Chapter 031 Chapter 31

The sound of wind chimes rang out.

Once the sound of wind chimes is heard, it means that the woman in ancient costume is about to arrive.

Qian Zhi and the other two immediately perked up, stood up and looked at the steps at the entrance of the observation deck.

Sure enough, two lightly made-up women walked up to the steps, took a few steps and then knelt down and kowtowed, very pious.

He had mustered up the courage to wait here for ten minutes, but when the person really showed up, Qian Zhi didn't dare to get close. Instead, Qin Yi, who had followed him, walked out first and stood in front of the woman in ancient costume in front.

The woman in the dark blue skirt was startled when she saw him. She slightly covered half of her face with her sleeves, looking a little shy and trying to avoid suspicion.

"That..." Qin Yi scratched his head. The person came first, but he didn't know how to start the conversation.

Qingtong poked Qian Zhi with the umbrella, and Qian Zhi finally reacted. He was happy that women in ancient costumes could really communicate. He immediately stepped forward and asked, "I want to ask, what are you doing here now?"

The woman in ancient costume glanced at him and whispered, "Of course, it's praying to Buddha for a child."

"Can you... tell me more specifically?"

The woman in ancient costume tilted her head slightly and smiled as if she understood something.

To her side, another woman in ancient costume seemed not to see them. She continued to kowtow and walked forward, passing them.

The woman said, "Is your wife pregnant? This Buddha needs your wife to come and worship after she is pregnant, and it will bless the baby to be a boy. Come once every seven days, kowtow on the mountain, burn incense, copy the scriptures and burn them in front of the Buddha, drink a bowl of incense ash water, add some incense oil money, and that's it."

Qin Yi and Qian Zhi were both stunned.

Qin Yi asked in disbelief: "Climbing a mountain once every seven days during pregnancy?" And climbing while bowing?

The woman in ancient costume nodded as a matter of course: "Of course."

"Are you going to stay here that night?" Qian Zhi asked.

The woman shook her head and said, "You can only stay here if you are about to give birth. The temple is too small to accommodate pilgrims overnight. After drinking the incense ash water and adding the incense oil money, it's time to go back down the mountain."

Qin Yi: "What about your husband?"

The woman was puzzled.

Qian Zhi: "That's the one you married."

The woman bowed her head and said, "Sir, of course you are at home."

Qian Zhi pursed his lips. He found it incomprehensible.

"I think whether it's a boy or a girl is determined when you're pregnant. It's useless to pray to Buddha now," Qin Yi advised.

"What nonsense are you talking about!" The woman in ancient costume immediately widened her eyes and looked at Qin Yi angrily, "You slandered the Buddha, be careful of retribution!"

Qian Zhi asked, "What if it's a girl?"

"I..." The woman was shaking with fear. She muttered to herself, "I am so sincere in worshipping Buddha, how could I be a girl... Absolutely not, the master said..."

At this moment, in front of them, the skin of another woman in ancient costume began to turn black and she let out a scream.

The scream startled Qian Zhi and the other man, and they turned around subconsciously. However, they did not see that the woman's face was already covered in black and gray.

Qingtong, who was standing behind them, immediately pulled them back and said, "Something is wrong. Let's go."

Sure enough, the woman who had just been talking to Qian Zhi was now completely immersed in her own world, mumbling to herself with trembling lips.

The voices were getting louder and louder, and Qin Yi could only hear a few fragmentary words like "this baby will definitely not be abandoned", "scriptures", and "sincerity".

Unable to hear any more details, Qingtong pulled them back a long way.

There was no need to listen carefully to what was said afterwards, because the woman was already screaming and roaring.

"No, it's not a girl, it must be a boy."

"I worshipped Buddha sincerely. I really prayed sincerely."

"I'm not cursed—"

"It's not my fault that I gave birth to a girl."

"You are all lying to me."

"It's not my fault!!" The woman in ancient costume finally turned completely black, and she screamed and rushed into the temple.

Qing Tong watched the woman rushing toward the temple and said, "It seems like there's no way to communicate. If I tell her something she doesn't want to hear, she'll become like that even faster."

Qian Zhi: "Oh no! Bai Lin and the others are still in the temple. They said they were going to investigate the side hall."

Qin Yi immediately said: "Go and have a look."

They followed the two charred figures and watched them turn into ashes again on the steps in front of the Buddha. After they were safe, Guan Haoguang, Tang Xiaoxiao and others walked out of the side hall and joined Qin Yi and the other two.

A group of people found a secluded corner to exchange information.

Then, Qin Yi put his finger on his chin and said, "Well, based on the information we got, I have a rough guess."

"A long time ago, this temple was famous for its efficacy in praying for children. In fact, pregnant women were allowed to come here to worship Buddha and give incense and money, and then stay here before giving birth. If a boy was born, he would live in the east hall, and if a girl was born, she should live in the west hall."

"If a boy is born, they leave a thank you gift and go home happily. If a girl is born, it's because she's not pious or cursed, so she has to stay here to ward off evil spirits." Qin Yi frowned, "Then one day, an accident happened and the temple caught fire. The woman who was left here to 'ward off evil spirits' was burned to ashes."

The girl with the ponytail: “How pitiful.”

Tang Xiaoxiao's eyes were filled with tears: "I am also very pitiful. What does this have to do with us? I want to go home."

Guan Haoguang: "The woman in the hut happened to be caught in the fire and was left there to die."

Qian Zhi looked up and sighed: "I know the cause, but I have no idea how to solve it."

"Should we deal with the one in the hut?" Bai Lin's face turned pale. "The face I saw in the mirror...it was definitely her!!"

Lu Ren, a tourist, asked: "What to do? Burn it?"

Jing Qin frowned: "I won't go. Given the current situation, are you sure that if you burn that, you won't end up like those two women?"

A group of people frowned in thought.

Qingtong stepped forward and reminded: "Speaking of which, how is the child?"

"Child?" Everyone looked at Qingtong in confusion.

Qingtong nodded and said in a faint voice: "A woman who gave birth to a girl will be left here because she needs to exorcise evil spirits. What about the child? Will the child be taken away by the woman's husband's family?"

Jing Qin: "Yes, even if it's a girl, she's the husband's child." They come to worship Buddha after they get pregnant, so it's 100% certain that the child is the husband's.

Guan Haoguang shook his head: "In the past, girls were not valued. This temple is very small and is located on a difficult mountainside. Those who come here to worship Buddha are not high-ranking officials. Most of them are small families with a little money. The smaller the family, the more likely they are to abandon their wives and daughters."

Most of the real high-ranking officials and wealthy businessmen are married through marriage. Their wives have strong family backgrounds and they will not abandon them easily. It is not easy for farmers to marry. Most of them have only one wife in their lifetime. They may not pay much attention to the girls they give birth to, but they will never abandon their first wife.

Qin Yi said: "Think carefully, is there another way to think about this matter?"

Li Wen: “What do you mean?”

Qin Yi: "This temple cannot protect the baby from being a boy, and this fact is not only known by the monks in the temple, but also by the husbands of those women. Only the pregnant women who come to worship Buddha do not know, or maybe they do not want to know. They prefer to believe that the Buddha in this temple has this ability."

Judging from the woman's mumbling just now, this is not the first time she gave birth to a girl. She also mentioned being "divorced", which probably means her husband or mother-in-law had threatened to divorce her if she didn't give birth to a boy. Sending her to this temple was actually a final ultimatum. If this baby is a boy, then it's fine and she can go home to live. If it's a girl, then don't come back and stay to ward off evil spirits.

As for the husband's family, they can also claim that his wife's health was not good after giving birth and she was recuperating in the temple, or devoted herself to practicing Buddhism.

There are chains and broken bowls in the west hall, which are obviously not used to exorcise evil spirits, but to torture people. If a woman is treated like this and stays in the temple for a long time without returning home, her husband's family who cares about her at all will know about it, and this may be tacit consent.

"The monks in the temple tortured the wife who gave birth to a girl to death with the tacit consent of the husband's family." Qin Yi speculated, "After losing his principal wife, the man can marry again."

After hearing Qin Yi's speculation, Qingtong wanted to applaud him.

All correct.

Yes, this is the true history of this temple eight hundred years ago.

In fact, at the beginning, the old abbot of this temple just wanted to get more money for incense. It was a small temple on the hillside, with few pilgrims. The incense money could not make a living, so he grew vegetables on the open space below to make a living. Until one day, a man brought his wife to burn incense. The man complained to the abbot that his wife had given birth to two girls, which made him feel ashamed among relatives and friends. In the past few years, his wife had aged and lost her beauty, so he wanted to change her to a younger and more beautiful wife. But he was a scholar, and his wife met two of the three rules of divorce: no divorce until she died after three years. No divorce until she became rich.

The former means that those who mourn for their parents together cannot divorce. If a man's mother passed away, his wife mourned with him for three years, and he could not divorce her. The latter means that a couple who were originally poor cannot divorce her after they become successful. When the man was studying, the woman worked hard to farm and weave cloth to support the family. Later, he became famous. Although he has not yet become an official, he is no longer a commoner. If he divorced his wife at this time, he would lose his reputation.

But the abbot of the temple just smiled and said: Then worship Buddha, as long as you are sincere, Buddha will bless you to have a boy next time.

The man took this to heart. Later, his wife became pregnant again, and he brought his wife to worship Buddha. Then he whispered to the abbot: If it is a boy, it means God wants me to spend my life with her, and I will take her home. If it is a girl, it is definitely not my fault. She did something bad in her previous life, and she is cursed in this life. She must suffer in front of Buddha before she can make amends. No matter what the result is, I will add 100 taels of silver as incense money, thank you.

The money came so quickly that the host was shocked. After observing, he found that there were many people who thought the same as this man. The host suddenly found a way to make money.

Especially since the wife's husband's family tacitly approved this, the woman's family must have a weak background to do such a thing. The husband's family also tacitly approved this, so they would not report the woman to the police because of the temple's torture to death, but would help to cover it up. There are only two results. If the husband's family gets a boy, they will have an heir. If they don't get a boy, they can marry again, so they will not lose out. The temple will make a lot of money from the incense money.

The only victims are the women who have no way of speaking out.

Until one day, a woman who broke free from the chains rushed into the main hall madly, cursed at the Buddha, overturned the altar, knocked out the candles, lit a raging fire, and burned the entire temple to ashes.

That day, screams and laughter filled the sky. Miraculously, only one small house in the entire temple was not affected.

However, the woman who was preparing to give birth in the hut was frightened to death, and in the following months, no one came to collect her. Everyone forgot about her and all the people who lost their lives here. People regarded this place as an ominous place and refused to come again.

Later, a wandering monk passed by here, chanted Amitabha, collected the bones here, rebuilt the temple, locked the hut, and used the west hall as the Hall of the Dead, where he chanted sutras every day. But there was still no incense.

Later, when a disaster struck, the monks helped the nearby villagers, and the temple finally emerged from the shadow of the past fire. It was worshipped by the villagers living at the foot of the mountain, and there were occasional incense offerings, but not many.

The temple rebuilt after the fire no longer has the reputation for being very effective.

It is normal that such a thing as praying to Buddha, which was originally very effective, does not exist.

By the way, the man who initially proposed to leave his wife in the temple to give birth to a child, unfortunately his wife did not give birth to a boy, and died within two months of being left in the temple.

But after the man remarried, no boy was born.

If there really is a curse, then he is the one who is cursed.