Professional Weeping Man： I cried really after 10 years of domestic violence.

　　The portrait was placed on the altar, the hearse was covered with red cloth, and Li Meizhen knelt in front of the altar and cried aloud. The voice came from the loudspeaker, singing the life, life and merits of the deceased, hoarse and sorrowful.

　　Love to the depths, Li Meizhen knelt to the hearse, one hand on the forehead, face crying on the car. The daughter of the deceased followed her, her head touching the ground, and her body was shaking with sobs. People who are watching can’t help but shed tears.

　　Finally, she said, "Father, go well, rest in peace forever, and bless the children in the world", and then ended the crying.

　　Li Meizhen is a professional wailer in Changle City, Fujian Province, and has been in the business for 22 years. She was forced to marry at the age of 18, and suffered from domestic violence for 10 years. At the age of 28, she fled her husband’s house and took refuge in her sister before she was able to cry for a living.

　　She has a high demand for crying. A cry lasts for more than an hour, and the words are clearly sung and the sadness is true, so that the listener can cry. "Only those who have suffered can cry." Li Meizhen said that at the funeral, she was thinking about her parents and the first half of her life, and tears came out.

　　This job is a restart of her life. After 28, she cried for others and lived for herself. A cry rose from the initial 70 yuan to 3,000 yuan today. Li Meizhen earned money and bought a wedding room for his son in Dongguan.

　　Li Meizhen in life is cheerful and loves to laugh. She is 50 years old, slim, with a straight back and long black hair tied up in a high ponytail, which makes her look particularly young.

　　Crying scene. Photo courtesy of respondents

　　The following is Li Meizhen’s self-report.

　　[1] Once worked in a brick factory

　　There are eight brothers and sisters in our family, and I am the third. After my father got married, he went to work in Wuhan, leaving my mother and blind grandmother at home. My mother occasionally sells cloth to make money. When I was a child, our family was very poor and the economy was difficult.

　　There are two wooden houses, one for mother and one for grandmother, and the children make the floor, and the total usable area is less than 20 square meters. Sometimes, my brothers and sisters go to sleep in the neighbor’s house. When I was in junior high school, all my classmates rode bicycles, except walking to school. At that time, I felt inferior and envied others.

　　I stopped studying after junior high school. My parents hardly cared about me, but my father often said that girls always study, and no matter how high they go, they will get married. I know there is no money at home, and all the money for my study is borrowed by my mother, so I don’t want to study.

　　After dropping out of school, someone came to my house to propose marriage. In a daze, I agreed on a marriage, and I cried for several days when my parents told me. I don’t want to get married. I have my dream and want to be a teacher. At that time, many of my classmates went to be substitute teachers, but I was going to get married.

　　My dad called me over and told me that in a family like ours, it was no turn to pick someone else. This sentence stung me, and I promised to marry with tears in my eyes. When I was visiting the church, I just caught up with the school. My classmates passed by my door. They looked into the house and laughed while watching. I was only eighteen or nineteen years old that year, and I was confused.

　　My husband is from our village. He is illiterate and unreasonable. When he is angry, he hits me. I can’t talk to him. When I was young, I was weak, and my parents’ conditions were not good. When I got married, I didn’t get a dowry. I always felt shorter than others. My husband’s family scolded me and beat me, so I didn’t dare to say anything.

　　Not long after we got married, my husband and I went to work in a brick factory in Guangdong. I did all the dirty work, and he often beat me, pinched my neck, put my waist on the washstand, and hammered my fist on my stomach. After six or seven years in Guangdong, I gave birth to two children. It was really bitter at that time, and there is no way to describe it.

　　Once, my husband beat me badly, and my aunt also scolded me for a very ugly sentence, which meant treating me like dog meat. I picked up a brick and hit it on my forehead. At that time, I really wanted to die. The blood on my head kept flowing. My husband found out and took me to the hospital for stitches. After the stitches were removed, I secretly took the bus back to my parents’ house in the middle of the night.

　　I haven’t been home for several years, and the streets have changed. I asked all the way. When I saw my mother, I hugged her and cried with a cry. My parents opened a restaurant in Changle, where I helped.

　　Later, my husband and his family came to negotiate and raised two sons for me. He went back to Guangdong to work. At that time, my son told me that you should not divorce, and I agreed. We still live under the same roof. However, my husband is in Guangdong all the year round, and his time at home is short.

　　[2] I can cry three times a day and go home after 11 o’clock in the evening.

　　Thanks to my sister, I came into contact with the crying spirit business. My sister is four years older than me. She formed a stilt team in Changle to perform at funerals. When I came back, she asked me to play Hua Dan and sing Fujian Opera. It can be said that our brothers and sisters are all justified in terms of face value.

　　Once at a funeral, I saw a woman in the next village crying and singing lyrics. That was the first time I saw the weeping spirit. When I got back, I asked Master to write a word for me, too. I could cry. My sister didn’t have much confidence in me at that time, but after I got the lyrics, I burst into tears when I read them.

　　That word probably means that parents have suffered a lot for their children all their lives, and they are reluctant to eat or wear them. I thought of my parents and cried when I thought about it. During the time when I learned to sing, I never left my words, and I also read them when I was eating. Every time I read them, I could cry.

　　When I cried the first scene, I was not sure. An owner came to me and asked me, "Little sister, can you do this?" I said yes, but I know nothing but these words. But when I was studying, my Chinese was good, so I talked to my boss about the deceased before his death and added a lot of things to this word.

　　I remember that it was raining heavily that day. I knelt on the ground and cried and sang the life experience of the deceased for more than half an hour. After crying, my boss took me and said, "I really admire you." I earned 70 yuan in that game, and since then, I have specialized in crying.

　　I am very strict with myself, pursuing perfection. My boss asked me to cry for an hour and a half, so I cried for that long, and I kept crying in the middle. I dare not drink water when I am crying. When I drink water, I will stop and affect my mood.

　　Before crying, I didn’t experience life and death parting, including now, my parents and mother-in-law are alive, and none of my closest relatives have passed away. But when I read the story of the dead, I was really sad. Maybe my personality is soft and my sensibility is particularly strong.

　　It’s relatively early for me to cry. In the first three or four years, there was not such a big demand in the market and my salary was low. After almost five or six years, people gradually joined the industry. The cost of a show has also risen to more than 300. I can cry three times a day and go home after 11 o’clock in the evening. Crying a lot has an impact on my voice. My voice is hoarse when I speak now.

　　At that time, I was very sorry for my children. I wanted to make money too much. When my eldest son was eleven or twelve years old, some owners wanted a grandson in front of the spirit, so I asked my son to kneel beside me in mourning clothes, and he was also wiping his tears when I cried. I never told my son what I do for a living, but I think he should understand how difficult it is to be a mother.

　　I am very kind to my two sons. When computers first emerged, I bought two or three thousand one sets, and when mobile phones first emerged, I also bought them. They take their classmates to play at home, and I buy them fruits and melon seeds. Others say that I will spoil my children, but my son is sensible.

　　Now I can earn more than 3,000 yuan by crying, and there are more than a dozen times a month. I have money, bought a wedding room for my son in Dongguan, and built a new house for my hometown.

　　source map

　　[3] The suffering of the living, the suffering of the dead

　　I have seen too much pain, the pain of the dead and the pain of the living. No matter what kind of pain, I will cry my heart out.

　　Some dead people have never enjoyed happiness in their whole lives, and when they are cattle and horses, they have never eaten good food or worn good ones. When the children were successful, the old man left. Therefore, these relatives and friends with parents must cherish the people in front of them and honor their parents. When your parents left, you didn’t even have a chance to be filial.

　　Another is that white-haired people send black-haired people, which is the pain of the living. I cried the most heartrending family. The deceased was a woman in her thirties who died of cancer, leaving a 7-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter.

　　She impressed me deeply. She and her husband are in free love, and her parents are not satisfied with being together, but they have deep feelings and got married. After giving birth to two children, she got sick and spent more than 1 million yuan on treatment for three years. It was really a waste of money.

　　When I talked to her husband, his tone was faint and people were numb. When I cried, her husband didn’t cry.

　　After crying, I will say a word of applause, such as "My good father left today, rest in peace forever, and bless the children in the world". After that, the sadness will pass. Sometimes the owner’s experience is so tragic that I can’t stop crying after I finish my applause. When I wake up, I’m still in tears. Their life is really too bitter.

　　Many people don’t understand why they invite others to cry, and they won’t cry. To tell the truth, anyone can cry, but if you want to tell your parents the sadness and fatigue of their lives, many people really won’t. When the family members told the stories of the dead before their death, they were very grateful that I could listen carefully and sing them out.

　　I often comfort the families of the dead. For example, when the old man dies, I will hold his wife’s hand and say that it is also a relief that he is gone. You should live well, eat and wear warm clothes, and never be too sad. Because many people died of illness, they were very painful before they left, so leaving is a relief.

　　Some people say that in our line of work, we will become numb and not afraid of death, but I am really afraid of death. Because I love my family, my children and my grandchildren, I want to live well and spend more time with them.

　　The picture comes from the Internet.

　　[4] A million-dollar funeral

　　Funerals often show the relationship between the family.

　　I remember one family, the old man died, the old man’s son went to America to work hard earlier, and his daughter-in-law stayed at home to take care of the old man. Daughter-in-law is honest, quiet and very simple. At the funeral, the old man’s son came back with his little wife in America.

　　I cried my heart out in that scene. I hated the old man’s son and sympathized with his daughter-in-law. I cried with my daughter-in-law in my arms, crying and saying, your life is hard. I thought, you traded your youth for dollars, but you never thought, there is no youth, and there is no dollar. Someone next to me pulled me and said, little sister, you are brave enough. I said that a man like him, what face should he leave? Then I looked at the man straight.

　　There are many people in our place who go abroad to make money, and many entrepreneurs, who hold funerals and talk about ostentation and extravagance. Before the government introduced the policy of changing customs, a funeral cost more than one million yuan, and some families arranged more than 100 tables for dinner alone, and the tobacco and alcohol on the tables were excellent. So I said, I can’t afford to die without money.

　　I remember one time I went to cry about an entrepreneur, and his wife invited me for fear that my children would not cry. He has a son and a daughter, in his thirties, and he is considered a rich second generation. I knelt before Ling and cried, but neither of his children cried. It’s not that I don’t cry well and can’t drive them, but that they haven’t suffered and can’t feel their father’s previous suffering.

　　You see, as soon as they were born, dad made such a big career, trained him to study, got a good job, and found a husband and daughter-in-law who were filial. Do you think they suffered? How can you cry when you tell them to cry?

　　When I help others cry, if there are three or four sisters in a family, I can see that some people cry less in life and much more in poor life. Why do I cry every time? In fact, when I cry, I will think of my parents and myself.

　　Crying for more than 20 years, my health is not very good, my legs hurt and my knees hurt. But my life has improved, and I have partnered with my sisters to open a restaurant. When I returned to my parents at the age of 28, I became more cheerful and made some friends. In the eyes of my friends, I seem to be quite sunny. Every time I get together, I will create an atmosphere and tell jokes to amuse everyone.

　　In addition, I have my own job, and I have my own income more or less. I am more relaxed in spirit, and people naturally become cheerful. I’m 50 years old this year, but I’m still not old enough to do it whenever I can.

　　Nine-faction journalist Ma Jieying