the sense of "dirty things".
The woman was carried back into the house. Many villagers gathered nearby. Tongcheng belongs to the eastern coastal area, so even young and middle-aged people in the countryside can find jobs nearby if they want to go to work. There is no need to leave their hometown to work. The countryside is still very lively.
Xu Qinglang was still busy inside, while Zhou Ze stood outside the crowd, smoking his cigarette.
Just then, an old man in shabby clothes came forward, cursing as he walked. The villagers around him showed expressions of disgust and rejection on their faces and made way for him.
The old man was cursing his own things.
First, let's blame the amplitude.
If you scold the village chief again,
He also scolded these villagers who were greedy for money.
A feeling of hate for not fighting.
He walked and cursed, spit flying everywhere, and the curses were as harsh as they could be.
Forgetting one's roots and being obsessed with money is a disservice to one's ancestors...
Zhou Ze watched the fun from the side, leaning against a locust tree.
The old man was quite lovable in Zhou Ze's eyes. When one reaches this age, there is nothing to be unhappy about. He can scold if he wants, make a fuss if he wants, or go crazy if he wants. Anyway, he won't live for many years and will soon die, so why should he endure the anger of a mortal like you
only,
The old man turned towards Zhou Ze while cursing. When he saw Zhou Ze, he subconsciously widened his eyes.
"Grandpa, Grandpa..."
A little girl ran over from a distance and held her grandfather's hand. She was afraid that her grandfather would run around and make a noise.
But the old man continued to stare at Zhou Ze.
"This is an uncle from outside, not from the village."
The little girl told her grandfather that he was old and could not remember much.
"What uncle!"
The old man spat directly at Zhou Ze.
Spit on Zhou Ze's shoes.
"devil!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, uncle. I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
The girl immediately squatted down and used her sleeves to wipe Zhou Ze's shoes. She was afraid that this outsider uncle would beat her grandfather.
"Come back and clean the shoes of some little brat!
Our Cui family can’t afford to lose this person!
People are people, ghosts are ghosts, when they are alive they are upright,
After death, I won't have to kowtow to these little devils!"
The old man scolded his granddaughter and pulled her back at the same time.
The granddaughter stood beside the old man and kept apologizing to Zhou Ze, shouting "I'm sorry, I'm sorry".
Zhou Ze lowered his head and looked at the surface of his shoes that had just been wiped by the little girl. He was a person with mysophobia. Although the old man's thick phlegm was wiped away, the disgust in his heart was hard to eliminate.
Although this old man is weird and disliked by the villagers, he is actually a hidden dragon and crouching tiger. He looks crazy, but in fact he can see things more clearly than anyone else in the village.
"You are not afraid of the King of Hell, but what about your granddaughter? How about I take her down first?"
Zhou Ze said half-jokingly.
"How dare you, you brat!"
The old man roared,
Directly crashed into Zhou Ze.
“Plop!”
Zhou Ze was originally standing by the pond.
This time, I was hit by the old man.
He actually fell into the pond with the old man.
"Someone's diving again, someone's diving again!!!"
"Save them! Save them! Save them quickly!"
“Grandpa, Grandpa!”
"Crazy Cui jumped into the water!!"
The shouts of the villagers came from the shore...