Three days later, in the evening, three middle-aged men came to the nunnery to pay homage to the Buddha, and after offering the sesame oil money, a man in linen with a short beard on his chin walked up to her who was beating the wooden fish, leaned down and shouted to her: "Master, we are craftsmen in the town, I heard that you plan to repaint the Buddha statue?" ”

She has been a little deaf in the past few years, but the man's voice is so loud that it shakes the dust on the girder straight down, and she naturally hears it.

She nodded hurriedly, picked up the crutches placed next to the futon, and led the three people to the offering table with trembling steps, pointing to the dilapidated Buddha statue sitting on the altar, and describing the color of the Buddha statue in the memory to the three strangers, the three people listened very carefully, she finished speaking, and looked at the three people with an expectant look: "This process is actually not cumbersome, but it takes some time, can the three donors do this good deed?" ”

The three of them saluted her and promised her a seven-day construction period and a reward of 3,000 yuan, she was very surprised, and said: "Is this remuneration too low, it is not easy to make a living now, you don't have to wronged yourself." ”

The man in sackcloth looked pious, and said: "It is our honor to let the Buddha shine, we will come to start work tomorrow, Mrs. your legs and feet are inconvenient, and the hall will be full of dust, so you don't have to enter the hall, just sit outside the hall and point out one or two." ”

She was relieved in her heart, folded her hands, and recited a sentence of Amitabha Buddha, and after the three of them lit a pillar of incense in front of the Buddha, they climbed up to the offering table to carefully check the damage of the Buddha statue, and she suddenly remembered something, and said, "Is he looking for you?" ”

The man in sackcloth glanced back at her, glanced out of the hall, and said in a low voice: "Exactly, Mrs. Shi can rest assured." ”

She felt something, and when she turned around, she saw that he was standing outside the threshold of the main hall, and the afterglow of the setting sun fell on the navy blue cotton jacket on his body, and the soft golden yellow of the circle was mixed with a faint blue that made her feel dizzy.

She lost her mind for a moment, and a vague image seemed to float through her mind, and the sudden feeling was familiar and intimate.

He looked at her quietly in the afterglow of the setting sun, his old eyebrows sweeping over thousands of mountains and rivers.

She settled down, and hurriedly recited a few words of Amitabha Buddha in her heart, sins and sins, and the light that had just ignited in his eyes was extinguished, and she sighed gloomily in her heart.

She hobbled towards him, and he had done herself a great favor, and this thank you must be said immediately.

"Thank you, it's up to the donor."

"No thanks, it's good if you're happy."

His voice was as mellow and gentle as it had been for more than a decade.

Her heart moved, but then she recited several words of Amitabha Buddha in her heart, sins and sins.

He pointed to a small cradle placed on the wooden table outside the hall and said, "I just went to the stove to cook a nest of white porridge, you can eat it while it's hot!" ”

She was silent, neither shied nor thanked, walked to the wooden table on crutches, and lifted the white cloth that covered the basket, in which lay a small clay pot, two bowls, and two spoons.

She beckoned to him and said, "It's getting late, when you go back, you have to make a fire to cook, it's so troublesome, there is a lot of porridge in this jar, I can't finish it, why don't you eat a bowl too!" ”

He raised his gray eyebrows, the wrinkles on his face showed that they were in full bloom, and he walked quickly to the wooden table and sat down, and said with a smile: "What you said is that in fact, I am also hungry." ”

The three of them walked out of the hall, and when they walked to the outsider's side, they paused slightly, and the stranger showed impatience on his face, and waved his hand to signal them to leave immediately.

The three of them walked out of the nunnery without stopping, and closed the door with their hands.

The wind and snow that had been brewing for most of the day began to erupt as the sunset settled, and the whistling north wind blew the old forest outside the nunnery into a loud noise, and the goose feather snow came in an instant.

There is no trace of snow falling in the courtyard of the hermitage, and the wind and snow are very interesting, bypassing the crumbling hermitage.

There was a melting warmth floating in the nunnery, the heat of the porridge was just right, soft and fragrant, she drank it slowly, savoring this long-distance.

"You have been away from your hometown for many years, and now that you are in your prime, don't you want to go back to your hometown to take a look?"

He picked up the bowl of porridge and took a big sip without speaking.

She is a little embarrassed, maybe this is his sadness, he is not a disciple of Buddhism, he will naturally have some earthly sorrow in his heart, unlike himself, who has been worshipping in front of the Buddha for many years, and his mood has long been sad and joyful.

"Amitabha, it's a lot of things, and the donor has heard it."

He raised his eyes and glanced at her, the wrinkles on her face were like cracks that had dried up for thousands of years, he reached out and touched his face, the same rough and dull, he grinned, you are about to grow old in this life, and I will grow old with you.

"I'll go back, but not now, and not alone."

She was surprised, put down the spoon, and couldn't imagine that this stranger who had rented the fields of the nunnery for nearly fifty years, and still had relatives alive in the world.

For more than 50 years, he has lived a lonely life, shuttling through the wind and rain, living a simple life of sunrise and sunset, no one has ever visited him, and he has never left the field for half a step.

"You still have relatives, right?"

He looked at her and smiled slightly, this smile was very warm, and her heart skipped a beat for no reason.

"Yes, my wife, my son."

She was shocked, wife and son? It turns out that this foreigner has a family, so why has his wife and children never shown up all these years?

"Ah, your wife? It's the first time you've heard the benefactor talk about your wife, so why isn't she with you? ”

He picked up the bowl of porridge and took a sip, it had taken him three hours of slow cooking, and he knew that there were not many teeth left of her, and that the soft porridge was just right for his mouth.

"She got mad at me many years ago and ran away from home."

She folded her hands and recited a sentence of Amitabha, she has always been pure and has few desires, not hated or disliked, but in this somewhat unusually warm winter night, her heart that has been silent for decades actually has the idea of gossiping.

"Why is she mad at you? After all these years, have you been looking for her? ”

He scooped a spoonful of hot porridge from the jar, added it to her bowl, and said, "Eat quickly, it's not good for the stomach when it's cold." ”

She lowered her eyes to look at the bowl of steaming porridge in front of her, and for some reason, a faint melancholy passed through her heart.

"She misunderstood that I was in love with someone else, and my heart was blocked, so I left, and I have been looking for her all these years."

Oh, this is the calamity that earthly men and women often encounter, she suddenly realized that it was better to jump out of the Three Realms early, without worry, and concentrate on cultivation, without having to suffer the sorrows and sufferings of the world.