After breakfast on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, there was an endless stream of people coming to Shang Ning’s house to pay New Year greetings.
Ning Youguang and Shi Wangyue were not familiar with these people and did not like to socialize, so they told the elders in the family that they wanted to go out for a walk.
This time they moved to a cemetery on the outskirts of the city.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, many people come to pay homage to the cemeteries in the suburbs.
Ning Youguang and Shi Wangyue were walking in the mountains holding flowers, paper money, and fruit baskets, and they didn't feel out of place.
It's a gloomy day today, and it's really cold.
"I don't know if it will snow later." Ning Youguang raised his head and looked at the cemetery, which looked even more gloomy under the gloomy sky.
"Let's hurry up." Shi Wangyue's hands were full of things.
Today, the two of them drove their family's car over in person. The things were prepared two days ago and were packed in the car, so the sacrificial supplies were particularly abundant.
"Don't be in a hurry." Ning Youguang said, "I'm not afraid if it snows."
Soon, the two came to Shi's father's grave.
In the coldest month of winter, there were no weeds to weed around my father’s grave.
However, the two of them carefully packed the grass and dead branches in front of their father's grave into a tall pile. After lighting it, the fire began to crackle.
Afterwards, the sacrificial objects were arranged and the paper money brought were piled on the small burning fire.
The high pile of paper money soon burst into flames.
The two of them also smelled the slightly pungent paper money cigarette, but neither of them moved away.
They looked at the blazing flames and smoke in front of them.
I don't know why, but I feel a little relieved.
Maybe it's because through the smoke and dust, their thoughts can reach something.
The two of them brought quite a lot of paper money, and it took a while to burn it, so they quietly watched the fire together.
Ning Youguang saw that the pile of paper in the middle was thick, so he picked up two wooden sticks from the side, gave one to Shi Wangyue, and then followed him to pick out the fire.
While Wangyue was scratching, she suddenly thought of something from the past.
"I used to be very afraid of ghosts when I was a child. I didn't dare to walk alone at night. I always felt like something was following me. After my father left, I found that I was no longer afraid of ghosts."
"Did you believe in ghosts when you were a kid?"
“I believed it at first, then I didn’t believe it after I learned how to read, and then I started to believe it again.”
"When will it happen next?"
"After my father died." Shi Wangyue looked up at Shi Tingsong's tombstone with a distant and profound gaze, "I was once a staunch materialist, but later I hoped that there would really be ghosts, monsters, gods and Buddhas in this world."
When I returned to the city from the cemetery, a thin layer of snow began to fall in the sky.
Shi Wangyue was driving, and Ning Youguang was sitting in the passenger seat, talking to him from time to time, while watching the fine snow fall on the car window, with ice crystals splashing in front of his eyes.
Suddenly, she saw the temple roof exposed on the mountainside not far from the window.
"Putuo Temple." She happily pointed in the direction of the temple.
Shi Wangyue slowed down the speed of the car and looked in the direction of Putuo Temple along her gaze. In fact, she couldn't see anything anymore. "Want to take a look?"
"Okay." Ning Youguang nodded.
Shi Wangyue sped up and drove around a viaduct, then got off the bridge and drove to the entrance of Putuo Temple.
On the first day of the Lunar New Year, there are many pilgrims who come to burn incense and pray for blessings.
After the two parked the car, they walked hand in hand to the front of the temple in the wind and snow.
They haven't been to Putuo Temple for many years.
When I came this time, I found that except for the wider road in front of the temple, there were no other changes.
The bronze cauldron at the door is filled with incense offered by pilgrims who come to pray.
Ning Youguang and Shi Wangyue walked to the side and lit three incense sticks. After bowing, they all put the incense in the incense burner.
"Let's go in." Shi Wangyue suggested.
Ning Youguang nodded and was about to enter the temple with him, but he inadvertently looked up and saw the huge Bodhi tree above his head, covered with red ribbons.
She suddenly remembered that before Wang Yue went abroad that year, she had also hung a red ribbon on this Bodhi tree.
More than ten years have passed, and there are more and more red ribbons on the tree.
Ning Youguang could no longer tell which of the red ribbons flying in the wind and snow on the tree was the one Shi Wangyue hung.
But she still remembered the general location.
His eyes kept falling on that branch, "Has the wish you made here come true?"
When Shi Wangyue heard her asking, he immediately smiled and said, "It's happened."
He raised his head and his eyes fell on the same place as hers.
"Isn't this place very spiritual?" Ning Youguang raised his head and looked away from the bodhi tree, falling on the handsome face of the young man beside him.
The latter felt her gaze and turned to look at her, "Well, it's very clever."
After saying that, Shi Wangyue turned to look at the place where he had hung the red ribbon on the Bodhi tree and continued to laugh.
Ning Youguang looked at his face and felt that his smile had a special meaning, so he continued to ask curiously: "Now that your wishes have come true, can you tell me now what wish you made?"
"Can."
Shi Wangyue clasped his hands together and bowed devoutly three times to the Bodhi tree.
"What is it?"
Ning Youguang stood aside and watched him bow.
He turned around and his eyes fell on the picturesque center of her eyebrows, "You."
"Um?"
"I beg, if the Bodhisattva really appears, let me be with you forever."
"..."
"Look, aren't we together now?"
"Yes, but this is always a bit..." He looked at Ning Youguang, who lowered his head to look at the thin layer of fine snow on the ground.
Shi Wangyue reached out and held her hat-covered head, "Do you still want a divorce?"
There was a hint of danger and hurt in his eyes.
Ning Youguang felt that the other party might be possessed by the drama spirit again, "Well, that's not the case."
"That's good." The danger in Shi Wangyue's eyes was gone, but he still looked into hers and said word by word, "There is only farewell between the two of us, not life and death."
Ning Youguang's heart didn't fluctuate much at the moment, mainly because after getting together with Shi Wangyue, she didn't think about anything else. Whether it was separation or not, she never thought that she would really separate from him.
Except death, of course.
This confidence was given by Shi Wangyue and the countless times the two of them spent together.
Seeing that she didn't speak, Shi Wangyue took her hand and continued into the courtyard, "The Bodhisattvas here are indeed very spiritual. I just want to see the Bodhi tree planted in front of the door. I will go to the Merit Hall and ask if it is still needed in the temple."
Plant some Bodhi trees."
If he sows it, he will do more meritorious deeds.
Ning Youguang chuckled, "Okay."
Shi Wangyue continued, "When we get to the Main Hall, we can make another New Year's wish."
Ning Youguang was curious, "What wish do you want to make?"
"I won't tell you." Shi looked at the moon to show off.
Ning Youguang just smiles, "Okay, okay, I'll just wait. One day you will tell me." 1314