The old forest was not very quiet at night. The imagined silence really only existed in the imagination.
The northern wind, like the loud and rough voice of a northern man, blows non-stop, like a huge hand, using the old forest as a string and plucking it non-stop.
There is no rhythm to it, and no reliable musical notation, but it is so chaotic that after a long time, I got used to it.
A middle-aged man carrying a box of batteries in one hand walked to a stream.
He actually regretted it a little.
Battery,
Bought it a bit early.
Just like when you travel to a place, you usually buy some "specialties" at the airport or train station the day before or even on the day of departure.
How can you buy a lot of local specialties on the first day and then carry them around with you
Besides, compared to the Goubuli steamed buns that no one in Tianjin eats, and Zhangfei beef that no one in Chengdu eats,
Similar to the above two "local specialties" that can only be purchased in specialty shops,
This battery,
Is it difficult to buy
All over the streets,
You can buy it at any grocery store.
But now that I have bought it,
Just take it with you.
The battery cannot be exposed to moisture.
So the man carefully wrapped it in several layers of plastic paper and placed it on the pile of leaves across the stream.
immediately,
He walked to the creek.
Crouch down.
Take a handful of water,
Start washing your hands.
He washed his hands very seriously, very, very seriously. It was a pity that Boss Zhou was not here. Otherwise, if he had seen him, he might have felt a sense of sympathy for him because of his serious attitude towards washing his hands.
They are all clean people.
Wash your hands,
Shake it,
The man sat on the ground.
The water level of the stream,
Begin to slowly descend,
It was falling at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In the middle of the stream,
Gradually, a flying eaves appeared.
For thousands of years, the Chinese have always had their own persistence and unique aesthetic in house construction, so meticulous and persistent that even the eaves have unique designs.
From today's perspective, everyone back then actually lived in a "work of art", but now, they sell everything they have to put themselves in the cage of an apartment, like living in a larger urn in advance;
The only difference is that some urns are divided into several compartments, just like those plastic fruit boxes for dried fruits and melon seeds, which leads to the urn styles with two sets of three.
Under the stream,
It is a temple.
I just don't know how many years ago,
This temple was buried and probably collapsed.
Perhaps this slightly better preserved eaves is now its only proud reminder of its former glory.
This is a City God Temple.
Specks of yellow light began to gather around the man, eventually forming the figure of a scholar.
The scholar was dressed in yellow court robes.
The whole person looks very tired.
You can clearly feel an air of decay from it, and even some dilapidated spots in the inconspicuous corners.
"I thought I'd never see you again."
The scholar spoke.
The man nodded, "Yes."
then,
Both of them were from the Central Plains, which is now Henan, and their families were well-off;
This is nonsense.
It's just like the young men nowadays who are tired of other things and always like to pursue new and exciting things. With the transportation level back then, the two of them were able to travel together from Henan to the Northeast, and even to the northeast of the Northeast. If they had no money and were too idle at home, they really couldn't do such a thing.
Just like the young people of the same age, they were full of vigor and ambition;
"Later, did you pass the exam?" the scholar asked.
"Passed the imperial examination."
The scholar was annoyed when he heard this, and seemed very indignant, "If I hadn't died of illness."
"It's not that you died of illness here that stimulated me. On the contrary, it's because you died and I lost such a playmate. Suddenly, many things seemed boring. I just closed myself in and studied."
"I was studying and accidentally passed the exam?"
“I guess so.”
The scholar smiled.
The man laughed too.
then,
The two of them traveled here together.
This was a market town back then.
The scholar caught a cold here and died without surviving.
The middle-aged man buried the scholar here.
Thousands of years later,
One of them became the local city god.
One became the King of Hell.
"I've heard a lot about you," said the scholar.
"I know you must know a lot about me."
The scholar nodded.
"I've been waiting for you to come to me," the man said.
"I won't come to you."
"I also know that you will definitely not come to see me."
The man finished speaking.
He laughed again with the scholar.
Do you want to come to my house and play
Don’t agree with me, I’m just saying that!
My friend back then became rich.
It is actually human nature to try to find connections, change places, and ask for help.
Look at the scholar now.
The incense here has been gone for who knows how many years.
The temple was destroyed and almost no trace remained, buried under dust. The population was also extremely sparse. Without people, where could one find incense
The scholar's Dharma body has become damaged to this extent.
estimate,
There are less than ten years left.
"I didn't expect to see you before I left."
"I didn't expect to come up here at this time. By the way, do you know batteries? I bought a lot this time."
In speech,
With a tone of showing off to old friends,
Very childish.
Very pure too.
"Times have changed." The scholar sighed.
The middle-aged man frowned.
He didn't want the topic to turn in that direction.
Just a simple reunion with old friends,
Is it not good
"My place is sparsely populated, so there aren't many incense offerings, but the city gods in various places are basically the same now."
Speaking of which,
The scholar looked at his old friend beside him.
The City God is under the jurisdiction of the underworld. They have a transcendent status and are basically local heroes.
Their existence, their continuation, their prosperity and decline cannot really be measured by simple incense offerings.
This is a general trend.
One is a trend that is deliberately indulged, and the other is a trend that is artificially created.
A city god, a king of hell,
Like a general guarding the border,
Ask the elders of the dynasty,
Why did the imperial court cut off the border troops’ pay
Doesn’t the imperial court know that if this continues, the city god system will collapse and the empire will fall apart
But in fact,
As we all know,
Everyone knows it and everyone knows it.
Lawyer An, Feng Si'er, these middle and lower level inspectors can see that the ship is about to sink, let alone others who are in higher positions
The higher you sit, the more you will feel the vibration once the foundation starts to become unstable.
The middle-aged man said nothing.
"The order of yin and yang cannot be changed." The scholar continued to sigh.
The middle-aged man sighed and said:
"Before I go down this time, I will go back to our home to take a look. I heard that your former residence has now become a cultural relic attraction and has been preserved."
"It's just a swallow in front of the hall of the Wang and Xie families in the past." The scholar looked at the middle-aged man seriously. "The person is gone. No matter how bright and beautiful the empty shell is, what's the point of it?"
"It's better than leaving nothing behind."
"Do you know why you were able to inherit everything that Taishan left behind so smoothly after the last generation disappeared?"
The middle-aged man pursed his lips and closed his eyes. His impatience was already clear on his face.
He is not good at hiding his emotions.
First, there is no need for this.
In this world,
The one who needs him to flatter, pretend, and control his emotions.
Not much really.
Even that Bodhisattva,
At most, it can only be considered half.
not to mention,
It is easy to open up your heart when you meet your good friends from your youth.
The scholar actually saw it, but he pretended not to see it and continued:
"Because you have inherited everything from Mount Tai, the structure of Mount Tai, and the system of Mount Tai.
The Lord is gone.
One became the other,
hehe,
Or,
One becomes ten of you,
It really doesn’t matter.
Whether the chair at the top sits with one person, ten people, or a hundred people, what difference does it make to the crowd below
Anyway,
I can’t sit on it.”
At this point, the scholar laughed again, but this time the middle-aged man did not laugh.
"Actually, I really can't accept this." The scholar stretched out his hand, and a cup appeared in his hand. The cup was filled with stream water. He took a sip of the water instead of wine, "I really can't accept this. If I had known this would happen, how could we have... "
The middle-aged man coughed and said:
"It's meaningless to say this now."
You didn't stop it at the beginning, or rather, you acquiesced at the beginning.
Now,
The die is cast.
There's no point in saying anything more.
For thousands of years,
What really made the middle-aged man feel a little strange and curious was that the one who dared to speak out amid the silence of everyone was the leader of the hounds.
"This is the general trend. You can't stop it, and neither can I."
The middle-aged man sighed.
"The question is, have you blocked it? Have you tried
Or,
You didn't block it.
Even stood behind and gave it a push?"
"As what are you talking to me?"
"The City God and the King of Hell? Or the friends who traveled with me back then? What do you think?"
The middle-aged man was silent.
"As the City God, and as a minister of the underworld who guards the land of the living, do I have the right to speak out and make direct criticisms
As old friends, do we have the responsibility to advise and encourage our former like-minded partners? "
The middle-aged man continued to remain silent.
The scholar's body began to burn.
"I still have ten years to live, and I have been lingering until now. I didn't expect you to come, but I have been looking forward to your coming.
at the moment,
Now that you are here, I will use the remaining ten years of my life to tell you something.
The building is about to collapse.
The higher you stand,
The harder you fall!"
"boom!"
The scholar's body exploded.
The terrifying yellow fire began to rage.
The middle-aged man sat there without moving.
A black halo appeared around him.
Completely block this raging fire.
Outside,
The flames roared,
But he took it easy.
He raised his head.
Looking up at the dark night sky,
Even though the fire of karma continued to burn on the periphery,
He smiled.
He smiled and said:
"The building is about to fall, the building is about to fall,
hehe,
Who told you
Am I still upstairs?"