Pi Shuang stood up, silently put the hoe on his shoulder, picked up the shotgun with the other hand and walked down the mountain. At the foot of the mountain near the entrance of the village, he found the family members of the woman who died for him looking around. Could it be that they came to settle accounts with me? He stopped suspiciously, placed the hoe under a pine tree, held only the shotgun, bent down, and quietly retreated into the jungle.
Passing through a thorn, he saw an unripe Tang pear tree. He reached out to pick it and stuffed it into his mouth one by one. Because he was hungry, when he spat out the Tang pear core, he raised his neck and squinted at the pear trees on the treetop. The sky and the sun and white clouds that light up the sky. He thought that when the sun went down and it was dark, he would go home without being discovered.
Because he was dazzled by looking at the sun, his eyes followed the white clouds gliding freely in the blue sky. He wished he had the freedom like white clouds, without burdens, worries, frights, and no heavy worries. As he was daydreaming like this, the sound of chanting in the temple vaguely lingered in his ears, which reminded him of the squirrel he hunted. If he hadn't been afraid of the monks reporting the crime, that squirrel would have become his harvest.
For now he was still trying to catch a wild animal quietly and out of sight. But can wild animals be caught easily? If not using a shotgun. Looking at the shotgun again, it felt like it was indeed effective. Even if he didn't knock down a sparrow, he was willing to hold it to embolden himself.
Because when necessary, if a tiger comes, you can use a shotgun to deal with it. There is no such danger now. He only thinks about how to get some harvest in this mountain forest, and he does it quietly, without even alerting the monks. How can he do it? He thought again of the squirrel he had hunted. By the way, having found a way, he returned to the pine tree, picked up the hoe, and sneaked into the vicinity of the temple. He was secretly happy when he found that the monk who had reprimanded him for hunting squirrels had left.
He came to the grave where the squirrel's body was buried and prepared to dig it out with a hoe and take it back. Wouldn't it be considered a harvest? And it was a relatively light harvest. When he was about to hoe, he found that the six-character Ming Dynasty mantra of Guanyin Bodhisattva was written on the squirrel's grave: "Om Mani Padme Hum". He could not imitate the handwriting, but he actually felt that the six-character Ming Dynasty mantra was written on it. The curse was like six insurmountable fences. He could only look at it and sigh, and he did not dare to move the hoe in his hand, as if the hoe was much heavier at the moment.
He had no choice but to leave this squirrel tomb and go to another jungle. After only taking a few steps, he felt much more relaxed.
On the day when the squirrel father was hunted by Pi Shuang, the active squirrel mother and her offspring seemed to have a sense of touch in a mountain col a few kilometers away from the temple. They all chirped in unison as if they were frightened.
Everyone looked at each other, there was no danger nearby, only the mother squirrel was aware of it. She stopped shouting, walked among the children, dropped her beautiful tail like a floral towel sadly, and whispered, do you know what happened? No one answered. Xiaomu, Xiaogong, and Xiaojiu were still chirping, but Xiaoyu stopped chirping. It asked, "Did something happen to daddy?"
Child, how do you know? Mother Squirrel asked it back.
I have this hunch. Xiaoyu stood up on his hind legs like a human, covered his face with his forelimbs, and said solemnly, but I hope this premonition is wrong.
The mother squirrel walked around a bush, and then said to Xiaoyu, if your father doesn't come back tonight, it means something is wrong. Xiaomu, Xiaogong, and Xiaojiu all stopped barking, and they all came over with their little flower towel-like tails to listen to what the squirrel mother said.
Late at night, the crescent moon was setting in the west, and the forest seemed even darker, but animals have luminous eyes, and so do squirrels. When the squirrel mother saw that the squirrel father had not returned yet, she sighed and shouted: It's over! Then he walked around the bush three times with his neck lowered, and his children followed suit, looking solemn.
This is a ceremony held by the squirrel family. When a member of the same species or relative dies, they have to walk around the deceased three times to express their silence and farewell to the deceased. But now that the body of the father squirrel was not seen, the mother squirrel led her children to regard the bush where the father squirrel last lived as a substitute for it, so they walked around it three times.
Afterwards, the mother squirrel led her four children to move safely to a cave surrounded by a canyon. When they arrived at the entrance of the hole, Xiaoyu squatted there and refused to enter the hole. The squirrel walking in front turned around and asked it why it didn't enter the hole. It said it was going to find its father.
My child, don’t go and die! Mother Squirrel advised.
I will be careful and avoid danger. Xiaoyu stood up and said goodbye, arching her two forelimbs like a fist to say goodbye to her mother.
Xiaoyu, take care of yourself! Mom is still looking forward to your return. The mother squirrel looked at it reluctantly and said.
As soon as it got dark, Pi Shuang emerged from the jungle and walked to his house. Seeing the oil lamp lit up in the tile house, he quietly opened the door and put the hoe and shotgun home. His mother came out of the back room, grabbed his clothes, and said very grandly: My son, you run away quickly. When you get back, the families of the two dead women will come to find you again.
With a pale skin and a pale heart, she replied: What are you afraid of? It's not like I forced them to death, it was them who committed suicide and it had nothing to do with me.
Children, don't be so harsh, you are also responsible. My mother whispered: "Go away quickly, you won't win against them alone."
I won't leave and fight with them. Pi Shuang's heart skipped a beat and she said stubbornly. Mom pushed him, frowned and said: Pi Shuang, you know mom has heart disease. If they come and make trouble at home, they will cause my heart disease. Pi Shuang was very conflicted and asked in a low voice: Where do you want me to go?
You have so many friends, where can’t you escape the limelight? Mom said anxiously.
Pi Shuang shook his head. He used to have some close friends, but they no longer kept in contact with each other. In addition, his reputation for teasing women was so bad that others stayed away from him. Therefore, he had no close friends and nowhere to go. .
Suddenly, the sound of dog barking came from outside the house, one after another. Mom said you should go quickly, maybe someone will cause trouble for you. You can legally get away with this kind of thing, since they both died for love, but emotionally, it's hard to get away with it no matter how you say it. Without thinking much, Pi Shuang took off the shotgun hanging on the wall, slung it on his back, opened the back door, and walked towards the dark back hill, not knowing where to go.
He felt hungry, so he remembered the apples and other offerings in the temple, and walked along a familiar mountain road step by step towards the candlelit temple. When he was about a few meters away from the grave of a squirrel, he heard a "chirp" sound, which led him to conclude that another squirrel had appeared here. We can't hunt this time, it would be better if we capture him alive. He secretly wondered, how could he be captured alive?
The chanting in the temple started again, and he listened indifferently, only thinking about the offerings placed in front of the Buddhist niche. In his mind, he thought that Buddhas and Bodhisattvas were all fake, and those carvers pretended to carve out wooden statues to deceive the stupid bald heads.
He didn't believe it, but he also understood some of the rules in the temple. You couldn't bring weapons into the Buddhist pure land. If the monks saw it, they would stop it. He knew that if he entered with a gun, in the eyes of the monks and nuns, it would be tantamount to intending to commit murder. That would be blasphemy, committing a sin of disrespecting the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and he would naturally be expelled.
