For a full meal, this request was definitely not too much, and even a bit humble. Liao Daqiu was deeply moved and handed over his fists.
“Don’t worry, heroes, I, Lao Liao, will definitely do it, I will definitely do it!”
The surrounding ghosts also handed over to Liao Daqiu.
“My benefactor, remember to find a papermaker to make a sword and war flag as soon as possible. Remember this!”
“Don’t worry, we will definitely do it, we will definitely do it…”
In the back room of Liao Daqiu’s home, Lao Liao was clutching the quilt with both hands and kept shouting.
“It must be done, it must be done, it must be done…”
The sound immediately woke up his wife. He squinted his eyes and looked outside the curtains in the room. There was already a sliver of white light through the cracks in the wooden window. It was obviously dawn.
The woman turned over and looked at her husband. He kept shouting “We will do it”. She pushed him twice and found that her body was very tight and wet.
“The child’s father, the child’s father? The child’s father!”
The woman sat up from the bed and shook Liao Daqiu vigorously, finally shaking him awake. The latter shook a little and woke up with an “ouch”.
“Hoo…ho…ho…”
Liao Daqiu panted slightly and looked at Fang Liang in confusion, scanning the room, and finally looked at his child and his mother.
“Dad, are you having a nightmare? You keep shouting that something will be done… That look is a bit scary!”
The woman found the handkerchief on the bedside and said this while wiping Liao Daqiu’s sweat.
Lao Liao took the handkerchief from his wife’s hand and touched his face. Only then did he realize that his face was covered with sweat, and so was his body. Even the quilt was soaked with sweat and was damp.
“Nightmare? Sort of…”
Liao Daqiu remembered everything in the dream clearly. He saw so many ghosts, but the ghosts were all good ghosts. It was not a nightmare, but what he heard was not good.
At this moment, Lao Liao came back to his senses and suddenly asked his wife.
“My dear, do you know where there is a good paper craftsman?”
Liao Daqiu’s question made his wife feel a little confused. There were blacksmiths, carpenters, and masons in the village, and papermakers specifically refer to those who make objects for the dead.
“Did something happen to one of our relatives?”
The woman was a little nervous, and Liao Daqiu quickly shook his head.
“No, no, no, it’s because of the dream I just had. I dreamed…”
Liao Daqiu paused and thought about it.
“Go and get the kettle for me first. I’m very thirsty. I’ll finish the water first.”
“Yes, yes, yes, you have to drink water before talking!”
The woman quickly got out of bed and went to the outhouse to pick up the kettle. However, she also went to check on her son first. When she saw that he was sleeping soundly, she returned to the house with the kettle and tea bowl.
“Here, kettle.”
Lao Liao took the kettle and teacup, poured water and drank it. After three bowls, he finally quenched his thirst. This time, it was not as useless as in his dream.
“Have you recovered?”
“Come back to your senses!”
At this time, the direction of the outhouse was already much brighter, and the sun was rising from the horizon. Liao Daqiu calmed down and talked to his wife.
“I dreamed last night…”
When Liao Daqiu told his wife what happened in the dream, the latter was indeed frightened and kept asking if it was just a dream.
But such a real dream made Liao Daqiu dare not neglect it. After waiting for the day to get brighter, he ate some porridge with pickles at home and hurried out.
As soon as he went out, Liao Daqiu saw his neighbor Lao Zhang, who was squatting in front of his home and eating porridge.
“Hey, Lao Zhang, let me tell you, I had a dream last night…”
Liao Daqiu originally planned to go directly to the old village chief, but now he was full of desire to talk, especially to his good friend Lao Zhang, who talked about everything, so he just chatted about the profound dream last night. out.
Lao Zhang frowned and looked at Liao Daqiu.
“I said, Lao Liao, this is just a nightmare of yours. We have been tired of burying the remains of passers-by over the years. What do you mean now, we have to start burning things for them and offering sacrifices to them? We Everyone is not rich, and we can’t even afford a full meal every year, so don’t bother…”
Lao Zhang is also sincere and sincere. He can do things to accumulate virtue and do good, but he must also do it according to his ability.
Burying the body and erecting a monument is just a matter of putting in a little strength. The peasants lack everything else but strength. This is okay. At most, they sometimes add a straw mat or some hay.
But burning things and making soup for the dead in the cemetery? Can’t get through this day? There are quite a few corpses in the cemetery!
“Oh, Lao Zhang, that’s not what I meant! These are what the ghosts in the cemetery told me. There is a plague outside. Burning these things is also helping ourselves!”
Lao Zhang was also a little angry.
“You, Lao Liao, have a dream. You want me to pay for making paper objects with you and make soup together? The wages of a paper craftsman are not cheap!”
Among the major events in life, red and white events are undoubtedly the most expensive and troublesome. In many cases, only rich people can afford the exquisite paper objects made by paper craftsmen.
“I said…Lao Zhang, of course everyone in the village raised the money together. How could our two families…”
As soon as he heard this, Lao Zhang became a little angry and opened his mouth and said loudly.
“Who told you ‘our two families’? I didn’t agree!”
After Lao Zhang finished speaking, he ignored Liao Daqiu and continued to eat his porridge. The latter looked troubled, grabbed his clothes and stamped his feet.
“Hey, I’ll go find the old village chief!”
Seeing Liao Daqiu leaving, Lao Zhang shouted from behind.
“Go on, go on, the old village chief will never go crazy with you!”
Even his best friend has this attitude. Although Liao Daqiu is a farmer, he is not stupid. He knows that others will not agree to this, so although he really wants to meet him Everyone he knew told me about the dream, but he held back and walked all the way to the village chief’s house.
“Good morning, Uncle Liao!”
“Well morning!”
The young man who had been digging up corpses together greeted Liao Daqiu, who was in a hurry, but saw Uncle Liao, who had been talkative before, simply reply and leave without stopping.
“Strange thing, what happened to Uncle Liao today?”
Liao Daqiu walked all the way to the old village chief’s house. The old village chief lived at the end of the village, not far from the Earth Temple at the end of the village. When he saw the yard of the old village chief’s house from a distance, he was slightly relieved, but he felt a little bit in his heart. perturbed.
Although the old village chief wants to be reasonable, experienced and knowledgeable, looking back on Lao Zhang’s attitude, what if the old village chief is the same?
Before Liao Daqiu could think of a good idea, the old village chief who saw him approaching from a distance pointed towards the bowl in his hand, quickly walked out of the fenced yard, trotted towards Liao Daqiu, and rushed to him Open your mouth and shout in front of you.
“Old Liao! Let me tell you, the Earth God gave me a dream last night! It’s true!”
The old village chief was even more excited than Liao Daqiu, which shocked Lao Liao who was thinking hard.
“Huh?”
Liao Daqiu asked blankly, making the old village chief anxious.
“Oh, last night, I had a very real dream. In the dream, I suddenly had a stomachache and was suffocated. I woke up, so I put on my clothes and went to the hut. On the way, I passed the Earth Temple and saw the Earth God sitting there. Outside, he just calls me ‘Little Furball’, which is my nickname. I’m over 60 years old. Nowadays, let alone anyone calling me, almost no one remembers this…”
The old village chief looked toward the end of the village.
“Let me tell you, the Land Master is really as rumored, he is quite short… By the way, he told me that there may be plague ghosts coming here soon, and he plans to fight with us. The ghosts from the cemetery will help us block it. It’s hard to say whether we can block it or not…”
Liao Daqiu, who was still listening blankly, immediately slapped his thigh hard when he heard this.
“Oh, old village chief, I was just going to tell you about this! I was also dreamed about last night. Many ghosts came out of the cemetery. They were waiting for me in front of my house and told me about the plague ghosts. They are coming, and they will fight to the death with the plague ghosts to protect the peace of our village, and they will also burn some paper objects…”
Two people who had a dream last night and are still in shock even now are talking to each other about last night’s dream. After they have finished talking about it, they confirm it. This matter is already very clear.
What else is there to say? Liao Daqiu and the old village chief got together and prepared to go to the village to mobilize. The latter went back to the yard and finished the porridge in two or two, took a gong and went out with Old Liao.
“Dangdangdangdangdang…”
As they walked, they beat the gong loudly. The sound spread from the end of the village to the beginning, and finally succeeded in attracting the attention of the whole village.
Not long after, most of the village had gathered at the threshing floor in the center of the village. Liao Daqiu even borrowed a table and asked the old village chief to stand on it and talk to everyone. Waiting for the old village chief to speak. After that, he went up and told his dream.
The villagers are actually quite superstitious about this kind of miraculous things. If it was just Liao Daqiu who said it, many people might have the same reaction as Lao Zhang, but the old village chief and Lao Liao said it together, and they looked serious and even met occasionally. Being frightened and easily affected by the crowd effect quickly aroused everyone’s emotions and everyone became afraid.
In the end, everyone figured out that they still had to ask the Earth God, so many people went to the Tutu Temple together and asked the Earth God by throwing the Yao. As a result, they threw the sacred Yao several times in a row.
At this time, most people in the village were shaken. In addition, the old village chief and Liao Daqiu kept working, and many people were soon persuaded.
Liao Daqiu and a few farmers went to the county town to find a papermaker. The old village chief was making soup in the village.
To make rice soup for more than a hundred ghosts, at least ten or twenty families must cook it together. And after all, life may be at stake this time. If you are not afraid of ten thousand, you are afraid of the worst, so this soup rice is still It took a lot of effort, and it was absolutely impossible to deal with it. Only thirty or forty native chickens and ducks were killed. Looking for Shuyuan www.zhaoshuyuan.com in Maotan Village was a lot of money.
The county seat is about half a day’s journey from Maotan Village. When Lao Liao, Lao Zhang and others arrived in the city, they went to the Baishi Shop to find the boss. Generally, the boss of this kind of shop might be a master papermaker himself, and the result was true. in this way.
The people of Maotan Village ordered paper war flags and paper weapons at once, which made the boss happy but also very strange. How could he burn these for the dead? But of course it is good to have business, so he would not care so much.
He politely said “Goodbye, sir” and sent a few farmers away before returning to the store with a smile on his face. His wife happened to see him.
“Master, why are you so happy about some big business?”
The person who just left didn’t seem to be rich, so the woman was a little confused.
“Hey, of course. Over at Maotan Village, we ordered some paper flags and paper weapons. The quantity is quite large, and the deposit is sufficient.”
The boss weighed the drop of copper coins in his hand.
“Oh, I can’t see it!”
“Yes, even if time is tight, the requirements are high, but these things are much simpler than making paper figures at home. If I take less rest, I can finish the work soon! Hehehehe…”
“Why don’t you go to work quickly? I’ll just watch the store!”
The proprietress put her hands on her hips and asked the shop owner to go to work. The latter hurried back to the yard behind the shop.
It’s just that when leaving, the shop owner was also thinking about what those farmers said, saying that there might be plague ghosts, so he should be careful.
But in recent years, the government has been very sensitive to oral transmission among villagers. For fear of being arrested by the government and charged with deceiving the public, the farmers did not dare to say too much and left.