The seven people who came to my house were all met by me, and they were all elders. The oldest one was my third uncle, who was over 60 years old. He was the one who was in charge of the hell- breaking ritual this time.

Puzzled, I asked Luo Tianbao, "Brother, didn't you say you were going to work at You Qing's mother's grave? Why are you in the woods?"

"Just watch first, you will definitely know the answer."

The seven people arrived in the woods, and no one spoke. They were all looking for something. After about ten minutes, the youngest aunt said, "Third brother, there is one here." She was standing under a tall birch tree and pointing to a high place.

Looking in the direction of her finger, I saw a huge beehive hanging on the treetop.

Uncle San nodded and said, "Sixth Brother, get the things down."

So Uncle Six, who was nearly fifty years old, tightened his belt, carried a pole similar to a fishing net on his back, and climbed up the tree with extremely agile hands and feet. Although he was an old man, his agility in climbing trees was unmatched by young people. In the blink of an eye, he reached the top of the tree trunk, but at this time he was still some distance away from the beehive hanging on the branch, so he took off the pole on his back and reached towards the beehive.

This action seems simple, but it is actually very difficult, because the foothold on the tree is not stable, and he has to hold the pole with one hand and stretch it towards the hive. The pole is a purple lacquered wooden pole, about the thickness of an egg, nearly two meters long, and weighs at least ten pounds. It takes a lot of strength to hold the pole firmly with one hand.

Uncle Six slowly extended the pole to the bottom of the hive, and after wrapping the net attached to the pole from the bottom up over the hive, he said to Uncle Three below, "It's done."

Uncle San waved his hand and said, "Dig a hole."

I saw two uncles holding shovels and about to dig the soil. I really wanted to go up and "take the job" but Luo Tianbao stopped me. He smiled and said, "You can't do this. Just watch the fun."

But I felt a little skeptical in my heart and thought to myself: I'm not a fool, I can't even dig a hole properly.

I saw the two uncles digging a hole of about half a meter, and then turned the soil in the hole until it was soft. After finishing, they stepped aside. The sixth uncle who had been standing on the tree said, "Here they come." After that, there was a click, and the net bag wrapped with the beehive fell from the branch and landed right in the dug hole. The position of the hole dug by the two men was just right, because it was impossible for the person who cut the beehive to adjust the position.

The opening of the net bag is connected to a mechanism, which is an iron plate similar to a door. When the mechanism is pressed, the two iron plates close and the wood on the branch is clamped, and the wood naturally falls down with the beehive.

The temperature in early spring was very low, so the hornets were in a dormant period. Only a few hornets flew out of the hive when the hive fell into the mud. However, there was a layer of fine mesh bag similar to that woven with silk covering the outside, so these hornets could not fly out. The two people who dug the hole filled the hole with soil again, completely buried the hive, flattened the surface soil, and built a simple open-air stove on it with stones, and burned a pile of charcoal on it.

The whole process left us all confused. Chu Sen couldn't help but ask Luo Tianbao, "Brother, what's the point of burying a bunch of wasps alive? You must know the answer. Don't keep us in the dark. Just explain the reason."

Luo Tianbao smiled and said, "I actually know this. Beehives are built on tree branches, neither touching the sky nor the ground. They are like floating in the air, and the soul is also untouched by heaven and earth. Therefore, the beehive is the most suitable spiritual instrument. In fact, it is a fake infant spirit body."

"Is it so mysterious? What would happen if the baby spirit entered the beehive?"

"There's no set pattern for this kind of thing, so it's impossible to predict."

Then I heard Uncle San say, "It's done." After that, someone dug up the soil, took out the bag wrapped with the beehive, and baked it for nearly two hours. The wasps in the beehive had been roasted to death long ago, and now they fell out one after another and piled up in the bag, looking like a pair of dead leaves.

After Uncle San opened the bag and took out the beehive, he threw the bag full of hornet corpses into the pit. The other elders all looked happy, as if the money was already in their hands.

Then Third Uncle walked up to You Qing and said, "Miss, we have to go to where your mother is buried. Do you know the way?"

You Qing said, "My dad said, he..."

Uncle San waved his hands and said, "Your father must not show up during the entire ritual. It's best not to even call him, otherwise something bad will happen."

"Then let me ask how to get there."

I have asked You Qing before why her mother did not have cremation but chose burial instead. This is because her family is from Shanghai, and not many city dwellers are aware of burial nowadays. You Qing didn't know much about this issue, but she just said that there was a piece of land in her hometown that was to be demolished, and her mother's burial was related to the demolition.

Soon You Qing found out the address, which was actually her hometown. However, You Qing's growth experience was similar to mine. She had never returned to her hometown since she was a child. Later, her father also came to the scene. After communicating with him, she knew exactly why You Qing's mother was buried.

Her hometown is a rural area in Jiangsu Province , a genuine Jiangnan area, a land of fish and rice, and an extremely prosperous southern rural area. Of course, eighteen years ago, the local economy was not yet developed, and there had been several rumors of demolition and reconstruction of labor camps. In order to obtain the benefits of demolition, You Qing's father, who had no house or land in his hometown, buried his dead wife back in his hometown. With the ancestral grave there, he had the conditions for negotiation. It happened that he had a grudge against the dead baby in his wife's belly, so he abandoned the body in the wilderness.

It's just that the economy of the village has been getting better and better in recent years, and every household has made a fortune relying on the rich resources of the south of the Yangtze River, so the villagers are reluctant to leave. Apart from a handful of yellow earth, You Qing's family has gained nothing else. Moreover, You Qing's father has been extremely unlucky in recent years. People in Jiangsu and Zhejiang go into business early, and he started out as an independent operator, but no matter what project he did, others made a lot of money, but he lost money and had to sell his pants.

After being completely out of options, he followed his family relatives and started some small businesses, but it was the same. With the same business and the same channels, he watched others make money while he himself suffered losses because there were always various unexpected situations. Later, his family members thought that he was unlucky and gradually distanced themselves from him.

Five years ago, You Qing's father finally "came ashore" and worked as a security guard in a bank. Although he was unwilling, this was the only way he could live out the rest of his life.

Until today, when he heard that his daughter was haunted by Luo Jingfeng, he somehow saw the hope of starting a business. Although he knew it was best not to come, he still came.

My third uncle and several of his younger siblings immediately distanced themselves from him, telling us to send him away as quickly as possible. However, this old man, nearly sixty years old, had no self-awareness. He was polite to us at first, then asked me, "Mr. Yu, are you saying that I did something wrong to my youngest daughter back then, and now she's taking revenge on me?"

I thought he was here to "get a lecture," so I chatted with him earnestly for a while. Unexpectedly, the old man then said to me with a hopeful look on his face, "So, if I bury my little daughter, will it be considered a blessing in my fortune? Then, it shouldn't be a problem for my business again, right?"

Only then did I understand his purpose for coming here. Needless to say, I despised him, so I said without thinking, "You'd better forget about this. It's a great blessing to be able to live a stable life in this life. From the day you cruelly abandoned the body, wealth has nothing to do with you."

Hearing what I said, he immediately looked disappointed and said, "How about I go ask those great masters, maybe they have a way to crack it?"

"Don't go there. You'll be in trouble if you go there."

"How is that possible? After all, I am the child's father. I should also participate in this ritual." After saying that, he really planned to go over.

Chu Sen was anxious, and grabbed him by the back of his collar and said, "Come back here, why are you asking such nonsense? You don't have a job here anymore, okay?"

Even You Qing was getting anxious. She glared at her father and yelled, "You've cheated each of the three women in our family once, and you're still not satisfied. Are you going to keep cheating me? I'm your only daughter. Do you think there's no one to cry for you when you want to die?"

The old man finally left reluctantly amidst the accusations of the crowd, but before leaving, he still wanted to say to me, "Mr. Yu, please help me. If I can get through this, you will definitely have a share of the money I make in the future."

Before he finished speaking, I saw with my own eyes that his mouth became more and more crooked, until half of his face was crooked.