chapter Ten 1
Xiaolian and Dalian are the two most important steps in the whole funeral process. Xiaolian refers to dressing the deceased in the coffin, which is usually done on the second day after death.
The Da Lian refers to the ceremony of putting the body into the coffin. The master and mistress of the deceased's family, under the guidance of the "Geda", put the body into the coffin, that is, move the body from the spirit bed in the main hall into the coffin.
The deceased is called "corpse" when lying on the coffin, and "coffin" when moved into the coffin. In other words, it can be called "coffin" after the funeral.
After the coffin is finished, it is called "ji fen". In the past, the process of coffining but not burying was called "fen", so the local people called the funeral procession "chu fen", which is to mix the two concepts of "fen" and "zang".
Because the funeral was changed to Pai San, many things had to be done today. Pai San, also known as "three-day funeral", means the funeral is held on the third day after the death of the deceased. In the local funeral customs, funerals are divided into four levels: seven-day funeral, five-day funeral, three-day funeral and same-day funeral.
If the deceased is an unmarried person or a child under the age of 20, they are usually buried on the same day or three days later, which is why the elders of the Tan family disagree with the third day. Elderly people with both sons and daughters are usually buried on the fifth or seventh day after their death, and only widows and widowers without children or grandchildren are buried on the third day after their death.
Before the burial, Mu Linfeng still had an important thing to do, which was to go to the cemetery to choose a good time and ask the masons to build the grave. The grave had to be built in the morning, and then the "talisman" could be placed before dusk, also known as the "talisman brick". This was also a very important step in the process of tomb selection.
The talisman bricks must be made of green bricks with talismans painted on them with cinnabar. In the past, the talisman bricks had to be carried to the cemetery in a black sedan chair. Taoist priests would be invited to play music along the way, and paper money for passage would be scattered along the way. It was a very grand ceremony.
After the talisman brick is delivered to the cemetery, it is placed in the main hall of the tomb. Red candles are lit on both sides of the talisman brick, a pair of paper money is placed, and three incense sticks are burned. Then, 24 double-cornered copper coins are placed in the tomb, arranged in the shape of the characters "Fu" and "Lu", and finally kowtow is performed. The purpose of this is to pray for blessings and wealth for future generations.
After Mu Linfeng told the bricklayer a few key points about digging the grave, he hurried back because his family was still waiting for him to bury the old man.
Only Xiao San followed Mu Linfeng. Although Xiao San had a slight limp, his walking speed was not slow at all. He limped along behind Mu Linfeng and never said a word.
Mu Linfeng suddenly remembered something, and as he walked, he turned back and said to Xiao San: "When we return to the Mu family for the funeral ceremony, be careful not to get too close to me."
"Why? How can I learn if you don't get close to me?" Xiao San asked puzzledly.
Mu Linfeng pointed at the bag on Xiao San's shoulder and said, "Ah Huang is inside. If it gets too close to the body, I'm worried it will hit the body."
"Oh, I see."
As soon as Xiao San finished speaking, a little boy of about eleven or twelve ran from the alley beside the road, came to Mu Linfeng, handed him a piece of letter paper folded into a triangle, and said softly: "Someone asked me to give this to you."
Mu Linfeng was stunned for a moment, then took the triangular letter and asked him in a low voice: "Little friend, who asked you to give it to me?"
The little boy shook his head: "It's an uncle, I don't know him."
As soon as Mu Linfeng heard it, he knew that the person was definitely not from this village, so he quickly asked, "Where did that uncle give this to you?"
The little boy turned around and pointed to the alley and said, "It's inside."
Mu Linfeng didn't have time to open the letter to see what was written on it. He quickly took two steps forward and saw that the alley was less than 20 meters deep and there was no one inside. He suddenly had a hunch that the person who wrote him the letter might be the one who climbed onto the roof of the Tan family's house last night.
Thinking of this, Mu Linfeng unwrapped the letter paper folded into a triangle and saw the following words written on it:
Mu Linfeng, I didn't expect that you have inherited the ancestral skills of the Mu family. I am a descendant of the Ma family, and I believe you must understand the generations of grievances between our Ma and Mu families.
I hope we can make peace, put aside our ancestral grudges, and work together to do something great. If you agree, please give me your Mu family's ancestral tomb-viewing skills and the "Emperor's Burial Mountain Map". You can set any conditions.
If you don't agree to my proposal, I will slowly push you into a dead end, ruin your reputation, and ruin the Mu family's reputation in your hands. I'm watching you not far away. If you accept my proposal, please raise your right hand to signal.
Seeing this, Mu Linfeng finally understood the truth of the whole matter. It seemed that what Li Jianping said was absolutely right. The descendants of the Ma family really had their eyes on him.
Mu Linfeng looked up and looked around, hoping to find the hiding place of the letter writer. He was standing at the entrance of the village. There were many trees planted in front of and behind the houses in the village, so it would be difficult to find a person hiding there.
Mu Linfeng knew that this guy was hiding in the dark and secretly observing him, but it was difficult to find him, and judging from the situation last night, the opponent was not an ordinary person. Mu Linfeng tore the letter in his hand into pieces without thinking, and then threw it into the air. He believed that the opponent must understand what he meant...
Zhang Xiaosan, who was standing nearby, saw Mu Linfeng's angry expression and asked hurriedly, "Brother, who wrote the letter?"
Mu Linfeng didn't want Xiao San to know these complicated things, so he waved his hand at him and said, "It's nothing, let's go to the Tan family quickly."
Mu Linfeng was thinking about this as he walked. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He didn't even know that he was being fooled. It turned out that the resurrection of Mr. Tan and the destruction of the cemetery he had chosen were all done by Ma Ermu, and they were all done to test whether he had mastered the ancestral skills.
Ma Ermu made it very clear in the letter that if they did not agree to his proposal, he would be forced into a dead end and the reputation of the Mu family would be ruined in his own hands.
Thinking of this, Mu Linfeng realized that a fierce fight was about to begin, and his fighting spirit was suddenly aroused. Mu Linfeng was born to be a person who would not tolerate toughness, and if he was frightened by two or three words from the other party, how could he have the face to be a descendant of the Mu family...
Mu Linfeng walked forward a few steps and suddenly felt that Zhang Xiaosan was not following him, so he stopped and looked back at him.
Xiao San covered her purse with both hands, and the purse seemed to be moving around. "Ah Huang, be quiet, what do you want to do?"
While Zhang Xiaosan was speaking, he unzipped the briefcase. Ah Huang's head suddenly squeezed out of the bag, then jumped out and quickly ran towards the woods east of the village.
Seeing this, Mu Linfeng turned around and ran back, and hurriedly asked Xiao San: "What happened to Ah Huang?"
At this time, the weasel's slender figure could no longer be seen, hidden in the woods thirty meters away. Zhang Xiaosan shook his head and said, "I don't know, maybe it wants to pee."
Before Zhang Xiaosan finished speaking, a gunshot suddenly rang out in the woods. Mu Linfeng, who was a special forces soldier, knew it was the sound of an automatic pistol. His heart suddenly lifted, and he understood why the weasel had run into the woods.
It was clearly written in the letter just now that the other party was hiding nearby and observing him. It was obvious that Ah Huang had discovered the other party's tracks. He did not expect that the other party actually had a gun and even murdered Ah Huang...
Mu Linfeng didn't have time to think about it. He said to Zhang Xiaosan, "Stay here and don't move." Then he bent over and quickly ran towards the direction of the gunshot...
The person who wrote the letter to Mu Linfeng was Ma Ermu, a descendant of the Ma family who had returned from abroad.
Ever since Mu Linfeng entered Tanfang Village, he has not escaped Ma Ermu's surveillance. Through the destruction of the cemetery yesterday and the corpse transformation test in the evening, Ma Ermu firmly believes that Mu Linfeng has mastered the skill of tomb-reading, which means that he has inherited the true teachings of the Mu family.
Ma Ermu was really patient, and he started this plan half a year ago. In this respect, he completely inherited the style of the Ma family. In order to steal an ancient tomb, the Ma family could spend several years preparing, and then wait for the right time to act, so the Ma family rarely failed in tomb robbery.
Based on his understanding of the Mu family, Ma Ermu knew that it would not be easy to get the art of tomb selection and the "Emperor's Burial Mountain Map" from the Mu family, because his ancestors had tried many times but failed.
However, Ma Ermu was still very confident. He believed that the reason why their ancestors failed was entirely because of their poor strategies. But he was now incomparable to their ancestors . Not only was he a master's degree in archaeology, but he also had the support of a powerful international organization. He would definitely succeed.
After careful investigation, Ma Ermu learned that Mu Linfeng is now the only descendant of the Mu family, but Mu Linfeng is no longer a "knot". He obviously does not know the art of tomb locating, and of course he does not know where the "Emperor's Burial Mountain Map" is.
Ma Ermu knew that in order to find the two heirlooms of the Mu family, he had to go through the descendants of the Mu family. Outsiders would never be able to find them. So Ma Ermu set up a series of strategies, which not only successfully forced Mu Linfeng to come out as a "knot", but also allowed him to find the ancestral skill of tomb-viewing.
In order to make his plan successful, Ma Ermu made great efforts to study every aspect of Mu Linfeng in detail, so every step was targeted. He knew that Mu Linfeng valued the family's reputation more than his own life, so if he wanted Mu Linfeng to submit, he had to destroy the Mu family's local reputation.
Through the spy placed next to Mu Linfeng, Ma Ermu had a very detailed grasp of Mu Linfeng's every move. After confirming that Mu Linfeng had learned the art of tomb-reading, Ma Ermu decided to test Mu Linfeng's reaction, so he wrote a letter to Mu Linfeng.
Ma Ermu was hiding in the woods where Ah Huang had gone. He saw Mu Linfeng's actions clearly through the telescope. Just as Ma Ermu had initially guessed, Mu Linfeng tore the letter into pieces and threw it into the air. Ma Ermu believed that Mu Linfeng's action was just for him to see...
Through the telescope, Ma Ermu had been staring closely at Mu Linfeng and his disciple. Suddenly, he noticed a golden animal jumping out of the bag of the little cripple. At first, Ma Ermu thought it was a cat, but then he found that the animal was running towards the woods where he was hiding at a very fast speed.
In the blink of an eye, the little animal shot towards Ma Ermu like a golden arrow. Ma Ermu was immediately shocked. He did not expect that such a small thing would attack him. Ma Ermu quickly dodged to the side and avoided Ah Huang's attack.
At this time, Ma Ermu also recognized that the one rushing towards him was actually a weasel. He quickly pulled out the "Beretta 92" pistol from the holster under his armpit, fired a shot at Ah Huang who missed, and then quickly ran deep into the woods. With his agility, Ma Ermu quickly disappeared into the bushes.
After Mu Linfeng approached the woods, he first hid behind a big tree. He knew that the other party had a gun, so he didn't dare to rush into the woods rashly. Mu Linfeng concentrated and observed the movements in the woods...
Suddenly, the branches above his head shook, and Ah Huang's golden body flashed, and he jumped down from the tree silently and stood steadily in front of Mu Linfeng.
After seeing Ah Huang appear, Mu Linfeng knew that the danger had been resolved and the person hiding in the woods must have escaped. Mu Linfeng squatted down and gently touched Ah Huang with his hand to check whether Ah Huang's body was hit by the gun. After seeing that Ah Huang's body was not injured, Mu Linfeng stood up.
Mu Linfeng walked slowly towards the woods while surveying the surrounding situation. A few meters into the woods, he found traces of trampling. From the other person's footprints, he recognized at a glance that it was the same person who stayed behind the old house of the Tan family last night.
Soon, Mu Linfeng found a shiny bullet shell in the grass next to him. He bent down to pick up the shell. Mu Linfeng, who was proficient in all kinds of firearms, recognized at a glance that this was a 9mm caliber bullet, and our country did not produce this type of bullet at all.
Looking at the shell in his hand, Mu Linfeng immediately thought of the tomb-robbing organization that had sneaked in from abroad. Li Jianping's reminder was right. This group of people came with bad intentions, and he should really be more vigilant.
