01, the old carpenter has no children under his knees, and takes orphans as apprentices.
It is said that during the Ming Dynasty, there was a village in the Luozhoufu area called Lijia Village.
In the village, there was an old carpenter named Li Maoshan.
Li Maoshan was a skilled old carpenter, but he did not know what the reason was, he and his wife did not have children, and later, when the old wife died, he lived alone.
One winter, a little beggar passed by Lijia Village and fainted at the door of Li Maoshan's house hungry.
When Li Maoshan saw that he was pitiful, he took the child in, gave him rice porridge, and gave you clothes to wear.
When the child has a full stomach and warmth, he does not want to leave.
Li Maoshan felt that he was related to this child, so he simply adopted this child as an adopted son and made him an apprentice.
The little beggar was a clever child, and as he grew up, slowly he mastered many of the technical tasks of carpentry.
Later, Li Maoshan named the child Li Xiaosong and let him follow his surname.
His purpose in doing so is obvious, that is, he hopes that when the children grow up, they can give themselves a pension and send them to the end.
02, the little carpenter is industrious and kind, and sends the master to the end of his life.
Li Xiaosong is a hard-working and kind child, he has followed the master for many years, and knows that the master adopts him, that is, to send the master to the end of the pension.
He naturally knows how to be grateful, and he also understands the principle of "one day for the teacher and life for the father".
Therefore, he followed his adoptive father to do carpentry work every day, and the money he earned was also given to his adoptive father a lot.
Although his adoptive father would sometimes give pocket money, he always saved the money, and he knew that "life is not easy, but it is necessary to do it and cherish it".
In order to let Li Xiaosong learn the real skill, Li Maoshan educated Li Xiaosong: "The carpenter looks at the sharp tip, the bricklayer looks at the edge, the planing wood must be straight, square, and flat, and the one-eye looks at the other end from one end of the wood, if it is straight, it is straight, the fitting moment is square, the view is flat, and the straight ruler measures it, which coincides with the straight side."
In this way, it is considered to be qualified.
And a thousand days of antimony, a hundred days of axe, to learn a big saw in the morning.
You have to learn to distinguish wood, see the grain of the wood clearly before cutting, and axe from the direction of the stubble. ”
In this way, under the careful guidance of his adoptive father, Li Xiaosong, who was a young man, had a strong carpentry skill.
When Li Xiaosong was sixteen years old, Master Li Maoshan fell seriously ill and was bedridden.
Li Xiaosong took care of his adoptive father every day without a single complaint.
The surrounding neighbors saw it and gave Li Xiaosong a thumbs up, and Li Maoshan looked at the industrious and kind Li Xiaosong and was very relieved in his heart.
He knew that the child he had adopted was worth it.
Therefore, he made a will and left all the family property to Li Xiaosong.
A year later, Master Li Maoshan returned to the west, and after Li Xiaosong buried his adoptive father, he decided to give his father three years of mourning to repay Li Maoshan's nurturing grace.
03, cut wood and touch the dry bones, kindly help to bury.
In order to live, Li Xiaosong had to go alone to find carpentry work.
On this day, he received a job, a rich merchant, who took a fancy to a mahogany tree in the mountain and wanted to cut it down and make furniture.
However, this tree is deep in the mountains, cut down, and it must be sawn into sections and brought back for processing.
Because this was a heavy job, there was no carpenter to take orders, but Li Xiaosong took over.
He knew that when he first came out to make a living alone, he had to know how to bear hardships and stand hard work at the beginning.
On this day, Li Xiaosong took an axe saw and other cutting tools and went up the mountain to cut down mahogany trees.
To save time, he cut a short path.
However, when he was about to come to the mahogany tree, his foot was touched by something.
Li Xiaosong looked down and was startled, and he found that his foot had actually stepped on the bone of a Bai Sensen's hand.
In the direction of the hand bone, he saw a dead bone, and next to the dry bone, there was a red torn dress.
It seems that this woman died here, deep in the mountains and wild mountains, no one knows, and has become a white bone.
Li Xiaosong is a kind young man, he knows the truth of "going into the ground for safety".
So, with his axe and knife and other tools, he dug a pit in a place next to him where the soil was soft, and then he gathered the dead bone and buried it.
By the way, he also found a stone as a tombstone with five words engraved on it: "Tomb of the Woman in Red", and then got up to cut down trees.
04, work for life and return at night, enter the Yizhuang to temporarily shelter from the wind and rain.
Every day, Li Xiaosong went up the mountain to cut down trees, and then carried them back one by one.
The owner promised to use this mahogany tree to make furniture and give Li Xiaosong two or two silver rewards.
Two or two silver is two consecutive dollars, consistent money is 1000 yuan, two or two silver is 2000 yuan.
This is simply a huge amount of money for Li Xiaosong.
Therefore, Li Xiaosong worked very hard and seriously, and often worked overtime until the evening to carry the toolbox home.
That night, the mahogany furniture was ready.
To this end, Li Xiaosong deliberately worked overtime until midnight, the owner is also very generous, after completion, not only even if he gave two or two silver, but also added a hundred yuan to Li Xiaosong.
Li Xiaosong took the money and his heart blossomed.
He knew that if he continued like this, his life would slowly improve in the future.
In the future, repair the old house of the adoptive father, marry and have children again, let the incense of the Li family slowly flourish, and live up to the nurturing grace of the adoptive father.
After finishing his work, Li Xiaosong carried the toolbox on his back and walked slowly in the direction of home.
However, the owner is nearly eight miles away from his home, and it is more than an hour to walk.
Li Xiaosong has the experience of walking at night, so he is not afraid to walk at night.
However, when he was halfway through, it suddenly began to rain heavily in the sky.
There was no way, Li Xiaosong could only find a place to temporarily shelter from the wind and rain.
Seeing that there was a room in front of him, and there seemed to be a bright light in it, Li Xiaosong was overjoyed, so he quickly ran to the place where there was a bright light.
However, when he came to the front of the house and looked up through the lantern at the door, he was stunned.
I saw a wooden plaque in front of the house with two big red characters written on it: Yizhuang.
05, see the coffin is seriously damaged, the little carpenter set out to repair.
Li Xiaosong knew that Yizhuang was a special place to store coffins.
Of course, the coffin will not be empty, there are corpses in the coffin, most of them have not found a good place to bury for a while, or the deceased is dead, the family is ready to transport back to the mainland for burial, or too poor to be buried, so they have to temporarily place them in the righteous village.
Some righteous villages, and others manage them, in order to wait for the thank-you fees of the families of the deceased.
Inside the righteous village, there was also a white lantern lit, and it seemed that someone was in charge of the righteous village.
However, the current Yizhuang is empty, looks gloomy, and makes people afraid.
Li Xiaosong just wanted to turn around and leave, but the rain in the sky was getting heavier and heavier, if he braved the rain to go home, he would inevitably get sick from the wind and cold, in that case, buying medicine to see a doctor would not only be physically affected, but also cost a certain amount of money, which was not cost-effective.
Li Xiaosong thought to himself: Don't do bad things, don't be afraid of ghosts knocking on the door, my adoptive father and I are kind and kind people, we are innocent in our hearts, we don't have to be afraid of any ghosts.
So he put down his toolbox, found a clean place in the yizhuang, and sat down.
Through the light of the lantern, Li Xiaosong saw that some of the coffins were a bit rotten, and some places even had small holes.
As a carpenter, Li Xiaosong is somewhat obsessive-compulsive.
So he stood up, picked up the carpenter's tools, and began to repair the broken coffins.
06, when I came home, I met my grandmother and asked the carpenter to go home and kill the chickens.
Li Xiaosong used the light to work back and forth for more than an hour before repairing the broken coffins.
Looking at the neat coffin, Li Xiaosong felt that he had done a good deed, and his heart was also very satisfied.
At this time, he found that there was no rain in the sky, and even the moon appeared in the sky.
So he picked up his toolbox and prepared to rush home overnight.
At this moment, the door "creaked" and was opened, Li Xiaosong was startled, fixed his eyes on it, and found a white-haired old grandmother standing at the door.
When the old woman saw Li Xiaosong, she was not afraid, she just smiled and asked, "Young man, how dare you come to the Yizhuang alone, aren't you afraid of ghosts?"
When Li Xiaosong saw the old grandmother, he suddenly felt relaxed, after all, in this gloomy righteous village, he was still a little afraid.
So he replied loudly, "Grandma, it's like this, just now the rain was too heavy, I came in to avoid the rain, idle, and I also repaired some broken coffins."
The old woman nodded, smiled and said, "Boy, you are really kind, thank you."
I passed by Yizhuang and found that this place is too cloudy, this place is not a place to stay for a long time, you hurry home. ”
Li Xiaosong nodded, picked up the toolbox and walked outside.
Behind you, suddenly came the voice of the old grandmother: "Boy, you have to remember, as soon as you come home, you must prepare to kill the chicken!"
07, the woman in red at the south wall station, the little carpenter took out the ink bucket.
Listening to the old grandmother's words, the little carpenter Li Xiaosong felt very strange: I want to go home to sleep, why do I want to kill chickens?
He was about to turn around and ask the old woman, but he didn't see it.
So he shook his head and strode in the direction of home.
Along the way, the moon was like water, illuminating the earth like day, Li Xiaosong walked and walked, walked and walked, and after half an hour, he came to the door of his home.
However, today's doorstep seems to be a little strange.
Therefore, in the past, as soon as I came home, the puppy at home would bark "quizzily", but today's doorway is surprisingly quiet.
So, he shouted the name of the little black dog: "Little black, little black, where did you go today?"
Strangely, Li Xiaosong did not hear the barking of the dog, but heard a burst of "giggling" laughter.
Following the direction of laughter, Li Xiaosong suddenly found that on the head of the south wall of his home, there stood a woman in red.
The woman giggled at Li Xiaosong and said, "Your puppy is asleep, so please invite me in for a cup of tea."
Li Xiaosong knew that he must have seen a ghost.
Therefore, he quickly took out the ink bucket he was carrying and shouted at the woman in red on the wall, "You female ghost, get out of here quickly, otherwise, I will use the ink bucket to shoot you."
The woman was not angry, she said, "I am not here to harm you, and you don't need to threaten me with ink buckets, and you are not afraid."
08, the little carpenter kills a hen, and the woman in red cries loudly.
At this time, Li Xiaosong suddenly remembered what his adoptive father had said, when he encountered ghosts, he could kill chickens to scare ghosts.
Because the ghost is afraid of chicken blood, chicken blood avoids evil, so kill the chicken to scare the ghost, so that the little ghost does not dare to come close, and even shows the original form.
No wonder the old grandmother just now asked him to go home and kill the chicken quickly, it turned out that the old grandmother already knew that there would be ghosts in her home.
However, how did this old grandmother know that a very female ghost would appear, was she a god?
Li Xiaosong couldn't take care of so much.
He quickly ran to his chicken pen, grabbed an old hen, then took out a knife and began to kill the chicken.
The chicken "clucked" and struggled hard, and the woman in red was a little flustered when she saw Li Xiaosong killing the chicken.
She wanted to jump down to stop Li Xiaosong from killing the chicken, but the yard had already been pulled by Li Xiaosong with an ink line, and she did not dare to jump down.
Li Xiaosong killed the old hen, then put the chicken blood in a bowl and walked towards the south wall.
He stood under the south wall with chicken blood and shouted at the woman in red, "You female ghost, see I don't take care of you!"
After saying that, I was ready to pour the bowl of chicken blood against the wall.
When the woman in red saw the chicken blood, she trembled with fright, and she cried out loudly, "Engong, I really didn't come to harm you, don't attack me with chicken blood."
09, the white bone essence wanted to repay the favor, touching the chicken blood to reveal the original shape.
However, the chicken blood in Li Xiaosong's hand had already spilled onto the body of the woman in red.
Only to see the woman in red scream and fall off the wall.
The woman screamed bitterly, and a puff of white smoke came out of her body, and in a few moments the woman became a dry bone, and the dry bone was wearing the red dress.
At this time, Li Xiaosong suddenly remembered that when he was cutting down the mahogany tree, he had helped a dry bone to converge, and he had also dug a pit and buried the dry bone.
"Could it be that this woman in red is the dead bone that I buried on the mountain?"
No wonder the woman just called me Engong. ”
Li Xiaosong somewhat regretted pouring chicken blood on the woman.
At this moment, in front of Li Xiaosong, there was the white-haired old grandmother.
The old woman said, "Young man, don't regret it, in fact, you poured chicken blood on this female ghost to help her restore her ability to reincarnate."
Originally, she was a rich woman, because she was kidnapped, and when she fled, she accidentally died in the mountains and forests.
It was you who helped to restrain her so that her soul would no longer wander around.
She has a good feeling for you, so she wants to repay you, but after all, people and ghosts have different paths and cannot be together.
You used chicken blood to resurrect her, and now I'm going to take her away and let her reincarnate as soon as possible. ”
After saying that, the old woman poked at the ground fiercely with the crutch in her hand, only to see that the dry bone slowly stood up, and then became a beautiful woman again.
The woman bowed deeply to the old woman, "Thank you Meng Po for saving your life."
The old woman smiled, "You still want to thank this young man for his kindness to you."
The woman in red sighed quietly, "I only blame us for being ghosts and ghosts, and we can't be together."
Thank you For the grace of re-creation, let's see each other in the next life. ”
After saying that, she followed Meng Po and quickly disappeared.
10, the old grandmother is kind and kind, and the little carpenter is married happily.
Looking at the back of Meng Po and the woman in red leaving, the little carpenter was stunned.
However, he casually understood that it was his kindness and kindness that saved him.
If he hadn't helped repair the coffin in Yizhuang, he wouldn't have been able to meet Meng Po.
If Meng Po does not help herself, then she is likely to be entangled with this female ghost.
However, it is said that there are good rewards for good, and I believe that after this woman in red is reincarnated, she will also live her own happy life.
After the expiration of the three-year filial piety period, someone introduced Li Xiaosong to a hard-working peasant girl.
A year after becoming a parent, Li Xiaosong's wife gave birth to a beautiful little girl.
Holding the little girl, Li Xiaosong suddenly found that his child was very similar to the woman in red.
"Could it be that the woman in red reincarnated into my home?"
Did she come to be my daughter, to repay the favor?"
Looking at the cute child, Li Xiaosong fell into contemplation.