In the dark room of the Lingyun Buddha, Xu Jianguo saw a skeleton emitting a faint golden light.
That’s right, it was emitting golden light, and even if the room was pitch black, it still couldn’t conceal its brilliance.
The skeleton was wearing a cassock, with Buddhist beads around its neck, and its hands were clasped at its dantian, sitting cross-legged on a tattered cushion.
And in its hands, there was a fist-sized box.
There was nothing in the dark room except the skeleton and the small box.
"Jianguo, what's wrong?"
Just when Xu Jianguo was still immersed in shock, Wen Sitian interrupted his thoughts.
"It's okay. I just think this big Buddha is really spectacular and I'm a little mesmerized." Xu Jianguo said with a smile.
Wen Sitian handed the kettle to Xu Jianguo, nodded, and said, "Yes, I don't know how much manpower and material resources the ancients spent! Here, drink some water too!"
Xu Jianguo took the kettle, took two sips, and said, "Well, just imagine how difficult it must be to carve a Buddha statue out of this rock. How is it? Are you tired?"
Wen Sitian shook her head and said with a smile, "I'm not tired at all. I feel like my physical condition is much better than before! Do you think it has something to do with the well water?"
"Well, that's not just any old well water. Drink some, it's good for you!"
"Okay!" Wen Sitian agreed with a smile.
Xu Jianguo screwed the lid of the kettle and put it into the backpack he was carrying. The two of them leaned on the railing and looked at the scenery on the river in the distance.
Taking advantage of this time, Xu Jianguo estimated the distance between himself and the golden skeleton in the dark room. After the last space upgrade, the range for him to collect items has increased to 64 square meters, which should be enough.
Xu Jianguo's mind wavered, aiming directly at the golden skeleton in the dark room. After a moment, he smiled and said to Wen Sitian, "Let's go, let's keep going up!"
"Well, okay!" Wen Sitian agreed.
After stopping and looking up at the half-open eyes of the Buddha for a while, Xu Jianguo stepped onto the stairs and chased after Wen Sitian.
More than 20 minutes later, the two reached the top of the mountain and came to the place closest to the head of the Buddha. Xu Jianguo took out his camera and took a selfie with Wen Sitian with the river in the distance as the background.
When they left the Lingyun Giant Buddha, it was already past eleven o'clock in the morning. Since Jiazhou is located at the intersection of three rivers, if Xu Jianguo and Wen Sitian wanted to go to the city, they had to either take a boat to the other side or take a car across the river bridge.
Xu Jianguo thought about it and did not choose to take the boat. Instead, he planned to find a deserted place, put out the military jeep, and drive Wen Sitian for a ride.
After calling up the map in his mind and selecting a destination, the two found a deserted place. Xu Jianguo took out the jeep and drove towards Jiazhou City with Wen Sitian.
The car bumped along the dirt road for nearly twenty minutes. Just as they were about to drive onto the cross-river bridge, two petite figures suddenly jumped out from the woods on the side of the road, which immediately frightened Xu Jianguo, who was driving, and made him break out in a cold sweat.
"squeak!"
As Xu Jianguo stepped on the brakes, his right hand had already blocked in front of Wen Sitian, preventing her from hitting the front glass. The car stopped a few dozen centimeters away from the two people.
"Wife, are you okay?" Xu Jianguo asked.
"I'm fine!" Wen Sitian said with a pale face.
"You stay in the car, I'll go down and take a look!"
"Well, be safe!"
Xu Jianguo nodded, opened the car door and got out. When he arrived in front of the car, he found two little girls sitting on the ground, trembling all over.
Based on their facial features, Xu Jianguo guessed that they should be sisters. The older one looked about seven or eight years old, while the younger one looked about the same age as Funiu.
The two little girls were wearing tattered clothes, and their already sallow faces turned even paler due to fear.
Xu Jianguo, who was originally very angry, calmed down a lot when he saw them, and sighed that these were two more poor children.
"Are you two okay?" Xu Jianguo walked up to the two of them and asked.
"Uncle...Uncle, we are fine!" The younger girl spoke tremblingly, and like Funiu, her speech was a little slurred.
Seeing that the other girl didn't speak, Xu Jianguo couldn't help but look at her, but he didn't expect the younger girl to speak again: "Uncle, my sister can't speak."
"Where are your parents?" Xu Jianguo nodded and continued to ask.
"We don't have a father or a mother." The little girl said, with a hint of loneliness in her eyes.
"You get up first..." Just as Xu Jianguo was about to go over and help the two men up, seven or eight people holding wooden sticks rushed out from the woods beside the road again.
Seeing the men coming at him aggressively, Xu Jianguo couldn't help but frown.
"Run? I wonder where you two money-losing bastards can run to?" A woman in her thirties among the people who came yelled at the top of her voice.
The two sisters who were originally slumped on the ground, when they saw this group of people appear, they immediately showed an even more terrified expression, as if they had seen a flood or a beast, and sat on the ground and moved back little by little.
Seeing this, Xu Jianguo felt a little sorry. He reached out and helped the two of them up, then stood in front of them. He looked at the people opposite and asked, "If you have something to say, talk it over nicely! Don't curse!"
When the woman saw Xu Jianguo wearing a military uniform and a military vehicle parked next to him, she calmed down, took two steps back, and hid behind several men.
"Hello, comrade, these two children are our children. They ran away because of a trivial matter. We were worried that something might happen to them, so we spoke a little excitedly." The leading man, who was in his fifties, spoke with a mouthful of yellow teeth bared.
Xu Jianguo stared at the man and did not believe what he said, because there was no need to carry a weapon in his hands when looking for two children. Moreover, he saw a fierce look in the man's eyes, which was enough to prove that the people in front of him were definitely not good people.
"Little sister, do you know them?" Xu Jianguo turned sideways and looked at the little girl and asked.
The little girl nodded and said, "He is my neighbor's uncle!"
While the little girl was talking, Wen Sitian had already moved from the passenger seat to the driver's seat, then opened the door, jumped out of the car, and stood next to the two girls.
Xu Jianguo handed the two girls to Wen Sitian's care, turned to look at the man who had just spoken, and asked, "Tell me, if you are not their family, why are you chasing them?"
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