Chapter 3 second quarter

Although I was mentally prepared before, the mountain air near the twelfth lunar month was colder than I expected. As soon as I got out of the heated taxi, I shrank my neck like a turtle. "Thank you for your hard work." I took out banknotes from Hiroko's red envelope with "accommodation fee" written on it and handed them to the driver.He said "thank you" and backed away with a smile. "Okay, then—" I turned to look at the destination. The first thing that catches the eye is the fence on the left and right sides.That is the "Kennin Temple Fence" woven densely with bamboo.The astonishing height of the fence should be more than five meters, and only the front entrance part has a gap of about three meters. Two beautifully cut black pine trees stand on both sides of the entrance like gateposts.I walked in between the black pines.Perhaps because the tall fence played a role in blocking the wind, it didn't seem so cold inside.As soon as you walk in the door, you will find a parking lot paved with pebbles, with parking spaces for five cars separated by yellow and black ropes.Four commercial vans of the same type as Maya's were parked neatly in the parking space, and the front seat was empty, which should be Maya's parking space.

Behind the parking lot was a square building made of logs that looked like a huge log cabin.That is the Ruixiang room, right?There is a smaller building on the left, which is also made of logs. One big and one small feel like a parent-child, and there is a simple-looking toilet next to it. There was no one around.I walked across the parking lot and into what looked like Ruixiang House. The entrance to the building is on my left.There was a wooden door about six feet wide, and a mud-stained wheelbarrow was leaning against the wall beside the wooden door. "Okajima, are you carving the eyes of a Buddha statue?"

Suddenly a middle-aged woman's voice came from inside, reprimanding in a serious tone.I opened the wooden door and looked inside quietly—— There was a huge workbench in the middle of the concrete floor, and three people sat around it.The two people on the opposite side were wearing the same dark blue overalls as Maya's, probably the uniforms exclusively used by the Buddha statue makers in this workshop.The person who spoke just now was a slender woman with her back to me, only her overalls were white, does it mean something special? "Small amulets are the same as other Buddha statues. If you just use a chisel and a carving knife to carve out the shape, it is no different from a toy. You must welcome the Buddha into the wood."

Her voice was deep but powerful.While she was talking, her hands were not idle.She picked up a piece of wood that was as high as a hill and about the size of a mahjong tile on her left, looked at it in front of her eyes, and then pushed it to the opposite side of the workbench.Pushing the easier to carve to the right and the harder to carve to the left - no, it seems the other way around - I can't figure it out either.In short, she kept repeating this action.And among the two men who were concentrating on carving on the opposite side of the workbench, I don't know which one was Okajima who was reprimanded by her.One of the two men was slightly fat and the other was too thin. They were both in their forties, and they were lowering their heads to carve meticulously on the wood chips given to them by the woman.But the speed at which the woman handed out the wood chips far exceeded their carving speed, and the wood chips quickly piled up a hill in front of them.

——At this time. The slightly fat man raised his head suddenly, and frowned wonderingly when he saw me.The thin Buddha statue master beside him also opened his mouth slightly and raised his eyes.The woman standing in front of them noticed it and turned to look at me—all three eyes were on me.I look at the woman in front of me. "Hello, uh..." Such a pretty face - this is my first impression of her.That woman is not young anymore, about forty years old.Or maybe she was older, her doll-like appearance made it impossible to tell her actual age.Her skin is very white, but it is not as white as snow, but like a marble sculpture, with subtle shadows in the white.His lustrous hair was almost shoulder length, slightly disheveled with sweat, and a few were stuck to his cheeks.A pair of expressionless eyes behind her bangs stared at me. For some reason, her gaze reminded me of the snow girl in ghost stories.

"Uh, excuse me." Before I finished speaking, she asked in a cold voice: "Mr. Tang Jianmu, who is he?" "have no idea." The answer sounded right next to my ears. I turned my head in surprise and found a bald old man looking at my face from a distance of 30 centimeters.I couldn't help jumping back a step, looking at each other.His face felt like a soybean.A palm-sized face with shiny skin, but lips as thick as cod roe.He was wearing gray overalls and held a bamboo broom in one hand—the gardener Mr. Tang Jianmu that Maya said seemed to be the person in front of him.

"Who are you?" Father Tang Jianmu asked me with an extremely exaggerated surprised expression. "My name is Daowei, I met Miss Maya on the road just now—" "Huh? You're Maya's friend? Why are you dressed like this?" "Uh..." Didn't Maya contact him just now? "Did you receive the text message just now? The text message from Ms. Maya..." "SMS? Oh, the reception here is not good, so I can't receive it right away." Father Tang Jianmu said "Let me take a look", took out the mobile phone from the pocket of his overalls, and operated it neatly.After a while, the upgraded music in "Dragon Quest" sounded.He held the phone up to his eyes, pursed his cod roe lips into an O shape, and looked at the screen.

"Uh—please replace me—bring a friend of a friend—to visit the workshop—hahaha, so that's what happened." Father Tang Jianmu put the phone back in his pocket, and immediately bowed to me with a smile on his face. "I'm so sorry, let's go then." Without waiting for my answer, he turned and left, put the broom on his shoulder, and strode out of the workshop. "Ah, wait a minute..." I bowed to the others and hurriedly chased after Tang Jianmu's father.

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