Sure enough, this idiot started to show off his skills...
The little squirrel on the altar couldn't help but roll its eyes.
Li Erhu was shocked by his words and asked stutteringly: "You...what do you mean by that?"
"What do you think?" Temple Master Fu sighed and said softly, "Okay, then I'll explain it more clearly. The mountain god wants to marry a wife, so he uses this pig leg as a betrothal gift. Li Erhu, I remember that your sister will be a 15-year-old next year, right?"
"My sister? This..."
Li Erhu was a little overwhelmed by the temple keeper's words.
If someone else said this, Li Erhu would definitely not believe it.
But Fu Miao Zhu is the nephew of the old Miao Zhu after all, and the old Miao Zhu was one of the people he trusted most when he was alive.
After hesitating for a while, Li Erhu finally chose to believe what Fu Miaozhu said.
He asked cautiously, "Then I don't want this pork leg, okay?"
"That depends on what the Mountain God wants!" Fu Miaozhu was delighted and said quickly, "How about this, you bring the pig leg here tomorrow, and I'll take it to the mountain to see the Mountain God and ask for you."
“…”
Li Erhu's face changed. After thinking for a long time, he finally nodded.
"Okay, that's it, I'll go back and get the pork leg!"
After saying that, Li Erhu turned around and ran towards his home.
Temple Master Fu quickly called out to him, "Hey, wait!"
Li Erhu stopped immediately and asked in confusion: "What else?"
Temple Master Fu explained: "Don't be so anxious, send it over tomorrow and give it another day to think about it."
Li Erhu shook his head: "Don't think about it, I..."
"Aiya!" Temple Master Fu interrupted Li Erhu impatiently, "Li Erhu, what can I say to you? Why don't you understand? If you return the betrothal gifts now, wouldn't that be an insult to the Mountain God?"
“Is… is that so?”
Li Erhu's eyes were a little confused, and he seemed to believe what Fu Miaozhu said.
Temple Master Fu frowned and asked, "Do you know the character of the Mountain God better than I do?"
"Oh well."
After hesitating for a while, Li Erhu nodded and agreed.
Just as he was about to turn around and leave, Li Erhu suddenly remembered that the little squirrel of the mountain god was still here, so he hurried back into the temple. With a quick glance, he saw the little squirrel on the altar that seemed to be in a daze.
"I almost forgot about you."
Li Erhu breathed a sigh of relief and walked towards the altar.
Fu, the temple keeper, followed his gaze and discovered that there was a little squirrel standing on the altar.
At this moment, the little squirrel was staring at him blankly, its big, bright eyes full of confusion.
Lin Zhongtian was indeed very confused. He didn't understand how this idiot who held the position of temple priest dared to say such things.
Didn’t Li Erhu tell him that the mountain god really existed?
How dare he use the name of the mountain god to be clever and make profits for himself?
Lin Zhongtian carefully thought about what Li Erhu had just said, and then thought about the little movements and micro-expressions of Fu Miaozhu when Li Erhu described his experience today, and suddenly he understood.
This guy didn't listen to Li Erhu's speech carefully at all, but just got a vague idea of it.
It's also Li Erhu's fault that he didn't describe the appearance of the mountain god in detail, but instead kept mentioning things like the tiger and the wild boar king.
If Fu, the temple keeper, did not believe in any mountain gods, after hearing these words, he would unconsciously confuse the concepts of tiger and mountain god and would mistake the tiger mentioned by Li Erhu for the mountain god.
Following this line of thought, the pig leg was not a reward from the mountain god, but a lucky find by Li Erhu.
“Interesting…”
Lin Zhongtian looked at Fu Miaozhu with a playful look in his eyes.
No wonder he said that he would see the mountain god when he went into the mountains. It turned out that he mistook the tiger for the mountain god.
Yes, if he really believed in the existence of the mountain god, wouldn’t it be enough for him to communicate with the mountain god directly in the mountain temple?
"Let's go, little one."
Li Erhu reached out to the little squirrel on the altar.
It was naturally impossible for Lin Zhongtian to be caught by him, so he jumped lightly, dodged Li Erhu's palm, landed on his wrist, and then climbed along his arm to his shoulder.
Li Erhu had already gotten used to the little squirrel's agility, so he didn't pay any attention to it. He turned around and hurried out of the temple.
Looking at Li Erhu's worried back, Fu Miaozhu raised the corner of his mouth and couldn't help revealing a hint of pride.
Fu Miaozhu's full name is Fu Youzhi. He is the old Miaozhu's nephew. When he was young, he followed his elders in the family to go out and make a living for a few years. He was introduced by his elders' friends to work as a waiter in a caravan. Over the past ten years, he had done quite well with his cleverness. However, he got addicted to gambling and lost all his savings of more than ten years in just a few days.
Fu Youzhi was naturally unwilling to give up, so he found an old gambler who was also heavily in debt, wanting to cooperate with him to cheat and win back the money he had lost.
But if you walk by the river often, you will get your feet wet.
It wasn't long before the people from the gambling house started to target him.
It was just a test, but he nervously exposed his true colors and paid a heavy price for it.
If it weren't for the support of the caravan, he would have been killed and his body would have been dumped. It would not have been as simple as just cutting off a finger.
After this incident, Fu Youzhi was kicked out of the caravan and returned to Qiugang Village in disgrace.
When someone asked him about his fingers, he said that the caravan encountered robbery by mountain bandits, and he was used as an example of resistance to establish authority, so all his fingers were cut off. Fortunately, the imperial court sent people to suppress the bandits and rescued him.
The villagers of Qiugang Village had little information and believed his words without giving it much thought.
It happened that the old temple keeper died of illness. The villagers felt sorry for Fu Youzhi's situation and let him take over and become the new temple keeper of the mountain temple.
As the saying goes, "live by the mountain and eat by the mountain", the villagers of Qiugang Village have been begging for food in the mountains since ancient times and are extremely respectful of the mountain god.
But Fu Youzhi is different. He had seen the world when he was young and his horizons are much broader than those of ordinary mountain people.
When traveling with the caravan, he often stayed temporarily in dilapidated temples in the wilderness. When the situation was urgent, he would steal not only the incense money, but even the offerings in front of the Buddha statues.
Therefore, Fu Youzhi did not have much reverence for the mountain god.
He did confuse the concepts of tiger and mountain god in Li Erhu's words.
I thought that the mountain god's appearance was referring to the tiger killing the wild boar king.
He still didn't realize how stupid what he was doing was, and was still thinking about how to gain greater benefits from this incident.
Originally his target was just the pork leg, but after seeing Li Erhu's performance, Fu Youzhi's mind became active.
As mentioned earlier, the villagers of Qiugang Village are extremely reverent towards the mountain god, and since the mountain god temple was built, incense has never stopped being burned.
Relying on the incense money from the mountain temple, Fu Youzhi now has enough food and clothing, but he lacks a wife. The villagers despise his physical disability and are unwilling to marry their daughters to him.
It just so happens that Li Erhu has a girlfriend who will be 15 years old next year and is quite pretty.
When Fu Youzhi was young, he traveled all over the country with a caravan and visited many places of prostitution. He could tell at a glance that the girl was a beautiful woman and had been greedy for her for a long time. However, Fu Youzhi was also clear about his own situation. If it were a normal marriage custom, he would definitely not be able to marry such a girl with his conditions. But now it was different.
Fu Youzhi felt that if this matter could be handled well, he might be able to think of a way to trick a wife back for himself.
But how to do it specifically?
"Let me think about it..."
Fu Youzhi muttered to himself as he picked up a wild fruit from the altar, wiped it on his sleeve, put it in his mouth and took a bite.