Part 2 Chapter 4: Funeral Procession
There were more people in this group than we thought, more than 20 people. What surprised me most was that the people in the front of the group were holding some kind of flag. The flag was white and quite conspicuous. I noticed it at a glance. The people behind the flag holders were huddled together. I couldn't tell if it was a formation or something else. I couldn't see clearly. I was sweating profusely. What on earth were these people doing?
I asked Qin Yiheng to confirm whether this person was alive or not. He stared at the group of people and spoke after a long while. His tone was also very surprised: "It looks like a funeral procession. The people in front are carrying soul-guiding banners, and the people in the back are carrying a coffin."
Before he even finished speaking, I felt the hairs on my body stand up one by one. Who has ever heard of a funeral in the middle of the night? It should be early in the morning. If you don't hurry up to the morning to borrow the Yang energy, aren't you afraid of attracting some filth? And if you want to hold a funeral, then just hold it. Why don't you use some lighting equipment and walk so far in the dark?
I was completely confused. Qin Yiheng didn't figure out anything either. After hesitating for a moment, he lowered his voice and told me to wait here while he walked closer to take a look.
Frankly speaking, seeing this situation, I really didn't have the courage to rush forward with him, but then I thought, I would be terrified if I stayed here alone, so I might as well go with him, at least I would have someone to look after me. I expressed my attitude to Qin Yiheng, and he didn't object, but just told me to run away if something happened, and then he took the lead to move forward.
After leaving this pile, the front became open again, with basically no place to hide. Fortunately, the clothes we both wore today were dark-colored, so no matter whether the other party could find us, at least we felt safer. After exploring forward for more than ten meters, Qin Yiheng told me to lie down. Going forward again was too close.
My heart was beating in my throat. I looked over there and saw that the other party seemed to be resting. It seemed that they had not reached their destination. We looked far away and estimated that we were at the edge of Phase 3. There were several dark buildings ahead, and we could only see the general outline. I recalled the plan and it should be the commercial buildings outside the entire building.
I thought, are they going there? Otherwise, they will have to leave the construction site. I whispered to Qin Yiheng, and he whispered, "This group of people should have some relationship with the developer. Even if it is an unfinished building, there must be night watchmen or migrant workers' dormitories. There are a lot of building materials such as steel bars in this construction site. It is unreasonable that no one is watching."
I woke up as if from a dream. I had ignored this point before. While we were talking, the group of people started to move again, moving forward slowly as usual. We waited patiently until the other party had almost walked, and then followed them.
After half walking and half crawling for more than ten minutes, my whole body began to ache. This group of people really were heading for those unrepaired commercial buildings, and finally stopped by the building. We waited patiently for a while, and carefully made a detour to the corner.
From this position, we could see much more clearly than before. For fear that the other party might notice, neither of us dared to stick our heads out rashly, but only took a glance every ten seconds. After Qin Yiheng finished looking, he whispered in my ear, "Look carefully, did something crawl out of the coffin?"
He said this lightly, but it was like thunder in the sky to me - crawling out of the coffin? Resurrecting from the dead? Although I was scared, I couldn't suppress my curiosity, so I still bravely poked my head out.
Sure enough, a figure was crawling out of the coffin, and most of the body was already sticking out. I gasped and turned around to ask Qin Yiheng what was going on, but I didn't dare to shout out loud, which made me choke.
Unexpectedly, Qin Yiheng smiled and told me not to be afraid, that person must be a living person . According to the current situation, this is a trap. It is estimated that the person in the coffin is either very superstitious and listened to someone's method, or he is terminally ill and has no other options. This whole trap is actually very common in metaphysics. It is called "chubin" or "shouguaixing" in the art of alchemy. The "chubin" here refers to the temples at the temples, which is homophonic with "chuben" but different characters. It is estimated that it was chosen intentionally at the beginning. This was a trick to prolong life in ancient times, but it is rare to hear that someone succeeded. The reason why it is called "chubin" is that the whole process is exactly the same as the real funeral after the person dies. However, in the end, only the person's hair is buried in the coffin, in order to deceive the ghosts who come to take the soul, so that the ghosts mistakenly believe that the person is dead and the soul has dispersed. If it is not discovered for a while, the person will have a time difference and live a few more years or months. Another name "Shouguaixing" has the same meaning, probably meaning that this person's life has taken another turn and can continue for a while.
I don't know who this person is. If I had the chance to see the life line on his palm, I would have used a needle dipped in cinnabar to pierce several turning points. This can't actually be called a standard art. Many places have this folk custom, but it has been simplified. Most of the time, it's just to let the close relatives cry at home for psychological comfort, which basically has no effect. It's the first time he's seen these people do something so weird.
Qin Yiheng said this, took another look at the group of people, and then continued: "As for those firecrackers, we can only guess now. They should be used to drive away lonely ghosts. Many places will set off firecrackers before funerals. This is called 'Jiaoti'. On the one hand, it is to remind the lonely ghosts to make way and not cause trouble; on the other hand, it is also to call the wandering souls nearby to follow the funeral procession to collect the ghost money. And the ghost money is scattered all the way to the burial place, which is also for this reason. This group of people did not scatter the ghost money. I don't know if it was arranged in advance or there was an error. Originally, there was a soul-guiding flag in front, so they should have set off firecrackers to clear the way."
He talked a lot, and I summarized the main idea. This is just a trick. Even if it's just a formality, they can't send the coffin here. Are they just passing by?
I asked Qin Yiheng, he shook his head and said, "We can only wait and see." He took a look and said, "It is said that people who have used this method will be tortured in the underworld after death, and they will not be able to be human in the next life. However, this is just people's speculation. After all, no one has seen the King of Hell with their own eyes."
Since the other party was a living person, I was not so scared. Even if I was discovered, I could just run away. I looked again and saw that the group of people were still standing there. I didn't know if they were talking or not. They looked like they were standing there stupidly. I was relaxed and could naturally observe them. The group of people brought a lot of things, including paper figures, carriages and horses, which were piled up in a small area. I thought to myself: "Let's burn them all quickly , so that we can see them clearly in the light.
After about the time it took to smoke a cigarette, the group of people started to move, carrying the coffin into the building in a mighty procession.
I turned around and called Qin Yiheng, but he was not in a hurry. He just told us to wait patiently for a while. Even if they were carrying an empty coffin, it would not be light and they could not walk fast.
Since he was so confident, I simply sat down against the wall to take a break and took the opportunity to smoke a cigarette. Then we tiptoed into the building again. I stood outside the building and looked for a while. Because the moonlight could not shine in, the room was surprisingly dark. I could only see something by the window. I squinted my eyes and looked hard for a few times. I could only barely see the soul-guiding banners held by were just a few hazy dots in my sight. But their footsteps sounded very clear. The building was really empty and the echo was very loud. Qin Yiheng reminded me not to make any noise when walking, and then he tiptoed in. After walking for a while, I found that the building was even more empty than I thought. I guess it was related to the purpose of the building. There were no walls. It might be used as a large supermarket or shopping mall after it was built.
This was convenient, as we didn't have to worry about making many detours in the dark, but it made tracking more difficult, as there was no place to hide temporarily. Fortunately, the group of people stopped after a while, and the footsteps could no longer be heard, leaving only the rustling of people.
We squatted down and waited for a while, and suddenly there was a light in front of us. The group of people suddenly turned on several flashlights, and several beams of light flickered in front of us.
I had been in the dark before, but I didn't feel scared. This time, I panicked when I saw the light. At first, I thought we were exposed. Just as I was about to move, Qin Yiheng held me down and told me to lie down with him. He whispered to me, "The other party didn't mean to turn around, so they probably didn't notice us. It's probably because they couldn't go on because it was too dark."
If you are always very nervous, you will inevitably be afraid of everything. After I lay down, I found that it was true. The group of people had no intention of turning back. There was light in front of me, and I could see clearly. The group of people were dressed very ordinary, and I couldn't tell who was special. At this time, the coffin had been placed on the ground with the lid on. I didn't know whether the person who had just climbed out of the coffin was in the coffin or standing in the crowd.
After watching for two or three minutes, the group of people didn't do anything, just bent over from time to time to tidy up something on the ground. As for what they were tinkering with, it was really hard to tell.
I wanted to ask Qin Yiheng, so I pointed at him. He made a few gestures to me, but I couldn't understand what he meant. Finally, he pointed to the front helplessly, probably letting me see it myself.
I had no choice but to continue watching patiently. After watching for two seconds, I suddenly realized what was going on. My vision was obstructed just now, and I didn't think about it in this direction. Now that those people who were sorting things stood up, I finally understood that they were preparing to lay bricks! Damn, a group of workers came to work overtime in the middle of the night? Isn't this too dedicated?
I was probably staring with my eyes and mouth wide open. They were surprisingly efficient at their work and were busy in just a few minutes. It was as if they had made an appointment. They worked very quietly and handled everything with care. The weirdest thing was that I didn't hear them say a word, not even a "sigh". Seeing this, I felt a chill in my heart.
This group of people worked for about ten minutes and probably finished the preparations. A few more people came out and lifted up the coffin. The people nearby immediately made way for it. The people carrying the coffin slowly moved the coffin forward a few steps and then stopped.
At this time, my vision was blocked, and I couldn't see what was in front of the coffin. From the gap between the coffin and the people, it seemed to be a wall. I was even more puzzled. Looking at this posture, it was a bit like those ancient war movies where a few soldiers carried a large tree trunk to hit the city gate. Did they want to break the wall open? Before I could think about it, the group of people actually lifted one end of the coffin up, and the other end of the coffin was tilted to the ground. At first I thought they wanted to stand the coffin upright on the ground, but after watching carefully for a while, I finally realized that there was a large gap in the wall in front of them that was as high as a person. Several people worked together to stuff the coffin into the gap and stand it inside.
