It happened to be dark, so I went out with Taoist Master Ma and took a taxi to Zhang Fei's Grilled Meat Restaurant near Jingyu Street outside the road.
I thought that since he asked me to treat him to dinner, he would have to blackmail me, but I didn't expect that the restaurant I went to was just a fly restaurant.
The front door is not big, and the room is very simple. There are less than ten tables in total, and they all look dirty.
Taoist Ma looked very happy and ordered four pieces of grilled pork, a pork elbow in sauce, and some cooked side dishes.
I can't remember the price of the steak at that time. It cost about five or six yuan for a large piece of meat. It was shiny in color, stewed so soft that it almost melted in your mouth. It was also slightly sweet and particularly fragrant.
The pork knuckles in sauce are not expensive at all, and they are equally fragrant and rotten. The pork knuckles are so big that you can dig them in with chopsticks and gently push them open. They are steaming hot and fragrant.
Zhang Fei Braised Pork is also a time-honored restaurant in Harbin. It is still very popular, but the price has more than tripled and the store has expanded a lot.
As for the taste, it seems to be no longer as sweet and satisfying as the one I ate that day.
After finishing the meal and paying the bill, we only spent more than eighty yuan.
Ma Daochang and I left the restaurant and walked along the street toward the river.
Jingyu Street is an old street in Harbin with a history of a hundred years. It was originally called Zhengyang Street. Many well-known time-honored brands are located on this street.
For example, Laodingfeng, Shiyitang, Donglaishun, Tongji Shopping Mall...
Later, in memory of General Yang Jingyu, it was renamed Jingyu Street.
There are several streets like this in Harbin.
In addition to Jingyu Street, there are also Zhaolin Street, Yiman Street and Shangzhi Street.
From Jingyu Street to the riverside, which is only a few hundred meters, the two of us strolled and chatted.
Taoist Master Ma was very happy today. He drank two glasses of white wine and talked a lot with me in a drunken state.
He said that in fact, he used to practice Taoism in Longhu Mountain and was a serious disciple of the Heavenly Master.
There are currently only two major sects of Taoism in the world, one is Quanzhen and the other is Zhengyi.
The two characters "Zhengyi" in the Zhengyi sect mean "righteousness is used to control evil, and one is used to unify all".
The Zhengyi ancestral court is Longhu Mountain, and the founder of the sect, Zhang Daoling, is also the so-called Zhang Tianshi.
Therefore, Zhengyi Sect is also called Tianshi Dao.
Zhang Tianshi is the leader of Zhengyi, who is in charge of the three mountain talismans.
These three mountains are Longhu Mountain, Maoshan Mountain, and Gezao Mountain, the three major Fulu Taoist sects.
Others such as Shenxiao Sect, Qingwei Sect, Donghua Sect, Jingming Sect, etc. all belong to the Zhengyi Sect.
The Zhengyi sect is good at making talismans, praying for blessings and warding off disasters, and summoning gods to exorcise demons. Zhengyi Taoist priests can practice at home, get married and have children. They do not avoid meat and fish, and do not need to wear Taoist robes, beards, or hair. They are commonly known as: Fire House Taoist priest.
The Quanzhen sect pays more attention to it. Their founder is Zhenren Chongyang, who mainly practices inner alchemy. Quanzhen Taoist priests must become monks and have four basic requirements.
First, do not marry if you are single, and abstain from sexual intercourse with women.
Second, be vegetarian all year round and avoid eating meat and fish.
Third, you must wear Taoist attire and not ordinary clothes.
Fourth, tie your hair and keep your beard, and live in the palace for a long time.
Taoist Master Ma entered Taoism very early, in Longhu Mountain in his early twenties. Later, his family found a partner for him, so he returned home and got married.
It was okay at first. His family was well off and he had no worries about food and drink. However, because he had been a Taoist priest, he didn't know how to work, let alone do business.
After a few years, his parents passed away one after another, and life began to become difficult.
Originally, the family had several facades, but he was able to take advantage of them, and gradually they were all ruined.
So the family began to have conflicts. His wife was quarreling with the children, but he was not convinced, so he started a business partnership with others. As a result, he lost all his family assets and the house was used to pay off debts.
The wife got angry and ran away with the child.
Taoist Master Ma had no choice but to buy a bungalow and start his old business, listing it to tell fortunes and read Feng Shui.
Unexpectedly, he was not good at doing business, but he was very good at Feng Shui. He quickly established a reputation. After more than ten years, he became quite famous in this industry.
But Ma Daochang has an obsession. When he has money, he wants to start a business, because when his wife ran away, he once said that he would make a lot of money and then bring his wife and children back.
But every time he started a business, it ended in failure, so all the money he had worked hard to save was wasted.
Then he would come back to do fortune-telling and feng shui, save some money, and start a business again.
It seems that other people start businesses to make money, but he makes money to start a business.
Over the years, Director Ma has opened a restaurant, worked in transportation, speculated in stocks, worked in a coal mine, and even bought two taxis...
Unfortunately, all those businesses were lost.
Of the two taxis, one was scrapped in a crash last year and one is still idle. He sometimes goes out to do some work at night to supplement his living expenses.
I couldn't help but sigh, thinking that Taoist Master Ma was quite capable. He said he was only fifty-two years old, but from my perspective, he must be at least fifty-seven or eighty-years-old.
The hardships of life made him look older.
I asked Taoist Ma in confusion, since fortune-telling and feng shui are very profitable, why don't you keep doing this and put in all the hard work instead of starting a business?
Ma Daochang sighed and said, you don't understand. My wife is very opposed to me doing this, saying that revealing too much secrets will bring disaster to my descendants, so when she is here, I dare not tell people's fortunes.
I suddenly realized that Taoist Master Ma is now telling people’s fortunes so that one day he won’t have to tell people’s fortunes anymore.
I didn't know what to say, so I just comforted him with a few words.
Taoist Master Ma shook his head and didn't say anything. The two of us had already arrived at the riverside and walked not far in the river wind. Maybe it was because of the wind that Taoist Master Ma got drunk.
He staggered beside me, his belly bulging, his face flushed, and a satisfied smile on his face. He looked as happy as if he had just married a wife.
After walking a few steps, he burped and said to me: "Xiaofan, to tell you the truth, when Uncle Ma saw you the first time, he thought you were a talented person and he was willing to teach you his skills." , but you have to study hard and not be afraid of hardship or getting into trouble. In our line of work, funerals and burials are daily tasks, and exorcism and catching ghosts are commonplace."
In fact, I am not interested in learning these things at all. I just want to find a place to stay and let those ghosts stop looking for me.
I always just want to be an ordinary person, work hard, make more money, and take a girlfriend back to visit my aunt.
But I couldn't say anything, so I responded casually. Taoist Master Ma probably wanted to show off to me. He stopped, looked around, and pointed not far away.
"Did you see that? There is a female ghost squatting behind the flower bed over there. Go and drive her away."
I looked over there and saw a shadowy figure behind a flower bed by the river.
"Uncle Ma, they are staying there well, why do you want to drive them away?"
"Why are you asking so many questions? Just go if you are told. I am testing your courage. In our line of work, you must not be afraid of ghosts!"
As he spoke, he pulled out a talisman and handed it to me, urging me to drive away the ghosts.
I had no choice but to tiptoe over, holding the talisman in my hand, and quietly approached the female ghost from behind...
