Chapter 1

In the middle of the night, the whole mountain village fell into a dead silence. This is a desolate and barren place. At this time, it is even more desolate.

"Close the shop. It's so late, there's no one

"I see..." I answered. Out of the shop, picked up the door of the two paper men into the room. By the way, my name is Liu guantian and my nickname is "coffin boy". I'm a clerk of Shoucai store. Actually, it's a funeral service.

I was an orphan when I was a child, when my mother took her last breath. I was born in a coffin. Shifu took pity on me and adopted me. At that time, I couldn't cry, and I didn't know who yelled“ Coffin boy I cried out and the nickname was born.

My master has a ancestral craft, which is specialized in making coffins for the dead. Few people know this craft now. They used to be called carpenters.

Coffin industry has a lot of stress, from color to wood are different, and there are many taboos. But now with the progress of society, cremation is practiced. Only in the remote mountain village like my home, the traditional form of burial is adopted.

"Gu Gu... Gu Gu" with a cold wind blowing. There was a cry of night owls, which sounded very sad. I shivered and ran into the shop and closed the door.

"It's so big. I'm so timid. If I'm not here in the future. How can you hold up this shop by yourself After a few words of nagging, the master turned and walked into the inner room“ Go and have a rest after you've finished. There are still many things to do tomorrow. "

"If you die. I'll cash out this shop and move to the city. " I said it to myself. Fortunately, the old man didn't hear me. Otherwise, I'd like to have a smack on my head.

As soon as I was in bed, I heard a dull knock on the door. I got out of bed a little annoyed. Who would come shopping so late? "Who, so late, can't let people go to bed?"

"I want to order a coffin. Please help me."

"It's closed. Come back tomorrow!"

"Order a coffin soon..."

"Creak..." the man's voice just fell, the shop door actually opened itself. I remember that I had locked the door from the inside. How did I open the door?

A man in a black robe pushed the door open and came in. He was wearing a black hat on his head, sunglasses and a mask on his face and covered himself tightly.

"I said, how can you be like this? I said it's already closed!" I was a little angry and wanted to ask him out. He just gave me a little push and pushed me to a chair.

The man glanced around the shop and said in a hoarse voice, "is your shopkeeper there?"

"The manager of my family has been resting. If you want to find him, please be early tomorrow."

"I want to order a coffin. The money is for the coffin." The man reached out and took out a stack of banknotes from his pocket, put them on the table, took a pen and paper, wrote the required size, turned around and walked out of the shop. When I look at that pile of banknotes, there are tens of thousands of dollars. A coffin can't use that much money.

I wanted to go out and give it back to him, but after a second thought, I'd better forget it. If there's any money to send out, I'll take it as a tip. I put the money in the drawer, went back to the room, fell back on the bed and slept until dawn.

The next morning, just after dawn, I got up, opened the shop and cleaned up. This shop is the lifeblood of the old man, and we both rely on it to make a living.

"Is Mr. Liu at home?" When I got back to the front desk, Aunt Zhang came in and said, "the coffin is at home. Where's your old man?"

"Before the old man gets up, just tell me what you need and I'll take it for you."

"Then give me two bundles of burning paper..." I really don't want to hear the name of coffin boy. Since I had this nickname, I was like the God of pestilence. When I was a child, the children in the village didn't dare to play with me. They thought that I was an ominous person. Who would make friends with me would have bad luck. What impressed me most was that when I was seven years old, I was playing in the field with some children from the same village. I don't know why it was so coincidental. I was chasing after them, and they ran in front of me. They all fell into the river when they were not careful.

Fortunately, I caught a big stone quickly, and the children were all like drowned chickens. Several children's parents then went to the door, and their confessions were consistent. They all said that I pushed them down the river. That's a tacit understanding. I was beaten by the old man and closed up. Since then, all my friends have been friends.

My childhood can be described as miserable. I only play with things that others can't see or touch.

I sat in the shop all morning and didn't sell a single business. The business of the dead is hard to earn these days, but think about who has so many dead people.

When I finished my breakfast, the old man got up, came out with a pot in his hand and sat down on the chair“ Dinner... Master I took the food out of the kitchen and put it on the table.

The old man looked at me and said softly, "I've said it many times. Don't call me Shifu."

"Oh, I see." I've asked the old man why he didn't let me call him Shifu many times. Every time he explained vaguely, he didn't mention it after two sentences.

The old man put down his cigarette bag and said in a hoarse voice, "did someone come to order the coffin last night?"

"Well, the man was very strange. He said he wanted to order a coffin and left money for it." The old man didn't mention it. I almost forgot about it. I got up, went to the counter, opened the drawer, and handed the deposit and size requirements to the old man.

The old man took it over and looked at it. His face became heavy and he said in a voice: "white coffin... A stack of Ming coins... It's so evil."

"Ming coin? It's impossible... "I looked at it carefully, and it turned out that the stack of banknotes was a stack of bright red Ming banknotes, enough to confuse the real with the fake. This tortoise grandson was such a fuckin 'bastard that he cheated me with the dead man's money.

The old man's face became a little ugly. Let me tell him what happened when the man came last night. I felt the seriousness of the matter and reappeared the scene word for word.

"In that case, let's make the coffin well." The old man knocked on the pot and drank a mouthful of porridge, as if nothing had happened.

"Old man... This coffin really needs to be made. The man gave us a stack of money. It's obviously a trick. Don't pay any attention to him."

"What are you talking about? People have paid for it. How can you not make a coffin. And I've taught you that you can't owe anyone to the dead. "

After breakfast, the old man went to the backyard with an axe and cut down on the wood.

There is also a saying about making coffins. If the first axe goes down and the sawdust on the wood flies far away, it means that the person still has a few years to live. On the contrary, if the sawdust flies low and close, it means that the person's life is short.

"Cough... It's really evil!" The master put down his axe, sat down on the stone and took a few puffs of cigarettes. "The life is not over yet!"“ How long is it? " That is to say, if the person is not dead, he will order a coffin. It's not that he hopes to die early. There won't be any problem.

The old man's face darkened and he puffed out a cigarette ring and said, "I want to go out. You should be honest at home and watch the shop. If that man comes back, please let him wait for me for a while."

The old man changed into clean clothes and went out with a cigarette bag. It's never happened that the coffin stopped in the middle of it. I've been learning from the old man for so long, and it's the first time I've seen him like this.

More than two o'clock in the afternoon, the old man came back, drunk, a door sat on the rocking chair.

"My God, get me some water." I burned a pot of boiling water and put it on the table. The old man usually likes to drink tea. When he's free, he will teach me how to do it, but I'm born dull. I learn half and throw half of it.

"All right, you have a good look at the shop in front of you. I'll get the coffin ready." The old man knocked the soles of his shoes with the pot, and then walked into the backyard.

I have studied with the old man for 20 years. The old man is a man who eats the dead. He is known as "Mr. coffin". Whether he is looking at geomantic omen to choose a cemetery or exorcising evil spirits to avoid evil spirits, he always holds the handle, and his ancestral skill of making coffins is unique.

As dinner approached, the old man made the coffin. A white coffin was placed in the yard and covered with cloth. It looked a little scared.

Maybe the old man drank too much wine, ate a few meals, and went back to the house to lie down.

Can calculate stay up late at night, I was preparing to close, a wandering spirit wild ghost floated over, no matter 37 21, toward my shop door with the head fiercely hit a few times.

"Bang bang!" I bumped into it several times in a row. When I was young, I learned my craft from my master. I really had some small ways to deal with this kind of difficult ghost.

I picked up my grandfather's axe, which was made of coffin, and with a strong force, I waved it at the ghost. The axe followed my master all the year round, and it also had evil spirit. The evil spirit was so strong that ordinary kids didn't dare to get close to it.

An ax cut off the ghost's head, and its head fell to the ground like a ball.