The first ray of morning light came from the horizon, passed through the mist in the mountains, started from the top of the mountain and gradually descended, covering the entire mountain. As a result, the ginger flowers all over the mountains and fields were bathed in the morning light. At this moment, whether they were pink or white, All appear exceptionally clear and clean.
Bathing in the morning light with the spring flowers, there is also a swallow. A black and white swallow, if you look closely, it is not pure black, but blue-black, with a slight metallic luster in the sun. It flies freely between the sky and the earth, sometimes up and sometimes down, sometimes left and sometimes right.
The morning mist in the mountains turned into clusters from a high-altitude perspective. It was also from this perspective that the ginger flowers half-covered by the morning mist were spectacular and hazy. Each tree turned into a flower, and then connected into one. One piece, covering the top of the mountain.
This is a beauty that is difficult for mortal eyes to see.
"Huh..." The swallow passed through a cloud of mountain mist again, and the picture in front of it quickly became clear from hazy. Then it folded its wings, suddenly descended, and plunged into the sea of pink flowers.
Crossing the tips and passing through the branches, it is so dexterous that it is like walking through the world of flowers, with pink flowers all in the field of vision.
The flowers in a swallow's eyes are bigger than those in a human's eyes. Each flower is almost as big as itself, so it has a different kind of beauty.
When you pass by a flower, you can clearly see its texture and lines, and the floral fragrance with a hint of ginger lingers on the tip of your nose all the time.
Occasionally bump into it and pass through it. This is also a pleasure that mortals cannot experience. Until a Taoist priest appeared in front of him.
The Taoist closed his eyes and sat cross-legged in the Jiangpu flower forest, with a blanket under his body and a quilt bag beside him. A bay-red horse gnawed on the green grass under the tree. In the eyes of the swallows, it looked like a giant.
A calico cat was sitting upright next to the Taoist, licking its paws. Suddenly it noticed something and raised its head to stare at it.
The mountain breeze dropped an unknown amount of red all night. The flower continues to fall. Whether it's a Taoist priest, a blanket, or the quilt bag, all the petals of ginger flowers have fallen on it. Even the bay red horse that keeps moving has a few pieces of pink jade on it.
The calico cat is quite clean. Maybe it's too small and the petals can't fall on it. But... then she saw a petal swaying down and landing just on top of her head.
The calico cat immediately paused, showing a puzzled expression, and then tilted his head back high to see what was touching his head, but this action only caused the petals above his head to fall down.
So when it raised its paws to touch its head, it couldn't touch anything. So it became more confused and began to circle and do somersaults on the blanket, not even paying attention to the swallow.
The swallow folded its wings and shot at the Taoist like an arrow.
"Canopy..." Swallow disappeared instantly. The Taoist opened his eyes. When I lowered my head, I saw that there were petals on my shoulders and legs. In fact, these were few. When I woke up this morning, the blanket was already covered with petals.
He picked up a piece casually, put it in front of his eyes and took a closer look, comparing the difference in his mind with the swallow's eyes.
"Taoist priest."
"Um?"
"Did you touch me just now?"
"Just take it as such."
"Why are you touching me?"
"I didn't touch it."
"Who touched that?"
"..." Song You stood up from the felt and shook off the petals: "It's almost time for us to leave."
"Oh." The calico cat consciously left the felt and stood on the grass covered with petals. He looked down and then up. When the Taoist priest shook off the petals on the felt, he folded them and put them away. When she put the quilt bag on the horse's back and walked away, she followed with small steps.
It was still one person, one horse and one cat, and it was still the path winding through the grass in the forest. They were walking down the flower-filled mountains, bathing in the morning light, taking their time.
"Who touched that?" The calico cat has a perseverance spirit. ...Another day's journey. At dusk.
The group followed the ancient road in the barren mountains and climbed over the last mountain. This was already the boundary of Nanhua County. Song You hadn't seen the farmland or villages yet, but he first heard the loud singing of Ruoyouruowu. There were men and women singing in harmony. As he got closer, the singing became clearer.
"It's spring again in March~~" The Taoist stopped on the mountainside and looked into the distance. There were still mountains and rivers ahead, all shrouded in dusk, but fields could be seen in the mountains.
Occasionally, you can still see a little golden color in some places, and the cauliflower here fades very late. And the singing echoed in the mountains, the female's loud and clear, the male's deep and deep, coming from nowhere.
All this shows that he has walked out of the hundreds of miles of ancient roads in the barren mountains and returned to the human world.
"It's March already." Song You sighed with emotion and continued to move forward. The horses and cats followed him.
The wind filled the mountains, making Song You's clothes tremble, but it was cool, and the sky was filled with gray clouds. There was even a large area of darkness, and the world in front seemed not to be prepared to welcome them.
After descending the mountain, it merges into the main road. Pedestrians were also seen on the roadside, either carrying burdens or carrying baskets, riding in oxcarts or donkey carts, or walking on foot. They all knew that the mountain rain was coming, so they walked in a hurry.
"May I ask how to get to Nanhua County?"
"Follow this road."
"How far is it?"
"More than ten miles."
"Thank you."
"It's going to rain..." the passers-by's voices were getting farther and farther away. Song You also continued to move forward. Half an hour later, the rain had fallen.
The rain in late spring seemed to have a little bit of the momentum of summer. It came hard and fast, and it fell all over the face. In the blink of an eye, the road was wet, and muddy water flowers bloomed on the ground.
Song You put on his raincoat and bamboo hat, and he put the calico cat in the quilt bag. The eyes are hazy with mist and rain, and the road ahead is winding.
The sky was getting darker little by little. It seems that I can't reach the city. Song You originally wanted to find a pavilion to take shelter from the rain, but he didn't see the pavilion. Instead, he saw a small temple through the remaining skylight.
The temple is right on the roadside, on a small slope. The slope is not high, only more than ten feet. The temple is not big, with a few small rooms.
"Just right!" Without thinking, Song You stepped up. The horse was still following him. Song You quickly walked up the slope and looked up out of habit. There was no plaque hanging and no couplets on either side.
But he still knocked the knocker.
"Dunk dunk..." The sound of rain was so loud that he was afraid that no one would hear it, so he knocked twice more. After a while, the sound of rapid footsteps and the sound of splashing water came from inside.
"Squeak~" The door was opened a crack. Contrary to Song You's expectation, there was a bhikshuni, a nun, standing inside.
He looks about thirty years old and has slightly yellow skin, maybe not thirty years old. She didn't hold an umbrella. In just a few steps, the moon-white monk's robe was already soaked by the raindrops. There was a rain eaves at the door to protect her from the rain. She stood under the rain eaves and looked up and down at Song You. Asked: "Which one are you looking for?" Song You was stunned for a moment, and then he looked helpless: "I didn't know this was a nunnery, so I took the liberty to visit and disturbed you." He bowed to express his apology, then turned and left.
Buddhist temple in
The aspect of "convenience to others" is indeed good, and it is easy to stay overnight. However, if it is a nunnery, it is obviously not suitable for men to stay.
What's more, it's getting dark now, it's still raining heavily outside, and there are no pedestrians on the road below. Let alone staying overnight, standing at this door and saying a few words to others will probably cause alarm.
Therefore, Song You left without asking any further questions. But at this time, he heard the nun behind him ask: "Who are you looking for?" Song You just turned around and took a step. Hearing this, he had to turn back and politely replied: "I'm not looking for anyone. I am from a mountain in Lingquan County, Yizhou, Xia Nai." , I was just traveling here and suddenly encountered a heavy rain. I didn’t encounter any pavilion that could take shelter from the rain. So when I saw a roadside temple, I boldly came to seek shelter, but I didn’t expect that it was a nunnery. Please forgive me for causing the masters to clean up their cultivation."
"You're not here...looking for someone?"
"No." The nun stopped at the door and looked him up and down. Suddenly, the quilt bag on the horse's back was shaking, but the calico cat heard someone talking outside, and was urged by curiosity to dig out a cat's head.
Through the increasingly dim light of the sky, the nun could still clearly see that it was a cat. Its eyes were particularly sharp, staring at her unblinkingly as soon as it came out of the cat's head.
The rain continued unabated at this moment, and the raindrops hit her head, soaking the hair on the top of her head. Sometimes it fell on her eyes, or flowed down the top of her head to her eyes, so she had to blink continuously.
But he refused to shrink back.
"what is that?"
"It's the cat that travels with me."
"Where are you from?"
"Coming from Yizhou, passing through Xuzhou, and then here, I planned to go to Nanhua County to rest, but unexpectedly it rained heavily."
"Are you a Taoist priest?"
"I have been cultivating in Taoist temples since I was a child."
"You want to come and take shelter from the rain?"
"I came here to avoid the rain." The nun obviously thought for a moment before moving away.
"Then come in..."
"How can this be done?"
"As long as you're not a bad person."
"Of course I'm not a bad person." Song You smiled politely.
"It's just that I'm a man in my lower body. After all, it's inconvenient, so I won't bother you... But now that I've met Master, I would like to ask, how long does it take to walk from here to the city? When does the city close?"
"It's okay, it's raining heavily outside, don't get wet." The nun saw that he was gentle and polite, and her voice became much softer.
"It's still ten miles to the city, and I'm afraid we can't get in now."
"Is there any other shelter from the rain around?"
"Come in, there happens to be another room left. It's raining so hard and no one else is here."
"..." Song You was a little strange, but he didn't think too much about anything else. He just pondered for a moment and then bowed respectfully: "Then I'll come in and burn a stick of incense. If the rain subsides, I'll come right away." Let’s go.” The nun hummed and said nothing more.
Song You then led the horse through the door. The nun closed the courtyard door and then pointed to a shed in the corner: "The horses can be tied there. The rain will probably not stop tonight. You stay here for one night and leave early tomorrow morning." Song You wanted to refuse again. , and heard a man's voice faintly in the heavy rain.
It rained heavily in the courtyard. In order to avoid getting caught in the rain, the nun had already picked up her trousers and ran quickly across the yard to the shed. Seeing this, Song You had no choice but to follow.
"Why doesn't your horse have a rope?"
"A horse is obedient and needs no reins."
"Then how to tie it?"
"No need to tie it up, it will stay here and will never wander around."
"real or fake?"
"Everything is true, don't dare to lie."
"..." Song You took off the quilt from the horse's back, and the horse just stood obediently, motionless. The nun looked at them from the side, frowning, still worried that the horses would run around at night.
"My surname is Song, you, and my courtesy name is Menglai. I haven't asked the teacher for my father's name yet."
"Don't ask."
"Okay." The nun took him to a small room. Song You originally only said that he would burn incense in the main hall to take shelter from the rain, but now he no longer insisted. He just thanked him respectfully and entered the house with his quilt bag.
This burst of rain was really heavy. The quilt bag itself has a certain waterproof ability, and it has been soaked by the rain, and the contents inside are completely wet.
Song You took them out and prepared to process them. He would go to the city tomorrow and find a place to wash and dry them.
But just as I was cleaning up, I heard a faint sound coming from the room next to me amidst the sound of rain.
That's right - many nunneries don't even allow men to enter to burn incense. How can any nunnery take the initiative to accommodate male guests?
How could a small nunnery have a shed specifically for tying donkeys and horses? It's a nunnery, but it's not.
