Liu Mu Nan had another night of strange dreams, one dream after another, one dream stranger than the other, and one dream more terrifying than the other.

In his dreams, he was always climbing the mountain. The mountains are very high, and each mountain is higher than the other, and the height cannot be seen to the top. Looking down from those mountains, Beishan looks like a small dirt bun. In front of him, there were many people who were also climbing up there, and he wanted to catch up with them, but he didn't have the strength to catch up.

He crawled and crawled, and at some point, a dark and heavy cloud pressed down from the top of the mountain. He watched as the people in front of him disappeared one after another inexplicably. He suddenly felt an indescribable fear, and he collapsed to the ground.

There were black clouds rolling above his head, and an abyss under his feet, and he wanted to shout but couldn't, he wanted to cry but couldn't. Seeing that he was about to fall off the cliff, he wanted to reach out and grab a big tree beside him, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't reach the tree, and at the moment when he saw himself helpless and about to slide into the abyss, he finally woke up.

Yanagi Nan opened his eyes, and the sunlight outside made his eyes sour. There were no mountains, abysses, or trees around him, and he grabbed a chair that Xiao Kunu had placed next to the bed. He finally realized that what he had experienced was just another terrifying nightmare.

Liu Mu Nan rubbed his eyes, which were a little painful, and only then did he realize that the sun had already risen. He panicked, and it looked like he was going to be late. Since he followed a group of fellow villagers to work on the construction site, he has never been late, because he really doesn't want to see the face of Pan Ergou, the little foreman who leads the class.

As long as he sees someone being late, the little foreman Pan Ergou always behaves more viciously than the boss. What is intolerable is that he also especially likes to curse latecomers with the most nasty swear words, making you feel that he is a person who has the right to bully you and insult you.

He didn't know when Xiao Kunu had gotten up to work, usually he got up earlier than Xiao Kunu. Liu Mu Nan hurriedly got up from the bed, remembering that he had drunk too much with his co-workers last night, he felt very thirsty in his mouth, and there seemed to be a fire burning in his throat, so he quickly picked up a big bowl and drank a few bowls of cold water. hurriedly stuffed a few more cakes into her mouth, and before Xiao Kunu went out, she made him a few cakes and put them on the table. Yanagi Nan filled his stomach indiscriminately and rode his motorcycle on the road.

The temples on the slopes of the hill faintly reveal the familiar white walls and black tiles. As Yanagi Man passed by the foot of the mountain on his motorcycle, the morning bell in the temple rang melodiously. Liu Mu Nan's heart seemed to be touched by something, and he involuntarily stopped the car and looked up at the mountain.

In the midst of the lush trees, a stone path winds its way up from the base of the mountain, and pilgrims and men and women walk up the mountain every day to pray for a change in their destiny and for the blessing of themselves and their families. Liu Mu Nan was too familiar with this stone path, he didn't know how many times he had walked back and forth, and he was familiar with every stone on the stone path.

When he was young, his father often took him to the temple. Dad went to the temple to help an old monk who was blind to do some good deeds. took Liu Mu Nan to let him learn to treat others with kindness. In the words of the blind old monk, it is to let him have a good fate. After he was a teenager, he could follow his father, and he could also help the old monk and do some things like collecting firewood, making fires, sweeping the floor, and doing chores as much as he could.

At that time, the temple encountered a lot of difficulties, and the original monks left, returning the vulgar and returning the vulgar. Only the blind old monk was left, and it was a kind old man.

Daddy often thinks about the blind old monk, it's spring sowing season again, it's time to help the old monk plow the land in the mountains; It's time to plant wheat again, and it's time to plant some wheat for the old monk; It's time to harvest the wheat again, and it's time to process a little flour for the old monk. It's time to plow the land again, it's time to plant sweet potatoes, it's time to harvest sweet potatoes. Dad is like remembering the few pieces of land at home, and he takes the trouble to remember those things one by one.

There are several plots of land on the edge of the temple where you can grow vegetables and wheat, as well as sweet potatoes that can be used as food. The old monk had no way to farm alone, so his father and a few neighbors who often went to the temple helped with farming. After finishing the work, my father accompanied the old monk to talk. Although the old monk can't see with one eye, he has a belly of knowledge hidden in his heart, and he also knows the world well.

Liu Mu Nan didn't know what his father and the old monk talked about on weekdays, and he didn't know where the old monk came from or why he was blind in one eye. Daddy never asked about this, and the old monk never said his life experience. When Daddy and the old monk were talking, Liu Mu Nan was wandering around the temple, he wanted to see what those Bodhisattvas and King Kong looked like, and he realized something when he looked at it.

He thought that whether it is a bodhisattva or a human being, it is necessary to have both good intentions and strength. Good intentions alone are not enough without strength, and without strength you cannot help others. It is impossible to pay attention to those who are suffering without good intentions, and even if they have strength, they will not come to the rescue of those who are suffering.

One day, my father and a few neighbors went to the mountains to help the old monk plant wheat, and he stayed alone in the temple to help the old monk boil water. Liu Mu Nan looked at the old monk with a kind face and opened his mouth and asked, "Are you a bodhisattva?" ”

The old monk was still smiling: "Amitabha, Lao Qu can only be regarded as a disciple of the Bodhisattva, practicing according to the Bodhisattva's teachings. The old man has to recite the sutras every day, and reciting the sutras is to practice in the world like a bodhisattva, and it is also like you have to attend classes every day. Liu Mu Nan heard the old monk say this, and seemed to understand something: "Reciting scriptures is reading, and only by reading carefully will you get good grades." The old monk smiled and nodded.

When the old monk was talking to his father one day, he looked at Liu Mu Nan and said, "Mu Nan, this child has a bit of wisdom. At that time, he didn't understand what the old monk meant by Huixin, but he knew that the old monk must be praising himself. He saw his father hurriedly shake his hand after listening to the old monk's words: "Amitabha, I named him Mu Nan because he was too stupid and naughty, and the master was wrong to love." ”

As long as Liu Mu Nan followed his father up the mountain, the old monk always told him some stories when he was free, and he knew a lot of the origin of the Bodhisattva and the statue from those stories. Knowing the karma of many good men and women, he finally realized and believed that good is rewarded with good, evil is rewarded with evil, and everything in the world is cause and effect.

Liu Mu Nan clearly remembered the autumn of the year he was twenty years old. When I went up the mountain that day, the sky was overcast, and when I was halfway up the mountain, a light rain fell. When he walked to the Mid-Levels Temple, the sky was clear again. Sunlight shines through the clouds and shines on the roofs of the temples in Banshan Temple, adding to a sense of mystery.

When the old monk walked out of the meditation room slowly with a Zen stick, he looked very struggling. Liu Mu Nan had never seen him so weak, the old monk looked up weakly at the towering ginkgo tree in the temple, and then looked down at the ginkgo leaves all over the ground, still smiling and said to him: "Amitabha, the fallen leaves are going to return to ......the root after all" This is the last sentence that the old monk said to him when he was alive.

Soon after, when my father came back from the temple again, my father told him that the old monk had passed away and was sitting in the meditation room with a peaceful face.

The last disciple of the old monk Huiyuan seemed to have a sense, a few days before the old monk sat down, he rushed thousands of miles back to the Banshan Temple, and the old monk took a look at the disciple Huiyuan and passed away.

Dad and a few good men and women who often go to the temple to burn incense and worship the Buddha, and some neighbors who often go to the temple to help work, together put together some donations, and helped the old monk's disciple Huiyuan to load the old monk into the tank. Liu Mu Nan felt that the old monk had not died, but had been collected like a thick and esoteric book, forever.

Huiyuan, the disciple of the old monk, inherited the mantle of the master and stayed in the Banshan Temple, and every day he would go down the mountain to Huayuan, and rebuild the temple with the money from Huayuan. Three years after the old monk filled the tank, Huiyuan followed the old monk's will and chose a date to open the tank for the old monk.

After opening the cylinder, everyone was surprised to find that the old monk's face was as usual, and his body was not rotten as if he was in the world. Disciple Huiyuan clasped his hands in front of his chest and reverently chanted: "Amitabha, my Buddha is compassionate, Amitabha Buddha ......"

Villagers from near and far have witnessed and heard about this legend, and are grateful for the practice and good deeds of the old monk when he was alive, and the incense in Banshan Temple has become more and more prosperous since then. A few years later, Huiyuan used the wealth from the fate to shape the golden body of the old monk, and the villagers would come to worship the old monk as long as they entered the Banshan Temple to burn incense.

After a few years, my father also left, and before my father left, he also had a premonition like the old monk. The father called Liu Caogu and him to him, and said to the two of them, "I am leaving, although you are both my adopted sons and daughters, I will treat you as if you were my own." The Liu family has passed on dozens of generations in Beishan, accumulating good deeds, and it can't be without it in my generation, you two are also considered to be members of my Liu family as adopted sons and daughters, and you must also pass it on, not only to continue the incense of the Liu family, but also to retain the good roots of the Liu family in Beishan. ”

Dad's cemetery was selected by himself when he went up the mountain before his death, and he was buried not far from the Banshan Temple. Liu Mu Nan thought that after his father went to that world, he would also have a long underground conversation with the old monk like he used to.

The incense in the temple is flourishing again, the number of monks is gradually increasing, and the temple has been renovated. The stone path up the mountain is bustling with people every day. Liu Mu Nan was happy to listen to the bell in the temple, and the sound of the wooden fish, and he didn't know why.

The first time I went up the mountain with my father, when I heard the old monk knock on the wooden fish, he fell into a daze, and the old monk once said to his father that this child has a Buddha fate. He was still young at that time, and he didn't know what Buddha fate was. But he seems to be very familiar with everything in the monastery, and in the monastery, he will feel a special peace.

Liu Mu Nan looked at the Banshan Temple looming on the hillside, and suddenly a strange thought was born in his heart. He felt that one day, his soul would return there, and that it would be his final destination.

He is not seeking wealth or heirs, he is not like those passers-by who come and go on the stone path, he wants to pray for fame and fortune in the world. He just wanted to find his home. He didn't know why he had such a thought, but he felt that this kind of thought in his heart had been around for a long time, as if it was innate.

(Next Preview: Chapter 76: The Taste of a Small Town)