"The God of Mirrors will tell you first."
"I wonder if you have ever heard of the frog god by the lake?"
"I heard something." Song You thought for a while,
"That should be a wild god in the mountains. I heard that the local people believe that the frogs by the lake come back to life in spring and will have more children, so they worship him as a god and pray for blessings."
"Has the Taoist priest gone to investigate?"
"Last time I passed by the lake, there were many frog temples. I visited them and stayed overnight. But I don't care about the Righteous God and the Wild God. Seeing that he didn't cause trouble, I didn't care." Song You paused.
"But that was last year."
"I am very close to this frog god, so let me tell you about the origin of this frog god." The Mirror God said with a smile.
"Appreciate further details."
"Originally there was no frog god here. Indeed, as the Taoist priest said, the local people thought that the frogs by the lake would resurrect in spring and have more children, so they spontaneously worshiped the frog god and prayed for blessings. Until this time, the people worshiped the frog god. God is still an empty temple, there is no true God." Mirror God paused,
"Later, there was a mountain fairy who looked very similar to the statue of the frog god worshiped by the people. He took over the temple and took the temple incense for himself. Occasionally, he revealed his true identity unintentionally. People I thought it was the Frog God who appeared, so more and more people worshiped him, and temples were dotted around the lake."
"and after?"
"Later on, this 'frog god' has been gathering incense and practicing diligently. Although he is a wild god and cannot be granted a royal title or recognized by the heavenly palace, I am lazy by nature, and I see that this frog god has only been smoking. He gathered incense, and occasionally people prayed to him to solve problems such as evil spirits and ghosts in the family, and he really solved them, and I did not take action to stop them, nor did I report them to the Heavenly Palace." Mirror God said,
"It's just that after this frog god's Taoism progressed, he was gradually not satisfied with these incense. Starting from about last year, he used some evil methods to make the people more pious, attract more incense, and his Taoism soared."
"Why doesn't the Mirror God communicate to the higher level?"
"A little god like me can only report my duties once every full moon." The Mirror God shook his head.
"But I am a minor god, and this matter is also a trivial matter. I reported it twice, but it was not taken seriously by the Heavenly Palace. Some time ago, he had the idea of coveting the waters of my Jingdao Lake."
"Let me go and take a look first." Song You did not agree immediately. Mirror God also immediately stood up and saluted: "Taoist Master will know it as soon as he sees it."
"Thank you, Mirror God, for your hospitality."
"I'll thank you, Taoist Priest." Song You was about to say goodbye when he saw the maid next to him and couldn't help but ask: "These..."
"They are all ghosts." Mirror God explained to him: "Beside Jingdao Lake, there are dozens of villages, big and small. Every year, countless baby girls are thrown into the lake. Although these baby girls have just been born, their souls are complete, and some After being drowned, they quickly dissipated in the world, and some were unwilling to dissipate, so I gathered them up and nourished them with my divine power, so that they could grow up slowly, and from then on they stayed at the bottom of the lake and became my maids."
"..." Song You couldn't help but fell silent for a moment. This is the case these days. People often abandon baby girls. Many children die before they have a chance to see the world.
Even if the parents are willing to raise a baby boy, he still has to go through many hurdles. You have to ask the world, you have to ask those who abandoned baby girls. They may feel guilty, and they can only say that there is nothing they can do. It's up to me to decide, even the gods and Buddhas can't do anything.
"The mirror god is kind and virtuous, I admire you."
"There's nothing to admire. I just did it casually. It's a pity that although they can grow up, they will be trapped by this lake all their lives and will not be able to see the real world."
"Doing it casually is already a great merit." Song You cupped his hands and said,
"There is no need for the Mirror God to say that. How many people have lived a lifetime these days, and the places they have traveled may not be as big as this Mirror Island Lake."
"Thank you, Taoist Master."
"Now I'll say goodbye."
"I send you to the Taoist priest."
"..." After walking out of the attic, I felt that the light above my head was already shining through. The maids around me were still coming and going. Song You looked at them quietly.
There are countless stubborn diseases these days, which are the fault of the world and the fault of the times. Not one person can cure them, and only the times can slowly eliminate these things.
No one can change the sky. If there is anything one person can do, it is to make it go faster.
It’s just that this life is still long, let’s go and see other places in the world first. The water rippled, and the ripples went round and round, and the eyes became hazy and blurred.
When I opened my eyes again, it was already bright. What caught my eye was the roof of the awning boat. When I turned around, I saw the light coming from the outside. The boatman had woken up and was sitting on the bow waiting for them. Everything last night seemed like a dream.
"Sir, are you awake?"
"woke up."
"Then we go back to shore?"
"Trouble the boatman."
"Okay!" The boat started moving immediately. The boatman said to him while rowing: "Sir, the time is just right for you to come." Song You whispered back: "What do you say?"
"Today is the beginning of autumn. It's still hot outside, but it's cool on the lake. The weather has been good recently," the boatman said.
"The most important thing is the crabs from our Jingdao Lake. The crabs here are no worse than the Pingzhou Gongli from Lihuagou next door. It's just that the crabs are not so lucky to go to Changjing, so they are not so famous. It's mostly because of us. The poor people by the lake are eating. But when the officials who come from out of town to look for immortals come here, they never fail to praise them if they can have such a bite."
"Then I have to try it."
"Although it's not the best time to eat crabs now, it's almost there. It's just that it would be better to come a month later." The boatman said to him while pushing the oar.
"Only the water of our Jingdao Lake can raise such good crabs. Everyone says that it is the blessing of the lake god, so the fish, shrimps, crabs and clams in the lake also have spiritual energy. Anyway, sir, you must try it. "
"Thank you boatman for the advice."
"Hey what's this..."
"Then the Lake God seems to be very effective?"
"That goes without saying!" said the boatman,
"Sir, haven't you seen that this lake never makes waves no matter how strong the wind is?"
"It's quite magical."
"That's right!" the boatman said, getting excited.
"So even if the lake god rarely shows up, as long as there is this lake that cannot wave, it is a great gift to all of us lakeside fishermen and all of us who eat at Yunding Mountain and Jingdao Lake."
"That makes sense..." Song You paused: "I heard there is a frog god?"
"Yes, there are frog temples all over the lake."
"Is the frog god also effective?"
"It's very effective!"
"What's so wonderful about the Frog God?"
"What's so wonderful?"
"What are the benefits of worshiping the frog god?"
"Bless you with many children, good fortune, and a long life!" the boatman said,
"Besides this, if there is a ghost in your home, if you go and burn incense sincerely, you will probably be fine that night. And starting from this year, if you are willing to stay in the Frog Temple for a day and worship sincerely, you can also relieve fatigue. , Shu Shuang is as good as a god!"
"How can I get rid of fatigue? How can I feel refreshed?"
"How can that be easy to say?"
"Haha..." Song You stopped talking. Just waiting for the boat to row across the lake, the ripples spread out, and the autumn colors spread across the lake for ten miles.
Arriving at the ferry, the horse was still waiting here. One person, one cat and one horse walked further along the lakeside.
"Taoist priest……"
"Um?"
"Sanhua Empress seemed to have had a dream last night." The Sanhua cat looked up at him as he walked.
"I dreamed that Sanhua Empress and you went to the bottom of the lake. There was a female lake god who invited us to eat and drink. She also treated us to a lot of fish, shrimps and crabs. We were very full."
"Is that wine good?"
"Like water."
"Are the crabs delicious?"
"It's delicious! It's full of meat! It's just like the crab you mentioned before!" The calico cat's eyes were bright and his face was full of satisfaction. If he hadn't been walking now, he might have rubbed against Song You's trousers.
She even slapped her mouth twice. There is no taste now, but when I first woke up, there was still a bit of crab taste in my mouth.
"I dreamed about it too."
"Yeah?"
"Happy Beginning of Autumn, Sanhua Empress."
"Huh!?" Song You just smiled. It was a dream, but it wasn't. He couldn't tell clearly. There are ever-changing magic powers in this world, but magical powers are the most elusive.
Coupled with the inconvenient flow of information in this world and the fact that experts all live in seclusion, even all the previous masters of Fulong Temple combined cannot say that they have seen all the magical powers and spells in this world, let alone understood them.
There are even some methods that are not comprehended or learned by oneself at all, but come naturally.
Maybe if you let the magician himself speak, he can only tell the mystery, but not the truth. Just go and see how wonderful it is.
...There are frog temples everywhere around the lake, but most of them are small temples like earth temples. Only cats can enter, not people. I guess this is not what the boatmen say.
A "go in and stay for a day" temple. The last time Song You walked, he remembered that there was a large temple. However, although he still walked around the lake this time, it was in a different direction than the last time he came - last time he walked around half of Jingdao Lake. The second round was the other half. He wanted to walk around the lake.
After walking through a village, I finally saw a big temple. It is a one-room temple, about the size of a house.
There is nothing else in the temple, just a clay statue of the frog god, a stone trough on the altar filled with residual incense, a merit box and a sesame oil pot next to it, and the bright lamp is still burning.
As soon as Song You stepped in, he smelled of oil lamps and grass. Maybe there are too many temples by the lake, the Frog God is somewhere else, maybe he is out busy, but he is not in this temple at this time.
Song You didn't know the truth of the matter, so he didn't dare to invite others over easily. He happened to be a little tired when he came over. There was wind and rain protection here, and there were ready-made futons, so he sat down against the wall and waited.
The calico cat also sat upright, quietly glancing at the statue of the frog god, and occasionally glancing at the Taoist priest. It feels a bit amazing.
Not long after, a group of lakeside villagers came together and walked into the temple with smiles. There was actually an acquaintance.
