Chapter 65 How could you leave first? How could you leave us behind?
40 years ago
On an unnamed hill in Shuzhou, there is a Taoist temple consisting of three blue-tiled houses. The temple is very small, with only three clay statues of the Three Pure Ones enshrined in the main hall in the middle, which is all it has.
On the left side of the tile-roofed house is the old Taoist priest's room and dining room, and on the far right is the kitchen and a small partitioned room. Two little Taoist children live in the small room, one eight years old and the other six years old.
This day
In the hall, two children were punished to kneel under the clay statue of the Three Pure Ones. A closer look revealed that both children had bruised faces and noses, obviously from a fight.
The younger one was sobbing and crying so hard. The older one scratched his ears and sighed in a mature manner.
"Don't cry, those fat guys got beaten even harder. We won, how can a man cry?"
"I, I'm in pain." Children are at the age where they can't bear the pain. If they were children raised in the care of their parents, they would have burst into tears long ago.
"Come, let me blow on you, and it won't hurt anymore." The older child came up to the child, blew a few times on the bruises on his face, and spoke as he blew.
"It hurts so much, it hurts so much..."
"Does it still hurt?"
"It doesn't seem to hurt as much anymore."
"Yeah, it's magical, right? I saw Second Aunt blew the flute for Erniu in this way, and the effect was great." The older child raised his chin proudly.
"Yeah." The little kid nodded obediently, but after a while, he started crying again.
"What's wrong now?" The older and younger kids were speechless. Why did their junior brother love to cry so much?
"I, I also want to have a mother like Erniu." The little child cried softly and looked so pitiful.
The older boy felt a lump in his throat. He also wanted to have a mother, but he sniffed and held back his tears. He was a senior brother and couldn't cry.
He reached out and patted the little kid on the back, "Hey, we have a master, but Erniu and the others don't. You don't know how much they envy us."
"Really?"
"Of course, our master is the best and never beats us." At most, they would ask them to kneel before the Grandmaster. "But Second Aunt chases Erniu with a thin bamboo stick every day to beat him."
"Yeah, that's right." The little kid was moved by the older kid's words and burst into laughter.
"That's right. Let's kneel for a while longer. I can smell the aroma of meat. Master must have cooked meat today and will come to call us to eat meat later." The older and younger kids said this while sucking their saliva and almost sucked the snot that was about to flow out into their mouths.
He didn't mind being dirty, and simply grabbed his junior brother's clothes and blew them hard.
"Ah, brother, don't blow your nose on my clothes." The little child cried.
"Hahaha, use it for a bit, it won't cost you a piece of meat." The older kid got up and ran, causing the younger kid to chase after him.
The old Taoist priest who was hiding outside the gate and eavesdropping sniffed and turned back to look at the pot. There was still meat cooking in the pot. He decided to give them more meat today.
Time flies
The two children grew up playing and fighting. This year, one is eighteen and the other is sixteen.
Today the old Taoist priest took on the job of hosting a funeral. The two children also wore plain Taoist robes and followed the master to chant scriptures. Occasionally, they also played the role of playing the suona and the drum.
Anyway, as long as it is a job that can make money, the three of them will do it. After all, it costs a lot to educate two children, especially since the eldest child has been admitted to university and is waiting for tuition to go to college.
The eighteen-year-old boy has grown tall and handsome, with long flowing hair, a sweet mouth and a love of laughter. He often makes the wives and young girls smile.
The sixteen-year-old boy stood aside, pouting and looking unhappy, as if his senior brother was being snatched away.
After finally getting rid of the enthusiastic girls, the senior brother came over and rubbed the junior brother's head, "You have to smile more, otherwise you won't be able to get a wife if you have a sullen face in the future.
"If I can't marry her, then I can't marry her. I will spend my whole life with Master." The younger disciple hummed. He didn't want to be like his elder brother, grinning foolishly at everyone.
"Yes, yes, we will accompany Master together then." The senior brother just felt that his junior brother was really adorable. He touched the peace and safety token in his pocket, which he bought with the pocket money he had saved for a long time.
After the summer vacation, he will go to study in another place. I was really worried about this kid, so I placed it in front of the Three Pure Ones and offered it in front of them for several days. After it was consecrated, I would give it to him when I go back to make him happy.
"It's started, come quickly." The old Taoist priest waved to the two people in the mourning shed.
The two men hurried over, one picked up the scripture and the other picked up the soul-summoning banner.
That night, it was time for the highlight of the funeral - breaking the hell.
The host found a fairly spacious earthen dam, and the two brothers went to draw "Hell", put in hand-kneaded mud balls, and inserted lit incense sticks.
After everything is ready, the master will take the lead and run in front, followed by the filial son holding the spirit tablet. The two senior brothers will also run after him, and behind them will be other filial sons and grandchildren.
There were quite a few people in this family, and seven or eight of them followed along as they picked and chose.
It was summer, the weather was hot and humid, the light was not very good, and there was a group of people watching the fun. Everyone was so focused when running that they had no time to be distracted by anything else.
It was not until someone crashed into the 'hell' that everyone realized something was wrong. One person suddenly stopped and fell to the ground with a bang.
The younger junior brother only felt that his nose hit the senior brother's back heavily. He rushed forward and knocked the senior brother to the ground. Before he could react, he felt someone pulling him.
It was dark and chaotic around, and there were many people screaming and shouting, and the junior brother was scared.
"Hide aside quickly, I'm going to find the master." The senior brother pulled the junior brother to a slightly safer place, and then turned around to find the master.
After hearing what his senior brother said, the younger disciple squatted obediently aside. There were swaying figures and noisy sounds all around him. He looked around in panic, hoping to find his master and senior brother.
But the scene was so chaotic, the mud lumps were flattened, the incense sticks were kicked over, the red light flickered in the darkness, and the dark night sky seemed to be mocking the fleeing crowd below.
"Murder! Murder!" Someone shouted, and the whole scene became even more chaotic.
The men's cursing, the women's shouting, and the children's crying.
The younger disciple stood up in panic. Someone killed someone? Who killed someone? Who?
"Master, senior brother." The younger brother stumbled in the dark, searching for his relatives.
Suddenly he saw several figures rolling in a pile in front of him, and in a trance, something bright white seemed to flash by.
Is it a knife?
The younger disciple's heart tightened, and he widened his eyes, wanting to see if his senior brothers and master were among those people rolling around in a heap.
"The light is coming, the light is coming." Someone came running over with a flashlight, and the bright light shone on the people rolling around.
"Senior brother." The younger junior brother looked closely and saw his senior brother wrestling with someone, who was actually holding a kitchen knife in his hand.
"Go save the master." The senior brother turned around and shouted at the junior brother.
The junior fellow then saw that the old Taoist priest was also wrestling with someone, but he was pinned down, so his face could not be seen for a moment and he could not recognize him. However, his yellow Taoist robe was very obvious.
The junior brother rushed forward and pulled the man away.
"Zhang Laosan, what are you doing?" Several people with flashlights also rushed up to help.
For a time, there was chaos again.
A few minutes later, the man called Zhang Laosan and the three people he brought with him were caught by the villagers and pinned to the ground.
The old Taoist priest and his senior brother stood up, their bodies covered in dust and with bruises on their faces.
"Boss, oh boss, what happened to you, what happened!" A shrill cry came from the side.
Everyone turned around and saw a middle-aged man with a white mourning cloth on his head lying on the ground, his life or death unknown. A middle-aged woman was lying on him, howling.
"What happened to Boss Zhang?" A villager swallowed and didn't dare to go over.
"I just heard someone shouting murder. Could it be that Boss Zhang was killed?"
"Zhang Laosan, you are not going to come here and kill your brother, are you?" The villager who was holding Zhang Laosan asked in disbelief.
"Not only will I kill him, but I'll kill that bitch too." Zhang Laosan, with a face full of flesh, stared at the middle-aged woman with a vicious look, "And those two little brats, none of them will get away."
"That's your elder brother and sister-in-law, your nephew."
…
The villagers could not understand what kind of hatred made him attack his own brother.
The senior brother didn't listen to the villagers' conversation. He asked his junior brother to take care of the master who had injured his waist in the fall, and he limped to the middle-aged man lying there.
I squatted down to check and found that he was still breathing. He was just stabbed in the stomach and blood was still flowing out. "Hurry, hurry, he's still breathing, he's still breathing, send him to the hospital, send him to the hospital."
The villagers heard that he was still breathing, and the brave ones rushed over to help.
"I'll go drive the tractor."
Just as a group of people were sending the injured out of the village, the middle-aged woman turned around and started fighting with Zhang Laosan, cursing and beating him.
The villagers tried to stop the fight again, but one of the three people who came with Zhang Laosan ran away in the chaos, and the other two didn't know whether they were driven by a sense of loyalty.
He thought that if he killed Zhang Lao Da's family in the dark today, he could take the money given by Zhang Lao San and go out to live a carefree life. However, he didn't expect that his plan would be disrupted by two Taoist priests.
Furious for a moment, the two men pulled out folding knives and rushed towards the old Taoist and his junior fellow apprentice.
The junior brother was startled and pushed the master away. It was too late for him to dodge and he could only watch stupidly as the sharp knife stabbed towards him.
In the blink of an eye, the pain did not come, and I was hugged tightly by someone.
"Ah, murder!"
The younger junior brother looked at his senior brother with horror, blood constantly flowing out of his mouth, staining his eyes red.
A few days later, sitting in the mourning hall
The junior fellow stared blankly at the black and white photo displayed above. The person in the photo was sunny and handsome, with a dazzling smile showing his white teeth.
He didn't care about any of the people who came to offer condolences or express gratitude, and he couldn't listen to a word they said.
He didn't know why it happened like this.
He was so young and loved to laugh. He promised to go to college after the summer vacation and bring me some delicious food when he came back.
How could it be like this?
Big drops of tears fell on the peace sign in her hand. The originally bright red rope turned purple-black because it was stained with blood.
He was reluctant to wash it, for he was afraid that if he washed it off, his senior brother would disappear from his life forever!
Brother! You promised to come with me and support Master in his old age.
How could you leave first and leave us behind!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
