Chapter 33: The Strange Sound of a Wooden Fish
The story still takes place in ancient times, in a place called Immortal Town, there are no immortals in Immortal Town, and like other places, they are all ordinary people, as for the origin of the name, people can't remember clearly. Immortal Town is no different from other towns, with a few streets and shops on both sides of the street. It's summer. The blacksmith shop is tinkling every day, the boss led a few guys, barearmed, is trying to hit a Zen stick, the Zen staff weighs sixty-two pounds, it is a big job, they fight very hard, the guest is a fat monk, that day, he came to the town to drink, a whim, to hit a Zen stick, he sat in the shop, fierce and vicious, at first shouted to hit eighty pounds, the boss said eighty pounds is too heavy, it is better to hit sixty pounds, the spirit is easy to use, besides, it is not necessary to beat too heavy, the fat head monk accepted the boss's suggestion. The boss didn't dare to slack off, and as soon as the monk left, he immediately started construction, and it was almost completed in three days. On the fourth day, the monk came down the mountain again, took away the Zen staff, the boss was able to rest, he handed over the rest of the work to the man, moved the bench to the door alone, lay on it to rest, a cool breeze blew, the boss closed his eyes comfortably, hazy, suddenly heard the shop guys chattering, talking about something, the work in hand also stopped, the boss opened his eyes, a beautiful woman about thirty years old walked by, she glanced at the blacksmith shop owner with resentful eyes, hurried over. The boss's eyes moved with the woman's figure, and when he saw the woman enter a pharmacy, he turned his gaze back, and when he saw that the shopkeeper was still talking to each other, he coughed angrily, and the shopkeeper hurriedly continued to work, and the shop was back to jingling and lively. The boss closed his eyes as usual, but he pretended to be the beautiful woman in his heart. The glamorous woman was his mistress, and it was supposed to be easy to meet, but as soon as the vicious fat-headed monk came, the boss left her down first, presumably she must have been angry.
The glamorous woman went to the pharmacy to get medicine for her husband, who was not in good health. When she came out of the pharmacy, she would naturally pass by the blacksmith shop again, and this time, she didn't look at it, and walked straight over. The boss waited for the beautiful woman to walk out for a while, got up and walked in that direction, the beautiful woman's little feet walked slowly, and the boss quickly caught up with her. He pulled her into a no-man's corner, picked her up and kissed her. The beautiful woman dodged, and her originally angry face was quickly replaced by shyness.
"Beauty, don't blame, I've been too busy these days, from today onwards, I'll accompany you well." The boss said.
The beautiful woman blushed, lowered her head, and said, "I thought you had forgotten about the people, and made the family wait so hard." ”
"Why, you're the one on my heart." The boss touched the skin on the beautiful woman's face lovingly, and said gently.
"Then when are we going to ......," the beautiful woman stopped talking.
"Tonight, then, old place." The boss said.
The beautiful woman nodded and went home first. The boss also turned back,
The two have been cheating for half a year, and the boss is also a family man, but his wife is too ugly to be interested in her, but he can't divorce her, their marriage is designated by the elders, and his wife is his aunt and cousin. His wife was ugly and cowardly, and she did not dare to pay attention to his outrageous behavior, and let him do whatever he wanted, and the blacksmith shop owner became even more bold. The place where he and his mistress met was his aunt's house, the aunt was at the end of the street, opening a tea shop, the aunt liked this nephew very much, and was willing to facilitate his nephew's date, she actually did it for another reason, originally her daughter was going to marry her nephew, and the two were also in love, but they were forced by the ugly woman first, and her sister couldn't be the master of the brother-in-law. In the battle between my aunt and my aunt, my aunt was defeated, and for some reason, my brother-in-law took a fancy to the ugly one, maybe because of the family's closer blood. Therefore, the boss's aunt holds a grudge, and she also thinks that her nephew is not worth it, and the good-looking guy faces an ugly woman every day, and it has been more than ten years, and now, she finally has a beautiful lover, which should be, she even asked her nephew to marry this woman and live a happy life, but she wanted to kill the ugly woman in her heart.
The owner of the blacksmith shop always met the beauty in the room upstairs from his aunt. Tonight, they came together, and my aunt welcomed them as usual, providing them with food and drinks, and then went downstairs with a sense of humor.
In the candlelight, the boss looked at the beauty's red and glamorous face, where did he still have the heart to eat and drink, he stood up, picked up the beauty and walked to the bed, the beauty wanted to refuse and welcome the appearance was even more moving, the two rolled to the bed, and enjoyed the clouds and rain.
For a few days, the boss and the beautiful woman met here. On the fifth day, my aunt blocked the door and said, "Not today, your cousin will come back and stay, another day." The boss, who was originally going to marry his aunt and cousin, married a butcher in Linzhen after losing to his aunt and cousin. Today I took the children to stay at my parents' house for a few days.
The beautiful woman and the boss are inseparable, so the boss asks the aunt to think of a way. My aunt thought about it, and suddenly patted her head and said, I have thought of a way, there is a nunnery in the east of the town, which has long been abandoned, and if I take you there, no one will notice. The boss said that there would be Aunt Law.
After the night came down, the aunt held a roll of bedding for them, and walked to the nunnery, she walked in front, the boss and the beautiful woman walked behind, the more east, the more scarce the people, walked about four or five miles, saw the nunnery, the shadow was full, although the moonlight was not very bright, but still could see the appearance of the long-abandoned, barren grass, ruins and broken walls, silent, the main hall towards the main entrance a Bodhisattva statue sitting in the shadows.
My aunt said, I'll just leave the bedding here tonight, and I'll get it when your cousin goes home. After that, help them lay out the futon, which is spread on a pile of straw in the corner of the main hall, soft and warm.
The blacksmith shop owner and the beautiful woman waited for her aunt to leave and hugged each other, so unhappy. Just when the two of them were fascinated and carried away, the sound of knocking on the wooden fish sounded in the nunnery, a very soft voice, "knock knock knock...... I couldn't tell where it came from. The intoxicated men and women were startled, and they were so frightened that they held their breath and listened to the strange sound of wooden fish. Isn't it deserted? How can anyone still knock on wooden fish? The beautiful woman whispered, her voice full of fear. The boss "shhhh
A crescent moon hung in the sky, the boss and his lover walked back in a panic, and the strange thing was that along the way, the sound of the wooden fish followed them, and they looked back, but there was nothing behind them.
From then on, the beautiful woman suffered from a strange disease, and at night, her ears were filled with the sound of wooden fish, which made her unable to sleep, and made her upset, she covered her ears, messed with things, and it didn't work, and the sound of the wooden fish still disturbed her unhurriedly. She began to collapse, she stared at her blood-red eyes, and asked her husband, who was lying sick on the kang, did you hear the sound of wooden fish? The husband glanced at her indifferently and said no. She grabbed her hair so hard that her face was full of pain and she started screaming, get out of here! I don't care about you! This annoying sound. Her husband, who was weak himself, listened to her making noise every night, and he didn't rest well, and soon died. The beautiful woman became a widow, but her husband's presence or absence did not matter to her. The beautiful woman can't sleep at night, so she sleeps during the day, but after all, the day is not as good as sleeping at night, and her face is still a little haggard. She was afraid of the night, as long as the sky was dark, the sound of the "dong dong" wooden fish filled her ears, and finally one day, she couldn't bear it anymore, took a rolling pin and smashed it on her head, knocking herself unconscious. The next day, she woke up and was disappointed to find that she was not dead. She wanted to go to his mistress for help, and she had to freshen up and dress up first, but when she sat in front of the mirror, she was frightened by herself in the mirror, oh my! Who's in the mirror? Why are you so old? Is this still her? She hid her face and wept, she didn't have the courage to go to him. When the night came again, the sound of the wooden fish began again, she knelt down, folded her hands, and said, "Bodhisattva, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that shameful thing in front of you, please forgive me!" She said reverently and sincerely, but the sound of the wooden fish still did not relent.
The owner of the blacksmith shop did not encounter anything strange, and he continued his busy blacksmith life as always. On this day, he suddenly remembered the beauty, they hadn't seen each other for a long time, and the beauty's husband died, and he couldn't bother it for the time being. However, he couldn't stand the longing, so he came to look for her. Under the cover of the moonlight, he came, and as soon as he entered the door, he saw a beautiful woman lying on the kang, writhing as if she was suffering from illness. He hurriedly stepped forward, held her in his arms, and was taken aback when he saw her bloodless face, and hurriedly asked, What's wrong with you? The beautiful woman glared and said, "Do you hear the sound of the wooden fish?"
The owner of the blacksmith shop was heartbroken when he saw that the beauty had fallen into evil. It's all his aunt's fault, he couldn't help but think. But what about the strange illness of the beauty? On this day, he was walking down the street and saw the fat monk who was fierce and vicious. The boss thought to himself, this man has a fierce face, maybe he can suppress the evil spirit, why not ask him for help? The boss knew that he was good at drinking, so he did what he liked and invited him to drink. The fat monk was a cheerful and straightforward man, and when he heard that someone invited him to drink, he didn't ask why, and went with him. During the banquet, the boss explained his intentions. The fat monk laughed and said, "It's a trivial matter, protect me." That night, I went with him to the beautiful woman's house. The beautiful woman was covering her ears on the kang, twisting in pain. The fat monk stood in the center of the room, and suddenly shouted, the room seemed to shake, demons and monsters! Hurry up and go away! Otherwise, you're welcome! Look at the Zen staff in my hand! As soon as the words fell, the beautiful woman sat up from the kang, and she said unexpectedly and pleasantly, no, the sound is gone! Then, jumping off the kang and kneeling in front of the monk, grateful. The monk waved his hand and floated away.
The beautiful woman's strange illness was cured, she knew that she had blasphemed the gods, and regretted it very much, and from then on behaved in a proper manner, and the blacksmith shop owner took her as a concubine. After the beautiful woman got married, she respected the eldest lady very much, and the eldest lady never embarrassed her, and the two got along well. The beautiful woman felt sorry for her former husband, and after her husband died, her mother-in-law was lonely, and the beautiful woman supported her, which was considered atonement.
The bizarre encounter of the beautiful woman spread far and wide, and people wondered why the blacksmith shop owner was okay, she was tortured to death, and people finally concluded that the reason was that in the nunnery, in fact, there was a fire many years ago, and all the nuns were burned to death, so it was abandoned. The spirits of the nuns gathered in the nunnery, and they saw the beautiful woman tactfully behaving under the man, and some of the nuns could not help but feel jealous, so they tortured the beautiful woman, but there was no need to do anything to the man. Of course, this is just speculation.
The upright fat monk who could suppress the demons and monsters, heard that he was not a monk, and went to a mountain to be the king of the mountain, but he did not harm the people, but only disturbed the corrupt officials, so he became a big hero in the hearts of the people. Later, he joined the larger mountain, under the command of a king surnamed Song, and the mountain was full of heroes. Later, King Song led them to belong to the imperial court and went to the south to quell the rebellion and won. Later, the people here didn't hear from them, and they didn't know what happened to them, whether they were doing well, and they didn't know where the monk had gone.