The firewood in the bronze square cauldron burned out, leaving only a pile of reddish residue in the cauldron, with residual warmth still remaining.
The old man with beard hanging down to the ground has not yet left the ancestral hall.
Xie Husheng didn't like to wait for people for too long, so he stepped into the cave at the entrance of the ancestral hall and was about to enter.
Jun Bubai was afraid that if he broke in alone and disturbed the purity of other people's ancestral halls, and would be scolded by the old man, he followed him quietly.
The ancient sandalwood incense burns in the ancestral hall, and the oil lamps made of fish oil on both sides of the wall glow with candlelight.
The winding paths lead to secluded areas, which can block the cold wind outside. The two walked closely for a few steps, and the room gradually opened up and became brighter. There were several stone statues lined up on both sides. The stone statues include immortals riding cranes, immortals holding clouds, immortals holding stars, and immortals emerging and ascending. The appearance of the immortal is mottled, with moss growing in the dark places. It should have been carved and constructed many years ago.
Xie Husheng chuckled: "You said that if those Niubi in the Eastern Continent who are dedicated to seeking enlightenment see these stone statues, they should not kneel on the ground and recite the name of Infinite Heavenly Lord a few times."
Thousands of years ago, people seeking immortality moved to the island to seek for immortality. It was not surprising that there were stone statues of immortals here. Jun Bubai replied softly: "This is probably a Taoist priest from the Eastern Continent who traveled south and saw this immortal. In this blessed land, I came up with the idea of living in seclusion here, building an immortal mansion, and asking for immortality."
The two of them walked a few steps forward. There were relief murals on the mountain wall, and the five-color cloud pictures told the origin of the inheritance of Taihu Fairy Island.
There is an auspicious animal incense burner in the middle of the road. The smoke is puffing out, making the five-color cloud pattern float mysteriously, like a fairyland. When people enter it, their minds are calm and they focus on the Tao.
There is always something gloomy in the blessed land of the Immortal Family. The wind of Xie Husheng's fist blew away the smoke and clouds, and the things described in the cloud map came into view clearly. Xie Husheng raised his eyes and scanned all the five-color cloud pictures on the wall.
In the second cloud picture next to the ancient stone gate, there is an immortal falling from the clouds, walking on the water, smiling at each other with a fisherman girl who is fishing in a boat, and then there is an immortal marrying a wife and having children, with children and grandchildren around his knees.
Xie Husheng liked this cloud painting very much and said, "The one in this painting looks very similar to me and my A Mo. Look at this immortal, he must have had a sudden enlightenment during his practice and felt that the road to immortality is too boring. He simply gave up the fate of immortality and went down the mountain to enter the mortal world. As a result, he fell in love with a fishing girl in Taihu Lake. Then he married her and gave birth to ten or eight children. The family lived a happy life on Taihu Lake, just like that. For a thousand years, it was passed down from generation to generation, and only then did Jingxuan Pavilion become what it is today."
Listening to the sound in Xie Husheng's words, he had no desire for immortality. Jun Bubai said in confusion: "Everyone in the world wants to enter immortality in one step, don't you?"
Having finished reading Cloud Atlas, Xie Husheng turned and walked towards Shimen, rejecting everything, "I don't want to spend my whole life with my A Mo in Dongting Lake. When the weather is good, she fishes on the lake, and I practice boxing at the bottom of the lake. When the weather is bad, she is at home." To mend the net, I also go to the bottom of the lake to practice boxing, and then I will have ten or eight sons, and I will teach them boxing, which is good. If I live forever alone, it will be too lonely."
Xie Husheng opened and closed his mouth because it was my A Mo. Jun Bubai joked: "But your A Mo's cooking is so unpalatable, can you bear it?"
Xie Husheng replied seriously: "What's the matter? Maybe one day I will get used to eating it and I won't find it unpleasant."
Jun Bubai made a quick effort, pulled himself closer to Xie Husheng, and said sarcastically: "Then the sons you and your A Mo will have will not be blessed from an early age."
Xie Husheng clenched his fists and frowned angrily: "That was cooked by their mother herself. If any kid dares to say it tastes bad to his face, I won't beat him to death."
You burst into tears from laughter.
Twenty years later, in a world without Bai Xiaosheng, the four sons of the Xie family, who ranked second to fifth on the Jianghu list, were each followed by a world-famous cook. They suffered too much when they were young. , every time I eat a delicious meal, I will burst into tears.
While talking and laughing, Jun Bubai and Xie Husheng had entered the stone door. Behind the door was the ancestral tablet in Jingxuan Pavilion. An old man with beard hanging down to the ground was kneeling on the ground. In the room, there was an immortal floating on the smoke, chanting the ancient text of Tongxuan.
Taoist priests in the Eastern Land had better pretend to be mysterious. Xie Husheng wanted to step forward to find out the truth, but Jun Bubai grabbed his sleeve and whispered: "Other people's ancestral halls, it's better to restrain themselves."
The old man with his beard hanging down to the ground heard someone speaking behind him, and turned slightly to look at the two of them. He was not surprised, and did not make a sound. He turned around, lay down quietly on the ground and listened to the teachings of his ancestors. After the ancestors had gone away, he tightened his cane and pounded the ground. He stood up, tapped the end of the cane on the ground, the smoke dissipated, and a two-finger-long piece of incense ash fell from the incense in front of the ancestors' tablets, which was as bright as a lotus flower.
Xie Husheng said impatiently: "Old man, if you delay for a little longer, I'm afraid the Taihu Fairy Island will be gone."
The old man was neither happy nor sad. He faced Xie Husheng and knelt down on the ground. He held the crutches in both hands and lowered his head. His beard and hair were folded on the ground. "The ancestors taught that the disaster of Taihu Fairy Island cannot be quelled except by Xie Husheng. After this incident, This Taihu Lake is naturally given to the master of Xiehu Lake."
Xie Husheng was confused when he heard this, "You old man must have been confused by the smoke."
The old man was speechless for a moment, his eyes turned to Jun Bubai, and the corners of his mouth twitched, signaling him to lend a helping hand.
Jun Bubai was also confused. He coughed lightly to resolve the embarrassment, "I'd better talk about how to appease the man at the bottom of the lake first. It's not too late to discuss the change of ownership of Taihu Lake in detail after the disaster is understood."
The old man was old and slow, and after thinking for a long time, he said: "I have just asked several ancestors of my family. Thousands of years ago, there was indeed an ancestor who was worried about the man at the bottom of the lake who woke up and overturned the Taihu Fairy Island. Qiongji wrote in his life The next Fuyun Ancient Scroll records a once-and-for-all solution that can help me in Jingxuan Pavilion to avoid future troubles."
Jun Bubai asked anxiously: "Where is the ancient scroll now?"
The old man pointed to the distance, "It's hidden in Jingxuan Pavilion."
Jingxuan Pavilion had collapsed. Jun Bubai glanced at Xie Husheng beside him and thought it was his fist that had destroyed Jingxuan Pavilion. He sighed and said, "The Jingxuan Pavilion has been completely destroyed."
The old man with beard and hair hanging down to the ground had a look of disbelief on his face. He jumped up from the ground, holding a cane, and ran out of the ancestral hall. He covered his forehead in front of the guardrail and looked out. There was really no trace of Jingxuan Pavilion in the distance.
The old man has been cultivating Taoism all his life and pays attention to clean speech and quiet heart. The Jingxuan Pavilion, which has been passed down from generation to generation, was destroyed in his generation. At this time, he did not care about breaking the taboos, and the curse words accumulated for many years also burst out from his chest, "Fuck, who is that?" The bastard destroyed my Jingxuan Pavilion."
The old man cursed more and more vigorously, his beard and hair rustling in the wind.
Jun Bubai and Xie Husheng chased them out of the ancestral hall.
Jingxuan Pavilion was no longer visible in front of him. Xie Husheng turned his face to the side, his face turned pale, thinking that it was his punch that destroyed Jingxuan Pavilion.
The old man spewed filthy words that were really hard to hear, so Jun Bubai smoothed things over and said, "Old man, don't get angry. The one at the bottom of the lake is the one who is most concerned about you right now. Apart from the Ancient Scroll of Floating Clouds, there are other ways."
The old man stopped speaking, but his thoughts were still unfinished, and he turned around sadly, "The ancestors only said that it is recorded in the Fuyun Ancient Scroll, and there is no other way."
Xie Husheng choked back and said: "Your ancestors are quite deceitful." Thinking of the destruction of Jingxuan Pavilion in his own hands, his voice gradually weakened.
A cold wind blew across his face, his temples fluttering. Jun Bubai suddenly thought of Sui Dingfeng's spring breeze turning into rain. He and the old man guarding the lake had a fight on the lakeshore. The two of them might have clues about the Fuyun Ancient Scroll hidden in Jingxuan Pavilion, so they rose up with their swords. , "You and I, go to the east side of Taihu Lake quickly, the Floating Cloud Scroll may be there."
The sword pierced the air and Xie Husheng didn't ask any questions and chased him through the cave.
Seeing the two people walking away, the old man settled himself in front of the guardrail, taking in the entire Taihu Lake. He murmured to himself: "If our ancestors had not loved the world back then, my clan would not have relied on others to pacify it now." Let there be trouble.”
The old man looked at the lake, feeling lost. After looking for a moment, his heart was filled with sadness. He turned around and walked towards the ancestral hall.
Next to the bronze square tripod, a black shadow flashed past, and a few thick pieces of wood were thrown into the square tripod. The fire in the tripod, which was still warm, started again, and there were magnificent sparks.
When the old man heard the noise, he turned back to the guardrail, looked down at the black shadow, and said kindly, "When did you come back?"
The black shadow pulled off his scarf, raised his head and said with a smile: "Ancestor, Yuanshan just came back today."
Yuqiao Jiangzhu, a member of the Jingxuan Pavilion of Taihu Lake, whose original surname is Jiang.
The old man's beard and hair were blown by the wind, and he was full of fairy spirit. "I didn't go home to see your girl first."
Jiang Yuanshan scratched his head and smiled: "No, let me say hello to my ancestor first, and I will go back later."
Wrinkles piled up at the corners of the old man's eyes, "I have nothing to do. Go home early. Don't make your girl anxious. She has the most irritable temper on our island."
Jiang Yuanshan touched the flower cloth tied with tung oil paper in his arms and said dotingly: "Child, it's good to be lively and not easy to get sick. I won't send her to school to learn Chinese and Chinese characters with my master. The bigger it is, the quieter it will naturally be.”
"Now that you've seen everything, come back early, I'm going to do some repairs."
The old man waved his hand, turned around and walked towards the ancestral hall.
Jiang Yuanshan changed his demeanor, his expression was gloomy, he put back his face towel, swept up the guardrail with the wind, knocked the old man unconscious with one palm, easily carried it on his shoulders, and walked into the ancestral hall.
In the hinterland of Xiandao, in the courtyard of the lotus pond.
The woman was frying lotus root fish in a pan in the kitchen, while the little girl was angry and hid in her room beating the tiger head doll sewn from strips of cloth.
The lotus root fish is a fry that is put in at the beginning of spring. When the lotus blooms, the petals fall into the pond with the wind, and the fish eat it. The body is fat and meaty, without any earthy smell, and has a sweet smell.
After a plate of lotus root fish was fried, the woman went to the lotus pond to break off a lotus pod, peel out the lotus seeds, throw the sundries into the stove and burn them all, then scooped out half a bowl of rice and put them together into a clay pot to simmer. The little girl liked it best. Lotus root fish and lotus seed porridge. She was unhappy because her father didn't come back today. The woman thought that cooking these two delicacies she liked would always make her happy.
A gust of wind blew into the house.
The little girl held the tiger head doll in one hand and ran out of the house barefoot, her eyes full of joy. She stepped on the lotus pond in hope, but there was still no one at the courtyard gate, so she walked back to the house in despair.
The woman raised her voice and imitated the tone of a child, "Xiaoyu, guess what grandma made for you. It's your favorite lotus root fish and lotus seed porridge."
Jiang Xiaoyu lowered his head and walked towards the house, tears welling up in his eyes, "But I want to wait for my father to come back and eat together."
The little girl walked back to the room crying, put her head on the raft, and threw the tiger head doll that her father bought far away in her hand, "My father is a big liar. He promised to come back today. Liar, big liar."
After venting randomly, sleepiness came over me, my eyelids slowly closed, and I gradually fell asleep.
The woman was cooking porridge in the kitchen, and the porridge and rice squeaked loudly in the earthen pot. A gust of wind shook the fish pond, and the woman's expression suddenly changed and she ran out of the house.
In the open space of the fish pond, a jade hairpin is placed on a roll of flower cloth tied with tung oil paper.
"Are you serious that you are not coming back?" The woman fell to the ground, lost in thought. The porridge and rice in the kitchen came out of the earthenware pot, which was burned to ashes by the fire.
In the little girl's house, the tiger-headed doll she had thrown away came back to her.
