Hearing the strange noise, they hurriedly came out of the low broken wooden door, and immediately their eyes were straight: they saw that the dirt road where they came to the village, smoke and dust were everywhere, and hundreds of villagers in tattered clothes, holding all kinds of broken bowls, ran over from that side.

They didn't think much about it, and hurriedly greeted them, but the villagers ignored them, and ran directly past them to the large and small broken thatched huts.

In the crowd of runners, there was a group of unclothed children, with shaggy and messy hair, their hair covered with loess, their faces were dark, and they stared at them curiously with dark eyes.

Yifeng looked at the senior brothers, and the fire monkey immediately said, "Let's go, let's go to a house first." ”

As they spoke, they followed a villager to his dilapidated thatched hut, and when they entered, the scene in the house was probably the same as that of Lao Suo's house just now, with the same four walls, but the difference was that on the broken wooden bed of his house, there was still an old woman who was already unconscious.

The villager didn't care about Yifeng and the others who came after him, he shouted "Mother" in his mouth, and stretched the dusty gruel in his hand to the old woman's mouth.

The old woman's sallow and thin face was very stiff, and she looked like she was about to die, and the fire monkey was even worried about whether she had passed away, and wanted to go over to check her pulse, but was dragged by Shuli.

Finally, under the efforts of the villagers' hiss, the old woman slowly opened her eyes, and she couldn't see clearly, but she heard her son's voice.

The old woman didn't drink the porridge, but asked tremblingly, "Son, today, do you want to eat?"

The villagers nodded again and again, and told the old woman to drink quickly.

The old woman pushed away the bowl of porridge and said, "I don't want to drink it, I'll give it to your daughter-in-law first, what about your daughter-in-law?" she looked up at the door with difficulty, but only saw a few faint figures shaking.

The villagers lowered their heads and choked: "Mother, Xiaocui, she's gone!" She said that she doesn't want to live this kind of life of going out to beg for food every day!"

When the old woman heard this, she let out a dry howl and whimpered.

Yifeng felt a pang in his heart, and when the fire monkey and the others saw this human tragedy, they had no intention of begging for water, and came out of the broken thatched hut, behind which were the helpless and useless cries of the villagers and the old woman.

They stood on the only dirt road in the village, and the thatched huts along the road were all called for their fathers and mothers, and the voices were similar, one after another, wafting in the cool autumn breeze.

The bare-bottomed little children didn't go into the thatched house, but crouched in the corner, looking at them timidly.

Xiugu smiled and beckoned them to come over, but the children stared at it, but they didn't dare to come.

Xiu Gu took out a cake from the backpack, the group of children had very sharp eyes, and suddenly rushed around, the tall one quickly tore off the cake in Xiu Gu's hand, and the others squeezed her in the middle, and called "sister" with a childish voice to beg for food, and some of them dared to directly turn up Xiu Gu's backpack.

The fire monkey hurriedly pulled Xiu Gu over, and Shuli also stepped forward to block the group of children, so that Xiu Gu could break free.

The group of children stopped pestering Xiugu, but they didn't go away, they took a few steps back and looked at Shuli and the others together, the big cake was like a snowflake falling on a fire pit, tearing and struggling among the children a few times, and then it melted and disappeared into the children's mouths.

When Shuli saw that they did not disperse, he crouched down and asked them, "Where is your father?"

The group of children headed towards the dirt road, pointing in different directions.

Shuli asked again, "Where did you come from?"

The group of children pointed to the entrance of the village, and an older boy glanced at Shuli, not afraid of him, and said, "Every day we go out at home, walk a long way, go to the town to beg for food, and then walk a long, long way back. ”

Shuli continued to ask, "Can you get food every day? Have you ever gone to school?"

The boy replied, "No, sometimes they come back with an empty bowl." But there are good times, if you catch some temples to put porridge, you can eat to your heart's content, but we are not allowed to bring it back, but we can bring it back secretly. He smiled slyly.

Shuli turned around and glanced at each other with the fire monkey and the others, and Yifeng and Xiugu pursed their lips and did not speak.

The little boy continued, "Master, can I follow you to the temple to be a monk? I see that there are so many delicious things in the temple, and I can't finish them, including white porridge and pastries. Don't worry, I have been to school before, and I can recognize the scriptures. ”

The group of children made a fuss, one by one scrambling to shout, "I'm going too." ”

Shuli waved his hand to stop them and asked, "What about your husband?"

The little boy said: "Mr. used to live in the village, I have to go to school every day, Mr. often beats my palms, but the food cooked by my wife is so fragrant, I want to go to school."

"Then there was no rain for many days, and many crops did not grow grain, and a swarm of insects flew in and gnawed all the sorghum, so we had no food.

"But Mr.'s family still has food to eat, and the big guys in the village give the leftover grain from their own family to Mr., Mr. doesn't want it, and finally the master cooks for the big guys. ”

Shuli couldn't help but nod and said, "Your father and mother are still quite knowledgeable and respectful." ”

The little boy scratched his head and thought about it, and then said: "Later, everyone rushed to Mr.'s house to eat, and they all ate up, and the monks in the temple came to ask for food, but my father and mother couldn't hand it over, and they were beaten, and my father's hand was broken, and he couldn't lead the cattle or plant the land."

"The gentleman sold his land to the temple in the town, and everyone also sold the cows and chickens and handed them over to the monk, so the monk didn't come to us to trouble.

But the monk also said that let the gentleman plant the land in their temple, and the village would not pay grain to the temple next year. ”

When Yifeng heard this, he asked curiously, "Why don't you gentlemen give grain to the temple when you are farming?"

Before the boy could speak, Shuli interjected: "Letting Confucian people plant the land of the temple is a humiliation and a kind of conquest. ”

The wind fell silent again.

The boy blinked, and then said, "Later, all the big guys went to persuade Mr., and my father and mother also went, but Mr. didn't agree. Later, everyone had nothing to eat, so they all went outside to ask for food. But everyone didn't bring Mr. and Mrs. with them, and then Mr. and Mrs. starved to death, like many people in the village. ”

The little boy said this, but his face was very calm.

Shuli stood up slowly, his expression gloomy, but Yifeng and Xiugu's eyes suddenly turned red.

The little boy looked at them strangely and asked, "Master, you haven't promised me yet!" Can you follow me to the temple to be a monk, 'there is not a grain of grain in the village, and there are ten thousand gold in the temple', you must be very rich, and if you have money, you will have food!"

Shuli's eyes flashed, and he asked, "Who taught you to read like this?"

Another child next to him said, "Sir, we can read it, my father and mother can read it, we will read it to you!"

So a group of children's immature children's voices read in unison:

"Scholars are useless, it's better to be a soldier.

If you have no food and grass to be a soldier, you might as well be a captain.

The Taoist is not immortal, and the monk has the scriptures.

The true scriptures are powerful, and money and food come quickly.

There is not a grain of grain in the village, and there is a lot of gold in the temple. ”

Yifeng and Fire Monkey Shuli and the others immediately looked at each other, and the child continued: "My eldest brother, second uncle, fourth uncle, and many others have all gone to the temple to be monks to find gold, you must be stingy, don't take us there, we will go by ourselves when we grow up!"

At this moment, one of the children pointed to the entrance of the village and said, "Those monks are here again!"

A group of children scattered, like frightened birds, scattering their feet in a panic to find their respective fathers and mothers.

They looked towards the entrance of the village, and saw an old monk in an earthy yellow monk's robe, about forty or fifty years old, and he walked over with a group of young monks behind him.

Yifeng and they couldn't tell what they were here for, so the fire monkey and Shuli protected Yifeng and Xiugu behind them, and then approached to salute.

Those monks obviously didn't expect that there were other monks in the village, and a sharp-faced and thin monk standing to the left of the old monk took a step closer and pointed at the fire monkeys, with a sharp voice: "Who are you, why did you come to our territory to collect grain?"

The old monk scolded, "Hugh is rude!" He stepped forward to greet the fire monkey and said, "Where did you come from? Why are you here?"

The fire monkey replied: "Elder, the disciple went to the Southern Sect, passed through here, and wanted to drink water, but when he saw the strange state of this village, he visited it. Seeing such a scene, I can't help but feel pity, and I am entangled and sad here, and it is difficult to dispel it, and if you delay the elders' affairs, please forgive your sins. ”

The old monk smiled and said: "Okay, you have a relationship with the old monk, and the old monk's name is Benchang, which is the monk of the Nanzong Temple you are going to." When he went out for business, he also passed through this village, and he felt compassion in his heart, so he went to the temple in the town to buy some food to help the poor and spread the Buddha's fate. ”

The fire monkey and the others saw that behind the monks, there were several carts carrying grain, so they immediately got out of the way and said to the monk Benchang: "Elder, please hurry up, I'm afraid that if you are delayed for a while, you will have a life to return to the west!"

The monk didn't say much, and immediately ordered the monks from the temple to unload the grain.

The men, women, and children in the village had been observing in the open and in the dark, and when they saw them unloading the grain, they walked from their homes to the side, looking at the monks with their eyes, even though they had not seen so much food for a long time, and their stomachs were empty, but they seemed to have a fear of the monks, and they still did not dare to approach.

The monk motioned for the monks to open their pockets, and the long-starved people in the village rushed up, and the broken bowls and jars stretched out, crowded and noisy, and the children were squeezed into a mess.

The monk was squeezed aside and shook his head.

Shuli stepped forward and asked, "Elder Ben Chang, is this temple a branch of Nanzong Temple?"

Monk Benchang nodded and said, "There are many temples under the jurisdiction of Nanzong Temple, there are hundreds of large and small, and there is no control over them, but they only collect a certain amount of money and grain a year. If there is no major matter, the subordinate temple will solve it by itself, and if there is a difficult matter that cannot be solved, Nanzong Temple will send monks to help.

"How the money and food come from, how to use it, there are special people to manage, most of the disciples of Nanzong Temple don't know the root, even if they know, they don't care, they all think that the ancestors of Nanzong Temple were like this before, and they will be like this in the future. ”