In the blink of an eye, it was a day of heavy snow, and this day was the day of sacrifice in the Meng Mansion.
The burned-down ancestral hall had not yet been repaired, so a temporary shed was built and two rows of tables were placed inside.
Placed on it were re-made tablets for the ancestors of the Meng family who had passed away. After being burned by the crow's divine fire, they were placed on the table again.
In the words of Mrs. Meng: "People are still here."
A fat pig's head was placed on the simple altar. The pig's head was roasted to a golden color, but its unblinking eyes were still staring at the people coming in and out.
There are also other offerings, including several large dishes, various pastries piled on the plates, and incense candles swaying gently in the cold wind.
There are futons placed on the ground in the shed, so that young and old men, women and children can kneel down and worship their ancestors.
The hour has passed, and the old man of the Meng family who presided over today's ancestor worship ceremony has left. There are only a few children who are not afraid of the cold left in the shed, and a group of women watching.
This winter's sacrifice was not grand, lasting less than half an hour and then ending hastily.
In previous years, it would take almost an hour to do a grand event, and even the old man of Meng Mansion couldn't do anything about it.
Who told their ancestral hall to be gone just because it was gone?
There was no one to vent their anger on, and everyone in the Meng family was looking forward to finding the culprit who set the fire, or at least explaining it to the neighbors and neighbors.
Otherwise, it would be the unkindness of the Meng family and a divine fire from heaven.
After finishing this year's sacrifice, Meng Wuhen stood in front of a pile of ancestral plaques and didn't speak for a long time. He had nothing to say.
He already felt extremely lucky that Mr. Meng didn't punish him. After all, to put it into detail, this matter happened because of him.
At least the first fire was lit against him.
While he was depressed, the housekeeper came over, holding a letter in his hand, whispered a few times in his ear, and then left in a hurry.
With a gloomy look on his face, Meng Wuhen opened the envelope and took out the thin letter paper inside...
Watching, watching, his expressionless face twitched, and he reached out his hand to the shaking candle.
Watching the paper in his hand turn to ashes, he looked up at the smoky black wall and the hazy sky, his eyes getting colder and colder.
As the anger in his chest burned, the candle in front of him made a "pop!" sound and suddenly went out without warning.
The hand holding his fist also trembled, just like the howling cold wind in the sky.
Even after he burned the letter, he still couldn't help but look towards the north, the direction from which the cold wind came.
Although he told himself that he couldn't trust a woman's words, especially a woman who was greedy for money, he was just like everyone else in the Meng family.
You need to find a reason for yourself, or in other words, find an outlet for those people around you who know and don't know, and find an outlet to vent.
Time passed slowly, the letter in my hand was burned, and everything seemed like nothing happened.
However, on this cold and windy day, something happened that he wanted and expected to happen.
Until the children in the shed were carried home by the women of each family, until the servants began to clean up the messy futons on the ground.
His subordinate Wang Wu came back from the house and walked into the shed. He frowned slightly when he looked at Meng Wuhen who was still in a daze at the altar table.
After staying quietly for a while, he asked nervously: "Master, is there something on your mind?"
"It's not a matter of concern..."
The expression on Meng Wuhen's face remained the same, and he said calmly: "Ms. Chen from Wanping wrote a letter saying that their wall was knocked down by a crow..."
Chen was much smarter than the woman from Furong Town. She did not point out that the crow set fire to her house, because it would be known once the investigation was completed and she could not lie.
However, her cryptic words suddenly caught Meng Wuhen's heart.
Let me ask, who in this world has not seen crows? How powerful can a crow be?
Moreover, Chen has repeatedly confirmed
She told him that the crow could talk and broke into not only her home, but also the homes of her neighbors.
Chen didn't lie about this, because the crow did break into Chen's neighbor's house because it wanted to ask for a reason.
It must give an explanation to Huajiao and Li Xiuyuan who is far away in Furong Town.
Wang Wu shut his mouth immediately and never asked Meng Wuhen what he was going to do next. Because Meng Wuhen had already written what he wanted to do and what he wanted to do on his face.
Who the crow follows and who it takes away is something that everyone in the Wen family's neighbors in Wanping Town knows, so Wang Wu doesn't even want to ask again.
Quietly, Meng Wuhen looked at Wang Wu and said, "You and Zhao Hu have been busy recently, do you want to go for me?"
Wang Wu nodded and replied softly: "I will leave with Zhao Hu today and go to Wanping first."
Meng Wuhen sighed softly, handed him a space ring, and said something softly in his mouth. His voice was very low. Only Wang Wu heard it, but he was shocked when he heard the words and clicked it with all his strength. nod.
He replied: "Don't worry, young master, this matter will be taken care of by the two of us."
Meng Wuhen sighed and said quietly: "I have told you two long ago that your own practice is the most important thing..."
Wang Wu smiled and left.
Meng Wuhen looked at the ancestors in front of him, muttering something in his mouth, reaching out and lighting the candle that had been blown out by the wind.
Furong Town, which is close to Northland, has reached the coldest time of the year.
However, even in such a season, the craftsmen in the work sheds and the main hall of Yunqi Temple still cannot stop their work.
The winter solstice has not yet arrived, and there are still many days before they can rest.
The workers are already at the edge of the main hall, building a drum tower with carved bluestone.
There is a two-room drum tower with morning bells and evening drums used every day in the temple. On the lower floor, Li Xiuyuan plans to ask someone to sculpture a Ksitigarbha Buddha statue to be placed here.
People in the small town heard from Huajiao and Gongyang Bo that they wanted to build a temple in the back mountain and invite the Bodhisattva from the deserted temple back.
Immediately, an old man said that as long as there is a temple on the mountain and the Buddha in the temple, he is willing to go up the mountain to see it.
Not to mention, Huajiao told everyone to build a stone road from the end of the small street, leading directly to the temple, so that when it rains, people who go up the mountain to see the Buddha don't have to have muddy feet.
No matter how high the mountain is, if there are immortals, they will be spiritual.
The temple is not big, so it would be nice to have a Buddha.
As for incense, wherever there are people, there will be incense.
Not to mention, after spring begins, Li Xiuyuan will dig the ground to plant vegetables with Sichuan peppercorns and Xirang Mengdie, but he has already dug a vegetable patch on the hillside and planted radishes.
Now the green seedlings have grown so tall that in less than ten days and a half, you will be able to eat the radishes you planted.
Moreover, with five acres of fertile land, even if the temple has no incense, the monks who come here to practice in the future will not lack food and clothing.
This is not his plan, he just wants to give Yunqi Temple on Longshan a reason to live in this world.
And living is the reason.
The old man wanted to make it easier for the people down the mountain to come to the temple, so he asked people to build a corridor with fine iron wood along the wall of the temple.
Saying this, no matter it is hot summer, heavy rain is coming, or even cold winter.
The pilgrims who come up the mountain are a place of refuge, so that the Bodhisattvas in the temple can shine more compassionately on this small world.
This matter was something Li Xiuyuan did not expect. He could not describe the cornices on the main hall, but he could not refuse to give the people who went up the mountain a place to shelter from the wind and rain.
In his opinion, the moment the old man thought about the suffering of the people at the foot of the mountain, he had a Bodhisattva heart, and the old man was the Bodhisattva in this world.
What he has to do is to lay out the rune formations on the mountain and down the mountain to provide protection for the temple for a hundred or even a thousand years.
As for this, neither the old man nor Zanthoxylum bungeanum can do it.
All craftsmen spent twice as much time on each piece as before
The pattern was carved on the bluestone because Li Xiuyuan spent twice as much labor.
On the night when the main hall and walls were repaired and topped off, he had already activated the runes carved on them.
He even used the engraving knife in his hand to mark a line that only belonged to him, a line that even he couldn't explain clearly.
The butcher knife has been prepared and hidden in every piece of bluestone. It can be hidden for ten years, a hundred years, or even a thousand years without being released.
You can also face sudden wind and rain at any time, even if it comes from Wanping Town, even if it comes from Wandao Imperial City.
Now he wants Ximen Mengdie to see all living beings and himself in the temple after the temple is completed.
Anyone who dares to destroy the tranquility of this world will have to pay a corresponding price.
Until now, he has not told Gong Yangbo that he will build a huge magic circle above and below the temple to protect it from wind and rain for thousands of years.
He didn't tell Huajiao that he had stamped a protective circle on the grave where Hua Luodan and Wen Ziwei were buried together.
Although he knew the regret in Huajiao's heart, he kept suppressing her anger and asked her to calm down, because Huajiao was really too weak right now.
If Meng Wuhen's background was Helian Mingyue, then Meng Wuhen's current cultivation level should far exceed Huajiao's.
He is not a god or a Bodhisattva, and he will not take action to avenge Huajiao.
Seeing Li Xiuyuan standing in front of his brother's grave for an hour and not coming back, Huajiao walked out and stood beside him in silence for a long time.
It wasn't until Li Xiuyuan sighed that she asked, "Sir, are you looking at the Peach Blossom River?"
Li Xiuyuan shook his head and replied: "I was thinking that your senior sister has some trouble with her practice. I wonder if she can see me in this Yunqi Temple."
Huajiao shook her head and replied softly: "Huajiao can only understand half of what the gentleman said."
Li Xiuyuan listened to the roar from the waterfall at his feet, frowned slightly and said, "Practice is your personal matter. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it now."
Huajiao said, "It's cold outside, sir, and your clothes are thin. How about going back to Huajiao to make a fire and learn to make tea with me?"
Until this time, Li Xiuyuan taught her neither the pepper tea ceremony nor the piano technique. He just asked her to read Buddhist scriptures with Crow Crow and Ximen Mengdie.
Thinking of this, Li Xiuyuan sighed inwardly and thought that he would start with the tea ceremony.
The wind is blowing to the south, for it is winter now.
But Li Xiuyuan knew that soon the monsoon from the south would blow to Furong Town and Yunqi Temple on Longshan Mountain.
By that time, Huajiao, who has transformed into a village girl, should follow Ximen Mengdie and follow the crow to see what sentient beings are in the world.
And where is my position?
Back in the living room, Huajiao went to fetch water. Ximen Mengdie was helping her master copy Buddhist scriptures. From now on, Li Xiuyuan asked her to spend an hour a day copying scriptures.
Crow quietly stood by Xiaodie'er's side, looked at Li Xiuyuan who walked in and asked, "I have a hunch that someone might come to cause trouble for me and my junior sister."
Ximen Mengdie just frowned slightly, but did not put down the wolf hair in her hand.
In her heart, since the master is by her side, and now the master simply built a house here, she has no intention of leaving immediately.
Thinking about it, it was just for the cultivation of myself and my junior brothers and sisters.
Thinking of this, how could she be afraid of the wind and rain coming from the imperial city?
Li Xiuyuan sat in front of Ximen Mengdie and felt the change in her aura. He couldn't help but ask, "Why, is Xiaodie'er scared too?"
