The coffin lid was closed, which meant it was time to lift the coffin. A few wooden wedges were nailed into the coffin lid, and two thick hemp ropes were tied in an "8" shape. The wooden rods used to lift the coffin were particular, they had to be made of living wood, that is, freshly cut wood with the bark removed. In our local dialect, it's called a "gang".

  So there's a saying that calling two people arguing "抬杠" (lifting a pole), this pole isn't a good thing, it's for carrying coffins, and it has to be as thick as a bowl. The two men in front, the two men behind, carrying it on their shoulders, just like Chen Wenbin shouting: "Lift the coffin, start the journey!"

  A handful of yellow paper scattered in the air, and the women and children suddenly burst into tears, clinging tightly to the coffin. This can be understood, after all, this is the last moment at home, once out the door, it will never come back again. Those who should leave will always leave, it was almost nine o'clock in the evening, outside was pitch black, and it started snowing in the late winter season, opening the big door to take a look, there was nearly half an inch of thickness.

  The one who takes the lead is also the one in charge, we call him "zhǐ kè" (director of guests). For weddings and funerals, the host family has no time to take care of too many things, so they will invite someone to be the general commander. This general commander has to follow from calling for help to the end of the funeral, it's not an easy job. Those who can do this are mostly local capable people.

  That guy is in charge of leading the way to the grave, and also responsible for lighting. The mining lamp shines out a vast expanse of white, this guy has to carry the coffin up the mountain, everyone frowns: "Hey, the weather changes suddenly, auspicious snowfall heralds a good harvest year!"

  Fatso rubbed his hands and laughed: "Zhao Fengnian? Heh heh, I think this white snowy scene is quite matching with today's occasion. It's as if it's deliberately not letting people have a smooth journey on the way to the funeral."

  The pallbearers also seemed a bit unhappy, and the leader whispered: "Such a steep mountain, with this snowfall, how can we walk?"

  The guest's driver was afraid of getting into trouble, so he quickly turned his head and said: "That won't do, no matter how big the snow is, we have to go. It's already this late, can't be delayed anymore."

  That man simply put the coffin on the ground: "Don't go, you want to call his family members to carry it themselves. If this thing falls and gets damaged during the New Year, isn't that a big deal? You'll have to compensate!"

  There were also a few people in charge of carrying Zhong who followed and shouted: "That's right, we're not going!"

  "What's going on here? How can you be so unreliable? You've had your drink and eaten your meat, how can you fall apart at such a critical moment?"

  "Never mind, even if my own mother died, I wouldn't go to the grave on that mountain. You know where Lao Feng Peak is? Those paths are all steep and rocky, like a mirror in the snow. Try carrying a few hundred pounds of coffin up there on a snowy day!"

  That manager was also an old hand, these few people who didn't know each other, turned around and ran in to whisper with the boss for a while then came out and called the person leading the sedan chair aside saying: "Add one more cigarette, Xia Laoliu's son said he'll pay, how about it?"

  He turned around and looked at me. I nodded to him, and he stretched out four fingers towards me. It seemed that he meant for each of us to have one.

  Since it's already happened, I might as well be generous to the end. I said: "Alright, let's do it this way. It's indeed tiring enough in the middle of the night. Once we're done, I'll treat each of you to an extra cigarette, two bottles of wine, and a 20-yuan red envelope on top of that. Each of the four of us will get one, how about that?"

  That man rubbed his hands and smiled: "Alright, alright, we've said all there is to say. If we don't go now, it would be a bit embarrassing."

  "Get the coffin!" Zhang Wenbin shouted again, and the four men "heh"ed in unison as they lifted the coffin. The ropes binding the coffin were as thick as a thumb, double-stranded, and one could imagine how sturdy they were. Yet no one expected what was about to happen next.

  With a "thud", I only saw that one of the ropes suddenly broke into two pieces at the moment it was pulled, and the rebounding rope slapped onto the face of the man on the left. Immediately, I heard him let out a miserable cry: "Ah!" Then he covered his face and fell to the ground. Following that, the coffin also heavily smashed onto the ground.

  This person's mind was filled with fear of death, the coffin "clanged" and fell to the ground, the corpse inside rolled out, the funeral objects scattered all over the place, even the yellow paper covering his face flew to one side. Looking at my cousin's eyes, they were as big as bronze bells, his mouth was also wide open in an "O" shape, due to the long time since death and the extremely cold weather, the facial muscles had already started to turn purple, the scene was terrifying.

  In an instant, everyone fell silent, and the few people in the middle were stunned, not knowing who took the lead and shouted "Fake corpse!", followed by men, women, old and young in the whole courtyard started screaming frantically and running out...

  In the blink of an eye, only my cousin and I were left, as well as my aunt who was crouched in the corner wailing loudly. Just then, I saw a flash of fire on the electrical wires outside, probably due to a short circuit from the strong wind and snow, and instantly the entire room plunged into darkness.

  "Everyone stay still!" Zhang Wenbin said calmly.

  He lit a fire, then went inside to find some candles, leaving the corpse lying outside, and beckoned us all in, saying: "Take the old lady back to her room and close the doors and windows."

  I said: "What? Let it go outside?"

  "Let it be for now. Since this person doesn't want to leave, let's keep him here and set the whole house on fire later. When he broke the coffin earlier, he absorbed some yang energy. I'm guessing that in about an hour, something bad might happen."

  When a person enters the coffin, it represents the separation of yin and yang. The most taboo thing is to enter the coffin and then come out again. There's a saying that "the lid of the coffin settles the argument", once you've entered the coffin, everything in this world has nothing to do with you anymore. If the coffin needs to be reopened after entering, it requires waiting for three years or more. Within three years, if the coffin is broken open, the possibility of becoming a malevolent spirit will increase exponentially, especially since Zhang Wenbin saw that the corpse's resentment energy was extremely heavy, and this stormy black night is precisely the best time to stir up evil spirits.

  After comforting the old lady, I and Pangzi found the hemp rope according to Cha Wenbin's request. At that time, hemp was widely planted in rural areas. The fiber left after boiling the skin of this plant and removing the flesh is exceptionally strong. The rope made from this stuff is much stronger than the plastic rope now. Pangzi used the hemp rope to roll up the corpse tightly, to be honest, I would have been a bit scared if I had done it myself, but looking at Pangzi, he was as relaxed as if he were tying up a piglet, and after a few flips, he turned it into a "dumpling".

  The fatty turned the corpse over so that it was face up and tried to tidy its clothes, but unexpectedly the corpse's eyes stared straight at him.

  He slapped him with a loud slap and scolded, "What are you looking at? If you look again, I'll dig out your eyeballs!" It's strange to say that after my cousin died, his eyes were always open, no matter how hard he tried to close them. It's said that if someone's eyes don't close after death, they have a grievance. This is also why Cha Wenbin was in such a hurry to bury him. But Fatso's slap actually had some effect - my cousin's eyes really did close... but only for a moment, because when he turned to leave, those eyes suddenly snapped open again...

  "Alright, shall we bring him in?" said the fatty as he walked in and spoke to Cha Wenbin. At this moment, I was helping Cha Wenbin with his preparations, grinding ink for him, but his ink was red cinnabar. The desk was covered with row after row of freshly drawn talismans. Just now, I had asked him what to do, and he replied: "Everyone makes mistakes, unless absolutely necessary, there's no need to rush to extremes."

  Zha Wenbin is this kind of person. As a Taoist, he mainly focuses on redemption. The only ones who can make him take drastic measures are those who plot against human lives and do not follow the right path, evil demons.

  The whole house was filled with yellow talismans stuck on in a disorderly manner, that was the handiwork of Baozi. Inside the house, the flames of two candles were sometimes big and sometimes small, I tried my best to protect them with my body. The strong winds outside had already started making a "whistling" sound. Cha Wenbin was still completing the final step: Tian Gang San Qing Fu!

  This talisman is completely different from ordinary talismans. Generally, it takes about one minute to complete a Heavenly Master Talisman at the speed of Zhang Wenbin's writing, from starting to finishing in one breath, without stopping or breaking off halfway, otherwise the talisman would be considered invalid. However, this Heavenly Punishment Three Pure Ones Talisman, he has already spent more than ten minutes drawing it, and so far, he has only drawn the foot of the talisman.

  The complexity of this talisman is beyond my ability to describe in words. Later, I specially went to ask the Taoist priests on Mount Zhongnan, and they told me that there are very few people in this world who can draw the "Tian Gang San Qing Fu" talisman, because drawing this talisman is not done with one's hands, but with one's heart.

  Pay attention to the hand as you walk, the hand cannot exert force, it's just like using your hand to hold a pen on paper, your heart will automatically bring your hand to move and fall on the talisman paper. The time spent by each Taoist priest drawing this talisman is different, and the shape of the talisman drawn is also different. Most people can finish with 72 strokes, which is already considered an achievement. I asked the master how long it would take him to draw one, he thought for a moment and said: "49 strokes." But that day I saw Cha Wenbin use only 36 strokes, when I told the master this news, he was shocked, he couldn't believe that the infant he had seen years ago could draw the "Tian Gang San Qing Fu" in just 20 years. He even more couldn't believe it took only 36 strokes, from then on, the master closed himself off to cultivate and never left his mountain gate again.

  It's not about the power of this talisman, but rather that it's difficult to achieve a state of mind where one has no distracting thoughts. The pursuit of spiritual growth is precisely about eliminating these distractions from the mind. Only when free from distractions can one calmly comprehend the workings of the five elements and the forces of the universe. Many people spend their entire lives cultivating their spirit in order to be able to draw this talisman, and being able to do so is proof that they have already achieved spiritual enlightenment.