Chapter 68 The Fourth Takeaway
After the two tables of people finished eating and left, leaving only the few of them in the dining room, Fatty Qi dared to speak freely: "What...what should we do now?"
The cicada temple has a very unfortunate fate. Monkeys smashed the temple in front, and its peers challenged it from behind.
Qing Bai looked at Ai Chan, who was drinking porridge quietly without any anxiety on her face. Qing Bai then buried his head in gnawing on the meatballs... As for why there were meatballs for breakfast, of course there were no meatballs for breakfast. That was the meat filling of the buns, which Jiu Nian had picked out specially for him. He ate the filling and Jiu Nian ate the skin, and they divided the work and cooperated to prevent waste.
No one responded, Qi Xiaopang drank half a bowl of porridge angrily, it's true that even the monk is not in a hurry...the handsome guy is in a hurry!
After finishing breakfast slowly, Ai Chan finally spoke: "People are treacherous. Don't believe everything others say."
Qi Xiaopang: “???”
You, a monk, told me that people's hearts are evil... But it's true. I was talking nonsense myself and said I came to Chushan to cosplay. There is no reason for others to tell the truth.
However, Qing Bai felt that Miss Yan was not talking nonsense like Fatty Qi, or rather, she was not talking completely nonsense. Moreover, she gave people a feeling that she was a bit... strange.
But when asked what was strange, Qing Bai couldn't tell for a moment.
Although Chushan Mountain is undeveloped, the way up the mountain is not difficult to walk on. The stone steps are three or four meters wide, neatly arranged and clean without even a dead leaf. Standing at the foot of the mountain and looking up, under the bright sunlight, it seems like a road to heaven going straight into the clouds.
"This is quite spectacular!" Qi Xiaopang exclaimed. "But why do temples always tend to be built on mountains? Building this road up the mountain must have taken a lot of manpower, material resources, and money, right?"
Ai Chan looked up, not knowing what he was looking at. After a long moment, he replied, "It wasn't like this at first. The path up the mountain was difficult to walk on... It was only repaired more than ten years ago by a pilgrim who paid for it."
"Wow...our temple is pretty impressive." Fat Qi praised without realizing it.
Qing Bai understood a little: "The pilgrims are willing to spend so much money. It seems that your temple is very wealthy."
Ai Chan smiled bitterly, seemingly unwilling to discuss the matter. However, Fatty Qi was quite interested: "Is there an explanation for this?"
Qing Bai 'commanded' Jiu Nian up the stone steps leading up the mountain, saying as he walked, "There must be an explanation."
"People who go to temples to burn incense can be roughly divided into several categories: pilgrims, distinguished guests, lay Buddhists, and tourists."
"Pilgrimages are ordinary believers who go to the temple only to burn incense, worship Buddha, make wishes, and pray for peace, and at most, have a vegetarian meal. The 'noble' in 'distinguished guests' specifically reflects their status and wealth. Not only are they personally received by the abbot, but it is said that the monks in the temple will also play ritual instruments to welcome the distinguished guests. Of course, the donations they give are also large. As for lay Buddhists, they are no longer considered 'guests', but rather people who have converted to Buddhism, and there are ceremonies and certificates."
Needless to say, tourists all understand.
Qi Xiaopang thought for a moment and said, "Aren't these just ordinary customers, VIP customers, and... external employees who joined the company?"
You know what, that’s a pretty accurate summary.
"But what ordinary customer would pay for a company's elevator repairs?!" Qi Xiaopang reacted, "Is this the power of religious belief?"
It has to be said that this sounds a bit like sarcasm.
Fortunately, Ai Chan had become accustomed to Qi Xiaopang's speaking style after living together for some time. She neither minded nor paid any attention to him, and continued to talk to herself: "...He is a pilgrim who came to fulfill a vow."
"Oh, that makes sense!" Fat Qi suddenly figured something out, and he jumped and skipped forward. The little black dog in his arms seemed to be inspired and struggled to get down and walk on its own, but unfortunately, it was not high enough and probably couldn't even reach the steps. "This shows that our temple is very effective! That pilgrim must have made an extraordinary wish!"
Qi Xiaopang jumped quickly, his eyes attracted by the mountain scenery and kept looking forward. He didn't notice Ai Chan's expression suddenly became gloomy, but Qing Bai saw it clearly... It seems that there is something strange here.
But Ai Chan didn't seem to want to say anything now, so Qing Bai turned his head and pretended not to see it.
For a moment, the wind and birdsong were cool and pleasant, and walking on the clean and open mountain path almost made people forget what they were doing here.
They jumped and skipped so fast that they got tired quickly. Before they reached halfway up the mountain, Qi Xiaopang was already short of breath. He went from walking in the front row, leading the way, to walking side by side, and finally fell two or three steps behind.
"Meigu...you, did you get up in the middle of the night to eat dog food? Why is it so heavy? It's like a weight!" The typical person who tries to pass the buck when indecisive.
Coal Ball blinked his eyes and barked happily, completely unaware that his owner was making up a rumor about his weight.
There is no practical meaning in passing the buck except to deceive yourself and make yourself feel better. Your legs will still be sore, and the stone steps you have to climb will still seem endless.
Qi Xiaopang's eyes were a little blurry. He felt that the steps in front of him had turned into gray-white lines that kept moving forward in the bright sunlight and the interlaced shadows of the trees, stretching endlessly.
After nearly stepping on empty air, he was stunned and the breath that was stuck in his chest finally made it impossible to breathe.
"No...I can't take it anymore, I can't take it anymore, I need to rest for a while. There are snowflakes all in front of my eyes, and I can't even see the road clearly." Fat Qi panted, waved his hands, and slid to the ground with his eyes wide open. If Aichan hadn't quickly supported him, he wouldn't know where he would have fallen.
Jiu Nian heard the noise and stopped and turned around. Qing Bai then saw that Qi Xiaopang was covered in cold sweat and his lips were pale. He could hardly hold the coal ball. The little black dog did not fall down because its four paws were tightly holding Qi Xiaopang's clothes. At this moment, it was so anxious that it stretched its neck and kept licking Qi Xiaopang's double chin.
"Heatstroke?" Qing Bai asked with a frown.
Even though his vision was turning black, Fatty Qi continued, "No... I can't, right? This... This mountain isn't... It's not hot, and I... I'm not that weak!"
Thinking of the exercise check-ins he had done for Qi Xiaopang during the years in college and the fat on Qi Xiaopang's body, Qing Bai was skeptical about this.
Fortunately, they had made sufficient preparations before going up the mountain. Ai Chan took out a bottle of mineral water with salt from her bag and fed Qi Xiaopang half a bottle without saying anything. After sitting for a while, Qi Xiaopang finally came to his senses.
"My eyes are clear now..." Qi Xiaopang hugged his arms. He had just broken out in a cold sweat, and now he felt a little cold when the breeze blew.
This slight chill not only cooled his body but also cleared his mind. Fat Qi looked around the surrounding mountains and forests and suddenly said, "How strange! Why can't I hear the chirping of cicadas on this mountain?"
Is there a place where you can't hear the annoying chirping of cicadas in the middle of summer? Not to mention this is in the mountains... The more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed. Something must be wrong when things are out of the ordinary. Fatty Qi couldn't help but shudder and silently leaned towards Jiunian Qingbai.
When Qing Bai entered the mountain, he found that there were no cicadas chirping in the mountains, but the road in front of him was a normal road, and the number of trees on both sides was also normal. Except for the lack of cicadas chirping, everything was normal, so he put it aside.
The monk whose name contains the word "Cicada" explained softly, "The reason there are no cicadas is because of the monkeys in the mountains."
"More than a decade ago, every summer, the monkeys would come out en masse, turning over branches and leaves to catch cicadas. This happened year after year, and over time, there were no more cicadas left in the Chushan area."
Qi Xiaopang was puzzled: "Why do they catch cicadas? To eat them? Monkeys seem to be omnivores and also eat meat." It can't be that they think it's noisy, right?
Ai Chan half-closed his eyes, shook his head gently, and was silent for a moment before saying, "I don't know either."
Seeing Ai Chan's expression wasn't great, Fat Qi worried that he might be feeling sorry for his own kind, so he tried to cheer himself up and said, "Speaking of which, where have all the monkeys in this mountain gone? We've been climbing for so long and haven't seen a single one. Didn't Boss Zhou say that the monkeys in Chu Mountain are very aggressive? I even specially prepared bananas! I wonder if they're going to give in!"
"Hush." Ai Chan raised his eyelids and looked at Qi Xiaopang. "They can hear it. They can hear all the sounds in this mountain."
Qi Xiaopang was stunned and kept his mouth shut. He was not frightened by the "monkey ears" on the other side of the "wall", but because of Ai Chan's expression at the moment... He didn't know how to describe this expression. He could only say that it was too "un-monkly". Although he was usually very "un-monkly" except when he was chanting, he had never been so, so neurotic. It was as if he was really under the constant surveillance of those monkeys with extraordinary hearing and omniscience.
Qing Bai and Jiu Nian looked at each other, and the latter shook his head slightly, meaning that there were no monkeys nearby.
After a good rest, they set out again. In order to take care of Qi Xiaopang who had just suffered from heatstroke, they walked slower and more steadily this time, and did not let him carry anything except the small coal briquettes.
Qing Bai didn't have to climb the mountain himself, and he had been silently thinking about the various strange things he encountered since coming to Chu Mountain. After a while, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind - this mountain was not only missing the cicadas that should be in the food chain and the monkeys that were a disaster to Chu Mountain, but also Miss Yan and her group who had just climbed the mountain before them.
The way up Chushan Mountain is a stone staircase leading directly to the top of the mountain. Logically speaking, as long as you have good eyesight, you can see the top of the mountain from the foot of the mountain, so where did they go?
"Finally here, oh my...oh my god!" Qi Xiaopang's voice couldn't hide his fear. "Zhi...Zhi, are there any other monks in your temple with the word 'Chan' in their names?"
Ai Chan looked at the plaque on the door that was cracked in two without saying a word.
Qi Xiaopang looked at the black clusters of cicadas hanging on the tattered temple door in front of him, strung together with simple straw ropes. The number was so large that it was impossible to count them with the naked eye. Some of them were so dry that only a shell was left, and the straw ropes were dry and faded. Some were very fresh, so fresh that the "cicada clusters" strung on the green straw ropes were still alive, with pairs of transparent wings trembling in vain, making a half-dead buzzing sound, like a group of second-hand small electric fans, the wind was not strong, but the noise was loud.
Maybe it was because he'd just gotten a heat stroke, but after looking at the clusters of cicadas for too long, they turned into a sea of squirming black dots. Goosebumps lined up on his back, vying for the first spot to jump up his neck. Fat Qi shrugged to shake off the strange feeling, but after trying to hold it back, he couldn't help it and whispered, "Cicada, let's be honest...did your master name you 'Sad Cicada' to murder you?"
In fact, what he wanted to ask was, "Have you offended those monkeys, so they launch a cicada extermination campaign every summer?" But when he looked into the eyes of the cicada that always smiled in the past but were now calm, the words he said suddenly changed direction.
Ai Chan still didn't say anything, and Qi Xiaopang was already a little panicked.
Qing Bai came back to his senses and slowly scanned the large area of black in front of him. Through the gap, he could see that the temple gate was originally a bright vermilion.
"This door curtain... is quite unique." Qing Bai said.
Jiu Nian lowered his head and smiled, and Qi Xiaopang also smiled, an awkward smile. How should he respond? What the hell is this door curtain? Even if the Buddha had blocked the curtain in front of him and forgot to lift it, he wouldn't have lifted a 'curtain' like this, right? No, judging by the infernal nature of this 'door curtain', it could have been the King of Hell...
Qi Xiaopang was complaining so much when the door curtain in front of him... The temple door suddenly creaked open a crack, and a young monk who looked about four or five years old stuck his head out and stared at them blankly.
There were a few big words written in those black and white eyes - where did this idiot come from?
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