Lingjian Ghost Story: Fenglu Hanzhang

Wuzhou City is not a big and prosperous city. On the contrary, if the sound of chickens and dogs at the top of the city is met with a stronger wind, it can blow to the end of the city.But it has a well-known feature, and that is the lantern.The Shangyuan Festival in Wuzhou is the most lively festival of the year. Wuzhou has a small population, but half of the shops are lantern shops. Every time before the Shangyuan Festival, other towns rush to Wuzhou to collect some When the lanterns go back, they can often be sold at an excellent price.

He Yuanzhi had too many brothers and sisters in his family, and his parents were not rich. When He Yuanzhi was only 13 years old, he was handed over to a rather large lantern shop as an apprentice.The master saw that he was good-tempered and patient, and thought that although he was still young, he was still capable of fighting, so he took him in too.

When he first entered the lantern shop, He Yuanzhi looked at the countless exquisite lanterns and couldn't help grinning with joy. He has loved lanterns since he was a child. He didn't go out with his family on the Lantern Festival. He saw the paper lanterns and silk lanterns in the roadside shops. , and even some expensive glazed lamps, mica screens, crystal curtains, Wanyan Luo, etc., I am so envious.

But when the brothers and sisters were crying for their parents to buy them lanterns, He Yuanzhi was the only one who remained silent.He knew that it was not easy for his parents to support his children, and even the cheapest paper lanterns were a big burden for them.From then on, He Yuanzhi thought that if he could learn how to make lanterns, he could make them for his younger siblings to play with, and he would not have to embarrass his parents because they couldn't afford lanterns.

His parents only thought that He Yuanzhi chose the lantern shop because he wanted to learn a craft to make a living, but they didn't know his deep meaning.After they entrusted He Yuanzhi to the master of the lantern shop, they also left. Before leaving, they simply told them to listen to the master and not talk back.He Yuanzhi naturally responded one by one.

In the first two years, He Yuanzhi didn't even touch the lantern stand. The master just asked him to do some chores of serving tea and water and cleaning up the shop.He Yuanzhi didn't say anything, just silently doing the work at hand, taking advantage of his spare time, and taking advantage of his young age, the masters and brothers didn't take precautions against him, just stealing from the master openly.

But just seeing that he was a handyman, he went to the firewood room at night to pick up some discarded lanterns, dismantled them, reassembled them, and mounted them again.Over time, I also gained some experience.

Two years later, the master still didn't intend to teach him how to make lanterns. He Yuanzhi panicked and asked the master respectfully, "Master, when can you teach me how to make lanterns?"

In fact, the master didn't take this little doll seriously, but just letting him hang out like this was like raising an idler, so he said: "You are still young, so let's start practicing from splitting bamboo strips, just pay attention, don't let it go." Just cut your hand." After finishing speaking, he called the brother who split the strips, gave He Yuanzhi to him after a few simple instructions.

Compared with the master, the senior brother didn't pay much attention to He Yuanzhi, and he didn't teach him the skill of splitting strips, so he let him torment himself.He Yuanzhi didn't have the opportunity to learn how to split strips by stealing his teacher before, and he didn't know how to start with the hard bamboo. He asked his senior brother perfunctorily and didn't answer carefully.He just scolded and said: "You little baby has no strength, how can you learn how to split bamboo and scorn, the master called you here just to put on a show, can you expect anything from you?"

He Yuanzhi gritted his teeth, and replied respectfully: "Thank you, brother, for your teaching." During the day, he didn't talk to his brother much, but just carefully memorized the steps of his brother, every detail No place is spared.And at night, when the masters and brothers were all asleep, he got up quietly, picked up the Mi Dao, and practiced breaking bamboo.After all, he was young and weak, either he couldn't break the bamboo, or he hurt his hand if he chopped it crookedly.

He also had no choice but to bandage it up briefly, and whenever anyone was curious about the wound on his hand, he asked a few words: "What's the matter with your hand?" I fell on the Qinglu Road." After half a year like this, I understood the skill of breaking bamboo and splitting strips by heart.