One thousand and seventeen chapters worship Buddha
Moving forward, the tombstone changes appearance again.
These tombstones are still very simple, written in pen and ink, respectively for the son and the daughter.
The young monk was in a heavy mood. After walking through the cemetery, he felt better.
The crops in front showed signs of being cultivated and collected. After crossing a small flowing river, we arrived in front of the village.
The firewood door is not covered, and the chickens and dogs cannot smell it.
He walked to a courtyard and saw a woman lighting a fire with her back to him. She clasped her hands together and said, "Amitabha, little monk..."
The woman was startled, and immediately stood back, retreating in horror, and her clothes were almost burned by the fire.
"Donor, be careful!" the little monk reminded her.
The woman shouted, "Come here, someone has entered the village, Aunt Niu, someone has entered the village..." She ran to the wall and shouted.
The quiet village suddenly became chaotic. When the young monk was at a loss, a group of women holding kitchen knives and hoes surrounded the young monk and looked at him angrily.
"Tell me!" said a woman named Aunt Niu, who had a waist, strong arms, and full of energy, "Who asked you to come!"
The young monk was startled, "Donor, the young monk came from Yangzhou in the Eastern Wasteland to the Central Plains. Passing here, he only asks for a ladle of water and a bowl of rice. He will leave tomorrow. I have no ill intentions. You..."
"The monster asked you to come!" Aunt Niu interrupted him, "Isn't that right?"
The monk did not lie. The young monk nodded weakly, "Yes, yes."
"Go to hell!" Aunt Niu thrust her fork at the little monk.
"Stop!" A trembling voice came from outside the crowd. It was not powerful enough, but it was very majestic.
The crowd got out of the way, and the young monk saw an old woman with white hair like frost and a groove on her face, walking over with a cane and the help of the young woman.
"Monk, a monk?" She raised her eyelids like old tree bark and looked at the young monk.
"Yes." The young monk clasped his hands together, bowed to the old woman, and grasped the last straw to explain: "The young monk was walking on the mountain road and was caught by the monster. He took me over without any explanation, and then...
…”
The little monk told everything that happened after he met the little monster.
After saying this, the young monk looked at the old woman quietly.
The old woman nodded imperceptibly and remained silent. She looked at the little monk and said after a long time, "You are still a child. If Xiaosha survives, he will be almost as old as you."
"Mother..." the little woman next to her whispered.
The old woman said to the other women: "It's just a child, don't be too nervous."
"But he is a man, and he was caught by a monster..." Aunt Niu looked at the little monk warily.
"We know what their intentions are. It doesn't matter, let him sleep in the ancestral hall." After the old woman said that, she looked at the young monk again: "I actually have something to ask of you."
The young monk breathed a sigh of relief, clasped his hands together and said, "It doesn't matter if the donor just says so."
"Help us perform a ritual ceremony." The old woman straightened up and looked at the dense tombstones behind the young monk. "They left in a hurry. We want them to die peacefully."
The young monk nodded in agreement.
The women then moved out of the way, allowing the young monk to follow the old woman to have a fast meal in front of the ancestral hall.
As he walked all the way, he saw a deathly silence floating over the village. There were no men or other animals, only women.
When doing rituals, one cannot help but ask about those graves and those people.
"Our village migrated from the Central Plains and lives in a paradise-like valley. We cultivate silkworms, are self-sufficient, and multiply our children." The old woman sat, watching the young monk eating a fast meal, and talked about the origin of the village.
The village used to be peaceful, but occasionally monsters would attack, but they were just small monsters.
"Until ten years ago..."
A monster came nearby and asked the village for food from boys or girls every month, otherwise it would destroy the whole village.
At first, for the sake of the peace of the entire village, the villagers had no choice but to sacrifice it.
During this period, they tried to escape, but they were surrounded by monsters and they were driven back again.
They also sent people to quietly escape and invite the Demon Catcher to come and catch the demon. Among these people, there were occasionally those who escaped without being caught, but none of the Demon Catchers were willing to come to this deep mountain and old forest. It was not easy to meet them.
A demon-catching master is willing to come, but he is no match for monsters.
Every time it fails, the monster will ask for an extra boy or girl, otherwise it will threaten to massacre the village.
Unable to escape and unable to fight, the villagers did one thing: all the men in the village gathered together, took weapons, lit torches, and rushed into the cave where the monster lived.
"They never came back," the old woman said softly.
The ancestral hall became quiet, no one spoke, but the young monk heard the sigh echoing among the beams of the ancestral hall, echoing...
Later, the monster came again to beg for children. The woman personally fed the poison to her biological children and handed them into the hands of the monster.
Just for revenge.
However, the monster is very powerful and is still safe and sound.
In desperation, the women buried their children with their own hands. From then on, there was only death and no life in the village.
"Heaven has no way!" The old woman suddenly stood up, and her crutches hit the ground with a "bang bang" sound.
"But we widows must live, live! Even if we become a living ghost, I will wait until the day he dies!!"
The women knew that the monster's purpose in catching the young monks was to keep them captive so that they could continue to feed on boys and girls.
The young monk shook his head hastily, "No, no, the young monk is a monk, and he won't know how to die..."
The old woman waved her hand and told the young monk to fast quickly and prepare for the ritual ceremony later. "We will prepare dry food for you when you set off tomorrow."
With the help of the young woman, the old woman led the people away, leaving the young monk to eat alone in the ancestral hall.
After finishing his meal, he put on the easy-to-wear monk robes, hemp shoes, wooden fish, and wooden mallets that the master had prepared for him. The young monk solemnly walked out of the ancestral hall.
Outside, the women from the village were already waiting.
The young monk passed between them, walked out of the village, crossed the river, and walked on the ridge of the fields that were still being cultivated.
Dark clouds came from the sky, covering the sunshine in the valley tightly.
The wind suddenly picked up and lifted the corners of the little monk's clothes.
Fallen leaves were flying all over the sky, and the young monk walked alone among the graves, praying for each deceased person and chanting sutras for everyone.
The scriptures in his mouth were all memorized by the young monk.
But for the first time, he felt that the scriptures were very strange, so strange that even when he read them, he didn't know what they were.
Yesterday, there were all kinds of things, mummies were rampant, millions of corpses were lying on the ground, and the grass died in front of them; today, the tombs are filled with unspeakable grief and indignation, and the reverse flow has become a river.
He once asked Master why there are so many sorrows in the world, such as life, death, regret, and separation.
Master said that the world is in a state of turmoil at this time, and the whirlwind is sadness.
Destiny is created by oneself, appearance is born from the heart, everything in the world is transformed into appearance, if the heart does not move, everything will not move, if the heart does not change, everything will not change.
However, in the face of today's events, the coming rain, and the sorrow of heaven and earth, his heart could not remain still.
The little monk walked through every grave, prayed for every tombstone, and touched the warmth of every respectable life, becoming more and more confused.
What is Buddha and what is Buddha?
What the master said to him when he left rang in his ears: "Master went out for a walk, and you have to figure out which Buddha you are worshiping when you kneel in front of the Buddha and recite sutras."