When great-great-grandfather heard the words "Wang San Bing", he immediately felt a deep respect for the black and thin old man in front of him. Without any hesitation, he directly knelt down in front of Wang Shoudao and kowtowed three times and nine times.
After the great-grandfather finished kowtowing, Wang Shoudao stroked his white goatee and laughed out loud. Dong Youcai cupped his hands in front of his chest, congratulating Wang Shoudao for taking in a good disciple.
After that, Wang San took out a few bottles of wine and food, and the three of them drank to their hearts 'content.
The night was silent. The next day, Wang San gave my great-great-grandfather a few taels of silver and told him to go home and tell his parents that in the future, my great-great-grandfather would not only learn from him, but also eat and live with him. He would ask my great-great-grandfather to bring some silver to the family every month so that his family would not starve.
When his great-great-grandfather returned home with the silver taels, he told his parents about it. His parents were naturally happy for him. They had also heard of Wang San's reputation. It was a dignified thing for their son to be Wang Banxian's disciple.
After his great-great-grandfather put down the silver and bid farewell to his parents and returned to Sanwang Village, Wang San had already begun to summon the soul of Dong You Cai's son.
My typing speed wasn't very fast. I wrote a little bit and posted a little bit. Moreover, I added a lot of elements to the stories of my ancestors so that their experiences wouldn't seem monotonous or boring. It would be like a novel or a story. If it was just empty talk and straightforward narration, then it wouldn't be interesting. After all, my goal in writing this was to publish a book. If it was written too badly, no one would help me publish a book. Also, if everyone could support me, try your best. Only when I'm popular will someone be willing to help me publish a book. I will have the opportunity to pass on these things of our family to my descendants in words!
"There's one more thing I forgot to say. From my great-great-grandfather to me, it has been five generations and four generations. My father didn't learn it. When it came to my generation, to be honest, I don't want to pass it down anymore. I didn't teach my children or anyone else. When it comes to my generation, it might be the end. I feel a little sorry for my ancestors and feel ashamed. If I don't leave any traces for my descendants, their future descendants might not even know what their ancestors did in the past. They might just be buried by time." I've let down my ancestors.
Soul summoning could be roughly divided into three situations. One was to summon living souls, one was to summon dead souls, and the last was to summon lone souls.
What Wang Shoudao wanted to recruit was the last type of ghost recruitment. As the name suggested, it was to recruit ghosts that had died in foreign lands. After recruiting them, they would attach themselves to some kind of medium and let their families bring them back to their hometown.
There was no single method to recruit lone souls, and it needed to be adapted to the local conditions.
Usually, a lone soul would be brought into an umbrella or a black basin. However, Dong Youcai's family was rich, so he had to make it look more presentable. He even had to use a good coffin to carry his son's soul back.
At first, Wang Shoudao didn't agree with him doing this because he thought it was a waste of money. However, he couldn't help Dong Youcai's tears. The old man said that he only had one son, so he couldn't be too aggrieved. This was a little troublesome.
After my great-great-grandfather returned to Sanwang Manor, Wang Shoudao was making paper figurines in the small courtyard. As for Dong Youcai, he was sent home by Wang Shoudao to get his son's clothes.
Kaifeng wasn't far from Sanwang Manor. If they hired a carriage, they could make a round trip in a day and night. If it was now, they could drive back and forth in an afternoon.
I won't say any more. The next afternoon, Dong Youcai returned to Sanwang Manor and brought back the clothes that his son had worn when he was alive. Wang Shoudao asked my great-great-grandfather to put the clothes on the paper figurine. In the end, Wang Shoudao said that he couldn't summon the soul during the day and had to wait until night. He also had to get a boat to the river to summon the soul because Dong Youcai's son's corpse was in the river, and his soul had fallen into the river with the corpse.
When my great-great-grandfather heard that he was going to row a boat down the river at night, he thought about what had happened the night before and couldn't help but feel a lingering fear. Dong You Cai was also a little afraid when he heard this, and his expression changed.
Seeing this, Wang Shoudao laughed and said,"What are you afraid of? The one you two met that night wasn't the Dragon King. The big guy that pushed Shou Fang up was a big fish.”
My great-great-grandfather had also heard of the Iron-headed Dragon King. It was a kind of big carp that had grown up in the Yellow River for many years. The size of a fish was proportional to its age. The longer it lived, the bigger it would be. The Iron-headed Dragon King was actually an old fish.
My great-great-grandfather asked,"Why does the Iron-headed Dragon King want to hold the coffin?"”
Wang Shoudao explained that the corpse in the coffin was full of corpse oil, which was poisonous and flowed into the river through the cracks of the coffin. When the fish smelled the corpse oil, they would go crazy and become addicted to it. Therefore, they would gather together and gnaw at the place where the corpse oil was. As a result, the boat was leaked. Finally, the corpse oil attracted Iron-head Dragon King, who used his head to prop up the coffin for the corpse oil.
For those who liked fishing, they might not be unfamiliar with it. The bait that was used to build a nest carried a faint fishy smell, which was similar to the fishy smell of corpse oil. As long as fish smelled this smell, they would be fascinated and flock to it. Of course, the bait was not made of corpse oil. Friends who liked fishing should not have any psychological trauma.
In the evening, Wang Shoudao borrowed a small boat from the village and was rowed by my great-great-grandfather. Wang Shoudao stood at the bow with a red lantern in his hand. Dong Youcai held a copper gong in his left hand and a paper stick made of burnt paper in his right hand. He stood at the stern with a paper figurine in his clothes in the middle. There was a red rope tied to the right wrist of the paper figurine. The other end of the red rope was lowered by the boat and soaked in the river.
When my great-great-grandfather rowed the boat to the middle of the river, Wang Shoudao waved his hand to stop him. Then, he gestured for Dong Youcai to use the paper stick to hit the gong. As he hit it, he dragged out the words that Wang Shoudao had taught him in advance.
"Dao to the east, Dao to the west, my child, come back. Look to the south, look to the north, my child, come back.”
His voice was very desolate, especially in the dead river at night. It sounded indescribably strange. If it wasn't for Wang San standing at the bow of the ship like a reassuring pill, my great-great-grandfather would have felt a chill down his spine.
Every time Dong Youcai recited his speech, he would knock the gong with a paper stick. Wang Shoudao bent down and waved the red lantern in the shape of a fan on the river. The red light swept across the sparkling river and reflected in the water. It looked very terrifying. At first glance, it looked like a ghost eye growing out of the bottom of the river, coveting the boat. The entire process was mysterious and treacherous.
My great-great-grandfather didn't dare to look too much. Firstly, he was afraid. Secondly, he still had an important task at this time, which was to guard the right wrist of the paper figurine with a red rope tied to its head. When they arrived, Wang Shoudao had instructed them to quickly row the boat back when the paper figurine's right wrist was wet.
With the help of the faint red light from the lantern at the bow of the boat, great-great-grandfather could barely see the right wrist of the paper figurine. The paper figurine was a skeleton that Wang Shoudao had tied with a reed pole. It was covered with a layer of grayish-white window paper. Although the material used wasn't very good, the paper figurine was very lifelike. Moreover, it had a nose and eyes. In addition, it was wearing clothes at this time. At first glance, it looked like a real person.
Not long after, my great-great-grandfather made a very strange discovery. Every time Dong Youcai recited his speech, the red rope tied to the paper figurine's wrist would be soaked from the river to the boat.
After shouting about ten times, the red rope was completely soaked in water. When Dong Youcai shouted again, the paper figurine's wrist was strangely wet.
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