The Last Taoist

Chapter 5

Posthouse at Matou Mountain

In those days, almost every village had a butcher, so it was not difficult to find three butchers. Grandpa went out and called three butchers, each of whom was carrying a sharp knife.

Grandpa briefly explained the matter to the three butchers. They were all big and strong, sloppy, and fierce. They took the cigarettes handed by grandpa, drank a few sips of wine, and waited until midnight, then set out from grandma's house to send Cha Wenbin home.

Later, I also went to verify these butchers. Two of them are still alive. They said that although it was summer that night, they felt a cold wind blowing all the time. When they walked on the road, they always felt that someone was following them. But Cha Wenbin didn't allow them to look back or talk, and asked them to hold sharp knives in their hands and surround him in the middle and keep going forward.

After Wenbin arrived home, he gave each of them a pack of cigarettes, a bottle of wine and a talisman, and then let the three of them go home. He then locked himself up at home for seven days.

The next day, grandpa, grandma and aunt came to see him with things, but he refused to see them.

During the period when Cha Wenbin was in seclusion, grandma took aunt to the hospital for a checkup, and the results were all normal. Even the doctor who announced that grandma should prepare for her funeral found it incredible.

For seven consecutive days, grandma went to Cha's house to wait. On the morning of the eighth day, Cha Wenbin opened the door. When grandma walked in, she asked aunt to kneel down and kowtow three times to thank him for saving her life. Cha Wenbin was also a straightforward person. He refused the money from my grandmother again. My grandmother insisted on leaving the money. Cha Wenbin had no choice but to say, "Sister-in-law, if you really want to thank me, can you give me the little black dog in your house?"

Not to mention a dog, even if it was a fat pig, as long as he asked, my grandmother would give it to him without hesitation. She immediately nodded and agreed, saying that she would ask my grandfather to send it to her later.

Cha Wenbin said, "It's not that I want anything from my sister-in-law's house, but this dog has opened the yin and yang eyes, and it is a pure black dog that can recognize ghosts. If you keep it at home, it will cause trouble sooner or later. If I keep it with me, it can be of some use. Please don't blame me, sister-in-law."

Later, I heard from my grandmother that at that time, my uncle had a temper and cried at home because of the little black dog, but the dog really became Cha Wenbin's partner and appeared in another story. Of course, that's a later story.

A few days later, Cha Wenbin visited the grandmother's house, had lunch at her house, and then went to the homes of the two children who fell into the water. He asked about the place where the children were salvaged and buried, and then took the children's parents to the grave mountain.

At that time, when a child died, they would just roll up a broken mat, find a small hill, dig a hole and bury him. There was no tombstone or anything like that.

On the way there, Cha Wenbin asked the child's family if they had been to the grave mountain again after the child died. The child's father said that he was afraid of being sad, so he had never been there since the child died. Others helped to bury the child. They only knew which mountain the child was buried in, and nothing else. Cha Wenbin took the compass and calculated as he walked, and the group walked all the way to the Horse Head Mountain.

Speaking of this Horse Head Mountain, I also know that it is on a very high mountain opposite the gate of my grandmother's house. Because it looks like a horse, it is named Horse Head Mountain. And there is such a protruding mountain in the flat land, which feels a bit weird.

When they climbed to the top of the mountain, the sun was about to set. Finally, they found the small mound where the two children were buried. The grave was overgrown with weeds. If the soil color had not been renewed, it would be hard to tell that it was a grave.

When the two families saw their children lying here suffering, they were overwhelmed with sadness and longing, and they knelt on the ground and cried. Cha Wenbin didn't care about them, but just stepped around the grave to measure. After a cigarette, Wenbin had a better idea in his mind, so he asked the two families to stand together and said that they would dig up the mound.

Of course, the two families disagreed. The father of one of the children wanted to beat him and cursed: "Where did you come from, you fake Taoist priest, and you want to dig up my children's graves!"

Cha Wenbin was not angry, and asked them: "Do you know what mountain this is?"

Of course, everyone knew that this was Matou Mountain!

"Horse Head Mountain? Ox-Headed Horse-Face! Yes, this mountain is a post station in Ox-Headed Horse-Face. The children of your two families were buried on the back of this horse. They were left in the village by Ox-Headed Horse-Face as a pair of ghosts, and they will never be reincarnated! Dig them out, I will perform a new ritual and move them to another place. You don't want your children to commit sins in the underground, do you?"

The villagers also knew about what happened to my aunt a few days ago. After hearing what he said, the two families were a little scared, thinking that if their children really became what he said, they would suffer too much and would not have peace after death. After discussing for a while, the two men agreed, and the people next to them began to dig with hoes.

The two children were not buried deep. Not long after, two straw mats were dug. The moment the straw mats were opened, everyone was stunned. The two children had been dead for more than two years. Not only did they not rot, but they were still a little lifelike, as if they were asleep. The two families were so scared that they dared not move anymore. You know, it was June, not only were they not rotten, but they didn't even smell!

Cha Wenbin sighed and said, "I didn't expect it to be like this. The bodies of these two children can no longer be brought into the village, otherwise a plague will come sooner or later. Now we can only burn them and find a new place to bury the ashes." Everyone knows that people will rot after death, but the appearance of these two children... How could they not be haunted? At this point, the Taoist priest can only make the decision, and outsiders dare not say a word.

Cha Wenbin ordered everyone to build a rack on the spot with dry firewood. When the firewood rack was built, Cha Wenbin ordered the two bodies to be put on it, and inserted three incense sticks in front. After taking a look, he lit the fire and began to chant the mantra to send the two little ghosts to report to the underworld.

After the burning, he collected the ashes, led everyone down the mountain, buried the ashes of the two children by the reservoir, and erected a monument. It was already dark at this time. Cha Wenbin went to his grandmother's house for dinner first, and then said goodbye and went home.

That night, my aunt had a dream in which two children came to say goodbye to her, bowed to her, and asked her to thank a Taoist priest. The next day, my grandmother went to Cha Wenbin to interpret the dream. Cha Wenbin nodded and said that the two little ghosts must have left, and asked my grandmother to tell the villagers not to bury the dead on Matou Mountain in the future.

Although my aunt was fine, after the incident, she was often in poor health and easily caught a cold. It was not until she became an adult that she got better.

After that incident, Cha Wenbin gradually became famous, and many families held funerals and asked him to come to pray for the souls of the dead, but he never charged a penny. If there was a child of my age in the village who was frightened and went to him, Cha Wenbin would usually burn a talisman and drink it with water. Of course, he also knew a little about Chinese medicine. Sometimes, if the child was not possessed by evil spirits but was sick, he would prescribe some herbal medicine. If the condition was serious, he would recommend going to the hospital.

At that time, many people wanted to learn this craft from him, but Cha Wenbin never accepted apprentices. He worked in the fields and chopped wood in the mountains like ordinary people. If it weren't for the incident with my aunt, no one would even know that he was a Taoist priest.

As for the time I met him, it was many years later.

That year, when I was six years old, something happened.