In the lobby of Fahua Temple's guest house, the kind-hearted abbot sat very dignified, with a majestic appearance.
When he saw Zhong Jinwei coming out, his white eyebrows raised, as if he was surprised to see the Buddha. He immediately stood up and said, "Amitabha, this poor monk is blind and doesn't know that the donor is the reincarnation of the Buddha who defeated the Buddha in a battle. Fortunately, the Buddha showed up and he is really the Buddha."
Sin, sin, sin!”
Zhong Jinwei was about to say hello to him after he came out, but he didn't expect the abbot to say such a thing, which almost made him choke on his saliva.
The guards around him were also a little dumbfounded and looked at the abbot speechlessly.
Zhong Jinwei swallowed hard, and then said a little speechlessly: "Dou Zhan Buddha? You say I am the reincarnation of Sun Wukong?"
At this time, "Journey to the West" had already been published, and storytelling was popular in the streets, so many people had heard of it.
The abbot shook his head and said solemnly: "Sun Wukong is a novelist. The Victorious Buddha is one of the thirty-five Buddhas in my Buddhist sect, and he always lives in all the worlds in the ten directions..."
"Okay, okay. Well...which Buddha appeared and what happened?" Zhong Jinwei was not interested in this Buddhist matter, so he interrupted and asked.
The abbot titheed again, and then said: "Donor, please follow the poor monk to the Mahavira Hall and see for yourself."
"Okay, master, lead the way." Zhong Jinwei was very interested and responded immediately.
Therefore, the abbot led the way, and Zheng Zhilong, Gu Baichuan and others accompanied Zhong Jinwei and followed behind the abbot.
The group soon arrived at the Main Hall. At this time, most of the monks from Fahua Temple were gathered here, lined up in a line, reciting Buddhist sutras and doing their homework with great piety.
When the abbot led Zhong Jinwei and his entourage to arrive, all the monks stopped moving, turned to look at Zhong Jinwei, and saluted each other.
"Donor, please look." The abbot said while pointing to the huge Tathagata Buddha enshrined in the main hall.
Zhong Jinwei looked up and saw that the fingers of Tathagata Buddha's right hand were curled up and pointing in the same direction. Looking in this direction, Zhong Jinwei looked over and saw a group of small Buddha statues surrounding the main hall.
The Buddha Tathagata was pointing straight at one of the Buddha statues. The whole body was shining with golden light, which was very eye-catching.
Seeing that Zhong Jinwei had noticed the Buddha statue reflecting the golden light, the abbot introduced him: "Almsgiver, that statue is the Buddha who has won the battle. The Buddha originally made a gesture of holding flowers, but this morning he found that it had changed to this gesture, and at the same time he was referring to the battle.
The victorious Buddha’s whole body shone with golden light.”
Having said this, he bowed to Zhong Jinwei and said, "Buddha just told the poor monk that the victorious Buddha has arrived."
Zhong Jinwei was surprised and walked closer to look at the shining fighting Buddha. He looked left and right, but he didn't seem to notice that it was temporarily painted with gold powder.
He turned around and looked at the Tathagata's fingers, then extended his hand to Gu Baichuan and said, "Telescope."
When Gu Baichuan heard this, he immediately summoned a subordinate, took the telescope he carried with him, and handed it to Zhong Jinwei.
When the abbot saw it from the side, he was even more secretly happy. But on the outside, he remained calm and looked solemn.
Zhong Jinwei used a telescope to carefully observe the Tathagata's fingers, and found that they were completely natural and did not look like they had been tampered with.
But he was a college student educated by later generations, and he was an atheist. He didn't believe that he was really reincarnated as a fighting and victorious Buddha. Now it's just a curiosity.
"How did Master know that this sign refers to me?" Zhong Jinwei handed the telescope to Gu Baichuan and asked the abbot.
Naturally, the abbot had already prepared his words: "Only the benefactor and his party arrived at the temple yesterday."
When Zhong Jinwei heard this, he pointed his finger at Zheng Zhilong, and Gu Baichuan and others said: "Then it might be him, too!"
When Zheng Zhilong, Gu Baichuan and others saw Zhong Jinwei pointing his finger at them, they did not dare to accept it and gave way slightly.
"Amitabha!" the abbot proclaimed the Buddha's name, and then said solemnly: "The Victorious Buddha reincarnated and came to earth to subdue demons. May I ask the donor, who subdued the evildoers who harmed our Ming Dynasty?"
When the abbot said this, Zhong Jinwei's guards all focused their attention on the Duke.
When they were in the capital, they had long heard that the Duke of Guo was a god descended to earth. Today, in the temple in the south, Buddha suddenly appeared. Everything, including what the abbot explained, pointed to the Duke of Guo. This made them even more convinced that the Duke of Guo had descended to earth.
Maybe the Duke is really the reincarnation of the gods and Buddhas in the sky, who came to subjugate demons for the Ming Dynasty.
Otherwise, why before the appearance of the Duke, the Ming Dynasty was full of disasters. However, as soon as the Duke appeared, he resorted to various means to subdue the Mongols, destroy the Jianlu, pacify the Western barbarians, etc.
Zhong Jinwei still didn't believe it, so he laughed and refused to answer the abbot's topic.
The abbot didn't take it seriously, anyway, this reason was enough. Then he insisted on taking Zhong Jinwei to visit Fahua Temple on the pretext of fate.
Zhong Jinwei slept well yesterday, but he was troubled by the appearance of the Buddha again. Although he didn't believe it, he was in a good mood, so he just followed the abbot's command.
By this time, the rain had stopped falling, but the ground was still wet.
Therefore, the abbot mostly led Zhong Jinwei and his party around the temple until almost noon.
The abbot saw that the sky was fine and said to Zhong Jinwei: "Donor, the view is good now. You can move to Yuyang Mountain in front of you and see the scenery of Taihu Lake from the Epiphyllum Pavilion on the top of the mountain. It is very unique."
"Oh, come on, let's go and take a look." Zhong Jinwei said casually.
So, a group of people came to Qianshan. Along the way, the birds were singing and the flowers were fragrant, and it felt like a paradise. Walking in such a place, a group of people from the capital felt that their souls had been baptized.
It didn't take long to arrive at the Epiphyllum Pavilion on the top of Yuyang Mountain. Zhong Jinwei saw the exquisite workmanship of this pavilion and couldn't help but observe it carefully.
This is actually an octagonal pavilion, but the carvings are extremely fine and beautiful. The vase on the top is hollow inside, and the outer wall is carved into four movable windows corresponding to the octagons. Through the panes, you can see inside the vase; the inner wall is also carved into eight pillars corresponding to the octagons.
It is used to carry the weight of the top; a huge oil lamp is placed in the center of the vase, with a lampshade on the outside to protect it from wind and rain.
Seeing this, Zhong Jinwei suddenly remembered what happened yesterday and asked the abbot: "Is the oil lamp above here the beacon seen on Taihu Lake?"
The abbot smiled and said: "Exactly, this can be regarded as a good deed performed by me, the Buddha, for the ships passing by, and it has the intention of saving all sentient beings."
Zhong Jinwei looked at the vase carefully again, because the wind blew from time to time, causing the four panes on the outer wall of the vase to rotate continuously. Zhong Jinwei suddenly remembered something, how could the oil lamp in the vase be burning for a long time to solve the supply problem?
As soon as the abbot heard Zhong Jinwei's question, he smiled and said: "Xu Qiaojiang's work is extremely exquisite. The poor monk can explain it to the donor on his behalf."