In the dead of night, the temple was silent, with only the occasional chirping of insects. Pei Che and Jiang Miao saw that the time was right, so they gently opened the door and followed the route they had taken in the morning to the Zen room where Monk Lezhi lived.
Because of his broken leg, he was always reluctant to go out and see people, so the place where he lived now was quite far away from his other fellow apprentices, which was just convenient for Pei Che and Jiang Miao to visit him late at night.
When they arrived, the candle in Liaozhi's room was still on. As soon as they reached the door, they heard the monk's voice from the room. He said, "Two donors, the door is not locked. Please come in directly."
Pei Che and Jiang Miao looked at each other, and then they realized that this candle was specially left by Liao Zhi for them. It seemed that they were not the only ones who felt strange, Liao Zhi also had something to tell them.
"Please take a seat, benefactors. I am not able to move, so I will not stand up to greet you. I hope you will forgive me for my impoliteness."
"It's okay," Pei Che shook his head slightly, indicating that he didn't mind. He was more concerned about another matter, "Master Liaozhi, is there any other hidden reason for your leg injury?"
Liaozhi smiled bitterly and said, "This leg was indeed injured by the bandits, but..." He sighed and said nothing more.
"But I can't tell whether this is a real bandit or someone pretending to be one." Pei Che continued speaking, and sure enough, he saw Zhi's face full of bitterness, as if he had been right.
"Master Liaozhi, you are a monk, so no one would target you specifically, or even send people pretending to be bandits to kill you. However, since he sent the bandits, he only cut off your legs, which shows that he still has feelings for you. Pei has thought about it for a long time and feels that this person should be related to the Master Wuming who was mentioned earlier and disappeared in the mouth of the beast. Is that right or not?" Pei Che said as he stared at Liaozhi's face, not missing any change in his expression.
Liao Zhi was a little stunned. In this continuous speculation, his eyes lost their spirit and his thoughts drifted to who knows where. After a long time, he sighed and said, "What the donor said is almost right."
Three years ago, on an ordinary day, he went down the mountain with a bamboo basket on his back to Yangshu Village to buy incense, candles, paper money and other items. As a temple, three sticks of incense must be burned before the Buddha every day. So, he would go out every ten days.
The people of Yangshu Village were not unfamiliar with him. Ever since Master Wuming was killed by a beast, he had been the one to buy things in the past few years. The first time he went down the mountain, he lost the purse that the abbot gave him to buy things. He was so anxious that he stood there and almost cried. It was these villagers who chipped in a few cents to help him get enough money, so that he would not fail the first time.
Over the years, they sold things to the temple at a lower price than others, and occasionally they would cook some vegetarian food for him. Monk Liaozhi was grateful for the kindness of the villagers, and whenever there was a funeral in the village, he would spontaneously go to the door, recite a sutra for the deceased, and help them perform a small ritual.
That day, when he had bought all the things and was about to go back to the mountain, he suddenly heard that Mr. Jiang from the neighboring village had passed away. Mr. Jiang would usually come to Yangshu Village to set up a stall to sell food during the big market. He was a kind person, and when poor people who couldn't afford to eat came to him, he would always make a few buns to help them through the difficult times. Liaozhi also received vegetarian buns from him many times.
After hearing the news, Liaozhi could not pretend not to know. He left his backpack at a familiar family, took some incense, candles and paper money, and headed for the neighboring village. From Yangshu Village to the neighboring village, there are both main roads and mountain roads. The main roads are far away, while the mountain roads are much closer. Liaozhi traveled light, so he naturally took the mountain road.
When he arrived, the Jiang family was holding a funeral. When he saw Zhi, he thought he was a monk begging for alms, until he saw the incense, candles and paper money in his hand, and then he realized that he came specially to attend the funeral.
After Liaozhi lit the incense, he sat cross-legged on the straw mat, took out the wooden fish, and chanted the mantra of rebirth while beating it. This solemn appearance and the sound of the scriptures that went straight to the heart made the Jiang family feel sad, and the pain in their hearts flowed out with tears.
After finishing the recitation, Liaozhi performed another ritual here. He did not bid farewell to the Jiang family until Mr. Jiang was buried.
The Jiang family was very grateful to him. If it weren't for this master, how could their old man have such a grand funeral. Now that Zhi was leaving, they naturally had to drive a car to see him off.
Liaozhi pushed and pushed, but the Jiang family was very insistent, so Liaozhi had to give up and agreed to let the old man Jiang's grandson drive the donkey cart to take him. While sitting on the donkey cart, Liaozhi occasionally looked up and saw a large courtyard on the hillside not far away. The courtyard looked very grand, but it always seemed a bit abrupt when it appeared near this small village.
When he asked, Mr. Jiang's grandson said, "This was built a few years ago. The owner of the yard is surnamed Zhu, and everyone calls him Mr. Zhu. Mr. Zhu doesn't like to go out. Even people in our village rarely see him."
"It's so mysterious, he must be some otherworldly master?" Liaozhi was a little curious.
Brother Jiang chuckled and said, "I don't know if I am taller than others, but I know one thing that others don't know."
"What is it?"
"This Mr. Zhu is a bald man." Jiang Xiaoge felt that it was inappropriate to say bald in front of the monk. It was disrespectful to him. He quickly said, "Master Liaozhi, I'm sorry, I didn't mean you."
Liao Zhi smiled and said, "It's nothing. Bald people are quite common, and it doesn't seem strange. Why are you the only one who knows about this?"
Seeing that he was not angry, Jiang Xiaoge immediately became proud again: "It was Master Zhu who hid himself. Every time he went out, he wore a hat and made some donkey tail hair as fake hair, as if he was afraid that others would find out that he was bald. He never took off his hat outside, but once, when I followed my father to his house to do odd jobs, I saw Master Zhu in the backyard. At that time, his head was bald, and there were a few small spots on it, just like the back of a ladybug. It was very funny to see."
However, it is not uncommon for monks to return to secular life. In the past, when some people were poor and could not afford to raise their children, but were unwilling to send their children to be slaves, they would find a temple and send their children there to become monks. When their family became better off, they would go back and find someone to give some money to the temple to repay the abbot for raising them over the years. After the abbot agreed, they would let the children return home.
Mr. Zhu has such a good family background, it is normal for him to return to secular life. Why is he hiding it
Puzzled, Liaozhi inquired carefully about Mr. Zhu's appearance. The more he listened, the more frightened he became, because Mr. Zhu sounded very much like Master Wuming from Tzu Chi Temple. The most coincidental thing was that Master Wuming's surname was Zhu.
"Brother Jiang, I suddenly remembered that I need to go to a nearby store to do some work. Could you please drop me off here?"
"Hey?" Brother Jiang didn't understand, but he still stopped the donkey cart obediently and let Zhi get off. Before leaving, he asked several times to make sure Zhi didn't want him to send him off, and then he drove away.
After getting off the car, Liaozhi walked halfway up the mountain and came to the gate of the Zhu family compound. He was both nervous and expectant. Could this master surnamed Zhu be Uncle Wuming? There were so many coincidences that it was hard for him to believe that the two were not the same person.
"Knock, knock!"
He went forward, pulled the door knocker, and knocked. After waiting for a while, seeing that no one opened the door, he knocked a few more times.
There were footsteps coming from the door, and the person inside asked "Who is it?" while opening the door. He obviously didn't expect that the person knocking on the door would be a monk, and was a little surprised. After being surprised, he seemed to understand something.
"Young monk, are you here to beg for alms? Do you want money or rice? My master usually burns incense and worships Buddha, and is very friendly to monks."
Liaozhi hesitated for a while and said, "Donor, monks do not tell lies. I am not here to beg for alms, but to see Master Zhu."
"See our master?" The man began to become alert. Why did a young monk say he wanted to see their master right after he arrived
"Yes, I heard people talking about Mr. Zhu, and I felt that he was somewhat similar to someone I know. I wonder if the donor could let me go in for a while." Liaozhi said.
The man looked him up and down for a long time and felt that such a thin little monk would not cause any harm to their master. At most, he would just use his acquaintances to ask for money. However, he was just a servant of the Zhu family. Whether to see him or not was up to their master.
Liaozhi watched him go in to report, and stood outside, feeling more and more nervous. But after a long while, the man came out again, saying, "Little monk, unfortunately, my master is not at home now, he has gone out, you can go now." While speaking, he looked strange, and his eyes, looking at Liaozhi, showed a lot of doubts and confusion.
Liaozhi's heart skipped a beat and he asked directly, "But your master doesn't want to see me?" The suspicion, which was only a few points at first, rose to seven or eight points.
The man's face changed and he shouted, "What do you mean by willing or not? I told you my master is not at home, so let's go." After that, he slammed the door.
The more they did this, the more curious Liaozhi became. Even after being turned away, he did not get discouraged. He stayed at a nearby farmhouse and observed the movements of Master Zhu's family. Finally, in the evening of the second day, he saw a carriage coming out of the yard. Then, a figure got on the carriage. Although he only saw it once and didn't even see his face, Liaozhi felt that this person should be his uncle Wuming. On impulse, he shouted "Uncle Wuming", and the man froze for a moment, but still got on the carriage.
The next day, Liaozhi went to Zhu's house again, wanting to see Master Zhu and ask him if he had any unspeakable secrets. This time, the gatekeeper let him in. After seeing Master Zhu sitting in the hall, Liaozhi was stunned. The person sitting there was not Uncle Wuming.
Liaozhi could not hide his disappointment and left Zhu's house. Later, on his way back to the mountain, he saw two masked bandits holding an old couple hostage. When Liaozhi went forward to rescue them, he got into a fight with the bandits and was not careful enough, so he was chopped off his leg by the bandits. When the bandits wanted to raise their knives to chop again, they hesitated for some reason. Later, there was a sound of horse hooves not far away, and the two bandits ran into the nearby woods and escaped.
After the old couple sent Lezhi back to Tzu Chi Temple, they quietly left in the middle of the night. It was unknown whether they were afraid of having to pay for his medical treatment or if they had other hidden motives. As the important witness was missing, the government officials only came once, asked a few questions and left, and never came again.
When he first experienced this difficulty, Liao Zhi was in great pain and even began to doubt whether his belief in helping the world was correct. When he calmed down, he discovered the unusualness of this matter.
He had thought about telling the abbot and other monks in the temple about this, but words were not enough to prove it. What if he angered the abbot and attacked the people in the temple
Over the past few years, because he had many questions in his heart that he couldn't express, his personality became more and more extreme and he became less and less willing to see people.
(End of this chapter)