cultural context
At this point, I didn't dwell on it anymore. I looked at Ah Shi and said, "Ah Shi, go back and find someone from the Imperial Observatory. It would be best to bring the Director over, but keep a low profile. Baohe and I will stay here to avoid any unforeseen complications."
"Okay." Ah Shi nodded and left.
In the inner courtyard, only I, Xu Baohe (who is invisible to ordinary people), and the Taoist priest who was looking at me with suspicion remained.
Seeing that I was sitting on the ground waiting, the Taoist priest asked me again, "Are you really from the Imperial Observatory?"
"Of course, you'll find out when the Imperial Astronomical Bureau personnel arrive."
The Taoist priest still looked unconvinced, so he squatted down next to me and stood guard: "Then I'll see if the Imperial Astronomical Bureau will come."
As dusk fell and the wind began to pick up, the Taoist priest looked at the sky, rubbed his arms, and sighed, "It's still a bit cold."
Just then, the door of another row of houses opened, and an elderly man in plain clothes came out, smiling and calling to us, "It's cold outside, come in and sit down to wait."
“Master,” the Taoist priest stood up abruptly, “I thought you were asleep.”
The old man didn't answer, but looked at me again: "This... young lady, come in and sit down."
When I entered the inner courtyard, I saw a row of houses across the street, but there were no lights on inside, so I thought they were all empty.
I glanced at the dark room behind the old man and assumed he had just been woken up by us. As I walked over, I apologized, "I'm so sorry to have woken you up."
The old Taoist priest shook his head, turned around and lit the candles on the table, then waved to me, "It's alright, sit down."
After the young Taoist priest and I sat down, the old man poured us tea and said to the young Taoist priest first, "After you drink your tea, go to sleep. I will keep watch over you."
“Alright,” the young Taoist nodded, finished his tea in one gulp, stretched, and said, “There are too many people at the lantern festival today, so I’ll go to sleep first and come back to relieve you later tonight.” He then left, yawning.
The house returned to silence, and the huge ginkgo tree in the courtyard came into view. I pointed to the tree and asked the old Taoist priest, "That place has been dug up. Do you know who did it?"
"This must be the man the young lady is looking for. He is a bit thin and has a tall and straight posture. Although his clothes do not have any special patterns, the material is the finest Yun brocade. He must be rich and noble."
Just as I suspected, "Do you know what he dug up?"
“Of course,” the old Taoist priest nodded, “that person came for that thing.”
What is that?
The old Taoist priest took another sip of tea before looking at me: "I'll tell you when your elders arrive." He then yawned: "Ha... Ah, this old man isn't feeling well, I'm going to sleep. Please make yourselves at home."
You guys? He could indeed see Xu Baohe.
Before I could ask any more questions, he lay down on the couch next to me to rest, showing no hesitation whatsoever.
I looked at Baohe, who pouted at me, then went to the ginkgo tree and called out to me from the spot I had mentioned being dug up: "Xu Yi, it smells so good here. Can you help me find out if there's anything edible around here?"
"Eat?" Baohe is a ghost; he can only eat things offered with incense. There's only a patch of dug-up dirt around there—what could he possibly eat? "This… there shouldn't be anything edible!"
I walked over intending to grab a handful of the scattered soil and lift it up to take a look, but my hand touched a flat patch of mud instead.
Undeterred, I touched around again, and judging from the feel of my hands, this area was indeed flat...
It turns out they were telling the truth; the area is flat...
So what I saw was different from what they saw...
This discovery shocked me. Although Ah Shi hadn't seen the dragon underwater before, I just assumed it was something special... I never imagined it was my eyes that were special...
But this is different from what I knew about the demon eye and the magic eye before. The demon eye and the magic eye can see mostly at the energy level, unlike what I saw now, which is more about substance...
What... exactly is going on? It seems we can only wait for the supervisor to arrive and ask him.
Baohe asked me from the side, "Xu Yi, did you touch it? Is there anything you can eat?"
"No, this is just a piece of land, all mud, nothing to eat."
"Hey, what's that faint fragrance I'm smelling? It smells delicious..."
"This... I'm afraid we'll only know when the supervisor arrives."
"Ugh, this is boring," Baohe sighed from the side, standing on the ground and spinning around with the lantern I won for him. The lantern's warm yellow light shone on the ground, creating continuous circular shadows as Baohe spun around...
“Haha, this lantern is so much fun, haha,” Baohe laughed. “I’m going to put this lantern in my well.”
“Okay,” I didn’t expect that an ordinary round lantern would bring Baohe so much joy, but I was obviously infected by it: “Haha, as long as you like it, hang it however you like. There are so many more lantern festivals to visit. If you like it, I’ll hang it all over the well!”
"Really?" Baohe stopped and looked at me with bright eyes: "Will you take me to the lantern festival every time? And let me win a lantern every time?"
"Winning...that might be a bit difficult..." I was about to say I'd buy it for him, but seeing Baohe's expectant eyes, I changed my mind and said, "I'll look at more riddle books in the future and try to win a cup every time?"
Baohe was overjoyed and laughed heartily: "Great, Xu Yi, hahaha, I must hang all these lanterns all over my wells!"
"Sure, I can definitely do it." I'll try my best and give it my all.
After Baohe ran, jumped, and spun around for a long time, Jianzheng finally came over slowly with Ashi.
"Supervisor!" I greeted him, "You've finally arrived." Then I pulled the Supervisor over to the ginkgo tree and pointed to the ground, "Take a look, what was this place originally?"
"What was it originally?" The supervisor glanced at me sideways, his tone somewhat disdainful: "This is the Confucian Temple, what do you think this is?"
"The Confucian Temple... what happened again?" I was completely confused.
The supervisor rolled his eyes at me, squatted down to take a look, and then looked up to ask me, "Xu Yi, what did you see?"
"What? It's just a piece of land that's been dug up!"
The supervisor sighed helplessly: "You saw it being dug up, and you're still asking me what it is?"
"Is it a tree root?"
"Tree roots?" The supervisor rolled his eyes at me again. "They can't see tree roots?"
"What is that?"
This earned me another glare from the supervisor, who then said, "Think for yourself."
"Why would I need to ask you if I wanted to know? Can't you just tell me directly?"
"How can I explain this?" The supervisor looked at me with utter disappointment. "It's like that underwater sculpture. How can I explain it to you?"
Like that dragon underwater? Wouldn't that be... a cultural heritage?
I was shocked: "Why is he digging this up? And how many people's heritage will he be destroying by doing this? This is blatant theft!"
"Yes," the supervisor stroked his beard, looking quite emotional, "If he doesn't have it himself, of course he can only take it from others, otherwise how can he sit in that position?"
"Are you crazy?"
"Now you know you made the right choice, right? He was already dead, so naturally he didn't have many things. Since he didn't have them, and he wanted to stay in that position, he naturally wanted to grab more!"
All I wanted to do at that moment was kill him, so I took two steps forward and asked the supervisor, "What should I do?"
Baohe sensed my murderous intent and stood up menacingly as well.
The supervisor glanced at Bao He beside him, then patted my shoulder: "Xu Yi, remember what I taught you. At your level, you must control your emotions, otherwise any bad consequences caused by your influence will also be attributed to you."
I saw Xu Baohe stand up, take a deep breath, and then let out a sigh of relief. His momentum immediately waned: "Sigh... why is it getting harder and harder? I still prefer the days when I was a ghost."
“But you’re no longer a ghost,” the supervisor bluntly exposed.
I squatted down, picked up Baohe, and sighed to myself, "I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing."
"Everything in this world is a double-edged sword; there is never anything that is only good or only bad."
Baohe smiled at me as he lay in my arms: "Xu Yi, I'm going to stay with you anyway."
My heart skipped a beat, but I still forced a smile and nodded: "Okay, I'll definitely take you with me if I can."
Baohe smiled, yawning as he held the ordinary round lantern in his hand: "I'm going to sleep for a while. Xu Yi, wake me up when you arrive."
"Okay, you can sleep peacefully."
He snuggled against me, smiled, and fell asleep.
The foreman glanced at me, pointed outside, and gestured for me to go back. There's nothing left to guard here.
We had only taken two steps when we heard the old Taoist priest's voice: "Seal it off! So that other little things won't covet it."
What to seal? How to seal it? I looked at the supervisor and saw him roll his eyes at the old Taoist's house before raising his hands to make a hand seal and chant something. Then I clearly felt something go to the ground like a thread, and the turned-up soil was gradually restored.
Seeing that the supervisor had stopped, I asked him, "Supervisor, why can't I see the earth being restored even though I can't see the energy you emitted? What's this eye of mine called?"
The supervisor glanced at me sideways: "An eye is an eye, why do you need a name?"
"Huh? But before, I could see that the names of the different eyes were different?"
"Like I said, it's just eyes, there's no other name for it."
"Then what are my eyes now? What use are they anyway?"
"Break through illusions and see the essence. Xu Yi, you are not far from the Great Dao."
The Great Road? I pursed my lips: "Okay, if you say it's close, then it's close. I don't really have any specific feeling about it myself."
The supervisor glanced at me again and scolded, "You're born into good fortune but don't know how lucky you are... Humph..." Then he led the way out.
I followed the supervisor outside, and remembering the old Taoist priest, I asked him, "Supervisor, do you know that old Taoist priest in the temple? He seems like someone special!"
"Of course he's not simple. He's been guarding the Confucian Temple for so long, he's even more enlightened than you, and he's probably seen through the cause and effect of everything."
"Huh? He's that powerful? Then why didn't you stop him?"
"He's retired, and I want to retire early too. You'd better keep it up!"
"But the Imperial Observatory can't be inherited by me, so what's the point of me trying to improve it?"
The supervisor didn't answer, but just rolled his eyes at me again.
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