Daming's Bizarre Story: Painted Skin

Fayin looked arrogant: "Ordinary people see their appearance, and Buddhas see their hearts. It is not uncommon for them to be absurd."

Zhao Ran turned his head and pointed at the knife and ax hand and said: "The butcher eats with his skills and cuts off a good man's head. The Buddha's mother concluded that he is a wicked person. Then I would like to ask the King of Manna and Fire in the Huayan Sutra, as the king of a country, Anyone guilty of crimes should be burned with fire, boiled with soup, poured with boiling oil, burned, beheaded, cut off their waists, cut off their ears and noses, cut off their hands and feet, picked out their eyes, and peeled their skin... The bones will form a mountain, and the blood will form a pool. In the pool of blood Human heads, limbs, and bones are all over the place. May I ask how he became a Bodhisattva?"

Fayin pursed her lips tightly: "Everyone who has the way has his way."

Zhao Ran said loudly: "Well said, everyone who has the Tao has his Tao! Jin Yidao, he eats his own food with his own craftsmanship, and he is the way. He has chopped off hundreds of heads and never needs to make up for it. It is great kindness, why do you conclude that he is an evil person?"

Jin Yidao got up and kowtowed to Zhao Ran: "My villain, thank you for your good words."

Looking at each other outside the main hall, they felt that Zhao Ran's words did have some truth.

Zhao Ran pointed to Xiao Huangmen and said, "Little Huangmen, how old are you this year?"

"Master Hui, the younger one is the first one this year." The little Huang was born with fair complexion, and spoke softly, quite feminine, looking like a little eunuch.

"Can you tell my young master why you entered the palace gate?"

"The villain was originally from Korea. Because the government official wanted to pay tribute to the boy, the villain's younger brother was selected by lottery, but the younger brother was weak, so the villain begged the government official to replace him with his own body."

"Does the government official agree?"

"The official dislikes the villain because he is too old, so he won't allow it."

Zhao Ran pointed to the little yellow gate and said, "So he followed his younger brother's tribute team, trekking across mountains and rivers to the capital, wandering outside the palace gate for three years, and finally won the favor of the eunuch and was accepted into the palace. He would like to enter the capital on behalf of his brother. For the sake of sentient beings, but he left the capital and left his hometown, and never gave up for three years, do you think he is a person who has no opinion?"

There were whispers outside the hall, and Fayin pursed her lips tightly.

Clearly said: "Thousands of ages, time goes by, summer is not white dew, winter is not frightened, the husband of heaven and earth, people are like wandering around, and a hundred generations are all passers-by. The way of man is not judged by the sky, not by the earth, not by the law. Heaven and earth are judgments, how can gods and Buddhas be judged?"

As he spoke, he pulled off the hood of the third person. Fayin's face changed suddenly, and he turned the chair around. The people at the gate of the hall exclaimed in unison. There was a human puppet in the hood. There is a glass lamp embedded in the chest of the lifelike puppet, and a tall candle is burning inside. "

Zhaoran threw away the cloth cover in his hand, turned around and said: "The way of man, cultivating the sky, cultivating the earth, cultivating the Buddha, cultivating the Tao, all cultivated the way. Fools respond to the sound, and dogs run to the sound. Righteousness is magnificent, kept in one heart , My Tao, ask your heart and yourself, not gods and Buddhas!"

Jiuru kept listening with lowered eyes, and upon hearing this, Fang raised his eyes to look at Zhaoran.

Zhaoran blinked at him, turned his head to look at Fayin with a giggle, pointed at the puppet and said, "How about it? I said that it has an empty stomach and no talent or virtue. I didn't expect it to be in the hands of the Buddha's mother." In my eyes, a puppet in human skin is also a virtuous and cultivated person, and I have been educated."

There was a lot of voices outside the main hall, and Fayin was a little flustered for a while, and said: "It's not what the mother of the Buddha said just now, it's just that the poor nun deduced that the third place is virtuous according to the order given by the son of the Buddha. scholar."

Zhao Ran said with a smile: "Oh, so you can falsely spread the Buddha's decree, so which of the words you said before is the real Buddha's decree, which one is the false Buddha's decree...or are they all false?"

The boiling noise outside the Buddhist hall became louder, and Fayin said in a panic, "No, nothing!"

Zhao Ran turned around and said: "Tomorrow, all the things on the Ascension to Immortal Platform will be offered by the National Teacher Pagoda, so we will not prepare for it at the Laojixiang Nunnery. The son of the Buddha will wait for the true voice of the Buddha mother to come on the Ascension to Immortal Terrace."

Jiuru got up and walked out of the nunnery in the eyes of everyone. There were crazy believers inside and outside the Jixiang nunnery, but now seeing the robes on Jiuru's body in the middle of the steps flew away like a cloud of auspicious clouds, all of a sudden they I don't even know what to say.

----

Liang Fang was already waiting beside the carriage, when she saw Zhao Ran, she blushed and said: "Young Master Rong is eloquent."

Zhao Ran was also not modest, and said sarcastically: "That's right, a while ago an eminent monk argued with me, and he was almost so angry that he went to see the Buddha."

Jiuru couldn't help but glared at him, Liang Fang laughed a few times and asked, "That's it, why don't you take advantage of the situation and mess up the promotion to Xiantai, why do you still agree?"

Zhao Ran said: "Think about it, if there is a mystery in her things, what can she do on the Immortal Ascension Platform tomorrow, at most ten people will go up and ten people will come down."

Liang Fang's eyes lit up: "No wonder Mr. Rong wants to say that everything is prepared by the National Master Pagoda. This is really wonderful!"

Zhaoran laughed "haha", got into the carriage and asked Jiuru: "What do you think of my argument? I haven't lost your reputation as a disciple of Buddha?"

Jiu Ru said: "There's a lot of nonsense." He paused and said, "It's not like there's not one or two good words."

Zhao Ran immediately beamed with joy, and hurriedly asked: "Which sentence?"

If Jiu Ru didn't answer, Zhao Ran clicked his tongue: "My young master just made sense of everything!"

"Which one? I said that the butcher's job is to earn money?"

Jiu Ru closed his eyes and said nothing.

Zhaoran approached and asked again: "Is that the sentence that Xiaohuangmen is affectionate and righteous?"

Jiuru raised his hand and flicked his forehead: "It's about talking about oneself, not asking about the sky, not asking about the earth, not asking about gods and Buddhas. Since you only ask about your own heart, why are there so many questions?"

After Zhao Ran was bounced by him like this, he suddenly felt his waist go limp, and almost fell on Jiu Ru's body. He couldn't help but feel awkward, and stammered: "I, I didn't say that I don't want to ask the Buddha."

"There are two kinds of people before and after, and I don't know if you have painted a skin." Jiu Ru said.

Zhaoran almost bit off the tongue in his mouth, he didn't draw a skin, no, he simply put on a skin, he said hastily: "This is enough to prove that I am rich inside."

----

Jiuru didn't talk to him much, just raised the curtain of the sedan chair outside, and all the traffickers and pawns outside were chatting about the Buddha's mother opening the door to immortality tomorrow.

"Tomorrow at the Tongtian Pagoda, the Buddha Mother will welcome ten good people into the fairy gate."

"No wonder the emperor wanted to build the Tongtian Pagoda a few years ago. It seems that the emperor also got the opportunity early, knowing that there will be a big opportunity in the future."

"It's a pity that this opportunity should actually fall on Concubine Wan Gui."

"Shh..."

Jiu Ru raised the curtain higher, and far away from the Donghua Gate, one could see a towering spire overlooking the entire capital.

----

After noon, a light snow began to fall in the sky. It had been dry and cold for more than half a month, and the snow slags hit the rubble with rustling sounds.

Jiu Ru walked up the long steps in a white robe, stepping on the snow and sand, and gave a slight salute when he reached the top of the steps: "National teacher."

Ji Xiao said, "You're here."

Nine such as slightly jaw.

"It must have just been separated from the young master of the Jiang residence."

"Yes."

"I heard Master Qiandeng said that he lived in the National Master Tower for ten days." Ji Xiao turned his head and said, "Is he not afraid of your nightmare?"

Jiu Ru said plainly: "He is also a mortal, so he is naturally afraid."

Ji Xiao chuckled "Oh": "I thought you were special to him because he had something special about him."

"A mortal, but very smart."

"A wise man worries too much, and cleverness is often called cleverness." Ji Xiao looked at the long steps outside and said, "I heard that today in Jixiang Temple he said that tomorrow you will ascend to Xiantai."

"Yes."

Ji Xiao turned to look at him and said, "You have no objection?"

"Yes."

Ji Xiao said: "This matter is clearly caused by a stranger using the Buddha's mother to stir up trouble, and the young master of the Jiang family is also closely related to the Tianmang clan. Are you not afraid that this is a conspiracy to wipe out our National Master Pagoda?"

Jiuru raised his eyes: "Whether it's a trick or not, you have to try it to know."

"You have such confidence in him?"

"Yes."

"He has a few percent confidence that he can break the situation of the Buddha Mother's Immortal Ascension Talisman."

"Eighty percent."

Ji Xiao raised her eyebrows slightly, looked at Jiuru and sighed after a while: "The demons are rampant, and the National Teacher Pagoda has a long way to go, but the way of heaven is the way of the heart, how can the Buddha's mother not resist the provocation, I wanted to save you, you But everyone agreed to go up to Xiantai. If so, how about you go up to Xiantai with my master tomorrow?"

Jiu Ru slightly bent over: "Okay."

----

Zhaoran hugged the stove happily gnawing on the braised elbow, looked at the returned Jiuru, brushed the snow on his body, and said, "Come and eat the elbow."

"Yeah." Jiuru sat down.

Zhao Ran licked his fingers and said: "As for the elbow, the color made in the palace is pretty good, but in terms of the taste, it's still delicious made in the consort's mansion."

"Which consort's mansion's elbow have you eaten?"

Zhao Ran almost bit his own finger and said, "Isn't it just that Wang Zeng invited me to be a guest in his manor a few days ago."

"You have only just arrived in the capital, and you know a lot of people in a blink of an eye."

Zhaoran replied shamelessly: "Isn't it because they all know that I have an uncle who is a disciple of Buddha? They fawn on me, all because they want to fawn on you, uncle."

Jiu Ru gave a faint "Oh", then Zhao Ran leaned over and said, "You know about the haunted Princess Mansion, right?"

"The Princess Mansion is haunted? All matters related to ghosts in the capital city must be reported to the National Teacher Tower. I have not received any reports from them."

Zhao Ran glanced around: "They said that walking out of the Princess Mansion will lead to the cemetery. Such a strange thing, the people of the Princess Mansion don't ask for help from the National Teacher Tower."

Jiu Ru shook his head: "No."

Zhao Ran murmured: "Ghosts are born in people's hearts, and there are ghosts in the first place. The ghosts in the princess mansion must be very famous. I have a buddy who investigates this case. He invited me to visit the princess mansion at night, and we will go together later."

"it is good."

As soon as the word Jiu Ru was finished, Liang Fang hurried in: "Mr. Rong..."

"Why is the father-in-law panicking?"

"Jixiang Nunnery has just passed the mother's will, saying that everything is prepared according to what the Buddha said, and things are prepared by the National Master Pagoda. She also said that although the Dharma requires self-doubt and self-certification, it is also necessary to let the world know that the Buddha's light shines everywhere. "

The elbow in Zhaoran's hand fell into the plate and said, "She agrees?"

"Agreed. At noon tomorrow, Mrs. He will only bring the two nuns from Jixiang Nunnery over to honor the Buddha's decree."

"Has the list come?" Zhao Ran asked.

Liang Fang quickly took out the list from her pocket and handed it over: "I asked for a lot of cinnabar and talisman paper. The people in Jixiang Temple said that it was because when opening the immortal gate, the talismans used for ascending to immortality had to be drawn by benevolent people. "

Clearly said: "What else did they say?"

"They also said that on the day they left, the Buddha Mother would answer questions with all the good people in person to show that the way is boundless."

Zhao Ran looked at the list and said nothing, Liang Fang said anxiously: "Young Master Rong, you said that the mystery of the Immortal Ascension Talisman may be in the things they prepared, but now this thing is clearly prepared by the National Master Tower!"

"That means the mystery is not in things."

Liang Fang said, "Where is that?"

"It's in the process." Zhao Ran said.

"In the process."

"I still need to verify it, or I can only know when I go to Shengxiantai."

Liang Fang's face changed color and said: "But once the ceremony of ascension to immortality begins, it will be too late."

Zhaoran picked up the elbow from the plate and took another bite: "So you'd better ask the imperial concubine if she dares to go up to Xiantai."

Liang Fang was surprised and angry: "You."

Zhao Ran said: "If she dares to ascend to Xiantai, I dare say that I will be able to keep her safe and sound."