God's Gift

"Love letter?" Ye Li was a little surprised and looked at the letter paper in Shen Minghua's hand.

Shen Minghua nodded, "I just saw the words inside, it should be a love letter."

Ye Li frowned. She had no interest in prying into other people's privacy, but holding the love letter in her hand was a little tricky.

"Wait here for the owner to come back?" She thought that since it was a love letter, the owner should come back to look for it.

"Okay..." Just as Shen Minghua finished his words, a girl in plain clothes came out from behind the fence of the farmhouse next to him.

She bent over and looked at the ground, walking very slowly, as if she was looking for something.

Shen Minghua and Ye Li looked at each other, Ye Li coughed lightly and called out to the girl.

"Hello, are you looking for this?"

When Ah Chou heard the voice, he first raised his head slightly, and scanned the surroundings with his eyes buried in his hair. After seeing that there was no one around, he was sure that they were calling him.

Her back had become somewhat hunched due to years of bending, and her head was often lowered. She looked at Shen Minghua and Ye Li with a vigilant look, and after noticing the envelope in Shen Minghua's hand, her expression changed and she walked over quickly.

When Achou came closer, the two of them saw the scar on her face. Ye Li was stunned for a second, then quickly looked at Shen Minghua as if nothing had happened, motioning him to return the love letter to the girl.

Shen Minghua's expression remained gentle, without showing anything unusual, and handed over the love letter.

The footprints and the tear on the love letter exposed the letter inside.

Ah Chou clenched his fingers, his face not looking good. His aura was not friendly to begin with, and now it seemed even worse.

"This is something we just picked up on the street. Maybe there were too many people and it got torn accidentally..." Shen Minghua looked at Achou's unhappy expression and quickly explained.

However, Achou directly snatched the letter from Shen Minghua's hand, turned around and left quickly without even a word of thanks.

Shen Minghua was shocked by Achou's rude action and was stunned for a second. Ye Li looked at Achou's back and his brows gradually furrowed.

Shen Minghua's expression quickly recovered. He looked at Ye Li and smiled, without mentioning what happened just now. "I see the dog team has already gone up the mountain. There should be the Ten Thousand Faces Buddha on the top. Let's go up there and take a look. Maybe we can find something."

"Okay." Ye Li nodded.

-

Lu Keming and Anthony followed the dog team and reached the halfway point of the mountain.

It was late autumn now and the weather had become much cooler. There was already some snow on the top of the mountain, and the temperature dropped as we went higher up the mountain.

The leaves of the surrounding trees had long since fallen, and the bare trees standing on both sides of the mountain road occasionally had a withered yellow leaf hanging on them that had not yet fallen.

The ground was covered with a layer of dry yellow leaves. As the team walked along the mountain road, the leaves were crushed, making crisp and subtle breaking sounds, which were drowned out by the sedan bearers' shouts.

"Where on earth is this Thousand-Faced Buddha? We've been walking for so long and still haven't found it." Anthony looked at the endless mountain road and couldn't help complaining, "This village is the same. The Buddha is placed in such a remote place."

Lu Keming shifted his gaze from Yu Youyou in front of him, glanced at the distant mountain top, and said lightly, "Just follow me."

Anthony sighed and continued walking forward.

The sedan bearers in front seemed not to be tired at all. After climbing the mountain road for such a long time, the sound of their shouts did not decrease at all.

Yu Youyou was sitting in the sedan, her view blocked by the backrest, so she didn't see Lu Keming and Anthony following behind.

Her dark eyes stared motionlessly ahead and she sat up straight, no longer lying down casually like she did in the village.

At this moment, the bearer carrying the sedan chair stepped on a stone hidden under the fallen leaves, twisted his foot and staggered. Yu Youyou in the sedan chair tilted with his eyes wide open, and was about to fall down.

A slender, white hand supported Yu Youyou's body, preventing her from falling.

Yu Youyou tilted her head, looked up along the hand, and saw Lu Keming who was supposed to stay in the village.

Her expression lit up and she grinned, and was about to call Lu Keming.

"Shhh."

Lu Keming raised his other hand, put his finger to his lips, and made a gesture to keep quiet.

Yu Youyou rolled her eyes, quickly looked to the side, and closed her mouth.

She stood on her two front legs beside the sedan, lowered her dog head, with the flesh on her face piled up, looking up at Lu Keming excitedly from top to bottom, and her tail behind her kept swinging back and forth.

Lu Keming looked at the pile of flesh on Yu Youyou's face, and the corners of his mouth curled up into a slight arc.

The sedan bearers seemed not to have seen Lu Keming. The leading bearer noticed what was happening behind him and looked unhappy. He clasped his hands together, bowed several times into the air, and muttered something.

The atmosphere in the team was solemn. After the leading sedan bearer bowed, he cursed the bearer who sprained his ankle and continued to move forward with the team.

Lu Keming simply walked beside Yu Youyou's sedan and walked with her.

Yu Youyou sat down in the sedan chair with her chin resting on the armrest. Her watery and bright eyes were full of joy. She stared at Lu Keming intently, and from time to time she stretched out her chubby paws to scratch Lu Keming.

Lu Keming was pushed around by her several times. He turned his head to look at Yu Youyou, raised his eyebrows, and whispered, "What are you doing?"

Yu Youyou couldn't speak. She smiled with her eyes narrowed, stretched lazily, and stretched out her two paws from the sedan chair, crossing them and hanging them in the air, swinging them as the sedan bearers walked.

The coldness in Lu Keming's eyes that had always been there for years had dissipated a lot. Even the slightest change in his expression made his face look more youthful than it should have been.

He turned his head, with a hint of smile in his eyes, and even when he was looking at the road ahead covered with fallen leaves, he became much gentler.

The sedan bearers carried the sedan for a long time and finally reached the end of the woods. In front of them was a tall and steep cliff and the team could no longer move forward.

"We've reached the end..." Anthony put his hands on his waist and looked up at the huge cliff. He didn't see any way to climb up. "Where is this Thousand-Faced Buddha?"

It’s already remote enough, does it need to be more remote?

Are all their Buddhas so unimpressive?

The sedan bearer in front did not stop, but carried the servant dog towards the stone cliff and came to a small earthen house at the foot of the cliff.

Anthony's gaze moved from the towering cliff to the narrow and inconspicuous earthen house at the foot of the cliff. He was silent for a few seconds and then silently followed Lu Keming's footsteps.

The mud house was so small that the dog-serving sedan chair could not even be carried in. The bearers placed the sedan chair on the ground, bent down respectfully, and waited for the dog-serving sedan chair to enter the Buddhist temple.

Yu Youyou raised her head and looked around, and noticed that the servant dog in front had already entered the temple. She turned her eyes and followed it.

After all the dogs had entered the temple, the sedan bearers entered one by one. As soon as they entered, they knelt on the cushion in the temple, clasped their hands together, and began to recite scriptures devoutly.

Anthony clicked his tongue.

It’s really interesting. Although you are not a Buddhist, you have to worship Buddha and recite scriptures like a Buddhist.

The Buddhist temple was built against the cliff. A hole was dug at the bottom of the cliff, and a one-meter-tall Buddha statue was placed in it.

"Master, this Buddha statue has no face." Anthony looked at the strange Buddha and felt strange.

It’s not so much that there is no face, but rather that there is only a pair of eyes on the face, with no nose, mouth or ears.

Lu Keming stared at the Buddha statue, his eyelids pressed down, and there was a bit more thought in his eyes.

In the clay niche where the Buddha statue was located, there was a pile of scattered yellow mounted papers, on which the three words "Ten Thousand Faces Buddha" were written crookedly in cinnabar.

It is called the Ten Thousand Faces Buddha, but it would be more accurate to say it is the Faceless Buddha.

Anthony touched his arm and looked around.

It was strange. There were earth walls all around him, and no windows except a door. Yet he always felt like he was standing in a leaky room, and his whole body was cold.

While Anthony was thinking, a sound came from the front.

He turned his head and looked in the direction of the voice, only to find that Yu Youyou had jumped onto the altar, walked into the clay niche, sat upright in front of the Buddha statue, and stared straight at the Ten Thousand Faces Buddha with her head tilted back.