"I was just about to congratulate you, but I saw your house decorated with lanterns and entertaining guests. It must be a big happy event, but there is no wedding character or a happy marriage or anything like that. I was curious..."
The one who greeted the homeowner was Bai Wuchang.
This family looked like they were having a wedding, but there were Buddhist characters pasted on the door instead of the word "happiness", which looked a bit strange.
But the host of this family was extremely happy to entertain guests. Was there something fishy going on?
"Hahaha, that's a good question, sir. It's all thanks to the good deeds of our ancestors. In a poor and remote place like mine, it's rare to have such a happy thing in the past few decades..."
The owner of this house could hardly conceal his joy, and it was quite amusing to see his little moustache twitching as his master spoke.
"Drink some tea, my dear. Let me explain slowly..."
It turned out that the family's surname was Sun, and they had two sons, one named Sun Dalang and the other named Sun Erlang. Dalang was already married and had children, and Erlang was sixteen years old. Although he had studied when he was young, he did not pass the examination to become a scholar.
But seeing that Sun Erlang was not young anymore and the Sun family was considered a wealthy family in the village, they wanted to arrange a marriage for Erlang first. However, Erlang refused to agree to anything, and the father and son quarreled from time to time because of this.
It just so happened that a few days ago, a monk who was going to the East to preach came, and people from both inside and outside the city went to watch the fun, especially because the monk was said to be praying for rain, which made the nearby villagers a little gossipy, but no one believed that the monk could really pray for rain.
After all, Fengxian County in Fengyuhuazhou has been suffering from severe drought for three years. Not a drop of rain has fallen at all. The people can't grow crops, and even countless trees on the mountains have died. Many ordinary people can't make a living.
Many people sold their children to escape famine, and during these three years, countless monks and Taoists came to pray for rain, but to no avail.
The prince of Fengxian County had thought of countless ways to ask people to pray for rain, but to no avail, and only made the people more disappointed.
This time, to everyone's surprise, the monks who came really prayed for nectar, so that it rained for a whole day and night in Fengxian County. Everyone was stunned and revered those monks as gods.
At that time, Sun Erlang was also squeezed in the crowd, worshiping the monk.
The prince even held a grand banquet, invited these eminent monks to be guests in the palace, and asked the three princes in the palace to worship the eminent monks as their teachers. However, the eminent monks told the prince that there had been no rain in Fengxian County for three years because they did not respect God.
Three years ago, when the prince was offering sacrifices to heaven and earth, he had a quarrel with his wife and in a rage he knocked over the sacrificial offerings. The offerings were eaten by wild dogs, which happened to be seen by the Jade Emperor in his spare time. He became furious.
This led to no rain in Fengxian County for three years. In order to have good weather and good harvests, Buddhism must be respected, so they planned to set up a Buddhist class in the Prince's Mansion and select a group of people to have the eminent monk personally teach Buddhism. Sun Erlang was also lucky.
Because he was young and literate, he was chosen to listen to Buddhist teachings from the eminent monk. People like Sun Erlang who were chosen had a very high status. Not only did the prince meet him in person, he also exempted his family from taxes.
Moreover, Sun Erlang was now equivalent to an official and immediately received a salary.
For ordinary people, this is a great joyous event. It is like someone in the family has passed the imperial examination, and this is the treatment they receive.
Out of joy, the Sun family hosted a banquet and invited all the neighbors to come drink and celebrate the second child of the Sun family becoming a monk.
Zhang Fan sat in the seat of honor, listening to the Sun family's vivid descriptions of the great joy that had happened to their child. For the Sun family, this was as joyful as if their child had become an official!
"Those three monks are really amazing. By the way, can they only chant sutras?"
Bai Wuchang was trying to get the owner of this house to talk, because this place was not very far from Leopard Mountain, at least closer than the town. Sun Wukong and his men had wiped out the yellow lion monster in Leopard Mountain, so they would definitely know about it.
Sure enough, the owner of the household laughed when he heard Bai Wuchang's words.
"Guests, you don't know that these monks are not just good at chanting sutras. They are real gods. They can not only pray for rain but also catch monsters. There is a lion monster on Leopard Mountain. We have lived here for decades and didn't know about it. But these monks who came from afar found the tiger cave on Leopard Mountain in no time and killed the lion monster..."
When this family talked about the lion spirit, Zhang Fan couldn't help but listen.
But the owner of the household saw that they were listening attentively and spoke with great joy.
They kept boasting about how powerful those monks were. Now they were preaching in the city and had accepted three princes as disciples. Their children were also fortunate enough to serve under the monks and could even be said to be the three princes' junior brothers.
This is a great joyous event, and it is a step towards success for this farming family.
No wonder a grand banquet was held; this was indeed a joyous event, as rare as passing the imperial examination.
"Oh, then may I ask, have you ever seen where the lion demon's body went? Was it taken away by those monks?"
"Yeah, a lot of soldiers came during the day, and when they left, they dragged away a huge lion, three or four meters tall. I've never seen a lion that big, no wonder they say it's a spirit..."
The owner of the household also described in vivid detail the huge lions that some of their villagers had seen. The lions were several meters long and were truly terrifying.
If the lion had not been killed, they would not have dared to approach.
"Has the lion been brought into the city?"
"Yeah, that should be it. We are still 40 miles away from the city. Tomorrow many people in the village want to go into the city to see the excitement. Even an old man in his seventies or eighties has never seen such a big lion, let alone us..."
The owner of the household had no idea that the lion spirit he was talking about was actually standing not far from him, watching him with a glare. And after hearing that his body was transported to the city, the yellow lion could not help but walk around.
Seeing his restless look, Bai Wuchang couldn't help but glance at Zhang Fan.
"We will rest here for one night and leave at dawn tomorrow. Thank you for your hospitality, big brother..."
When Bai Wuchang saw Zhang Fan nod again, he hurriedly expressed his gratitude to the host. The host sent him a lot of wine and food. Bai Wuchang secretly stuffed a silver ingot into his pocket, but the host refused to accept it, but Bai Wuchang told him so.
This is to congratulate his family, so he must accept it. After some pushing and shoving, the owner finally took it.
The best guest room was quickly arranged for them. Zhang Fan planned to take a rest first. Before he fell asleep, he heard someone knocking on the window!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
