If it persists for many years, it will not be removed if it is buried vertically, it will not move if it floats, it will not be picked up if it dies young, and it will not bear the evil spirit.

It's not past noon, the eldest son has his head bowed, and the black cloth blocks out the sun. There are different priorities, and they are arranged in order.

This is a taboo passed down from generation to generation by bone collectors.

As a bone picker, my grandfather violated all taboos for me.

My name is Huang Xiaolong.

When I was 10 years old, I fell seriously ill, and the hospital issued several critical illness notices. My family prepared for my funeral with great sadness.

On the night of my birthday, I died in the hospital.

My family members cried and hurriedly took my body home.

At about 10 o'clock in the evening, my grandfather, who had been living in the countryside and was not welcomed by his family, came over covered in mud, followed by several strong men.

Regardless of my family's obstruction, my grandfather forcibly took my body out of the house and buried me in a hurry.

I'm alive!

When I woke up, I stood in an upright coffin, and the tip of my nose was full of stench. At that moment, I even thought I was in hell.

I knocked on the coffin board frantically, and my grandfather dug me out after hearing the sound.

Grandpa wanted to teach me the art of a bone picker. He said: This can save my life.

On the way back to my grandpa's house, I always heard someone calling my name.

He wanted to respond, but grandpa stopped him.

After finally arriving home, I discovered that all the livestock raised by my grandfather had died inexplicably.

Dead chickens and ducks were lying in the yard, and a big yellow dog that had been raised for several years was lying on the threshold, with its neck twisted 180 degrees.

Even the fat pig weighing more than 300 kilograms in the pig pen had its neck broken.

I was so frightened that my grandfather seemed to have anticipated this and pulled me into the main room.

In the main room, the ancestral tablet of Master Tiandijun has been removed, and there is only a spiritual tablet placed on the mottled wall, with an unfamiliar name on it: Liu Jie.

Grandpa asked me to kneel in front of the memorial tablet, and then started to burn incense on the spiritual tablet.

The lit incense broke inexplicably as soon as it touched the incense burner.

Grandpa didn't panic, he lit the incense again and muttered something.

"It is our Huang family that feels sorry for you. From today on, the Huang family will not worship their ancestors or their ancestors. They will only offer sacrifices to you until Huang Xiaolong dies."

As soon as he finished speaking, the unlit incense in his hand was broken directly.

Grandpa's face changed and he said sternly: "Now that the matter has come to this, if you still refuse to give in, then we can only touch each other. Blind Liu from Hedong, Goddess Zhang from Rongcheng, and the old Jiang in the river are all my old friends. Man, you have to think about it too."

After saying that, Grandpa softened his tone: "The Huang family feels sorry for you. If you have any requests, you can make them. As long as they are not excessive, I can promise you."

Light incense again, and this time three sticks of incense were successfully inserted into the incense burner.

But before Grandpa could be happy, the three sticks of incense were broken again, and the broken incense in the middle fell on Grandpa's wrist, leaving a blue mark of incense ash.

Grandpa stood there for a long time, then nodded and walked to the kitchen: "Okay, okay, okay, I promise you."

I knelt on the ground, and with a confused look on my face, I heard the sound of chopping bones coming from the kitchen.

Just as he was about to stand up, he saw his grandfather walking out of the kitchen sweating profusely. His right hand was dripping with blood, and the entire palm had been chopped off along the incense ash mark.

Grandpa placed the severed palm on the altar. The palm, which was still bleeding, seemed to be accelerated by time and rotted into white bones visible to the naked eye.

But the middle was broken, leaving only a small piece of incense, which ignited spontaneously without fire.

The other two sticks of broken incense showed no reaction.

Grandpa just stood in front of the memorial tablet and waited until the incense in the middle was burned out. Then he sighed and said to himself: "Is it one-third? That's enough."

I had no idea what was going on, but Grandpa showed an ugly smile.

While bandaging, he said to me: "It was Liu Jie who saved your life. Remember what I just said, you must keep sacrificing to Liu Jie until you die."

I nodded stupidly. My grandfather, who was once considered superstitious and stubborn, suddenly became different in my eyes.

After his hand was broken, my grandfather stopped helping people collect bones and moved to the city.

He didn't want to live with us, so he rented a house not far away to live by himself. He arranged a memorial tablet in the living room to worship the man named Liu Jie.

Every day after school, I would go to my grandfather's place to offer incense to Liu Jie, and then learn the craft of a bone picker from my grandfather.

This continued until I was 18 years old and my grandfather passed away.

Grandpa died kneeling in front of Liu Jie’s memorial tablet. The originally clean room was filled with various insect corpses, with spider webs in many places, and the wooden furniture was in decay, as if time was passing by quickly here.

Pass.

What's even more terrifying is that a pure black snake is wrapped around Grandpa's body. Its head extends into Grandpa's open mouth, and its long body wraps around his body eight times.

I don’t know why, but when I saw this scene, I had a vague idea in my heart that I would die like this in the future.

Grandpa was buried by the strong man who snatched me away from the hospital. After the funeral, I followed Grandpa's instructions and took Liu Jie's spiritual tablet back to my bedroom.

Burn incense and offer sacrifices every night.

However, I have never understood who this Liu Jie my grandfather never mentioned was.

I thought that life would go on so plainly, but I didn't expect that just one month after my grandfather passed away, one of the strong men who buried my grandfather found me.

He is considered a distant relative of mine, and I always call him third uncle.

As soon as he saw me, he knelt down in front of me and begged me to move his mother's grave.

I remember this incident. When my grandfather was still alive two years ago, he begged me. However, my grandfather took me to visit my third uncle’s mother’s grave and did not move it.

The flesh is broken in three years and the bones are broken in seven years, which means that the flesh and blood will rot away after three years of burial, and the bones will no longer be connected after seven years of burial.

According to what my grandfather said at the time, although it had been almost four years since the burial of my third uncle’s mother, the body was not completely decomposed and was considered a floating corpse.

According to the bone collector's rule of leaving the corpse untouched, the grave cannot be moved.

I rejected the third uncle directly, but the third uncle had no intention of giving up.

He kept kowtowing and said: "I know the rules, but now that it has been two years, I must have lost my flesh. Xiaolong, please, not only for the sake of burying the old man, but also for the sake of my help in saving the old man."

I can’t help you. I really can’t trust other bone pickers, Xiaolong, third uncle, I’m begging you.”

Speaking of which, I can't refuse.

Besides, it has indeed been two years since the last time.

I finally nodded and said: "Third Uncle, I can go, but if the old man has not cut off his flesh, he still cannot move his grave."

"well."

The third uncle nodded repeatedly.

I talked to my parents, took the tools left by my grandfather, put Liu Jie's spiritual tablet in my backpack, and followed my third uncle by car back to my hometown.
Chapter completed!