Chapter 2 Ancient Temples in Western Sichuan
As soon as she heard that she was going out to play, Na Xiaoqing 'snapped' and threw the remaining potato chips in her hand to Uncle Yang, and then danced more happily than anyone else.
"First of all," I glared at her, "you can just follow us, and if you dare to be shocked, I'll sell you to the natives here." β
"Humph!"
"Don't keep bullying Sister Qing." Morningstar said.
"That's it!" Yuxin said.
I smiled wickedly.
A few of us followed Xiang Feng, out of the door of Mr. Yang's friend's house, came to the street, and walked south along the street. I had been walking for almost an hour, and the wind showed no signs of stopping.
"Handsome guy, how long will it take, my leg is about to break..."Xiaoqing said.
Xiang Feng smiled slightly, stopped, and then raised his hand to the distance, "Look there..."
Following my finger to the wind, I saw a mountain, and on the top of the mountain, it vaguely looked like there was a temple.
"Do you mean going to that temple?" I asked.
"Hmm."
"yes, I like it." I smiled and said, "Come on comrades, let's go to the temple to burn incense!" β
After walking for a while, we finally came to the foot of the mountain. From a distance, the temple is very small, but when you come to the front and look up, the green trees cover the red wall, and the temple gate stands majestically, which is quite magnificent. The wide stone steps leading to the top of the mountain are crowded with tourists, many of whom are foreigners...
This temple is located on the top of the mountain, the area is very large, what advances and backwards, the east chamber and the west chamber, the Daxiong Treasure Palace, worship and play in turn, the morning star and Yuxin two, respectively with a digital camera to take a lot of photos for us. When I came out of the temple and walked down the mountain, it was already noon, and while walking, several people discussed that after going down the mountain, I would find a nearby restaurant for lunch, pack some of Master's favorite dishes, and bring him back.
As we walked like this, suddenly, we were confronted by a few foreigners, carrying travel bags, passing us by.
"Wait!" I stopped and looked back at them.
"What's wrong?" Several people looked at me.
"Those few," I pointed upwards and said to Chenxing, "Those foreigners, are they the ones we met when we were drinking porridge at KFC?" β
"Like," Morningstar thought for a moment, "Like." β
I quickly swept around the crowd and said, "Stop them and ask about the man in the hat..."
As I spoke, I raised my feet and walked up, stopped as soon as I took a step, scratching my head, "My English level is not good, and I forgot all the things I learned in Java." β
Morningstar smiled slightly, "I'll go, you're waiting here..."
Morningstar was in good physical condition, and he took a big stride and arrived in front of those foreigners in a few steps.
βexcusemeβ¦β
Several foreigners stopped and looked at her in surprise. Later, Morning Star said something again, I didn't hear it clearly, judging from Morning Star's gestures, it should mean that there is something I want to ask them... One of the foreigners nodded. Then, Morning Star made a gesture and chatted with them for nearly ten minutes, and finally shook hands with each foreigner with Chinese etiquette, and Morning Star walked back.
"Hey, Xiao Leng..."Uncle Yang smiled, "You kid really don't know what virtues you have accumulated in your previous life, this is a door, a beautiful bodyguard on the left, a beautiful translator on the right, and you still let other single young people live..."
'Smack', Yu Xin patted him, "Uncle Jing will talk nonsense!" β
"How?" I asked Morningstar, "What do they say?" β
"They said they were coming to China on a business trip and traveling with them."
"What about the man in the hat, is he their previous tour guide?" I asked.
"Nope." Morning Star shook his head, "One of them often comes to China, has been to many places, understands Chinese, but he doesn't speak very well, and that person works as a tour guide for the rest of them, so he didn't bring a tour guide or translator." As for the man who had eaten with them that day, they didn't know where he was from or what he was doing. β
"They don't know either?" I frowned.
"Hmm." "They say they prefer China's beautiful countryside, as well as temples and other places..."
I said in my heart that it turned out to be a few foreign donkeys.
"And then?"
"Then that day, they went to the countryside and had dinner in a small town, and they met a man they met when they went to worship the temple, and that person was also a tourist, and he looked like he hadn't slept for days. I met twice, so I chatted, and after chatting, it happened that the person also went to Chengdu, so I went together. It was already evening in Chengdu, and they stayed in the same hotel, and they had breakfast together the next morning, and then they separated from the man. β
"I see," I nodded, thought for a moment, and said, "When they first met that man, did they ask where the temple they worshipped?" β
"Yes, but they couldn't tell what it was."
"That's... When you meet that person at dinner later, what about that town? β
"Well, they told me the name of that town..."
Morningstar said the name of the town and said to the wind, "I know that place. β
"It's about a distance from here..."Xiang Feng pinched his fingers and calculated, "more than a hundred miles..."
We didn't eat at the restaurant at noon, so we packed it up and went back en masse.
"Masterβ" I put down one of my half-gnawed elbows, took a tissue, and wiped the oil on my mouth, "You said before that once you meet someone who has collided with evil spirits, it means that it is providence that allows us to rescue us, and we cannot ignore it. β
"Hmm." Master said.
"But we don't know where the man lives, and we can't find him. When I came back just now, I thought about it all the way, and Ah Feng and I also discussed, and we both felt that the things that entangled that person should have been met by him during the trip, so we wanted to look for it. Anyway, waiting for news here is also waiting. We are here to find people secondly, and the Lord is to find the root of the curse and the way to solve it. In general, in rural areas, especially those with rich ancient cultural heritage, there are basically a lot of legends about ancient times that have been handed down, and maybe we can find some clues that are useful to us, and that..."I looked at Morning Star, "That Xiaoshan, also likes to travel, maybe, in some places where tourists from other places often go, you can get clues about him... So I thought about it, it's better to just do this, you stay here, wait for the news of Old Man Yang, and I'll go with Ah Feng and the two of us..."
Master thought for a moment and said, "It's okay..."
In the afternoon, we chartered one or two cars in this county, and the next day, I followed Xiang Feng with various magic weapons and set off. Along the way, I saw the green hills on both sides, stretching and undulating. At noon, we came to the town that the foreigners were talking about. The town is quite remote, it looks a little backward, and the streets are all old streets that were built decades ago. Although there are many ancient buildings, there are not many tourists. Still, the food in town is quite delicious. Generally, when I go to a secluded place, I ask the restaurant owner when I ask for directions.
"Temple? There are several of them in our town. "The boss in front of me has a strong Mandarin Sichuan accent.
"Are there temples in other parts of your town?" I asked.
"Somewhere else..."The boss thought for a moment and let out a long 'oh', "There is one in Xiashan Village..."
"Downhill Village?"
"Well, that place is called Xiashan Village..."
Coming out of the restaurant, I looked at the time and asked Xiang Fengdao, "Do you want to go to the lower mountain village to have a look?" Perhaps, what those foreigners are talking about is that temple. β
"Let's go." Xiang Feng said.
The village is dozens of roads away from the town, and we took two motorcycles, got out of the town, and drove onto a stumbling road paved with large and small stones. The road was narrow, winding, and bumpy. After descending a steep slope, the stone road came to the end, and beyond that was the dirt road, which was drenched in rain and like a layer of mud, and the car could not move, so I had to walk down with the wind. The master of Mo said, follow the road and keep going until you reach Xiashan Village.
After walking like this for a while, he passed a stone hill, pointed to the wind and said, "Look there, Ah Leng..."
When I looked over, I saw a hill, and a corner of the house was faintly visible from the height.
"It's like a temple, go..."
The overall shape of the mountain is very irregular, and there are no steps to go up, just a path that is stepped on by man. After walking up a section and looking east, I saw a village in the distance, with scattered houses, which should be 'Xiashan Village'.
A little further up, around a large rock, a flat clearing appeared next to the path. In the middle of the clearing is a boxy stone pit, which has a lot of shattered firecracker skins, which looks quite new. When the road reaches here, it is no longer steep, but gentle and south. After turning a corner to the south, the temple finally appeared in front of me. On one side of the temple gate, there is a stout ancient cypress. The branches and leaves block the sun, drive away the summer heat, and breathe in a very comfortable heart. Directly facing the temple gate is a stone incense burner.
I straightened my clothes with Xiang Feng, lit three incense sticks by myself, inserted them into the incense burner, and then walked into the temple with my legs raised.
This is an ancient Buddhist temple, which houses eighteen Arhats, such as the Buddha, and the Buddhas of Buddhism, and so on. But there were no monks, only two old ladies who practiced and took out to see the temple, wearing washed white layman's clothes, very amiable. I went from temple to temple with Xiang Feng, but I didn't meet any other pilgrims. So everyone paid a few hundred yuan for sesame oil.
The old lady was very happy and treated us as honored guests, and invited us to the back room for tea. After asking, the old lady said, we came unfortunately, the temple fair has just passed before, they will have a temple fair here once a month, villagers from various villages, foreign tourists, will hear the news and rush to worship the temple, including many foreigners... I described the appearance of the foreigners, and the old lady replied ambiguously, saying that she seemed to have seen... I asked them if anything unusual had happened in their area recently, and some legends about ancient times... The old lady didn't know, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed, look at the time, it's not long before it gets dark, look at the situation, I have to live in this temple tonight...
Just as I was thinking about it, suddenly, I heard the sound of 'crackling' firecrackers from nowhere...