Chapter 9 Chapter nine

Two bearers carried Di Gong's sedan chair through the crowd.There used to be several Buddhist temples and nunneries on the long temple street, and the incense is very beautiful.Later, a fire burned most of the street, leaving only ruined walls and piles of rubble.The only intact Minwu Temple is at the southernmost end of Temple Street. The sedan chair stopped at the mountain gate of Minwu Temple, and the bearer kept wiping the sweat from his forehead with his sleeves.Di Gong gave the sedan chair gold and asked the bearer, "How long will it take to get to the east gate?" The bearer replied: "If Mr. Xiang takes the sedan chair to take the main road, it will take about half an hour. If he takes the small road instead, he will be there within two miles."

Di Gong nodded.He understood that Song Xiucai went to the Black Fox Temple from the shopkeeper Meng's house in the east gate so quickly.Di Gong ordered the bearer to wait under the screen wall in front of the temple, and he went to the temple for half an hour before taking the sedan chair back to the Yamen. Di Gong walked into the mountain gate of Minwu Temple, and hurried through the hall to the back gate.He wanted to go out through the back door and go straight to the Black Fox Temple without the bearers waiting outside the temple. When he walked through the meditation room in the left wing, he suddenly stopped in panic.Looking in through the window lattice, I saw that Master Ruyi was curled up and taking a nap on the Zen bed.Di Gong was suspicious in his heart, and he took a closer look, but it turned out to be a pile of tattered cassocks belonging to Master Ruyi, with a wooden fish and a string of rosary beads on the cassocks.Except for a blue lantern, there was no sign of anyone.

Di Gong walked out from the half-collapsed back door of the East Division of the temple, and after walking a few dozen steps along a stone road among the wild pine forests, he saw the tower of the south gate. There are quite a few people coming in and out of the south gate, most of them are visiting relatives and relatives during the Mid-Autumn Festival.Many people held lanterns and moon cakes in their hands.People in the distance have already lit up lights, twinkling and shining with the stars in the sky. Di Gong bought a wind lamp in a small shop and hurried out of the south gate.Not long after leaving the south gate, I saw two tall and leaning gateposts.Di Gong saw that under the doorpost there were indeed several dilapidated coarse porcelain offering plates, and there were some fruits, wine and food on the plates.He understood that these two pillars were the gates of Heihu Ci.Through the two stone pillars is a thick black hazel bush.Duke Di lifted up the lower skirt of his long robe and tucked it into his waist, rolled up his long sleeves, and picked up a stick from the ground.Holding the lantern in one hand, he pushed aside the bushes with a stick in the other, and walked towards the temple in a zigzag way.

At this time, the surrounding area was silent.Occasionally, there were one or two bleak chirping sounds in the distance.Di Gong could not help admiring Little Phoenix's boldness, this place is a desolate and terrifying place even during the day. Suddenly, there was a rustling sound from the waist-high grass in front of him, and a pair of green eyes gleamed in the middle of the black grass.Duke Di could not help but squeeze the stick in his hand even tighter.He lifted a stone and threw it hard at the eye.A sharp cry was accompanied by a commotion, and it took a long time to calm down.Di Gong thought to himself that there are indeed foxes here.Although foxes generally do not harm people, he knows that foxes and wild dogs often suffer from madness. If people are bitten by them, they will be infected with this madness, and finally die of heat and thirst, and there is no cure.At this time, he regretted that he was so reckless that he forgot to bring a dagger or spear, and now he could only rely on the stick in his hand as the only weapon of defense.

The path gradually widened, and a wasteland was exposed in front of the grass, which looked very bleak under the moonlight.A dark courtyard wall built of stones appeared in front of it, and the wall was covered with wild vines Ai Xiao.There is a courtyard in the wall, and several places of the courtyard wall have collapsed.Three or four red foxes and black foxes scurry around, as if startled by the arrival of strangers.There was a musty stench in the courtyard.A stone statue of a fox was erected in a corner of the courtyard, squatting high on the stone seat.There was also a long strip of red cloth wrapped around the fox's neck—the only sign of human presence here.

Di Gong walked up the dilapidated bluestone steps, and there were clumps of weeds growing in the crevices of the stones.He knocked on the door of the temple with his stick, but there was no answer.Di Gongzhuang bravely rushed over, and suddenly saw a wooden puppet standing in front of the candle in the corner of the temple.The puppet's head is a dead man's skeleton, and a pair of eye sockets with its mouth open are facing Duke Di. Di Gong suddenly felt a chill behind his back, and the tip of a knife was pointed at his waist. "I have to kill you here!" A young woman's trembling voice sounded behind him.

Di Gong looked back in surprise, only to see that the woman was very slender and very handsome.She was wearing a tight brown shirt and patched trousers.A pair of wide-open eyes looked at Di Gong in panic, and the hand holding the sharp knife kept trembling. "Oh, it's a beautiful knife." Duke Dee said softly, "there's a shining blue light on the edge of the knife." The woman lowered her head and was looking at the blade, when Di Gong grabbed her wrist: "Zhu Hong, stop messing around! Little Phoenix called me here. I saw Song Yiwen too!" "The fox is running around. I thought it was Mr. Song. I don't know you. How do you know my name?" Zhu Hong asked suspiciously.

"Can't we find a place to sit? Zhu Hong, I want to talk to you carefully." Di Gong said, and returned the knife to Zhu Hong. "You have to pay attention to my lover! He is a very jealous person." Zhu Hong put the knife into her sleeve, walked towards the wooden puppet, and straightened the puppet's clothes.He patted the skeleton lightly again.So she took the candle from the alcove, and led Degong into a broken arched stone door. Inside the stone gate is the inner hall, and there is a stench everywhere.Zhu Hong put the candle on the broken wooden table, then pulled a bamboo stool and sat down, and Di Gong also sat down on the bamboo stool beside the table.Half of the temple wall collapsed, covered with wild vines, a group of foxes were squatting on the wall and staring at them with green eyes.A gust of cool wind blew by, and the dead leaves of the wild vines made a rustling sound.

Di Gong felt cold and chilly, but Zhu Hong was sweating profusely, his body was like coal fire.Seeing her wiping the sweat from her head with her hands from time to time, a red cloth was tied between her disheveled and dirty hair. "Why didn't Mr. Song come today?" Zhu Hong asked as soon as she sat down. "He is very busy, so he entrusted me to tell you that he will not come tonight." Zhu Hong nodded dumbly. "I know he is very busy. He has to look through many files. He is looking for the person who killed his father. It has been eighteen years, and he wants to avenge his father."

"Zhu Hong, do you know who his enemy is?" "I don't know, and Mr. Song doesn't know either. He will find it." "Are you an orphan, Zhu Hong?" Duke Di asked again. "No! My father came to visit me recently. He is a very good man." Suddenly her voice turned sad, "He never lets me see his face clearly when he comes here. He said he was ugly and afraid I saw that I didn’t love him anymore. But that day, Little Phoenix ran into him on the way here and said he was not ugly at all. Why did he hide it from me?” "Zhu Hong, where's your mother?"

"Dead early." "Then who raised you? Is it your father?" "No. I gave it to people since I was a child and resold it a few times. Then I escaped and they chased them here. I threw them with dead people's skulls. They were terrified and ran away screaming. One even broke his leg. .Haha!" She burst out laughing. Di Gong saw that she was shivering uncontrollably, and her body was covered in cold sweat like rain. "Mr. Song will come every two or three days with his flute. My fox and I like to hear him play the flute. Sometimes he plays and sings to me, which makes me very happy. Mr. Song treats me very well. He said he To take me to a happy place, he said he would never marry me. I said I would never marry anyone, and I don't want to leave here, I have my lover, and I don't want to leave him." "Didn't your father say he would take you elsewhere?" "I told Mr. Song what he said. He said that it is best for me to stay here and not go anywhere. I should be with my lover and the fox. He is right." Suddenly she coughed violently, "Recently, I have a headache and a dry throat. I'm tired, sweating non-stop, and can't eat." As he spoke, his teeth clashed and his whole body shivered. Seeing that she was seriously ill, Di Gong decided in his heart to send someone to pick her up tomorrow. "You have to watch out for foxes biting you!" said Duke Dee. She got angry when she heard this: "How do you say that? My fox never bites me. We eat, sleep, and dance together. The fox often licks my face." "Listen, Zhu Hong, some foxes are sick, just like people are sick. They bite you when they are sick, and you will get sick: dry throat, headache, coughing, and cold sweat. Okay, Zhu Hong, I'll come back tomorrow look at you." "Oh, go back and tell Mr. Song, please ask him to bring my lover's filigree hairpin tomorrow." Di Gong nodded and left the Black Fox Temple.