chapter Ten 2
At this moment, Mu Linfeng suddenly heard a noise behind him and turned around to check. It turned out to be Zhang Xiaosan who came over. Seeing Ah Huang at Mu Linfeng's feet, Xiaosan called out with concern: "Ah Huang, come here."
After hearing the shouting, Ah Huang bent his body like a bow, then suddenly spread out and jumped into Xiao San's arms, then chirped twice.
Zhang Xiaosan gently stroked Ah Huang, his face full of concern: "Ah Huang, are you okay? Why are you so reckless?"
Then Zhang Xiaosan raised his head and asked Mu Linfeng: "Brother, who fired the gun just now?"
Mu Linfeng felt that there were some things that he could no longer hide from Xiao San, so he said to him: "The person who fired the gun just now is the same person who wrote the letter. This person comes from a tomb-robbing family and has a feud with our Mu family. This time he came to deal with me. Xiao San, you have to be extra careful during this period of time and try not to go out alone. Do you understand?"
"Got it, big brother, do you want to call the police about this?"
Mu Linfeng pondered for a moment, shook his head and said, "Don't make this matter public for now, just keep it between the two of us."
Zhang Xiaosan didn't understand why his elder brother did this, but he nodded obediently, put Ah Huang into his bag, and then the two of them came out of the woods and walked towards the village...
It was already 11 o'clock in the morning when Mu Linfeng and Zhang Xiaosan returned to the old house of the Tan family. Everything in the house had been prepared. The yard was full of people, all of whom were relatives and friends of the Tan family, waiting for him to come back to preside over the burial ceremony.
A vermilion nanmu coffin has been placed in the middle of the courtyard. Gao Hongjin said that this coffin cost nearly a million yuan. The wood was ordered by Boss Tan from the south, and the best craftsmen were invited to come here to process and make it.
Nanmu is probably the best wood for making coffins , but most families cannot afford it. Locals are used to using pine and cypress to make coffins, because pine and cypress symbolize longevity. But when using cypress to make coffins, you need to add some fir, because a coffin made entirely of cypress will be "struck by the sky", that is, struck by lightning.
In addition, there are many taboos about the use of wood for coffins. In some areas, it is taboo to use willow, pine, and thorny trees. This is mainly because willow trees do not produce seeds, which will cause the deceased to have no descendants; and pine trees will not sprout again after being cut down, which will cause the extinction of descendants; if thorny trees are used to make coffins, descendants will get leprosy, etc.
Walking into the main hall, the two Tan brothers and their wives stood solemnly beside the body of old man Tan, waiting for the ceremony to begin. The next things would be done by the four of them. The prepared coffin and shroud were placed on the table beside them.
At this time, the Tan family had not yet put on mourning clothes. All mourning clothes would be put on after the body was placed in the coffin. Now they only tied a white cloth strip about 10 centimeters wide and about one and a half meters long on their heads. This white cloth strip is called "head shirt" in the local area, which is also a way of wearing mourning clothes, so wearing mourning clothes is also called "tying head shirt" in the local area. However, at this time, the two ends of the head shirt hang down behind the body. After the deceased is buried, the whole head shirt will be wrapped around the head.
Seeing Mu Linfeng coming into the room, Boss Tan hurriedly stepped forward and asked softly, "Master Mu, everything at home is ready, can we start?"
Mu Linfeng nodded. He was about to say yes when he suddenly saw the people in the yard and remembered the words in the letter. He had let the century-old reputation of the Mu family be ruined in his hands. He vaguely felt that the man would definitely not let it go. The burial was an important part of the funeral process where problems were most likely to occur, so how could the other party let go of this opportunity?
Thinking of this, Mu Linfeng dragged Boss Tan into the inner room and whispered to him, "The old man suffered a lot last night. He is most afraid of people with conflicting elements or zodiac signs being present. If he is affected by evil or offended again, he will definitely come back to life again. So only you two brothers, your two sisters-in-law, and a few close relatives and elders can be present during the burial. Everyone else should leave the yard, just in case."
Boss Tan was very grateful to Mu Linfeng for his thoughtful consideration and immediately said, "Thank you, Master Mu, for thinking so carefully. I will tell everyone to leave here and wait in the alley."
After saying this, Boss Tan walked out of the inner room to tell everyone. In fact, there is also such a taboo in the local area. Outsiders are not allowed to approach the coffin during the coffining process. Especially when the coffin is closed, except for the deceased's close relatives, everyone else will stay away from it, because if someone's shadow is sealed in the coffin when it is closed, his soul is also in danger of being sealed in the coffin. So when Boss Tan told everyone, everyone consciously left the yard.
After everyone left, the yard suddenly became deserted. There was only a large vermilion lacquered coffin placed in the middle of the yard. The coffin lid had been opened and was standing horizontally on one side of the coffin. A bright red brocade quilt was half spread inside the coffin and the other half draped outside the coffin. This would make it easier to wrap up the body after it was placed in the coffin.
Seeing that everything was ready, Mu Linfeng lit a stick of incense, which was a guide for the old man. After muttering something, he called the two wives of the Tan family over and began to burn paper money, which was called paving money, meaning to use money to bribe the little ghosts on the road so that they would not embarrass the old man on the way to the west. It seems that bribery is not only popular in the world of the living, but also in the underworld.
After doing all this, Mu Linfeng said to the Tan brothers: "It's time to start. First, take out the 'money' from the old man's mouth."
After hearing Mu Linfeng's instructions, Boss Tan lifted the yellow paper covering the old man's face, and then took out a copper coin from the old man's mouth.
According to local customs, after the deceased has finished his "first meal", a copper coin, commonly known as "mouth money", is put in the mouth of the deceased to prevent the deceased from becoming mute after reincarnation. However, the copper coin must be taken out of the mouth of the deceased during the burial, otherwise the deceased will take away all the family property.
While the eldest brother Tan took out the "money in his mouth", the second brother untied the hemp rope tied around the ankles of the deceased. It was most taboo to tie the feet of the deceased during burial, otherwise the deceased would not be able to walk in the underworld.
After removing these things, the two brothers and their two wives began to dress the deceased in shrouds, two sets in total, one padded jacket and one cotton-padded jacket. The old man wore three sets of shrouds when he passed away, so with the two sets for the coffin, there were exactly five sets. This process is called "small coffining", which means preparing for the coffin.
After putting on the shroud for the coffin, the two daughters-in-law stuffed a few small cakes and sticks made of flour into the sleeves of the old man. This is because the deceased has to pass through the vicious dog village on the way to the underworld, so the cakes and sticks for feeding the dogs are prepared for the deceased so that he can pass smoothly.
After all this was over, several other elders came over and together wrapped the old man's body tightly from head to toe with white cloth, and then wrapped it with a quilt on the outside. The next step was to put the corpse into the coffin, which was called "da lian".
The coffin-entering ceremony had to be performed personally by the host and hostess, so Mu Linfeng directed the two brothers of the Tan family and their wives, and the four of them stood on both sides of the old man's body and inserted their arms under the wrapped body.
Mu Linfeng stood at the head of the dead body, facing the four people, motioned with both hands, and whispered: "Lift..." Then the four people lifted the body steadily...
The key to moving the corpse at this time is to keep it steady. This is the last journey for everyone in the world. Entering the coffin means leaving this world completely.
Under the guidance of Mu Linfeng, four people slowly carried the old man's body out of the main room. In order to facilitate the movement of the body, all the things in the mourning shed in front of the main room door had been moved aside, and the curtain behind the mourning shed had also been lifted, so they could pass directly through the mourning shed and come to the coffin in the middle of the yard.
At this time, the whole yard was empty except Zhang Xiaosan who was still standing at the door of the west room. The reason why Xiaosan did not leave was that he was carrying the items that Mu Linfeng wanted to use, and secondly, he wanted to observe the whole process of the funeral, which was the best opportunity to learn.
Just as Mu Linfeng was leading the four people carrying the corpse through the mourning shed and just arrived in the yard, he suddenly heard a cat's meow from the roof.
Meow--
The long-drawn cat's meow really scared several people. Normally, they didn't feel anything when they heard a cat's meow, but this sound was like a bolt from the blue, which made everyone present tremble with fear.
As we all know, cats are most taboo to get close to corpses or coffins at this time, because cats are animals with tiger characteristics, especially white-clawed cats with black bodies and four white paws. If a white-clawed cat jumps over a corpse or touches a corpse, it will die immediately, and the cat's yang energy will be transferred to the corpse, turning the corpse into a zombie.
Mu Linfeng looked up in the direction of the sound and saw a row of cats standing on the roof of the north room. There were six or seven of them. What was terrifying was that all of these cats had black fur and white claws...
It is usually very difficult to find a cat like this, so why are they suddenly gathering together now? Mu Linfeng felt his scalp tingling, and he knew very well that this must be Ma Ermu's doing. This move was too vicious. If a corpse appeared at the funeral he organized, the reputation of the Mu family would be ruined, and no one would dare to ask the Mu family to be "lumps" anymore.
The four people carrying the body also saw the cats on the roof, and they were horrified. They were not only worried about the old man's corpse, but also worried about why this happened. If there was an accident during the old man's funeral, it would mean that their family would suffer.
Just when everyone was panicking, a cat on the roof suddenly screamed and rushed down. The black cat jumped from the roof to the mourning shed in front of the house, then jumped up from the mourning shed and pounced on the corpse carried by four people from mid-air...
No one could have imagined that the black cat would actually attack the old man's body. The hands of the four people including Boss Tan were all under the old man's body. They watched helplessly as the black cat pounced down like lightning but were unable to do anything.
Mu Linfeng, who was leading the way, was facing north. He saw everything clearly, and he knew better than anyone the consequences of a black cat jumping on a corpse. He had only one thought in his mind: he must stop the black cat...
Mu Linfeng's hands were empty, and the direction in which the black cat pounced was just across the old man's body... Mu Linfeng was quick-witted. He quickly took out his cell phone and threw it out...
With a "pop" sound, the cell phone hit the black cat's head accurately, knocking the black cat down from the air. The black cat was only a few centimeters away from hitting the old man's body. The thrilling scene made several people break out in cold sweats.
Before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief, two more black cats howled and jumped down from the roof. Several people's hearts immediately rose to their throats... Mu Linfeng didn't have anything else on him except his cell phone. After throwing his cell phone away, he had no weapons to use. He could only watch the two black cats jump from the roof to the mourning shed. It was too late for him to look for anything. The two black cats would pounce on the corpse in less than a second...
At this critical moment, a golden lightning suddenly leaped onto the roof of the mourning shed from the west side and hit the two black cats hard, knocking them off the shed at the same time and onto the ground nearby.
Only Mu Linfeng knew that it was the weasel who helped him again. He saw that the golden elf knocked the two black cats off the spirit shed, twisted its body, and quickly rushed to the north roof. It turned out that there were three cats standing on the roof waiting for an opportunity to attack. The three cats on the roof were frightened by Ah Huang's bravery and fled in all directions, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye...
All this happened in just a few seconds. The danger was over. Mu Linfeng didn't have time to think about it. He quickly directed four people to move the old man's body into the coffin and then quickly closed the coffin lid.
