Xiao Laodao was obviously not very happy, and said: "Look, we've been bad enough lately, don't provoke anything else." ”

Hearing what Xiao Lao said, my grandfather also dispelled his thoughts, and the two of them wandered around the top of the mountain for a while, and then went down the mountain along the same road.

When I passed back to the temple from the village, I saw a lot of people standing at the mouth of an alley, and from the depths of the alley, there was a faint cry of a woman, and the draft would be revised tomorrow.

My grandfather and Xiao Laodao stopped at the mouth of the alley, and looked together with the crowd towards the depths of the alley, and saw that there was a house in the depths of the alley, and the door was full of people, and the woman's cry came from inside.

Xiao Laodao nodded, and then greeted my grandfather, "Brother, let's go back, there's nothing to see." ”

The two of them were just about to turn around and leave, the fat monk actually separated the crowd and walked out of the family's house, and saw the fat monk with a sad face, Xiao Laodao and my grandfather saw him and immediately walked towards him.

The fat monk lowered his head at this time and was walking outside the alley, Xiao Laodao and my grandfather walked in front of the fat monk, the fat monk was stunned for a moment, and looked up, "Mr. Xiao, Brother Liu, why are you here?" ”

Xiao Laodao said: "We happened to pass by here, what happened inside?" ”

The fat monk looked at Xiao Laodao, then at my grandfather, and said with a sad face: "That's it...... It was the person I brought to the temple yesterday afternoon and wanted Brother Liu to see it, but Brother Liu couldn't see it, and you were in a hurry to leave, who knows, he hanged himself from his tree in the middle of the night last night......"

When my grandfather heard this, he immediately frowned, and Xiao Laodao exclaimed, "What? Yesterday? ”

The fat monk nodded, "Yes...... It was last night......"

"It's not!" Xiao Laodao waved his hand, "You said yesterday afternoon?" ”

The fat monk nodded again, "After having dinner at noon yesterday, didn't you want me to come to the village to inquire about the three children, I finished inquiring, and I just happened to meet him, so I took him back to the monastery, and you were about to leave at that time." As he spoke, the fat monk glanced at my grandfather, "I told Brother Liu that he may have lost his soul and wanted Brother Liu to see it, but Brother Liu said that he couldn't see it." ”

When Xiao Laodao heard this, he frowned even tighter, my grandfather also heard that something was wrong at this time, Xiao Laodao said: "It was the afternoon before yesterday, we rushed for a day yesterday!" ”

The fat monk suddenly showed a blank face and said, "Why are you going to travel for a day, you only left in the afternoon yesterday, and you came back in the evening." ”

When Xiao Laodao and my grandfather heard this, they were both stunned, and glanced at each other, what's the matter? The master hurriedly asked, "How many days are the months?" ”

The fat monk didn't even think about it, and replied, "August 21." ”

My grandfather and Xiao Laodao immediately glanced at each other, and Xiao Laodao shouted: "Why is there one day missing, isn't it August 22?" ”

The fat monk looked dazed and said, "Tomorrow is the twenty-second of August, and today is the twenty-first." ”

My grandfather and Xiao Laodao glanced at each other again, and neither of them said a word.

The fat monk said: "Mr. Xiao, Brother Liu, do you have anything else, if there is nothing wrong, I will go back to the temple and bring the wooden fish, and recite the scriptures to the hanged benefactor, and exceed the excess." ”

Xiao Laodao said, "The two of us will go back to the temple with you." ”

Back to the temple, the fat monk took the wooden fish and left, my grandfather and Xiao Laodao sat in the Buddha statue hall, looking at each other, Xiao Laodao said: "This is not quite right, brother, don't quit saying that we left yesterday afternoon, but that was the day before yesterday, we left yesterday morning, last night, spent the night in a village a hundred and ten miles away from here, woke up this morning, and fucking returned to the temple, right?" ”

My grandfather nodded, "Yes, but today is indeed August 21st, and we seem to have passed a day early." By the way, I remembered one thing, the dry food in our luggage, we ate two meals along the way yesterday, and when I went to look at the luggage today, I found that the dry food in it was not missing at all. ”

"No less?" Xiao Laodao's eyes widened.

My grandfather said: "Yesterday day, in our opinion, it was in the past, but, judging from the dry food in the luggage and what the master said, a few of us have only passed spiritually, but everything around us has not changed. ”

Hearing what my grandfather said, Xiao Laodao sighed, then smiled bitterly, and said: "I understand, I understand, yesterday was a dream we had!" ”

"Actually, after we came back last night, we all fell asleep, and after we fell asleep, we had a dream together, in the dream, we got up early in the morning and went on the road, in fact, we were sleeping, and when we woke up, we returned to the monastery, in fact, we didn't leave at all!"

Listening to Xiao Laodao, my grandfather thought about it carefully, and it seemed that after waking up in the morning, the furnishings in the wing room were exactly the same as when they lived, as if they had never left. My grandfather nodded, agreeing with Xiao Laodao's words.

At noon, the fat monk did not come back, and a few people made a lunch at random, and they didn't have the heart to eat, so they ate some.

In the evening, the fat monk came back, and asked Xiao Laodao and my grandfather to go over together, saying that they were going to do things at night, Xiao Laodao asked him, isn't it already excessive in the afternoon, the fat monk said, in the afternoon, it was just a requiem Sutra to requiem, and the souls of the dead were not obedient, chanting the scriptures to tell him to calm down, and the evening was the excess.

When Xiao Laodao heard this, he looked the fat monk up and down a few times, and said, "I didn't expect you, a wine and meat monk, to do this?" ”

The fat monk smiled at Xiao Laodao embarrassedly, "People called me over, can I not go, I used to make a living by hunting, and now I am a monk, I have to have a living, otherwise, what to do with three meals a day, I don't eat or drink, where do I still have the strength to chant the scriptures." ”

Xiao Laodao waved his hand, "Okay, okay, why are you talking so much, then what are you telling us to do?" ”

The fat monk said, "You guys go over, do me a favor or something, they ...... There are no one in their family, no orphans and widows, no manpower. ”

"What?" Xiao Laodao pouted, "The feeling is that he wants to arrest us to be a short-term worker." ”

"No, no, people are dead, orphans and widows, you have nothing to do in the temple, just go over and help."

Xiao Laodao bared his teeth and looked at my grandfather, "What do you say, brother?" ”

My grandfather couldn't turn a corner when he spoke, and said directly: "The day before yesterday...... No, yesterday afternoon, if I had promised to help him...... "Before the master finished speaking, Xiao Laodao hurriedly waved his hand, "Don't say it, I thought I thought so, but I didn't expect you to think like this." Xiao Laodao bared his teeth again, "I don't have the face to go over." ”

The fat monk looked confused and asked, "What are you two talking about, why don't you have the face to go over, he is like hanging, and his death is none of your business." ”

My grandfather and Xiao Laodao glanced at each other, it was none of their business, but the death of that person was mostly caused by their failure to save them when they saw death, and the fat monk did not know in his heart, thinking that my grandfather really didn't know anything, only a lifetime of martial arts, in fact, he had already obtained the true inheritance of my ancestor, but he didn't show people much things, and he had little time experience.

In the end, my grandfather said to Xiao Laodao: "Let's go over and help, we didn't help before, and if we don't help now, it seems that we are too immoral." ”

The little ghost monkey was left in the temple, and the others, following the fat monk, came to the house of the hanged man, who had not paid much attention to the mouth of the alley before, at this time, the master looked at the house, and the house was broken.

When he entered the house, there was a man lying on the ground in the room, it was the same thin man before, and under the thin man lay a broken sheet facing west, and his face was covered with a piece of coarse straw, and three sorghum stalks were tied with hemp rope at one end, and stood on the thin man's head in a triangular shape, which was made for the dead. An oil lamp on the top of his head, a coarse porcelain bowl, half a bowl of loess inside, and a stick of incense stuck in the loess.

Next to Xiang, kneeling sat a woman with a white cloth on her head and a teenage child, and the grandfather looked into their house again, there were almost no furnishings, and it could be said that they were destitute. It seems that the thin man will not have a coffin to bury, and the straw mat under him may be his coffin.

In addition to the mother and son, there was no one else in the house, the woman saw my grandfather and them come in, and hurriedly saluted, Xiao Laodao looked into the house, sighed, reached out and touched it in his arms, took out a small ingot of silver, and handed it to the woman, "The silver is not much, just let us follow the money." ”

The woman hurriedly said thank you to Xiao Laodao several times, and the woman said to Xiao Laodao that after he and his man got this strange disease, he couldn't do any work, he grew some food, saved money, sold food, and also gave men medical treatment, the more the disease became more and more serious, he didn't want to drag their mother and son anymore, so he hanged himself.

The woman's words, my grandfather and Xiao Laodao were quite uncomfortable, Xiao Laodao didn't want to listen to it anymore, so he asked the woman, what do you want to help with now?

The woman looked at the fat monk, and the fat monk hurriedly said to Xiao Laodao: "We have to carry people to the courtyard, the place in the house is too small, and there is no way to do excessive rituals." ”

Xiao Laodao glanced at him coldly, "Carry it to the courtyard?" What if the cat or dog comes and cheats the corpse. ”

The fat monk said, "When I finish the rituals, I'll bring them in." ”

Xiao Laodao suddenly waved his hand, Xiao Chujiu and Xiao Shiyi came over and carried the corpse, my grandfather also hurriedly helped, and several people carried the body of the thin man to the courtyard.

The fat monk took the wooden fish at this time, looked solemn, knocked on the wooden fish, and muttered the scriptures while circling around the corpse of the thin man. In Xiao Laodao's opinion, the fat monk made this ritual to fool people and ghosts, and then saw Xiao Shiyi beside him, and whispered to Xiao Shiyi: "Look at the ghost of this thin man, where is it now?" ”