Foguang Temple is located in the northwest of Suzhou, very close to Suzhou. The south wind climbed over the city wall and found a hidden place around Foguang Temple to hibernate.
The location selection of temples and Taoist temples is somewhat similar to the location selection of Yinzhai. Both have mountains at the back and auxiliary mountains on the left and right. The south wind does not go to the mountains directly north of Foguang Temple. Although the terrain there is higher and Foguang Temple can be seen at a glance, the monks of Foguang Temple He also knew that he could see the inside of Foguang Temple from there, and he could easily be discovered by hiding there.
Nanfeng is hiding on the hill to the west of Foguang Temple. The angle here is not very good, and you can only barely see the scenery inside the temple.
The area where Foguang Temple is located has a wide range of walls. At the foot of the mountain is the monk's Zen room and the main hall. Foguang Temple has hundreds of monks and more than a hundred monk rooms. They are distributed on the left and right sides of the mountain road. Go up the mountain and it's not far away. The huge Mahavira Palace.
There is a winding path in the northeast corner of the Main Hall. At the end of the path is Foguang Chanyuan, which is two hundred feet away from the Main Hall and three hundred feet away from the monk's residence at the foot of the mountain.
Fo Guang Chan Monastery covers an area of about 20 acres and is divided into two areas: east and west. To the west is Talin, which is the cemetery where the ashes of the senior monks were placed after they passed away. To the east is the courtyard, with eight two-story wooden buildings located in all directions. In the middle of these wooden buildings is a stone tower. The stone tower also has two floors and is as high as the wooden buildings. This stone tower is very narrow and cannot be inhabited. According to it, Judging from its location, this stone tower is most likely the stupa where the relics are stored.
The stone tower has only one narrow entrance with no windows. The entrance is on the south side, with a red wooden door and a lock.
Those wooden buildings surround the stone tower, and are only a dozen feet away from the stone tower. The wooden buildings have windows. Although it is late at night, candlelight shines through the second floors of two wooden buildings.
The protection is so tight that it is probably impossible to steal the relics quietly. The only way is to rob them openly. But those who are capable of stealing them may not bother to attack the relics. The relics are only sacred objects of Buddhism and have little appeal to Taoists and warriors. .
At three o'clock in the morning, a bell rang from the mountain.
When Nanfeng heard the sound, he looked up and saw the bell tower hidden in the forest on the top of the mountain. From the bell tower, he could see in all directions. Fortunately, he had not gone to the north mountain to hide before, otherwise he would have been discovered by the monk who was ringing the bell.
After the bell rang, the monks of Foguang Temple began to get up. The two rooms with lights in Foguang Monastery also had their lights turned off, which meant that the people in those two rooms had not fallen asleep.
Not long after, the monks began to go to the main hall to perform morning prayers. The eminent monks in red cassocks from Foguang Monastery also left the monastery and went to the main hall. Nanfeng counted sixteen people in total.
While everyone was doing their morning prayers, there were two elderly monks cleaning the monastery. They were cleaning the residential area.
After the morning classes, the eminent monks from the monastery returned one after another and cleaned the west pagoda together with the two monks who were sweeping the fallen leaves.
While everyone was cleaning, Nanfeng cheered up, observed carefully, and remembered the appearance of these eighteen people.
After the cleaning was completed, the monks from the Zen monastery returned to the wooden building, and Nanfeng secretly recorded the residences of these eighteen people.
During breakfast, another sixteen people went to the dining hall. After eating, they returned to the monastery. The two people who stayed behind went to the dining hall to eat. These two people were the two who stayed in the monastery to clean and tidy up while everyone was doing their morning prayers.
Since he didn't say hello to the fat man before leaving, Nanfeng left quietly for fear that the fat man would be worried. Before leaving, he didn't forget to smooth away the fallen leaves in the area where he was squatting before.
When he returned to his residence, the fat man was already awake and squatting in front of the stove to light the fire. "What have you been doing?"
"Go to Foguang Temple and have a look." Nanfeng walked through the kitchen and went to the east room to take off his shoes and get on the kang.
"Don't sleep, it's time to eat." The fat man said.
"I won't eat. You can eat it yourself. I want to sleep for a while." Nanfeng pulled the fat man's quilt.
It was late afternoon when he woke up. While he was sleeping, the fat man tidied up the inside and outside of the house again, adding a few shabby items and getting a set of bedding for Nan Feng. Very old.
"I left some food for you." The fat man was wiping the broken table in front of the kang with a rag.
"I'll go out and eat when I get back." Nanfeng went down to put on his shoes.
"Why are you going again?" the fat man asked.
"Buy something." Nanfeng walked to the kitchen and saw a water vat next to the door, so he took some water and washed his face.
"That's drinking water." The fat man yelled.
Nanfeng didn't answer, so he went out and went to the market to buy pen, ink, paper, inkstone and some sundries.
After returning, Nanfeng wrote down the looks and characteristics of the sixteen people based on his memory.
After pouring the remaining ink into the small gourd, Nanfeng ate something briefly, said something to the fat man, and went out again.
Returning to the hiding place, Nanfeng began to look around and observe. There were eight wooden buildings in total, and there were eighteen monks. The number of people living in the wooden buildings varied. Some wooden buildings housed three or four monks, and some wooden buildings housed three or four monks. Only one person lives in the building.
Which wooden building a monk lives in must be recorded, and the habits and habits of each monk must be captured and summarized.
In the evening, the monks in Foguang Monastery were going to the Main Hall to hold evening classes again. Nanfeng quickly wrote down the time when the monks left.
The two monks who were responsible for cleaning fallen leaves were left behind today. It can be seen that the monks in Foguang Chan Monastery are all on duty, and these two may happen to be on duty today.
When I returned from evening classes, there was no movement in the monastery, and no monks were walking around outside. When it was midnight, the lights in the wooden tower gradually went out, and finally only two rooms with light were left. Not the two rooms from last night.
After guarding for a day, Nanfeng was a little hungry, but he didn't feel tired, so he was in no hurry to go back.
Soon it was morning class time again, and two people stayed behind again. Sixteen people went to the main hall. Since he had recorded the characteristics of these people before, Nanfeng discovered that one of the sixteen people had not shown up yesterday, that is to say. There are not eighteen monks living in Foguang Monastery, but at least nineteen.
After the morning class, the monk returned, and Nanfeng confirmed again. Yes, he had indeed not seen one of them yesterday.
When it was breakfast time, sixteen people went to the dining hall, while two people stayed behind.
Nanfeng memorized everyone's appearance and characteristics, and then returned to his residence to eat and catch up on his sleep.
After regaining my energy, I went back to squat.
The monks have a very regular schedule and turn off the lights at midnight. This time, there are two more rooms with lights on. These two rooms are not the same rooms as the previous two nights, but they are in two new locations.
At breakfast, sixteen people went to eat. Nanfeng had memorized the appearance and characteristics of everyone. After comparing them, he found that there was missing a monk who was "five feet three inches tall, sixty-sixteen years old, with small eyes, and walked outward."
Clues are often hidden in the details. There are nineteen monks living in Foguang Monastery, but they deceive others and create the illusion that there are only eighteen people. The other monk is hiding in the dark and is a special soldier. His function is to guard the two. The monks act as backup. If someone wants to get their hands on the relics, they will first determine the number of people in Foguang Temple, and then try to lure away or avoid the two remaining monks. But what they didn't expect was that there was another monk hiding in the dark.
Everything has its pros and cons, and the same is true in this case. Foguang Chanyuan has laid an ambush, which can detect the opponent in time and take action to stop it. But there is also a big shortcoming in this matter. Everyone is dependent. The two monks who take turns guarding the relics every day know that someone is secretly helping them protect the relics. In this way, it is easy to become dependent and place their hopes on them. in others.
As for the monk hiding in the dark, he was slacking off because he was a backup. Anyway, there were two fellow disciples in front of him to protect him, and they would handle the matter if it happened.
Standing guard is the most boring, but standing guard is also the most helpless. If you really have the ability, you can just grab it and leave, why bother with such hard work. But I am not capable enough, so I can only observe patiently, look for loopholes, and try to outwit them.
Since he had not had a good rest in the past few days, Nan Feng began to feel sleepy after the watch. Just when he was drowsy, shouts came from the bottom of the mountain. Hearing the shouts of the monks, it seemed that a thief had sneaked into the Sutra Pavilion.
The Sutra Pavilion is a place where scriptures are collected. Large Taoist temples have places similar to the Sutra Pavilion. The thief who sneaked into the Sutra Pavilion naturally came for the Eight Golden Bodies.
"You're really stupid, rushing to take action without even understanding the situation." Nanfeng thought to himself.
The thief was not only stupid, but also very unlucky. He was actually caught. Before the elder in the red cassock went to deal with it, the thief had been beaten up by a bunch of monks.
Seeing the elder walking slowly forward, Nanfeng even suspected that this guy was delaying time deliberately so that the monks at the foot of the mountain could hit him with more sticks.
After the elder arrived, he gave a few lectures and then ordered everyone to let the thief go.
Everything has its pros and cons, and the appearance of the thief is like reminding everyone in Foguang Monastery that many people are thinking about their eight-part golden body. In this way, the monks in the monastery will be more vigilant.
But the good thing is that there was something strange at the bottom of the mountain. The doors of the wooden buildings around the stupa were opened. A group of monks from the Zen Temple appeared at the door and paid close attention to the stupa. This showed that the stupa was not empty and the relics were inside.
At the second watch, the south wind returns. This ends today and will come again tomorrow...