Before the end of the hour and the setting sun on the Tianshan Mountains had not faded, Li Ye sat in the Buddhist hall of the old monk Kuchan of the Great Buddha Temple. The old monk also stopped chanting and began to boil water and make tea.
Li Ye placed the apricot blossom cake in his hand on the Buddhist altar and said with a smile: "This is a gift from the boss Hu of the Medicine Pavilion. Master, I will try it later. This year's apricot blossoms are fresh."
The old monk poured a cup of tea for Li Ye, picked up a cup himself, took a sip, and said, "Today is Mr. Mo's wedding day. Instead of helping in Zizhu Courtyard, you came to drink tea with the old monk." ."
Li Ye kowtowed to the old monk and said, "Sir's wedding banquet is over, and I have to come here to practice sooner or later."
"There was a small courtyard next to the Sutra Pavilion where you practiced boxing before. You can clean it up tomorrow and live there from now on. After getting up every morning, go fill the five large water tanks in the dining hall with water. Don't go from there. To get water from the well in the temple, you have to fetch it from the creek in the back mountain."
Li Ye looked at him and smiled: "It doesn't matter where you live, as long as you have a bed."
The old monk looked at him and smiled with satisfaction.
"After having a fast meal in the morning, I went to chop firewood for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. After getting up in the afternoon, I swept the leaves on the ground in the two courtyards outside the Sutra Pavilion. You can come over and drink tea with me in the evening. You can also go back to your room and recite sutras by yourself.”
Li Ye thought that this was much simpler than practicing on the mountain. "Is there anything else besides these?"
"This is the practice you need to do now. If you encounter unknowing senior brothers in the temple who embarrass you, you must not hit them. You must learn to reason with them. Of course, you can also ignore them."
The old monk spoke one by one calmly.
Li Dian picked up the tea cup in front of him, nodded and said, "This disciple will practice well and try not to cause trouble to the senior brothers in the temple."
"That's good. Do you want me to ask Zhike Monk to prepare two sets of monk robes for you? How can you practice in robes?" The old monk frowned slightly.
Li Ye smiled when he heard this and said: "The disciples have prepared the clothes for practicing. Master, please give me two pairs of sandals."
The old monk stared and said, "If it's not snowing, what are the shoes for? It's enough to practice the path of suffering with clothes."
Li Ye was startled, then smiled bitterly and said, "In this case, my disciple will practice barefoot starting tomorrow."
The old monk nodded with satisfaction, pointed to the outside of the Buddhist hall and said: "Tomorrow, remember to put a basin of water outside and wash your feet when you come in. You will sleep here tonight and move in after cleaning up the house tomorrow."
Li Ye clasped his hands again and bowed his head in thanks.
...
At the end of the Xu period, all the drunken people in Zizhu Courtyard were drunk, and Ye Zhiqiu took Lin Yueru's hand to see the guests out the door.
Lin Yueru frowned and said, "Why didn't I see that kid Li Ye after I came back from the restaurant today? Is he afraid that his appearance will scare the guests?"
The general turned his head and glared at Lin Yueru.
Ye Zhiqiu lowered his head and thought for a while, then looked back at the yard and said, "I haven't seen him since he gave his sister to me outside the restaurant. Did he go to bed early? He didn't drink."
Mu Mu, who was following Ye Zhiqiu, pulled Ye Zhiqiu's sleeves and whispered, "My brother went to the Great Buddha Temple after we separated. He asked me to tell my mother later."
Lin Yueru was stunned, took Ye Zhiqiu's hand and asked, "This kid Li Ye won't be hit. He wants to become a monk, right?"
Ye Zhilai was also startled, glanced at Mumu, and glared at her.
Patting Lin Yueru's hand, she said, "He went to practice at the Great Buddha Temple. He told me this when he came back from the mountain. But I didn't expect him to leave without telling me. Mu Mu, why didn't you tell your mother in the restaurant? "
Mu Mu tilted her head and said with a smile: "Brother didn't let me say it. He said there were many people in the family, including him alone."
Ye Zhiqiu's heart tightened, and he pulled Mu Mu and held her in his arms.
Lin Yueru glanced at the general, feeling a little dazed.
He murmured: "This kid actually gave up the comfortable life in the city and went to practice with the old monk in the Great Buddha Temple."
The general raised his head, glanced at the moon in the sky, and said, "Have ambition."
Mu Mu continued to pouted and said: "Brother said that the Great Buddhist Temple is close to home, and it only takes half an hour by carriage. Let Mu Mu go to the temple to play with him when he misses him."
Ye Zhiqiu nodded and said softly: "Just go down the mountain. The Great Buddha Temple is indeed very close. You can go there by just raising your feet."
Lin Yueru looked at Ye Zhiqiu and sighed softly.
Ye Zhiqiu said to her: "It's early or late. It's been a hard day. Let's go home early and rest."
Lin Yueru got into her carriage with the general and waved to Ye Zhiqiu: "Bring Xiaoxue over for tea when you have time."
The whip crackled and the wheels rattled.
Ye Zhiqiu took Mu Mu into the house, walked to the front of the hall, looked at the husband and Li Hongxiu sitting at the table and said, "Ye'er went to the Great Buddha Temple this afternoon. Mu Mu just told me."
Li Hongxiu took a long breath and suddenly realized: "No wonder I haven't seen him all night. I thought he was hiding in the study copying scriptures."
The husband poured a cup of tea for Ye Zhiqiu, looked at the sky and said: "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Don't disturb him by going to the Great Buddha Temple easily, as it will affect his state of mind."
Mu Mu sat down next to Ye Zhiqiu, nodded and said, "Brother said, let Xiaoqing go find him if something happens."
Li Hongxiu nodded thoughtfully and said with a smile: "This guy."
...
The bell of the Great Buddha Temple rang at half past Yin time every day, and Li Ye and the old monk got up to wash up.
The old monk went to the main hall to recite sutras.
Li Ye went to the Zhaitang to fetch water.
The sky suddenly darkens, the autumn wind blows, and raindrops fall. The old monk looked at Qiu Yu outside the hall and frowned slightly, and said softly: "Be careful when you go to the back mountain to carry water, and remember to take a hot bath afterward."
Li Ye nodded, said nothing, and walked to the dining hall.
When he arrived at the dining hall, Li Ye said hello to the senior brother inside and said that he would be responsible for the water in the future. After saying that, he picked up the big bucket next to the door and walked towards the back mountain.
After walking for a while, I looked up at the sky, and then at my new linen clothes. I thought about taking them off and putting them into the space ring, leaving only the armor underneath. Step by step, neither fast nor slow, I walked forward. Go behind the mountain.
The raindrops in the sky are not big, neither fast nor slow, and have no intention of stopping.
It was not far from the Zhaitang to the stream in the back mountain. Li Ye quickly reached the stream, picked up the wooden bucket to fetch water, and then carried it on his shoulders and walked back.
As he walked, he mentally calculated the round trip distance and the weight of the buckets plus water. The round trip was less than a mile, and the two buckets of water added up to about a hundred kilograms. When he poured the water into the tank, he estimated that it would take eight buckets. It takes water to fill a jar.
If you walk quickly, you can carry back twelve buckets of water in one hour. If you don't rest, it will take more than three hours to fill the water tank.
Looking at the shoes covered with mud and water, I simply took them off and put them under the eaves of the dining hall, then carried the bucket and continued towards the back mountain.
Now that he has calculated the time and weight required, he cannot carry water back and forth step by step like he did when practicing in the city. He must try to make three trips back and forth within a quarter of an hour to fill the water tank in the dining hall in three and a half hours. .
If he was still in the realm of Nascent Soul at this time, the round trip of more than a mile would be an instant for him. Now he can only use the physical power of the formless body, and the speed is much slower.
With more than a hundred kilograms of water and the iron armor on his body, it was still a bit difficult for him.
After running for an hour in the wind and rain, he almost filled the two water tanks. He continued to carry the buckets back up the mountain without a break. This time he also carried a wooden bucket in his hand. He wanted to challenge his own limits. , carrying back three buckets of water at a time.
When he returned to the front of the dining hall to pour water despite the autumn rain, the senior brothers who had finished their morning classes were already queuing up outside the dining hall, waiting to eat.
Dozens of monks looked at the young junior brother who was shirtless and wearing iron armor, carrying three buckets and heading towards the back mountain. They were all pointing and laughing: "This new junior brother has a brain disease. It is obvious behind the hall." Instead of digging wells, they have to go to the mountains behind to fetch water."
Only the young novice standing in the front row knew that Li Ye was their uncle, but he was instructed by the old monk not to talk too much.
After Li Ye left the dining hall, the young novice monk said to the monk who was holding the board in the dining hall: "I will leave a bowl of rice for the senior brother who is carrying the water, put it in the steamer to heat, and tell him after he has finished carrying the water." Neither sad nor happy.
The monk who was playing the board nodded and said, "Will this be the case in the future?"
The little novice nodded and continued: "After carrying the water, he still has to chop wood. He will probably miss the time for fasting. I don't need to worry about him in the future. Leave a bowl on the steamer for him to eat by himself. After eating, he will wash himself off." clean."
The monk who played the board continued to nod. He was also a little confused. There was obviously water, so why did he have to go to the back mountain to fetch it, which was time-consuming and laborious.
Only the young novice monk knew that this uncle wanted to understand his own Dharma through the practice of suffering.
However, he could not provide him with any convenience. He could only ask the monk who was setting the plate to leave a bowl of rice for him.
Li Ye, who was running in the rain, didn't know that the little novice monk asked the monk to leave food for him. He thought that there was a lot of food cooked in the temple and he would never be able to finish it. He would wait until he finished carrying water before looking for food.
What he needs to pay attention to now is the road under his feet. It has been raining lightly for more than an hour, and there is already mud on the road. If he is not careful, he will fall down.
Although he has reached the fifth level of the formless body, he still needs to be careful in front of the mud.
Three buckets of fruit were indeed much more strenuous than two buckets of water. His invulnerable body was already straining, and the high-intensity back and forth was constantly testing his physical endurance.
Fortunately, I had foreseen it and shaved my hair, otherwise it would have gotten wet on my head and stuck to my forehead, which would have really annoyed me to death.
For a time, the old and young monks who came to the Zhaitang to fast saw a bald monk in black armor carrying two buckets of water and another bucket of water in his hand, running in the rain to and from the Zhaitang. and between the creek in the back mountain.
The old monk glanced at Li Ye's back in the rain and said nothing. This is only the first day. Let's see how many days and months you can last.
The exhausted Li Ye spent three hours and a quarter to finally fill the five large water tanks in the dining hall.
At this moment, he was not thinking about going to the dining hall to find food. Instead, he dragged a chair out of the house and placed it under the eaves, sitting on it and breathing heavily.
The monk who was playing the board looked at him quietly and told him softly: "Brother, I will make a bowl of rice for you and put it in the pot. You can eat it later." After saying this, he clasped his hands together and left quietly.
Li Ye clasped his hands together and said to the monk playing: Amitabha.
Watching the monk leave quietly, he pushed open the door of the dining hall and took off the steamer on the pot. Inside, he saw a bowl of white porridge, two steamed buns, and a plate of pickles. He smiled and said, "As long as you have something to eat."
He was willing to let himself bear the current pressure. He knew that this would make some monks in the temple misunderstand and laugh at him.
Just thinking about the care the monk had for me made me happy.
