"Bang bang!" I knocked on the door twice.

The man in glasses turned his head and looked over when he heard the sound.

"Damn!"

"What are you doing? Why did you come in without knocking on the door!"

He threw away his headphones and put on his pants in a panic.

"I knocked on the door, didn't you hear it with your headphones?"

"Is it you? A relative of the Bai family?"

"What did you buy?" He recognized it as me.

"Wreath," I said to buy a better wreath, a larger one, and may be used in the next day or two. You can send it to me when the time comes.

The man in glasses put on the down jacket and smiled and said, "Brother, you are really here in the right place. The quality of the wreath in my store is the best in Xianyang, it is big and round."

"The wreath takes up space in the next store, come with me brother."

When I came out, I was a little curious and asked casually, "Why is your door open upwards? It's inconvenient."

"You don't understand this, right?"

He pushed the door up casually and turned around and said, "Three Hundred and Sixty Properties, this is the industry rule. Although our funeral shop is doing a deadly business, it is not welcome to come in, and the door is made to open up and down, and some bad things can't be entered at night."

These two stores are next to each other, and when they go out, the other store has no signs, and there are many ready-made wreaths and paper people in the room against the wall.

Nowadays, many shops do not sell paper people. There are dozens of paper people standing in the room. If you don’t turn on the lights, you can only see the outline. It’s a bit scary, and it’s even more scary when you turn on the lights.

Why do I say it is scary? Because the paper people here are more than one meter tall, with a round face, and the paper people have a look. They are wearing blue and white clothes, with eye sockets on their faces, but there are no eyes, and some are not placed properly and fall to the ground.

There are two large white horses with paper made of paper in the corner of the wall to the north. A pair of boys and girls are holding paper horses. There is a paper cow on the left side of the paper horse. Have you seen a paper cow before? It is the first time I have seen it.

He picked up a paper man who fell to the ground and said, "The wreaths are all here. Look at which one you choose, both big and small, all new, the big one is 60 yuan, the small one is 35 yuan. If you want paper man and paper horse, you can still be cheaper. Then leave an address and I will deliver the goods to you."

"That's it," I picked the biggest one casually.

"Where is paper-made? Do you want it?"

I said, "Forget it, it's uncomfortable to look at it. What's wrong with your cow? Someone else buys paper cows," I pointed to the corner of the wall and said.

He explained: "Paper cows are not called paper cows in our funeral business, but they are called Yin | Water buffaloes. They are used less in the north, but sometimes people want them. Did you enter one without looking at them? When did you sell them?

I asked, "What is Yin | Buffalo? I only know buffalo."

He continued: "In the funeral business, this buffalo can only be burned for women. It is a bad thing for men to burn for men, because there is a golden bridge and silver bridge in the underworld. After the offerings from the relatives in the living world have received the sacrifices burned by the relatives in the world, the men will go to the bridge separately, the men will go to the golden bridge and the women will go to the silver bridge."

"There is a bubbling and hot blood pool in the middle of the silver bridge. Some women usually waste a lot of water when cooking and washing clothes. Only by letting the buffalo drink all the blood water can they pass. Otherwise, walking over the blood pool will burn your feet."

I laughed silently after hearing this.

I said what you said, who said that women just waste water, then men will not waste water? Oh, as you say, men scrubbing bathhouses, and men drive water sprinklers do not waste water every day.

"Hey, brother, don't argue with me. What I said is just the sayings passed down by the older generation. If you want to know the truth or the false, you will know after you die."

I was too lazy to argue with him, so I took out a hundred dollars and gave it to him, saying that I would buy a wreath and give it to me for the remaining money.

"I'm going to know my brother."

He collected the money, grabbed a paper man with a round face and said with a smile:

"Look at how good and cute this one is. I've given this to you. Don't let me find money."

He almost pushed the paper man to my face, and I took two steps back and cursed: "You fucking get rid of me. If I said I don't want it, just don't want it. Come find money, I'm leaving."

"I understand, I'll look for you."

He asked me change and asked again: "Where to send it to me then? Leave the address."

Two days later, I didn’t know where to book the Bai family’s mourning hall, so I said, “Call you then, won’t you deliver the goods for free.”

"It's free, but only for Qindu District. If you want it too far, I have to charge another fee. Otherwise, I won't make enough money for a wreath for you."

"I got it, I'm leaving."

It's okay the next day.

There is a message.

I heard from others that Mr. Bai had said a will, saying that he would not be cremated after his death and would be buried in the ground, and he also told his descendants to bury himself on a piece of wasteland north of the National Cotton No. 2 Factory.

He persisted for another day and a half. At 6:20 pm on the third day, the old man Bai Tingli died in the special nursing room of Tonghui Hospital. He died in the first month at the age of 71.

According to the custom here, a person will set up a mourning hall the next day after his death, and burn some of the things that the old man used before outside the mourning hall, mainly quilts, pillows, clothes, etc.

At that time, the city did not allow burials, but when Bai Tingli was young, he started from scratch and created an auditorium. He had connections locally, so he spent some money to settle it.

The mourning hall is located downstairs in the old community, and the entire Bai family is busy with the old man's funeral. Her father went to another place to find someone to buy a coffin overnight. I called the owner of the funeral shop and told him the address to send the wreath, and then helped Bai Weiqiong move things.

The old lady of the Bai family kept wiping her tears and packed up some of the old man's clothes, bedding and other things, and then I moved them downstairs to the mourning hall.

"Grandpa, I went there to take good care of myself. If I have anything to say, I'll give me a dream."

The fire became bigger and Baiying took a step back with red eyes and took the clothes that Mr. Bai had worn during his lifetime from me.

They were burned one by one. After she finished burning one, I picked it out of the box and handed it over.

The box was almost empty. When it burned to the bottom, it was a military green cloth jacket, which was the kind of old-fashioned clothes before. I touched a hard thing in the pocket of this old-fashioned jacket.

I took it out and saw that it was a very flat small iron box with rusty marks on it, with a row of small red characters printed on it.

"The third group of the Science Popularization Committee of Northwest Cotton No. 2 Cotton Factory."

Seeing Bai Zhiqiong kneeling on the ground and staring at the fire, I quickly stuffed the iron box into my clothes.

"A man cannot be resurrected after death, so mourn."

Bai Weiqiong wiped her tears, "Thank you for helping me."

"You're welcome, do you have toilets nearby?" I asked.

She said: "There is a home upstairs and there is a public toilet downstairs No. 5."

"Then I'll go to the bathroom and come back later."

After leaving the mourning hall, I quickly walked to Building 5 and entered the toilet.

The public toilets in the old community were all squatting. After I went in, I saw an old man squatting and untied his hands and went out to wait.

I took out the iron box and pulled the lock, but found that I couldn't pull it open.

The lock is not big, it is a size larger than the lock of the laptop. I put the iron box on the ground and found half a brick and smashed it two or three times.

At this time, the old man who was going to the bathroom came out with his pants and I took the things into the bathroom.

When I opened the iron box, there was a plastic bag inside. It was obvious that the plastic bag contained several photos and stacked letter paper.

The photo is a black and white photo, and it is slightly yellow. It looks like the old man is very concerned about the preserved photos, and there are no creases at all.

There are three people in the first black and white photo, two men and one woman, both very young, probably about twenty years old. One man had thick eyebrows, big eyes, wearing an old-fashioned green military uniform, a hat on his head, and the other man was a little thinner and taller. The girl had a braided head and a flowery cotton jacket, standing between the two men. The three were laughing, and the background was in the cotton field.

The background of the second photo should be in a factory workshop, or two men and one woman. I found the problem. There was a small cart in the corner of the black and white photo background. There was a black iron lump on the car. When I looked closer, it seemed like a Buddha statue. The Buddha statue only looked in half of the face and couldn't see the full picture clearly.

The third photo was taken at night. The light was very dark. There was a person in the photo. The man's head was wiped off by a fountain pen and he could only see his body. If you look carefully at the pile of white things on the ground, it should be elastic cotton. In addition, there is a portable horse lantern on the ground.

There was only a piece of folded letter paper left in the plastic bag. I took out the letter paper and prepared to open it.

"Hello."

Suddenly someone patted me on the back.
Chapter completed!