The Wei Tuo Temple in Nanshan, Bin City is still there, but after so many years, I don’t know if the old monk in the temple is still there.
The reason why Zhang Huilan went home that night was actually not to pick up things, but to put them away.
It was to leave a suicide note to her granddaughter Bailash Qiong.
Before leaving, the old monk said something that inspired me.
He said that there is no greater sadness than a dead heart. This is not true. The most terrifying thing for a person is that his heart is dead. If his heart is dead, he will not care about anything around him, just like a dead leaf falling into the water, it will only drift with the current.
I have almost no relatives around me. If one day I die as the old monk said, I will spend all my wealth and choose to do something good.
.....
The fog got worse late at night, and when I got down the mountain, I saw taxis still parked on the roadside.
"Big brother? Big brother? Wake up."
The driver Hu Liqun fell asleep leaning on his seat.
"You...you're down, brother. I'm really sleepy after spinning around. I slept soundly just now." He opened the passenger door for me.
"You don't take a break during the day?" I asked.
He shook his head and started the car, yawned and said with a smile: "How dare you break up? My wife just gave birth to a baby. If I don't run around more, I won't be able to earn money for the baby's milk powder. Where are you going back, brother? Back to your old community?"
"
I said no, and went to the Northwest Second Cotton Factory.
I just went down the mountain and my phone still had a little battery, so I informed the leader of the matter. Now that we know where the Iron Buddha is hidden, none of us dare to rest at night. We must find the physical Iron Buddha before Tian Sanjiu.
When we arrived at the Second Cotton Factory, I got out of the car and closed the door and said, "Do you have a business card? If I take a taxi, I'll look for you directly."
Hu Lili accepted the money and said with a smile: "Hey, I don't have any business cards. Brother, please remember my phone number and come to me anytime you want to use a car in Xianyang." After that, he turned around and left in the taxi.
Late at night.
At that time, the Second Cotton Factory had no gate, and the security guard had gone somewhere. I probably sat on the guard platform for more than half an hour, and then a small car came.
The car lights are far off.
The next second I saw someone getting out of the car, I ran over.
"Why are you two the only ones in charge? Why aren't Douyazai and Xiaoxuan here?"
Only Boss and Brother Yu came, and I handed over the note after asking.
"I have other plans for Douya and Xuanxuan, Yunfeng, don't ask yet."
After reading the small words written on the note, he raised his head and frowned and said, "Let's go find this place."
The note read: "In the old textile room of the South Factory District, Warehouse No. 6 on the basement floor, among the cotton piles."
We had only looked above the factory area before, and had never heard of a basement in the Second Cotton Factory. The 1950s and 1950s machines had long been obsolete, and the old textile room had been abandoned for many years. There was a problem that was not easy to solve.
At that time, a new factory building was under construction in the Ermian South Factory, and many workers lived here. Some workers slept late, and the lights were on in the dormitories all night long, and they played cards in the room all night long. I was afraid that people would suddenly come out to relieve themselves or something.
"Head, it should be this one."
Brother Yu used his flashlight to shine a light on the iron sign. The original blue paint on the iron sign was almost gone, and even the fixing screws looked rusty.
The door of the old textile room was locked with a simple iron chain lock. Brother Yu had already prepared it. He found a hammer from the car, wrapped the lock with clothes to reduce the noise, and smashed it open with a few continuous bangs.
.
After the three of us entered, we looked outside, and he asked Brother Yu to close the door again.
Nowadays, we no longer spin fabrics. The old spinning room from decades ago was quite large. No one cleaned the room and it was very dusty. There were a lot of messy sacks and equipment piled on the floor.
I looked around with a flashlight and asked, "Head, this is just an ordinary workshop. How can there be a basement? Why did the old lady say there is an underground floor here?"
He looked around with a flashlight on his head and said, "The area here is not small. You are young and don't know. In our time, large factories would build basements as bunkers to prevent any accidents from happening."
We split up, mainly to check to see if the previous entrance to the basement was blocked by debris.
I was right, I really made a discovery.
"Yunfeng, please come and take a look." Brother Yu waved the flashlight.
There was a pile of junk piled on the ground in the southwest corner. There was a mess of everything. Brother Yu found an iron plate underneath.
He raised his head and said, "Move away, move aside."
After removing the tatters, Brother Yu and I reached out and grabbed a corner of the iron plate and slowly opened it.
"cough!"
There was so much dust on the iron plate that it fell down when I lifted it, which made me choke and cough.
He shook his head away from the dust, covered his nose with his clothes, and looked down with a flashlight.
Covered under the iron plate is a row of steps, extending downward at a 40-degree angle, which should lead to the underground level. (This basement is still there today. Anyone who works in Xianyang Ermian can go look for it.)
"Move your head slowly, the steps are a bit steep, don't miss the step."
The three of us used flashlights and carefully walked down the steps.
When we got down there, the space suddenly became larger. The area was larger than on the ground. It was just like those air-raid shelters built in Yinchuan before. It was a unique place.
There is a row of small iron doors at the bottom next to the wall. The distance between each small door is five or six meters, and they are all locked.
"Basement level, Warehouse No. 6...No. 6..."
"One...two, Brother Yu, do you see that?"
"I don't know. There's no number on this door. Stand back and I'll open it and take a look."
When he walked to the rusty iron door, Brother Yu repeated his old trick, wrapped the iron lock in his clothes, and started to smash it with a hammer.
"Holy shit, this is such damn good quality."
"I still don't believe I can't break this thing open."
Brother Yu raised his hammer and hit it dozens of times.
"This lock is of good quality and opened."
Pushing open the iron door, we first smelled a musty smell when we entered. The area here is about fifty or sixty square meters. There are hundreds of big sacks piled in piles in the room, and the ground under our feet is full of rotten cotton.
Looking at the hemp bags piled up like a hill in front of me, I couldn't help but say: "Here... Do you need to open all of this? There are at least two layers thick inside."
The piled sacks were partially decomposed, with one head torn off, and what fell out were black rotten cotton balls. No one was handling them. I don’t know how many years of waste they had been hoarding.
After looking at it, he said: "There is no other way. Open it and look for it. The physical Iron Buddha is at least one meter and three meters tall. Let's hurry up."
Has anyone ever picked cotton?
I couldn't even pull the cotton balls off my body, and many of the sacks were torn when I pulled them out. After rummaging through them for a while, my pants and cotton-padded jacket were all covered in rotten cotton, as well as my hair.
The old lady's note said it was among the piles of cotton, so we searched for it in the middle. After rummaging for a long time, everything from the thighs down was sunk into the pile of cotton.
"No, no."
"Where is this..."
Suddenly, I felt my right foot hit something hard, much harder than a cotton bag.
I looked at the location, grabbed it with both hands, and quickly dug it down.
Soon, I felt my hand touch a round object, which was very cold, as cold as iron.
As I touched further, I felt like I was touching my nose and eyes again.
I touched it with my hand and immediately shouted excitedly:
