Chapter 66 Chapter 08 The Round Shovel

What kind of fate brought Zong Pengze'an here? Although this was by no means accidental, his appearance seemed so abrupt.Ze'an, who is always calm and unhurried on weekdays, seems particularly nervous and uncomfortable tonight.I wanted to ask him the whole story, but it seems that there is no time to ask at the moment. Monk Ze'an, who has always been indifferent to everything, asked in a panic: "Hello! Shopkeeper, how are you doing? Did you find it?" The shop waiter who was looking for at the other end ran over and answered: "I've searched everywhere, but I can't find it."

He wiped the sweat from his brow, as if he was getting impatient. "really weird!" "Yes! How strange!" "Did you hear me right?" "No, I heard that right. After the people from Qingshuitang came in the evening, the old woman suddenly said that she wanted to come to Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, and she even borrowed the lantern from our hotel." "Isn't it strange that Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva came here in the middle of the night? What is it for?" "I heard that I'm going to meet someone here." "So it should still be here..."

"There is no one in sight!" "What's the matter?" Zean crossed his hands in front of his chest, puzzled.The hotel waiter scratched his head and said to himself: "The night watchman at Zi'an Hall said he saw the old woman and a young girl go up the mountain with a lamp, but no one saw them go down the mountain." "That's what makes people worry! Maybe it's gone to a remote mountain." "why?" "Maybe grandma tricked Miss Atong with sweet words, trying to push her to hell..." "That old woman is so terrible!"

"What nonsense! She's a good person!" "Listening to what you said just now reminded me of one more thing." "What's up?" "The girl named Atong cried again today." "What a crybaby! Everyone calls her 'Crybaby A-Tong'... But if she has been with Grandma since the first day of the first lunar month, she must have been abused and tortured enough by her! Poor A-Tong !" "Grandma has always said that Miss Atong is her daughter-in-law, and the mother-in-law abused her. There is nothing I can do about it...Grandma must have hatred in her heart, so she abused her little by little."

"Grandma must be willing to do this! Grandma took Miss Atong to the mountains in the dark, maybe to solve the final hatred. She is a terrifying woman." "That old woman cannot be classified as a woman, otherwise it would be too difficult for other women." "It can't be said that way. Any woman has her own personality to some extent. Grandma is just more obvious." "You are a monk, so you don't like women. But you just said that the old woman is a good person!" "She is indeed a good person. Because she visits Qingshuitang every day, offering beads to Guanyin Bodhisattva and getting close to Guanyin Bodhisattva."

"She does chant Buddha often." "Yes! There are many believers in the world who do bad things outside and chant Buddha immediately when they get home; do all the bad things done by demons, and then go to the temple to chant sutras and chant Buddha. Such people firmly believe that even if they beat people and kill people, they can be cured by just reciting Buddha's name. Karma, you can be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. There is really nothing that people can do about them!" After Zean finished speaking, he went to the dark waterfall pool and shouted loudly: "Hey! Miss Atong!"

Another eight were surprised: "Ah? Mother!" Ashan also noticed the voice, and looked up with leopard-like eyes. "Whose voice is that?" Although she heard the sound, she didn't relax at all as she grabbed the corpse's hair and the hand holding the dagger. "It seems to be calling Atong's name, ah! It's calling again." "How strange! The only one who will come here to look for Atong is Jotaro." "That's the voice of an adult..." "I seem to have heard this voice somewhere." "Ah! Oops... Mother, don't cut off your head! Someone is coming here with a lantern."

"What! Coming this way?" "There are two! We must not be found by them, mother!" The mother and son who had been quarreling endlessly stood on the same front as soon as they encountered danger.Youba was very anxious, but his mother was extremely calm. "Wait a moment!" Grandma still didn't let go of the corpse. "I have already achieved this step. If I leave without taking the most important head, how can I prove to the elders in my hometown that I have killed Atong... Wait for me, I will take her head now." Youba covered his eyes and shouted:

"what!" Ashan knelt on a small branch with a knife, and was about to chop off the head of the corpse, but Yatba couldn't stand it any longer. Suddenly, Grandma slurred her speech and seemed surprised.She shook off the corpse, staggered a few steps back, and fell to the ground. "No! No!" She shook her hands and tried to stand up, but couldn't. Youba leaned over and asked in surprise: "What? What's wrong?" "Look at this!" "what?" "This is not A Tong! This corpse looks like a beggar or a sick man, and it is a man."

"Ah! It's a ronin." Youba was even more shocked after carefully examining the man's appearance. "Strange! I know this person." "What! Do you know him?" "He is called Chibi Bashima, and he cheated me of all my money. Why did this Bashima, who dared to dig out the eyes of a living horse, fall here?" Youba couldn't figure it out.Except for Aoki Tanzaemon, an ascetic monk in the Amitabha Temple in the nearby Komatsu Valley, or Shu Shi, who was murdered by eighty horses and was finally rescued, knew the truth. "Who? Is the person there Atong girl?"

Suddenly, the voice of monk Ze'an sounded behind the two of them, and the shadow of the lantern also appeared. "what!" Youba jumped, of course he could escape faster than Ashanpo who was sitting on the ground. Zean ran over. "Ah! It's grandma!" He suddenly grabbed the skirt of Ashanpo's back. Zean held Ashan's neck tightly, and shouted into the darkness: "The one who wants to run away—isn't it Youba? You actually abandoned your old mother, where do you want to run away? Coward! Unfilial son! Stop!" Grandma tried to break free even though she was pressed under Zean's knee, she bluffed and shouted: "Who are you? Where are you from?" Seeing that Masuhachi had no intention of turning back, Zean slightly relaxed and held Ashanpo's hand: "Don't remember me? Grandma, you are still old after all!" "Ah! It's the monk Ze'an!" "You're surprised, aren't you?" "What words!" Grandma shook her white-haired head vigorously: "The beggar monk who wandered in the dark is now living in Kyoto!" "yes!" Zean smiled back and continued: "As Grandma said, I have been staying in Liusheng Valley and Quanzhou for a while. I didn't come to Kyoto until last night. I heard the unexpected news at the hotel where I stayed. That's why I've been looking for you since dusk!" "What's your business?" "I also want to see Atong." "Oh?" "Old woman!" "What for?" "Where did Atong go?" "I have no idea!" "It's impossible for you not to know." "My old woman, I didn't tie Ah Tong with a rope!" Holding the lantern, the waiter at the hotel standing behind said: "Ah! Monk! There are bloodstains here, new bloodstains!" Looking at the place illuminated by the light, Ze An's expression was a little stiff. Ashanpo took this opportunity to get up suddenly and run away. Zean turned his head, stood where he was and shouted loudly: "Stop! Granny, you left your hometown to clear your shame; now you want to bring shame on your family before you go back? Do you leave your hometown because you love your son, but you have the heart to make your son unhappy?" This remark did not seem to come from Ze'an's mouth, but it seemed that the universe was scolding grandma angrily. Grandma stopped suddenly, the wrinkles on her face showed a look of reluctance: "What are you clamoring for! You say I've tarnished the reputation of the family, and you say I've made Youba unlucky?" "That's right!" "Fool!" Ash sneered.No matter what others say, she still said seriously: "Do people like you who eat alms rice, borrow other people's monasteries, and shit in the wilderness know what is a family voice, what is loving a son, and what is the most suffering in the world? You only know what others say, you only know what to eat It’s just the food that everyone has worked so hard to cultivate.” "Your words are really heartbreaking! There are such people in the world, and I am also sad. When I was in Qibao Temple, I felt that no one was as eloquent as Grandma, but I didn't expect that it is still the case today." "Ha! My old woman still has great hopes for the world, do you think I just rely on my mouth?" "Don't talk about these, and don't care about the past, I want to talk to you about other things." "What's up?" "Grandma, did you tell Youba to kill Atong? Your mother and son killed Atong together, didn't you?" After hearing this, Grandma craned her neck and laughed loudly: "Takuan! Even if you walk with a lantern, you have to wear your eyes! Are your eyes blind or are they just for decoration?" Ze'an was taunted by her grandma and didn't know what to do. Ignorance always prevails over intelligence, and the ignorant can ignore the other's knowledge.Smart people with little knowledge always take advantage of arrogant and ignorant people. Ze An was scolded by her grandma for being blind or an ornament.I had no choice but to go over to check the dead body by myself, and it really wasn't A-Tong. He immediately felt relieved. Grandma asked in a resentful tone: "Zean, don't worry! You are the matchmaker who matched Musashi and Atong." Takuan did not refute her. "You can think so if you want. Grandma, I know you have always been very confident, but how do you deal with this dead body?" "This person has long been lying on the side of the road waiting to die. Although Heba hacked him, we can't blame him. If this person is left alone, he will die by the side of the road." The waiter interjected: "I saw this ronin just now. There seems to be something wrong with his head. He is drooling, walking on the street waddlingly, and he seems to have been hit hard on the head, with a serious injury." Grandma thought that these things had nothing to do with her, so she went to the road to look for her son.After Ze'an told the waiter in the store to dispose of the corpse, he followed Grandma. Grandma was very displeased, she turned her head and was about to speak harshly to Ze'an, when she saw a figure under the shade of a tree and whispered: "Mother, mother!" Grandma was overjoyed and went to the shade of the tree. It turned out to be another eight. The son was a son after all, and she thought he had run away, but it turned out that he had been worried about the safety of the old mother.She was overjoyed at her son's kindness.The mother and son looked back at Ze'an behind them and whispered to each other.It seemed that they were still afraid of Ze'an, and the two immediately ran towards the foot of the mountain. After watching the mother and son leave, Ze'an said to himself: "No... It's useless to talk like them. If misunderstandings can be eliminated in the world, people can reduce a lot of suffering." He didn't rush to catch up, because finding Atong was the top priority. But what happened to Atong?where is she Undoubtedly, Atong has escaped from Yatachi's mother and son.Ze'an was overjoyed just now.But maybe because of the bloody light just now, before seeing Atong return safely, he was always restless and unable to calm down.He planned to look for it before dawn. He had just made up his mind when he saw the waiter in the shop summon several guards to come down the cliff carrying seven or eight lanterns. It seemed that the corpse of Ronin Chibi Bashima was to be buried under the cliff, so a group of people dug the soil with hoes and shovels, making creepy noises in the dark night. As soon as the cave was dug, I heard someone shouting for help. "Ah! Here's someone dying, and this time it's a beautiful woman!" About ten meters away from the pit, there is a small puddle formed by the tributaries of the waterfall. Weeds are overgrown on it, so it is difficult to be found. "People are not dead yet." "Are you still angry?" "Just fainted." Seeing everyone gathering together with lanterns, Ze'an was about to run over to find out what they were arguing about.At this moment, the waiter in the hotel also called Ze An loudly.