Maybe he was young and inexperienced. I didn't perceive the profound meaning of the Taoist priest's words.

It's just that on the way back to the teahouse with my uncle, my uncle asked me, do you think this Taoist priest is very powerful? I nodded and said, he knows a lot of things, we don't understand things, of course it's amazing. Uncle snorted and said, what's the big deal, he knows how to make Lao Yin tea better than me?

After saying that, my uncle laughed, and I also giggled, because it was the first time my uncle spoke in a joking tone in front of me, and I could see that the problem was solved, and I was in a good mood. When I was about to get home, my uncle said to me again, since you think that Taoist priest is so powerful, then let you send these things back to him.

I readily agreed. The uncle then said, if you talk to the Taoist priest again, he will ask you if you are interested in learning from him, learning these crafts from him, are you willing to learn them? When my uncle said this, he looked at me, as if searching for the answer in my eyes. Only then did I know that my uncle asked this because the Taoist priest said, "You are welcome to play or not", and I heard the clue.

But I didn't think about it that way, so I panicked and didn't know how to answer my uncle. Uncle went on to say, I am not close to your father, and I am also related to your mother, and I received the news for a long time after your father's death, since your mother entrusted you to me, although we do not have the same surname, we are blood relatives. So no matter what, I'll take good care of you.

The topic suddenly became a little serious, and I began to keep my head down and not speak. This habit was developed when I was a child in private school and was scolded by my husband, so that when I faced those situations where I was helpless, I often chose to bow my head and be silent.

My uncle went on to say, "I'm in my forties, but I haven't married a daughter-in-law yet." My father was in the grain business before the liberation, there was a rice shop, when the war was stolen, he left some money and died, and finally suffered from the liberation, and there were some gold bars and silver tickets in his hand, and the silver tickets wanted to be discounted and found that they had lost too much, and the gold bars could only be sold to the black market.

I finally saved up so much money and wanted to do a small business, and I could marry a wife in the future, and seeing that life was going to be better, my mother, that is, your grandmother, passed away again. I'm alone, and although we're estranged, you're the closest person to me in the world.

My uncle looked a little sad, and I didn't say a word. Uncle said, but I don't have any other skills, just guard such a dilapidated house to open a teahouse, hunger is not starving, but there is no profit, if you stay with me, at most in the future, you will take over my teahouse and continue to do it, otherwise until that day, you will be just a little boy. But you are only seventeen years old, it is a good time, and now there is no war, if you go to school late, if your mother entrusts you to me, but let me delay your youth in vain, it is indeed a pity.

Uncle paused and continued, "Today, that Taoist priest, if I am not mistaken, he may want to accept you as a student, so I ask you, if he accepts you, will you be willing to learn?" I looked up at my uncle, not knowing how to answer. Actually, I think I want to do it in my heart, but I don't want to leave my uncle alone, which is very conflicted.

Uncle said, if there is really that day, I hope you think about it, the Taoist profession was very respected in the past, but now that the sky has changed, it will not necessarily be respected. But if you take advantage of your youth to learn a trade, be able to eat and dress, and live no worse than others, it is better than being a small handyman every day, eating and waiting for death.

At this point, the conversation stopped abruptly. My uncle didn't go any further, and I didn't say anything right away because of my conflict.

So that day, I went back to the teahouse and cleaned the broken porcelain slag all over the floor, until after dinner, before my uncle and I went back to the house, my uncle only said one word to me, tomorrow we will open the door to do business, after resting for so many days, it should not be too busy, you can sleep lazy, after waking up, send this pile of things to the Taoist priest.

Since my uncle also heard about the Taoist priest from others, he has always been called "master" and "Taoist chief" from the beginning of the meeting, so my uncle and I don't know what the name of the Taoist priest is and what the Taoist name is.

And that night, I did sleep in, because in the first half of the night I had been thinking about the meaningful words of the Taoist priest and my uncle, and I couldn't fall asleep at all, and by the time I woke up, it was almost lunch.

When I was cleaning up the dishes and chopsticks after eating, my uncle asked me, "Do you send it to the Taoist priest in the afternoon, or will you send it another day?" I thought about it and said, I'll send it over in the afternoon.

In the afternoon, I took the things that the Taoist priest had left in the teahouse and went to the Taoist priest's house.

The Taoist priest asked me, why didn't your uncle come? I said, now that the trouble in the shop is solved, the teahouse is open again. The Taoist priest sighed, and packed up the things I brought back one by one, but the wooden man, he took the candle that walked to the altar, turned the wooden figure on it and spent a few circles, and then wrapped red threads around the neck, hands, and feet of the wooden man, and then tied the red thread to a chopstick, and then leaned on the edge of the incense burner. That's when I took a closer look at his incense burner.

The incense burner is placed on a scarlet lacquered stilt, flanked by two large candles as thick as a wrist, and in front of the incense burner there are three white porcelain wine glasses, which are filled with liquid, which should be wine.

In front of the three glasses are three plates filled with fruit, three each of bananas, apples, and oranges. And behind the incense burner, another ancient clay statue, behind the clay statue is pasted a big yellow paper, on which are written all kinds of words, some know some do not know, some even a few words put together a word. What I find most strange is that on the side of the clay statue, there is a glass bottle without a lid, the bottle is yellow, orange and orange, it looks like oil, and because there is no lid, there are a few dead insects floating on the surface of the oil.

The Taoist priest looked at me intently, so he smiled and said, "Young man, this is the mouth of my altar." The wooden figure you brought back today, I need to use a method to enshrine it in my altar, so that it can reduce its anger, on the one hand, it can be purified by my offering, and on the other hand, it can accumulate good fortune and merit for myself for my use, and when the merit and good fortune are enough, it will be time for it to re-enter the samsara.

Speaking of this, the Taoist priest patted the dust on his hands, took me to the hall and sat down, and then said to me, do you think that people like me who deal with demons and monsters are particularly unlucky? I shook my head and said no, I think it's pretty powerful, and it can help others.

The Taoist priest smiled and said, in fact, whether it is a human being or a ghost, whether it is good or bad, it all coexists. I think I'm a good person, but sometimes I also have some evil thoughts, you think this ghost is bad, because he harms people, but in fact, when he is subdued by the Taoist, he is used in other places, and he is also helping others, unless there are some people who are not right-minded, they will use their soldiers and horses to do something harmful, but those are a minority.

So whatever we are, it doesn't matter, it's good or bad, maybe it's important to us, but it's not important to all living beings. The key to these things is how to use them, or what they do with them.

After saying that, he stretched out his hand, made a pistol pose, and shot me in a pretentious manner, and then asked me, this bullet can kill an innocent you, or a Japanese devil or a Kuomintang reactionary, now you tell me, is this bullet good or bad?

I stopped talking, and the answer was obvious in my mind.

The Taoist priest asked me, if you are just here to return things today, then you can go back. If you have anything else, say it now. So I opened my mouth and asked, Master, are these skills of yours difficult to learn? The Taoist priest looked happy, and then said, It's hard to say it's difficult, it's not difficult to say it's not difficult, it's not difficult to say, it's up to you to learn it. If you want to make a living and make a fortune, it may be more difficult to learn. I thought about it and told him that I wanted to learn, that I wanted to help others.

The Taoist priest was stunned, and was silent for a moment before looking at me and saying, "Young man, what is your name."

I told the Taoist priest that my surname is Situ, a person from Baixiang Street, and my name is Situ Qin.