Chapter 73: The Story of Jade Guanyin
Forty years ago, the country was in the process of eradicating all kinds of evil spirits . Temples were demolished, and it was even more impossible to allow people to wear amulets such as Buddha statues. As the village chief, how could Mr. Lu's grandfather dare to "go against the wind"? This story starts from when the old man was a child.
Mr. Lu's grandmother loved him the most since he was a child. When she was free, she would tell him stories, including some of his grandfather's past. Only then did he know some of his grandfather's childhood. When the old man was born, it was still the old society. On the day of his birth, he found a beggar squatting outside the door with a monkey. At that time, the family was very happy to have a son, so they took out some delicious food to give to the beggar.
Seeing that the family was kind-hearted, the beggar said while eating that the newborn child of the Lu family was destined to have a bad fate, and he had been squatting outside the door for so long just to tell them this.
At that time, people in rural areas were also very superstitious, and the degree of superstition was actually much higher than it is now. The old man's father was terrified and asked how to solve the problem. The beggar pointed out that there was a tomb ten miles away. He should dig up the tomb and open the coffin after midnight, take out a burial object, the Jade Guanyin, and put it on the child to ensure his safety throughout his life. After the beggar finished speaking, he took the monkey and disappeared without a trace.
The old man's father thought it was a god who had descended to earth, so he kowtowed three times in the direction where the beggar disappeared, and secretly went ten miles away to look for the tomb without telling his family at night. That place was a desolate rocky beach, and no one would choose a grave here. If someone was really buried there, it would be a "family-extinct grave."
But following the beggar's instructions, he dug up a few large rocks and found the tomb underneath. He was almost scared to death when he pried open the coffin lid. The corpse was wearing a Qing Dynasty official uniform, which was not rotten at all, and was covered with red hair. A jade Guanyin pendant was hanging on the chest.
Seeing this, he was timid and didn't dare to reach out to take off the jade pendant. But after waiting for a while, he didn't see any movement from the corpse. For the sake of his son, he gritted his teeth and pulled off the jade Guanyin. But at this moment, the corpse suddenly sat up straight from the coffin, opened his mouth and spit out a mouthful of black air, which scared him so much that he turned around and ran away. Fortunately, the corpse didn't catch up, so he ran back home desperately. After putting the jade Guanyin on his son, he suddenly fell to the ground, twitched, foamed at the mouth and died. After death, the whole body turned black. After finding a fortune teller, he said that it was corpse poison.
Later, someone found the grave dug up on the stone beach, but there was no body inside. Since then, there have been rumors of people being bitten to death in the nearby villages. It is said that the blood in the body is sucked dry after death, and everyone guessed that it was killed by zombies. The old man's family thought that it might be related to the Jade Guanyin, so they were scared and dared not stay here, and moved the family a hundred miles away. But they still couldn't escape the disaster. Twenty years later, all the family members except the old man were sucked blood by zombies and died.
The old man then fled to the north, thousands of miles away, and settled in Xiadian Village, where he married and had children, and lived in peace for more than 20 years. During this period, he always said that he was lucky, thanks to the jade Guanyin that his father had exchanged his life for, which allowed him to escape several inevitable disasters in his life. But on the night of his death, he came back from drinking and found that the jade Guanyin was broken into two pieces. He was panicked and looked like a fool. Mr. Lu's grandmother went to the toilet and came back to find that he had died on the ground. She called a barefoot doctor, who said that it might be because he drank too much, which caused a sudden death from a heart attack.
After hearing this story, I began to think that the destruction of the feng shui of the Lu family's ancestral tomb seemed not just a problem of enemies, but might also involve the jade Guanyin. I asked Mr. Lu about the whereabouts of the jade Guanyin after the old grandfather died. Mr. Lu said that at that time, my grandmother was afraid that others would find out that there was a jade Guanyin in the house, so when she dressed my grandfather in his shroud, she secretly put the two jade pendants into her pocket and buried him with him. I also asked if the ancestral tomb had been robbed?
Mr. Lu shook his head and said no, his grandfather had a good relationship with people throughout his life, and besides, people were very poor forty years ago, and there were no burial objects at all. Who would rob a grave?
After that, I didn't ask any more questions. It was exactly noon when we returned to the city. Mr. Lu wanted to treat us to a meal, but we declined and returned to the studio. Xiaopang actually took two orders at home. One was that he always had nightmares at night, and the other was that he was suspicious that his home was not clean. These were all small problems. I had done a lot of them before, so they were no problem at all.
Lin Yuxi called for takeout, and we talked about Mr. Lu's ancestral grave while eating. Lin Yuxi said that an unidentified female corpse had appeared, and the situation was much more serious. It was a good opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune. Mr. Lu's family was rich, and asking him to take out 100,000 or 80,000 was a drop in the bucket for him.
I was stunned. It couldn't be that much. I thought ten thousand yuan was a sky-high price.
As soon as I said this, I was immediately despised by Lin Yuxi and Xiaopang. They both told me that for poor people, 10,000 is a sky-high price, and for rich people, 100,000 is nothing. Especially for people like Mr. Lu, if you ask him for less money, he will feel uneasy. The more money you ask for, it means that you have the ability to settle it, and it is worth the price, and he will be relieved.
I almost fainted. You are just trying to cheat people out of money. Do you have any professional ethics?
Lin Yuxi's face straightened and he said to me, "Do you know how much a talisman sells for in the market?"
I nodded and said, "I know. In a genuine Taoist shop, the price should be at least one hundred yuan. Some scammers sell for three or four hundred yuan or even more than five hundred yuan."
Lin Yuxi followed up by saying, "One hundred yuan is the lowest price for ordinary people. Rich people like them start at at least three hundred yuan. Let's take three hundred yuan as an example. For a ritual like this, how much does it cost just for the talisman?"
I said that it was not certain, at least a dozen, at most countless, for example, to deal with evil spirits and infant spirits, a total of fifty or sixty talismans were used. Lin Yuxi asked me, if we count fifty, how much would it be? Is there any need to calculate, multiply by three hundred and it is fifteen thousand. Lin Yuxi said that this is not the end, the talismans alone cost fifteen thousand, what about other ritual tools? The labor time fee, the transportation fee, plus this business is particularly dangerous, and insurance must be purchased, all together, a hundred thousand is the normal price.
I was speechless and could not utter a word. I have never heard of a fortune teller adding insurance fees to his price. Anyway, I am not cut out for business, and the more money I make, the better. Let them mess around. Besides, Mr. Lu's money is probably ill-gotten gains, so let's just share it with poor people like us.
After eating, I talked about the story of Grandpa Lu again. Lin Yuxi said that the zombie was quite scary, covered with red hair, and felt similar to the demon corpse in the ancient tomb of Longjia Village. I said that the story was probably false and should not be taken seriously, but that was all in the past and had no meaning to us. We just had to deal with this grave. I decided to go to Xiadian Village tonight, preferably to dig up the ancestral grave of the Lu family and take a look.
My proposal scared them both. First, the old man had turned into a fierce corpse, and it would be difficult to deal with him after digging the grave. Second, how could we dig the grave without Mr. Lu's consent? Besides, we haven't asked for the price yet. If we get everything done tonight, wouldn't it be in vain? I said digging the grave was just an idea, and it didn't necessarily have to be dug at that time. We would make a decision based on the situation. As for asking for the price, it didn't conflict with tonight's action. Even if we got it done completely, we could just pretend to do a ritual tomorrow. Anyway, Mr. Lu wouldn't be able to tell. Finally, I told them that I would go alone tonight, and you guys don't have to follow me.
Of course, Lin Yuxi and Xiaopang refused to let me go alone, and both wanted to go together. I couldn't persuade them, so I had to agree . In the afternoon, Lin Yuxi booked a taxi, and after 8 o'clock in the evening, we hurriedly had dinner and went to explore Xiadian Village at night.
