In the special care unit of Tonghui Hospital, the doctor on night shift glanced at me.
"He's okay, just tell him quickly."
"Ms. Bai, the situation is not good. We have invited experts from Beijing to come over. Even with targeted radiotherapy, Mr. Bai's cancer cells have metastasized."
Bai Shiqiong bit her lower lip and asked: "Dr. Zhao, as you said last time, there is still one year."
"Hey, we really tried our best. Judging from the current development, I'm afraid it will only last one to three months. But Mr. Bai is still in good spirits and can still talk."
After the doctor left, Bai Shiqiong turned her back to me and wiped her eyes.
"My condolences," I said.
Seeing her expression change, I realized that I had said the wrong thing.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Boss Bai, you don't need to express your condolences now."
Her eyes were red, she glared at me, and opened the door of the special care unit.
There were two people in the room. An old man with gray hair and glasses was leaning on a pillow and reading a book. I saw that he had an oxygen tube in his nose.
There was also a middle-aged man about forty years old, sitting aside and watching.
"Dad, grandma asked you to go back and have a rest. I'll be watching over grandpa tonight, and you've been watching over him for several days."
The middle-aged man stood up and said, "Okay, my dear, please take some rest and call me if you need anything."
"Dad, I'm going back then."
The old man wearing glasses was concentrating on turning the pages of the book and waving his hand without raising his head.
After the middle-aged man left, Bailashqiong suddenly snatched the book from the old man's hand.
"Grandpa! Don't read anymore! Doctor Zhao tells you to get more rest! Reading hurts your eyes."
The old man was thin and wearing a hospital gown and said with a smile: "Xiaojie, I will be lying in a small box in two months, just let me read for a while. Hey Xiaoshi, you said that Friday in this book
, he’s such an interesting person.”
Only then did I notice that the book he was reading was Robinson Crusoe, and Friday was talking about a savage in the book.
"Young man, you are"
"Grandpa, he is the person whose surname is Tian, and his name is Xiang Yunfeng."
"Hello, old man," I greeted politely first, and then asked about the doubts in my heart.
The old man said he knew what I did What, he asked his granddaughter not to report me.
"Young man, do you want to know what the tomb robber (Tian Sanjiu) is looking for?"
I said I want to know.
I am very curious. After all, Tian Sanjiu voluntarily gave up the cultural relics under Bin Pagoda.
"Xiaoshi, you go out first, I'll have a chat with this young man."
"Grandpa your body"
"It's okay. Didn't Dr. Zhao say I can live for another month or two?"
Bailash Qiong glanced worriedly and went out.
"Young man, sit here." The old man patted the bedside.
Seeing him gesture, I understood immediately, took out the cigarette, put it in his mouth, and lit it for him.
I said: "Lao Bai, please slow down, it's not enough."
"Cough! Cough!"
The old man coughed a few times and said, "Don't get me wrong. I'm not a member of your industry. I just have a cooperative relationship with Tian. I want to help him find that thing, just to take a look before I die."
"Lao Bai, what are you talking about?"
The old man held a cigarette in one hand and looked at the ceiling of the ward with his long-suffering eyes, as if he was lost in memories, and I didn't dare to disturb him.
After a long time, he slowly said three words.
"Cast Iron Buddha."
"Cast iron Buddha? What is that?"
I didn't know what this was at first, because I'm not from northern Shaanxi, I'm from Northeast China, and I've never heard of it.
The old man seemed to be holding back his breath. After he finished smoking a cigarette, I immediately gave him another one so that he could take it.
While smoking a cigarette, he talked about the cast-iron Buddha, which was true.
There are several temples in China called Tiefo Temple, and there are also several Tiefosi villages, just like Leifeng Pagodas across the country.
But when it comes to the most authentic Iron Buddha Temple, there is only one.
Lueyang County, Hanzhong, 50 miles north, Baishui Town, Tiefosi Village.
In the north of this village, there are red brick towers. This tower can be said to be the whole of northern Shaanxi, northern Sichuan, Longnan, and southern Shaanxi.
It is the earliest pagoda in the area and can even be said to be the earliest pagoda in the country.
Pay attention to one word, I said "pagoda".
Buddhist pagodas are different from ancient pagodas. Ancient pagodas have existed in all dynasties, and most of them were built by royal families, relatives, and dignitaries for someone or something.
But pagodas are different. Only pagodas where disciples and believers bury monks and are specially built for a certain eminent monk can be called pagodas.
The owner of the red brick pagoda of Tiefo Temple was an eminent monk who passed away in the 13th year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty.
This person is the great monk Yuetian of Linji Sect, a branch of the Sixth Patriarch of Zen Buddhism in the Central Plains.
After Master Yuetian passed away, ten of his disciples in the Iron Buddha Temple built a seven-story red brick pagoda for him to support his physical body. At the same time, they built forty-one cast iron Buddhas in the temple (the book says it may be four
Ten statues, no, it should be forty-one), the larger one is the image of Monk Yuetian himself. It is said that the blacksmith made it after Yuetian meditating.
These Buddha statues are all made of pure iron. The largest one is nearly three meters high and weighs more than ten tons. The smaller ones are over one meter, and the smallest one is over half a meter.
People in our industry often say that there are different opinions on how many furnaces Xuande furnaces were originally made, and few people have seen the real Xuande furnace of this dynasty.
Compared with the Xuande furnace, the more than 40 cast iron Buddhas in the Iron Buddha Temple were even rarer and more precious. After the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, almost no one saw them again and they were all lost.
These cast-iron Buddhas don't even have a photo album left, so they are very mysterious.
What Tian Sanjiu is looking for is this kind of cast iron Buddha, and it is very likely that it is the statue of Monk Yuetian himself.
At this point, someone may have asked, Hanzhong is hundreds of miles away from Xianyang. Even if there is such a cast iron Buddha, why did it come to Xianyang?
The real situation is that it has something to do with several people in Xianyang at that time.
If you have friends who grew up in Lueyang County, you may have heard your parents say that the tower in your village was originally a seven-story attic style tower, but now it only has five floors.
It turns out that the top floor of the brick tower is an iron tower with a circular upper part and a lower part. It is more than one meter in diameter and weighs at least several hundred kilograms.
This spire was stolen around 1960. According to the recollections of local villagers, it should have been lost around May 1958. At that time, a group of people stole the pagoda and dug a large iron Buddha about one meter and three meters high on the east side of the original temple site.
This group of people used a horse-drawn carriage to pull Tasha and Iron Buddha, and sold the two items to the local scrap collection station for thirty yuan.
This year happened to be 1958, and a few months later, on August 17, 1958, the vigorous refining of strength began in China.
At that time, steel was made not only in steel plants but everywhere, and there were task targets.
At that time, the Second National Cotton Factory in Northwest Xianyang bought a batch of scrap iron from the Hanzhong area, including the pagoda and a cast iron Buddha that were stolen in May.
At that time, Bai Tingli, Grandpa Bai Tingli, worked at Xianyang National Cotton Factory No. 2. The department he worked for at that time was called the Science Popularization Committee Group. There was another man and a woman who were also members of the group. The man's surname was Tang, and his name was Tang Xin, and the woman's name was Wang Xiaoqin.
.
When Wang Xiaoqin was in the scrap metal pile, she recognized the Tasha and the Iron Buddha at a glance, because she was a Buddhist and knew the importance of these two things.
Grandpa Bai Shiqiong had just turned 20 at the time. He liked Wang Xiaoqin, but he didn't dare to say it, just a secret love. Unfortunately, the man Wang Xiaoqin liked was Tang Xin in the group.
The three people held a secret meeting, decided to preserve the cast iron Buddha and Tasha, and formulated a careful plan.
They hid Tie Buddha and Tasha in the cotton factory. Because of his status as a science popularization team, Grandpa Bailash Qiong drove a cotton truck. They wrapped Tie Buddha and Tie Sha with white cotton and prepared to keep it secret.
were sent to the Second National Cotton Factory.
They thought they had done everything perfectly, but unexpectedly, a female worker in the cotton factory discovered the matter and reported it to the deputy director.
.
At this point in the story, Grandpa Bailash Qiong suddenly stopped telling it.
I was listening intently and asked anxiously: "Lao Bai, what happened next? Where did the Iron Buddha and Tasha from Hanzhong go?"
"Bailao?"
"Bailao?"
The old man still had half a cigarette in his hand, so I turned to look at the electrocardiograph on the table.
I saw the wavy lines on the ECG screen becoming smaller and smaller.