Winter in the Central Plains comes extremely early and goes extremely late. The land is still desolate, and the villages lie frozen on the ground, lifeless.
The little monk and the bamboo stick monster waded across the river and approached the village.
The village was extremely lively, sweeping away the desolation of the cold spring.
There were lanterns and colorful decorations at the entrance of the village. Someone was setting up a ladder to hang a lantern. An old man below was directing, "Crooked, crooked, go to the right, go to the right..."
"I said go to the right!" the old man said anxiously, tapping his cane.
"This is right." said the young man above.
The old man gestured with his hands and muttered, "Up, north, down, south, left, west, right, east." Then he said, "That means go left, go left."
"Amitabha." The young monk stood behind the old man with his hands clasped together. The bamboo-pole monster followed behind him with his luggage on his back, making faces.
The old man turned his head and saw a young monk in front of him. He nodded imperceptibly.
As one of the saints of the Central Plains, Buddha had many monks in the Central Plains. It was not unusual to see a young monk.
On the other hand, when the old man saw the skinny monster at the back, his expression changed and he said respectfully: "I don't know if your lord is here, but I'm not far away to welcome him."
The bamboo stick monster waved his hand, "Those who don't know are not guilty, give it to me first..."
The little monk turned back and glared at the bamboo stick monster. The bamboo stick monster shut up decisively. He didn't want to taste the little monk's fingers.
The young monk said: "Excuse me, elder. The young monk comes from the Eastern Wasteland. He is heading to Shennong City on this trip and passes by the village. He wants to..."
The bamboo stick monster felt that the little monk was too verbose and said impatiently: "We are going to stay overnight, okay?"
The old man hesitated, mainly looking at the monster.
He said: "There is a happy event in the village tonight, and everyone is busy, fearing that this will neglect the distinguished guests..."
The bamboo stick monster's chest pressed against his back with hunger. He didn't want to leave, so he waved his hands impatiently: "Don't worry, we won't disturb you."
The little monk didn't speak. Along the way, he knew that in the Central Plains, monsters talked better than he did.
Seeing that the monster insisted, the old man turned back and looked at the middle-aged man hanging the lantern.
The middle-aged man stood high and watched for a while, then said: "Dad, let this adult stay with the young monk for one night. Arrange it in the backyard so as not to disturb tonight's happy event."
The young monk felt that since it was a happy event, it was really inappropriate for him to appear as a monk, so he said: "Elder, don't worry, if there is saliva, the young monk will not disturb the happy event in the village."
The old man nodded, turned sideways and invited, "Sir, young monk, please come with me."
He led the two young monks into the village, a run-down village with only one main road.
The dirt road was uneven, with dog poop and stagnant water everywhere. Some children were running back and forth on the street, laughing.
But after seeing the little monk, or to be precise, the monster behind the little monk, he stood aside respectfully, not daring to express his anger.
There are low thatched houses on both sides, with wooden fences surrounding the yard and firewood gates.
Finally, after seeing red silk hanging outside an alley, the old man's home appeared.
Because of the happy event, the whole village came to help. People came in and out, and it was very lively.
A woman came out with a pot filled with dirty water after washing. She accidentally bumped into a woman and spilled it on the woman's clothes.
"Watch it carefully!" the woman said angrily, "I have to meet the master today. You won't get the blessing, and I won't get the blessing if you don't bother me."
The woman lowered her head and shouted hurriedly: "Yes, yes."
As she said that, she took out the handkerchief in her hand and tried to wipe it with the woman, but the woman knocked it away.
"Are you dirty? Go, go, stay here." The woman drove the woman away impatiently, wanting her to stay away from her.
The woman retracted her hand, held the water and walked out silently.
When she was about to collide with the young monk and the others, she raised her head. After seeing the bamboo stick monster, she lowered her head and hurried away.
"These girls are a bit ugly." The bamboo stick monster muttered, but the young monk glared at him and quickly shut up.
The little monk's bald head is very eye-catching.
A few idle and chatty women standing at the door saw the old man bringing a monk in and jokingly said: "Hey, Old Xutou, on this happy day, we don't have any rituals. Why did you invite a monk to come over?"
The old man said seriously: "Be careful, there is another adult here."
Only then did these women see the bamboo pole monster, and they hurriedly and respectfully made way for the young monk and others to enter.
After entering the courtyard, it was even more noisy and there were so many people that there was no place to hide. However, after seeing the monster, they all respectfully made way for them.
The old man invited them to a small room in the backyard. Although it was simple, it was clean and tidy.
"The room is a bit small, please forgive me." The old man said to the bamboo stick monster politely.
The bamboo stick monster still wanted to show off and say a few words, but when he saw the young monk picking up leaves with his fingers and stretching the branches and leaves of the grass, he didn't say much.
He just waved his hand and said, "Just remember to bring the food early."
The old man agreed, said goodbye and left.
The monster with a bamboo pole put down his salute and sighed: "It's better to go to the Central Plains. If I had known that monsters can get along so well in the Central Plains, I would have come here a long time ago."
He turned back to look at the young monk, "Have you seen that everyone is respectful when they see me. But you, who talked about saving all sentient beings, ended up being ignored by the people here as if they were nothing. Hey, I..."
"You want me to help you go to bliss?" the young monk said.
"Uh," the bamboo stick monster understood the situation and stopped talking.
The current little monk is not something he can afford to offend. Ever since he came out of the mountains and entered the Central Plains, the little monk has killed gods when he stood in the way of gods, and killed monsters when he stood in the way of demons.
There was only one bed in this small room. The young monk sat on it and meditated cross-legged.
Before closing his eyes and meditating, the little monk said to the bamboo pole monster: "They hate me, but they don't hate you. It's not good for us to live and eat for free. You go out and do something for the master."
The bamboo stick monster was a little reluctant, "They are humans and I am a monster. What can I do? Why don't I go out and kill someone, and you can do a ritual for them for free?"
The little monk rolled his eyes, sat down and began to meditate.
The bamboo stick monster was sitting on the ground, very hungry.
In order to solve the problem, he could only think about what it would be like one day if he could beat the little monk.
The bamboo stick monster became more and more proud as he thought about it, until there was a knock on the door, interrupting his daydream.
"Who is it?" the bamboo stick monster said unhappily.
"The one who brings food and wine." said the person outside the door.
When the bamboo stick monster heard this, he stood up and opened the door.
The woman who walked in with a food box was the same woman who wet other people's clothes with water before they came in, and was disliked by others.
The bamboo stick monster ignored her ugly appearance, took the food boxes, put them on the table and opened them one by one.
"Hey, it's all meat and good wine." The bamboo stick monster salivated.
"I got this specifically to suit your taste." The woman said with a smile, "I didn't get any vegetarian food at all."
The bamboo stick monster curled his lips, this monk is not a vegetarian at all.