After that, the Taoist Taoist walked away, leaving Jiang Xuerou pouting and me looking confused.
What should I do now? Jiang Xuerou and I are both members of the Taoist sect, and we can be considered peers. This kind of kneeling seems to be against the rules, and he has to ask me to get up before he can get up. Isn't this a clear way to drag me into the trap? ?
Jiang Xuerou gambled on the weather for a while, then ran to a big tree beside the side hall and knelt down with a plop. The New Year has just passed and the weather is still very cold. The temperature on the mountain is even lower than down below. Kneeling outdoors in such little clothes at night is really a severe punishment. Seeing Jiang Xuerou kneeling down silently, I felt a little embarrassed standing there, so I walked up to him and said to him, forget it, now that the things are back, everything will be fine. Don't get up from your knees, even if I asked you to get up.
Jiang Xuerou ignored me and continued to kneel facing the side hall. I was a little anxious, so I said, little brother, you can't blame me for this. No matter from any angle, I did nothing wrong. When we look for something, we have to follow a first-come, first-served basis. We find it first. If you want to join, you can only do it our way. You should understand this rule. But it’s okay if you leave without saying goodbye. You took my things and I’m here to get them back. Can you say I did something wrong?
He still ignored me and even closed his eyes, as if he would be upset if he looked at me for a second. I was also at a loss for words and didn’t know what to say, so I stood under the tree and silently lit a cigarette. Just as he lit it, Jiang Xuerou spoke. He said, "This is a clean place and we have wooden houses. Please don't smoke here. If you want to smoke, go outside and do it yourself!"
So I helplessly stamped out the cigarette I had just taken a puff on, and then said to him, are you willing to speak? I thought you were mute. He ignored me and I asked again, so your name is Song Zi? Why does your name sound like a small animal? You told us earlier that your name was Jiang Xuerou. Is that your real name or a fake one?
In this industry, people often use fake names for convenience and to protect themselves. This is a very common phenomenon, so I asked this question. Originally, I thought there would still be no response to my words. Who knew that he still had his eyes closed, but he opened his mouth and said, do you know why my master is kneeling under this tree? I shook my head, but soon realized his eyes were closed and said, I don't know.
He said, when I was a teenager, I came here to become a disciple and knelt under this tree all night. I asked you why your apprenticeship sounds so miserable. There are very few Taoist priests in this mountain. Why doesn’t your master accept you? This is a good opportunity to promote Taoism. Moreover, you are so smart that you can directly bypass our previous failure. The eight-door strange formation that fell directly penetrated into the center of the formation.
He said, Master didn't want to accept me at first, but I couldn't accept it, so I knelt here all night out of anger. Have you noticed anything different about this tree? Hearing what he said, I subconsciously looked up at the big tree. At first I didn't notice any difference, but upon closer inspection, I found that this tree was taller than the other trees in the Taoist temple, and it was still green and tall even in the cold winter. Some small pine cones falling on the ground indicate that it is a pine tree.
So I replied, this tree grows better than the surrounding trees, and during this season, all the other trees have lost all their leaves, but this one has not. Is that so? Jiang Xuerou smiled slightly and said, "You are only half right. This is a Podocarpus. Although there are many pine trees on this mountain, this one is the only Podocarpus in the entire mountain."
When I heard this, I felt a little strange, so I asked, why is there only this one? Logically speaking, the growth of plants in a place is closely related to the water and soil. Even if a certain species is very rare, there will never be only one plant growing alone. Jiang Xuerou said, that night I knelt in the snow all night, but the master refused to accept me as a disciple. At that time, I also discovered the difference in this tree just like you are thinking now. Later, I heard from my brothers that this tree has lived here for more than two thousand years. It was planted by a famous official named "Fujia" at the end of the Qin Dynasty. At that time, this person lived in seclusion here, and there were only a few other people on the mountain. In addition to this single Podocarpus, there are many pines and cypresses, and those were planted by Zhai Fayan, a famous Taoist scholar in the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, from the Qin and Han Dynasties until today, this place has always been the aura of our Taoist sect. land.
I nodded in my mind and agreed. The half-red and half-green lake water alone made this place unique. But I don't quite understand why Jiang Xuerou, who was kneeling on his knees, suddenly talked about this. Sure enough, he went on to say that he was rejected as a disciple that day, so he knelt under this tree for a long time. Because it was too cold at night, in the morning, his already thin body was already frozen by that time. In a daze, I felt something furry dangling in front of me. When I took a closer look, I realized that in front of me where I was kneeling, there was a squirrel with a big tail, picking up food that had fallen out that night. The pine nuts on the ground were not even afraid of him at all. Not only did they pick up the pine nuts on the ground, they also climbed on top of him and ate the fallen pine nuts.
He told me that although he felt cold at the time, when this scene appeared in front of him, his heart felt very warm. He didn't know why, but he felt very calm inside. It seemed that even though he had not been able to become a master after going up the mountain, he felt that But because of this, we had such a fairy tale-like adventure, and it was a worthwhile trip with no regrets.
But this scene was completely seen by Taoist Gao. In his opinion, this seemed to be a kind of harmony in which all things coexisted. The strangest thing was that when Taoist Gao walked out of the wing and walked to Jiang Xuerou, the squirrel, although it was also dodging, did not jump directly to the tree to escape. , but with a clever move, he got into the sleeves of Jiang Xuerou's clothes, then turned a corner, popped his little head out of the sleeves, and looked at Taoist Gao furtively.
Taoist Gao found it interesting at first glance. He was also a human being. Why was this squirrel afraid of himself but not of Jiang Xuerou? So he walked to Jiang Xuerou and told him that he didn't accept you as his disciple before because he felt there was no reason. You are probably just like the other people who just want to go to the mountains to learn skills, it is just a temporary move. But when you knelt all night last night, you saw this strange scene again this morning, and this scene only appeared because of your persistence. If you had gone down the mountain in frustration after being rejected yesterday, nothing that happened later would have happened.
Jiang Xuerou said that she didn't know what Taoist Gao meant by saying these words at the time, because her body was frozen and her consciousness was a little hazy, so she could only look up at Taoist Gao blankly. Taoist Gao stretched out his hand to help him up, then patted the pine nuts that fell on him overnight, and then said, I don’t know whether this fate is good or evil, but since you allow me such a wonderful scene, I will accept you as a guest. . You should have been allowed to keep your family name, and then your master would give you a given name, but today is an exception, and so are you. Why don't you just call me "Song Zi"?
Only then did I realize that this was how the strange name "Pine Nut" came about. I used to find it strange that generally speaking according to Taoist customs, those who dare to be called "zi", such as Chongyangzi, Changchunzi, Yuyangzi, etc., are all people with profound attainments in Taoism. Dare to use this word. Unexpectedly, it was me who made this matter too complicated. The name "pine nuts" turned out to come from a beautiful picture.
So I asked him, so why is it valuable for you to tell us that your name is Jiang Xuerou? On the one hand, you lied without saying anything, and on the other hand, you were on guard against us, is that right? He nodded and said, when you first met me, you used this way of greeting me. You said you couldn't tell whether I was a friend or an enemy. In fact, it was the same for me. When I asked you about the Eight Gates Strange Formation, you also chose to avoid answering, so since everyone was not so sincere at the beginning, it can be considered a courtesy.
I smiled and thought that this man was indeed quite interesting. Before he escaped at night, Qin Bukong and I were deceived by his harmless appearance. In fact, this guy is very smart, and not only that. , and also has a plan and a city government. Fortunately, so far, I feel that this person's behavior is relatively correct. If he is a person with evil intentions and is in Xuanmen, he may become a disaster.
I asked him, tell me, should I call you "Jiang Xuerou" or "Songzi"? He glanced at me sideways and then said with some disappointment, "It doesn't matter what I call you. You can go down the mountain early tomorrow morning. But the master just said that I will not be allowed to interfere with the Witch King's soul from now on." So after tomorrow, we probably won't have much chance to interact.
After saying that, he turned his head again, facing the side hall, looking sad.
