During the period of peace and rejuvenation in the Song Dynasty, the Song and Liao countries launched a war that lasted for more than 20 years. The years of war caused the people of the two places to suffer unspeakably, with countless casualties. However, this protracted war was cheaper than the coffin shop.
There was a coffin shop owner in Yingtian Mansion named Liu Maocai. This person had read the books of sages for several years in his early years. Shortly after the Song-Liao War began, he took out all his savings and invested in opening a coffin shop.
However, there are also many people who despise Liu Maocai's behavior, thinking that he is speculating and making money from dead people. Liu Maocai scoffed at this statement and ignored it. However, it is precisely because of various rumors that Liu Maocai is thirty years old and has not been able to get married.
Liu Maocai was not that kind of squeamish person, so he simply spent all his thoughts on the coffin shop. I heard recently that he had reached a cooperation with the army, specializing in making coffins for soldiers who died in battle, and made a lot of money. Therefore, he decided to expand his store.
As soon as he said it, Liu Maocai bought a piece of land behind his coffin shop and invited craftsmen. In this way, the construction of the new store was in full swing.
In a few days, the foundation of the new store and the main body of the house were built, leaving only the beams. For this reason, Liu Maocai specially found someone to calculate the hexagram for his new store and set an auspicious day for the beams.
On the day of Shangliang, Liu Maocai brought a firecracker and a piece of red silk cloth, and asked the craftsmen to wrap the red silk cloth around the beam. After setting off the firecrackers, he started to put the beam on. A carpenter took the red silk cloth, but as he was about to wrap it around the beam, he suddenly found that there was a scorpion lying on the beam.
The scorpion was pitch-black, the size of a human palm, and the tail thorn behind it was raised high, as if it was ready to attack anyone approaching at any time. The carpenter hurriedly called the owner to the side and told the owner, Liu Maocai, that Shangliang encountered a black scorpion, which was a big omen.
Liu Maocai was taken aback and hurriedly asked how to crack it. I saw that the carpenter circled the beam three times, thought about it for a long time, and suddenly had an idea.
This carpenter's name was Li San, a clerk at Liu Maocai's Coffin Shop. Li Sanzu had been a carpenter for three generations and knew many ways to exorcise evil spirits, so Liu Maocai trusted him very much.
When Li San saw the scorpion on the beam, he immediately thought of the Book of Luban. He mentioned that encountering a black scorpion on the beam was a bad omen. Fortunately, Li San had seen the method of cracking, which was to engrave an object on the beam. As for what it was, he couldn't remember for a while, so he would circle around the beam.
I saw Li San bring a broom, drive away the black scorpion, and carve a snake on the beam, opening a bloody mouth, lifelike. Then Li San told Liu Maocai that the bad omen had been cracked.
Liu Maocai was also at a loss, but he still chose to trust Li San and pointed to the beam. The beam-laying ceremony went very smoothly. It didn't take long for the new storefront to be built, and there were no accidents during the period.
But Liu Maocai was still very curious, why did Li San carve a snake on the beam, and asked Li San, he just smiled and kept silent.
One day, a cloud of old roads passed by the coffin shop. Liu Maocai was sitting in a daze at the door of the coffin shop. Seeing that the old Taoist was tall and straight, with white hair hanging down his shoulders, and looked like an immortal, he went forward to chat with him. During this time, Liu Maocai told the old Taoist about Li San carving snakes on the beam and asked him why.
Who knew that after hearing this, the old Taoist slapped his thigh and exclaimed: "Expert, really expert!"
It turned out that scorpions and snakes were both highly poisonous creatures, and the two were on a par. When they encountered a black scorpion on the beam, a bad omen came, but Li San carved another poison on the beam, that is, a snake, to fight the scorpion, that is, to fight poison with poison. To be able to come up with such a method surprised the old Taoist, no wonder he praised Li San as a master.
After Liu Maocai heard it, he suddenly realized. No wonder Li San didn't want to tell himself, because he was afraid that he thought snakes were poisons, and he agreed in his heart. Since then, Liu Maocai trusted Li San more, and the two became good friends who talked about everything.
Editor's Note: Again, if you believe it, you will have it, if you don't believe it, you will have it. In the face of uncertainty, we must be good at leveraging the strength of others, but we must also know how to be grateful. Help is mutual.
Disclaimer: This story is a fictional folk tale, based on folklore, weird stories, myths, stories, legends, etc., with the aim of inheriting, expanding, and developing Chinese folk cultural heritage. It should not be linked to feudal superstition.