When the fog cleared, Yang Chong walked out of the dense dead wood forest, looked down the hillside, and was instantly stunned. The water of the Qom River flowed quietly and sunnyly, and the mossy gray stone slabs stretched from the side to the river below, and several small lakes and marshes were surrounded by reeds, red willows, white wormwood, brown plantain, and a wild duck or two flew by. The road and the ruins in the distance were all gone, replaced by a dilapidated city and two temples, one of which was filled with wisps of smoke, proving that Yang Chong was not dazzled.

Yang Chong turned back sharply, and was about to re-enter the forest, but what he saw was a green tree four or five meters high, Yang Chong ran inside and out three times, but could not find a dead tree, Yang Chong finally gave up the struggle, and was sure that he had come to a strange world; After reading countless travel stories, Yang Chong understood that it was his turn, and he still crossed in the fog.

Yang Chong checked the things on his body, except for the lighter in his pocket, which was a wallet containing two bank cards, and for the quiet of half a day, the mobile phone was turned off and thrown in the car; Yang Chong was extremely annoyed, he would have known that he would have carried a few more things on his body; After hesitating for a quarter of an hour, Yang Chong did feel a little hungry, and mustered up his courage to walk down the hill towards the temple where the smoke was emitting.

The temple is antique, solemn and solemn, the plaque is the three words of the desert temple, Yang Chong entered the temple gate, the wall wall in the courtyard is exquisitely decorated, the three Bodhi trees are tall and verdant, huge and incomparable. A monk in the temple was also surprised to see Yang Chong, and greeted him with a smile, the monk was in his forties, not Han, with a thin body, a high nose bridge, and asked in half-baked Chinese: "How did the donor get here?" ”

Yang Chong breathed a sigh of relief, it was good to be able to communicate, so he smiled and said: "My name is Yang Chong, I am from Zhongyuan, I originally wanted to see the legend of Gu Loulan, but I didn't expect to get lost and get here." What is the name of the master, and what is this place? ”

Yang Chong looked like he was about twenty years old, and the monk admired: "The poor monk is lonely and hidden, and the Central Plains is really outstanding and pays attention to cultural inheritance. This is the place where the Han army tuntian, this city is called Jiezi City, named after Fu Jiezi's assassination of the king of Loulan, the ancient city of Loulan is in the desert in the north, even our locals are difficult to find, the donor has this heart, no need to drill the tip of the horns, wasted his life in vain. ”

Yang Chong bowed his head and said: "What the master said is extremely true, I am tired from afar, I don't know if I can rest for a while in your temple?" ”

Gu Dizang said with a smile: "The door of Buddhism is wide open to all people, why not, it is the poor monk who is neglecting, the donor please." ”

On the way to the wing, Yang Chong learned that the Desert Temple is now the only temple and resident of Jie Zi City, and the Wangzhu Temple not far away has moved to Hu Ni City, the capital of Shanshan Kingdom, together with the residents of Jie Zi City, and now there is only one empty temple left. And the desert temple, there are only five monks, in addition to presiding over the Huangbei Zen master, only the lonely Tibetan contact with the outside world, often go to the mud city and other places, the other three monks Huiming, Shewen, Zhao five provinces are ascetics, all year round retreat.

After arranging the residence, Gu Dizang invited the Zen master of Huangbei to meet, an old monk in his sixties, with a hooked nose, white hair and dry eyebrows, and a wrinkled face when he smiled; Huangbei Zen Master's Chinese is more fluent, and he said happily: "No one has come to the door in the desert temple for nine months, the donor has been in the original place, everything has the hospitality of the temple, look at the donor Yinghua introverted, presumably it is only a learned person, and I hope to leave something for the temple." ”

Although the words of the Zen master of Huangbei were surprising, Yang Chong understood that Tang Seng had to send a purple gold bowl to the two Bodhisattvas Ah Ao and Jia Ye to do personnel, not to mention that he was an ordinary man. But Yang Chong was really penniless, and Yang Chong asked with some embarrassment: "Is it okay to have things other than money?" ”

Huangbei Zen Master still smiled: "Everything is empty, money is something outside the body, is it something that people in my Buddhism value, Lao Wei just wants to remind the donor, to remember today's fate with Buddhism, even a sentence is OK." ”

Yang Chong suddenly realized, nodded and said: "If he is rich and noble in the future, Yang will definitely go to the Desert Temple to repay his wishes." ”

The Zen master of the Wild North thanked him with satisfaction. The young man named Yang Chong in front of him looks simple, but in fact, his outfit is expensive. Yang Chong's pants and clothes are exquisitely made, and the materials are all cotton, which is better than Gaochang cotton in Gaochang Kingdom, and the color has never been seen before, as well as the metal buckle of the belt, at a glance, you can know that it is not copper, but the luster is far worse than copper. There may be only one place where such a thing exists, and that is Persia; How many of the people who can afford to use Persian goods casually these years are ordinary people? Yang Chong should be a person with great status, at least after the giant businessman.

The meal in the monastic house is very simple, two vegetarian dishes, a bowl of rice; Looking at the gobbling up of food in the lonely land, Yang Chong understood that it was because he came to eat today, and it seemed that the Desert Temple was indeed cold. During the chat, Yang Chong gave full play to the level of writing jokes on the Internet, so that the two monks were in a stunned state for most of the time, Yang Chong was excited, and accidentally said a Buddhist poem he had read: "Bodhi has no tree, and the mirror is not a platform." There is nothing in the first place, where is the dust! ”

The Zen master of Huangbei chanted twice, and was very happy, and immediately asked Gu Di to hide and bring pen, ink, paper, and inkstone, and asked Yang Chong to write it down; Waiting for the lonely place to polish the ink, Yang Chong made a bitter face and wrote it out with a brush stroke by stroke, I don't know how ugly that word is. Fortunately, the two monks don't care about calligraphy, and they don't pay attention to the complexity and simplicity of Chinese characters. ”

Yang Chong asked worriedly, "Could it be that Shanshan is fighting now?" ”

Huangbei Zen Master explained: "It's not Shanshan, the countries in the Western Regions seem to be complicated, but in fact, they are all small countries, lack of materials, how can they have the capital to fight, but the Great Sui and Tuhun Valley, Turkic, and Persian four powerhouses are eyeing each other, and people's hearts are in turmoil." Since Emperor Yang Guang of Sui Ming ascended the throne last year, he was known as the Son of Heaven, which made the people of the Western Regions even more nervous. Didn't the donor have encountered horse thieves along the way? ”

Yang Chong prevaricated: "I came with a caravan, and the journey was relatively peaceful. ”

The Huangbei Zen Master glanced at Yang Chong and said, "Amitabha, it's really a blessing. Hide in a lonely place, tomorrow you go to the mud city, buy some rice and noodles and come back, just bring Yang Shizhu over, and see if there are any reliable Central Plains merchants who can be entrusted. ”

Lonely Di Zang agreed and immediately ran to prepare, but Yang Chong calculated in his heart that Yang Guang ascended the throne last year, and now it should be the second year of the great cause.