To be honest, I never believed in ghosts and gods, and I certainly didn't believe in any Buddhas, but almost everyone in my time now does. In fact, there are many people in modern society who believe that the boss used to have a jade Guanyin hanging around his neck, and he always went to the temple to worship the Buddha every few months, saying that he asked the Buddha to bless him, I think this may be a kind of self-deception and comfort, because the boss usually has a lot of enemies, and there are no two people around him who dare not go out. Except for people like the boss, the largest group of people who believe in Buddhism are the old men and old women, who believe in Buddhism because of feudal superstition - I think so, and the rest are a relatively young minority, who either suffered some blow when they were in love, or they pretended to be sophisticated or too pretentious.

As for me, I hate the word "Buddha" alone, but in the past few days, I have accompanied my mother every day to burn incense at the Shiye Temple, the largest temple in the northwest of the city, and I saw that my mother copied several volumes of Buddhist scriptures very devoutly, and when I knelt in front of the Buddha and prayed, I found that the process was very ceremonial and very interesting. The only bad thing is that you can't eat meat, but it doesn't matter, the food is too good now, and it's okay to skip meat for a few days once in a while.

The division of labor in Shiye Temple is very clear, my father and the Zen masters in the temple discuss Buddhism, and my mother follows the monks to chant Buddha in the main hall, as for me, of course, it is impossible to be as peaceful as my mother, so while the monks are not paying attention, I slipped out of the hall with the plaque of "Daxiong Treasure Hall" and went around.

The overall structure of the temple is the same as all other buildings in ancient times, it is the main hall along the central axis, the main hall has three, there are side halls on both sides, the monk's meditation room leans against the back hill, I walked around and came back, and found that less than two hours had passed, and I sat under a willow tree and watched the fish swimming in the pool in a daze.

I had been sitting there for a short time, and I saw a little girl walking from the bridge to the temple with an old man in a bleak figure with a piece of white cloth tied around his waist, and when I passed by, I heard the little girl ask the old man, "Grandpa, didn't you say that life and death have their own destiny?" The "Su Wen Chapter" says, 'Sorrow for the lungs, thoughts for the spleen', the dead are gone, you don't have to be too sad. ”

This piqued my curiosity, and I followed them and pretended to look around, stretching out my ears to listen to them, and they walked slowly, while I pretended to be leisurely.

The old man said, "That being said, it's just ...... Hey, I'm incompetent. ”

The little girl said, "Didn't you say that? Even Uncle Xun can't do anything about it, you have done your best. ”

The old man shook his head and said gloomily: "Having said that, it's just that your Uncle Xun is probably no longer the Xun Jian of the past." As if to slow down, he said again, "Ruoxiu, grandpa is going to find Zen Master Huitong, you stay here for a while, don't run around, you know?" ”

The little girl nodded and said, "Grandpa, don't worry." ”

I looked at the back of the old man Xiao Suo and was about to follow, when I passed by the little girl, suddenly an arm blocked the way in front of me, I was stunned for a moment, turned my head to look, the little girl was glaring at me with her big eyes, her beautiful face reminded me of the begonia flowers in the study in the spring. She was a little taller than me, dressed in an emerald green gown, and her thin shoulders shrouded in the shade of the willows, and I was so stunned that I forgot for a moment where I was.

"What do you want to do with my grandfather?" The little girl asked.

Her questioning voice was childish but gentle, and her serious expression did not match very much, I came back to my senses, I felt the arm across my chest swaying gently, touching my chest again and again, the rhythm of my breathing was disrupted by her, my heart was pounding, I was so frightened that I quickly covered my heart, and I felt that if I didn't press it again, my heart would jump out.

"I'm asking you, what are you doing with us?" She asked again.

The tone was gentler than just now, but it was more solemn, and I didn't have the heart to answer her words at all, so I raised my hand and gently held her arm, and said with a smile: "Isn't it too tiring to rest like this?" ”

She was stunned and quickly retracted her hand, and said angrily: "You are so rude." He lowered his head as he spoke.

I saw that her cheeks were crimson, and even her eyes were red, and I remembered that I used to tease girls a lot, and I was obviously flirting with her like just now, but I didn't want to tease her. This is too unusual, I straightened my clothes, bowed solemnly to her, and apologized: "I was rude, sorry." ”

The little girl looked at me for a long time before saying, "It's okay. But why did you overhear me talking to my grandfather just now? She wasn't angry, and her expression softened a lot.

I wanted to say that I was just curious, but wouldn't that seem like I'm too superficial? I couldn't let her look flat, so I took out my ability to fool the girl, and replied seriously: "It's just that I overheard you and your grandfather talking about life and death, so please forgive me for being curious and offensive." ”

As soon as I finished saying this like a little adult, the girl on the other side covered her mouth and smiled: "Is that so? In this case, it must be unintentional. Look at your appearance, are you the son of an official eunuch? ”

I replied, "What a discerning girl." His father, Li Yuan, the Duke of Tang Guo, is the assassin of Benzhou. ”

The little girl said: "I heard grandpa say that the eldest son of Tang Guogong has an elegant temperament, is gentle and polite, but what are you talking about?" ”

"This ......" I felt a little weak after listening to her words, to be honest, I was so narcissistic that I didn't dare to praise myself like this, but her grandfather said this, I will take it as true, but it is better to be modest, I replied, "This is too much." Your grandfather hasn't seen me, how can he know? ”

"My grandfather has been to the house and seen you, but you probably didn't pay attention." The girl smiled, "I didn't believe it when Grandpa said this, because the eunuch family is very gentle, but you are different from them, it seems that Grandpa is right." ”

Even though it was almost autumn afternoon, the sun was still strong, shining down through the cracks in the trees, illuminating everything around her, only her beautiful face like a begonia flower was still very clear, and I looked at her blankly, feeling very unreal, like a dream. Listening to her words, the whole person was about to float.

I tried to calm down, and said, "I see that your grandfather seems to be very sad. ”

She turned to look in the direction where her grandfather left, nodded and said, "Grandpa said that he was a doctor, but he couldn't cure the patient's illness, and he blamed himself very much, so he ......" Halfway through the words, she lowered her head and couldn't continue.

I comforted: "The so-called doctor is benevolent, and he only knows the destiny of heaven, so don't be sad. ”

She looked up at me and smiled a little, her clear eyes looked straight at me, as if she was grateful, and there were tears in her eyes, but she didn't cry.

She said, "Thank you." ”

I looked at her and tried to feel her sadness, but I didn't succeed, but I felt a strange feeling in my heart that I had never felt before, as if it was also sad, but it was different from the sadness I had experienced before. It was a long time before I understood that this feeling of wanting to protect but not being able to do anything is called powerlessness.

I laughed, "No. I haven't asked for your name yet. ”

She chuckled, hid the sadness just now, and said, "My surname is Xu, and my name is Ruoxiu." ”

I suddenly understood that her grandfather was Dr. Xu Ren from the alleys of West Street, and he often went to the house to see doctors, no wonder he said that he had seen me, but I had never looked closely, so I didn't know him.

I said, "My last name is ...... Lee, called ......"

She interrupted with a "poof": "Everyone in Qizhou City knows that the eldest son of Tang Guo is called Li Jiancheng, I know. ”

I secretly scolded myself for being stupid in my heart, scratching my head, I used to meet girls who didn't talk much for a day, and I was robbed by her like this, and I didn't know what to say next.

Seeing my embarrassed look, Xu Ruoxiu continued to look in the direction of the main hall in the temple, and said, "Grandpa's health is not good, and he has been ...... recently Something happened so ......"

My gut told me that her grandfather wasn't simple, and I remembered their previous conversation and asked, "Something has happened lately?" Is it referring to the death of His Royal Highness King Qin? ”

Xu Ruoxiu was silent at first, and then nodded and said, "Grandpa said that His Royal Highness King Qin is lenient and benevolent, not an arrogant and lascivious person as rumored, and he also said...... His Highness's death has another hidden meaning. As for what it was, Grandpa refused to say, just because he went to King Qin's Mansion two years ago for treatment, but he couldn't cure His Highness's illness, and His Royal Highness died young, and Grandpa was very sad. ”

I heard another meaning from Xu Ruoxiu's words, her grandfather seemed to know what was going on with King Qin's death, but he chose to remain silent because of some concerns. I realized that we were talking about a bit heavy, and I wanted to divert her attention and make her not so depressed, but who knew that after talking for a while, the effect would be the opposite.

I wanted to talk to her about something else that would be suitable for a child, but I found that both me and she seemed to be precocious, and I knew that I had already learned the dangers of the adult world in the past twenty-five years of life and under the guidance of my father, and the calm look on the girl in front of me told me that she had experienced enough.

"Do you believe in Buddhism?" I asked suddenly.

Xu Ruoxiu seemed to be stunned for a moment, and then said, "Believe." As if there was no need to think about this question at all, her calm voice was categorical, and there was no room for the slightest question.

"What about you?" She asked.

I smiled at her and didn't answer her question, my gut told me that if I gave a negative answer she would be disappointed, and just said, "In that case, how about we go and worship?" ”

I got her permission and was ready to pull her - I reached out and realized that this was not modern society, and I couldn't just touch a girl's hand. The wide sleeved robe lay between the two of us, and I paused for a moment, then withdrew my hand and said, "Let's go." ”