When the boy woke up, it was just dawn, the fire was still burning in the gazebo, and the little black dog was curled up in his arms, sleeping soundly.

The young Taoist priest and the monk were gone, and the scholar was still sitting in his place last night, holding the book and flipping through it by the firelight. The young man gently placed the little black dog on the ground and changed into the Confucian robes prepared for him by the scholars. After that, the scholar and the boy explained a lot, but did not hide much, but the boy did not listen much, he looked at the fire, and thought about the withered trees outside the pavilion and the weeds that had been dead for an unknown number of years. The same dead silence in the pavilion.

And there is nothing separating it.

The boy walked out of the pavilion and picked up a blade of grass from the countless dead weeds on the ground, the color of which was as yellow as the rising sun in the sky. The morning breeze blew softly, and the weeds and branches of the trees that were waiting to rot swayed from side to side as if they were still alive. There's a layer of falsehood nested in that.

The scholar put away the books in his hand, buried the fire with dirt, and walked over to the boy.

"Do I have to go to that academy?" the boy asked. He looked at the weak scholar in front of him who claimed to be named Chen Lin'an, but he didn't expect any answer.

"Not necessarily. Chen Lin'an said, "If you really don't want to go back to the academy, you can wait to go to the town, you can repair the book and send it back to the academy, so as not to make Mr. wait for you." ”

"In the past few years of my husband's absence, you have been forced to travel from south to north and have endured many hardships. The young man should have something to worry about, but it shouldn't be what you're worried about now, and I'll be with you next. ”

"No, I'm just asking. "I haven't seen an old bookworm for a long time." ”

The young man held the blades of grass, feeling that it didn't matter if he went to that academy or not, as long as Chen Lin'an, who said that he was his senior brother, could make himself and Baozi full, it didn't matter anything.

The scholar looked at the young man and sighed slightly: "Have you ever thought that I might have lied to you?" ”

"I have nothing to deceive you. The young man replied without thinking, "Those three old men are not saying goodbye, they have roughly said that there will be this situation today, and I am also prepared." ”

The little black dog in the pavilion stood up slowly, whined weakly twice, and then walked up to the boy and snuggled up to his ankles.

The boy threw away the blade of grass in his hand and picked up the little black dog.

The scholar leaned down and picked up the blade of grass that the boy had thrown away, rubbing it with his fingers.

The scholar's action made the boy very irritable.

"It's dead, they're long dead. The boy said.

He felt that he knew everything, but in fact he didn't know anything, and the boy stopped looking at the scholars.

"Spring rain and spring breeze. The scholar said to the boy, "They are only one spring breeze and spring rain away." ”

"What are you talking about?"

"It's true that they're dead, but it only takes a spring breeze and spring rain for them to live. ”

The young man closed his eyes, he understood Chen Lin'an's words.

"You want to say that you are my spring breeze?" the young man grinned, although he didn't show it, he must have sneered in his heart.

He used to be just a little annoyed with the scholar's self-righteousness, but now he felt that this scholar was not only arrogant, but also a fool.

Chen Lin'an didn't answer, and asked a question: "I want to know what Mr. taught you in those years?"

"The old bookworm taught me that there are rules and principles in heaven and earth, the old bald head told me that everyone has compassion in their hearts, and the old drunkard said that in life, you can't make yourself uncomfortable. ”

"A few years ago, Baozi and I fled to a small town, where the townspeople arrested us and put us in a cage in a square in the town, where not only me but also a man with no legs. The man said that the family of three also fled here, and after the townspeople arrested them, they ate the children and women because of their tender skin and flesh, and he lived until now. The man pointed to me to the large iron tank on the fire outside the cage and said that his legs were inside. Later, when the townsfolk came towards me with knives, the bun saved me, and it grew bigger again and ate all the townspeople. I looked back at the man, and he begged me to let him go, and I did. Legless, he crawled up to the iron jar, fished out his boiled legs, ate it himself, and then boiled the pot of water, and grabbed the red-hot mouth of the jar with his hands and turned it in. I wanted to help him, but I couldn't help him, so I just watched. After that, I went around the town for no reason, and there was more than one such square and that town, otherwise the town would not be happy for everyone in the year of chaos. I don't dare say that the old bookworm and the old bald head are wrong, but I don't see any rules in it, and I don't see the slightest mercy, but the old drunkard's words seem to work. The people of the town had a very comfortable life. ”

The boy still didn't read the scholar, he sat down, put the little black dog on his lap, he pulled a handful of dead grass on the ground, and threw it forward with all his might. Dead grass scattered around him.

It's inevitable.

"And then?" asked Chen Lin'an.

"Before I left, I fished the man out of the vat and buried him with all the bones I could see in the town, hoping that there would be his wife and children inside. ”

Chen Lin'an smiled and pointed his finger on the young man's chest and said, "Mercy is here." ”

The scholar tapped the little black dog's forehead again: "The reason is in it." ”

"The child can be taught. ”

The boy glanced down at the little black dog in his arms and found that Baozi was also looking up at him.

"The rules, it's really gone. That's why we are needed. The scholar sighed.

The boy looked at the scholar.

"You use grass as a metaphor for people and yourself, and you said eight words, 'incorrigible' and 'heart is like dead ashes', the first four words are as I said, as long as the spring breeze is a spring, you can die wood in spring, and dead grass is reborn. The scholar shook the blade of grass in his hand, and the boy watched as the blade of grass turned from withered yellow to green.

Such a scene was like a pair of iron hands pinching the young man's heart.

"There were sages who proposed that human nature is inherently evil, since everyone is evil, where do the good come from? It's just a spring breeze missing, like a person missing an education. ”

"Confucianism, helping others, following yin and yang, enlightening. You have compassion and you know the rules, so why don't you change what you feel is wrong in the future?"

Chen Lin'an threw out the green blades of grass in his hand, and at the same time blew out the spring breeze on his sleeves.

At the end of this summer, spring in the mountains and forests came again.

"I'm not your spring breeze. He said.

The young man sitting on the green grass was stunned for a moment, and then relieved.

Chen Lin'an beckoned and signaled the young man to go on the road.

The young man looked back at the gazebo on the side, and in the green trees and grass, only it was still dilapidated.

He stood up, he followed the scholar, and the little black dog followed him, and went into the distance.

The scholar only said the first four words, not the last four words, and the young man knew why. He also felt that this senior brother did not seem to be stupid.

But the boy was still very hesitant, and there were many things that he couldn't figure out that were going around his mind, which made him very uncomfortable.

"Is there such a thing?" the boy asked.

"No? Buddhism also has a saying about becoming a Buddha on the ground, you should know. ”

"I haven't seen it. ”

"If you haven't seen it, don't you have it?" Chen Lin'an smiled, "Besides, aren't you just taught by Mr. and them?"

"What would you have done if you had been in that town?" Ying Tianchang asked suddenly.

"I eat the travelers because I am hungry, and I don't eat the townspeople because I still have a conscience in my heart. I'll find something to eat for them first, and then I'll teach them how to find food. I will also open a private school, and I will eventually achieve results. When such a situation occurs, it is a natural disaster or a man-made disaster, and it is the inaction of Confucianism. Chen Lin'an replied very seriously.

"Inaction?"

"Don't be in a hurry to know this, just learn slowly. Chen Linan said.

"What if it was yesterday's monks and Taoist priests?"

"The monk will not stop the townspeople from eating him, and the townspeople's knives and axes will not hurt him in the slightest, but he will cut off his own flesh and persuade people to do good. The Taoist priest is simple, and he can't get used to these actions, so he can eliminate evil. ”

"What will happen to you?" Chen Lin'an asked.

The boy looked into the scholar's eyes, and there was something in them that he couldn't understand.

The boy shook his head, unable to answer. But he knew that he couldn't spare those people in his heart after all. He won't save them, he knows.

"The rules and principles are in the books, but there is no just reading books, so we have to travel to study, experience the good and bad of the world's human feelings, and feel the right and wrong of the truth in the book, so it is better to read thousands of books than to travel thousands of miles. But it's too early for you, that's the gentleman's fault. The road has been so far that the books must be read together. ”

While walking, the scholar took out two Confucian classics from his bag, one on history and the other on reasoning, and handed them to the young man.

"Reading can solve puzzles. He said.

The boy scratched his head, feeling like he was back in his childhood, when there were old bookworms, old drunkards and old bald heads, and old bookworms would also tell him to read.

"My name is Ying Tianchang. He said. Now he has a senior brother named Chen Lin'an.

"I know, my little brother. ”

"Wang, Wang. The little black dog barked twice.

For no reason, Ying Tianchang remembered the broken pavilion just now, and the big iron cylinder with a pair of broken legs, in front of the iron cylinder

There was a cage in the back, and in it was a man who was half-cut and wanted to die, but couldn't.

The man's drooping hand drew small figures in the dirt on the ground, one larger and one smaller. The man was laughing and crying.

Or maybe it's all wishful thinking on the part of the day. Even he wasn't sure if the images were real or false in his head. He hoped it was fake.

But the gazebo was real, and he saw someone add a tile to it.

That person was Chen Lin'an, who was weak and sitting on the top of the gazebo, smiling.

I patted myself on the head and tried not to think about it as much as possible. Ying Tianchang held two books in his arms and began to think about the academy.

Chen Lin'an had been paying attention to his little junior brother, he sighed again and didn't say anything. It's good to be able to use your brain, but it's not good to be young and old, so you should be frivolous when you're young, otherwise when you're old, you'll only have to worry about it.

Chen Linan was a little distressed.