dragon pen

Good news came from Anle Temple. Monk Yuanhai, who had been in a coma for most of the winter due to a sudden serious illness, unexpectedly woke up. Although his body was not as good as before after waking up, he could still walk around and take charge of the overall situation.

People's hearts finally followed and settled down.

It's just that when people asked Monk Yuanhai why he was sick, Monk Yuanhai just didn't want to say more; when he mentioned how chaotic the Anle Temple was after leaving him, the old monk smiled lightly, shook his head and sighed——

This is not the strangest.

The strangest thing did not happen to Monk Yuanhai, but all the monks in Anle Temple, old and young, seemed to suffer from amnesia at a certain moment——When Monk Yuanhai couldn't preside over the affairs of the temple, who would stand up and take the lead? In order to temporarily preside over this matter, all the people in Anle Temple were in a daze... All they knew was that Monk Yuanhai and their younger brother Shi Kongguan had a secret talk in the Buddhist hall for one night, and when they came out the next day, they announced that Yuanhai was not there. At that time, Shi Kong was actually the head of the temple.

There was an uproar inside and outside Anle Temple: there were hundreds if not thousands of monks in Anle Temple, and many of them were old monks with high morals and respect. In any case, it seemed that Shi Kong, a younger generation who was still a child, would not be able to preside over the overall situation, right?

However, Yuan Hai ignored everyone's doubts, and only said that Shi Kong presided over the affairs of the temple these days without any merit or hard work, so he gave him a new dharma name, which was actually a new generation that no one had ever used——

For "Longhai".

Monk Shikong became Monk Longhai.

On the day when Monk Longhai accepted the new Dharma title, all the monks in Anle Temple were present, and there were many people who came to watch the fun. People surrounded Anle Temple with three floors inside and outside. When bowing down in front of the Buddha and chanting "Amitabha", many people heard the thundering dragon chant from the sky.

Some people said that they saw a silver-white dragon rising from the body of Monk Longhai, breaking through the sky; some people said that it was wrong, you read it wrong, it was clearly a huge black dragon; some people said that I clearly heard the dragon chant The voice came from the monk Longhai;

Some people said that I clearly heard the sound of the dragon's chant shattering the sky, coming from the sky...

There are different opinions, but the truth is not known. People only know that after that day, everyone knows that there is a Longhai monk who is protected by a dragon in Anle Temple-his Buddhist beads bracelet is one hundred and nine. He said it was him. He has a totem of a silver dragon on his arm. The silver dragon protects the people of Jinling and the Anle Temple to live and work in peace and contentment for a hundred years from evil spirits.

That night, Monk Long Hai sat alone in the Buddhist hall.

One of the Wangu Buddha lamps swayed with the wind, and the wooden fish in his hand stopped beating. He lowered his eyes and saw that the figure cast in front of him was covered by another tall figure, and that person appeared just like that.Standing quietly behind him.

"You shouldn't have come." He said flatly without looking back.

The figure in front of him swayed, probably because the person standing behind him moved. After a long time, there was a sigh behind him, and the man's deep and helpless voice sounded behind him——

"Little monk, why are you doing this?"

"Nothing to do with you."

"I told you earlier that I'm not good at Longyang, but that day before the mountain spring, I saw you were so cute while carrying a bucket and chanting scriptures, so I couldn't help but go forward. get in a word--"

"Zhu Jiuyin."

"..."

"If you came here specially to talk nonsense with me, then get out now."

Forcibly suppressing the anguish and the spreading sorrow in his heart, although his tone was indifferent when he spoke, it was still difficult to conceal the strong emotions in his words—the wooden fish fell to the ground and made a harsh sound, the young monk stood up, and he turned around With his back facing the Buddha whom he chanted and worshiped all day long, he looked at the man behind him, and looked at the pair of calm red pupils——

There was an undisguised pain in his black eyes.

But in the eyes of the other party, there was only pity.

Hmph, pity again.

"Master said that my root of wisdom is not pure, and I have other thoughts in my heart, so he punished me to come here to recite the scriptures and think about my mistakes-it's just that I have recited the scriptures thousands of times, why there is no line or page that can let me go. Calm down?!"

He raised his voice—

"I was only dedicated to the Buddha. I wanted to live up to Master's expectations and take over his mantle in the future. Originally, everything was going smoothly. Why did you come out to ruin my practice and disturb my purity?!"

His voice became louder and louder, but the person standing opposite him stood quietly, his eyes did not change at all——

Such eyes are full of chilling compassion.

The little monk standing on the futon stared at the face that seemed never to be emotional for a while, then he suddenly gave a strange smile, stretched out his hand and pulled the belt of the monk's robe on his body——

The man's eyes finally changed.

Under the candlelight, the young monk's young body was completely exposed under the red pupils, and on the slender white arms, a silver dragon coiled around, which was extremely dazzling... The man lowered his eyes and said slowly: " Why do you do this?"

"That's all you can say?"

The monk stepped forward and hugged the man in front of him, letting his cold black dress stick to his chest. The coldness made him tremble slightly, and even his voice became unstable. He said——

"Zhu Jiuyin, what should I do, you evildoer, but I just fell in love with you."

The entire ancestral hall suddenly fell into a deathly silence.

It was as if the unspeakable words were finally uttered, and the taboo was broken, revealing its bloody and ferocious face——

For a long time, Zhu Jiuyin, who was held in the arms of the young monk, moved, but before the person in his arms could be pleasantly surprised, he just broke free from him and came behind him to pick up the clothes that fell on the futon He touched his shoulders, turned him to himself, and said——

"exactly."

"..."

"I shouldn't provoke you for no reason."

Zhu Jiuyin paused——

"You should simply remember this evil debt, one day you may have a chance to ask me to get it back..."

"I can't take it."

"..."

"For the debts in this world, the one who pays the debt should also be taken care of by the one who bears the debt. Only the one who pays the debt can ask for it, and only then can there be resentment and love after kindness... But Zhu Jiuyin, just look at you "The little monk stood on tiptoe, held the man's face and looked into his eyes, "I can't even see myself in your eyes."

A gust of cool wind blows in from nowhere.

The little monk let go of the man, he took a step back, and slowly put on the monk robes he had taken off one by one. Finally, he returned to his indifferent appearance at the beginning, and bent down to pick up the robes he had just taken off. The wooden fish that fell on the ground——

He sat back on the futon and faced the Buddha statue again.

thump.

The wooden fish tapped lightly.

"You go."

thump.

The sound of chanting also sounded...

On the second day, although the monks in Anle Temple didn't know why, they vaguely felt that their junior brother, Monk Longhai, had changed—he couldn't say what was different from before. He was still smiling, still gentle, still eating fast and chanting Buddha, still Holding the bamboo broom and seriously sweeping the snow...

But something has changed.

"The root of emotion is not pure, it's just that the fate has been broken."

Everything seemed to come to an end with the sigh of Monk Yuanhai——

"Amitabha."

A few years later, when the abbot Yuanhai passed away for a hundred years, the most popular monk Long Hai naturally accepted his mantle and became the youngest abbot of Anle Temple in hundreds of years.

……

Until 50 years passed slowly.

It is said that the sky and the earth go up for a year, and 50 years is just a blink of an eye for a fairy: but for ordinary mortals, it seems to be as long as repeating his life...

50 years is enough for an ordinary child to experience normality, marrying a wife, having children, raising children, and sharing the joys, sorrows, sorrows and joys of family relationships. However, for a monk staying in a temple, it is just 50 years, 360, and five days looking at the Buddha lamp every day. Igniting and extinguishing, a process that goes round and round——

Still that Buddha statue.

It's still the Buddhist temple.

The futons of that year have also been washed white from the original light yellow, and may have been replaced many times-but these are all things that young monks need to think about. Long Hai, who just eats fast and recites Buddha, manages major decisions in the temple The monk can't remember these trivial things at all...

Standing up and pushing open the door of the Buddhist hall, he found that it was another year of winter, and the steps in front of the Buddhist hall were covered with pattering snowflakes. Long Hai wanted to pick up the bamboo broom placed in the corner to sweep the snow and go around Then he found that the bamboo broom had disappeared at some point... But when he passed the bronze mirror, he looked at his own reflected face, and was slightly stunned——

When did you become old?

There are wrinkles on the face, and the beard on the chin and lips is gray... Ah, if there is hair, it should be full of hair, right?

The old monk moved closer to the bronze mirror, took a closer look and found that his eyes had also become cloudy... Lived up to the clarity of his youth, he also seemed a little slow when he moved——

The bracelet of Buddhist beads that had followed him for decades was turning in his hand, but the silver dragon on the slightly loose skin on his arm was still lifelike, and a white light flashed. A man in a white costume stood behind the old monk, still young and handsome, His brows and eyes were indifferent, but he looked at the old monk seriously, and there was some worry in his eyes...

"It's nothing, but I suddenly realized that I don't know when I became so old..." Monk Longhai smiled, "I'm old, but Tunfo, you are still the same as before—"

The handsome man following the old monk bent slightly, looked over the old monk's shoulder seriously, and said expressionlessly: "Not old."

Long Hai laughed.

"Is it annoying to follow the old monk for so many years?"

"Just for a moment."

"..."

"Not bothering."

The man behind him answered naturally, Long Hai's brows and eyes stretched, and he was about to say something, when he suddenly found that the person behind him stopped suddenly... Long Hai turned to look at him curiously, only then did he realize that the person was He was furrowing his sleeves and slightly frowning, looking at a certain direction in the sky, silent for a moment, as if feeling Long Hai's gaze, he withdrew his gaze and said lightly: "He's here."

How many years has it been since Monk Longhai felt this kind of rapid heartbeat—ah, I didn't expect such an old body to have such an interesting reaction.

When Long Hai was thinking this way, he heard commotion outside... When the young man behind him disappeared, the old monk also stepped up and walked towards the outside of Anle Temple. From a distance, he heard someone discussing "the painting is really good." "Ah", "A lifelike dragon", "It's amazing, the Zhang family is really amazing", "Zhang Sengyou", and other words, he went outside and saw that it was a painter in some shabby cloth, holding a The gilt pen is drawing and writing on the wall outside the temple——

He drew two lifelike dragons with black scales and emerald tails, white beards and yellow claws, but he didn't put eyes on that dragon.

"What is this for?" Monk Longhai grabbed a young monk and asked.

"Master, there is a very powerful painter who is painting!"

"Yes, and the painting is on the wall of our temple, have you noticed?"

"..."

"Isn't it difficult to do sanitation? I have to find a bricklayer to paste the wall again in a while."

"..."

Long Hai let go of the little monk. At this moment, he saw that the painter named "Zhang Sengyou" stopped, and an almost complete dragon appeared on the painting wall. The painter stopped and saw Then I was about to put away my paintbrush——

"Sir, draw the eyes of the dragon!"

"That's right, if the eyes are drawn, this dragon will be perfect!"

People booed.

"You can't draw eyes. If you draw eyes, the dragon will fly away from the wall." The painter said with a smile, both true and false.

Seeing the self-confidence of this poor painter, Monk Long Hai also found it interesting, so he didn't go up to ask him for the repair fee for the scribbles. Dip the red ink with the medium pen, and dot it on the dragon's eyes——

Long Hai's smile restrained slightly.

Only then did he realize that the red-eyed dragon in the painting turned out to be so familiar... In a trance, he suddenly caught a glimpse of the sky above his head that was originally clear and suddenly covered with dark clouds. —

Monk Longhai has not heard this dragon chant for 50 years.

Listening to it now, it's so familiar.

Long Hai raised his head as expected, and as expected, in the next second amidst the panicked shouts of the crowd, the two giant dragons originally painted on the wall soared into the sky, and actually flew out of the wall and turned into two flying dragons. Out of the wall and hovering above the sky—

When everyone around the audience ran away with their heads in their arms, only a few people inadvertently caught a glimpse of Monk Longhai standing in the crowd covered in white light. In an instant, a silver dragon that seemed to be poured out of the same mold as the black dragon suddenly burst through the sky. Together, the two dragons are entangled together...

Among the panicked crowd, Monk Longhai came to the painter of the Zhang family, and patted him on the shoulder: "My benefactor, you probably don't know how much money this temple spends on repairing the walls every year, and now the walls of the temple have to be repaired again because of you... ..."

The poor painter's expression changed.

Monk Long Hai smiled.

……

a few days later.

On that day, the interesting incident of "painting the finishing touch" at Anle Temple in Jinling caused a lot of ups and downs, and the whole city knew it.

The people who saw it vividly talked about how they were scared out of their wits, and desperately gestured with their hands how scary the monster dragon flying out of the wall was. At the end, they did not forget to add one sentence——

"However, fortunately, the host Long Hai was present at the time. Seeing that the situation was not right, he immediately used his unique skills to cooperate with the painter, capturing and sealing the monster dragon into a picture scroll! In an instant, the sky cleared and the smoke disappeared..."

"What about the dragon?"

"In the picture scroll!"

"What about the painting?"

"……what?"

...The picture scroll is probably in the hands of Monk Long Hai.

But this is all something to say later, and the specifics are unknown.

Anle Temple, in a quiet meditation room.

The old monk sat upright on the futon, with a picture scroll tied tightly in front of him... a man in a white gilded robe stood behind him, his eyes downcast, his face plain and indifferent: it was as if he was placed on the table at this moment. The painting scroll has nothing to do with him.

"They always say that my roots of wisdom are not pure." Monk Long Hai smiled and said suddenly, "It's true. In the past 50 years, I have never forgotten for a single moment..."

Just as he finished speaking, he suddenly felt the person behind him reach out and straighten his collar: "'I'."

Long Hai was slightly taken aback.

"In front of this gentleman, call yourself like this."

"..."

Long Hai smiled.

"Tun Buddha, do you blame me?"

"No wonder." The man withdrew his hand and said in his still indifferent voice, "I will keep you safe for a hundred years."

"..."

The smile on Long Hai's face became clearer, and for a moment, those cloudy eyes seemed to almost return to the clarity of their youth—although the light soon dimmed.

"It's the end." The old monk suppressed his smile and slowly closed his eyes, "Amitabha."

……

Three days later.

Monk Longhai, the abbot of Anle Temple in Jinling, passed away peacefully in his meditation room at the age of 63.

People say that on that day, the silver dragon that guarded Monk Longhai most of his life took off from Anle Temple——

That was the last time they saw the silver dragon in Jinling.

Volume [-]: Forget the River Basin