Chapter 49: Sending Away the Deceased
No one knew what Village Chief Sun and Meng Fan had talked about.
However, when Village Chief Sun walked out of Meng Fan's house, his expression was solid and his gaze was certain.
This answer was enough.
In the village chief's persuasion, these villagers reluctantly returned home, to face the home that should not appear "people".
But the hearts of people are not easy to appease, the next day, many villagers and apprehensive up, spontaneously began to give Meng family gifts, just like last time, their gifts are simple and unadorned, eggs, walnuts, peanuts ……
once again filled Meng Fan's home, and it looked like there were even more than last time.
Meng Qingshan was powerless to refuse these meager intentions of the townspeople.
Rejecting it was the same as rejecting their hopes.
A day later, Meng Fan walked out of the house, but surprisingly, he didn't do anything amazing, but instead went to Granny Zhang's house, looked at the corpse refining furnace, chatted with Granny Zhang, accompanied Liu Xiaoxi on a walk, walked side by side on the green grass that hadn't yet withered, and watched Ah Fu chase a little house sparrow that he would never be able to catch up with ……
Then he left the house of Zhang's mother-in-law, went out of the village, and walked slowly in the wild mountains, following the list provided by the village headman, looking for the graves where the dead had crawled out, and then sitting on the graves, looking at the white clouds streaming across the sky as they rolled in and out of the sky ……
He did not return home until the setting moon was hidden behind the brilliant evening sun.
The next day, he began to visit each household, did not look for living people to chat, not to mention how to send away the dead, but directly and those who returned to the dead to talk about some family life, such as after returning home, still not accustomed to it, eat well, sleep well, do you remember the things of the past, the day is cold, or need to wear more …… words. The words.
After leaving, he wrote and drew on a small notebook and wrote a lot of words in no time.
After another day, he began to look for those living people, looking for Yu Fengqing, looking for the old king, looking for Zhu Tuodu …… holding a small notebook, and they chatted with the sky, but also some commonplace words, and did not make a shocking thing, everything seems to be calm and uneventful.
Within a few days, he had visited all the families on the list, and then read the little book at night, pondering ……
Is there a gentle way to let people send off the deceased;
If there is a method, should we do it so quickly, is it better to have the company for a longer period of time ……
Days just like this day by day, when everyone is about to despair, Meng Fan just once again out of the door, strung door to door, and did not bring anything, such as paper people ah, mahogany sword ah, spiritual talisman ah …… and so on let the villagers feel that they should bring the things, anyway, Zhang granny casting the spells of the time, are all of these things.
The first house is Yu Fengqing's house.
Meng Fan at Yu Fengqing's house ate Jia's cooking, cured meat noodles, the noodles made very sinewy, root and root look, without good craftsmanship can not be done this way, the milk is also done properly, salty and light, and let a person feast.
Meng Fan ate two bowls full, helped Jia clean up the dishes, and did not say anything, after thanking him, he was about to leave.
Yu Fengqing was also wary of Meng Fan, if Meng Fan came and said that he wanted to send Jia away or burn Jia, then he would definitely not be polite to Meng Fan and would definitely take a broom and drive Meng Fan out.
But Meng Fan did not say anything, just eat a meal to go, this is already the third time to the home, has been courteous, never mention Jia's business, but like a latecomer to the elder's home as a guest, which makes Yu Fengqing some think not to understand, pulling Meng Fan asked: "Children, the village has not decided, to burn my old partner! …… I won't agree to it even if I die!"
Meng Fan shook his head and put his hand on Yu Fengqing's rough hand, his tone was soft: "Granny is a good person, and has served you hard all your life, so uncle, you will give Granny …… a dumpling."
Yu Fengqing heard stunned in place, turned his head to look at Jia s hunched back, was scrubbing and washing at home, he seemed to think of the past all of a sudden, his eyes moistened, nodded.
Meng Fan smiled and left.
In the evening, Yu Fengqing went to Zhu Butcher's house to buy two pounds of meat, and gave Jia a meal of dumplings, his dumplings were ugly and shapeless, and he put one into Jia's bowl and smiled, "Old companion, when you were alive, you always nagged me to let me give you a meal of dumplings, and this isn't eating it!"
But Jia ate a bite, then cried ……
That night, Jia coaxed Yu Fengqing to sleep and left the house, never to return ……
Meng Fan learned that Jia had left, wrote a sentence on the small book: Jia, the wish has been fulfilled, return ……
The second home, next door to the old Wang's home.
Old Wang's sister sat on the bed, holding a needle and thread in her hand, somewhat clumsily doing women's work, the threads were colorful and beautiful, but she always did not do a good job, messed up and started over again.
Old Wang and his own mother-in-law shivering stood aside, looking at the mother and child died because of difficult labor sister, a blank face, this situation day after day, has been a few days.
Meng Fan didn't talk to Old Wang, but straight away pulled Wang's wife to one side, placed a piece of paper in her hand, and said in a soft tone, "Auntie, you're good with your hands, help her out a bit."
After saying this, he left.
Wang's wife unfolded the paper in her hand to take a look at it, it was a drawing, froze for a long time, and finally revealed a warm smile, and bravely, walked over to her little aunt, and said gently, "When you were pregnant, you always wanted to sew a pair of tiger shoes for the doll in your belly, now that my sister-in-law has the drawing, I'll teach you to do it."
Teaching hand in hand, finally in the evening time, finished a pair of exquisite tiger head shoes.
It was night, the old king's sister quietly out of the house, holding their own hands to the doll sewing tiger head shoes, never came back ……
Meng Fan then wrote in a small notebook: Wang sister, wish has been fulfilled, return ……
The third house, Zhu Butcher's house.
Meng Fan didn't enter the house, but picked up a broken broom in the yard and put it into the hands of Butcher Zhu, saying, "If you do it yourself, you still have to solve it yourself."
After saying that, he left.
Zhu Tu Tu held the broom thoughtfully, glanced at his father who was sitting at the door with a date wood crutch and an icy face, turned around and walked into the stove room, and pulled out from the pile of firewood a pimply, ebony-faced woman, that was his wife.
The woman stared at the broken broom in Zhu Tu Tu's hand in horror, trembling, "Don't ever …… hit me again ……."
Zhu Butcher shoved the broom into the woman s hands and gently pulled her in front of his father, then he took off his shirt, revealing his thick, fat back, and knelt in front of his father.
The old man pushed his date wood cane hard into the ground and said one word to the terrified woman, "Beat!"
The woman shook her head straight with the broom.
Zhu Butcher raised his head and looked at his wife, "Hit me, and let father take the edge off …… is that I am not right for you, in the future …… will not be …… "
Only then did the woman nod hesitantly and take the broom and hit Zhu Tu Tu on his back.
The old man's face was still cold: "Hit again! Hit harder!"
The woman bit her lip and waved the broom that brought her endless nightmares, hitting Zhu Tu Tu's back one by one, and his back flooded with blood-red scars.
The woman looked at those wounds, and cried as she hit, suddenly dropped the broom, flung herself down on her knees in front of the old man, gripped the date wood cane tightly in her hand, and said with tears in her eyes, "I can't hit it …… pain …… "
Zhu butcher heard, a face covered with horizontal meat, wet by his own guilty tears, tightly hugged his wife.
Watching this scene, the old man's face of ice finally melted, showing a touch of reassuring smile.
It was the night, the old man on crutches, quietly left the home, and never came back ……
Meng Fan then wrote on the small notebook: Father Zhu, his heart's desire has been fulfilled, return to ……
The fourth family ……
The fifth family ……
A family of villagers, with tears to send away the deceased, even the Sun village head, but also the younger brother things to say to Meng Fan to listen to Meng Fan's words, shocked, the younger brother will be picked up at home.
It turned out to be the younger brother knew that his brother was afraid of heat, only wanted to fix the electric fan, and let his brother survive that hot summer, but met with misfortune.
Sun village chief then find out that the leakage of the electric fan to the brother to repair, and when the electric fan is repaired, blowing out the first breeze, the brother quietly left, did not come back ……
Meng Fan's little notebook is filled with stories of the deceased from every family, and let you weep when you read them ……
"Brother ……," the little widow stretched out in the yard, smiling sweetly, "so smart!"
Meanwhile, Liu Xiaoxi, who was listening to these poignant and mournful stories, secretly swept away those grass and wood ashes painted in strange shapes in front of her house's front door, and sat quietly in front of the front door, seemingly waiting for something to come, whispering softly, "Come back …… and give me another look… . give me another hug ……"
The people on the list were gone, Meng Fan burned the small book, and when he wanted to cultivate on his knees, he realized that he couldn't get into the fix for a long time. ……
"Perhaps something was missed ……"
The next day, Zhang Chunkeng, the son of Zhang Carpenter, came to the door.
The mute Zhang Chunkeng held some more top quality peach wood for Meng Fan and muttered, "I want to see him again …… I want to speak to him again …… Why isn't my father home yet… …"