sincerity of lies

Fortunately, after saying these words, without the urging of Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin, Lao Hu had already started his description.

It didn't match his old appearance. When describing this matter, he was surprisingly logical and precise. When listening to his eloquence, Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin seemed to have seen the terrifying The scene, like a scroll of killing paintings, slowly unfolds in front of my eyes...

It was just late autumn last year when the Daye Temple, which had been in disrepair for a long time, began to be repaired.

The mountain temple closes its gates and refuses pilgrims.

The temples that should have been crowded with tourists have become deserted, with only professional workers such as carpenters and masons walking up and down the mountain road all day long.

After repairing in this way for a period of time, ginkgo leaves began to cover the steps.

Although Ginkgo biloba is called Ginkgo biloba, its leaves are golden. When it sprinkles the stone steps leading to the Buddhist temple, it looks like pieces of beautifully shaped gold foil falling on the ground, welcoming the Buddha who is about to return.

Leaving aside the Buddhist temple that is still being repaired, the mountain path full of fallen ginkgo leaves also attracts people to visit.

Although the repairers of the Buddhist temple have repeatedly emphasized that the construction site is not safe, and they have put up signs saying "Tourists are not allowed" at the gates of various mountains, they cannot stop the locals who are enthusiastic about the scenery.

Looking back now, the so-called "construction site is not safe" may be just a ulterior motive.

There are many tourists, and I am naturally one of them.

It’s just that I don’t believe in Buddhism or worship Buddha on weekdays, and I don’t climb mountains or exercise. Although I’ve lived in this city for a long time, I’m still one of the few who come here.Because I was climbing the mountain alone, I didn't want to see those couples of young couples eye-catching, so I deliberately avoided the crowds and chose paths without people, walking up while admiring the beautiful scenery.

Because there were few people coming and I didn't know the way, I climbed all the way in a daze, and I actually climbed to the back of the mountain, which is the construction site.

I came by coincidence, and it happened to be meal time when I arrived. There were no people in the construction site, but the wood, cement, abrasive tools and other things were scattered all over the place. Although the construction site was open, there was a feeling that there was nowhere to go.

I climbed all afternoon, tired and hungry, and couldn't walk anymore, so I chose to rest on the way up, with my back facing a big rock on the construction site.

The reason why I chose this place was because the construction site was messy, and I came up to see the scenery, so I subconsciously chose a place with a good scenery, without any extra ideas or the ability to foretell.

I rested behind the stone for a while, when I suddenly heard a sound behind me.

"Kacha - Kacha - Kacha -"

It sounded like the wheels of a cart rolling over uneven ground.

Did the workers start work again after eating?Thinking this way, I turned around and prepared to ask the workers the shortcut to go down the mountain.

But I saw a strange scene.

At this time, the sun had already set, and the sky was basically dark, but not yet dark enough to turn on the lights.But this is the bleakest time of the day—the sun has passed, the lights are not on, and the earth turns from blue to black, as if soaked in ink.

In this blue-to-black vision, I saw a man in gray clothes, dragging a cart, walking forward slowly.

There was a large sack-like thing on the cart, and both ends of the sack fell to the ground, rubbing and bouncing as the cart moved forward.

No, that's not a sack.

That's a person!

I couldn't help myself when I realized what was on the cart, but I didn't choose to run away.

When people face danger, they will actually burst out with unimaginable power.

In the final analysis, there is no way to know yourself.

Ask me why I know so clearly?Because my life experience is rich.

In short, when I realized that the person on the cart was a person, not only did I not think about running away, I even quietly adjusted the angle for better observation.

I noticed that the man was lying on the cart with his back facing the sky and facing the floor. He looked like a burly man. His head and legs were hanging out of the cart and touching the ground.

Seeing this, I still don't know whether this person is alive or dead.

But I'm already worried about his head in contact with the ground - I don't know if the concrete floor will stain his face?

Well, this is more curiosity than worry.

I watched all the way, watching the man in gray dragging his car to the cement pool, and watching him pour the cement into the mold... I have to say here, generally speaking, there are clay sculptures, wood sculptures, and gold sculptures in temples. Plastic and so on.

Generally, the main Buddha in the temple is either carved in wood or made of gold. Only the less important Buddhas next to them are made of clay.

This common sense, even if I have never worshiped Buddha, I can understand it.

And I also know that the mold he poured the mud into is the Four Heavenly Kings in the Piandian—I didn't recognize it, but there was a sign next to it, and the sign said "Piandian, Four Heavenly Kings" in a big way. Great Heavenly King".

Presumably, the restorer of the temple was afraid that the masons would make a mistake, so he wrote it on purpose, right?

The restorers of the temple did a good job in this kind of detail.

In short, the gray clothes picked up a light yellow piece of something like a large tarpaulin from the cart and spread it in the mold, then pushed the people on the cart onto it, and wrapped it tightly with the tarpaulin.

The man was very careful and fixed it with tape.

I didn't understand it at the time, but after I checked some information, it was to prevent the smell of the corpse from being exposed, and the person who did such a life-and-death event was more considerate than me.

Then there was cement, iron-gray, heavy cement, falling from his chest and abdomen, bit by bit, spreading to both ends, and finally smoothed his body, his face, and his existence.

And then, another mold, and the mold closes.

ended.

Whether he was alive or dead before, it's all over now.

Gray clothes dragged the cart and walked away easily.

There was another sound of "click-click-click-", the sound gradually disappeared, and disappeared in the black temple overlooking the giant beast.

Only an uninhabited construction site and a Buddha with a dead body in his belly remained.

I sat there in a daze for a long time, when I heard another rustling sound, I knew that I should leave there immediately, if the person just now found me, I would have narrowly escaped death, but the curiosity to peek at such a unique thing held me firmly My heart, controlling my eyes, quietly looked at the construction site through the stone again.

A short man whose face could not be seen clearly stepped across the gravel on the ground.

He had a clear purpose, and walked to the Buddha that had just been sealed up without any mistakes.

He squatted down, put down a sign in his hand, and picked up the sign that said Piandian-Four Heavenly Kings just now.Then, he left lightly again without looking back.

I just found out that the new sign says the main hall-Eighteen Arhats.

Who is Gray Clothes?Who is the short guy?

Why did he change brands?

Was the previous sign wrong?Is the new brand the correct one?

When the temple is reopened, people come and go, incense is lingering, and people worship the Buddha devoutly, do you know that what the incense covers is the smell of corpses, and the painted paintings depict the dead souls in vain.

Among the Buddhas with different shapes and vajra's angry eyes, which one is hiding the corpse?

"Did you call the police?"

Ji Xun heard Huo Ranyin's voice, and the other party's question was very direct.This is also a matter of course. For such a thing that is qualified even in the collection of horror stories before going to bed, if you don't call the police at this time, when will you wait?

"No." Old Hu said.

"Why?" Huo Ranyin asked.

"When people are old, they are afraid of trouble..." Lao Hu said slowly, "I am an old man, one more thing is worse than one less thing, and I make troubles casually. What if I leak information and the murderer comes to revenge me? What if I was younger? , I can still wrestle with him, but at this age, if he hits the back of my head, I can only die on the spot."

"Come with us to the police station now." Huo Ranyin looked at Lao Hu appreciatively, "Describe the murder scene described to us, and describe it to the police again."

Lao Hu picked up his coffee cup and took a sip of coffee.

"No, I hate going to the police station."

The sunlight outside the window shone on this table, illuminating the sunglasses that Lao Hu put on the table, the brooch on Lao Hu's chest, and the age spots on Lao Hu's cheeks that were the size of broad beans.

Life at eighty is rare since ancient times.

At this age, no matter what, just because the other party has some clues to the murder case, you can't simply and rudely take the person to the police station and order him to speak.

Besides, there is one more crucial question.

The old nonsense, is it true or false?

It is impossible for the police to open a case and investigate because of such a simple and vague statement.

Ji Xun and Huo Ranyin looked at each other.

In this glance, there is a tacit understanding.

——If it’s true or not, let’s go up the mountain to see it first.

Lao Hu doesn't remember where the construction site and the temple are. In his words, it was still mud at that time, but now it is paved with stone bricks and it looks different. How can I recognize it.

Therefore, they could only walk and search. The three of them entered the Daye Temple. This temple needs to buy tickets. He and Huo Ranyin's is simple, but Lao Hu's is complicated. You need to go to another counter to buy tickets.

Ji Xun originally wanted to ask him why he came from Xiangjiang, what stories did he have to settle in Qinshi, and then he thought of his grandfather, a native of Fuzhou, who also lived in Ningshi with Xiangjiang nationality, and he never asked him why the old man Run to Xiangjiang.

Afterwards, all the way up, the young man's legs were fast, and the old Hu was not to be outdone. After a while, he arrived at the first temple in the mountain.

I don’t know if it’s because of the story I heard just now. At this time, when Ji Xun looked at the temple surrounded by fireworks and the Bodhisattva sitting upright, he always felt a little weird. He felt that the threshold was too high, the panes were too deep, and the light could not shine inside. Ask the Buddha to paint on it, dark and gloomy.

"It wasn't this temple that started construction last year."

During the gap between Ji Xun's emotions, Huo Ranyin had already walked around the temple with great mobility, found the person in charge of the temple, and got the book of Daye Temple in his hands.

This is the record of the deeds of the temple. It can be taken out of the treasure hall, of course it is not the original, but a photocopy.

When Huo Ranyin was in action, Ji Xun didn't stand still. He found the stone tablet outside the temple in Daye Temple.Ji Xun glanced at it. From top to bottom, the sums were all large, ranging from several million to hundreds of thousands.

Among them, the one ranked first has a particularly large number of words engraved by Jun, after all, the first one is always different.

"In 1997, Yu Ci gave birth to a benevolent person and donated 300 million yuan to help the temple be renovated"

"In 1997," Ji Xun muttered, "it's not too far away from now. Is this temple relatively young or is there another merit monument that I haven't seen?"

The familiar name made Huo Ranyin look up.

Yu Cisheng is his neighbor, who is only four years older than him. In 1997, he was 7 years old and Yu Cisheng was 11 years old. It is impossible for an 11-year-old kid to come up with such a large donation—it was Yu Cisheng’s Dad, just donated in the name of Yu Cisheng.

Yu Cisheng was born with albinism. Father Yu, who only had this single seedling in his middle age, was full of grief and joy. Naturally, he held it in his mouth for fear of melting, and held it in his hand for fear of ruining it. It is said that since Yu Cisheng came into the world, he began to write a lot of money. Donate freely, regardless of Buddhism, Taoism, poor people, or rare diseases, as long as you find Father Yu and you really have difficulties, you can always get some help.

Although I don't remember things very clearly when I was a child, Huo Ranyin still has an impression of this.

Yu Cisheng's family can be regarded as a charitable family in the same line.

He opened the Daye Temple Chronicle.

The beginning of the chapter is about the origin of Daye Temple, which is roughly handed down from the Southern Song Dynasty. In the middle, due to the change of dynasties and the invasion of foreign enemies, it became prosperous and then declined. Until 1997, it was finally rebuilt for Yu Cisheng.

Regarding the reason why Yu Cisheng rebuilt this temple, there is also a short story briefly recorded above.

It is said that one day the Yu family took Yu Cisheng out for a spring outing, passing by here, Yu Cisheng suddenly suffered from asthma, and the family panicked.

This clear spring comes out of the "Shanjian Spring Eye" in the mountain. Since the Southern Song Dynasty, the Quanku Temple has declined and the Quanyong Temple has flourished. This morning, the spring that had been dry for many years suddenly gushed out spring water, and the abbot of the temple knew that someone was there.

Afterwards, Yu Cisheng drank the spring water, and the water cured his illness, and then donated 300 million yuan to help the Buddhist temple rebuild.

One drink and one peck, it's God's will.

Ji Xun read this little story with great interest, and he did not hesitate to praise: "This Chronicle of Daye Temple is not badly written!"

Huo Ranyin was not interested anymore, he turned back and found that everything was recorded in the temple annals, a small bridge had its name changed, a Buddha statue had its material changed, and they were also recorded one by one, not to mention major repairs.

In addition to the large-scale reconstruction in 1997, there were repair records in 2002, 2008, and 2011, but there was no record of last year.

Old Hu said: "That's probably the palace behind. At that time, I climbed along the mountain path for a long time."

There is no shortage of such possibilities.

This mountain is so big, there is more than one temple in Daye Temple, there are many different temples, and there are even Taoist temples.

The three of them continued to move forward. This time they followed the map and searched all the nearby temples, but they still couldn't find the temple that started construction last year.

Now, Lao Hu looked a little strange.

Of course, it may be because I was tired after climbing the mountain for a long time.

Old Hu said: "Maybe the temple has started construction, but there is no record. After all, you have done something wrong, so it's normal to cover it up?"

"If the work is really started, we can't hide it." Huo Ranyin said, "The pilgrims who come here often must know whether the temple in the mountain has been repaired. I will ask the pilgrims."

"Wait." Ji Xun called to stop Huo Ranyin. When he came up, he bought a bottle of water. After climbing the mountain for two hours, he was thirsty. He unscrewed the bottle cap and handed it to Huo Ranyin, " Have a sip before going."

Huo Ranyin took it, took two sips, moistened his throat, handed the water bottle back to Ji Xun, and said, "Wait for me here."

"Uh-huh."

Ji Xun agreed, then drank water, and watched Huo Ranyin go away. When he was about halfway through the bottle, he rolled his eyes and caught the old Hu who was secretly watching him.

"Master—"

"What are you doing?" Lao Hu was alert, "I remember clearly that it is the temple on this mountain!"

"I'm not asking this, what I want to ask is," Ji Xun smiled, "Why do you keep peeping at me along the way? See how handsome I am?"

"You young man, don't be shy." Old Hu paused, "However, you are handsome. If you are not handsome, the Huo family will not be the last generation."

Ji Xun choked on a sip of water in his throat.