During the lantern lighting season, Dasha took a rest after a busy day.
Because the New Year had not yet passed, it was the fifteenth day, and there were not many guests in the inn. He had been very leisurely these days, and it was rare to have a quiet New Year.
Just when he was thinking about whether to go to the kitchen to find some food, Amu returned to the backyard carrying a food box.
After buying a few kilograms of soy sauce beef on the roadside and drinking a bottle of wine, Amu came back to spend the last day of the New Year with Dasha.
Dasha Ajue obviously didn't expect Amu to come back so soon. He couldn't help but go to the kitchen to get the dishes and chopsticks, and said with a smile: "It's rare for you to go out, so you don't want to stay longer."
"You can't indulge yourself."
Amu shook his head and said with a bitter smile: "I'm afraid that if I stay here any longer, I won't want to come back. This is where I want to live, and I have to make money."
Dasha chuckled, holding the wine jar and pouring it into the bowl: "Speaking of making money, Luoyang is not bad. Where in the world can't you make money?"
"makes sense."
Amu picked up the bowl, took a sip of the flaming soju, and sighed silently in his heart.
In these days when tea is tasteless and wine is coarse, it is indeed the life of the lowest people in the world.
After taking a breath, he looked at Da Si and smiled: "I'm used to life here, and I don't want to change places. The world is just a cage for me, no matter where I go..."
Dasha was shocked when he heard this, but without saying a word, he picked up the bowl and drank a few sips of strong wine.
Then he laughed and said: "I think just like you, I also fell in love with Hongchen Inn. In the past ten or eight years, I'm afraid I won't leave."
Amu was stunned when he heard this, and then laughed lightly.
He raised half a bowl of wine and said quietly: "Come, let's take a sip for the sake of our future years."
…
The days passed like running water, with Dasha waving his ax every day.
I don’t know when Dasha started to become like Amu, who could chop two days’ worth of firewood in just one hour.
And Amu still asks Qin Xiangyu for ten and a half days' leave to go back to Luoyang every New Year.
Only Dasha never asked for leave. He was already intoxicated in the firewood shed in the kitchen backyard, because Amu later asked someone to hit Dasha with a twenty-kilogram ax.
Qin Xiangyu blamed Amu for abusing Dasha, but Amu smiled and said, "Dasha has a lot of strength. If you don't let him play with it, there will be no place to use this strength."
Dasha was naturally happy. With a heavier ax, he had to learn how to chop wood again.
When Xiao Yue'er was three years old, the old man took Xiao Bao to the East China Sea before it snowed. He didn't return to the imperial city until Xiao Yue'er's fifth birthday.
From the age of one, three, and five years old, the old man tempered Xiao Yue'er's body three times in total. Even Qin Xiangyu shouted that the master treated Xiao Yue'er more preciously than he, his apprentice.
Before Xiao Yue'er was three years old, either Amu would carry her to play with, or Dasha would carry her to buy candied haws at the market in the imperial city.
Qin Xiangyu felt heartbroken when she saw the two handymen. She was exhausted every day and had to think of ways to make Xiaoyueer happy from time to time.
As a result, when Xiao Yue'er opened her eyes, she didn't call her mother, but shouted: "Where is Amu? Xiao Yue'er wants to eat steamed buns."
So Amu carried her out of the inn and went to the street to buy steamed buns and eat beef noodles.
When he woke up in the afternoon, he shouted again: "Where's Uncle Dasha? Xiao Yue'er is going to go fishing in the big lake."
So Dasha put down his livelihood and went fishing on the big lake with Xiaoyue'er on his back.
When shopkeeper Wang came home, Qin Xiangyu couldn't help complaining: "You see, my daughter has a better relationship with the two clerks than you, my father. Aren't you jealous?"
Shopkeeper Wang laughed: "I want to do business. Why don't you wait until Yue'er grows up and I take him to run the business?"
Shaking her head, Qin Xiangyu replied: "No, after she is six years old, my master will send her to the academy. When she grows up, she will take care of the inn."
The man in his family is a mortal, and Qin Xiangyu will not tell Shopkeeper Wang about Xiao Yue'er's practice.
Ever since Xiaobao and the old man came back from the East China Sea, Xiaoyue'er has been following Xiaobao all day long.
As long as Xiaobao comes back from the academy, the two of them will either be fooling around in the Hongchen Inn or studying in No. 47.
For a time, the entire Hongchen Inn was in a state of panic for the two of them.
Later, the old man spoke and taught Xiaobao that he was six years older than his sister and should not be as crazy as Xiaoyue'er. Xiaobao then became quieter.
What surprised Qin Xiangyu was that Xiao Yue'er gathered energy at the age of seven and reached the third level, which was much more powerful than her, an old lady.
At the age of ten, before his birthday, he was already a monk in the foundation-building realm.
This year was the first year of Longshuo, which was 661. Before the snow fell, the old man took ten-year-old Xiaoyue'er and sixteen-year-old Xiaobao to the desert.
He said he wanted to see the grotto where Xiao Yue'er's godfather practiced Buddhism and live in Dunhuang City for a few years before coming back.
Even after living in the Hongchen Inn for ten years, Dasha still had no intention of leaving, because he found that he seemed to be used to this kind of life as he told Amu.
As early as the third year of Xianqing, Sanzang moved to Ximing Temple in Hongfu Temple in 658.
Because he was often disturbed by trivial matters, he moved to Yuhua Temple. After returning from Tianzhu, he devoted all his efforts to translating scriptures.
In the fifth year of Xianqing's reign, Sanzang led a group of monks and began to translate the Mahaprajna Sutra.
The Sanskrit version of this sutra contains 200,000 verses and is a huge volume. The monks in the temple asked him not to abridge it for the sake of the master's health.
However, Tripitaka is quite rigorous and does not delete a single word.
In the third year of Longshuo, 663, in the winter of this year, Amu and Qin Xiangyu took a winter's leave.
Because Xiao Yue'er went to the desert with her master, Qin Xiangyu asked Amu to go back to Luoyang and stay for a while before returning.
After Amu explained everything to the master, he drifted away on a snowy morning.
In Yuhua Temple, Sanzang no longer does morning service because his body no longer allows him to work so hard.
What he has to do now is to take the monks and disciples in the temple to complete the translation of the Mahaprajna Sutra. This is also his last wish.
Snowflakes were falling, and Li Xiuyuan, who had disappeared for an unknown period of time, carried his food box and came to Sanzang's Buddhist hall.
After brewing a pot of spiritual tea, Li Xiuyuan looked at Sanzang and sighed quietly: "Back then, I asked that king to bother you every day, but where are the others?"
Sanzang smiled slightly: "He practiced swordsmanship in the temple for three years, and later he said that he would travel around the world and then come back to see me."
Li Xiuyuan didn't say anything, he just stretched out his hand to squeeze Sanzang's hand and remained silent.
After a long time, he looked at the Bodhisattva on the Buddhist altar and asked sadly: "Senior, where does Tripitaka want to go?"
In his view, Tripitaka spent his whole life on the road of acquiring and translating scriptures, and never stopped pursuing the Dharma.
Such an eminent monk who is devoted to the Buddha cannot walk on the Forgotten River again, go to the eldest sister to ask for a bowl of Mengpo soup, and then cross the Naihe Bridge, right?
At this time, Sanzang drank a cup of Hanmei Lingcha, which was rare in ten thousand years, and had already fallen into an epiphany.
There was a flash of golden light in the Buddhist hall, and it was not Ksitigarbha who appeared, but an old monk whom he had not seen for a long time.
The old monk looked quietly at Sanzang and Li Xiuyuan who looked pitiful in front of him, and couldn't help but sigh leisurely: "What about the truth you realized when you were young?"
Li Xiuyuan spread his hands and said with a wry smile: "I am not Sanzang. Please help me clarify my doubts, senior."
The old monk nodded, stretched out his hand and pierced Sanzang's body with a golden light. Then he looked at Li Xiuyuan and said, "Give him your half volume of Buddhist scriptures..."
Li Xiuyuan was shocked when he heard this and couldn't help but ask: "So, Sanzang's days are numbered?"
While asking for advice, Li Xiuyuan poured a cup of spiritual tea for the old monk.
The old monk picked up the cup and took a sip: "What is life and what is death? You yourself have experienced nirvana. Don't you understand the truth?"
Li Xiuyuan shook his head and said with a wry smile: "This junior is stupid."
The old monk sighed and replied: "Next spring will be the day of his nirvana. This winter, you will stay with him and talk to him about this half volume of Buddhist scriptures to help him achieve nirvana..."
"Buzz!"
Li Xiuyuan felt like stars were rising in front of his eyes. He never expected that Sanzang would leave him and the Tang Dynasty in a blink of an eye.
For a moment, I couldn't help but murmur: "This disciple has been feeling something in his heart recently, so he thought of coming to see him. He didn't expect that we would have to say goodbye in the blink of an eye."
Thinking that something was wrong, he asked again: "Senior, should Tripitaka continue to stay in the Tang Dynasty after his Nirvana, or..."
The old monk was angered by his words and couldn't help but gently hit him on the head: "Confused, Tripitaka is not you. Of course he went to the Buddhist Kingdom after Nirvana..."
"That's good, that's good."
Li Xiuyuan patted his chest, clasped his hands and said, "I also want to benefit all sentient beings and achieve the first dakinism in the Mahayana... This is very good."
Lao Shang looked at his appearance and laughed: "You make yourself live more and more like a mortal, wouldn't I have to go all the way in vain?"
Li Xiuyuan smiled lightly: "Senior also knows that this disciple has never picked tea or made wine in these years. He is just a waiter in the Hongchen Inn. How can he have time to think about other things?"
The old monk nodded and asked: "You made the world of mortals a hell. Ten years have passed. How much have you learned from that half of the scripture?"
Shaking his head, Li Xiuyuan sighed and replied: "If this disciple is enlightened, I should go to the snow-capped mountains to complete my second round of Nirvana."
"This time, you have encountered a problem, but the end of Buddhism is enlightenment. This is what I told you on the Shura battlefield."
Lao Shang drank up a cup of spiritual tea, and Li Xiuyuan refilled it for him.
Then he smiled and said: "Neither I nor your master can help you with your practice this time. You can only rely on yourself."
Li Xiuyuan thought for a while and said with a smile: "Don't be in a hurry, disciple. The show in the palace hasn't started yet. I have to watch the Great Tang Dynasty. I won't think about leaving anymore."
The old monk smiled faintly, pointed to Sanzang beside him and said, "Look forward to his last days in the Tang Dynasty, and put aside your hell on earth for the time being."
Li Xiuyuan sighed and looked at Sanzang, who was still frowning in his enlightenment. He wanted to stretch out his hand to smooth the wrinkles on his forehead, but he stretched it out in the air, but took it back again.
He smiled bitterly and said: "I just came to Datang to watch the excitement, but senior wants me to say goodbye."
The old monk said: "It is winter now, is spring still far behind?"
Hehehe smiled, with a bitter look on Li Xiuyuan's face: "This spring, I can't see the flowers on the snow-capped mountains anymore."
Waving his hand, the old monk said nothing and passed away quietly in a breeze, just like the old Taoist priest.
Looking at the Bodhisattva on the Buddhist altar, Li Xiuyuan was speechless for a moment.
Looking at Sanzang in front of them, it seemed as if just yesterday the three of them had found the spring that held the hope of life in the eight hundred miles of desert.
In the blink of an eye, Sanzang was about to achieve nirvana for the first time in his life.
Seeing that Sanzang was about to fly away on a crane, Li Xiuyuan didn't know if Wuliang, who had married a wife and had children in Sravasti, had heard of the Tao again?
There was Sanzang sitting in front of him, and in the palace there was also Zuo'er who was about to be crowned queen.
Li Xiuyuan sighed softly: "Bodhisattva, after thinking about it, my life in that hell would be simpler."
The Bodhisattva on the Buddhist altar ignored him, but Tripitaka, who was in enlightenment, sighed quietly.
He opened his eyes and looked at Li Xiuyuan, who was neither sad nor happy, and murmured: "I never thought that in the last days of my life, I would be able to hear the Tao again."
Shaking his head, Li Xiuyuan took out half a volume of Buddhist scriptures and handed it over.
