One evening in midsummer, the setting sun was like blood, and the sunset wiped the earth crimson.
After Lu Xingxin collected the dried rice, he sat on a bamboo chair under the honey locust tree in front of his house, fanning himself with a rotten sunflower fan while looking at the undulating Longshan Mountain in the distance.
Suddenly, the cries of birds, big and small, came from above my head. I looked up and saw a mother bird returning late on the tree. She was flying back to her nest with a small insect in her mouth to feed several chicks that were waiting to be fed. After a little bird grabbed the food, it chirped and screamed with excitement.
Touch the scene and stir up emotion!
Lu Xingxin really could not have imagined that he had been an upright person and had done many good deeds throughout his life, but why was it God's trick that the wrinkles on his wife's forehead became more and more deep as the years went by, but she never became pregnant.
"Husband, what's wrong with you?" Lu Xingxin finally woke up from his deep thoughts and looked down. It was his wife Li who asked the question.
Lu Xingxin shook his head repeatedly in denial: "No...it's nothing..."
Li made it clear: "Husband, please stop lying to me. You have something on your mind, and tears are streaming from the corners of your eyes."
Lu Xingxin wiped the corners of his eyes with his hands, only to realize that there were already tears on them, so he could only sigh: "Alas!"
Li's tone was full of apology: "Husband, I have no children. As a man, I am extremely upset. I have been married to you for so many years, but I have not given birth to a boy or a girl for you. Every time I think of this, my heart breaks. Not only do I feel guilty, but I’m in pain.”
Lu Xingxin comforted him: "Madam, how can I blame you alone for this? I also have a share of responsibility."
Mrs. Li bit her lip with her teeth. It took a long time before she said, "Husband, I..."
Lu Xingxin saw that Mrs. Li was about to speak but hesitated, "What do I do?"
Li: "I thought of a way."
When Lu Xingxin heard this, he became interested, stretched his neck, and asked, "What can I do?"
Li: "You can divorce me and marry someone else. I won't complain at all about it."
Lu Xingxuan gave her an angry look: "Look, where did you go? You married me, a sinner, and you have suffered a lot. I always feel sorry for you in my heart. Why did you say it instead?" What if this is the case?"
Mrs. Li was so moved that her eyes filled with tears and her nose became sore: "If you won't divorce me, then you can take another concubine. Maybe she will bear children for you."
Lu Xingxuan's face sank: "Madam, stop thinking so wildly. Since you and I have become husband and wife in this life, we must respect each other as guests and grow old together."
When Mrs. Li saw Lu Xingxin angry, she didn't dare to say anything more. It didn't matter that Lu Xingxin was dismissed from office by a traitorous minister, but he was also demoted to a desolate place like Lingnan to live in seclusion. He was really ashamed, and the more he thought about it, the more cowardly he became. He is talented and successful at a young age. Over the years, he has devoted himself to serving the court, benefiting the people, and becoming a famous figure in history. However, the disaster in the officialdom actually changed his mentality. On the one hand, he hoped that one day his unjust case would be vindicated, and he would return to the court and serve the country; on the other hand, he would like to have a son and enjoy the happiness of a family.
However, the two things Lu Xingxin longed for day and night failed to happen. In particular, he asked his classmate Wenlong, who was an official in the court, to investigate his unjust case, but there was no news. As time went by, he turned his hopes to giving birth to a son early. However, Lu Xingxin, who is over 40 years old, has been waiting day and night for so many years and still hasn’t seen her pregnant. Can Lu Xingxin not be anxious? Especially in that era, men regarded the inheritance of the family line as their responsibility, and they all believed that "there are three types of unfilial piety, and the worst is not having heirs."
As a man, it is very shameful to be unable to honor one's ancestors and continue smoking cigarettes below. Therefore, Lu Xingxin personally drew a picture of Guanyin sending his son off to worship at home, and also bought a copy of "Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva's Universal Door" for his wife to read. Because it is said in "Pumen Pin", "If a woman desires a man and worships and makes offerings to Guanshiyin Bodhisattva, she will give birth to a man of merit and wisdom; if she desires a woman, she will give birth to a decent and well-appeared daughter." Therefore, the couple knelt down and worshiped every day, read scriptures devoutly, and pinned Pan'er's urgent hope on Guanshiyin Bodhisattva.
Don't tell me, now I don't know whether it was the mercy of Guanshiyin Bodhisattva or the shining star of Lu Xingxin. One summer night, Mrs. Li had an extremely strange dream: In the dream, she saw a colorful auspicious cloud rising from the sky. Falling down into the courtyard, amidst the clouds and mist, a towering Bodhi tree grows. Red-crowned white cranes fly around the tree. Hundreds of flowers bloom under the tree, and the fragrance is thick.
When Li woke up, she felt acid water rising up in her throat. She lowered her head and vomited the acid water all over the floor. Then, she felt something stirring in her stomach, like a pregnancy. She had never felt like this before after so many years of marriage.
When she got up in the morning, Mrs. Li told Lu Xingxin about this strange thing.
Lu Xingxin was dubious and murmured: "Can such a strange thing happen in the world?"
Soon, Li's belly gradually swelled, and she felt like a fetus was kicking her belly from time to time.
When Lu Xingxin saw it, he was very happy and hurriedly asked an old doctor from a neighboring village to diagnose his wife's pulse. The old doctor held Li's pulse and carefully assessed it for a while, then stroked his beard and laughed: "Brother Lu, I would like to congratulate you first. Your wife is a sour plum in the spring. She is pregnant with Liujia. I am going to have a son in my family!"
"What?" Lu Xingxin didn't seem to believe his ears, but he heard the old doctor's words clearly.
Lu Xingxin stood aside with his mouth wide open, looking straight at the old doctor without saying a word. He was so happy that he was stunned.
Although Mrs. Li was also happy, how could she not be happy when she heard that she was pregnant? But she is always calmer than her husband, and she is never too happy. She was so happy that she quickly wrapped up a red envelope and thanked the old man.
After the old man got the money and left, Lu Xingxin danced with joy and smiled like a child.
Lu Xingxin was in a state of despair. How could his wife have the right to decide whether it would be a boy or a girl? He thought his wife had the final say, and was so happy that he was incoherent and confused. One moment he was grateful to heaven, another moment he was grateful to Guanyin Bodhisattva, and the next moment he was grateful to his ancestors. He didn't know who he should be grateful to.
Lu Xingxin was overjoyed and impatient, wandering around the house and outside, wanting to do something, but unable to do anything.
Li took a look and said with a smile, "Husband, you are over 40 years old when you have a baby, so you are naturally very happy, but husband, don't forget to take care of yourself and control your emotions." This sentence reminded him that he was Only then did he manage to settle down.
Lu Xingxuan took Ms. Li to the Buddhist hall set up at home and kowtowed to the statue of Guanyin. He was grateful first and then requested. He was grateful to Guanyin Bodhisattva for his compassion and giving them hope, and asked Guanyin Bodhisattva to protect them from having children as they wished.
From then on, the couple burned incense and prayed every day to thank God.
Every night, Lu Xingxin, who had worked hard all day, did not feel tired. Instead, she asked Li to sit on the edge of the bed, put his ear against her belly, and listened quietly. He clearly heard a beating fetal sound of "plop, plop", and he felt indescribable joy in his heart.
The days passed like water, and Lu Xingxin looked forward to it, counting the days when he should be a father. But when Li was ten months pregnant, there was no sign of giving birth. This made Lu Xingxuan, who had always been full of hope, extremely anxious and hurriedly invited Aunt Li, the most famous midwife within ten miles.
After Aunt Li examined Mrs. Li, she never relaxed her frown and said to Lu Xingxin, "I have been a midwife for thirty years, but I have never seen a fetus conceived like this."
Lu Xingxin asked with a worried look on his face: "My wife has passed the period of giving birth. Will the child in her belly be in any danger?"
Aunt Li waved her hand: "No."
Lu Xingxin asked: "Why?"
Aunt Li gave the reason: "If the child in your belly is in danger, the fetal sounds in your wife's belly will either be messy or faded. But now I can hear the fetal sounds in her belly with a uniform rhythm and strong force, as if someone is singing It’s like singing a carol.”
Lu Xingxin: "So, what should we do?"
"There's nothing I can do." Aunt Li spread her hands, and seeing Lu Xingxuan's sad look, she added, "Your mother's pregnancy is really strange. Maybe your son will be a sage in the future."
Lu Xingxin: "This..."
Aunt Li comforted: "Mr. Lu, you are also a knowledgeable person. Just wait to be a father. Don't be too anxious. Things in this world can only happen naturally and fall into place. Now, you can only wait."
Lu Xingxin sighed: "Then we have to wait."
Seeing his wife's belly slowly bulging every day, Lu Xingxin was worried every day, fearing that something would go wrong with her.
The three aunts and six women in the village were talking about it. Some said that it must be a freak because the baby could not be born after such a long period of pregnancy; some said that it might be a baby.
But who would have expected that such a wait would last six years.
On the eighth day of the second lunar month in the twelfth year of Tang Zhenguan (AD 638), after dinner, Ms. Li felt that the child in her stomach was kicking extra hard, her stomach hurt extraordinarily, and her heart beat extraordinarily.
Lu Xingxin asked: "Madam, is the situation today different from the past?"
Ms. Li was lying on the bed, her face flushed, and she took a breath and replied: "Husband, I feel that today is very different from the past. Maybe tonight is the night of giving birth."
"Ah!" Lu Xingxin was happy but worried at the same time, and quickly called the midwife Aunt Li.
Aunt Li was feeding pigs in the backyard. When she heard the news, she quickly dropped the pig food, twisted her fat body, and hurried over.
Aunt Li, the midwife, first felt her pulse, then looked at Mrs. Li's tongue, and then listened to her fetal sounds. After careful inspection, she said: "Mr. Lu, all signs indicate that tonight is indeed the day when your wife will give birth. It seems that you have been waiting for a long time." I have been looking forward to it for six years and I will be a father tonight."
Aunt Li told Lu Xingxin her judgment, and then said to Mrs. Li who was lying on the bed: "Follow the numbers I am counting and hold your stomach in as hard as you can."
"Hmm." Li, who was already sweating profusely, nodded.
"One, two, three, one, two, three..." Aunt Li shouted louder. Mrs. Li clenched her fists, gritted her teeth, and held it in, trying to push the baby out of her belly.
Lu Xingxin's heart outside was also pounding in response to the shouting.
Aunt Li twisted all her hands, and Mrs. Li tossed and turned on the bed in the back room, shouting, but the baby in her belly refused to come out.
Hearing his wife's shouts rising and falling, Lu Xingxin wandered around the yard, anxious.
At this time, Aunt Li walked out of the back room, wiping the bean-like sweat on her forehead with her sleeves, with a look of helplessness on her face and a hint of despair in her eyes: "Mr. Lu, it seems things are not easy to handle!"
Lu Xingxin's heart twitched: "What do you mean..."
Aunt Li inquired: "Are you planning to have a wife or a child?"
Lu Xingxin said firmly: "Of course I want both for my wife and my children."
Aunt Li looked troubled: "As the saying goes, it's hard to have your cake and eat it too. It seems you can only choose one thing, either save your wife's life, or keep only the child."
"This..." Lu Xingxuan frowned and grimaced. Finally, he sighed and made a painful choice, "If it is really impossible to have both, I hope you will do everything possible to save my wife's life first. Well. As for the child, we can only let nature take its course."
"Then I'll try my best." Aunt Lu said and returned to the inner room.
In the room, Mrs. Li's shouts continued, and Lu Xingxin's heart felt like it was being tortured in a frying pan...
At this time, as described above——
It is the darkest moment before dawn, when the world is in chaos, and the thick morning fog fills all the space, making people feel heavy, depressed, and inexplicably disturbed. Outside the yard, the series of dark mountains are like dead dragons and snakes, crawling in the wilderness...
At midnight, suddenly, Mrs. Li let out a shrill scream, followed by a loud newborn cry.
Like a thunderbolt that cuts through the clear sky, shakes the night sky in the mountains and fields, and shakes the whole world.
Then, a ray of red light soared from the inner room, passed through the window lattice, and rushed up to the vast and confusing sky, illuminating the surrounding area in red, and then attracted thousands of colorful lights.
Exactly: Lingnan Canglong Cave is like a Mani Pearl; it has been nurtured for millions of years and shines brightly for thousands of years.
Along with the birth of this new life, there seems to be misty fairy music, slowly falling from the high sky, like delicate fingers full of love, gently caressing the sleeping mountains, rivers and vegetation. As if in response to the wonderful sounds of nature, a vague fragrance, like the thoughts of a dream, slowly emanated from this thatched cottage surrounded by mountains, spreading between heaven and earth...
Then, the breeze came slowly and the thick fog dissipated. The earth is fresh and clean, and the moon is bright in the sky. The valleys and streams are full of life, with willows whistling and wild flowers blooming. Even the series of mountains that wind like giant dragons come alive, revealing their towering majesty...
This day is the eighth day of February in the year 638 AD. On this day, exactly a century has passed since Patriarch Bodhidharma passed down the most incredible wisdom in the universe - Zen, to the second ancestor Huike.
After Lu Xingxin passed his forties, his wife finally gave birth to a child successfully.
Aunt Li came out of the room and congratulated Lu Xingxin: "Congratulations, Mr. Lu, it's a son. Mother and son are safe. Come in and see your precious son!"
Lu Xingxuan was overjoyed and hurried into the house, but when he reached the door, he suddenly remembered something and stepped back. He took out a few copper coins from the earthen jar on the altar table and handed them to Aunt Li's hand, and bowed deeply. , said with a trembling voice: "Thank you, Aunt Li! I am living here. If it weren't for your help, I really don't know what to do."
Aunt Li resolutely refused the reward and said: "Mr. Lu, what are you doing? Look where you went? Since we live together, we are destined for life. Distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors. Who doesn't have big things and small affections? Besides, , your wife is a local of ours, and her surname is also Li, and she and I were in the same family five hundred years ago. If I don’t help, who will help! Don’t you think so? Go and see your little baby."
Lu Xingxin couldn't help laughing, and then there was a hint of bitterness in the corner of his mouth. He sighed softly and said, "Aunt Li, please don't call me master anymore. Lu is just like you now. He is a commoner and is no longer a great man."
Aunt Li quickly prepared a large basin of hot water in the stove, and while carrying it towards the inner room, she said: "Anyway, you have been a great man, how can you be like us ordinary people?"
Lu Xingxin followed Aunt Li, but he did not go into the inner room. Instead, he stopped in the hall, knelt down facing the north, and murmured: "My ancestors who live far away in Fan Yang, Xingxin is unfilial. He left his hometown and lived in Lingnan. Fortunately, the sky has eyes, and today a new man has been added to the family, so that the incense of the Lu family will continue..."
It is said that the greatest happiness in life is "when a long drought is followed by sweet rain, meeting an old friend in a foreign land, the night of flowers and candles in the wedding room, and the time when the gold medal is named."
But Lu Xingxin was a hundred times happier at this moment than when he was named on the gold medal list for the big one and the wedding ceremony was held for the little one.
Some people say that after these four joys, another joy should be added, which is "the time of looking forward to having a son."
After Lu Xingxin knelt down in the hall, he walked into the back room and stared straight at the precious son he had been looking forward to for so many years. It was as if he had found a treasure from poverty, a lamp from darkness, food from hunger, and a drought from drought. Rain, tears of joy and excitement burst into my eyes.
This is an indescribable smile, an indescribable inner joy.
At this moment, I just feel that all the fame, wealth and honor in the world are not as valuable as having a son. It is really a mixture of surprises.
After Lu Xingxin sent Aunt Li away, he looked at his precious son and thought to himself: It is not easy for me, Lu Xingxin, to have a son when I am in my forties. I have to give my son a good name so that my son can also have a good name in the future. Famous through the ages, the reputation is handed down from generation to generation.
Everyone, parents all over the world hope that their children will become successful, and Lu Xingxin is particularly eager at this moment.
Lu Xingxin thought to himself: My son is purely a gift from God. The mercy of Guanshiyin Bodhisattva has allowed me to realize my dream for many years, so I might as well call him a gift from God. Not nice. Called Meng Yuan? Too tacky. What name should I give? The name is correct and the words are correct, and the words are clear and clear. I must give my son a good name.
He was still energetic, pacing back and forth in the room, thinking hard about a good name for his unusual son.
However, after struggling until midnight, his precious son's name could not be decided.
While he was anxious, he suddenly heard a voice of congratulations coming from outside the door. Lu Xingxin turned around and was shocked.
It was said that Lu Xingxin was so surprised when he got a son at night. Before dawn, he was busy naming his precious son.
Lu Xingxin racked his brains and worked until midnight, but he still couldn't come up with a name for his precious son. Lu Xingxin was so angry that he wanted to slap himself twice.
He said in his heart: I, Lu Xingxin, am a person with a quick mind and a title on the gold medal list. Where have all my wealth of knowledge gone today? Even if you are usually stupid but are smart now, your name was given to you by your parents and elders. It is different from other living beings. If I don’t give it to you, who will give it to you? No, I have to give my son a good name today.
Lu Xingxin is still enthusiastic. In fact, the great truth is simple and the sound is loud. A truly good name always expresses the most profound artistic conception in the most concise language. With Lu Xingxin's current mentality, he would never be able to come up with such a good name.
While Lu Xingxin was thinking hard, he suddenly heard a voice of congratulations coming from outside the door. Standing at the door were two monks, one over eighty years old and the other over fifty years old. A wise monk.
Lu Xingxuan walked out of the door and saw the old monk holding a crystal bowl in his hand. He clasped his hands towards Lu Xingxuan and said, "Amitabha, the benefactor is blessed with a precious son at night. He is really blessed with immeasurable blessings. I came here rashly. I want to see your son, what do you think?"
After Lu Xingxin heard this, he thought to himself: The baby was just born last night, how could this old monk know about it? Full of doubts, he stepped forward and bowed: "Master, I'm sorry, the child has been crying since he was born. I'm afraid it may disturb the master's purity of mind, so it's best if the master doesn't see him."
The old monk clasped his hands together and said: "Amitabha, donor, please relax. If the poor monk can stop crying, you can bring me my son to see me."
Lu Xingxin thought to himself: The world is really big, full of wonders, and there is someone who specializes in treating crying children, so let him try it out.
