The next day, the news of our death spread, and it immediately shocked the whole town. Two people had died in the square the day before, and at night someone saw Shen Bing and I running back and forth like fireworks. We died inexplicably again, and our deaths were both sudden and bizarre. Everyone guessed that there were evil spirits in the town, and every household was busy asking the celestial master for amulets to protect their lives, just like the panic of grabbing salt during the SARS epidemic.
Fu Xueman's family also came. Aunt Ping cried for a long time and returned the betrothal gift. Wang Zijun and his classmates and friends also came to pay their respects. My family is a single-family household with no relatives to help. My mother is a lonely woman and helpless. Wang Zijun is a good friend. He didn't care about his uncle's funeral and helped me with the arrangements. My mother didn't know how to deal with Shen Bing's body, so she took it back home first.
The funeral rules here are that the coffin will be placed after three days. The coffin was made on the first day, and we were about to be put into the coffin after the third day. My mother hadn't slept for three days. Suddenly, she had a dream when she closed her eyes that night. She dreamed of her great-grandfather. The great-grandfather told her that her great-grandson was not dead yet. As long as they were heated up in a large steamer, placed in front of the store shelf, surrounded by eight candles and lit, they would come back to life before three o'clock in the morning.
My mother also thought that I was not dead. Although it was a dream, if the relatives of the deceased encounter such a thing, most of them would rather believe it than not. Most families in the town have a large stove that burns firewood. My mother asked Wang Zijun to help find a large steamer, and she placed the two of us horizontally on it and heated water to steam us.
Once this news got out, many people came to watch the fun, and surrounded our house in three layers. After steaming for a while, my mother found that our bodies were hot and our flesh was a little soft, so she asked someone to carry us to the store and light candles. It was just after two o'clock in the morning, so we didn't waste any time.
My mother knelt in front of the corpse and prayed. Wang Zijun had never seen such a thing before, so he hid outside the door and dared not come in. Some people in the town heard the news and felt curious. Some people got dressed and rushed over to see the excitement. More and more people gathered. It was almost three o'clock, and we hadn't come back to life yet. My mother was already discouraged.
At this time, Fan Xiaobing came with his men in a threatening manner and invited Master Mao. The shrew pointed at the store and said it was a place of evil spirits, where corpses could easily come back to life and harm the people in the town. She also lied that the suicide in the square was caused by the evil spirits in our store, and asked the onlookers to point fingers at my mother and yell at her.
My mother had no words to say to them. Wang Zijun was squeezed outside the door by a dozen ruffians and couldn't move. He pleaded with Master Mao, but Master Mao ignored him. Later, Master Mao asked people to put out the candles, but my mother stood in front of them and refused to do anything. When the ruffians pushed her away, Shen Bing and I just came back to life!
We knew what happened next without our mom telling us.
Fu Xueman interrupted again, "So that's how it is. Big brother is really resurrected. That's great!"
I looked at her coldly and asked, "You just know this now?"
"Yes." She responded with a confused look on her face, but suddenly shook her head and said, "No, I actually heard it from someone else just now." She looked a little flustered.
I sneered and said, "Did you hear it from Fan Xiaobing?"
Fu Xueman's face suddenly changed color and she quickly lowered her head, looking a little uneasy.