Folk customs begin with the entire funeral procession

Chapter 25 Senior Brother

As night fell, Zhong Fa returned to his shop.

After lighting three incense sticks for his master as usual, he went to the secret room and began rolling cigarettes for himself.

There are five small jars on the shelf, which were originally meant to last three months.

However, because of the incident involving the twins, he and the little ghost he raised were severely injured by the incense smoke, causing his old ailments to flare up, and his cigarette consumption rate to increase more than tenfold.

Three of the five small urns on the shelf are now empty. In a few days, he will have to go to Fushou Funeral Center again to ask Du Rui for his ashes.

Zhong Fa's eyes narrowed slightly as he recalled Du Rui's recent attitude.

He had been living in Tianmen County for three years. Two years ago, he talked to the owner of the Tianmen Funeral Home about wanting to buy the child's ashes, but the owner did not agree.

At that time, not wanting to cause any unnecessary trouble, he went to another county to buy some.

After two years of this, Fushou Funeral Center opened.

After learning about the character of Du Rui, the owner of Fushou Funeral Center, he approached Du Rui and demonstrated some of his methods. Du Rui was happy to befriend him and provided him with ashes.

Zhong Fa knew that the other party was cooperating so much only so that they would need him in the future.

Sure enough, a year later, after Du Rui's Fushou Funeral Center's development began to slow down, the other party came to him.

Zhong Fa did not refuse.

To his surprise, there were other business partners working at that small restaurant in Tianmen Funeral Home!

Both of his plans were thwarted by the other party, which caused Du Rui to trust him less, and his old injuries flared up again.

Does he hate it?
He didn't hate him, because he knew that once he mastered Dong Shu, given Dong Shu's secretive nature, he would definitely not be a match for a jumping zombie.

In just two more days, just two more days, Uncle Dong will be trained and able to proceed with the next steps!
When the time comes, he will take Uncle Dong back to the mountains and find those old guys.

He let those old guys know that even if their master was gone, he was still there!
After putting the cigarettes into the cigarette case, Zhong Fa lit one for himself and then walked to the other side of the offering table.

After lighting four incense sticks, Zhong Fa picked up a knife, unwrapped the gauze from his left hand, and made another cut on his palm, which was covered with knife marks.

Not long after the blood dripped into the jar, the smoke began to swirl.

Upon seeing this, Zhong Fa smiled.

"It's good that you've recovered. Get some rest. We'll need you again in a few days."

Just then, Zhong Fa suddenly heard a knock on the door.

Frowning, Zhong Fa wrapped his left hand around his arm and left the secret room.

"Who?"

Zhong Fa stood inside the door and asked.

"I am Zhong Cai."

Zhong Fa raised an eyebrow and opened the door.

"What are you here for?"

Outside the door stood the bespectacled middle-aged man Chen Miao had met earlier that day.

"I came to the county to take care of some business, and I thought I'd drop by to see you, my senior brother."

Zhong Cai frowned slightly as he looked at Zhong Fa's expression.

"Senior brother, are you still raising a ghost?"

Zhong Fa's lips curled up.

"What? Are you going to reprimand me on behalf of Master?"

"Senior brother, your body is no longer suitable for raising ghosts."

"Hehe, that's none of your concern. Now that you've seen the person, let's go."

As he spoke, Zhong Fa was about to close the door.

"Senior brother!" Zhong Cai stopped the door. "There's one more thing."

“I met a child who was born with the ability to see ghosts, and I plan to take him as my apprentice.”

Zhong Fa's eyes flickered slightly, but he immediately said nonchalantly, "Junior brother is lucky. Congratulations in advance."

"Senior brother, will you be coming to the apprentice-acceptance ceremony?"

Zhong Fa did not take the red sticker in Zhong Cai's hand.

"Aren't you afraid that if I go, I'll scare your apprentice?"

Zhong Cai was taken aback and slightly withdrew the red invitation he had handed out, but then he handed it out again.

Zhong Fa, however, did not miss this detail and sneered, "I don't have time."

After saying that, Zhong Fa slammed the door shut.

Zhong Cai looked at the closed door, shook his head, and put away the invitation.

He turned around, walked to the corner of the alley, and took the hand of a little boy with a full head of white hair.

"Xiaobai, let's go. Spend these next few days with your family. I'll take you away in a couple of days."

Just as he was about to get up, Zhong Cai suddenly noticed that Xiao Bai's hands were a little cold and her whole body was trembling.

"Xiaobai, what's wrong?"

The little boy slowly raised his hand and pointed to Zhong Fa's shop.

Zhong Cai turned his head to look.

The shop that performed the ritual for judging Yin and Yang was lit with a dim, yellowish light, quiet and eerie in the sparsely populated street. "You saw it?"

The little boy nodded.

Zhong Cai patted his head.

"It's alright, it's raised by your senior brother, it won't harm anyone... Let's go, your master will take you home."

Zhong Cai stood up, took the little boy's hand, and walked forward.

Zhong Cai did not see the little boy's mouth moving silently.

If someone could read lips, they would be able to see what the little boy was saying.

"Many, children, in their mouths."

……

Two days later.

Zhong Fa visited Fushou Funeral Center again and met with Du Rui.

"Is everything ready?"

Zhong Fa, smoking a cigarette, looked at Du Rui and asked.

Du Rui smiled.

“Master Zhong, a week has passed since you told me that there would be a major change at Tianmen Funeral Home, and it is still fine. Can you tell me why?”

Zhong Fa looked at Du Rui and exhaled a puff of smoke.

“There are people in my line of work at the Tianmen Funeral Home. If you don’t want them to know you’ve done something wrong and you’re going to get revenge, you’d better give me what I want.”

"You don't want to go through what the Tianmen Funeral Home went through."

Zhong Fa's words caused Du Rui's expression to change drastically.

"Are there people from the Yin-Catching Cult at the Tianmen Funeral Home?"

No wonder he was shocked; Fushou Funeral Center had been open for a year, and Tianmen Funeral Home's business volume had been halved due to the pressure.

If they have such people, why haven't they taken action?
Seeing Du Rui's nervous expression, Zhong Fa laughed and said, "Just as not everyone in our line of work is as ruthless as you, not everyone in our line of work is like me."

“You should be glad the other person isn’t like me, otherwise you might have already enjoyed the all-inclusive funeral service at Fushou Funeral Home.”

Du Rui's face was pale.

"They couldn't possibly know! If you don't tell, and I don't tell, no one will know."

After Du Rui finished speaking, he looked at Zhong Fa.

Immediately, a smile spread across his face as he walked to the refrigerator, took out a box from it, and walked over to Zhong Fa.

"Master Zhong, this was extracted from the heart of a recent corpse by someone I had in the city. It was just delivered yesterday and can still be preserved for two more days."

Zhong Fa took the box, opened it, and pulled out a test tube containing blood.

"Are you sure it meets the requirements?"

"Yes, that matches. This is the information for that body; I took a picture of it."

Du Rui handed over the phone, but Zhong Fa didn't look at it.

He smiled at Du Rui and said, "I trust you, Mr. Du. Don't worry, I'll take care of that person."

"After this, I will leave Tianmen County, so Mr. Du, I hope that when I leave, you will prepare ten times the amount of ashes as before."

Du Rui's expression turned somewhat unpleasant, and he was about to say that he didn't have that many.

But when he saw Zhong Fa's gloomy, triangular eyes, he immediately put on a smiling face.

"Yes, yes, I'll contact other funeral homes right away and get it soon."

Zhong Fa nodded, and as he turned to leave, he said, "Boss Du has helped me a lot. If you ever need anything in the future, you can come to the mountains to find me. As long as you bring a gift, you're welcome."

After saying that, Zhong Fa left.

Du Rui's smile lasted until Zhong Fa had completely left, then it turned gloomy!
"Zhong Fa! Zhong Fa!"

Bang!
Du Rui smashed the ashtray in his hand on the ground.

After his anger subsided, he could only slump down on the sofa.

"It's almost over. Zhong Fa still needs me. He won't do anything reckless."

Du Rui murmured.

……

early morning.

Happy community.

Zhong Fa placed the items he brought from the top shelf of the secret room onto the table in front of Uncle Dong's coffin.

Besides the Corpse Control Talisman, Yin Gathering Talisman, Child Blood, and Crow Blood.

There was also a long-handled bell and a lotus oil lamp.

After everything was ready, Zhong Fa lit a cigarette and said to Aunt Mei beside him:
"Aunt Mei, Uncle Dong is about to wake up."

……

(End of this chapter)