Chapter 1 Chapter 1 Going Down the Mountain
The morning light is dim and the mountains are colorful.
Inside the Buxian Monastery, Lin Xinghuo pulled her old gray-blue coarse cloth jacket closer, took a deep breath of the crisp, refreshing air, and exhaled slowly. She had finished her morning prayers and was now carrying an old rice bowl to the backyard to feed the foxes.
The three chubby fox cubs had already smelled the aroma and came chasing after it, circling around Lin Xinghuo's feet, humming and acting coquettishly. Lin Xinghuo squatted down, stroked his newly dyed reddish-brown fur, and sighed secretly: "Eat it."
The little foxes then rushed forward and eagerly put their heads into the rice bowl.
Red foxes are widespread. Lin Xinghuo had also fed foxes in her previous life while cultivating at Wangxian Palace outside Beijing. She suspected that this litter of fox cubs might be the mother's first pregnancy, born in the wrong month, and abandoned. This was somewhat similar to her own situation—Lin Xinghuo had also been abandoned by her family to the "outside world." It wasn't because they couldn't afford to raise her; on the contrary, the Lin family was a wealthy upstart, but because of a supposedly peculiar fate, they abandoned the three-year-old child in the mountains, euphemistically calling it "foster care."
Later, upon hearing that she had achieved some minor success in her cultivation, they rushed to reclaim their daughter, abandoned twenty years earlier. When Lin Xinghuo returned home, she was a true star, her superstitious elders treating her like a statue purchased at a temple for a fortune. Unfortunately, before she could truly make a difference, she was targeted by her siblings, who disliked her for a long time, and a commonplace incident of cutting in on a mountain road had inadvertently landed her here.
Three days ago, when the master of Buxian Temple rescued her at the foot of the slope, he said meaningfully: "Oh, you are not stupid anymore? This is really a blessing in disguise. The fall has woken up your brain. Now that you are not stupid anymore, you should practice well."
Lin Xinghuo was stunned for a moment before she finally realized this wasn't the same time, this wasn't the same body. But no one cared. She and her master were the only two living people in the dilapidated temple. Her master, wrapped in a slanted-lapel jacket and baggy black cotton trousers, looked like an old rural woman from a period drama, if not for her silver hair in a bun. She was also a chatterbox, rambling on without needing a response from the audience.
Over the past few days, Lin Xinghuo had heard nothing but gossip like, "The children in the county are making a lot of noise," "Someone in the village down the mountain secretly worships the guardian deity Black Mother," and "Da Huang brought a rabbit the other day; what a kind dog that knows how to repay a favor."
She was also incredibly lazy, never doing morning prayers, sleeping until noon and only caring about having a meal. In her own words, "Master, I'm so old, and what I cultivate is a sense of freedom."
The other day, if the fox cubs hadn't been somewhat clever and hadn't gone to the wing room after becoming too hungry, the master wouldn't have even mentioned that there were three other hungry mouths in the temple. Even then, the master still insisted, "I may have taken them in, but these little fox cubs are your lifesavers. They were the ones scratching at the door and woke me up, so I saved you—you should have raised them anyway!"
In less than three days, Lin Xinghuo had lost his temper and decided to just make the best of it.
While Lin Xinghuo was distracted, the three fox cubs devoured their food, scrambling to lick the rice bowl until it was shiny, then humming and coquettishly leaning their heads into her palms. Lin Xinghuo felt each cub's stomach, finding them all bulging and about nine-tenths full. She then stood up, feeling a dilemma: these little ones were only going to get more hungry. Their gray-black fur, still lingering, showed they weren't yet ready to separate. And yet, there was only a little meat left in the kitchen. What would she feed them?
Foxes are mainly carnivorous animals. Although there are many wild animals in this mountain, Lin Xinghuo is not the Taoist rookie who cultivated the sense of Qi in her previous life. Although her appearance has not changed much, her skills are so poor that she can fall off a hill while walking. It is better to rely on the clever fox cubs to hunt on their own than to rely on her.
She noticed with her sharp eyes that a patch of the medicinal garden that had just been watered yesterday had been eaten bare again. Lin Xinghuo flicked the fur ball's head and said, "It can't even scare away rabbits." With this fighting ability, he is indeed a food-dependent ancestor.
Returning to the front hall, he said, "Master, how about raising some rabbits? I'll go down the mountain and get some chickens..." Seeing that the weather was getting cold, it would be good for everyone to have meat to nourish their bodies in the severe winter.
Before Lin Xinghuo could finish, the master laughed out loud: "Raising rabbits and chickens, what a wonderful method! Do you know what you call this? It's called a capitalist tail! Down at the foot of the mountain, if a family raises three chickens, it's socialism, but if they raise four chickens, it's capitalism, and they must be cut off!"
Then, with a serious tone, but in fact driven by greed, he added, "But we have a lot of wild animals here. People down the mountain don't dare to eat them even if they catch them, for fear that the smell will get out and they'll be criticized. But we're not afraid in the temple. There are plenty of pheasants and rabbits in the back mountain. Just go ahead and hunt them." He promised solemnly, "I know your family doesn't dare to kill. Catch some and ask the fox cub to kill them for you. I've seen it, and it will make your teeth sharp!"
Lin Xinghuo glanced at the followers who were following him closely, their bodies tumbling after every few steps, and the corners of his mouth twitched. "Master, the immortal way values life."
The old lady laughed even more happily: "Have you read too many scriptures? Even if you love life and hate killing, it should not be at the cost of sacrificing human lives. As long as we don't kill indiscriminately, you and I can eat meat, which is the natural way."
He spoke a few words of the Taoist scriptures and then counted on his fingers: "It's almost the tenth day, why hasn't anyone come down the mountain yet?"
The exchange of rice for prepared herbs at the foot of the mountain is one of the temple's most important sources of income. Yesterday, Lin Xinghuo helped organize several large sacks of herbs. According to the master, this was only enough for the three nearby villages. The temple's frostbite and traumatic medicine is renowned far and wide, and the annual winter trade alone is enough to sustain their food supply for the entire following year. In previous years, during lean years, the temple would even donate some of its old grain for good causes.
Lin Xinghuo hadn't thought about it before, but was suddenly shocked when he heard it: There were only two people, an old man and a young child, in Buxian Temple. How did they preserve that little bit of food during the famine in the past?
Before she could think, she heard banging sounds on the door from outside.
The master frowned and ordered, "Take these and go to the back hall."
Not knowing the situation, Lin Xinghuo listened to the advice very well. He was just worried about his master's old age, so he quietly stepped onto the heavy wooden ladder, climbed onto the top of the backyard wall, and looked vigilantly at the gate of the front hall.
*** ***
At the foot of the mountain, in Buxian Village, the bell at the village entrance chimed twice, then paused. It was the militia's rally bell. Militia leader Huang Dazhuang, accompanied by a dozen or so strong men, ran back from the collective fields, panting as he asked, "Secretary, what's going on?"
The old Party Secretary had a rather stern face, and the way he frowned and squinted into the distance made him look even more formidable. He clutched his pipe and pointed towards the mountains to the southwest. "Those people from Jinjia Houyao Township are causing trouble in the temple again! Take a few people and take the shortcut from South Mountain to Lotus Peak. Don't disturb the old fairy's tranquility."
Huang Dazhuang let out a "Pooh" and said angrily, "Those people are seriously ill! Instead of tilling the land in the village, they just have these evil ideas and angered the old fairy. Now they know how powerful they are!" After that, he pointed to five or six younger men and hurriedly ran towards Nanshan.
The few remaining militiamen looked at each other, and one of them, rubbing his hands, asked the branch secretary: "We haven't changed the medicine in our village this year. My son Caiduan's hands become itchy and unbearable when they get frostbite, so he relies on the medicine in the temple." The medicine in the temple is good, it cures quickly and leaves no sequelae, but it's too cold in the snow province in winter. Stretching out your hands can get frostbite in a short time, so they get hurt every year and have to rely on the medicine every year.
Another said, "Whose family isn't like this? My mother's legs got this disease when she was young. When it gets a little cold in the autumn, the pain is so severe that she can't get off the kang. Two years ago, she took her up the mountain to have an old fairy check it out. She said that if she takes medicine for three winters, she'll be fine. This winter is the last hurdle left. Don't let those bastards in Houyao Township mess with her!"
Aunt Cen is now so busy that she can pick up a stick and chase Cen Dazhu around the yard to beat him. She really just needs to cure the disease.
The old Party Secretary tapped his pipe on a stone pier, straightened up, and continued to look southwest. "When Da Zhuang comes back, we'll go to the village to exchange food for medicine! We've lost face to those guys at Jinjiayao. We've wasted these days!"
Cen Dazhu took out a small cloth bag from his arms, carefully pinched out a handful of golden tobacco and placed it on the neatly cut cigarette paper, rubbed it back and forth with three fingers, and in the blink of an eye, he had rolled a cigarette.
Wang Huzi, who was standing beside him, quickly struck a match to light it for him and said flatteringly, "Third brother, give me some cigarette paper too."
Cen Dazhu glanced at him and said, "My daughter cut it for me, you can ask your daughter to cut it for you."
The other two laughed at Wang Huzi: "How could he bear to order his daughter to do that? She's in so much pain, it's like her eyeballs are hurting. Asking Caiduan to use the scissors will scare the hell out of him."
"Go, go, go! How old is my Caiduan? She will definitely be as skillful and filial as her sister Lingdang in the future. Look at the cigarette paper she cut, it's just perfect."
Cen Dazhu couldn't stand Wang Huzi's harassment, so he pulled out a small piece of cigarette paper from his pocket and held it up high to show people his daughter's handwriting. "My daughter is the best at math. The teachers in the village all praise her and say Lingling might be able to work in the county in the future!"
The three militiamen all laughed. "We have to replace the medicine quickly, otherwise, like last year, if we don't replace enough medicine, what will we do if Lingling gets a cold face and refuses to go to school in the spring because she thinks it's ugly?"
The old Party secretary snorted, "That's exactly what I said. Last year, we didn't anticipate the severity of the late spring cold snap after the New Year. We didn't replace enough medicine, which caused a lot of trouble for the people in the village. We must replace enough this year!"
Wang Huzi looked around and saw that no one was around before he whispered, "Old Party Secretary, this year we've all gathered some wind chickens, and we even have half a musk deer. With all the evil winds at Jinjiayao, if we eat some at home and the smell gets out, who knows, someone might report us again. Why don't we just put them under the basket and give them to the old fairy to keep quiet?"
Cen Dazhu also said, "The old fairy was very kind. Last year, she prepared half a basket of medicine for my mother and took two deer tails as a reward. This year, I thought I would wait until our village has finished replacing the deer, then secretly kill the first deer, clean it up, and quietly send it back up the mountain at night."
He had already discussed this with the captain and his brothers, and he said it immediately and waited for the old branch secretary to nod.
After a moment's thought, the old Party Secretary replied, "All's fine. Just don't send it at night. We'll have to take the main road to Jinjiayao, and we have to be careful there are people guarding the road. You don't have as many people as we did when we went to change the medicine in our village. It would be terrible if someone searched the basket! You should clean up the deer neatly, put it in a basket, and carry it on your back along the small path to Nanshan. Go the next day after changing the medicine. If you're late, I'm afraid the old fairy will close the mountain early. I have half a roe deer sent by my in-laws at home, so I'll give it to the old fairy too."
After everyone finished discussing, they dispersed. A few strong men returned to their fields to work, leaving only the old branch secretary waiting for a reply.
In the afternoon, the big bell at the entrance of the village rang again. This time it rang three times and stopped once, which meant to call everyone in the village to discuss things. Each family only needed to send one head of the family.
There are more than a hundred households in Buxiantun, which is considered a relatively large village in the area.
Selangor Province has always been a vast province with a sparse population. There is an old saying that goes, "The front and back yards are 20 to 30 miles apart, and the neighbors are 40 to 50 miles apart." A village with more than a hundred households is considered a large village, so naturally it received more educated youth than other villages and towns.
When the summoning bell rang at the village entrance, the dozen or so educated youth who had just returned to the educated youth compound from work listened attentively. The educated youth team leader, Chang Qing, said, "When the village discusses matters, we educated youth should also send representatives to participate."
There were thirteen educated youth from Buxiantun, five women and eight men. Chang Qing was an activist and the oldest. She volunteered to be the team leader and was relatively well-received. When she said this, Yang Weibao, the eldest of the male educated youth, said, "It's okay anyway. Let's all go and listen. It's probably about going to Nanshan to exchange medicines this season."
A male educated youth with acne scars all over his face reluctantly sat up from the kang: "What a rubbish! Even that shabby view has people believing it!"
No one else said anything. There was something strange about the Buxian Temple. It was supposed to be a large structure on Lotus Peak to the southwest, and its outline should be visible from the dam. But in winter, the leaves on the mountain had fallen, leaving the view completely unobstructed. Even on a clear day, the peak was only shrouded in mist, while the higher peaks were clearly visible. People in the surrounding villages whispered that the old fairy there was the reincarnation of the guardian deity, Black Mother, who could block the mountain and the road. Only in autumn was the road opened to allow people to enter the temple.
Several educated youth were half-believing and half-convinced, but they all took it seriously.
The wheat field at the village entrance.
Seeing that most people had arrived, the old branch secretary stepped onto the wooden platform, tapped his long pipe, and called for silence. He then announced two things: First, six days later, on the fifteenth day of the ninth lunar month, the members of the village's grain transport team would carry grain up the mountain to exchange for enough medicinal herbs for the coming year. Second, the old nun from Buxian Temple had agreed to return to secular life. Due to her mobility issues, she would leave the mountain next month, but another young nun would follow the grain transport team down the mountain on the fifteenth day.
The members were laughing when the secretary said, "The old nun is leaving the mountain next month." Everyone knew that Buxian Temple closed its doors every October, and that leaving the mountain was just a way for the city kids with nothing to do to have fun. But the secretary then said that the nun from the temple left the mountain on September 15th. Everyone grinned and asked, "Are they really leaving the mountain? Are they returning to secular life?!"
There were also those who asked without restraint: "There are only two people in the temple, young and old. Who will take care of the old Taoist nun when the young nun goes down the mountain... Where is the old Taoist nun?"
Before he could finish his words, he was elbowed by a fellow villager. He quickly changed his words and glanced towards the corner where the educated youth were.
Chang Qing didn't care about the name that the fellow villager blurted out. She was concerned about another thing: "Old Party Secretary, you are a monk who has returned to secular life. You should be repatriated to your hometown or assigned by the county revolutionary committee. How can you settle directly in our village?" The educated youth compound was so small. The larger of the two rooms was given to the male educated youth, and the smaller one was just enough for five girls to live in. There was just enough space for them to put their things. If one more person squeezed in, it would not be so comfortable.
The old Party Secretary frowned, and Huang Dazhuang, the team leader and militia captain, stood up and said, "That's what I agreed to. But the girl's destination hasn't been decided yet. She's originally from Beijing, so it would be great if she could be repatriated."
Chang Qing clenched his hands, Jing City...
The educated youth with acne scars didn't care whether she was a Taoist nun or not. He muttered to his companions: "It should have been like this long ago! I knew it was a fake. I would have actively participated in it. If we educated youth had taken the lead, we would have been praised in the newspapers, right?" The educated youth with acne scars sighed and regretted it. It was all because there were too many rumors, which scared him into believing them.
Among the educated youth, only one new female educated youth agreed with him. The others remained silent. Yang Weibo looked at him as if he were idiot: "After all this fuss, isn't it just the deportation of a little Taoist nun? Even after all this, this idiot still believes there's no trickery involved?"
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