"Aren't you looking for me to collect the corpse?" I was shocked and looked at the other person: "I can only collect the corpse. I can't help with other things."
"You must be able to help with this matter." The man with glasses said quickly: "We want to find someone who often goes down to the river and is familiar with the river, and we have to...not to avoid death..."
The man with glasses explained that his surname was Xie, and he was the housekeeper of a country squire whose surname was Ma.
"Squire Ma?" When I heard this, I asked smoothly: "This is a hundred miles away, and only the Squire Ma from Ping'an Town has the surname Ma."
"Yes, yes, I am the housekeeper of Master Ma's house in Pingan Town." The housekeeper surnamed Xie nodded repeatedly.
"You are looking for people who are familiar with the river, and you have to avoid dead people. What do you mean?"
"It's true that our old father, Ma's old father, has passed away. The old man left a message before he died and asked him to bury him in the river."
"Buried in the river?" I was shocked again. I grew up so big. I had never heard anyone say that people would be buried in the river after they died.
"Who knows the thoughts of the old man? Master Ma is a filial son. Those of us who are servants, take the master's life, and whether we succeed or not, we will find someone to try."
Squire Ma wanted to bury his father and bury him in the river, so he had to find a more suitable place for the coffin to enter the water. People on the river beach are more particular, and most boat owners are reluctant to get bad luck on their boats, let alone running around with a coffin.
"This little brother, are you a local? If you are a local, you should have heard of our Master Ma, a well-known good man."
"Yeah." I nodded. I lived here with Fang Tian for a few days. At that time, when the flood season was approaching, many river channels were draining silt and strengthening the embankments. Those officials did not care about this kind of thing, and most of them had to rely on it. The local squire and rich man paid the money, and then recruited people to do it. I have heard people say more than once that the Ma squire in Ping'an Town is kind and helpful, and every year before the flood season, he has to pay for disaster relief, and if it comes to famine years, he will help the poor.
It is because of the reputation of Squire Ma, it is difficult for me to shirk what Mr. Xie said. The other party understands what he said, find a suitable river course, transport the coffin by boat, and then put the coffin into the water.
I thought about it, but it wasn't really bothersome. The key to this was that it was relatively unlucky, but we corpse collectors never paid attention to these. When the steward Xie finished the explanation, I didn't hesitate and negotiated the price with the other party.
Butler Xie saw that I agreed, and he was relieved immediately. This time he was finally able to go back to deal with Squire Ma.
I left the river bank with the guy he took, and walked far away, where there was a carriage that they rushed to. After getting on the carriage, butler Xie
I took cooked beef and white wine.
"Brother, eat first, let's talk when you're full. The emperor doesn't want the hungry soldiers. If you ask you to do something, you have to fill your stomach." Butler Xie handed me the wine bottle directly and said, "Brother, I'm connected. I ran for a whole day and asked several boatmen. They were unwilling to take care of this job. Only you helped me a lot. Don’t say anything. When the funeral of the old man is finished, except for the salary paid by the old man, I am here. There is also a little heart."
"That's not the case. Squire Ma is a well-known good man, and he should do something for him."
Butler Xie talked with me all the way, until the evening, we rushed to Squire Ma’s house.
Squire Ma’s house is actually not in Pingan Town, his house is just next to Pingan Town. I heard people say that the gentry Ma’s family went back several generations, and they were all in the antique business. Later, they opened a cloth shop and a grain shop, and his family was very well-off.
When Mr. Xie brought me to the Ma’s house, I saw the shed in the front yard. The Ma’s family was rich and wealthy, but the family was not very popular. Starting from the Ma’s squire’s father, the family was passed on for three generations, so people say The squire of Ma paid special attention to accumulating ethics and deeds in peacetime, in order to be rewarded and let his descendants flourish.
The rules here in our river beach are that the guarding sheds are all blood and flesh, that is to say, they are sons, daughters, and grandchildren. The Ma family is young, and here in the shed, only the squire Ma and his son are guarding.
Butler Xie took me to the Lingpeng and talked to Squire Ma. Squire Ma hurriedly got up and came over to meet me. He was about fifty years old, not tall, with a round and fat face, and he spoke very kindly.
After the meeting, Squire Ma had no pretensions, and thanked me in a hurry. Butler Xie said next to him: "Master, this little brother is not ours. He came here to make a living from other places. He was in the wind and sun, and worked hard. I took charge of myself privately and paid him three yuan for his wages."
"Old Xie, you are too stingy." Squire Ma shook his head: "This errand will make people feel bad, and add two more oceans."
Cough cough cough...
While talking, I heard Squire Ma’s son coughing constantly in the shed. Squire Ma only got such a son at the age of 30. He was in poor health since he was a child, and he didn't see him well when he grew up. He was like a pot of medicine. Every day, he made a soup of various messy herbs and poured it into his stomach without money. After so many years, he was still skinny and breathless. I took a few glances, for fear that he was coughing too much, coughing up his heart, liver and lungs together.
Squire Ma felt sorry for his son, and when the other party coughed, he ran to help rub his heart and pat his back. Butler Xie took me down to a clean room in the middle courtyard
Here, they ordered some more food.
"Thank steward, when do you plan to bury the old lady of the Ma family?"
"It's tomorrow." Butler Xie wiped the sweat from his head and smiled bitterly: "This is the last day of the first seven days. Otherwise, why would I run so far in a hurry to find someone for help. Fortunately, I found you today, otherwise , I don’t know how to explain to the master."
"That's okay." I thought to finish the matter tomorrow, even if it was finished, it would save time.
"Brother, I'm afraid you can't sleep at night today. When you wait, you have to load the old man's birthday coffin on the car and transport it to the riverway overnight." Butler Xie took out a pocket watch and looked at it and said: "I can rest for an hour."
After the housekeeper Xie gave a few words, I went to take care of other things. I took advantage of this hour and took a nap. When the time was over, the housekeeper Xie came over and called me and took me to the Lingpeng. .
Squire Ma and his son are gone, and only the big scarlet coffin is left in the spirit shed. Ma's family is really rich and powerful, the coffin is very stylish, and it uses good materials.
"The servants at home should really teach me a lesson." Butler Xie took me into the shed, but did not see the person who helped install the coffin, and stomped anxiously: "I have to let me talk about everything, Xiao Brother, wait for a while, I will call for those killings."
"Okay." I nodded. The coffin was too heavy. Butler Xie and I couldn't move it at all. We had to find someone to come over and help.
Butler Xie hurried out to call for someone, and I was waiting here in the shed. There is the big vermilion coffin beside us. In the funeral custom here in our river beach, the coffin is not covered for the first seven days. Standing next to the coffin, you can see the dead inside.
In the coffin lay an old man who looked eighty years old. I guess that this must be Squire Ma’s father. Although the deceased is older and thinner, his facial features are very similar to those of Squire Ma.
People are rare in the past seventy years, and can reach eighty years old, and they can live a long life here on the river beach. Generally, when an elderly person passes the age of eighty, it is a funeral. I glanced at the old man in the coffin and wanted to go out to see if Steward Xie had called someone, but my footsteps hadn't moved yet, and my arm was suddenly caught by a hand.
"Don't make a sound..."
I was taken aback. When I lowered my head slightly, I could see that the old man in the coffin stretched out a hand that was holding my arm.
"You?" I didn't know whether the old man was cheating on the corpse, or what, subconsciously exerted a force, and broke the opponent's hand free.
"Don't make any noise..." The old man in the coffin opened his eyes and whispered, "I'm playing dead..."
(End of this chapter) (End of this chapter)