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201 Cousin's Help

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    It didn't take long for that special space of just me and my father to be broken.  The carriage door opened, and some help came up.  With the joint efforts of everyone, the father was carried down together with the cart.  Only then did I notice that my home was already brightly lit.

    After a little getting used to the harsh lighting, I realized that the house was crowded with people.  It seems that it was a group of neighbors who were notified by my cousin and spontaneously helped after hearing the news.  If it weren't for the great stimulus of my father's death, maybe I would feel warm because of being moved.  It's just that at that time, I hadn't recovered from the infinite sadness.

    I felt that my soul seemed to have gone with my father, and I just instinctively followed the group of people who carried my father.

    At that time, the ice coffin hadn't arrived yet, so even if it arrived first, it couldn't be put in immediately.  Someone has already cleaned up the hall in my house.  Except for the large round table placed in one corner, there are no other clutter.  In the place of the temporary cot where the father had rested temporarily, two benches had already been used to drive a door panel.  With the concerted efforts of everyone, the father was placed on the door panel.  In our place, the dead will sleep on the door panels.  I am not very clear about the specific reason, maybe it is to hope that the door god will bless it, of course, it may also be that I hope that my relatives will not become lonely ghosts (after sleeping on the door panel, I will know the door of the house, so that when the soul returns  know your own home).

    I didn't cry anymore; I just watched quietly; my eyes closely followed the peaceful father At that time, I felt a emptiness in my mind.  I just kept staring at my father subconsciously.  It is often heard that people who are "not concentrating" are accused of being "out of their minds".  At that time, I was somewhat similar to "lost soul".  But I was not "not concentrating", but "too concentrating". At that time, my energy seemed to be completely concentrated on my father involuntarily.

    I don't know how long it took, and there was a "chug chug" tractor sound outside the door. In the vagueness, I seemed to hear someone shouting "the ice coffin has arrived".  The men gathered at home who thought they had some strength all spontaneously swarmed up, and with the strength of everyone, the huge ice coffin was easily lifted into the nave.

    Everyone put down the ice coffin gently, but the matter was far from over, they just stopped.  The next thing to do is to choose a location.  This is quite particular. It is said that the center line of the ice coffin should coincide with the center axis of the nave.  So someone stood in the middle of the gate, squinting one eye to direct.  It's just that no matter how you do it, there will always be people who feel that the position is not right.  In the end, the person who rented out the ice coffin came up with a solution that everyone could accept, which was to measure it with a tape measure.  In the face of absolute data, the ice coffin was placed in the right position without any objection.

    It is said that after the ice coffin is occupied, it cannot be placed directly on the ground.  So, the next thing they have to do is to find something to suspend the ice coffin.  At this time, the old man over 80 years old in the family said: "The benches of this ice coffin must still use the two benches for the door panels." Perhaps, we do have such a rule here.  But why this is the case, I am not very clear.

    The old man is just my peer, but his age is there!  In layman's terms, he eats more salt than us young people eat.  Therefore, after the old man spoke, everyone had to follow suit.  However, here comes the trouble.  According to the custom, someone's door panel cannot be placed directly on the ground.  Therefore, the people who carried the ice coffin had to separate two people to hold up the door panel of the lying father, and then two people pulled out the bench and put it under the ice coffin.  Although it is easy to say, it takes a lot of labor to come and go.  Fortunately, my cousin made arrangements, and there were more than enough people to come to help.  Otherwise, at that time, it is likely to fall into the embarrassing situation of insufficient manpower.

    The ice coffin was properly placed, and everyone moved their father into it immediately.  At that time, the weather was still hot.  Therefore, the next thing to do is the person who rented out the ice coffin.  He must power on the ice coffin as quickly as possible.  My house is an old-fashioned design with limited sockets, and there are too many people gathering now, so there are no usable sockets in the middle hall.  In desperation, he had to remove the glass from the flip window on the door of our west room, and then plug the plug into the socket in the back room.  After being busy for a while, the ice coffin finally began to cool normally.

    While the elders are busy, the aunts and aunts in the neighborhood are not idle.  According to the custom, when the father passes away, the son must wear sackcloth and filial piety.  So, as soon as we got home, they were busy sewing mourning clothes for me, my wife, and my sister.  According to them, since the brother-in-law is an outsider, there is no need for it, as long as he wears a white coat and makes a fuss.

    Before the ice coffin was properly placed, they put on mourning clothes for me.  My cousin said to me: "From now on, you don't have to do anything. Just stay here and watch. As long as someone"Come, you must bow down (kneel on one knee to those who come to pay homage).  After my cousin finished speaking, he gave me two packs of cigarettes. I know that this is what my cousin asked me to distribute to those villagers who came to pay homage to my father.

    With my cousin here, I really don't need to do anything.  The cousin not only notified many villagers to come to help, but also did a lot of preparatory work.  Not only contacted the ice coffin, but also brought a few packs of cigarettes in advance from the small shop.  According to our tradition, before the funeral of the deceased, there must be a vigil.  The difficulty of the long night, those who come to watch the night naturally want to have entertainment.  In rural areas, the most common form of entertainment is playing mahjong.  Therefore, my cousin managed to get three mahjong machines.  Under the arrangement of my cousin, the three tables have been rounded up.  It's a favor for people to come over to watch the night, so the logistical work must be in place.  Therefore, everyone on each mahjong machine has a pack of cigarettes in hand.  At the same time, my cousin also arranged for someone to serve tea and water for them.

    In terms of sophistication, my cousin is definitely much better than me.  In terms of funerals, we will use the number of night watchmen as an important criterion to measure a family's conduct.  With poor conduct, naturally not many people are willing to keep vigil for them.  Therefore, the more people who watch the night during funerals, the more face the family will have.  But I know that these night watchmen, nine times out of ten, are here for my cousin.  In other words, my cousin is trying his best to save face for my family.  How affectionate it is!  Thinking about it now, I can't help but be very moved.  Therefore, in the process of handling my father's funeral affairs, I am most grateful to this distant cousin.  (Remember the site URL: www.hlnovel.com
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