On a late autumn morning, the air is humid and cool.

One day in October 2022, Luo Xiaofan started his day's work early. It has been three years since he came to this ancient town, and three years ago, he suffered from a broken love, unemployment, and the loss of a loved one, and his life fell into a low point. After 3 months of decadence, he came to this ancient town in the south of the Yangtze River again. Luo Xiaofan clearly remembered the scene when he first came to the ancient town, and when he saw the ancient houses in the town, he couldn't help but sigh: "This is the Jiangnan in my mind!" "Although the town is not big, it has a lot of pleasant places: a thousand-year-old street, a water town ancient rhyme corridor...... These all made Luo Xiaofan linger.

Some people say that in everyone's heart, there is always a feeling of an ancient town - flowing water south of the Yangtze River and smoke cages. When Luo Xiaofan first arrived here, he fell in love with the deep streets and long alleys, green tile wooden buildings, and swaying black canopies...... Three years have passed in the blink of an eye, and he still loves to walk through the old town and taste the local culture. After finishing his work every day, he writes articles and submits articles to newspapers in his spare time. His profession in Guzhen is Guzhen Librarian, and he is very busy every day, mainly responsible for entertaining visitors to the library, inventorying, shelving, and archiving books, maintaining the order of the library's reading environment, cleaning and maintaining the library, and sending and receiving mail packages. It's a hectic but fulfilling job, because when there are no tourists, he can read quietly in the library alone and immerse himself in the sea of books.

When Luo Xiaofan first came to work in the library, he found that most of the books in the library were ancient books. Beginning with the pre-Qin oracle bone inscriptions, ending in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, the "Four Libraries Quanshu", and the "Four Serials" of the Republic of China are all displayed, and there are also many celebrity manuscripts, calligraphy and paintings, etc., all of which are treasures of ancient history and culture. Luo Xiaofan has a special hobby, that is, he likes to talk with the characters in the book. He believes that the words in every ancient book have a soul, and talking to the characters in the book in his own heart can liberate his heart.

Tourists who have visited the Guzhen Library have lingered in the library, and they believe that reading in the Guzhen Library can purify the soul and nourish the mind. Many visitors return to their place of residence and send a letter or a postcard to the library, talking about their impressions of the library and the memorable places of the library. There are also people who mail ancient books and classics, calligraphy and paintings of celebrities that they have found at home, and the library will keep them on their behalf.

On this day, the library received a wooden box about 1 meter long, 50 centimeters wide and 50 centimeters high. The wooden box looks like it's been some years old, and the paint on the wooden box has peeled off and gone. There is no courier information posted on the wooden box, and it is not clear where it was sent from. Luo Xiaofan opened the wooden box and found that there were some ancient books and some painting scrolls inside, and there was a letter to the Guzhen Library on the top. Luo Xiaofan took out the letter, opened it and looked at it, there was only one sentence in the letter:

This is my collection of many years of classic book "Zen Moon Collection" 20 volumes, 8 pieces of calligraphy and painting, please Guzhen Library to keep the treasure!

There was no name written on the payment, and he thought that it should be sent by a tourist who had been to the ancient town. Luo Xiaofan once heard a little about the "Zen Moon Collection", the works included in the "Zen Moon Collection" are the poems of the Zen Moon Master, who was a Shu painting monk and poet monk in the late Tang Dynasty and the fifth dynasty. He took the books out and put them on the table, and read them carefully for a moment. He took out a picture scroll from the box and opened it to see that it was a cat in the courtyard of a temple. There is some text on the side, which is written in cursive. Master Chan Yue is named Guan Xiu, Guan Xiu is good at calligraphy, the calligraphy he wrote is called "Jiang Ti", among which the cursive writing is the best, compared with the outstanding calligrapher Huaisu of the Tang Dynasty, especially like to write a thousand characters, he can also write the line of calligraphy, official script, seal script, and self-contained, unique. The temple reflected in the green trees gives people a sense of tranquility and solemnity, and the cat in the temple is vividly painted and very endearing. Luo Xiaofan hung the scroll on a wall to look at it, and took out some other scrolls one by one, all of them on the wall of the library. Look at those arhat pictures, some of them have big eyebrows, some have high cheeks and rhinoplasty, and their faces are all "Hu Xiang Fanxiang", this kind of strange appearance is intended to avoid vulgarity. Luo Xiaofan has studied relevant historical materials, according to historical records, Guan Xiu once said that these Buddhist characters who are "not like the world" are what he "saw in his dreams". We can not believe in what we see in our dreams, but these Sanskrit statues are all conjured into Zen Buddhism, and they are all illusions in the realm of Zen Buddhism.

Luo Xiaofan carefully admired the paintings for a while, then returned to the desk and began to read the "Zen Moon Collection". This book was written shortly after Guan Xiu's death, and his disciples collected more than 1,000 of his poems, which were carved into a volume under the name of "Zen Moon Collection", which was the beginning of the ancient Chinese self-engraved collection. The content includes one volume of Yuefu ancient inscriptions, five volumes of ancient style and miscellaneous words, twelve volumes of five-character poems, six volumes of seven-character poems and seven-character quatrains, and one volume of seven-character poems.

When he reads:

You are forced to come and are not free, and it is difficult to take advantage of the dragons and phoenixes.

The hall is full of three thousand guests, and the sword is frosty and cold in fourteen states.

The drum horn reveals that the sky is cold, and the wind is turbulent.

The southeast will always be the golden pillar, who envied the marquis of ten thousand households at that time.

The title of this poem is "Offering Money to the Father", Luo Xiaofan read it, and said to himself: "The general meaning of this poem should be: There is no way for people to come from wealth, and if a person works hard, his achievements cannot be stopped." The fragrance of flowers in the hall intoxicated countless guests, and a sharp sword swept through the two Zhejiang and fourteen states. The sound of war drums and trumpets rushing into the sky makes the weather cold, and the wind and waves sweep in and make the world seem to be in autumn. Master this southeast land, as the pillar of auspicious celestial phenomena, who still envy the old Wanhu Hou. I didn't expect Master Chanyue to be so bold and domineering, in the past, I only knew that in Tang poetry, Li Bai was known for being uninhibited, but compared with Master Zenyue, it was slightly insufficient. Thinking of this, I couldn't help but shake my head, feeling that I was still too young, and even the artistic conception in the poem didn't seem to fit the atmosphere of the current era! Is it really providence? After thinking about it for a while, I simply stopped thinking about it and concentrated on reading. At this point, it was getting dark.

Maybe it was because he had been reading for too long, Luo Xiaofan suddenly felt sleepy in his heart, and unconsciously fell asleep on the desk......

About half an hour later, suddenly, a voice woke Luo Xiaofan up.

"Administrator, can you help me find a book?"

He looked up sleepily, but found no one there, thinking that he was probably hallucinating. He just wanted to lie down and continue sleeping, but he heard someone calling him and repeated the sentence just now.

"Administrator, can you help me find a book?"

Luo Xiaofan looked in the direction where the voice came from, and found that it was a cat, and when he looked closely, it was actually the cat in Guan Xiu's painting. He hurriedly looked at the painting hanging on the wall, and saw that the cat in the original temple courtyard in the painting was gone, and only the temple was left in the painting, and the courtyard was empty, and the cat really ran out! Luo Xiaofan was suddenly shocked, and said to the cat in a trembling voice: "Why did you run out of the painting, are you doing magic, why are you still talking?" ”

The cat said, "Don't be afraid, I've only learned to speak human language after spending a long time with humans." I'm not doing magic, I just want you to help, can you help me find a book? ”

"You're just talking nonsense, is someone operating remotely and letting you play with me, tell you, I don't have time to play with you." Luo Xiaofan was a little angry.

"I'm not kidding you, I just want you to help me find a book......" the cat said with an aggrieved expression.

"Aren't you a cat? How can you still read books? Luo Xiaofan was a little impatient with it, and continued: "Say, what book do you want to read?" But I'm going to tell you, we can't borrow books here, we can only read them in the library, and I'd like to see what you can read as a cat! With that, he looked out the window again, wondering if someone was outside with a remote control controlling the cat.

The cat continued, "Can you help me find a book called 'The Legend of the Cat Ranger'?" ”

"The Legend of the Cat Ranger? The name of this book sounds like it should be a martial arts novel, I haven't read it, we don't have the book you said here! Luo Xiaofan has been in this library for three years, and he has to file books every day, and he has never seen a book called "The Legend of the Ranger of the Cat World". Therefore, he can tell the cat for sure that there is no book here.

"Can you help me find it, maybe there is, you just haven't seen it." The cat begged Luo Xiaofan and said.

Luo Xiaofan saw that he was so serious, it didn't seem like he was joking, so he asked, "That martial arts novel is so good?" You're so anxious for me to help you find it? ”

The cat said, "That book is not a martial arts novel, it is a history book, and it is written about the story of my ancestors." ”

"Yes, you know how to make up stories! And put your ancestors together. ”

Luo Xiaofan pondered: "It's strange that this cat can talk, is what he said still true?" It's even stranger, even though I haven't seen the book, but when I see the cat begging pitifully, I go and help it find it, and even if I can't find it, I'll die. ”

Luo Xiaofan searched for a long time, almost rummaged through all the books in the library, and found all the books with the words "Legend of the Rangers" in their titles, but there was no "The Legend of the Ranger in the Cat World" that the cat said. At this time, he saw that the cat was also rummaging around the bookshelf, and said to the cat, "I shouldn't have believed you at all!" What "The Legend of the Ranger in the Cat World", you made it up, right? Waste so much of my time helping you find it! He stopped rummaging and was about to sit down and rest for a while.

The cat suddenly shouted, "I found it!" ”