Chapter 14 second quarter

After that, the three of us went to the dry paint room next to the workshop.Since we claimed to be here to collect materials, we had to put on a show at first. "I thought you might escape soon." As soon as Maya opened the wooden door of the drying room, she said so immediately.As soon as I stepped inside, I immediately understood the meaning of her words. "Uh-" There was a strange smell in the room.I don’t know how to describe it, it’s like the smell of fermented fruit, it’s an extremely unpleasant smell that I’ve never smelled—— "Teacher, there are indeed people who hate the smell of lacquer. I guessed that you might not be able to bear it."

Maya smiled mischievously as she invited us into the house.In her right hand, she holds a paintbrush and a rice bowl-like pottery, probably in the process of coloring. "Are Mr. Mabi and Ms. Kitami all right?" "I can't..." Rin also covered his nose with a handkerchief, frowning. "Wow, I can't stand it..." Zhenbei also said so, but when he turned his head, he saw a happy expression on his face. "Really, you don't like this taste, do you?" "Do you still have to ask? This is a traditional Japanese taste. The English word for lacquer is paint. This is a taste that Japanese people have been familiar with since ancient times. Ah, I can't stand it."

It's really hard to breathe, like breathing fresh air on a plateau. "I'm so happy that I finally found a soul mate." Maya showed a happy expression. “I like it too. The vegetable juice-like aroma of fresh lacquer is also great, but I prefer the aroma after a period of fermentation.” She even said it was fragrance.I glanced at Rin and saw her bored expression, maybe she was jealous of Maya.I didn't want to think too much, breathed lightly, and walked around the room, wanting to end the visit to the drying room as soon as possible.The interior is very messy. On the workbench in the middle are buckets containing bamboo chips and soil, and some tools that are not the same as those in the workshop next door. From the small window on the wall, you can see the dormitory and the gravel road.

"It's dirty in here, it's a disgrace. It's messy because no one comes in while it's being painted." "—are you doing this?" The two Buddha statues placed in the back of the room came into my eyes. Both of them were about the same height as me. Even I knew the names of the two Buddha statues. "The one on the right is Dahei Tianshen, and the one on the left is Bu Daishen." "That's right, I'm making the Seven Lucky Gods, the Daikoku Tenjin has been painted, and I'm painting the Canvas God. I have to make five later, and I'm almost too busy."

The Daikoku God on the right side is almost completed. The three-headed body feels very important. The smiling and cheerful expression feels very blessed, and it seems that Maya’s personality can be felt from it.The delicate chiseling and coordinated colors all over the body show Maya's skill as a master of Buddha statues.On the left side with a big belly and leaning against a big bag, the hot Daigami also has a happy smile on his face, completely in line with the image of Fukushen.Only the part below the chest is painted, and the upper body shows a tea-brown undertone. "It turns out that the paint is this color, not red or black."

"If you mix red or black paint, it becomes red and black paint, but raw lacquer is brown. It's lighter when it's fresh, kind of like the color of coffee milk." "So that's the case, let me take a look." I put the backpack on my right shoulder and reached out with the other hand to touch the bald head of the bag god.The bald head is very comfortable to the touch. "How is this done?" "First use clay to make the overall shape, and then stick it on the outside with lacquered linen, usually five or six layers. After the rough model is completed, cut it from the back and dig out the clay inside."

No wonder a longitudinal crack of about 30 centimeters can be vaguely seen on the back. "Then, in a paper-like state, use lacquer to draw details such as eyes and nose, and finally paint and finish." Maya smiled slightly. "Teacher Daowei, don't touch it all the time, it will be dangerous if you fall down, because the belly of the God of Bags is very big." "Oh, is it?" I felt that my nose could no longer bear the strong smell in the room. Looking back, Rin covered his nose with a handkerchief, and the word "limit" seemed to be written on his face.

"Miss Kitami, are you okay? Do you want to go out?" I was caring about her on the surface, but I was actually making excuses for myself, and even I felt disgusted.Rin nodded obediently. I urged Zhenbei, who was still reluctant to leave, and walked out of the drying room together.After taking a deep breath, the cells in the whole body seemed to be revitalized immediately. "Ah, by the way, Ms. Maya—Mr. Okajima is back, that's great." I turned around and asked at the door, and Maya showed a surprised expression. "Who said this?" "Ah? The owner of Songyue just now—"

After looking left and right, Maya whispered: "Mr. Okajima hasn't come back yet, nor has he called back." "Ah..." I looked back at Mabe.I really opened my mouth with an "oh". When Matsuzuki mentioned Okajima's name just now, it seemed that he only meant this apprentice. "Where did he go? It shouldn't be possible to walk anywhere from here." "It should be that I took a taxi to the station, and then took a train to somewhere—ah, don't mention Mr. Okajima in front of the master, he will be in a bad mood." "Okay, I'll be careful." We left the paint booth.

"Daowei, it's about time we went to see King Wushu Samoming." We walked on the gravel road that divided Ruixiang House in two. The leaves of maple and zelkova on the left were beautifully dotted with turf, and the two rows of cedar boards parallel to the gravel road exuded a faint fragrance. Although the high fences around have played a windproof effect, the cold air before the twelfth lunar month is still biting. "I brought a lot of warm packs, do you want to use them?" I opened the leather bag and showed them a large number of warm bags.Rin excitedly took three of them, and immediately took them apart and stuffed them into his clothes.

"Did the Thousand-Handed Avalokitesvara that was placed just now really laugh?" Rin covered the lower half of her face with a white scarf, so her voice was a bit muffled. "Well, I did see a slight twitch in the cheek..." "But Daowei, no matter how you look at it, it's just an ordinary wooden statue." Mabi said while turning up the collar of his black coat, his long hair hitting his thin face. "I also confirmed the ten faces other than the front. I think one of them might be a smiley expression. Maybe that night, under the dim light of the flashlight, you saw that face, but you still didn't see it. arrive." "Ok……" I tilt my head noncommittally.I also wanted to ask him, what exactly did I see? "That's a stepped kiln, wow, it really looks like a woodworm." Rin put her hand on her forehead, stood on tiptoe, and looked in front of the gravel road that branched to the left.There is no smoke coming from the chimney today. "The temple of King Wushu Samoming I photographed is on the opposite side of that kiln—go here." I led them to the right side of the gravel road.After a while, he walked to the tall ghost needle grass. "Right here, behind this—" "What are you doing here?" A voice suddenly came from behind. "Why don't you listen to your persuasion?" It was Tang Jianmu's father carrying a bamboo broom.As he strode toward us, he gritted his teeth and moved his cod roe lips as he spoke.When he finally came to us, he thumped his broomstick on the ground and threatened me with wide-eyed eyes.I was really frightened by him, shrinking back with animal instinct. "Ah, but, Miss Maya said, I told you we were coming..." "what?" Father Tang Jianmu tilted his bean face, took out the mobile phone from the pocket of his overalls, and operated it neatly, and the music of "upgrade" immediately rang. "Well, let me take a look. Uh—continue the interview—the master also agreed—if he has time—to show them around. Oh, so that's what happened." Father Tang Jianmu snorted softly and put the phone back in his pocket. "Since Maya has a photo, I have nothing to say. I will show you around and introduce you. However, you are not allowed to ask unnecessary things like last time." His tone was a little sad. "Okay, of course I—" After Mabi introduced himself, Rin also bowed by giving his name.Father Tang Jianmu looked at them suspiciously. Rin found himself covering his face with a scarf, and quickly took off the scarf. He suddenly showed a blank expression, and then said with a smile on his face. "Oh, so your name is Xiao Lin, what a good name. Xiao Lin sounds very easy to pronounce." This gardener seems to judge a book by its cover. "So, are you going to see the God of Fire now?" Father Tang Jianmu turned his eyes back to me, and the indifferent tone just now has disappeared. "Yeah, I kind of care." "You mean the cracking thing?" "Cracks are also one of them, and..." Because the Buddha statue is bleeding.I didn't say that, not knowing how to explain it, for fear of annoying him again. "Okay, forget it, I will help you open the way, wait a minute." The impetuous old man Tang Jianmu brushed away the ghost needle grass with a bamboo broom in his hand. I was relieved that he didn't go any further, and quickly followed his footsteps. "Okay, here we are—" The four of us have already walked through the grass. The fir forest is right in front of you, and the inside is the tall Kennen Temple fence.In front of the fence is the simple temple, and the pomegranate tree growing close to the temple seems to have lost a lot of leaves, and the branches are almost bare.Maybe the leaves are falling not because of winter, but because of pests.The remaining few leaves are still covered with white silk like spider webs. I moved my eyes to the temple, and the King Wushu Samoming placed there seemed to be more shocking than the last time I saw it.Maybe it's because of seeing that wonderful photo that I feel this way.There was a raging flame burning behind the Buddha statue. He raised his four hands forcefully, and stared forward with his three big eyes—— "Really, the head is split." Zhenbei stood in front of the temple and said softly, "It's a pity, although it's not a very large Buddha statue, it's really well carved—let me take a look." He bent his slender body and looked at the cracks in the head of the Buddha statue. "It turned out to be empty inside. Huh? There seems to be something..." "Should it be leaves?" Father Tang Jianmu moved closer to Zhenbei and looked inside the crack. "Daowei, do you have a lighter?" I handed the 100-yen lighter to Mabi, and he illuminated the inside of the crack. "Well, Mr. Tang Jianmu, you are right. I thought it was something, but I didn't expect it to be just a pomegranate leaf——Kitami, give me the paper." "Oh, good." Rin took out the A4 notebook from her purse and tore off three sheets.After taking it, Mabi rolled it up deftly with his fingertips.After all, Rin has followed Zhenbei for many years, and when he heard him say "paper", he didn't misunderstand it as facial tissue. "what are you going to do?" Zhenbei carefully stuffed the paper roll in.Father Tang Jianmu looked at him in surprise.Rin and I looked at Mabi's hand a little nervously.I don't know if there is a red liquid in it?It might actually be more reassuring.Whether intentional or accidental, it is more acceptable to me to have a Buddha statue bleed for some physical reason. "—So it's water." However, when the paper roll was taken out, the front end only absorbed a little transparent liquid. "It could be rain seeping through the cracks in the roof, or the wind blowing in." Father Tang Jianmu stuck his head into the temple and looked inside the roof. "should be." Mabe brought the tip of the paper roll up to his nose to smell it, then licked it again, it seemed that it was really water. "Mr. Tang Jianmu, I heard that this Buddha statue is made of wood—what kind of material is it?" "I remember it was laurel wood - usually Kiso cypress or nanmu is used to carve Buddha statues, but because both are high-quality wood, it is not easy to buy. However, we have some pipes, and when carving Buddha statues as commodities, they will be I buy Kiso cypress or nanmu to carve. But when Buddhist masters practice—or, like this Buddha statue, plan to worship at home, they use cheaper materials. Katsura wood is only half the price of Kiso cypress.” "I heard from the end of the road that this Buddha statue was placed in the dormitory before. Is it in the toilet?" I was surprised to hear Mabei's unexpected words.Why put it in the toilet? Unexpectedly, Tang Jianmu's father said: "That's right." He nodded repeatedly. "You know a lot about Buddha statues." "Let me be a researcher." "Teacher, how do you know?" Rin asked what was on my mind. "Since ancient times, there has been a habit of offering sacrifices to King Wushu Shamoming in the toilet, because this is the King Ming who eliminates pollution, so it is placed in the toilet." "It turns out to be a deodorant." Zhenbei ignored my speech and turned to look at Father Tang Jianmu. "This is a Buddha statue that is enshrined in the dormitory where all the Buddha statue masters live, but the owner of the Songyue house agreed to let Jiu Ze carve it-it can be seen that the house owner Song Yue appreciates Jiu Ze's craftsmanship." Father Tang Jianmu stroked his bald head, and looked down at King Wushu Shamoming with deep feeling. "I really appreciate it, and I also cultivated him carefully. It's just a lot of love." "Is it like what you did to Miss Maya now?" I was a little surprised to hear Rin say that.I don't think there's anything special about Satsuki's attitude towards Maya. "How do you know?" Father Tang Jianmu was surprised from the bottom of his heart, and looked at Rin carefully, "The owner of Songyue seldom reveals his inner feelings." "No, uh, I just have this feeling..." After Rin replied, she looked away in embarrassment. Oh, it turned out to be like this-I finally realized it.She can sometimes read the inner thoughts of others.During the events in Fukushima Prefecture, Mabi referred to her powers as "psychic abilities".She has the same ability as the famous psychic.In the words of Zhenbei, this ability is "the ability to reason and interpret the countless elements that a person expresses unconsciously, and to understand the information hidden in the brain of the other party."In other words, Rin can feel the other person's thoughts from other people's words, actions and expressions.Originally, women were stronger than men in this area, and Rin's ability in this area was even more prominent, but she didn't like this ability, and tried to forget it as much as possible, but she still exerted this power unconsciously. "Is it a woman's intuition?" Tang Jianmu's father seemed to be saying, although he missed it, he was not far away. "Xiao Rin is right. The owner of Songyue is very sure of Maya's strength. Of course, in terms of technology, she is better than Mr. Torii, Mr. Wei Ze and Mr. Okajima-how should I put it, the owner of Songyue is sure It's her 'heart' when she makes Buddha statues. Well, at least I think so." Father Tang Jianmu, who was wearing overalls, folded his hands, squinted his eyes and looked up at the winter sky. "By the way, let me show you this. It was given to me by Maya after carving it last year. It's also a small amulet. Don't you think the face of this amulet is more friendly?" After he took out the small amulet from his pocket and showed it to us, he put it away carefully. "By the way, Mr. Tang Jianmu, I want to ask you one thing as a reference." Facing the small temple, Zhenbei moved his face closer to King Wushu Samoming again. "When making a wooden statue, can we use the method of carving to make some moves on the statue? For example, make the statue crack in a specific part, or cause changes in appearance." Father Tang Jianmu shook his head without hesitation. "Whether it can be done or not, Buddha statue masters will not do this kind of thing." Then, he raised one eyebrow in surprise and looked at Mabi. "Could it be possible, you mean that the head of this Buddha statue will split because Mr. Jiu Ze deliberately moved his hands and feet?" "No, that's not what I meant..." Really ambiguous, Tang Jianmu's father tilted his head with even more suspicious eyes. "You said you were here to collect materials—what exactly are you going to collect?" "Uh," Zhenbei turned to look at Tang Jianmu's father, and said with a wry smile, "I don't know either."