She fell out after crying at the wrong grave

The charity cemetery outside Kezhou City did not receive any funding from the provincial government and was entirely privately funded.

The official who planned the construction was from the Huishu era. Originally, because Kezhou was a border town, nomadic people often robbed the people. In order to distribute food to the displaced people and to have a place to store coffins, the temple was built ten miles outside the private school run by the official.

After Hengqi settled in Dingke Prefecture, he built a strong fortress, and the people's living conditions improved. In addition, Yuanwailang's family fell into poverty and he died of illness, leaving no one to inherit his property. People gradually no longer needed the charity cemetery.

In short, this place has been abandoned for a long time.

Ah'ao took the lead and stood in front of the dark charity cemetery, feeling a little timid and indescribable.

She had never been to this place before, and even after staying in Kezhou for half a year, she didn't know much about this kind of place. It was only when she accidentally talked to the owner of the coffin shop that he told her about this place.

It's too desolate here. I should have stayed in the shop earlier. If anything happens, I can just shout and someone will come to help me.

Covering her face with her hands, Ah's back looked as if she had a headache.

"Madam, do you want me to go in and check it out first?" Yun Cheng took out a lighter from his bosom and blew it open.

Some great writers have eccentric personalities and particularly like to write strange stories. When Ah-yi was young, Mrs. Cui put a lot of effort into cultivating her interest in reading.

I thought, if the obscure and difficult articles are hard to read, then how can the simple and simple books of strange stories not attract children? After all, they are all written by the same person, so the level of the books should not be much different.

Fortunately, Mrs. Cui's plan was successful. Ah'an not only read the book carefully, but her imagination ability also improved by leaps and bounds. She could even draw all the scenes described in the book on paper.

Huai Chengbai was somewhat proud of this and even showed off his anonymous disciple to others.

I don't know where the painting has gone now.

In short, the scene before her suddenly overlapped in A's mind with the storybook she had read when she was young.

The gloomy night, the dead branches stretching out like ghosts and evil spirits, the paper lanterns fluttering in the wind, the rust on the door lock.

Every place shows something unusual.

Ah-yi gritted her teeth and made up her mind, "Heng-chi has assigned you to me, I can't let you go alone, let's go together."

She also blew up a fire stick and held it to the door lock to illuminate it.

Yun Cheng looked at the lock carefully, but found that it was not locked, but just closed. Because of the wind and rain over the years, the lock ring and the lock rod were rusted together, which was not difficult to fix.

Holding the lock bar, Yun Cheng exerted force on his hand and lifted it up suddenly. The lock was loosened. After pulling back the lock bar, he pushed it lightly and opened the door.

The layout of this charity house is actually very similar to that of a private school. After walking in and around the screen wall, there is an open courtyard. On both sides of the courtyard are many stone tables, which are tall and wide, and I think they are used for distributing food.

Going further in, there is a room. In the darkness, the fire can only illuminate a limited area, and even the smallest details cannot be seen clearly.

There were four lamps hanging on the eaves. Yun Cheng walked over alone and found that the lamps were made of oil paper, and the oil core inside was just dry. He carefully inserted the fire starter into the hole at the bottom, and with a light touch, the lamp lit up.

After lighting up all four of them in succession, the yard gained a bit of human air.

Ah'ao breathed a sigh of relief and looked around the doorless house as she approached.

The center of the house is recessed, and two small doors extend to the sides at the end. If you look down, you will find that this is a "工"-shaped house layout.

Such houses are rare. At least when ordinary people build houses, the Feng Shui master they invite will not approve of such a construction unless he has a grudge against the owner's family.

In fact, the custom is to treat death as life, and the place where the coffin is placed also needs to pay attention to Feng Shui. However, the funeral ceremony is not like ordinary people holding their own funerals, so as long as they spend money, anything is fine.

Since no one is raising funds for the charity cemetery, the lower the cost, the better. This way, the official who runs the cemetery will not seem like a sucker.

The two extended houses were for the people who were keeping vigil to rest and live. The recessed part was like a long and narrow corridor, with a wide and long stone platform built in the middle, which was probably the temporary place for the coffin to rest.

A similar stone platform was also built in the front part to accommodate other coffins that could not be buried for the time being.

Although it didn't look very presentable, Ah'ao had to admit that this room had reached its peak functionality.

Ah'an thought that no one who had kept vigil here would be as afraid of the cold and gloomy atmosphere as she was.

When the lights were turned on in the room, everyone saw the futons and straw mats on the ground, which were covered with thick dust. The center of each futon was deeply sunken. The straw mats had also turned black and rotted, emitting a foul smell.

This is the normal phenomenon that occurs when plants are exposed to moisture.

People stay here with their family and friends until the last journey of their lives.

Instead, we have to burn many candles to illuminate the whole house, making it dazzling, as if to tell the departed relatives that we are still waiting here.

It seems that those who leave can also follow the lights and come back again.

The attitude of ordinary people towards life and death, in general, is a process from being unable to accept, to gradually understanding, and then to calmly accepting and facing their own life and death.

Just to study this principle, one has to devote one's only life. People who believe in gods and Buddhas will still look forward to their own rebirth, while those who are more sober will waste everything they have in this process that is like an arrow leaving the bow.

There were many candlesticks around, some were half-burned, and some had burned out, leaving only lonely candlesticks.

The places where the candlesticks were placed were all filled with candle wax, a mess yet with a transcendent beauty.

While Ah'ao was in a daze, Yun Cheng had already drawn water from the well at the back and helped to clean the stone platform in the middle. Zhao Zhuo then placed Pingniang safely on it.

I came here in a hurry and didn't bring enough paper flowers and other offerings. But now there is no coffin, so no one wants to come here.

Ah-yi collected her thoughts, walked around and looked around, and even picked up a lot of unburned paper from others. She planned to fold a few gold ingots to burn for Ping-niang, so that she wouldn't have to go on the road alone without money.

"Yun Cheng, can you make a fire?"

Yun Cheng just sat down, and then quickly stood up and patted his clothes, "Yes, Madam, wait a moment, I'll go get some firewood."

"Then I'll go with you." The heavy atmosphere in front of her made Ah'ao feel dizzy and short of breath. She really didn't want to stay any longer.

Of course he didn't refuse, Yun Cheng was also very clear about his position. Since he was assigned by the master to help the lady, of course he would do whatever the lady said.

There was a piece of wasteland outside the charity cemetery, planted with peaches. However, it seemed that all the nearby villages had moved away, and the peach trees had all withered and died in the fields before they could grow up.

Although it is spring now and there have been a few rains, the effect of the raindrops is minimal and the land remains a wasteland at first glance.

Behind is the dark and gloomy charity cemetery, and in front is a dead tree that is baring its fangs and claws in the night. This scene really makes people's backs cold.

Yun Cheng tried his best to avoid the good saplings and only cut down some dead branches.

"Madam, you may not know that my ability to carry firewood was taught by my master."

The dry grass under her feet rustled as Ah-yi stepped on it. When she heard Heng-chi's name, she couldn't help but laugh, "Him? Master, are you teaching you how to carry firewood?"

Obviously a little unconvinced.

Yun Cheng was still a young man at heart. He turned around and smiled at Ah-yi, with respect in his eyes. "Madam, you don't know this. When the young marquis was fifteen or sixteen years old, he was in the patrol camp and suffered much more than I did."

Although she was reluctant to admit it, when she heard Yun Cheng talking about Hengzhi's past in the wilderness, she felt that her cold internal organs suddenly warmed up a little.

Just like one cold night when I was sleeping in a straw hut and was about to freeze to death, I heard the people watching over the night talking about Chen Zhaoying. Although they had never seen the late queen in person, their tone of voice showed their admiration for Chen Zhaoying's food distribution in the capital.

He said, this place is too far away, even if it is begging, it is much better to be in the capital. Empress Chen is a good person, if God gives him more life, maybe he will have a chance to receive her blessing in this life.

Another person said, "Stop talking. It's the new dynasty now. Be careful not to let others find fault with you. The new emperor is not someone who is easy to talk to."

Ah'an huddled in the darkness, laughing at the way they were intimidating and respectful towards her imperial uncle, and at the way people had turned into a pile of bones, yet there were still people chanting for Chen Zhaoying.

Now she can only go to the underworld to offer blessings, A'ao thought desolately.

Just this one sentence made Ah'ao spend a difficult night.

People may all be like this. When times get tough, as long as someone talks about someone close to them, things will get better.

Chen Zhaoying was her biological mother, and even though Ah-yi was a stranger, they were still related by blood. And at some point, Heng-chi was also included in her so-called "close" group.

When I finally realized this, I found it extremely bizarre.

"The young marquis was trying to break out to the desert in the north with his men. There were six men and one horse. Oh, that was Tao Xing." Yun Cheng put a bunch of dead branches on his back with a piece of cloth on his clothes and continued, "The remaining few men refused to kill Tao Xing and eat his meat, so they went out at night and dug up a lot of things with roots and tubers and roasted them to eat."

Ah-yi thought that these people were not afraid of being poisoned. But they were still heroes. Ordinary people would have killed the pony and cooked it into soup.

It has been a long time since I last saw Taoxing, the majestic little horse, and Ah'ao puffed out her lips.

"As a result, the young marquis drew lots and it was his turn to start a fire. He had no idea how to do it at that time. He was not good at it at all when he was in the marquis's mansion. So he found a lot of branches and brought them back, but they were all wet and couldn't burn at all."

In the dry places of the north, the plants are mostly juicy inside, which is the result of their own evolution to adapt to the regional climate. Hengzhi is not outside all year round, so he doesn't understand this.

The result was not only a lot of choking smoke, but no sparks were seen.

Several people around him were older than Hengzhi. Having experienced life and death, they had long forgotten the difference in status. At this moment, they looked at the frowning and calm young master with kindness and indulgence.

Hengzhi refused to believe it, and searched for many kinds of branches to make a fire that night, and finally he summed up some experience.

This is an extremely valuable process in life. After returning, with a certain youthful arrogance, Hengzhi showed off this method to Yuncheng.

Ah'ao followed behind with her head down, listening and imagining what Hengzhi looked like when he was fifteen or sixteen years old, and her eyes curled unconsciously.

(End of this chapter)