Pi Shuang did not dare to bring the shotgun into the temple, so he climbed up a pine tree and hid it in the crevices of the dense pine branches. Just as I was about to slide down the tree trunk, I suddenly heard a noise on the top of the pine tree. Looking at the light coming from the temple, I saw it was a squirrel, leaping up quickly and landing on another pine tree. The two trees were facing each other. The branches are swaying.
Normally, Pi Shuang would pick up a shotgun and wait for an opportunity to hunt, but this time he didn't. He was hungry, so he slid down the tree trunk, landed on his feet, and walked towards the temple gate where the sound of prayers was audible and the incense was shining. The door was closed, and he banged it heavily, but it didn't open. He banged it again, but it didn't open. He planned to climb over the two-meter-high courtyard wall and enter.
Just as I was thinking about what to use as a stepping stone, the door suddenly opened with a "ah" sound. A tall monk stood at the door, clasped his hands and said: Amitabha, which benefactor is knocking on the door. He wants to burn incense and worship Buddha. Why didn't you come earlier? When he opened the door, Pi Shuang stood aside. When he saw the monk speaking kindly, he stepped forward and said: Amitabha, I am not the donor today, you are the donors, and I want to ask you to donate something.
The monk was choked by his words, and after a long time he said: Donor, how can you say this?
It's very simple. I'm not here to burn incense or worship Buddha. I'm here to beg for some food and I'm hungry.
Donor, it’s so late, why don’t you go home?
Under the candlelight of the temple, the monk looked at Pi Shuang in front of him and suddenly recognized him. He also recognized that the monk in front of him was the one who had scolded him for hunting squirrels during the day.
Did he commit another crime and cannot go home?
Pi Shuang suddenly knelt in front of the monk and said, Master, I didn't commit any crime today, but I was still implicated in my past crimes and couldn't live in peace.
Donor, you have brought it upon yourself! Amitabha. The monk said as he helped him up. He said, I haven't eaten today and asked Master to give me something to eat. The monk said: Follow me into the courtyard and see if there is any gruel in the kitchen.
When he passed the Buddhist hall, the monk asked him to go in and kowtow to the Bodhisattva. He walked in and saw apples, bananas, pears and other offerings illuminated by candlelight. He knelt in front of a big Bodhisattva and kowtowed three times. Then he stood up and touched a pink apple and bit it. When the monk saw it, he said unhappily: You are too unruly. You take the offerings from the altar and eat them without permission. This will be suspected of stealing and will offend the Bodhisattva.
Pi Shuang came out while eating and said that if he put the offerings there, the Bodhisattva wouldn't eat them anyway, and they would rot if kept for a long time! Isn't it a waste? If you waste it, you have offended the Bodhisattva.
The monk said: What nonsense are you talking about? Even when it comes to eating, there is a rule. You should replace the old offerings with fresh offerings. You should talk to us about it.
I'm too hungry and panicked. I didn't tell you so many rules and I don't know them well. Bodhisattva won't blame me for being compassionate, right?
Forget it this time.
The monk continued to walk forward, with Pi Shuang following behind. At this time, the sound of chanting in the Buddhist hall over there was loud and clear. Pi Shuang felt unhappy after hearing the monk's scolding, so she leaned into his ear and said: First, I didn't eat meat, and second, there was no fishy smell. I just ate an apple. He has eaten the apple down to the core.
If you are so unruly, don't enter the temple in the future.
Pi Shuang didn't listen to what the monk said, and thought to herself: I wish I could eat some meat. The long-tailed squirrel that just jumped from that pine tree to another pine tree came to mind again. If it is hunted, skinning and meat can be used to cook delicious dishes.
The monk lit a candle as thick as his thumb, led him into the kitchen, uncovered the stove pot, and found some gruel inside. The monk took a spoon and dipped it in the porridge, then brought it to his mouth to taste and said that the porridge was still hot and could be eaten. Then he opened the cabinet door again and found a few bowls of leftovers such as salted radish. He said to Pi Shuang: You can eat whatever you want with these leftovers.
I want to eat some, Pi Shuang said. In fact, he was not interested in these vegetarian dishes at all. He was still thinking about the fruit offerings placed in the Buddhist hall. The monk was turning around to go out when Pi Shuang said: Master, if you want to help people, I hope you will help them to the end. The monk said he was going to relieve himself and would come immediately. After a while, he came and asked: Donor, what help do you need? Pi Shuang held a bowl in one hand and a spatula in the other to scoop out the gruel, saying, "Master, please find me a place to rest."
The monk said yes, and after Pi Shuang finished eating the porridge, he led him to the left and opened a side door in the kitchen. It was with a knocker but not locked. The door opened, and inside was a wing room about ten square meters in size. On the right wall is a sleeping berth. Opposite the sleeping berth is a wall with windows. The windows are round and covered with a layer of ocher-red curtains. The upper, lower, left and right edges are fixed with nails. The outside looks like There was wind, and the curtains swayed.
At this time, the monk said: You can rest here tonight. The cook who lives in the temple has just returned to his home in the past two days. Amitabha. He emphasized in a murmured voice: Donor, you must abide by the rules when staying in the temple. If you don't burn incense and worship Buddha, don't go to the temple.
Master, lay people remember this. Pi Shuang nodded, looking honest.
That night, the monk ordered Pi Shuang to go out without any worries.
The next day, there was a commotion in the temple. Several monks discussed that the temple was stolen last night and all the fruit offerings were stolen. The monk whom Pi Shuang called his master also rushed to the Buddhist hall to take a look. Sure enough, the fruit offerings had been looted, with a layer of fragmented fruit cores scattered on the ground, and a piece of fruit peel hanging diagonally on the lips of a Buddha statue. The monk was very angry when he saw it. He guessed that it must have been done by Pi Shuang, who had always been a thief, but he didn't say it. If he did, he would take responsibility because he was the one who led Pi Shuang in last night.
At this time, someone outside the Buddhist hall shouted: A donor came last night. He didn't give anything, and even ate all the leftover food in the kitchen. We suspect that it was the donor. Someone found him sleeping in the cook's bedroom, then ran away, opened the curtains, and escaped through the window. Which confused monk let him in? You have to take responsibility! Someone turned their attention to the monk who was related to Pi Shuang.
The monk found that he could no longer hide it, so he knelt on his knees in front of the statue of Bodhisattva, kowtowed like a chicken pecking at rice, and murmured a confession: Sin, sin, I wanted to help the donor, but unexpectedly I suffered the consequences. Harmful. Bodhisattva knows very well that I did not expect that the donor would come to the Buddhist hall and do mischief.
A monk next to me understood and said that you are so confused, why don't you pray to the great wisdom Manjushri to give you some wisdom and concentration? The monk then stood up and walked to the statue of Manjushri Bodhisattva, prostrated and worshiped for a while. Then he walked out of the Buddhist hall, passed through the temple, passed the kitchen to the side room where the cook stayed, and saw that the curtain that was still intact last night had fallen to the ground. There was a hole in the wall, just big enough for a person to crawl out. body. He looked at it and said sadly: The donor who hunted the squirrel was so wild and confused.
After leaving the mother squirrel, Xiaoyu sneaked into the forest. He was thinking about the father squirrel and secretly patrolled among the mountains covered with pine trees, but there was no trace. He concluded that the father squirrel might be near the temple even if something happened.
It was dusk, and the birds and insects were noisy. The night gradually blurred the pine forest, the temple lights turned on again, and the sound of chanting could faintly reach my ears. Xiaoyu slipped towards the pine forest near the temple. When he got there, he smelled a similar smell, like the smell emanating from the father squirrel, floating in the air. It squatted on the grass, stretched its neck upward, and stared blankly at the gray night sky. After that, it patrolled the pine forest again, and still only smelled the breath of the father squirrel, but there was no trace of him.
