The old man froze, twisted his head, and asked, "What's the matter?"

Xiao Shu Rong pointed to the ground: "Look at it." ”

The old man squinted his presbyopia eyes, looked down, and found nothing on the ground, so he shook his head and said, "I don't see anything." ”

The little tree tree came up, squatted down, pointed to the place about two feet away in front of the old man, and said, "Look, aren't the ants moving?"

The old man looked away, and sure enough, he saw a few lines of ants lining up on the mountain road in front of him, so he breathed a sigh of relief: "The drink you just now scared me." I thought something big had happened, but you meant the ants were moving. ”

Xiao Shu Rong argued reasonably: "I don't remind you. You're going to step on this swarm of ants. Your feet are so big, how many ants will you trample to death!"

Hearing the little tree banyan say this, the old man's heart surged with a heat wave that had not been seen for a long time, and he stroked the round little head of the tree tree with his hand, and said with emotion: "Ah, in this chaotic world, material desires are rampant, and I am cheating, fighting for your life and death." The old man hasn't seen such a kind person as you for many years. ”

Xiao Shurong disagreed: "In life, the greatest sin is killing." Ants also have a small spiritual life, they work all day long, and it is extremely difficult to find two meals. ”．

The old man asked curiously, "Ah, how can you speak like an adult when you are so young?" ”

Xiao Shu Rong replied with a straight face: "This is what my mother taught me since I was a child." ”

The old man became interested and asked, "What else did your mother teach you?"

Xiao Shurong: "My mother told me that Buddhism regards 'killing' as the first of the ten evils. ”

The old man deliberately followed Xiao Shurong's words to test him: "Do you know what the Ten Evils are?"

"Of course I know," Xiao Shu Rong closed his eyes slightly, shook his head lightly, and recited, "Among the ten evils, one is killing, the second is stealing, the third is adultery, the fourth is delusion, the fifth is Qi' language, the sixth is two tongues, the seventh is evil mouth, the eighth is greed, the ninth is anger, and ten is evil views." ”

The old man was so surprised that his yellow eyes widened as big as copper bells: "Ah, your memory is so good. ”

Xiao Shurong: "I have all the teachings of my mother in my heart. ”

The old man asked again, "What is the opposite of the ten evils?"

The little tree tree replied, "Ten Virtues." If you don't commit the ten evils, you are the ten good. ”

Old man: "Does your mother often recite Buddhist scriptures?"

"Well, she used to recite the scriptures with her hand." Xiao Shu Rong nodded, "Ah, it's getting late, let's go home quickly." ”

The old man stepped over the ant array, and soon walked to the door of the tree banyan's house. "Mother, a guest is here!" The little tree opened its mouth and shouted loudly. The crisp and immature children's voice is like a yellow warbler chirping in the valley at dusk.

In a moment, a middle-aged woman came out of the ground behind the house.

The old man looked around: the woman was dressed in a dark blue linen garment, coarse fabric, apparently woven at home, and then dyed with potatoes. The garment is made to fit perfectly. She wore no shoes and socks, and her broad feet were not wrapped in cloth like the rich lady, but were covered with mud, and she carried an iron hoe in her hand. She is Xiao Shurong's mother-in-law, Li.

Li was planting vegetables on the hillside behind the house, and after hearing the cry of the little banyan tree, he hurriedly came with a hoe, and after meeting the old man, he bowed his body and said, "The guest officer has come from afar, and it has been hard." ”

The old man waved his hand: "We are like idle clouds and wild cranes, things are drifting, and there is no hard work at all." ”

"Guest officer, if you don't like the humble house, please go inside and rest." Lee's kind invitation.

When the old man entered the house, he saw that the house was surrounded by four walls, and as soon as he sat on the pine bench, Li handed over the freshly brewed green tea.

The old man took a sip, felt mellow and sweet, and exclaimed, "Good tea!" The old man, who had been running all day, drank openly.

Seeing that this old man was extraordinary, Li asked, "Where did the guest officer come from and where do you want to go?"

The old man stroked his long hair and sighed: "In this mountainous and wild place, I am not afraid to say everything plainly. The old man's name is Xu Dongfeng, and he was originally a national teacher of the first dynasty......"

So, Xu Dongfeng told his life experience.

It turned out that Xu Guoshi offended the mediocre Emperor Wude because of his uprightness and law enforcement, and his colleagues who were jealous of him fell into the well and impeached him in order to compete for the position of national teacher. The emperor was furious and dismissed him from his post as a citizen.

Xu Guoshi devoted his life to helping the community, and now he was left in the prosperous place of the Shengxiao orchestra, determined to indulge in the forest and springs, traveled to the famous rivers and mountains, chased along the dragon veins of the Nanling Mountains, and chased them all the way to the Xinzhou region.

Li listened to Xu Guoshi's confession, and also scolded angrily: "The government and the opposition are dumped, Geng Geng is loyal to the ministers, and there is no way to serve the country!" My husband is also a clear proof of this. ”

Xu Guoshi's heart moved, and he asked, "Your husband is-"

"My husband was originally the same as you, and he was both a fallen person at the end of the world." Li also told Liang Dawan about it.

After hearing this, Xu Guoshi sighed: "When I was in the imperial court, I also heard about it. But the emperor was mediocre, alas......"

Li went to the kitchen and slaughtered the only old hen in the house that laid eggs and used it to entertain Xu Guoshi.

At night, Xu Guoshi slept on a hard bed made of pine planks in the living room.

Underground was a muddy ground with uneven potholes, with only three of the four feet of the bed touching the ground.

As soon as Xu Guoshi turned around, the bed board "creaked" like a shaking wooden horse.

Outside the window, the moon was covered tightly by thick black clouds, and the stars that usually blinked mischievously did not dare to show their faces in the inky black night sky, and the earth was pitch black.

Xu Guoshi felt nostalgic for his life experience, and recalled that the traitorous ministers in the court were successful and the loyal ministers were killed, and he couldn't help but feel sad.

However, during the day, he waded and climbed the mountain, walked too much, and was very tired all over, and fell asleep unconsciously while thinking about it.

Xu Guoshi tossed and turned a few times on the bed, and in the haze, as if he heard a moan, he suddenly opened his eyes and looked around.

Night, there was nothing unusual in the dark night, and the sparse starba outside the window blinked his weak and weak eyes, flashing a faint cold light.

"It's your own delusion, isn't it?" Xu Guoshi was a little suspicious of himself, but in this lonely night in the mountains, there was indeed a slight moan.

"Where did this moan come from?" Xu Guoshi squinted his eyes again and listened intently: Heh, I heard it, this moaning sound came from under the bed.

Xu Dongfeng stretched his head out of the mosquito net blackened with potatoes and saw a black thing crawling on the ground. He was startled and hurriedly lit the small oil lamp placed at the head of the bed.

The dark hall was immediately filled with flickering yellow light.

Xu Dongfeng looked fixedly: it turned out that a child was crouching under his bed, and the small palm of his right hand was stretched into the foot of the bed that could not reach the ground.

"Ahh Xu Guoshi immediately jumped out of bed, pulled out the palm of his right hand from the foot of the bed for Xiao Shurong, and said in a reproachful tone, "It's late at night, you don't sleep in bed, lie on the ground, what are you doing?"

Xiao Shurong rubbed his sore little palms and said, "I saw that you couldn't sleep after tossing and turning, and I knew that this bed was uneven, and one of the beds couldn't reach the ground." ”

Xu Dongfeng said indifferently: "If the foot of the bed is uneven, it will not be uneven." ”

Xiao Shurong said seriously: "You can't sleep, I see in my eyes, I will think about this matter all night, and I can't sleep." You have been hurrying for days, and the soles of your feet are almost worn out; And to get up early tomorrow morning, it is too hard to drive away the mountain road. I thought, this night, rather than me and you can't sleep, it's better for me to work hard and let you get a good night's sleep first. ”

Xu Dongfeng said a little angrily: "If you want to get up at the foot of the bed, you don't have to use your palms, you can go to find stones." ”

"It's so dark, it's not easy to find a rock of the right height and size. Besides—"

Xu Dongfeng: "What's more?"

The little tree snorted for a while before replying, "Besides, I'm afraid that when I go to look for a stone, the slightest sound will wake you up." ”

Xu Dongfeng: "So, you put your palm under the foot of the bed and flatten the foot of the bed?"

Xiao Shurong nodded: "Hmm." ”

"Your palms don't hurt?"

"It hurts, of course it hurts! But the thought that you can sleep soundly makes me do my best to hold back. ”

Hearing Xiao Shurong say this, Xu Guoshi felt a wave of heat surging from the bottom of his heart, rolling, and rushing to his throat, his nose felt unbearable sourness, and as soon as he gasped, two lines of old tears poured down from his dry eyes. He hugged the little tree tree tightly and praised sincerely: "You, a six-year-old child, have such a good and sincere understanding, you are really the Buddha to the world!"