Smoke from cooking, old trees, crows...
Mountain village, small temple, the end of the world...
When Yan Liqiang walked out of the temple, his heart was empty. After seven or eight months of countless attempts to cross mountains and rivers, through cities and counties, he could only wander around like a lonely ghost, neither cold nor hungry, without food or sleep, neither dead nor alive. No matter how strong a person is, at this time, he will inevitably feel disappointed and even desperate...
Yan Liqiang didn’t know where he was now. Anyway, this place was very far away from Ganzhou of the Han Empire.
The small temple is called Qingliang Temple, built on the hillside of this mountain. There is only an old half-monk and half-layman priest in the temple. When Yan Liqiang left, the white-haired old priest was dozing on the recliner at the door, drooling and sleeping very uneasily. Above the old priest's head was the already mottled plaque of Qingliang Temple. On both sides of the temple door, there were two Buddhist sayings with the paint already peeling off.
—Being free from greed brings coolness, and being free from ignorance brings liberation.
Looking at the two Buddhist sayings at the temple entrance, Yan Liqiang smiled bitterly.
Yan Liqiang was not a staunch materialist in his previous life, and he was even less so in this life. So, starting two months ago, whenever he came across a Taoist temple or a monastery on the road, Yan Liqiang could not help but go in to worship and pray to the gods, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to give him another chance to be reborn.
Wandering around like this every day seemed fun, but after a long time, Yan Liqiang still felt a suffocating fear. He was afraid that he would go on like this forever and would always be just a floating spectator in the world, feeling lonely and unbearable even among millions of people.
There is a village at the foot of the mountain where the small temple is located. At this time, the sky is full of sunset glow. It is the time when every household is preparing dinner. The village is filled with curling smoke, and it seems quite quiet.
Yan Liqiang glanced down the mountain but did not go down. In the past few months, he liked to hang out in different homes to observe the various human natures in the world. But now, watching those people's lives as a bystander has become a torture for Yan Liqiang. It makes Yan Liqiang feel like a lonely ghost abandoned by the whole world.
Following the mountain path behind the small temple, Yan Liqiang arrived at the top of the mountain in no time. He sat on a huge rock under a pine tree on the top of the mountain, alone, watching the sun in the west slowly set, watching the sunset turn into gray, and night fall.
He didn't want to walk today, didn't want to try, didn't want to run, he just wanted to stay alone on this nameless hill for a night. Over the past few months, his body was like the wind, seemingly never feeling tired, but his heart was already exhausted.
The sun set and the sky was filled with stars. Yan Liqiang stretched out his hand, looked at his arm which had no shadow at all under the moonlight, shook his head helplessly and closed his eyes.
The familiar yet unfamiliar strange boulder appeared in front of Yan Liqiang the moment he closed his eyes.
Just like watching a movie, no one likes to stare at one scene forever. In the past seven or eight months, the longest time Yan Liqiang spent was more than ten hours staring at the strange stone over and over again with his eyes closed. In the meantime, he tried all kinds of ways to communicate with the stone, but to no avail. But today, after closing his eyes, he looked at the strange stone. Feeling discouraged, Yan Liqiang never opened his eyes and stopped floating around.
One hour passed... Five hours passed... Ten hours passed... A day passed...
When the sun set again and the starry sky appeared again, Yan Liqiang, who had been looking at the stone for more than twenty-four hours, suddenly felt that the strange boulder suddenly shone brightly, showing a look he had never seen before. Just as Yan Liqiang was amazed, the boulder emitted a rainbow-like bright light that shone on Yan Liqiang's body. Before Yan Liqiang could react, he felt that the strange boulder suddenly became like a huge magnet, producing an irresistible strong attraction. His whole body and consciousness instantly turned into a ray of light and sank into the boulder.
—Is this reincarnation? Haha, I hope I can be more handsome in my next life…
This was the last self-deprecating thought in Yan Liqiang's mind before he lost consciousness.
In the following time, Yan Liqiang felt like he had had a long, sweet dream.
…
"A-choo..." The tip of his nose felt a little itchy, and Yan Liqiang couldn't help but sneeze, then he opened his eyes and woke up.
What caught Yan Liqiang's eyes were a few remaining stars hanging in the dim sky, the pine tree above his head, and a drop of dew on the grass just next to his face. He sneezed, and the dew on the grass flew onto his face, making him feel a cool breeze.
Yan Liqiang blinked his eyes. Was he dreaming
In a daze, he raised his hand and placed it in front of his eyes. It was a strong and young hand, with skin like ivory, slender fingers, full of strange and somewhat unfamiliar beauty.
Looking at this hand, Yan Liqiang's brain froze for a few seconds. He didn't react to what was happening. But after a few seconds, Yan Liqiang's eyes suddenly widened, and he jumped up from the ground as if he had been electrocuted.
After jumping up, Yan Liqiang realized that he was on the top of that familiar nameless hill.
The pine tree was still the same pine tree, and the stone next to the pine tree was still the same stone. He looked down the mountain and saw Qingliang Temple not far away.
How could this be? Wasn't I reincarnated? Why am I here? Was I dreaming...
A mountain breeze blew, and the chill in the wind made Yan Liqiang sneeze again, "A-choo..."
At this time, Yan Liqiang realized that he was naked, without a single piece of clothing. He looked down and saw that his body seemed a little different from before, but fortunately, he was still a man...
Yan Liqiang became excited and could not help but shouting loudly on the top of the mountain, which startled several birds in the nearby woods and made them fly away. Yan Liqiang then stopped shouting again.
After the excitement, looking at his current state, Yan Liqiang suppressed his excitement and carefully went down the mountain in the dark.
The mountain road was not easy to walk on. There were some gravel, dead branches and leaves on the road. It was very uncomfortable and even a bit prickly when stepping on them barefoot. Before he had walked far, Yan Liqiang's soles were pierced by the dead branches and gravel on the ground, and it was a bit painful.
But Yan Liqiang didn't care at all. At this moment, being able to feel the pain in his body again was simply a pleasure for him.
Yan Liqiang, naked, came to Qingliang Temple as fast as he could and climbed over the wall to enter the temple. There was no one in the temple at night, not even the old keeper. Yan Liqiang went directly to a storage room in the temple and found a set of old clothes and a pair of old shoes that barely fit him and changed into them.
—I’ll borrow some clothes today and return them a hundredfold in the future!
After leaving these words on the wall of the utility room, Yan Liqiang left Qingliang Temple wearing old clothes.
When they reached the main road at the foot of the mountain, in the early morning light, Yan Liqiang could no longer hold back and roared, "I am alive, I am alive..."
(End of this chapter)