There is no incense in Qingfeng Temple, it is tattered, and the door of the temple is never closed. Zuo Shaoyang carried the rice step by step into the temple compound, and saw that there was still a light in the meditation room on the side of the lobby. Panting heavily, he walked up the bluestone steps, came to the front door of the meditation room, hid the rice bag in the corner of the house, and then stepped forward to knock on the door.

"The door is not latched, come in!" The people inside didn't ask who it was, and just let them in.

Zuo Shaoyang pushed open the door of the meditation room, a gust of cold wind poured in, and the already dim light in the room was even more dim, making people suspect that when the light had gone out, it suddenly turned on again, and now it was clear.

I saw a wooden table in the room, all of which had been opened, and an oil lamp was placed on it, and the bright light of soybeans was swaying in the cold wind. Inside is a hardboard bed, a wooden pillow at the head of the bed, and a thin kudzu quilt at the end of the bed. In the middle of the bed sat an old monk cross-legged, his face was full of wrinkles, and his eyes were slit, and he couldn't tell which one was wrinkled and which one was eye. The white thick eyebrows hanging from the eight characters drooped at the corners of his eyes, and the robe he was wearing was as dirty as a mop in a restaurant, and the flowers were full of patches.

Zuo Shaoyang stood firm, clenched his fists and arched his hands: "Dare to ask ...... master's number?" ”

His lips and tongue were swollen, and his speech was slurred, but the old monk still heard it clearly, and he said a Buddha name: "Amitabha Buddha - Lao Qu Zhikong." ”

Zuo Shaoyang was overjoyed, turned around and carried the rice bag in the corner of the house, moved into the house, closed the Zen door, put down the rice bag, took two steps forward with a cane, and bowed: "Abbot Zhikong, I have an old brother who left a jade pendant for me, so that I can come to Qingfeng Temple to find you if I have something." With that, he took out the jade pendant from his arms and handed it over.

Abbot Zhikong stretched out his skinny hand, took the jade pendant, glanced at it, and nodded slowly. returned the jade pendant to Zuo Shaoyang, and said, "Childe, is the little man in Guizhitang in front of him, Zuo Zhongzuo Shaoyang?" ”

Zuo Shaoyang was surprised and delighted: "Master Abbot knows me? ”

"You've been to the temple before, and you're a neighbor, so you don't know it. Give you Yu Pei, this old brother, when I left, I was entrusted to take care of you, but I didn't expect that the old man hadn't come to look for you, you came first, hehe, the Zuo donor is also related to Buddhism. ”

Zuo Shaoyang was even more surprised when he heard that Xiao Yunfei had already greeted him in advance, thinking that there was a door to this matter, and grinned.

Zhikong said again: "Lord Zuo Xue Ye came to the small temple, do you need Lao Gao's help?" ”

Zuo Shaoyang looked back at the closed Zen door, swallowed his saliva with difficulty, took another half step, leaned down, and his voice was almost inaudible: "Master, I can't hide it, in order to survive this military famine, I did everything I could, bought nearly one hundred and fifty buckets of rice, and today the official army ordered ......."

"I see." Master Zhikong interrupted him, "You want me to help you hide this grain, don't you?" ”

"Exactly!" Zuo Shaoyang pointed to the big half bag of rice at his feet: "There are about four or five buckets of rice here, which are given to your temple, please accept it from the master." ”

Zhikong twisted the Buddha beads in his hand and said lightly: "There is food in the small temple, and these grains are still kept by the Zuo donor." I have promised Brother Xiao to take care of you, so I can't help but help with this. -- Where is the food? ”

Zuo Shaoyang was overjoyed when he heard this, thanked him, and said in a low voice: "In the cellar of our pharmacy concoction room." ”

"Take me!"

"Yes! ――Would you like to ask a few other masters to help with the transport? Food is a bit much. ”

"The less people know about this kind of thing, the better, except for you and me, don't tell a third person, let's go!"

Zuo Shaoyang was busy on crutches, took Zhikong, braved the heavy snow to return to the pharmacy, and came to the concoction room lightly. Pointing to the open cellar opening. Whispered, "It's all down there!" ”

Zhikong lifted the placket of his robe and tied it on his belt, climbed onto the stove, and slowly went down to the cellar, Zuo Shaoyang was about to look inside, suddenly, a bag of rice flew out from below, crossed the stove, and there was a soft sound, on the open space in front of the stove!

This bag of rice is ten buckets, that is, nearly one hundred and twenty catties, I didn't expect this slow, dry and thin old monk to throw it out from below, and it happened to fall on the open space in front of the stove, the strength is staggering, this ingenuity is even more jaw-dropping.

Before Zuo Shaoyang could react, bags of grain had been thrown out of the cellar one after another, and in a moment, all the grain was thrown out, high in the open space. Because Zhikong threw out the rice bags, they all landed on the open ground very accurately, layer by layer, without touching the wall or other objects, so the sound was very soft.

Zuo Shaoyang opened the door and looked out, and saw that there was no movement in his parents' bedroom, the wind and snow outside were so loud, and the sound inside was very soft, so he didn't wake them up.

Master Zhikong threw out all the rice bags, and then slowly climbed out of the cellar, grabbed two bags of rice with both hands and sandwiched them under his armpits, and without seeing how to move, he had already arrived outside the back door.

Zuo Shaoyang hurriedly followed, and the old monk could no longer be seen in the wind and snow. Hurriedly limped forward, and only walked less than half the way, Master Zhikong had already rushed back, and Zuo Shaoyang hurriedly stopped: "Master, what am I doing?" ”

"You wait in my meditation room, don't do anything else." Saying that, he ran away.

Zuo Shaoyang wanted to tell him that there was a patrol of officers and soldiers, but before he could think about it, Zhikong had already gone far, and he didn't think it was necessary to think about it, Master Zhikong's martial arts were so high, even if he was holding two bags of rice, under the cover of this heavy snowfall, it would be easy to avoid the patrol of officers and soldiers. You don't have to tell yourself. He limped to Qingfeng Temple.

As soon as he entered the temple gate, Master Zhikong arrived with two more bags of grain, and quickly stepped aside. Follow him to the main hall.

The light on the main hall was very dim, and if it weren't for the dim oil light from Master Zhikong's meditation room, there would be no way to see anything in the main hall.

The last time Zuo Shaoyang came, I remember that there was a two-story Buddha in the main hall, which was very old, the paint was peeling off, and a large piece of the mud on the shoulder had also fallen off, revealing the wooden stakes inside. The robe on his body was so ragged that he couldn't tell whether it was a robe or a rag. There was only one large incense burner on the table, and there were no tributes.

At this moment, it was pitch black, and I couldn't see anything else except the outline of the Buddha.

Zhikong disappeared into the darkness of the main hall, and he didn't know where he ran with two bags of rice. Just as he was confused, with a whoosh, a figure popped out of the darkness, and it was Master Zhikong.

Zhikong ignored him, and disappeared out of the hall in a flash.

Zuo Shaoyang limped forward, groped his way to the offering table, stared wide-eyed, and then saw that one hand of the two-story Buddha was removed, revealing a small hole in the round belly.

Zuo Shaoyang's eyes gradually got used to the darkness, and he was staring wide-eyed to figure out how to get this mechanism, and suddenly heard the sound of footsteps behind him, and was about to turn back, Master Zhikong had already come to him with two bags of grain, and he didn't see how he exerted his strength, so he vacated the offering table, jumped to the small hole, stuffed the two bags of grain into them, and then got in, and came out again in a moment, presumably to go in and sort out the space.

Then Zhikong got off the offering table again and rushed out quickly.

After going back and forth several times, Zhikong slapped the Buddha twice, faintly heard a creak, the Buddha's stomach closed, and his arm returned to its original position. Zhikong straightened the ragged robe of the big Buddha, then leaned down and said to Zuo Shaoyang: "Talk in the house!" Then, he stepped into the meditation room.

Zuo Shaoyang hurriedly followed in and closed the door of the meditation room. Seeing that Master Zhikong was already sitting cross-legged on the bed, his breath was calm, as if he had never moved his ass at all.

Zuo Shaoyang admired and thanked him again, and was about to speak, when Zhikong had already said in a low voice: "I left three buckets of rice in your pharmacy house, and the rest were shipped and put away, a total of one hundred and forty-seven buckets, right?" ”

"Yes, ah no, I took four or five buckets to give to your temple, and it should only be one hundred and forty-two and three buckets. - Hey, what about the half bag of grain? ”

"I put it in together before, and Lao Wei said that Lao Gao and a few other senior brothers have their own ways to eat and drink, and they don't have to worry about the left donor."

"It's ......, it's embarrassing."

"Promise Brother Xiao's business, Lao Wei has to do it even if he fights for his life."

Zuo Shaoyang heard that this Zhikong master admired Xiao Yunfei so much, he didn't expect that this old snitch still had this ability, he was happy and grateful, and bowed down with a cane: "Thank you, master!" I'm sorry for the trouble. ”

"It's curfew soon, please go back. - Amitabha! ”

"Yes!" Zuo Shaoyang bowed down, turned around and went out on crutches, and closed the door of the meditation room. With a long sigh of relief, he limped out of the temple on crutches.

The wind and snow were even stronger, and I could barely see my fingers.

Zuo Shaoyang groped his way back to the pharmacy, his face was already wooden, his hands were stiff, and he saw that the snow on the kitchen floor had been swept clean by Abbot Zhikong, and he couldn't see that anyone had ever come in. Busy stamping his feet by the door, shaking off the snow from his body, he entered the house and latched the kitchen door.

Let's take a look around. There was no movement in the parents' room, presumably asleep, or the wind and snow outside were loud, and I didn't hear any movement, so I didn't come out to check. The concoction room has been re-arranged, and the iron pot has been put back on the stove. Presumably, Master Zhikong saw that his hands and feet were inconvenient, and he casually helped him restore his original state on the last trip.

After doing this well, Zuo Shaoyang was in a particularly happy mood, humming a little song to open the front door of the pharmacy, walking along the eaves to the door of the grocery store and patting the door.

The voices of Miao Peilan and Bai Zhihan came from inside at the same time: "Who? ”

"It's me!"

"Brother Zuo!" Miao Peilan shouted in surprise, ran over to open the door, and at this moment, she heard the sound of the second watch in the distance. The curfew has begun!

The door to the lobby of the grocery store opened, and Miao Peilan looked at him in surprise. Behind her, stood Bai Zhihan. The floor in the lobby was divided into two rows of bunks, and there were wounded soldiers and people who were left for medical treatment. The family members who accompanied them sat cross-legged next to them, their eyes blank, and when they saw Zuo Shaoyang coming in, they all got up and nodded in greeting. The patients who were able to get up were struggling to get up and say hello. Greetings to Zuo Shaoyang's injury.

(To be continued)