Guanzhong Tomb Robbery Notes

The mournful sound of suona filled the night sky.

The crows were startled and flew out of the bushes, forming a black mass that blocked the bright moon in the sky.

I saw spirit-calling banners fluttering in the wind in the direction of the slope we had just passed.

Then paper people and paper horses floated up from the bottom of the slope.

The paper-made boy holds a basket in his left hand, reaches into the basket with his right hand, grabs paper money and scatters it into the sky.

The paper horse shook its head and moved its four hooves, walking slowly behind the paper man.

It's not uncommon to see funeral processions holding paper figures and horses, but seeing moving paper figures and horses in the middle of the night would make anyone's scalp explode.

The two young boys, Su Lou and Su Sheng, were so frightened that they fell to the ground.

"Ghost, ghost!"

"Dad! Grandpa! Quick, run!"

The two men who fell to the ground didn't even bother to stand up, but crawled on all fours into the woods not far away.

Su Meng's face turned pale as he followed his two sons into the woods.

"Master Chen, hurry up and leave! This might have opened the gates of hell, and the ghosts from the underworld are running out!"

Cui Hao and Wang Hu held my arms on the left and right, and ran into the woods without looking back.

The millstone stood behind me and said naively, "I'll cover the rear."

"Even if the evil spirits from the underworld come, my yang energy can subdue them."

We rushed into the woods in a panic.

Hiding behind a thick tree, staring at the paper people and paper horses slowly moving forward.

When the soul-calling banners and paper people and horses passed the top of the slope, the coffin-carrying team appeared behind them.

The team all wore black.

From a distance, people and the night merge into one.

If you don't look carefully, you might think they are ghosts coming out of the underworld.

"It looked like a funeral procession."

"The spirit-calling banners and paper figures and horses are all held by people, but why are they all wearing black? They should be wearing mourning clothes."

"And why are those paper figures and paper horses moving?"

Everyone whispered their questions.

Nighttime funerals are rare.

What's more, this funeral procession is full of weirdness.

"Lao Su, is it popular to hold funerals at night here?" I asked in confusion.

Old Man Su shook his head slowly.

"This is the first time I've seen a funeral at night, but my father-in-law once told me that there used to be a custom here."

"Anyone who has died a violent death by provoking wild monsters cannot have their body left to rest, cannot be buried in the ancestral tomb, and cannot be buried during the day."

"The funeral must be held after midnight, and the body must be buried before dawn."

"Inside this coffin should be someone who died a violent death."

As he was speaking, Old Man Su suddenly shuddered.

As if he had thought of something, he murmured in a low voice: "Could it be my uncle..."

His cheeks twitched violently.

He couldn't hold the pipe in his hand anymore and it dropped to the ground with a thud.

"This is a small coffin!"

"It's a child's coffin!"

"It's probably my eldest brother-in-law who did something wrong again!"

Only then did I notice that the coffin being carried was only half the size of an ordinary coffin.

Usually only children under the age of ten use this kind of small coffin.

The small coffin was covered with a bright red cloth, probably to ward off evil spirits.

But there was something wrong with the red cloth.

You can vaguely see water dripping from the hanging corner of the cloth.

This is not a rainy day.

Why would the red cloth covering the coffin drip water for no reason?

Just when I was wondering, I found something wrong.

Such a small coffin was carried by eight people.

And there were four people on each side of the eight people carrying the coffin.

The people on these two sides are ready to take over at any time.

Usually, this configuration of eight people carrying the coffin and eight people ready to take over is called sixteen-person carrying.

It is considered a high standard among coffin bearers.

"Sixteen people carried the coffin. Could it be that they were carrying it down from the mountain?"

This is the only possibility I can think of.

The mountain road was difficult to walk on, and even carrying a small coffin was quite strenuous.

It would also make sense to prepare an extra group of people to take turns carrying the coffin.

"Hiss!" Old Man Su suddenly took a breath of cold air.

He grabbed his sparse goatee with his right hand and said, "I'm afraid it's not that simple!"

"Master Chen, look at the pace of the coffin bearers!"

I looked at the lower half of the pallbearers' bodies.

I saw that their waists and hips were slightly bent, and their legs were like in a horse stance, and every step they took was very strenuous.

That way.

It seemed as if what they were carrying was not a coffin, but a mountain.

What's happening here?

I simply couldn't imagine how heavy that coffin was, it was so heavy that the eight young men carrying it couldn't even straighten their backs.

At this time, one of the coffin bearers could not hold on any longer and stumbled and fell to the ground.

When he fell, the coffin bearers next to him were affected.

The coffin immediately lost its balance and tilted.

The person who was about to take over quickly supported the coffin, thus preventing it from falling to the ground.

The leader of the group started cursing, "Wu Gengsheng, you ate the most just now!"

"You've only taken a few steps and you're already a wimp?!"

"Someone come and replace him!"

The other seven people who were carrying the coffin all smiled bitterly.

"It's really not Gengsheng's fault. The coffin is getting heavier the more we carry it. At first, it seemed so light to us, and we walked briskly."

"But the closer we get to our village, the heavier the coffin becomes."

"We can't hold on any longer, why don't we all switch hands?"

The leader glared at them fiercely.

"Look at how useless you are!"

"You just want to be lazy!"

"Forget it, let's switch hands."

The eight strong young men following nearby began to exchange hands with the people carrying the coffin.

Because there is a saying that the coffin cannot fall to the ground after it is opened, the process of changing hands is also particularly particular.

In order to ensure that the coffin is off the ground, it must be changed hands one person at a time.

As soon as the strong young man took over, he started grimacing.

"Why is it so heavy?"

"Even if we lift such a big stone, it shouldn't be that heavy, right?"

"Look, the red cloth on the coffin is wet and dripping!"

As the young man exclaimed, everyone realized that the red cloth on the coffin was wet.

"What's going on?"

"Why don't you ask Lao Zhang to come and take a look? He used to be a Taoist priest!"

"Old Zhang was asked to leave this afternoon and is not in our village tonight!"

"What should I do? What if he's pretending to be dead..."

"Shut up!" Gangtou shouted angrily, "Don't talk nonsense, or you might break the taboo."

"If you eat and drink at the host's house, you must do things for the host beautifully."

"We're almost at the village entrance, let's work harder!"

The leader calmed the people and called on the team to move on.

The coffin-carrying team had not taken a few steps forward when a cat's meow suddenly came from the woods.

It's not the meow of a cat.

But it sounds like a baby crying.

Cats usually meow at night. In spring, they make sounds similar to a child crying.

The sudden sound of a cat crying like a baby made the hairs on our bodies stand on end.

It's very unlucky for a cat and a coffin to collide with each other late at night!

Gangtou looked in the direction of the cat's meowing.

He hurriedly urged, "Hurry up, hurry up, everyone, speed up!"

I happened to be looking in the direction of the cat's meowing.

I saw a huge cat squatting under a big tree not far away.

Do not!

That's not a cat!

But it's someone squatting like a cat!

I could see his face clearly.

It was the face of an old man over fifty years old, who was staring at the coffin and licking his lips.

Could it be that he is Old Man Su's brother-in-law? !