The dead corpse man did not break his promise, and found it for a long while since early morning. He didn't say he was tired, he didn't say he was annoying, but in the second half of the day, the strength of my whole body had already drained.
I sat on the boat in a daze, looking at the empty river, I couldn't tell whether it was sour or bitter in my heart.
This may be the first time in my life I know what it is like to lose a loved one.
"Are there anyone else in your family?"
"No more..." I looked up at the corpse hunter, although I didn't want to cry in front of outsiders, but my eyes were unbelievable, and my eyes dimmed with tears for a moment: "Just me and my father..."
The corpse hunter didn't ask anything more, took out a wine gourd, took two big sips, wiped the corners of his mouth, and drove the four sheep boat to start looking.
This search was another whole day. I want to find my father's body, but I don't want to find it. If I can't find his body, then I may still have a bit of hope in my heart. I hope that Dad is still alive, but he just landed ashore from another place.
The corpse hunter asked me to eat a little bit of dry food. However, I didn’t have the mind to eat at all. Holding the dry bread that was given to me by the corpse scavenger, I lowered my head and thought for a long time before I mustered the courage to ask: "Uncle, if a person dies in the water, does it matter how much he drifts? Far away, will you be able to get it back in the end?"
In fact, the corpse hunter led me to search for so long, and I had no hope in my heart. People who fell into the water for so long would undoubtedly die. I was just looking forward to getting my father's body back.
"Not necessarily." The corpse hunter thought for a while, then shook his head, and looked towards the river immersed in the night, and said: "Some people die in the water, and the corpses will never be found, because those floating corpses, All went to one place."
"Where did those corpses go?"
"I don't know." The corpse hunter shook his head again: "I have been looking for that place for so many years."
The spirit of my body seemed to disappear all at once.
The corpse hunter is considered to be the most benevolent, and took me two hours to find a river bend to shore. As soon as I went ashore, I sat down on the ground. Since I was a child, my father has depended on each other for life, and my father is gone, I don't know the way down, how to go.
The corpse hunter looked tired after having been busy for so long, sitting next to me, holding his own wine gourd, and drinking slowly. My heart felt uncomfortable, I couldn't tell, I held it for a long time, and my tears fell silently again.
"People have to live no matter what happens." The corpse man handed me the wine gourd and said: "If you feel really uncomfortable, just take a sip."
I took the wine gourd and drank the first sip of wine in my life.
Father is gone, the small fishing boat is gone, and the home is gone. The corpse scavenger took me in, and from then on, I followed him to learn how to scavenging corpses.
The master's surname is Fu, and his name is Fu Qiandeng. When I didn’t learn art from him, I didn’t even know about corpse hunting.
There are so many doorways inside. There are thousands of people who earn a living by collecting corpses in the Yellow River Beach. Except for those who are half-way renunciations, there are probably two groups of real corpse collectors. The school of Master and I is called "Da Jinzhong." A small bell hangs from the bow of the Four-Goat boat. Every time you make a happy, as long as the god of joy gets on the boat, you have to beat the small bell on the bow. The master said that some happy gods died in the water, and the grievances were too great. If the grievances were not dissipated when boarding the boat, it would hurt the corpse collectors. The ringing of the small bell was equivalent to shaking off the grievances of the floating corpses. Just because of such a rule, it is called playing Jinzhong.
Another big group of corpse hunting is called "Xi Shenmiao". People in Xi Shenmiao are generally employed by the family of the deceased, and they are willing to go to the water to make Xi after getting the money. When the god of joy catches it, it will be temporarily stored in a morgue built with yin and yang bricks. The people on the river beach call this kind of house the god of joy.
Time flies. Before I know it, I have been studying with my master for four years. From that ignorant and ignorant country boy, I grew up to a 19-year-old boy.
Our masters and apprentices do not have a fixed target for collecting corpses. Generally speaking, in the villages and towns along the river beach, local squires come forward to raise money, and then ask the corpse collector to collect the floating corpses from a certain section of the river, or send them to the Yizhuang. Too far away from Yizhuang, I hung up on Hanging Corpse Cliff, waiting for my family to claim it. These squires don't raise much money. The master has been doing this kind of work for more than 30 years, so he barely mixes food and clothing.
Although the money is scarce, the master is very dedicated, unless the water is too strong during the flood season to get down the river. The rest of the time, if the thunder is unable to move, he must drive the Siyang boat around the river.
For the past four years with the master, I have been thinking about where the father's body has drifted, and whether it has drifted to a place where no one can find it, as the master said.
It's another early summer, the flood season is approaching, and the master wants to make a few more trips before the flood season. We pushed into the water the four-goat boat, which we didn’t know how many years it took. In the past few years, I have not been able to learn all the craftsmanship of the master. Already familiar with the road.
When the boat went down the river, we slowly wandered along the river for an hour. Because I don’t pay much for corpse hunting, my life has always been relatively difficult. I am growing up, but there is no oil in my stomach, and I feel hungry when I work hard.
"Master." I rowed the four sheep boat and looked at my yellow-skinned and widowed body. It was a little disturbed: "Let's take two private jobs like the people in Xishenmiao. That's a lot of money. It’s been two months. I ate the meat once yesterday, and it was still so little. I haven’t tasted it and it’s gone..."
The master smiled faintly, without a word, raised his hand and threw an oil paper bag. Before the oil paper bag was opened, I smelled a tempting smell of meat.
"Master, this... This is so embarrassing..." I touched my head and smiled awkwardly. I know that this is the meat I bought yesterday.
"Eat." The master smiled faintly again, he rarely said
Words, even if you get along with me day and night, there are only twenty or thirty sentences a day.
The smell of meat in the oil-paper bag made me drool, and I opened it and ate it. Before the pork head meat in the bag was finished, the sky suddenly became gloomy.
Today's sky is a bit weird, and it is not yet the flood season, and there is not so much rain, but a large black cloud appeared from somewhere in the air. Dark clouds enveloped the sky, and the muffled thunder rumbling in the clouds could be faintly heard.
As soon as the sky is overcast, there will be wind. Our Four Sheep Boat has no sails. If the wind is not particularly strong, the impact on the ship will not be too serious. It's just that after the wind started, the surrounding river water began to roll continuously, like a big pot of boiling water that looked a little scary.
The master looked at the sky and the river, lowered his head not knowing what he was thinking. After a while, he asked me: "Thirteen, have you studied with me for several years, Laoxi?"
"Four years..." I quietly licked the oil on my fingers, and drove the Siyang Boat with all my concentration. Even the old boatmen on the Yellow River had to deal with it carefully.
"Yeah, it's been four years, time is so fast..." The master thought for a while, and then asked: "Thirteen, do you know, why don't we do anything else in the Jinzhong school? Fishing for joy in the river?"
"Didn't you say this? The rule laid down by the ancestor is that three fishes and three fishes are not fished. If you do something you shouldn't do, you will sooner or later fall into the river and be picked up by others."
"Master Patriarch made such a rule, but I have been in the Yellow River for more than 30 years, and I did not follow the rules of Master Patriarch. I am here to find Xi, just to..."
"For what?" I didn't expect that the master would say so much to me today, nor did he expect him to talk intermittently. I was anxious and asked: "Master, you have been fishing in this river for 30 years. , What is it for?"
"Thirteen, remember, I have been fishing in the river for thirty years, just to get a three-eyed god of joy."
"The three-eyed... Happy God?"
I don't know if there is a floating corpse with three eyes in this world, but these words suddenly reminded me of the past four years ago. If it weren't for the one-eyed floating corpse, my dad might not have had an accident.
"I am old, and I can't fish anymore. In this life, I may not be able to fish the three-eyed God of Joy. You are still young, let alone you can fish in this river for 20 years." Master Station He got up and said to me: "Thirteen, you must remember what I said. If one day, you happen to get three eyes of joy, then you will know where the floating corpses in the Yellow River that can't be fished are finally gone."
Before I had time to answer, a manned ferry rushed down from the upper reaches of the river. The hull of the ferry boat was a bit slanted, and at first glance, it was known that the boat was leaking. Moreover, the owner of the ferry boat could not be seen. A dozen passengers on the boat were panicked and all shrank into a ball on the boat.
(End of this chapter) (End of this chapter)