When talking about Tianshui, it is Tianshui in a blink of an eye.
When the boat docked, the shopkeeper said to Li Xiuyuan: "Let's go buy some food. It will take an hour at most. The young gentleman can take his time and stroll around. Don't be in a hurry."
Li Xiuyuan replied: "You go and do your work, we are not in a hurry."
Crow smiled: "Master, junior sister likes to eat the dried fish here, I will buy more later."
Huajiao chuckled: "Senior brother, have you become stupid? We are going to the East China Sea. Where can we get less fish to eat?"
Xiaodieer walked in front holding Crow, followed by Huajiao. The old monk took the young monk's hand to get ashore, and Li Xiuyuan fell behind.
He smiled at the three of them and said, "You can buy it if you want to eat it. Just don't waste it."
Just as a group of people were climbing up the stairs, Li Xiuyuan, who was walking at the back, suddenly felt his clothes tightening. Before he could understand, a weak voice sounded in his ears.
"Young man, I'm hungry... Can you carry your mother-in-law to the town for a bowl of noodles?"
Li Xiuyuan was stunned. Behind his eyes covered with black cloth, he saw an old woman in black and white.
The old woman was originally sitting on the stone steps beside the pier, but Li Xiuyuan didn't expect that the old man would let go of Huajiao and Xiaodie'er in front of him, and even ignore the old monk and the two waiters.
Instead, he fell in love with himself who was blind, so he smiled slightly: "Mother-in-law, can't I see my eyes?"
The old woman was stunned when she heard this, and then said feebly: "Don't you still have a good idea? My mother-in-law is really hungry. Do you want to help me?"
This time, it was Li Xiuyuan's turn to be surprised.
No matter how hard he looked, he looked at it again and again with his spiritual consciousness. In front of him was an old woman in black and white.
He sighed and without saying a word, under the gazes of Huajiao and Xiaodie, he reached out to help the old woman up and took a step up the long stone steps with her on his back.
Xiao Die'er looked back at her husband and didn't say anything after thinking for a while.
From her point of view, the husband's good deeds were to show his words to her, his junior sister, and his junior brother Crow, just like Qingfeng carrying the old woman up the mountain to see the Buddha.
After the master left Yunqi Temple, he could do what Qingfeng did.
The old monk turned around and looked at the scene in front of him. He was shocked at first, and then whispered a few words in the young monk's ear. The young monk nodded heavily.
Huajiao sighed. In his eyes, it was perfectly normal for his husband to do such a thing.
The stone steps on the dock in Tianshan Town are very long. Because it is the dry season now, the long stone steps are more than 200 steps. Even so, it still failed to stop Li Xiuyuan.
The old woman felt something in her heart and asked in Li Xiuyuan's ear: "Young man, who are you, where are you from, and where are you going?"
Li Xiuyuan was delighted when he heard this, and thought to himself that even the old monk had never asked him about this, but an old woman had started practicing Zen with him.
He immediately replied: "My name is Li Xiuyuan. We are from Furong Town in the north. We are going to visit the islands in the East China Sea."
"What's there to see in the East China Sea?" the old woman continued.
Li Xiuyuan smiled: "My three disciples promised the little peacock in the East China Sea to visit her... We are on the way to the East China Sea."
Whether it was Gongyang Bo's relationship with Dong Hai, or Helian Mingyue's relationship with Dong Hai, in Li Xiuyuan's heart, it was not his cause and effect.
He is not a god in this world. He just followed the wishes of his three disciples and his own, trying to go to the East China Sea Islands to find his own way.
"That's it. My mother-in-law also wants to go to the East China Sea with you. Would you like to take me with you?"
The old woman sighed and said, "They say there are gods in the East China Sea. I'm going to give it a try."
Li Xiuyuan was startled when he heard this, and then asked: "Mother-in-law, where are your relatives? If you go to the East China Sea with me, your family will be anxious if they can't find you."
Shaking her head, the old woman replied: "My mother-in-law is alone, and a safe place is a safe place for her heart. Are you promising me? I am very poor and have no money to give you."
"A place of physical peace is a place of peace of mind?"
Li Xiuyuan thought to himself that these words were his own mantra, but he didn't expect that they would come out of the old woman's mouth with such calmness.
After thinking about it, Li Xiuyuan replied: "Mother-in-law, we may go to the East China Sea and never come back. What should you do?"
The mother-in-law squinted her eyes and smiled: "You only need to take my mother-in-law to see it, and you don't have to worry about the future. I can live there, or I can come back by boat."
Nodding, Li Xiuyuan smiled and said: "It's better to meet by chance than to invite me. Mother-in-law is not afraid of trouble, so just come with us."
"Good karma and good consequences. Young man, you are kind-hearted and will have good karma." The old woman smiled and said, "You have to believe what my mother-in-law says."
Just this sentence strengthened Li Xiuyuan's mind.
Having traveled all over the world and visited countless places, this was the first time he met an old woman who could reason with him. This was much more interesting than that guy Helian Mingyue.
Carrying the old woman on her back, half an hour had passed by the time Huajiao found a shop.
The old woman sat aside and talked to Xiaodie'er and Huajiao. Li Xiuyuan asked the store for pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and wrote two letters to Gong Yangbo and Duanmu Wuhui.
He handed it to the old monk and said: "Master, please take these two letters, one to Yunqi Temple, to Qingfeng, who will forward it to my friend, and the other to Qingfeng's father, who will go to the Duanmu family later..."
The old monk thought for a moment and asked, "Sir, would you like to come with us to Qingfeng's house?"
Before Li Xiuyuan could reply, the old woman who was stroking the crow's feather said: "Young man is not going, he will continue on his way to the East China Sea."
Li Xiuyuan, who originally wanted to chat with Duanmu Wuhui, heard the eagerness in the old woman's words and immediately replied to the old monk: "I won't go."
After speaking, he took out two space rings and gave one to the old monk and one to the young monk.
He held the little monk's hand and smiled: "I once had a younger brother, and I named him Wuliang..."
Lao Shang was startled when he heard this, then silently put away the two letters and the space ring, clasped his hands together and said, "Thank you sir."
"You can eat noodles!" Xiao Die'er cheered.
Li Xiuyuan thought for a while, took out two slices of preserved apricot meat, put one in the old monk's bowl, and the other in the young monk's hand.
While the master and disciple were surprised, they smiled and said, "This is the apricot meat I stuffed. How does it taste?"
Crow glanced at it, then immediately turned his head and called Xiaodie'er Huajiao, "Senior sister, senior sister, hurry up and eat. After eating, the master has to go shopping."
The young monk Wu Liang took a bite of the apricot meat, squinted his eyes and said with a smile, "So sir, you are Wu Liang's brother?"
Li Xiuyuan smiled and said, "Yes, I am your brother."
...
After eating the noodles, the old monk took Wuliang and said goodbye to Li Xiuyuan.
Li Xiuyuan thought for a while and said: "I bought five acres of land at the foot of the mountain. If you become an abbot in the future, please remember not to buy more land."
"Don't disturb the people. I have opened some land behind the temple and you can grow your own vegetables. As long as the fields under the mountain are enough for food..."
No matter how much you say, in the end, it still depends on the old monk's own destiny. Li Xiuyuan, who is about to leave, can only explain this.
After hearing this, the old monk said with emotion: "Thank you, sir, for providing a place for me to practice as my master and disciple. How can I dare to disturb the people again?"
Wuliang waved to Li Xiuyuan: "Goodbye, brother, Wuliang will be thinking of you."
Li Xiuyuan sighed softly and said: "Go back and follow Brother Qingfeng, he will teach you some principles of the world."
Waving his hands, the master and apprentice disappeared deep into the small streets paved with bluestones in the town. Li Xiuyuan patted the table and sighed: "Where in life do we not meet each other, and meet just to break up?"
Huajiao took Xiaodie'er and Crow to go shopping, and said to Li Xiuyuan: "Sir, let's just go shopping. You and your mother-in-law will go back to the boat first."
Waving his hand, Li Xiuyuan said: "Go early and come back early."
After the three of them left the noodle shop, Li Xiuyuan asked the old woman, "Why did my mother-in-law stop me from going to the Duanmu family?"
The old woman smiled: "If the Duanmu family is unreasonable and wants to cause trouble for your master and disciple, how will you let the father of Qingfeng deal with it?"
Li Xiuyuan was shocked when he heard this, and he immediately thought of Duanmu Qingyun who died in Furong Town.
Thinking of this, I couldn't help but sigh deeply, and said leisurely: "Mother-in-law, let's go, don't cause them any trouble."
The old woman nodded: "Let your three disciples hurry up, while it's still early, so we can hurry up."
So, while Li Xiuyuan carried the old woman all the way to the dock, he sent a message to Huajiao Xiaodieer, asking the three of them to buy food and return to the boat immediately.
Xiaodie'er heard what the master meant, touched the crow's feathers and said, "No, let's leave now."
Huajiao asked in confusion: "Why?"
Crow sighed: "The old monk went to the Duanmu family, and Duanmu Qingyun died in Yunqi Temple..."
Huajiao nodded: "Junior sister, hurry up and pick something to eat. There is a town on the beach of the East China Sea."
Just as the old lady expected, in less than an hour, Duanmu Wuhui took Duanmu Qing and several elders to the noodle shop in the town to find Li Xiuyuan.
Until they found the dock... At this time, Li Xiuyuan and his party had already left for half an hour, leaving Tianshui Town far behind.
Duanmuqing looked at the empty dock and couldn't help shouting: "Since sir, you have come to Tianshui, why don't you come to see us?"
Duanmu Wuhui looked at the elders behind him and moved the corners of his mouth slightly.
Just when Duanmu Qing suddenly understood, Duanmu Wuhui sighed: "I said there was no news about that boy in the past few years, but I didn't expect that he became a monk and went there."
Duanmu Qing smiled bitterly and said: "The meaning of your letter is for us to escort the master and apprentice to Furong Town..."
Duanmu Wuhui thought for a while and replied: "I want to see Qingfeng, do you want to come with me?"
Duanmu Qing thought for a while and replied: "I also want to see what that guy looks like after becoming a monk."
On the dock, several elders of the Duanmu family were obviously unwilling to give in, but they had no choice but to leave Tianshui, which was no longer their territory.
...
It still takes several days to travel by water from Tianshui to Haiyun Town at the entrance to the East China Sea.
After passing Tianshui Town, Xiaodie'er and Crow's fresh energy had worn off, and even Huajiao couldn't hold on, so they went to the cabin to rest and dream.
He said that he got up too early today and wanted to go to Tianshui, but he couldn't do it.
The two clerks and the shopkeeper didn't know what happened to the three masters and apprentices, but they left Tianshui early. Fortunately, the shopkeeper also looked forward to arriving at Donghai early so that they could turn around and go home.
Looking at Li Xiuyuan who was sitting silently on the bow of the boat, the old woman smiled and said, "Young man, do you regret listening to your mother-in-law?"
Li Xiuyuan shook his head: "When you are away from home, one thing is worse than one thing less. Thinking about it, I am meeting Qingfeng's father, what can I say?"
Along the way, Li Xiuyuan explained the matter between him and Qingfeng to the old woman, making the old woman understand that he and Qingfeng had no cause and effect.
The old woman smiled and said, "Yes, it's not because of you that the child became a monk... If one day he returns to secular life and marries that girl as his wife, it has nothing to do with you."
Li Xiuyuan sighed with emotion on his face: "This junior is not because of Qingfeng's future, but because of that little monk..."
Along the way down the river, Li Xiuyuan didn't interact much with the young monk, but he saw the shadow of Jin Buliang in the young monk.
