I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 137 Funeral Loan, Circle Hall
The next day, the sky was just getting light.

The remaining raindrops dripped on the eaves outside the incense hall, and the mossy temple walls were faintly visible in the mist.

Sun Erzhuang has not eaten a single grain of rice since he helped Guan Huapo to get her coffin out of the city yesterday.

Xu Qing couldn't bear to see his customer collapse from hunger, so he took some boiled eggs that Huang Laoxu had given him and gave them to the fat man.

However, although this fat man is fat, he is not the kind of person who likes to eat alone.

Xu Qing had not yet broken through the corpses and was not used to eating these cooked foods. He waved his hand to refuse the peeled eggs that Sun Erzhuang had prepared. Sun Erzhuang then handed the peeled eggs to Guan Dazhuang.

"Brother is injured and weak, he can't go without food."

Guan Dazhuang couldn't resist his brother's request, so he and Sun Erzhuang shared the dozens of boiled eggs.

Xu Qing watched the two of them finish their breakfast with a smile, then asked, "Er Zhuang, where is the coffin you bought for your mother in the city yesterday?"

Sun Erzhuang came to his senses upon hearing this. He blamed himself a little and said, "Yesterday I tied the donkey outside the temple, and it got killed by that beast. Now I don't know where the coffin and the donkey cart are."

"Don't worry, sir. Let me go out and look for it."

The coffin currently used to hold Guan Huapo's body is still the old and worn-out coffin placed in the Shanjun Temple by the charity cemetery. Many bodies had been placed in it before.

If you want to bury the body, you must not use such a coffin.

Whether the dead are disgusted or not is secondary. The key is that the living people are easily upset.

If one day the family suddenly remembered that their loved one was buried in a dilapidated coffin, would they feel good?

This is also the reason why second-hand coffins are rarely seen.

Of course, the most important reason is that the imperial court has clear regulations, which strictly prohibit grave robbing!

Where do second-hand coffins come from? Someone buries a body, and then you dig up the new grave with a shovel. So, you have a second-hand coffin to sell!

This matter is detrimental to one's virtue and it is also against the law!

In addition, there are various rules and regulations regarding funeral ceremonies.

The deceased will be given new makeup and new clothes, and the coffin used for burial must also be brand new.

Sun Erzhuang stood up and was about to go outside the temple to look for the coffin on the donkey cart when the rope hanging on his belt suddenly bounced to the ground.

Xu Qing glanced over and saw that the rope was wrapped in a strong evil aura, and vaguely visible was the shadow of a donkey head with a black and white face.

It was a donkey ghost, and the hanging rope was the rope that tied the donkey when it was alive.

Although the donkey is dead now, it has turned into a donkey ghost and possessed the donkey rope.

The donkey is a ghost that takes life, which is why the donkey rope becomes a hanging rope.

However, not all donkeys will turn into donkey ghosts after death. There is an explanation for this.

Donkeys work hard and never complain during their lifetime. With this kind of temperament, it is difficult for them to harbor resentment and turn into a donkey ghost after death. Only those donkeys that have obsessions in their hearts, or those that suffered great pain and died suddenly during their lifetime, have the chance to become donkey ghosts.

Now Xu Qing looked at the dark red blood stains on the donkey's rope and knew that the donkey must have been treated inhumanely before it died.

Donkey Sheng obviously knew where the coffin on the donkey cart was. It walked diligently in front, looking like a loyal dog leading the way for its master.

Several people followed the donkey rope to the outside of the temple, and the wet weeds soaked Sun Erzhuang's trouser legs.

After walking less than two miles, they came to a low cliff. Fatty Sun walked along the edge of the cliff, one step deep and one step shallow. Seeing this, Guan Dazhuang growled. When Sun Erzhuang turned around, there was a big tiger beside him.

The tiger spoke in human language: "Erzhuang, I will carry you down."

Xu Qing looked at the mighty tiger in front of him and his eyes lit up.

This thing is awesome!

Tigers roar in the mountains and tigers leap into the ravines.

Xu Qing followed and jumped off the low cliff.

The stream was gurgling at the foot of the cliff, and a five-foot-long donkey rope was running along the stream. When they passed a rocky beach, a faint smell of blood entered the nostrils of several people.

Xu Qing is a zombie and is extremely sensitive to the smell of blood. Guan Dazhuang, as the tiger king in the mountains, also smells the strange smell in the air.

Finally, after walking dozens of steps, bloodstains appeared on the rocky beach.

After a night of wind and rain, the bloodstains on the rocky beach have not been washed away. From this, one can imagine what a cruel scene this place was originally.

"Dead bones are bitter—dead bones are bitter—"

In the hollow valley on the cliff, the unique call of the spotted dove echoes.

Sun Erzhuang held his breath and concentrated until he saw a completely peeled donkey skin, and the fat man's face turned pale in an instant.

Xu Qing looked past the donkey skin and saw a bloody mass of flesh stuck to the rocky beach not far away.

The donkey rope circled around his donkey skin several times, and then moved to his bloody body, making a mournful cry.

"Are you Biao always so fierce when hunting?" Xu Qing sighed.

Guan Dazhuang beside him immediately denied it: "I am different from it. I never torture my prey, and I will never skin my prey while it is still alive. This is not the right way."

Xu Qing looked at Guan Dazhuang in surprise.

You know what, this tiger has quite a positive outlook on life.

Continuing to search along the rocky beach, Guan Dazhuang soon found the donkey cart and coffin that had fallen on the rocks.

The donkey cart had already been smashed into pieces on the ten-foot-high cliff, and even the coffin was broken into two pieces.

Looking at the coffin lid that had fallen to the side, there were glaring scratches from tiger claws.

I think after Guan Xiaohu had eaten his fill of donkey meat, he used the coffin lid as a scratching board to sharpen his claws.

"I can repair this coffin."

Xu Qing glanced at Sun Erzhuang and asked, "Erzhuang, do you think your donkey needs to be buried? I happen to be a corpse suturing business. If you're interested, I can help you spruce up the donkey, sew the skin and flesh together, and let it rest in peace."

Sun Erzhuang said a little embarrassedly: "Sir, you have helped me enough. How dare I trouble you so much?"

Xu Qing's smile grew even more amiable upon hearing this: "I'm the funeral director you invited. These are all my duties, nothing special."

"But if we want to bury the donkey now, one coffin is not enough. I just happen to have a new coffin here."

After the donkey's burial was finalized, Xu Qing immediately began to sew the donkey skin and meat together, and then sewed the broken coffin back together.

After doing all this, Xu Qing put the donkey's corpse into the coffin and took the donkey cart back to the Tiger Temple as a burial object.

With the help of Feng Shui, Xu Qing found a decent burial site behind the temple, and then buried the coffin containing the donkey corpse and the donkey cart used for burial together.

In front of the newly built grave, Donkey Sheng was mourning for himself. Sun Erzhuang couldn't bear to see him, so he burned more paper money for his donkey.

After the donkey was hastily buried, the next thing to do was to take care of Guan Huapo's funeral.

Xu Qing picked out a good coffin from the map of mountains and rivers and buried the old lady.

As soon as the old lady's grave was erected, a drizzle began to fall from the sky again.

Xu Qing held up a bamboo umbrella, patted Sun Erzhuang on the shoulder, and said, "We have a saying in our business: 'Rain hitting the coffin means ten years of sourness; rain sprinkling the grave means a noble man will be born.' The old lady is in heaven, and she is blessing you to succeed!"

The rain falls on the coffin and brings ten years of suffering; the rain moistens the grave and brings honor to the descendants.

What Xu Qing said was not just empty words to comfort people. In the funeral industry, there is indeed such a saying.

Sun Erzhuang, who was burning paper in front of the grave, felt a lump in his throat when he heard this.

He lowered his head, his throat a little blocked as he spoke, "I always saw you burning incense and praying to the gods, asking for blessings from this and that, so why is it your turn to bless me now?"

Guan Dazhuang did not turn into a human form again. He stood in front of the grave, staring at the tombstone in a trance. Even though the rain wet his fur, he did not shake it off.

There is a neat inscription engraved on the tombstone, which reads: The tomb of the late mother (Guan) Sun’s mother, Mrs. Guan.

Xu Qing silently held an umbrella for the filial son. When they finished paying homage to the old lady and returned to Guanmen Village, it was almost noon.

"Da Zhuang, can you still transform into a human form?"

Xu Qing asked suddenly.

Guan Dazhuang shook his head and said, "My transformation requires the support of incense. I fought that evil creature yesterday, and the incense power I had accumulated before is almost gone."

"It's a pity that the prestige of the Mountain God Temple has been completely lost, otherwise I wouldn't be in such a miserable state."

Xu Qing felt somewhat confident after hearing this. He looked at the mighty tiger in front of him with a smile on his face and said, "It is indeed difficult to revive the Tiger Temple. However, in addition to my funeral business, I also work part-time as the headmaster of the Cat Fairy Hall. If you are interested, you can come to my hall and become the headmaster of a branch hall. Then you will not be worried about the lack of incense."

Guan Dazhuang asked, "May I ask who is the current head of the Cat Fairy Hall?"

Xu Qing replied: "The head of the hall is a cat fairy. The Cat Fairy Hall is in need of talents right now. If you are willing to join the hall, I can let Sun Erzhuang and you become the head of the circle hall."

A large immortal hall usually has a chief master who presides over the hall. In addition, there are ten branch masters who are in charge of the affairs.

The ten disciplinary halls also have names, namely: sweeping hall, pressing hall, passing hall, supervising hall, guarding hall, sitting hall, receiving hall, circle hall, feng shui hall, and medical hall.
These branches are clearly divided into different levels and each has its own responsibilities.

The circle hall that Xu Qing mentioned is mainly responsible for "circling life" for the immortal hall.

That means to do business alone.

When Guan Dazhuang heard that he could only be in charge of the branch hall and the immortal in charge of the main hall was just a kitten, he rejected the olive branch extended by Xu Qing.

The tiger is the master of the mountain and is known for its majesty. How can it stoop to being the one to attack others?

Seeing Guan Dazhuang's refusal, Xu Qing didn't care. He came to Sun Erzhuang's house with a smile. Soon after entering the door, he said straight to the point: "I have taken care of the old lady's funeral. I am going back now. If there is nothing else, you two filial sons may as well settle the funeral expenses."

Guan Dazhuang squatted aside with a chubby face, obviously not realizing the seriousness of the problem.

Sun Erzhuang suddenly realized, "Look at my memory. It was me who asked you to preside over the funeral. Now that the matter is over, it's time to settle the expenses."

"Please tell me the price, sir."

Xu Qing smiled slightly, took out an abacus and started to keep accounts.

"An oak coffin, five taels; incense, candles, and paper money, four hundred and fifty coins; the cost of sewing the body and the funeral ceremony, four taels of silver."

Xu Qing added, "Repairing the coffin will cost two coins. The boiled eggs you two eat are top-quality double-yolk eggs, each costing at least five coins. Adding up, it's about a hundred coins."

"And the cost of treating Dazhuang's injuries is one hundred taels of silver."

"All the miscellaneous sums, taken together, amount to one hundred and twenty-one taels and four hundred coins."

After knocking the last bead on the abacus, Xu Qing said generously, "I don't care about gains and losses when doing business. I'll give you two brothers the rest. One hundred and twenty taels of silver will do!"

The coffin shop business requires money, no matter how hard you try.

This is the consensus in the funeral industry.

After hearing this, the fat on Sun Erzhuang's body trembled.

You should know that whether it is a fortune teller or a spirit medium, there are rules, that is, every time they tell fortunes for people, they can only charge a fee for running errands or a meal.

If someone charges more money, he is a swindler, not a true practitioner.

Therefore, Guan Huapo did not save much money. This was related to her way of doing things and Sun Erzhuang's appetite.

Hearing the huge sum of money of one hundred taels, the fat man was shocked at first, and then he said with some embarrassment:
"Sir, you saved my life. I would be willing to give you even a thousand or ten thousand taels, not to mention a hundred. But you can see that my family is not rich."

Hearing this, Xu Qing not only didn't take it seriously, but smiled and said, "That's fine. I also have a funeral loan service. It's also posted on the notices at the city gate, and there's no interest."

"But..." Xu Qing paused and said, "But this credit facility of mine is only for funerals and other expenses. It does not include other expenses."

"I've calculated that, excluding the cost of Dazhuang's medical treatment, the total funeral expenses are only twenty taels. You two brothers just need to pay for Dazhuang's medical treatment now."

"."

Guan Dazhuang, who had been staying out of the matter, finally realized the seriousness of the matter.

"If I don't have money, what are you going to do, sir?"

Guan Dazhuang said in a muffled voice.

Xu Qing smiled slightly: "It's easy to deal with if you don't have money. My Cat Fairy Hall is in need of a circle hall runner. If you come and work to pay off your debt, it's not impossible."

Guan Dazhuang suddenly understood what it meant when the true intention was revealed.

No wonder the other party was so indifferent when it refused the Cat Fairy Hall’s affairs before. It turned out that they were waiting for it here.

"What if I don't agree?"

Xu Qing smiled and said, "Brothers have to pay their debts. You are a tiger, and I didn't expect you to repay the debt. Even if you don't agree, Er Zhuang may agree. I think Er Zhuang is more suitable to manage the circle than you."

Sun Erzhuang was raised by Guan Huapo, and through the influence of her, he also knew some jargon.

"Master wants me to help manage the hall, and I have no objection, but this is the place where the hall is located."

Xu Qing looked at Sun Erzhuang and said, "The Mountain God Temple has been idle for a long time. Ask a craftsman to repair the temple and then it can be turned into a branch temple."

Guan Dazhuang was puzzled when he heard this: "The Tiger Temple has long lost its incense offerings. Even if it is repaired, who will come to worship?"

"That's easy. We'll convert the Mountain God Temple into the Cat Fairy Hall. In a few days, I'll invite the immortals from all over to come and perform a ritual. We'll tell everyone that the evil monsters of Old Taishan have been eradicated by the Cat Fairy Hall. Then, we'll carry Guan Xiaohu's body and parade it through the nearby villages. There won't be a shortage of incense offerings."

Guan Dazhuang's eyes widened. Is this even possible?

(End of this chapter)