Chapter 53: Has the vow-fulfilling stone statue changed?
Daisy Port stood in front of the huge stone statue of the goddess, looking up at her face.
"Does this statue seem a little different from the one in the painting?" He frowned, recalling the painting he had seen a few days ago. In the painting, the Laughter Goddess had a compassionate expression, a smile on her lips, as if she were watching over everything. But now, it seemed like a hollow shell, even the smile on her lips had become formless and lifeless.
"Or maybe Prosit just added some touches when he was painting, and the statue was not originally so magnificent?" He turned to ask Chang Xile.
Chang Xile followed his gaze and looked at the statue. She opened her mouth, but the words she spoke overlapped with the voice of another person.
"No, it's the statue that's changed."
Chang Xile and Anping looked at each other. He stood beside her with a calm expression, and did not seem surprised by the drastic changes that had taken place in the temple.
"Have you been here before? How do you know that it is the stone statue that has changed, rather than the painting being exaggerated?" Daisy Port glanced at Anping and asked him.
Anping glanced at him, then turned to look at Chang Xile and explained, "The day we got separated, I came here and met my teacher."
"Your teacher?" Chang Xile thought for a moment and exclaimed, "That strange old Taoist is your teacher?!"
It's not Chang Xile's fault for being so fussy; the two men's personalities were simply polar opposites. Chang Xile could never have imagined Anping, with that beautiful, cold face, saying something as fanatical as, "Write to our Lady of Laughter!"
An Ping gave a rare shy smile: "He has a very special personality."
"So, that old Taoist priest - your teacher, has gone on a journey?" Chang Xile remembered that Anping once said that his teacher liked to visit various mountains. So it seemed to make sense that there was no one in this temple.
"Probably." Anping picked up the rag beside the tribute table with two fingers and walked out of the temple.
"I heard that Changle Mountain is famous for its Changle Temple. Should we go there to worship it?" Dai Xigang saw that the Laughing Statue was not as magical as the legend said, so he was not interested and decided to change the destination. It would be worth the trip.
"Sure! I can visit my aunt by the way." Chang Xile took out his cell phone and prepared to call his aunt.
"Well, you have an aunt in Changleguan?" Dai Xigang looked at her with curiosity. "Maybe you are a Taoist family?"
"No, my aunt is the only one in our family who became a nun. My previous situation was just an accident." Chang Xile felt embarrassed when she thought of what happened at the Dai family. She dialed the phone, put it to her ear, and looked in the direction of the door to see where Anping had gone.
Dai Shanyan couldn't help but ask, "Is your friend Anping upset with me?" Anping had barely even spoken to him during the entire trip. Dai Xigang was showered with praise and adulation by people both familiar and unfamiliar, but when had he ever experienced such treatment?
"No, Anping is just a little slow to warm up. When we first met, he didn't talk much." Chang Xile explained subconsciously. As for the fact that Anping confessed to her the second time they met, let's skip it for now.
The call was connected, and Chang Xile smiled and said to the phone: "Auntie - did you miss me?"
"What do you want from me? Are you in trouble again?" The female voice on the phone was far less passionate than Chang Xile's, but if you listened carefully, there was a hint of smile in her tone.
"Do I only come to you when I'm in trouble?" Chang Xile put one hand on her waist and said unhappily, "I, your niece, have come all the way to Changle Mountain. If you were at the temple, I would come to visit you. My friend said she wants to visit Changle Temple too."
"I'm busy, and the temple is closed today, so we're not accepting visitors." Tang You added calmly, "Don't get lost again, or you'll have to trouble everyone in the temple to find you."
"No, I've memorized the route up the mountain this time. Okay, what a coincidence. I'll come see you next time." Chang Xile sighed and then immediately asked with a smile, "Where's Shunian? Let me talk to him. Has he grown taller now?"
"Shunian is busy practicing and has no time." Tang You held her phone, looked in a certain direction, and suddenly said, "He measured his height and he hasn't grown at all. He's been very depressed lately."
"That means more practice." Chang Xile nodded in agreement and advised, "Please tell Shunian that in addition to doing horse stance, boxing, and talisman drawing, he should also do more high jump exercises and jump rope. The sooner he grows taller, the sooner he can go down the mountain to play!"
"Okay, I understand." Tang You smiled slightly.
Dai Xigang, dressed in a suit, couldn't find a place to rest, so he simply stood aside with his arms folded, waiting for Chang Xile's call. Seeing her beaming with joy, he looked into her eyes with great attention. They were round and bright, like a cat's, lively when raised, yet demure when lowered. He retracted his arm, and at that moment, Chang Xile, facing the Impermanence that only she could see, clung to it tightly. Clearly terrified, she forced herself to negotiate with the Impermanence ghost.
It is rare for a girl to remain calm when encountering a ghost, and it is even rarer for her to muster the courage to face it when she is extremely scared.
Daisy Gang laughed. In fact, he knew she was special when they first met. Not because she had appeared before him as his sister, but because Chang Xile was a very special person.
"One more thing, happy National Day, auntie, I love you!" After Chang Xile hung up the phone, she happened to see Anping walking in with a wet rag. Her eyes lit up and she ran up to ask, "Where did you go just now?" There was no water source nearby.
"I found a well." Anping said as he walked forward, "Don't you want to fulfill your vow?"
He carefully wiped the dust off the tribute table, stepped aside to offer his seat to Chang Xile, and gestured, "Come on."
Chang Xile placed the prepared fruits and pastries on the empty fruit bowl on the tribute table, then picked up the incense. She was stunned for a moment, and suddenly said in frustration, "Hey, I forgot where to light the fire."
Ordinary temples have fire sources such as incense burners for burning incense, but Xiaoyu Temple does not have such a facility, probably because it is unattended.
Anping was also stunned. He had not considered this level, and his fingers subconsciously bent slightly, but he stopped after thinking of something.
"I brought a lighter." Dai Xigang stretched out his left hand, and a silver lighter turned between his fingers for a few times before being properly handed to Chang Xile.
"Thank you!" Chang Xile took the lighter and finally lit the incense. She fanned the burning flame with her hand, turning it into a spark.
Chang Xile held the incense in both hands, closed his eyes and bowed three times to the statue of the Smiling Goddess.
"My Lady, when I came here before, I didn't know that I had once worshipped you as my adoptive mother when I was a child. No wonder I felt so close to you the moment I saw you. I've come here today to fulfill my vow! I hope that everyone around me will be safe, happy, and free from illness, pain, and disaster!"
She muttered to herself for a long time, as if she were chatting with a kind elder. Then she opened her eyes and carefully placed the incense stick in the middle of the incense burner.
When Chang Xile looked up at the stone statue again, he suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "Do you feel that the statue's smile has deepened?"
"How is it possible that the stone statue was carved by humans..." Daisy Gang subconsciously thought it was impossible, but when he looked up, he was also stunned.
He felt as if he was looking into the eyes of the stone statue. Her smile was compassionate and full of radiance, like pouring a bucket of warm water on one's heart, making him feel soothed.
Only then did I finally understand what Chang Xile said - seeing it through a painting and seeing it in person are completely different experiences.
Daisy Port was no longer obsessed with visiting Chang Le Guan, as the trip to Xiaoyu Temple was worthwhile.
The three of them went down the mountain together.
"But don't you find it strange? According to what you said, almost no one has ever been to Changle Mountain?" On the way, Dai Xigang heard some stories about Changle Mountain from Chang Xile and felt very puzzled.
"Later, I heard from local classmates that everyone who planned to go to Changleguan would eventually get lost in the mountains, wandering around in circles and finally walking down the mountain. As time went by, no one went there anymore. But the more people couldn't go there, the more mysterious Changleguan became. It became very mysterious among the people!" Chang Xile later inquired out of curiosity, and found out that people like her who could accidentally walk into Changleguan were rare.
"But maybe it's because of the fog in the mountains? I heard from the people in the temple that there's fog on the mountaintops year-round, and it's easy for people who aren't familiar with the road to get lost." Chang Xile smiled, his hands behind his back. "If this happened in our high school, it would be a big geography question."
"Are you studying liberal arts?" Daisy Gang listened to her explanation with great interest.
"That's right!" Chang Xile raised his head and said with a little pride, "Don't you think the humanities are very romantic?"
"I think science is also very romantic." Dai Xigang smiled with his head down.
"Every time I see those formulas, I feel like they're combining to strangle me." Chang Xile shook her head and nudged An Ping, who was standing to her right and had been quiet, with her shoulder. "An Ping, what do you think, which is better, the humanities or the sciences?"
Anping looked back at her and tilted his head slightly: "Hmm?"
"Oh, right." Chang Xile came back to his senses. "You are the art exam candidate?"
Yamashiro University is a comprehensive university, but Chang Xile always forgets this.
Daisy Port looked at Anping's expression thoughtfully.
Tang You, one of the people involved in this conversation, was meditating on a boulder in Chang Leguan's backyard. After Chang Xile finished speaking, silence returned. She put away her phone and looked up.
There was not even a single person in this huge Taoist temple.
When Dai Xigang's car arrived at the school gate, Chang Xile opened the door and said goodbye to him: "Thank you for today, goodbye!"
"Well, goodbye." Daisy Gang smiled and watched Chang Xile and Anping walk into the school gate side by side.
He thought for a while, opened the car door and walked into the school, but was stopped by the security guard at the gate.
"Are you from our school? You need to swipe your card, or maybe someone you know can give you an invitation code." There are always tourists trying to visit Yamashiro University, and to ensure a normal living environment for students, the school has implemented a certain degree of flow control. The security guards are also very skilled at stopping people.
Dai Xigang raised his chin and gestured to the white-haired boy in front of him, asking, "He didn't swipe his card just now, so why was he allowed in?"
"Hi, that's him. He's a student of our school. I remember him. He always greets us. He's a very polite guy." The security guard looked in the direction Daisy Port pointed and said with a smile.
Daisy Gang didn't say anything more, but just continued to look in the direction Anping left.
Unexpectedly, Anping suddenly turned halfway around. He met Dai Xigang's gaze squarely and smiled an indescribable smile.
Like a provocation.
Daisy Gang also curled his lips slightly. He walked to his car without looking back and made a phone call.
"Help me find someone."
"Shancheng University, Anping."
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