"I wonder if you have ever heard of the frog god by the lake?"
"I heard something." Song You thought for a while, "That should be a wild god in the mountains. I heard that the local people believe that the frogs by the lake come back to life in spring and will have more children, so they worship him as a god and pray for blessings."
"Has the Taoist priest gone to investigate?"
"Last time I passed by the lake, there were many frog temples. I went in to see them and stayed overnight. But I don't care about the Righteous God and the Wild God. Seeing that he didn't cause trouble, I didn't care about it." Song You paused, "
But that was last year."
"I am very close to this frog god, so let me tell you about the origin of this frog god." The Mirror God said with a smile.
"Appreciate further details."
"Originally there was no frog god here. Indeed, as the Taoist priest said, the local people thought that the frogs by the lake would resurrect in spring and have more children, so they spontaneously worshiped the frog god and prayed for blessings. Until this time, the people worshiped the frog god.
The god is still an empty temple, there is no real god." Mirror God paused, "Later, a mountain goblin looked very similar to the statue of the frog god worshiped by the people, so he occupied the temple and confused the god.
He kept the temple incense for himself, and occasionally his true form appeared unintentionally, so people thought it was the Frog God who appeared, so more and more people worshiped him, and temples were spread all over the lake."
"and after?"
"Later on, this 'frog god' has been gathering incense and practicing diligently. Although he is a wild god and cannot be granted a royal title or recognized by the heavenly palace, I am lazy by nature, and I see that this frog god has always just smoked incense.
He gathered incense, and occasionally people prayed to him to solve problems such as evil spirits and ghosts in the family, and he really solved them, and I did not stop him or report it to the Heavenly Palace." The Mirror God said, "It's just that the Frog God followed.
He was making progress, but gradually he was no longer satisfied with the incense. Starting from about last year, he used some evil methods to make the people more pious, attract more incense, and their moral conduct increased greatly."
"Why doesn't the Mirror God communicate to the higher level?"
"A minor god like me can only report to the Heavenly Palace once every full moon." The Mirror God shook his head, "But I am a minor god, and this matter is a trivial matter. Even though I reported to the Heavenly Palace twice, it was not taken seriously by the Heavenly Palace.
Some time ago, he had the idea of coveting the waters of my Jingdao Lake."
"Let me go and take a look first."
Song You did not agree immediately.
The Mirror God also immediately stood up and saluted:
"The Taoist priest knows it when he sees it."
"Thank you, Mirror God, for your hospitality."
"I would like to thank you, Taoist Priest."
Song You was about to say goodbye when he saw the maid next to him and couldn't help but ask: "These..."
"They are all ghosts."
The Mirror God explained to him: "There are dozens of villages, large and small, on the shores of Jingdao Lake. Every year, countless baby girls are thrown into the lake. Although these baby girls are just born, their souls are still intact. Some of them are drowned soon after.
They just dissipated in this world, and some of them didn't want to dissipate, so I gathered them up and nourished them with my divine power, so that they could grow up slowly, and from then on they would stay at the bottom of the lake and be my maids."
"..."
Song You couldn't help but fell silent for a moment.
This is the case these days. People often abandon baby girls. Many children are born and their lives are gone before they have a chance to see the world.
Even if the parents are willing to raise a baby boy, he still has to go through many hurdles.
You have to ask the world, you have to ask those people who abandoned baby girls. They may feel guilty, but they can only say that there is nothing they can do, or they may not even feel guilty.
It's up to me to decide, even the gods and Buddhas can't do anything.
"The mirror god is kind and virtuous, I admire you."
"There's nothing to admire. I just did it casually. It's a pity that although they can grow up, they will be trapped by this lake all their lives and will not be able to see the real world."
"Doing it casually is already a great merit." Song You cupped his hands and said, "There is no need to say that about the God of Mirrors. How many people have lived a lifetime these days, and the places they have traveled may not be as big as this Jingdao Lake."
"Thank you, Taoist Master."
"Now I'll say goodbye."
"I send you to the Taoist priest."
"..."
When I walked out of the attic, I felt the light above my head.
The maids around me were still coming and going.
Song You looked at them quietly.
There are countless stubborn diseases these days, which are the fault of the world and the fault of the times. Only one person can cure them, and only the times can slowly eliminate these things. No one can change the world. What can a single person do?
, just to make it go faster.
It’s just that this life is still long, let’s go and see other places in the world first.
The water rippled, and the ripples went round and round, and the vision became hazy and blurred.
When I opened my eyes again, it was already bright.
What caught my eye was the roof of the awning boat. I turned around and saw that the sky was shining outside. The boatman had woken up and was sitting on the bow waiting for them. Everything last night seemed like a dream.
"Sir, are you awake?"
"woke up."
"Then we go back to shore?"
"Trouble the boatman."
"okay!"
The boat started moving immediately.
The boatman said to him while rowing: "Sir, the time is just right for your arrival."
Song You whispered back: "How do you say it?"
"It's the beginning of autumn today, and it's still hot outside, but it's cool on the lake. The weather has been good recently," the boatman said. "The most important thing is the crabs in Jingdao Lake. The crabs here are not as good as those in Pingzhou in Lihua Valley next door.
Gonglicha is not so famous because the crabs are not so lucky because they are not lucky enough to reach Changjing. Most of them are eaten by the poor people by the lake. But when the officials who come from other places to look for immortals come here, they can only eat such a mouthful.
, but I never fail to praise you.”
"Then I have to try it."
"Although it's not the best time to eat crabs now, it's almost there. It's just better to come a month later." The boatman said to him while pushing the oar, "We are the only ones on Mirror Island.
The water of the lake is the only way to grow such good crabs. Everyone says that it is the blessing of the lake god, so the fish, shrimps, crabs and clams in the lake also have spiritual energy. Anyway, sir, you must go and try it."
"Thank you boatman for the advice."
"Hey what's this..."
"Then the lake god seems to be very effective?"
"That goes without saying!" said the boatman, "Sir, haven't you seen that this lake never makes waves no matter how strong the wind is?"
"It's quite magical."
"Isn't that right!" the boatman said, getting excited, "So even if the lake god rarely appears, as long as there is this lake that cannot be rippled, it has given us all the fishermen on the lakeside, all pointing to this
Those who eat at Yunding Mountain and Jingdao Lake are a great gift from heaven.”
"rational……"
Song You paused for a moment: "I heard there is a frog god?"
"Yes, there are frog temples all over the lake."
"Is the frog god also effective?"
"It's very effective!"
"What's so wonderful about the Frog God?"
"What's so wonderful?"
"What are the benefits of worshiping the frog god?"
"I wish you many children, many blessings, and a long life!" the boatman said, "Besides this, if there is a ghost in your home, if you go and burn incense sincerely, you will probably be fine that night. And starting from this year, you will
If you are willing to stay in the Frog Temple for a whole day and worship sincerely, you can relieve your fatigue and feel as comfortable as the gods!"
"How can I get rid of fatigue? How can I feel refreshed?"
"How can that be easy to say?"
"Ha ha……"
Song You stopped talking.
Just waiting for the boat to row across the lake, the ripples spread out, and the boat is full of autumn colors, spreading the lake light for ten miles.
When we arrived at the ferry, the horses were still waiting here.
One person, one cat and one horse walked further along the lakeside.
"Taoist priest……"
"Um?"
"Sanhua Empress seemed to have had a dream last night." Sanhua Cat looked up at him as he walked, "I dreamed that Sanhua Empress and you went to the bottom of the lake, and there was a female lake god who invited us to eat and drink, and also invited us to eat.
I ate a lot of fish, shrimps and crabs, and I felt so full.”
"Is that wine good?"
"Like water."
"Are the crabs delicious?"
"It's delicious! It's full of meat! Just like the crab you mentioned before!"
The calico cat's eyes were bright and his face was full of satisfaction. If he hadn't been walking now, he would probably have rubbed against Song You's trousers.
She even smacked her mouth twice.
There is no taste now, but when I first woke up, there was still a bit of crab taste in my mouth.
"I dreamed about it too."
"Yeah?"
"Happy Beginning of Autumn, Sanhua Empress."
"Well!?"
Song You just smiled.
It was a dream, but it wasn't.
He couldn't tell clearly either.
There are ever-changing magical powers in this world, especially magical powers that are the most elusive. In addition, the circulation of information in this world is inconvenient, and experts all live in seclusion. Even if all the previous masters of Fulong Temple combined, they dare not say that they have seen everything in this world.
All magical powers and spells, let alone understanding them.
There are even some methods that are not understood or learned by oneself at all, but come naturally. Perhaps if the practitioner himself can tell the mystery, he cannot tell the truth.
Just go and see how wonderful it is.
…
There are frog temples everywhere around the lake, but most of them are small temples like earth temples. Only cats can enter, not people. It is not a temple that boatmen say "you can go in and stay for a day".
When Song You walked last time, he remembered that there was a large temple. However, although he still walked around the lake this time, it was in a different direction than the last time he came - last time he walked around half of Jingdao Lake.
The second round was the other half. He wanted to walk around the lake.
After walking through a village, I finally saw a large temple.
It is a single-room temple, about the size of a house.
There is nothing else in the temple, just a clay statue of the frog god, a stone trough on the altar filled with residual incense, a merit box and a sesame oil pot next to it, and the bright lamp is still burning.
As soon as Song You stepped in, he was greeted by the smell of oil lamps and the fragrance of grass.
Maybe there are too many temples by the lake, the frog god is somewhere else, maybe he is out busy, but he is not in this temple at this time.
Song You didn't know the truth of the matter, so he didn't dare to invite others over easily. He happened to be a little tired when he came over. There was wind and rain protection here, and there were ready-made futons, so he sat down against the wall and waited.
The calico cat also sat upright, quietly glancing at the statue of the Frog God, and occasionally glancing at the Taoist priest.
It feels a little strange.
Not long after, a group of lakeside villagers came together and walked into the temple with smiles.