Chapter 131

A bolt from the blue, there must be a monster.

Xu Qing and the three of them had just left the city gate when they heard a blast from the city.

Thunder fell in the city. As a constable, Zhao Zhonghe could not sit idly by.

"The place where the thunder fell sounds not far away. Does Shopkeeper Xu want to go and take a look together?" Zhao Zhonghe jumped off the carriage and issued an invitation to Xu Qing.

"I won't go. Someone has to guard this carriage..."

Just kidding, which zombie would be idle enough to go to the lightning strike site to join in the fun?

If he was struck, who would he reason with?

Zhao Zhonghe didn't care and said: "The carriage is watched by the brothers at the gate, it will be fine. If Shopkeeper Xu wants to go, we can go together."

"Not going!"

Xu Qing refused decisively.

"We have rules in the funeral business. When the funeral is held, there must be someone next to the coffin. We don't even have anyone crying for the funeral along the way. If there is no one to accompany us when sending the funeral, what does it look like?"

Zhao Zhonghe gave a dry laugh. He was a rough man. If you asked him to cry for the funeral, he really couldn't cry!

"Then I'll trouble Shopkeeper Xu to wait for a moment..."

Xu Qing looked at Zhao Zhonghe, who bowed his hands to apologize.

Thinking that this fool actually had a time when he could speak human words.

There are two bulletin boards made of piles of boards by the newly built city wall by the river, on which many posters and notices are posted, as well as wanted documents for fugitives in the whole prefecture.

Xu Qing had nothing to do, so he went to the front to watch.

The content of the posters is varied, shop openings, vacant house rentals, Jianghu doctors soliciting business, etc., all kinds of things.

Xu Qing saw this and his heart moved. Why not make a discount promotion poster for his own mortician's shop?

There are many dead people these days, but there are not many who are willing to pay for people to perform rituals and hold funerals. As long as his discount is large enough, he thinks he can attract a lot of business...

The more Xu Qing thought about it, the more he felt that this matter was very promising. After making up his mind, he turned and found the gate official guarding the city gate.

The gate official heard that Xu Qing wanted to post a poster on the city wall, so he said: "It is strictly forbidden to post posters privately at the city gate. Did you see the words written on it?"

Xu Qing looked in the direction of the gate official's finger and saw a sign hanging on the side of the city gate, with four big characters written on it—"Post and tear".

"But I see that many notices are posted on the bulletin board?"

Hearing this, the gate official smiled and said: "That's different. Those notices have been approved by the Gate Lieutenant, and we supervise the posting ourselves, which is not considered private posting."

Xu Qing suddenly realized that it was an official advertisement for rent.

He then asked: "I don't know what conditions are needed for official posting?"

"There are no conditions. A poster costs two taels of silver and can be posted for several months. As long as you pay the money, you can post it."

This is straightforward.

Xu Qing is even more straightforward.

He took out a silver ingot and a piece of broken silver from his sleeve and said quite heroically: "Then give me one for a year first. This broken silver is considered tea money for you brothers."

Seeing the silver, the gate official's attitude immediately became attentive.

There is a small square table at the city gate for resting legs, with tea on it.

The gate official greeted Xu Qing to the table and said with a smile: "I haven't asked which business the brother is doing yet. Another day, the brothers will go to support the brother."

"That's not necessary." Xu Qing looked at the gate official and several city gate soldiers and smiled: "I opened a funeral shop, the fifth one from the inside of Jingxia Street. The one with the mortician's sign is it."

What shop?

The gate official hesitated: "The poster that the brother wants to put up shouldn't be related to his own business, right?"

Hearing this, Xu Qing raised his eyebrows: "Why do you say that? I run a funeral shop. If I want to put it up, I naturally want to put up a poster for moving the spirit and holding a funeral."

"..."

The gate official and the gate guard soldiers looked at each other. They had seen so many notices, but they had never seen a funeral business posted!

Here, Xu Qing returned to the carriage and fumbled for a while among the funeral items, taking out pens, inks, papers, and inkstones.

He picked up the pen and drew on the two-foot-square yellow paper. Not long after, he wrote a poster.

It listed various discount activities of the mortician's shop.

For example, family packages enjoy a 50% discount. As long as it is a whole family, or introduced by relatives and friends, it is half price.

In addition, a humanistic care activity was launched. In order to prevent tragedies such as selling oneself to bury one's father or mother, Xu Qing specially added a loan project of burying first and paying later.

He is not afraid of the other party defaulting on this kind of thing. As long as it is not a deadbeat who has money but doesn't pay, the repayment date can be postponed indefinitely. But if there is money but not paid, then don't blame him for secretly running to dig graves and tombs in the middle of the night to take corpses to pay off debts.

In addition to these basic items, Xu Qing also held an anniversary event. As long as it is a corpse buried by him, they can go to his shop to collect a gourd of oil or a bag of rice every year for the first three years.

In short, looking at the entire Linhe, and even the entire Jinmen, there is no second funeral shop that is more cost-effective than him.

The gate official almost pinched his nose to post the notice.

If it weren't for the benefits received from Xu Qing, he wouldn't want to post this unlucky thing on the bulletin board no matter what.

But having said that, the poster posted by this funeral shop really looks quite affordable!

It's much cheaper than when his father was buried, and the key is that there are gifts.

Here, Xu Qing was chatting with the gate official when a big fat man suddenly drove a donkey cart out of the city gate hole at the city gate.

On that donkey cart, there was also a coffin lying flat.

The gate official obviously recognized this fat man. He stepped forward two steps and said in surprise: "Fatty Sun, what are you doing?"

Fatty Sun is as his name suggests, wide and fat. The buttocks spread out in front of the donkey cart are as big as the wheels. When he heard the gate official's question, he pulled the rope to rein in the donkey.

The donkey stopped panting, obviously tired.

Looking at Sun Erzhuang who got off the carriage, he was panting even more severely than the donkey pulling the cart!

We don't know how this person who sits in the carriage and drives the donkey can be more tired than the donkey. If it were someone who didn't know the truth, they might think he was the donkey pulling the cart!

A child without a mother, it's a long story. Sun Erzhuang wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve and said with a depressed face: "A few days ago, when my mother went up the mountain to worship my father, she met a big worm in the mountain and lost her life."

As he spoke, Fatty Sun couldn't help but start wiping his tears. He said with red eyes: "Thanks to the timely shouting of the mountain people, the evil tiger was frightened and dropped my mother's body, otherwise I'm afraid I wouldn't even be able to pick up a complete corpse."

"It's hot now, so I went into the city to buy a coffin so that I could send my mother on her way peacefully."

Hearing this, the gate official was even more surprised: "I heard that Guan Huapo is a famous god-woman, and the best at summoning tiger immortals to see things for people. How could she be hurt by an evil tiger?"

Sun Erzhuang didn't know the specific situation either. Now that the person is gone, what's the use of thinking about these? That big worm doesn't understand human nature, could he still go to the tiger and ask why you killed someone?

That's something only a fool would do!

The gate official shook his head and sighed, and gave way to Sun Erzhuang.

Beside him, Xu Qing, who heard the conversation between the two, had another occupational disease.

God-woman? He had never seen such a corpse.

He had never encountered a corpse killed by a tiger either.

At this time, Xu Qing was like a collection party who wanted to open the illustrated book, and his mind had been completely hooked by Sun Erzhuang's mother.

Over there, Sun Erzhuang drove the donkey cart. When he walked to Xu Qing, he couldn't help but look at the carriage parked beside Xu Qing.

There was also a coffin on that carriage.

Sun Erzhuang felt inexplicably, how could even moving a coffin be gathered together?

Xu Qing saw that the other party was about to drive the donkey cart away, so he stepped forward and said: "This brother, please stay."

"Something?" Sun Erzhuang turned to look at Xu Qing.

"I see this brother is going to ask for a coffin to return to the house?"

Sun Erzhuang nodded, seemingly feeling that it was not polite not to answer, so he also looked at the coffin behind Xu Qing.

"Are you also asking for a coffin?"

Xu Qing shook his head, "I'm not asking for a coffin, I'm a gentleman who performs rituals for people and helps people move spirits and hold funerals."

Hearing this, Sun Erzhuang looked Xu Qing up and down and asked the first sentence again: "Something?"

"I just heard that your mother unfortunately died in the tiger's mouth. The tiger's mouth has evil spirits. Most of the souls of those who died in the tiger's mouth will be detained by the evil tiger and cannot leave..."

"I know some methods of summoning souls and transcending. If this brother needs it, I can hold a ritual for your mother."

Sun Erzhuang seemed to be moved, but in the end he shook his head and said: "I only have a few copper coins on me. Even if I have this filial piety, I can't afford the silver for the ritual."

"The deceased is the greatest, and money is an external thing. If you are sincere, I can take nothing."

"There is such a good thing?"

The fat man looked at Xu Qing suspiciously.

Beside him, the gate official coughed slightly and stepped forward to talk: "This is indeed a gentleman who does funeral business. As for what he said about taking nothing..."

The gate official briefly told Sun Erzhuang what was written on the poster.

"Can you still owe money for performing rituals for people?"

Sun Erzhuang was stunned. Beside him, Xu Qing nodded and said: "Business is also done with people, and there must be some human touch. I have been in this line for some time and have seen many separations of life and death. I understand that this is a big event in a person's life. Even if I earn more money or less money, it doesn't matter much."

"Besides, people with filial piety will not be bad in character. Even if they owe money, they will mostly repay it in the future..."

"Mr. Xu is truly a good person!" The gate official couldn't help but praise.

Hearing this, Sun Erzhuang breathed a sigh of relief. He thought for a moment and bowed his hands: "Then I will trouble you, sir."

Xu Qing was happy in his heart. He didn't expect that he could get a new job just by holding a funeral!

After asking where Sun Erzhuang lived, Xu Qing nodded and said: "Let me go to Shixi Village to perform a ritual first. After the ritual is done, I will go to your house."

Sun Erzhuang squeezed a smile on his depressed face and bowed to Xu Qing again to thank him.

Not long after the fat man drove the donkey cart away, Zhao Zhonghe and his nephew, who went to patrol the street, came back.

"Did Constable Zhao see where the thunder fell?" The gate official soldiers saw Zhao Zhonghe and immediately surrounded him.

"Two miles north of Tanggu Bridge, isn't there an old elm tree there? This thunder struck that old tree. Fortunately, it didn't hurt people or animals, and I don't know what evil that tree did..."

After Zhao Zhonghe finished speaking, he waved his hand at everyone: "Okay! I have other things to deal with, so I won't talk nonsense with you."

After the three set off again, the gate official soldiers at the city gate began to discuss.

Things like elm trees becoming spirits, ghosts possessing big trees, etc., are nothing more than unbelievable things about gods, ghosts, tree demons, and tree ghosts.

On the official road, Zhao Zhonghe was delayed for a lot of time because of returning to the city. Now that it was getting late, he urged the carriage to travel fast.

The carriage didn't run far before Xu Qing saw Sun Erzhuang's donkey cart again.

This big fat man sat in front of the donkey cart. The donkey was also suffering with him. Not only did it have to pull a coffin weighing three or four hundred pounds, but it also had to carry a master weighing two hundred pounds.

Adding up to five or six hundred pounds, it's no wonder that this donkey cart can be fast!

Xu Qing greeted the fat man, and then the three passed the donkey cart and went straight to Shixi Village.

Zhao Zhonghe learned the location of Shi Quan's ancestral grave by asking the villagers.

People in these villages are different from people in towns.

When someone dies in the village, the villagers will come to help even if they pay money, while in lively places like prefecture cities and county cities, there is little human touch.

Learning that Shi Quan came back for burial, villagers took the lead in bringing ropes and levers to help.

Xu Qing did not refuse this. It is a very "auspicious" thing for people to take the initiative to help after someone passes away.

This proves that the deceased is still missed by the living after death.

If according to the later generations, there will be three levels of death after a person passes away—biological death, social death, and memory death.

And these people who lift the coffin often have a deep impression of the deceased, and their memories are likely to be the last things the deceased left in the world.

"Lift the coffin—"

As soon as the peaceful lever was lifted, Xu Qing began to let Zhao Zhonghe shout the number.

This rough man has a thick voice, which just happened to come in handy.

"People walk on both sides! Cover with gold on top, pave with silver on the bottom, the road to the Yellow Springs is smooth—"

Xu Qing scattered paper money all the way, and Zhao Zhonghe didn't feel ashamed, shouting louder than the lever shop.

Lifting the spirit number, walking number, crossing the bridge number, burying number, after everything was done, Xu Qing also got some paper offerings for Shi Quan's grandfather next to him.

The old man is at an age, and paper concubines are not needed, so he just burned paper houses and paper horses, accompanied by paper money and other things.

After finishing all the things, Zhao Zhonghe rubbed his numb cheeks and sighed sincerely: "This job is really not something ordinary people can do. When I caught river pirates before, I didn't feel so tired!"

Zhao Yuan nodded with deep feeling: "Brother Xu is clearly a reading seed, a scholar by origin, but he still doesn't treat this as a cheap industry, which is truly admirable!"

Zhao Zhonghe grinned: "I used to think Shopkeeper Xu was neither yin nor yang, not like a good family, but now it seems it was my fault. If I have offended Shopkeeper Xu in the past, I hope Shopkeeper Xu won't take it to heart."

Hearing the praise of the uncle and nephew, Xu Qing smiled: "Constable Zhao, don't worry. I will definitely not bring the past grievances into the business field. In the future, even if the constable really comes to my shop, I probably won't use public office for private revenge and deduct the constable's paper money."

"..."

Is this human speech? Zhao Zhonghe's face turned black, and he subconsciously wanted to retort a few words, but when the words reached his lips, he was forced to hold them back.

Sure enough, people who do funeral business are unlucky. Zhao Zhonghe has made up his mind that he should contact such people less in the future.

Returning to the official road, Xu Qing jumped off the carriage.

Zhao Zhonghe asked, and Xu Qing replied:

"I have another ritual to do here, so the constable can just go back by himself."

(End of chapter)