Night ship

Five, Hua Nian

The day finally dawned, and they had already sailed away from the berth, surrounded by a vast expanse of whiteness, everything was silent, Tao Sheng was sitting on the bow, and hadn’t spoken for a day and a night, the monk looked at him, thinking about this stupid scholar. What, shock?sad?Thank him?Still hate him?

It's hard to change his mind with the little fool's temper.But he couldn't tell him the truth yet.

"Are you blaming me?"

The tall man knelt down silently in front of him, he didn't dare to get too close to him - he wasn't sure if he would be afraid of him.

Tao Xuean shook his head, without any expression of fear, "I know, if you don't kill him, I will die."

"Then you are sad that the old servant betrayed you?"

He raised his head, "Do you know? I have many elder brothers, but I was the only one who didn't grow up with my parents, because I was abandoned at the very beginning, because at that time, the doctor diagnosed me as an idiot." The monk said a little Surprised, he only felt that this scholar was pedantic and dull, but he didn't expect it to be for this reason.

Tao Xuean smiled, "Even if I am enlightened later, I learn things slower than others, and it was actually not a wrong diagnosis back then."

"Shoubo and I are just friends of Qianbo. In this troubled world, it is very common to give up something in order to survive."

"Don't you want to know who is going to kill you?"

Tao Sheng shook his head.

The two fell silent again.

After a long time, the man suddenly raised his head, his eyebrows hidden in the bamboo hat were indistinguishable, "Then you will... will you arrest me to see the official?" He finally asked, and the repeated temptations seemed to be indistinguishable. It's for this sentence.

Tao Xuean shook his head, "I...I can't beat you."

"........."

"You know I'm not, that's not what I mean." Of course he wasn't afraid of such a powerless scholar, but he was afraid that he would say "yes" before he opened his mouth, but he heard Tao Sheng say, "Master has traveled all over the world, he must have been to many places, can you tell me about it?"

"Survival in troubled times, what is there to say."

"But I want to hear it." Tao Xue'an said seriously, her eyes sparkled, as if she really wanted to hear those anecdotes.

The monk was in a dilemma, but he patiently told the anecdotes he had encountered in the places he had traveled. He hadn’t told a story for a long time, and he didn’t have the heart to tell the story at this juncture, but he still told an anecdote, from Tianzhu Temple in Hangzhou At night, the famous monk saw the light of strange trees, made a statue of Guanyin master, and buried an old man surnamed Mao with the same pronunciation as cat in Xuanwu Lake to prevent rats.From the old woodcutter in Zhenshan who adopted a daughter of Lusheng to the sword-testing stone beside the temple of Han Gaozu in Xuzhou (Note), he said that the story is not good, he will not suppress first and then rise, and he will not change from succession to succession, but before Wu Peng The idiot in front of me, but with a straight back, listened intently.

The monk was in a trance, and when he came back to his senses, the scholar was staring at him, and he said dumbly, "Sorry, let me continue to finish this story."

"No need." The scholar shook his head.

He was surprised, and smiled wryly, "After all, the poor monk's words are not pleasant."

Tao Xuean said, "Those stories are very good, I... never knew such interesting things."

The monk didn't know what to say, but Tao Xue'an said, "Let me tell you a story too."

The monk was taken aback, he really didn't understand this young man, he didn't understand why he could calmly tell him stories after witnessing him killing, but couldn't bear to interrupt him.

"As I said before, there was an idiot who had been locked up by his family in a house deep in the mountains. It was very secluded and no one passed by all year round. He probably saw more fish, birds, flying insects before he was ten years old than people. Many, these birds and insects have seen a lot, and they think they are of the same kind, so that idiot can't speak at the age of ten."

"He is stupid day after day, and the old servants sent by his parents to take care of me probably don't see any hope. His aunt also said, at least leave this child with a mouthful of food. He is ignorant When I lived to that age, the servants around me changed, and when I heard this sentence, I wished for the first time that I was really an unconscious tree."

"A tree?" The monk frowned.

"This idea is too absurd, but that idiot at that time really wanted to become a tree. He stood motionless under the wall, no matter it was raining or windy, as if as long as he did this, he could really be a tree." tree."

"But, that idiot failed to become a tree after all."

"Why?" The monk's heart suddenly hung in the air.

"That was the beginning of winter in the first year of Taihe."

"I remember that year, the Great Wilderness of Beishuo, Hu Di invaded, and the war lasted for several years before it subsided. But why do you remember it so clearly?"

"Because that day, a young monk passed by the door of my house. It was because my old slave was not there, so he climbed in from the low wall in a grand manner. He was not a good monk. After I took the roast chicken with satisfaction and took a few bites, I found the 'that tree' in the corner."

"Many years later, I have no way of knowing what kind of mood he was in when he talked to a tree. Sometimes it was a delicacy, a Buddhist scripture, and sometimes an anecdote. He sighed after he finished speaking, Little idiot, if you don't look like this, you can really taste it, or you can really go to see it... He will come every other day, and from the monk's chattering words, That idiot saw the original appearance of this world, he didn't respond to the monk's words at all, and then he could utter a meaningless monosyllable, he gradually became dissatisfied, and became an unconscious tree."

"and after?"

Tao Xuean said, "Shouldn't the master know better than me what happened later?"

"One day in the spring of the following year, the white-robed monk suddenly gave the idiot a rhododendron. It was the first time the idiot saw such a beautiful word, and he screamed excitedly. He said don't scream, let me hide, Tomorrow, I will take it to the mountain to see the flowers, and then climb over the wall."

"But he never came back."

Tao Xuean raised his head and smiled, but there was water in his eyes, "It's said that monks don't tell lies, look at that monk, how bad it is."

The monk was stunned, and said after a while, "Yes, he is so bad."

He and this young man had nothing to do with each other originally, but because his master called him back half a month ago in a hurry, saying that he wanted him to protect an old friend on the road, and he would give him this ruined temple when he came back. Naturally, he didn't care This small ruined temple has no reason to refuse the old bald donkey's request. He thought it was just like this, but he didn't hold on to it. He broke the precept.

What was even more misleading was that at first he thought this old man was the old man of the master, but after seeing his appearance, he thought he was the old man of that person, but he never thought that he would be...his old man.

The rhododendrons on Hanshan Mountain bloomed and withered, and the little idiot lay on the wall, waiting for the passing monk to go in and sit down again, and finish telling him such a story.

Ten years passed like this.

It turned out that he owed him a lot after all.

The author has something to say: Note: The above anecdotes are all from Zhang Dai's "Night Sailboat".Although the topic is called a night boat, it has nothing to do with it.The focus is of course on the "ship".