Just like what I saw in the afternoon, there were still the same clothes in the cabinet. But this time, under the guidance of Bing Ma Xiang, the smoke went straight between the clothes. So I stretched out my hand to push aside my clothes, and the smoke formed a drooping shape again, heading straight towards something covered with red cloth in the chest of drawers.
I knelt down and uncovered the red cloth. It was a statue of Guanyin.
Now I fully understand why I haven't been able to get rid of it. The reason lies in this Guanyin statue.
In the early days, the four olds had not yet been destroyed. Although people said that they wanted to get rid of feudal superstition and defeat the demons and demons, in fact, there were still many people who believed in Buddhism among the people. Many families worship the Bodhisattva and recite the Buddha's name sincerely. But later, due to the rise of this movement, burning incense and worshiping Buddha suddenly became a crime, so many people smashed the Bodhisattva statues or covered them with red cloth and hid them. Obviously, the old lady is such a person. Since the Buddha statue has not been worshiped with incense for a long time, it has become an empty shell and a hiding place for other ghosts.
Maybe you want to ask, the Buddha is majestic, why can these ghosts occupy the Buddha statue? I may tell you that it is because of the respectful invitation of the Buddha statue. It is not that you pinch a Bodhisattva or buy a Bodhisattva from elsewhere and invite the Buddha statue. Formal Buddha statues need to be consecrated. The difference from blessing is that blessing uses some means to stimulate the original spirituality of the thing. For example, I have a jade pendant. If I give blessings to the jade pendant, it will be easier to bring out the jade's own properties, such as warmth, protection, etc. But consecration is different. Not everything can be consecrated. It must be statues of gods, Buddhas, scriptures, charms, cassocks and other objects. Even auspicious beasts such as Kirin, Pixiu and Jixie cannot be "consecrated". Perhaps the people are often confused between the two, so many people believe that consecration and blessing are actually the same thing.
For statues of gods and Buddhas, it is even more complicated. First of all, this statue is a human form, and a person should have internal organs. Therefore, the first thing a statue of gods and Buddhas does is to fill the internal organs. Various materials must be used to make small packages and be stuffed into the body of the statues of gods and Buddhas, so that they not only have an appearance but also have internal organs. Only then can they be able to respectfully invite the gods and Buddhas to come. This is a formal Buddha statue.
I stretched out my hand and flicked the Bodhisattva's body lightly, making a hollow sound. This shows that this Bodhisattva statue actually has no internal organs, which means it has no spirituality and is just an empty shell with the appearance of Guanyin Bodhisattva. In this way, anything with spirituality or even ghost nature can get into the middle, pretend to be gods and Buddhas, and defraud incense. The consequences of this are that once you cut off the offerings that day, it is like cutting off other people's livelihood. If you are in a good mood, you may go to another place to cheat on food and drinks. If you are in a bad temper, you will probably find trouble.
This is why the old man often says that no matter what is being enshrined, especially at home, the altar should not be empty. The so-called empty altar means that the incense altar is left but the incense is often not burned.
Looking at the fragrance of soldiers and horses, I was extremely sure that the guy was hiding in the body of the Bodhisattva. My soldiers and horses are still around, and I know that they can never escape anywhere. All that's left is to force it out and let my troops capture it. Because I dare not rashly let soldiers and horses enter the Bodhisattva to capture it. After all, it is a rampant soldier. If it goes in but cannot come out, I have to resolve an internal conflict.
So I recited a spell and forced it to leave. The moment it came out, the incense of soldiers and horses flashed a few times, and I knew I had caught it this time. I breathed a sigh of relief, now the problem was finally completely solved. Since this "Heavenly Evil" has a strong aura of violence, I'm afraid it will cause chaos again if I let it out, so I asked the soldiers and horses to temporarily detain it. After the cycle of the cycle eliminates the aura of violence, I will find a forest to release it.
Turning around and looking at the bed, the old lady was already asleep. She was rescued by me when she was just entangled. She probably won't remember this when she wakes up. I heard her breathing steadily and her expression calm. I didn't know what kind of dream she was having at this moment, but I was sure that at least it wasn't a scary one. So I quietly closed the door of the chest of drawers and left her room. Brother Zhang, who was sitting at the door, had a normal expression at the moment. At least he must be very uncomfortable sitting here sleeping. So I gently shook him awake and let him go back to the house to sleep. When he woke up and saw the incense in my hand, he was surprised and asked me if something had happened. I told him that it had happened, but it was okay and everything had been resolved.
It was almost 12 o'clock at night, and there were still six or seven hours before dawn. I definitely won't sleep, because I have cleaned up the ghosts here several times, but it's a long night, so it's better to be more careful. I'm awake, and if something happens, I can deal with it immediately. Brother Zhang saw that I wasn't sleeping, so he took the initiative to ask himself not to sleep either, and to stay with me to watch the night. So we two men, one old and one young, squatted on the threshold all night, watching over the old lady I just met today. I carefully told Brother Zhang what had happened before, and also told him that for the Guanyin statue, five small cloth bags should be made from grains, stuffed inside to represent the internal organs, and then enshrined. In this way, the family not only loses an empty shell that can be exploited, but also has a Buddha statue that can protect the family.
The next morning, after staying up all night, I really felt a little unenergetic, but I often stay up late recently, and I'm getting used to it. After the old lady woke up, I completely purified the room. This time I didn't encounter any problems, so I was sure that the ghosts here had been completely dispersed.
At almost 10 o'clock in the morning, I said goodbye to Brother Zhang and the old lady. Before leaving, I said to the old lady that you have a good son, who is loyal and filial. I hope he can find you a daughter-in-law soon. I also hope that you are in good health. Afterwards, I returned to the town to meet up with Captain Li and prepared to return home.
It was almost evening when I returned to the village. Since I didn't sleep the first night and had to drive for most of the day, I was extremely tired as soon as I arrived at Aunt Xu's house. I didn't even eat dinner and fell asleep. But I forgot that the place where I sleep is where everyone eats. So I don’t know if Meng Dongxue enjoyed my ecstatic sleeping appearance while eating.
When I woke up, it was already the morning of the next day. I stretched my body outside the door and squatted in a pit, intending to live my life as usual. However, when I returned to the house again, I found Meng Dongxue sitting on the bed that I used as a bed. On a few benches, he crossed his arms on his chest and looked at me.
In view of the inexplicable relationship between me and her, I was also a little embarrassed. So he smiled and said, hey, you're up. Meng Dongxue didn't speak, just looked at me. The look in her eyes made me feel very uncomfortable, as if I had done something bad. So I stopped talking. I scratched my head for a while, pulled my clothes for a while, and felt restless.
Suddenly she spoke, and the first thing she asked me was, where have you been these past two days. I said that Captain Li of the production team asked me for help, and I went to Zhangjia'ao in the next town. Meng Dongxue suddenly changed the subject and asked me, "You didn't say hello when you went out. You didn't come back for two days and two nights. Even Aunt Xu didn't know what you were doing. Are you embarrassed?"
When I heard it, I thought, this is wrong, what should I be embarrassed about? I am such an old man, do I still have to report everything when I go somewhere? So I was a little angry, but I didn't have an attack. I just told Meng Dongxue that I told Aunt Xu that I wanted to go out to do something, but I didn't tell her what to do. Meng Dongxue said angrily, "Then you should wait until everyone is here to talk about it together!" There is no news about your departure. It’s so chaotic outside. Who knows whether you will live or die after your temper comes out!
Meng Dongxue looked a little angry, so her voice was very loud. She immediately set me on fire, so I raised my voice and asked her, why should I wait until everyone is together? Is this your home? Is this my home? We are all renters living here. If we have something to do, can we just tell the owner? You said you didn't go to the production team to sing and dance early in the morning. Why are you angry with me here?
Hearing the noise, Aunt Xu also walked out of the back room. She saw Meng Dongxue and I arguing with each other, and without asking what was going on, she started patting my shoulders and Meng Dongxue's shoulders and said, Oh, don't quarrel, don't quarrel, it's so early in the morning, everything will be fine at home! You two haven't had breakfast. I'm going to make you something to eat. Meng Dongxue suddenly said, "There's no need to do it. I'm so angry that no one can eat anymore."
Originally, I had no intention of continuing to argue with her, but her words made me unhappy again. I said, forget it if you don’t want to eat. I’ll eat it myself. I’m not the one who’s hungry. You get angry at me for no reason. You’re knowledgeable and educated, so why should you use me as a prank to vent your anger on? Meng Dongxue said loudly, I think you are inexplicable. You just leave for a few days without saying a word. Do you know that you will make people worried? Do you understand that you are causing trouble to everyone? I was also completely angry, so I said, who wants you to worry? Am I your father or your child? You have to worry about me. You ignore me when I'm at home. Then you blame me when I leave. Do I owe you or something?
This is my personality. No one flirts with me on weekdays, and I am quite docile. But if you get angry, your words will often be insignificant. In fact, after I said this, I still felt a little regretful. At least some people were worried, which is not a bad thing. But because the words were too harsh, Meng Dongxue was so angry that I cried. She stood up and rushed out of the door crying. When she passed by me, she didn't forget to push me. Fortunately, I am a practitioner and have solid footwork. If you were an old man or an old woman, you would be prepared to serve others for the rest of your life.
When I was about to scold her for being so rude and not even closing the door when she went out, Aunt Xu's strange look caught my attention. She was shorter than me, so she looked at me with squinting eyes and a smile on her face, as if I understood everything.
I asked her, Aunt Xu, what are you looking at? I know I look good... But Aunt Xu interrupted me and said, you silly child, this girl likes you!
