In the far west of Xibo City, there is the Saint Temple.
It was a gloomy day, and it was still dry and cold at the beginning of spring a year ago, making this temple, which was not very popular, even less popular.
The temple door was wide open, and there was a monk sweeping the floor, minding his own business, without looking up at passers-by.
The ground was very clean, but I don’t know how hard this monk swept it.
The wind couldn't move the snow on the roadside, but it made the hem of the monk's cassock sway from side to side.
On the walls on both sides of the temple gate, there is a big word "Zen" written on a yellow background in black characters. The walls are cracked with age, and the deep earth walls are exposed in several places.
The hunchbacked old man who had sat with the emperor in the palace the night before appeared at the intersection, wandering from the east with his hands behind his back, followed by a big gray dog.
The old man with a hunchback was very strange. He did not walk on the cleared path, but only picked up the snow-covered roads on both sides. He walked step by step, making a creaking sound.
The big gray dog also followed the old man, walking on one side and creaking.
Walking to the entrance of the temple, the hunchbacked old man raised his head and looked at the plaque with three not-so-neatly neat characters "Sage Temple" divided into several pieces by a few cracks, and the plaque that was so blurry that you couldn't notice it without looking carefully. The signature arrived.
Even if he is in such a state of desolation, even if he has been passed down for hundreds of years, the two words next to him seem a bit small when compared with the three words next to him. Even this hunchbacked old man with such a high status that he sat with the emperor of the current dynasty and was saluted as a junior by the current saint, When his eyes met her accidentally, he shuddered unconsciously, showing great respect.
I don't know whether he was talking to himself or to the monk sweeping the floor under the plaque. The hunchbacked old man moved his eyes to the lower side and cleared his throat, as if to remind him deliberately, and murmured: "It's time to change."
The monk sweeping the floor should have known that someone was coming and who it was, but he still swept the floor and said nothing.
"I haven't come to see you in three years." The hunchbacked old man didn't move and had no intention of entering the temple. The big gray dog sat on its legs, obediently, looking at the old man and then at the monk sweeping the floor.
As if he knew that the monk would not pay attention to him, the old man said again: "I am really embarrassed to stay in this Xibo City for a while in the past three years. It is too embarrassing."
"Then it's not shameful for the donor to come here?" The monk who was supposed to have escaped into Buddhism to observe the precepts of madness asked, "Have you lost your face in the past three years?"
The hunchbacked old man was choked by the other party and looked a little confused. He smiled and said: "Last night, the Holy One was eager to summon him. He said that the old guy Lingxu had something important to discuss. He came because we couldn't get along. I can't do it if I don't come." Then he smiled again, as if to cover up his inconsistency, and finally said, "When I came out of the palace last night, I was close to Xu Zheng, so I went to Xiaoliu's place to stay overnight."
"Didn't Liu Bai kick you out?"
After being choked again, the old man scratched his head this time and said honestly: "No."
In exchange for a cold snort from the monk.
The hunchbacked old man began to walk, pacing slowly back and forth in the distance of more than a foot from the temple gate, thinking a lot.
"You said that the person from the Forbidden City said it was a gift of marriage, but that was a surrender of status. He wanted to be the in-laws of my subject, or the in-laws of the younger generation. You think I can push it away? The little bastard ran away as soon as he said it. , so that I can still have the face to see people?"
"It's so irritating to think about it. You little bastard, I'm also fooling around. You're going to confront me in front of Jie Jiao, the father-in-law who declares the decree. Where can I put my old face?"
"You still caused such a big thing in the capital, even..."
The sweeping monk finally straightened up and turned around to look at the hunchbacked old man, who turned out to be a nun.
No, it's a female monk, because her master doesn't allow her to be called a nun.
Just this action of the female monk made the hunchbacked old man shut up. After all, the old man was still afraid of her.
The female monk said: "You have been holding it in for three years, and you just came to tell the young monk that you are still angry?"
"This matter must be justified by the higher-ups." The old man straightened his back slightly and looked up at the female monk on the steps.
"You are trying to say that you want to save face at the expense of your inner self." The female monk's tone remained calm and unhurried, making it impossible to hear her inner emotions.
The old man sighed and said nothing, and the female monk began sweeping the floor again.
In front of the Saint's Temple, an old man was pacing, a female monk was sweeping the floor, and a big gray dog was squatting, which formed a very mismatched scene.
When the female monk finished sweeping the already clean door and wanted to enter the temple, the hunchbacked old man opened his mouth and said, "I'm not planning to find a compromise."
"Master has gone on a long journey." The female monk bowed, raised her hands in front of her and said "Amitabha" before entering the temple.
The hunchbacked old man followed slowly and asked, "Can you give me something?"
The female monk just lowered her head to sweep the floor and said without raising her head: "The young monk said it, can the donor listen?"
"It's better than not saying anything." The hunchbacked old man stood at the door and looked at the female monk motionlessly.
The female monk stopped, looked at the old man with a hunchback, and said, "A fight can be stopped with silk."
"There's no way to explain it from above." The hunchbacked old man seemed to be confused as to why his children and grandchildren didn't understand him. He smiled bitterly and said, "Your brother took your sister and ran away immediately. There has been no news for three years. This has just been exposed. So he went to Wudang and forced his way through the mountain gate, and even made the disciples of the outer sect red in front of others. The status of the Wudang sect in the world is not low in the court. The higher-ups don't say it, but it is inevitable. Someone said below. At present, the civil servants in the imperial court are so full that they have nothing to do, but they are just waiting to catch me for some reason so that they can read my book. Their pens are very bad. "
"The young monk doesn't understand the affairs of the temple. But the young monk understands that if you don't clean one house, how can you sweep the world? Household affairs must come first."
"If you really want to knock me down, what kind of home can you have?" The hunchbacked old man still smiled bitterly.
The female monk stopped talking and just swept the floor.
The old man with a hunchback sighed again, shook his head, and walked eastward, followed by the big yellow dog wagging his tail. One person and one dog stepped on the snow, making a crunching sound.
"It's better to be a dog than a human. You don't have to worry about three meals a day." The hunchbacked old man said with a hint of gloom in his tone.
The female monk stood at the gate of the temple, looked east, and kept watching the hunchbacked old man disappear, and also watched the countless guards, both overt and covert, disappear, and then turned around and returned to the temple.
"On the scale of face, the children and grandchildren are called old age." The female monk's tone also sounded gloomy.
………………
South of Xibo City, halfway up the winding mountain, there is half an acre of bamboo forest and a thatched hut in the forest. There is an old grave next to it, which has been cleaned cleanly.
A steel knife is inserted under the bamboo, one bamboo and one knife.
A slovenly middle-aged man with dazzling white hair was sitting on the ground beside the tomb, snoring lightly while carrying a wine bottle.
The man in white robes with a cinnabar mark on half of his face actually wandered over carrying a food box and a jar of wine. He burped from time to time, but his feet were steady. He was obviously not drunk as shown by the red wine on his face.
"Fourth brother, you are not honest. You sent me away to get the wine. You fell asleep here." Without any courtesy, the man in white robe went up and kicked the white-haired man, urging him to start. Keep drinking.
I never thought that the white-haired man just turned over and said vaguely: "Did I ask you to get wine and food? I asked you to go..."
"Inquire about the news." The man in white robe took over the conversation, and the cinnabar mark on his face seemed to be stretched out, which was quite beautiful.
"How is it?" The white-haired man leaned against the monument, not opening his eyes but obviously already sober at this time.
The man in white robe took a sip of wine with peanuts and said, "The old man went to Xibo Saint Temple. I don't know what he was doing."
"It can't be that he's looking for Jiazi, because that little bastard Jiazi is annoying him now, and he doesn't know it." The white-haired man finally opened his eyes, saying this with a smile on his lips, "I'm probably looking for him." The old monk has enlightened himself."
"I know my father better than I, but we can't figure out what the old man has in mind." The man in white robe joked.
The white-haired man picked up the pot and drank wine. This was the only wine brought by his daughter who could go up the mountain at any time. Although it was very common in the market, after his daughter processed it, it was obviously more mellow to him, so Be careful when drinking, take small sips.
Otherwise, even if the man in white robe next to him came to drink with him, he would have to go back and get the wine himself after finishing the drink.
The white-haired man remembered the topic that had been pressed since it started last night, and said with a smile: "This little brat led his sister to hide away for three years. How can the old man not miss them? It's useless to use a luminous monument." Then he changed the subject. He added, "When I was here recently, I felt the pull of Qi in Xibo City. I thought it was the old monk who wanted to attain enlightenment."
"Jiazi cannot attain the Tao, so how can the old monk dare to prove it?" The man in white robe turned towards Xibo and said, "Being born with the Buddha's image of Jiazi is a great blessing for Buddhism. How can the old monk rest assured that Jiazi can cultivate by himself?"
"Is it possible that the old monk wants to suppress you?"
"We don't have your skills, so we can't tell." The man in white robe held the wine bowl and looked at the vague outline of Xibo City in the distance, and said, "You can also see the red walls and gold bricks on the ridges of the pavilions."
The white-haired man pointed his finger at the man in white robe and sneered: "You, you don't feel happy to say anything."
"Speaking of which, are there any big events in the Forbidden City recently?" The white-haired man changed the subject again.
The two of them chatted all night long last night. It was not until this moment that they thought that the things in this big city right in front of them were more exciting than the whole world, but they had forgotten this place.
"It's true." The man in white robe had a mysterious look on his face. When he saw the intense heat in the eyes of the white-haired man across from him, he didn't show off and burped after drinking, "Wuxin didn't pay tribute this year."
The white-haired man's appetite for the man in white robes lost again, "Wuxian rowed all the way here, who knows if he was drowned by a strong storm along the way."
"That makes sense." The man in white robe nodded in agreement, and added, "One more thing, Jianghuli has rearranged the list of one hundred and eight singles a few days ago. The list was opened yesterday, and the third young master ranked Fourteen."
The white-haired man stood up unsteadily, held on to the tombstone, stretched, and said: "Fourteen, let's be fourteen. There will be ninety-four people later."
The man in white robe was amused by the white-haired man's words and said with a smile: "Why didn't you say there were thirteen more ahead?"
"It's better than the best, but it's better than the worst." The white-haired man also smiled, "Old horse, people must know how to be satisfied."
The man in white robe drank a bowl of strong wine in one gulp, shook his head and said: "No, no, I don't have your mind."
"Is there anything else fun?"
The man in white robe raised his head and began to think.
………………………………
The old man with a hunchback went up the mountain, and the big gray dog jumped back and forth, making him feel uncomfortable.
The hunchbacked old man was walking along the mountain road carved by the elite soldiers of the Great Zhou Dynasty. He passed a fork in the road and had already passed it. He didn't know what he thought of, so he turned around and walked in.
Not long after walking around the path, there was a bamboo forest. The white-haired man and the man in white robe were sipping wine and chatting animatedly.
Seeing the person coming, the white-haired man ignored him, but the man in white robe was so frightened that he almost woke up from the wine. He hurriedly stood up and bowed and said: "Your Majesty."
The hunchbacked old man, who had no control over the words and deeds of these two people in private, waved his hand. Although he was helpless, he also signaled that the man in white robe did not need to be so polite. He put his hands on his hands again, looked at the two simple dishes on the ground to go with wine, then looked at the familiar tombstone, and asked: "Can these two dishes be used?"
Without specifically indicating who he was talking to, the slovenly white-haired man simply closed his eyes and leaned against the tombstone without saying a word. The man in white robe looked at the slovenly man, bowed slightly and said respectfully: "Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. I'd like some wine."
The hunchbacked old man let out a heavy nasal sound from his nostrils, "No matter how good the wine is, drinking it like this is a waste."
The sloppy man had no intention of paying any attention to the old man, and the man in white robe was slightly restrained.
The hunchbacked old man suddenly waved his hand, naturally not to the two people in front of him, but after all the dead soldiers and guards in the dark had dispersed, he said: "Last night, that bull-nosed man in the Forbidden City borrowed the Night Monument to general an army. , apparently he controlled Er Nizi and San'er's temper, and provoked the two naughty children to come back on their own, why do I feel something is wrong?"
When it comes to some deep-seated issues related to the family, the man in white robe is obviously not qualified to go into too much depth, but he can only bow again to show that he has no intention.
The hunchbacked old man walked slowly to the monument, stretched out his hand to support it, and sighed, "Lao Wu, there are no outsiders here. If you have anything to say, it doesn't matter."
The man in white robe who could call this name in private, who was not the fifth but could still be considered the fifth, was even more submissive and said respectfully: "I don't dare."
The white-haired man finally opened his eyes and said, "If you have something to say, just say it. Why are you so effeminate?"
The man in white robe lowered his head and looked up at the white-haired man diagonally below him. He didn't look at the hunchbacked old man, and said in a deep voice: "I'm afraid it's really a conspiracy, both overt and covert."
"What are you picturing?" the hunchbacked old man asked again.
"Just trying to be more cautious." The man in white robe said tentatively, and then quickly said, "I'm just guessing."
The hunchbacked old man smacked his lips and looked at the capital in the distance. He didn't know what he was thinking about. He slapped the stone tablet and said in a deep voice: "If my daughter is here, there is no need to speculate here with you."
The old man with a hunchback polished the body of the monument with his big rough hands and sighed, "But after you have been gone all these years, Dad doesn't even have anyone to talk to. If you have any idea, tell Dad in your dreams."
The hunchbacked old man put his hands back and walked slowly back along the way he came. There was a hint of helplessness in his voice, "No matter what, we have to protect the Ye family for five hundred years."
The white-haired man curled his lips and sneered, while the white-robed man's waist was even lower.
