Chapter 62 Section Fourteen

Grandpa said that the monk did not explain it to him in such detail at that time. The monk said: "Anyone who has answered the second couplet can enter the bridal chamber." "Enter the bridal chamber?" Grandpa only learned about Baogong's clever solution to the couplet case after he left Xiangyan Temple, so it was a natural reaction to feel surprised at the time. The monk said: "I can only give some pointers. Your father must have his own reason for leaving these seven characters. There is a description of ghosts and prostitutes in "Hundred Skills Drive". I have exchanged some alchemy with your father, and I have seen it by chance. that book."

"Hi..." The monk let out a long sigh, stopped talking, and hung his head down. When Grandpa called him again, he could no longer answer.A person next to him pushed the monk, but he remained motionless like a stone statue, and was also as cold as a stone statue.The man gasped, and put his finger under the monk's nose. "There is no breath. How can you say that you are dead?" the man said. Grandpa sadly said: "Master Monk, you can't just die like this. We haven't found the second half of the ancient book. Although I promised you to catch ghosts and prostitutes, without the second half, I have no certainty of victory. What if We can't find it, can you go back with peace of mind? You have to wait until we find that book if you die."

The monk had a cold expression on his face, and flies were crawling up and down his nose. Grandpa said to the monk who had no signs of life: "If I can't find the book by then, and you have returned home with peace of mind, who should I go to for help? You have helped countless people in your life, which can be said to be consummated. But dying You left me with an unsure thing before, and you can’t feel at ease on Huangquan Road.” "He's dead. What's the use of talking about it?" the person next to him comforted Grandpa. Suddenly, the fly on the monk's nose was frightened and flew to the incense table where the copper tripod was placed.

"Okay. I'll wait for you to find the ancient book." The monk slowly raised his drooping head, as if he just took a nap. Everyone backed away in fright, and asked in shock, "Are you a human or a ghost now?" The monk said weakly, "Come and feel my breath and you will know." One of them walked up to the monk timidly, and stretched out a finger in front of the monk's nostril tremblingly.The man didn't seem to believe in the tactile sensation of his fingers. He turned his head sideways and thought for a while, then said slowly, "Sure enough, I'm breathing." The rest of the people relaxed their hearts.

"Why are you alive again?" a person asked in a trembling voice. "Oh. I heard his words in the dark, and I think it makes sense. I have been pursuing alchemy all my life, chanting sutras, saving people and exorcising ghosts. Come on, it’s really not good. Send the Buddha to the west, I haven’t seen the Buddha to the west, how can I leave.” The monk was already struggling to speak, his voice fluctuating from high to low. Grandpa's words were originally just out of feeling, but unexpectedly he really called the monk back, and he really admired the power of the monk's alchemy from the bottom of his heart.

The monks and Taoists with advanced Taoism can generally predict their own life expectancy and fortune.But there is a big difference in their use of alchemy, especially when they are used on themselves.The monks pay attention to the five things are empty, and generally do not need to learn the alchemy to prolong life, but pursue the consummation of merit and virtue after death.Taoists, on the other hand, pay attention to self-cultivation and have a strong purpose. They strive to use what they have learned in their lives to resist natural aging and try their best to prolong life.Monks and crooked Taoists happen to be their own proofs.This is also the reason why one of them has a strong yang energy and the other has a heavy ghost energy.But in some special cases, they may go against their original intention.

Grandpa said there was another reason for the monk to come back.For hundreds of years, the Xiangyan Temple has been a single biography. After the master died, the apprentice had to arrange the master's funeral.After the death of the master, it is not allowed to bury it in the soil. Instead, a layer of gold powder is applied to the body, and it is placed in the merit hall according to the meditation posture of the master before his death.Gold powder is just the name of Buddhism, but actually brass powder is used. The Gongde Hall of Xiangyan Temple never allows outsiders to enter, but there are not a few people who secretly peep while burning incense and worshiping Buddha.It is said that there are already a dozen corpses inside, because the living monks have to paint the dead monks with gold powder every year, so all of them are shining with gold, which is not inferior to the stone Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the main hall.The bodies were all in good condition with no signs of decay.Some monks kept smiling, some were frowning, and some were serene. Now it seems that they are similar to the expressions of ordinary people.It seemed that the thick gold dust was not a dead body, but a living person.

But in this generation of monk, there is not a single disciple.Let me ask, in today's society, who is willing to hand over their son to a monk who has no fixed production to learn alchemy?Even if someone wants to learn, they dare not come to the truth, they just stay in thinking. The monk didn't have any disciples to arrange his funeral, so he naturally left uneasy. The monk said: "I will wait for you for another seven days at most. Within seven days, you must find the ancient book so that I can close my eyes with peace of mind. After I die, you will paint me with gold powder and place it in the Hall of Merit. Outsiders are allowed to enter, but who would have expected that there would be no successors under me? Back then, hundreds of people competed to be my master's apprentice, and my master chose me. Now I can't even choose a disciple..."

Grandpa nodded in commitment. "Okay. Let's go." After the monk finished speaking, he closed his eyes and resumed his motionless state. Grandpa and the others stepped out lightly and closed the open temple door.The door creaked, the knocker was rusty, and the red paint was peeling.There is a couplet on the door: "Being born is to save yourself, and entering the world is to save others." Back at Hong's house, Hong Chungeng saw that the matter had been revealed, and he and the pretending monk had already fled.Hong Dagang has a family and a house, so he can't just run away, but he has a thick skin, pretending that nothing happened, and when he sees people, he raises his head and chest, proud of himself.The villagers wanted to drive him out of the village, but his wife knelt down in front of the village head's house for two days and two nights.Seeing that he had children to support, the villagers tacitly allowed him to stay.But later, once Hong Dagang teased his big wolf dog with a piece of meat, the big wolf dog suddenly went berserk and bit Hong Dagang's lifeblood.

So the village was full of rumors, saying that Hong Dagang's lifeblood was bitten off by a dog, and he could no longer show off his might in front of his wife. When Hong Dagang heard the rumors, he blushed and reasoned with others.But the rumor spread farther and farther, and people from more than a dozen villages in the surrounding area laughed secretly when they saw Hong Dagang.Some jokingly asked him, do you want to squat down like a woman when you pee? Hong Dagang was angry for more than a month, and finally he was overwhelmed by the rumors and had a nervous breakdown. When he saw someone, he took off his pants, took it out to show them, and said, look, look, is it broken?

Since then, when people in the village saw him, they threatened him with sticks or brooms and told him to go away.More than ten years later, when I went home for the Chinese New Year, I heard from my grandfather that Hong Da had just entered the newly built mental hospital in the village, and now his spirit has improved a bit, and he can recognize acquaintances in the village.
"You guys made money today, and this story contains several other stories. Well, the time I've talked about today is long enough. Come back at midnight tomorrow." The student from Hunan smiled, "There are too many stories in this world. Rumors need to be screened out, if you easily believe in rumors, you may become an accomplice of the murderer." The clock on the wall ticks, ticks, ticks...