As the sun sets in the west, the remaining light reflects the mountain walls of Longshan in red.
The Yunlong Temple built against the mountain is surrounded by shadows of trees.
The old man with his hair tied up in a bun wore a navy blue Taoist robe. He rode his electric bicycle to the entrance of the Taoist temple, turned around, picked up a plastic bucket from the electric bicycle, carried a long package on his back, and walked into the temple.
"Apprentice, apprentice!"
He had a smile on his face and shouted as he walked.
An old man who looks to be in his seventies or eighties can still walk as fast as he can while carrying a heavy plastic bucket.
After passing through the aisle and bypassing the Sanqing Main Hall, the old man saw green smoke coming out of the chimney of the stove house in the backyard.
The young Taoist priest with ashes in his hands came out of the stove room with a smile on his face. He took the plastic bucket from the old man's hand, stretched his head to look at it and said, "My rice is almost ready to be steamed."
How many fish did you catch today?"
At a glance, he saw several big fish rolling back and forth in the clear water.
The young Taoist priest's expression changed. It was obvious that the master had caught a lot of fish, but he became unhappy: "Why did you catch so many fish again?
Pickled fish on Monday, boiled fish on Tuesday, braised fish on Wednesday, braised fish with soy sauce on Thursday, big fish stewed with vermicelli on Friday... This is already the second week, and the fish caught last week are still in the tank and haven’t been eaten yet!”
For a fisherman, catching fish every day is naturally a great pleasure in life.
But for his family, this is by no means a good thing.
Anyone who eats fish three times a day will not be able to bear it for three days.
"Hey, if you can't finish eating them, just put them in a tank and keep them." The old Taoist priest said with a smile, "If that doesn't work, I'll send a few to the villagers down the mountain."
"Send it away." The young Taoist priest shook his head and poured the fish into the large water tank in the courtyard. He said as he poured it, "I sent some big crucian carps to Uncle Zhang's family the day before yesterday. He brought them here yesterday.
A bucket of white fish.
I gave Uncle Wang's family silver carp, and he gave yellow pepper dices.
I……"
The old Taoist priest wiped the non-existent sweat on his forehead, suddenly raised his nose and said suddenly: "The rice is burnt!"
Upon hearing this, the young Taoist priest quickly put down the bucket and hurried back to the kitchen.
Seeing that he was gone, the old Taoist breathed a sigh of relief and went back to his bedroom to change his clothes.
At this time, the young Taoist priest had moved a small square table into the courtyard and set up benches.
A bowl of rice, two salted fish, a plate of mixed vegetables, and a tomato and egg soup were brought to the table.
He first served his master with white rice that was slightly softer in the center of the basin, then scooped out a bowl of rice for himself, sat opposite his master, picked up a chopstick of mixed vegetables and stuffed it into his mouth along with the white rice.
The old Taoist priest also picked up a chopstick of mixed vegetables and chewed them slowly. He and his apprentice had a tacit agreement not to touch the two salted fish.
After ladling half a bowl of soup for his disciple, the old Taoist asked: "Yunqing, is there anyone coming to the temple today to offer incense?"
"Yes!" The Taoist priest named 'Xie Yunqing' responded without hesitation, "Some people say that they often have nightmares at night and feel that there is something dirty in their house.
Isn’t this superstitious!
I persuaded him to go to the psychiatry department of the hospital, but he came here to beg me to sell him a few Taoist artifacts. I couldn't help him, so I lent him the imperial bell that you had never used.
I made an agreement with him to bring it back when he's done using it."
The old Taoist priest's hands shaking when picking up vegetables trembled.
He raised his eyes and looked at his apprentice: "You just gave my imperial bell to someone else?!"
"That's right." Xie Yunqing didn't know why, so he picked up the rice quickly and said vaguely, "Is there any problem?"
"hiss--"
The old Taoist priest was so hung up that he almost stopped breathing. His eyes were a little dark, but his tone was very soothing: "It's nothing, it's nothing.
Since others are in need, it doesn’t matter if you lend them to others..."
"Don't worry, that person doesn't look like someone who borrows money and never returns it." Xie Yunqing said with a smile, "He is in the same group as you, Master. They are both fishing enthusiasts!"
Hearing that his apprentice had left the other party's contact information, the old Taoist priest felt better.
Then I heard the disciple continue: "That man is quite humorous. He told me, a Taoist priest, that our Taoist temple has bad feng shui and is gloomy. He asked us to go down the mountain and live there for a while."
"That is indeed quite humorous, hahaha..." The old Taoist priest laughed out loud, swallowed the soup in his throat, blushed and asked his disciple, "What is that man's name? Do you have any impression?"
"Remember!"
"The name is easy to remember, it's Su Wu, it's the afternoon when noon has arrived!"
"Su Wu...it's the afternoon of noon, am I right?"
"yes."
"It's time to eat. Master, why are you going back to the house?"
…
In the simple bedroom, Tai Chi and Bagua pictures are hung on the wall opposite the door.
There are altar tables, shrines and futons underneath.
Several magical instruments are placed on the offering table.
The old Taoist priest hurried into the room, climbed onto the bed, and opened a large wooden box placed against the wall at the foot of the bed.
He took out the new clothes neatly folded inside one by one,
A Taoist scripture was pulled out from the bottom of the box.
His calloused fingers flipped through the yellowed pages of the Taoist scriptures, and finally found a note tucked into the book.
There are sixteen prophecies written in red letters on it: rise when encountering mountains, rise when encountering dragons, retreat when encountering noon, attain gold and become silent.
"Retreat at noon, retreat at noon..."
"It turned out that I was supposed to be here. The time has come..."
The old Taoist priest murmured to himself, a premonition suddenly arising in his heart.
At this time, Xie Yunqing followed him into the room and looked at the master who was half sitting on the bed. He suddenly felt that the master seemed much better.
He felt deeply uneasy in his heart, and cautiously asked the old Taoist priest: "Master, has something happened?"
"It's nothing." The old Taoist priest clenched the note into a ball, turned around and smiled at his disciple, "Yunqing, let's go down the mountain and stay for a while while the sky is still bright."
…
At dawn, the ladies and gentlemen at the Mingzhou City Antique Market have already set up their stalls early.
The stalls have everything from clay figurines and polished stone pieces from prehistoric civilizations, to bronzes and tiger seals from the Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties, to modern old cameras, old watches, and old potato chips (expired and not recommended for consumption).
"How much is this?"
Su Wu picked up a terracotta warrior and horse from the stall and weighed it in his hands.
"This is 80,000!" The old stall owner quoted a price without thinking.
"twenty!"
"Sell or not?"
The old man scratched his head and hesitated when he heard this price which was very different from his own quotation: "Twenty, that's too little. Look at this workmanship, this is a pure antique from the Qin Dynasty...
You add ten more!
Hey, don't go!
You can add five yuan, three yuan, three yuan..."
Su Wu dropped the pottery figurine and got into the crowd without looking back.
I was afraid that if I was slow, I would be grabbed by the stall owner and forced to buy the old antique from the 'Qin Dynasty' for twenty yuan.
Can real terracotta warriors and horses appear in the antique market?
Can you still buy it for twenty yuan?
Even if you buy a genuine product, do you want to take this thing to prison for appreciation?
He just tried to follow the online guide and quoted a price to the stall owner. He didn't expect it to go so smoothly. The item worth 80,000 yuan was directly reduced to 79,980 yuan.