Chapter 19: The Interlaced Black Lines on Fangshan Mountain
The master walked towards the bungalow on the south side. There were thirteen rooms and thirteen doors. The master walked to the wall and took the thirteenth key, which was the last door. The master said that door was just a form, Yin Thirteen, just like Feng Shui, a necessary existence, but without practical significance.
It sounds evil and a little scary. No wonder the master said not to come to this row of houses. It seems there are too many things to pay attention to here.
The master tried to open the lock for a long time, but couldn't get it to open. He let go and let me open it again. The lock was all rusted. I tried for a long time and looked at the master.
"Smash it open."
I went to the office to get tools, came back and broke the lock. The master pushed the door open. The thirteen doors were arranged in a strange way. Some were pushed inward and some were pulled outward. The master went in and saw four small coffins in the four corners. They were very small, as big as stools, facing each other. This is the "safety roof" in feng shui. The master told me that it keeps the crematorium safe, especially in places like this.
The master looked at it and said.
"You can hear the sound of knocking bones, and Bai Jie can hear it too. I can't hear it. You stay at home and you will hear the sound of knocking bones. It will come from a small coffin. Then come out and tell me."
After the master finished speaking, he went out to turn off the lights and closed the door. There were no windows in this room. It was the first time I knew what it meant to be pitch dark.
I just stood there motionless. I felt that this position might be the safest. In fact, there was no safe place here. Although I couldn't see the small coffins standing opposite each other in the four corners, they were already in my heart and I couldn't get rid of them. It was the same whether I could see them or not, or even better than seeing them. The fear of not being able to see was magnified.
I stood there like a blind man. People say that blind people have sharp ears. At this moment, I seemed to feel it too. My hearing seemed to be much stronger than before. I could even vaguely hear the chirping of spring insects.
I stood there with my head in a mess, not knowing what I was thinking. I heard the sound of "crackling, crackling" of bones. The master said that it was the sound of knocking human bones. This strange sound made me creepy. I recognized that it was coming from the small coffin in the corner of the wall on my left. I called out to the master, and the master came in and turned on the light.
"That one."
I pointed and the master came up and kicked me. It didn't hurt too much, but it scared me.
"Did I tell you? No fingers, especially not on a coffin."
My master really did tell me this, but I've forgotten it. What else can I remember now? Only my head is in a mess and I'm scared.
The master walked over, opened the coffin lid, took a look and said.
"come over."
I walked over trembling and looked inside. There was a piece of bone.
"Why are there bones here?"
"There are some in each small coffin, but they are all in different parts. This is bone feng shui. I don't understand it, but I was there when they were put in."
Inside the small coffin was a human skull. I recognized it. People were burned every day, and I knew every bone in a human skeleton. But that skull wasn't burned. It was...
"Pick it up."
I was scared. Even though I was picking up burnt bones, I felt an inexplicable fear when I was asked to pick up these bones. I was just about to reach out to pick them up when I heard a knock on the door. I jumped. The master didn't move. He listened and looked up. The knocks were very light, one after another.
In the middle of the night, at the crematorium and morgue, someone actually came knocking on the door.
My master and I didn't talk or move. We stopped knocking for a while. After my master closed the coffin, he didn't take the bone anymore.
"Leave immediately."
My master and I left. He rode the bike very fast and when we got out of the crematorium, he said.
"Go down and walk back by yourself."
The master rode away on his bike, and I started running. I didn't want to stay in this place for even a minute longer.
I ran back home, crawled into bed as soon as I entered the house, and I don’t know when I fell asleep.
The next day, when I entered the office, Bai Jie had already arrived and had finished cleaning up. I drank soy milk and seemed to be quite addicted to it.
"Master, why is there a bruise on your face?"
I shuddered. A blue spot?
Bai Jie took out a small mirror and looked at it for me. Sure enough, there was a bruise. I thought that maybe I bumped into something yesterday, but I was so scared that I didn't notice it.
"fine."
I lit a cigarette, took a rest for a while, and went into the refining room with Bai Jie. I just couldn't like this refining room. It was dim, and there were four furnaces and four mouths that could never get enough food.
I carried the deceased inside and shoved him into the furnace. Bai Jie peered through the small opening with a pick. I looked at Bai Jie. How could someone with Miao Tao's figure do this kind of work? If I married her, then the two of us...
I feel a little scared just thinking about it.
I cremated eight people in this life and it ended at noon. When Bai Jie and I were walking back, I took a look at the row of thirteen morgues. I couldn't figure out who knocked on the door in the middle of the night last night. The master was actually scared.
Bai Jie and I went to her house, and while we were having dinner, her father mentioned getting married.
"I'll go back and discuss it with my father."
Bai Jie looked at me without saying anything. In fact, my father agreed, but I just didn't want to get married now. I don't know why.
In the afternoon, Bai Jie and I went to the river. It was almost May. The sun came out in the afternoon and the grass came out. It felt so warm. This winter has passed and spring is here. Bai Jie held my hand and said while looking at the river.
"Master, you don't agree to get married. Is it because I'm not good enough?"
"no."
I can't tell you why.
After returning home that day, I told my father about getting married.
"Okay, then let's get married. Call your second and eldest brothers over, have dinner tonight, and discuss it."
I went to my second brother and eldest brother's house and called them over. My two sisters-in-law also came. I didn't expect that they would not agree with my marriage to Bai Jie. This was beyond my expectation, and neither did my father.
"You burned someone to death, and then you married another one. What's that? Now you've burned someone to death, and we're all implicated."
The eldest brother finished speaking and looked at his father.
I didn't say anything and just looked at my father. No matter what anyone said, it was useless.
"There's nothing wrong with that. It's just a different job. I have no problem with that."
After my father set the tone, my eldest and second brothers stopped talking, and my sister-in-law said.
"Xiao Zuo, sister-in-law will introduce you to one. There are many girls in our unit."
"Don't worry, I think Bai Jie is fine."
After saying that, I went out. I didn’t eat and wandered around the streets. Except for my father, no one agreed. What’s wrong with the refiner?
I waited until my elder and second brothers finished their meal and left before I went back. My father was at home.
"Xiao Zuo, you don't have to listen to them. Just do whatever you want."
I didn't say anything. I had already thought about marrying Bai Jie. If there were no problems, we would get married in October, but I didn't tell Bai Jie.
At night, I actually heard the sound of bones knocking.
“Click, click, click…”
I woke up with a start, opened my eyes wide and listened, but I heard nothing. Maybe it was just a dream.
Today is Master and Yi He's shift. I went over to the refining room and saw Master sitting on a chair, watching Yi He work.
"master……"
The master stood up and came out, and I followed him.
"Here's the skull. Hang it with the black string from your office window."
I saw a hole drilled through the skull. I took it, went into the office, closed the door, sat down and lit a cigarette. I looked at the skull and felt something was amiss: they were letting me hang it by the window.
I found a black rope and hung the skull by the window. It seemed unlucky no matter how I looked at it.
I went out and went home, and Bai Jie was at my house.
"master."
"Don't call me Master at home, call me Xiao Zuo."
My father said that he was cooking and Bai Jie was helping him. I thought, there must be a woman here, because my father has been cooking for almost his entire life.
While eating, I told my father that we would get married on November 11. My father nodded in agreement. Bai Jie blushed and lowered her head.
That day, I was sending Bai Jie home. It was already dark when I heard footsteps. I turned around and saw no one. I was wondering what had happened to me these days. Was I hallucinating? That was a possibility.
What was strange to me was that after I entered the house, I could still hear footsteps and my father was sitting on the side listening to the radio.
"Dad, did you hear that noise?"
My father turned off the radio, listened for a long time and said, "No."
I could still hear footsteps and the sound of people walking back and forth. I thought I was hallucinating or there was something wrong with my ears.
In the afternoon, I went to the hospital, but no problems were found. I went home and still heard footsteps behind me. I looked back and there was no one there. It was really strange.
However, this time the footsteps disappeared as soon as I entered the door.
I don't think it was an illusion or a problem with my ears. It seemed like someone was following me.
After dinner, it was dark and I went out. I heard footsteps behind me, a rustling sound that followed me and sometimes even synchronized with me.
I went to my master's house and he had just finished his meal and was drinking.
"Let's drink together."
"No, you guys eat."
"What's up?"
"I keep hearing footsteps but can't see anyone."
The master stopped, looked at me for a long time and said.
"It's okay, go back!"
When I left my master's house, the footsteps followed me for a while and then disappeared. I was stunned.
I don’t know why this happened. I don’t know how many strange things the refiners have encountered, but I always feel uneasy.
The master came in the afternoon and Bai Jie came to help wash clothes.
"master."
I called the master and made tea for him. The master drank the tea for a while, chatted for a while, and then mentioned the sound of footsteps.
"After a person dies, they will return three days later, build a ladder to heaven, scatter white flour, offer wine to the dead, leave footprints on the ground, and the wine in the glass will be half empty. Bring some white ash."
I actually know this, but I haven't seen it. I don't know whether it's true or not, but I've heard of it, and it still makes me confused.
Bai Jie came back with the white lime, said the master.
"Stir-fry a few dishes."
After the master finished speaking, he took the white ash and went out to sprinkle it on the hill in the east of the house, then came back. I didn't know what the master was going to do. When it got dark, he took out the black thread and went to the top of the hill. I watched him put seven or eight small wooden sticks on the place where he sprinkled the white ash, and then connected them with black thread in an interlaced manner. I didn't know what he meant.
"Master, what does this mean?"
"You'll know when the time comes."
I felt weird. When I looked at my master again at this moment, he seemed a bit evil . Usually, my master looked majestic, but now it was different.
We sat in the room drinking, and I was thinking about that incident and felt uneasy. Bai Jie was the same. My master mentioned my marriage to Bai Jie and then looked at me.
"It's set to be November. I don't know if there will be any changes."
"What do you mean?"
The master asked me.
"Oh, his eldest and second brothers both disagree. The reason is that someone in our family was burned to death. Marrying another one seems..."
"oh."
The master just said "oh" and didn't say anything else. He said he wanted to drink. The master could drink. When it was almost midnight, I heard footsteps. Bai Jie held my hand and it seemed that she had heard it too.
"You two heard footsteps, didn't you?"
I nodded.
"Go out now and pee on the top of Fangshan Mountain, facing the big gable."
The master said to me, I sat there and thought for a long time, then stood up and went out. I couldn't pee because I was too nervous. I looked at the white ash and the small stick next to me. I couldn't see the black rope on it because it was too dark.
I still peed and rushed into the house with my pants in my hand. The master glared at me.
"Look at how much you can do."
The master drank the wine in the glass and came out. We followed him out. The master took a flashlight and shone it towards the white ash. There were actually several footprints on it.
“It’s actually a woman.”
After the master finished speaking, he squatted down.
