Chapter 68
The grandmothers thought about it, and the old sisters asked each other: "Is Old Xu back?"
The current owner of Lingfeng Palace, Grandpa Xu, fell and sprained his waist in December, and was taken to the city by his son for medical treatment.
Finally, an old lady remembered, "He's back, he's back. He came back the day before the New Year. I remember his son drove the car in."
The grandmothers looked at Li Yang and Zhou Du, "Do you have anything to do with him? Do you know him? Is he a relative?"
Li Yang used the same excuse he had used to deal with the innkeeper last night: "I don't know him. My school teacher gave us an assignment to research the history of folk temples, so we came to Changjia Town to take a look."
"Oh..." Although they didn't know what was so interesting about the temples, and whether they could produce gold, the grandmas didn't say so. They just said, "Do kids learn these things in school nowadays?"
Zhou Du smiled and nodded to the grandmas, "Is Grandpa Xu home now? We knocked on the door just now, and it seemed like no one was inside."
"He's at home, he must be at home. He's old and his hearing is a little hard. I'll take you to find him." An old lady stood up enthusiastically, and the other two old sisters also stood up, leading Zhou Du and Li Yang, and walked into the alley angrily and heroically.
At the entrance of Lingfeng Palace, the leading grandmother pounded on the door with such force that her palms turned red. She also shouted at the top of her voice: "Old Xu! Old Xu!!! Open the door! You must have fainted from sleep! Open the door quickly!"
It lasted about half a minute, and then the wooden door was opened from the inside. A white-haired old man wearing reading glasses half appeared from the crack of the door, rubbing his ear and looking at grandma, "What's the matter?"
"These two young people are looking for you." Grandma pulled Li Yang over.
Grandpa Xu lowered his reading glasses to take a look and said, "I don't know him." He was about to close the door.
Grandma stopped him and said, "I want to study your temple and do homework for the teacher. Look at how long it has been since an outsider entered your house. It's still a good time for your deity to receive incense."
After grandma finished speaking, she pushed Li Yang, Zhou Du, and Li Dongqiang into the door one by one and closed the door from the outside.
The eight people, one old, two adults and one child, looked at each other, and the outsider said politely, "Hello, Grandpa Xu."
Grandpa Xu took a look, held his waist, turned around and walked slowly.
Zhou Du went over to support the old man, Li Yang and Donggua followed behind, and the four of them walked into the inner hall, which was the Lingfeng Temple. In the center of the stage stood a life-size stone statue of a god.
The material is ordinary, the carving is crude, the facial features are vague, and there is no majesty at all. There is no reason for pilgrims to pay for the immortal appearance of the statue. It looks like someone used an ordinary person as a template for carving. In his hand, he is holding a cylindrical... sword? It is hard to tell what it is.
However, when I walked in from the courtyard just now, I saw that the other houses were all shabby, so when I saw this hall, although not magnificent, it was obviously a renovated palace, I felt it was very good.
The statue was not exposed to wind and rain.
The red candles on the incense table have burned out, and there are only a few stumps in the incense burner. The incense fruits on offer also show signs of wilting. I guess they were offered on the day of the Little New Year, but they are spotless.
Li Yang did not move, but the man next to him walked over, pulled out the remaining incense roots, cleaned up the rotten fruits and vegetables, lit three incense sticks, bowed three times, and inserted the incense into the incense burner.
A set of processes is as natural as returning home.
Even Grandpa Xu looked at him sideways, "Do you know General Lingfeng?"
"I learned a little bit from Taoist history."
Grandpa Xu didn't ask any more questions. He sat down slowly and said, "Sit down. Ask whatever you want to know."
Li Yang and others sat down opposite the old man.
Zhou Du took out his phone and recorded, "What is the history of Lingfeng Palace?"
The old man looked up at the entire temple, and his throat made a sound like dry wood rubbing against each other: "History..."
"History is that our ancestors built Lingfeng Palace and guarded it for generations. I can't even count how many generations it has been passed down. It is the oldest house in this town."
"If you want to ask what happened in this temple, I can only say nothing." The old man lowered his head and shook his head. "As far as I can remember, this temple has been like this. Nothing has changed. The house hasn't changed. The people passing by haven't changed. No one knows Lingfeng God. No one has burned incense before. Except for us."
A child's voice sounded: "Grandpa, why does your family build a house for this fairy brother and keep him alive?" After Li Dongqiang came into the yard, he found that it was not as gloomy as it looked from the outside, and he thought that the stones offered in Grandpa Xu's house were a bit special.
Ordinary people see Li Dongqiang as a big fat boy with great spirit and good fortune, with fair and round skin, a handsome appearance and a crisp voice.
Grandpa Xu also likes to play with his grandchildren. There haven't been such kids in the town for a long time, and his grandson is already college age. It's impossible for him not to like the Winter Melon Spirit.
Seeing the doll taking the initiative to talk to him, he waved to it.
Li Dongqiang walked over with clear and straightforward black pupils, and the old man held his belly lightly.
Li Dongqiang's whole body was full of spiritual energy. Seeing that Grandpa Xu's other hand was always supported behind his waist, he gathered a ball of spiritual energy invisible to the naked eye in his palm, reached out, and gently rubbed it with his soft palm.
Grandpa Xu felt that the treatment was effective immediately and his injured waist felt a lot better, but he didn't think much about it, thinking it was just a psychological effect.
With Li Dongqiang mediating the mood, Grandpa Xu's serious expression and tone gradually softened, no longer so stiff and unnatural. In addition to pouring out everything he knew, he also vented his inner feelings to outsiders:
"Baby, I also asked my grandfather this question when I was a child. He said that our ancestors had received the blessing of the Lingfeng God and vowed to build a palace and set up a temple for him. Since we have made a vow, we must fulfill it. Therefore, our ancestral precept is to worship the Lingfeng God from generation to generation. But I can't keep it any longer."
"Why can't you hold on? Grandpa, where is your baby?" Li Dongqiang asked, without stopping his hands, continuing to treat the injured area. He felt that Grandpa's bones were a little painful and needed to be rubbed for a while before they could heal.
Li Yang and Zhou Du already understood.
According to the three grandmothers, the young and middle-aged people have already gone out to find a way out.
The Xu family's Lingfeng Palace is naturally the place where no one of their descendants wants to be like Grandpa Xu and other ancestors, living quietly in a small place just for a little bit of faith and commitment.
But the Xu family's persistence for hundreds of years is already a sincere expression of their affection.
"Anyway," Grandpa Xu felt his back pain getting less and less, and his long-untended white beard seemed to be stretching out. He took off his reading glasses and squinted his eyes and said, "As you can see, our family lives and eats here, and we are used to all the plants and old objects. So if you ask me to tell you about history, I really can't say it."
He paused and looked at the statue: "This Lingfeng statue was originally made of bronze, less than two meters high. When my grandfather's generation took over, it was refined. This stone statue was carved by my grandfather and my father using stones."
Li Yang felt that the exploration of the history of the construction and inheritance of Lingfeng Palace could be stopped.
After all, there is no systematic record of what happens every year like in regular temples. It is impossible for Grandpa Xu to tell you everything that happened in the past few hundred years that he has not seen. He can only pick out things he remembers after he was born.
However, as Grandpa said, the purpose of this temple is not to burn incense and worship gods, but more to worship the statue of gods in the home where Xu lived. Except for their family who would worship on festivals and the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month, no one else worshipped, so naturally nothing special happened.
Many pilgrims would offer sacrifices to the gods at home, which was nothing unusual. Of course, we cannot view the Xu family's commitment from the perspective of ordinary pilgrims.
"How much do you know about General Lingfeng?" Li Yang asked.
Grandpa Xu thought that he finally didn't have to recall the past, so he slowly stood up with the help of the chair handle, but he found that his waist really didn't hurt that much. Without thinking too much, he quickly stood up and said, "Wait a minute." Then he left the inner hall steadily and entered a room.
Li Dongqiang smiled and said, "I'm better than the doctor!"
When Grandpa Xu came back, he was holding a book in his hand and placed it on the small table between Zhou Du and Li Yang.
It is an ancient book, well maintained, dust-free and not eaten by insects.
"This is a record of anecdotes compiled by our ancestors of the Xu family. It collects all the remaining stories about the Lingfeng God General at that time. You can read it for yourself." After Grandpa Xu finished speaking, he went to make tea, holding Li Dongqiang's hand.
When the tea boiled, I asked grandpa if he felt any discomfort.
The old man said he had a migraine, so he bent down.
The younger one rubbed his grandfather's white hair.
Li Yang turned the pages and read the text from right to left with Zhou Du.
"Lingfeng Divine General, was the general of Linyue State before he ascended to heaven. He defeated the enemy in the battle at Huagu..."
He flipped through a few pages.
The records made by Xu's ancestors started from the time when Lingfeng God was still in his mortal body. It is indeed much richer than the records cited in the 779 meeting. It may be the most complete information about Lingfeng God preserved in the world today. This shows the piety and intentions of Xu's ancestors.
Moreover, it is a unique copy, so Li Yang thought he should take a photo of every page and preserve it.
Push it to Zhou Du, "Do you know so much?"
Zhou Du took a look and said, "No. But I know it's definitely not written here."
"Why do you say that?"
“I can’t write.”
Li Yang: “?”
"I'll tell you when I get back. Take a closer look first."
Basically, there were five countries, including Linyue, in turmoil. Finally, they were suppressed by General Lingfeng in Huagu, and the five countries made peace and the people lived in peace.
But the birds are all gone and the good bows are hidden. In the third year of the alliance, the new emperor of Linyue State ascended the throne. He was afraid of the general and imprisoned and persecuted him.
On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, General Lingfeng was tortured to death, but in full view of the executioners, his body recovered and he ascended to the palace in the Ninth Heaven. From then on, the mythology of the mortal world had one more general, Lingfeng.
The following are stories about the miraculous appearances of the Lingfeng God, which were collected by Xu's ancestors from various places. Li Yang flipped through them roughly and found that there were more than thirty stories. At the end, Xu only started to write about his own family's story.
Xu's ancestors were originally scholars. Later, they encountered troubled times and made a living by ghostwriting. They encountered famine two years before the country was destroyed.
Outside the city, there were starving people everywhere. Xu Xiaoke was dying, and his five charred fingers stretched out from the dead air.
Before the last bit of life disappeared, the clear sound of jade rustling came from afar.
Xu Xiaoke tried hard to open his eyes. The sound of Jia Yuming Jin was getting closer, and he finally saw who was coming.
In the dust and smoke, the person who came was like a fairy from a painting, with long hair as black as ink, and no jade crown. He held up an octagonal silver umbrella and looked at him with his head lowered and as cold as the moon.
Xu Xiaoke was so desperate that he couldn't make any sound.
However, the person who came stretched out his snow-white fingertips with compassion and gently touched his almost stiff fingers.
"Your way out lies in the East." A cold voice penetrated into Xu Xiaoke's ears. The tassels on the umbrella swayed slightly, and the man left holding a silver umbrella.
Xu Xiaoke survived.
After leaving the pile of starving corpses and heading east, where his life became better, he began to describe and inquire about the owner of the octagonal silver umbrella.
Finally we learn that the Flowing Light Umbrella was a magic weapon made by the Emperor Beiyuan and given to the God General Lingfeng.
From then on, the sacred weapon that Lingfeng God holds in his human form is the Liuguang Umbrella.
Li Yang closed the book with mixed feelings and looked at the cylindrical sword in the statue's hand. It turned out to be an umbrella.
But this is still a small matter... He raised his wrist to look at the silver chain, "So, the magic weapon of General Lingfeng finally ended up in the magic weapon warehouse of the underworld. Does this mean that he really died or became a demon?" Otherwise, the magic weapon would generally not leave its owner.
Zhou Du's eyes fell on the small mole next to the silver chain, and he said casually, "I don't know. What do you think of what is recorded in this book? Is it true?"
Li Yang looked at him strangely. Don’t you know that—“All human records are half true and half false, and cannot be verified.”
After saying that, he took a picture of every page of what Xu's ancestors had written, and his mission was accomplished.
Before leaving Lingfeng Palace, Li Dongqiang was tricked by Grandpa Xu into burning incense and worshipping the stone statue, and received a small red envelope.
Grandpa Xu escorted them out of the alley with a kind look on his face: "Bring this child here to play when you have time. You can eat and stay in Lingfeng Palace."
Zhou Du agreed.
After they walked away, Li Yang looked back and saw the old man still at the entrance of the alley watching them go. When he looked back, the old man waved his hand again, then turned around and went back into the alley with his hands behind his back.
Back at the inn, Li Yang asked, "When are we going back to Nanjiang?"
"tomorrow?"
"Okay." Li Yang took out tonight's clothes and started packing, but he paused for a moment, "What exactly do you know about Lingfeng Shenjiang?"
"Nothing much, I just heard that Emperor Beiyuan and him had a secret affair that was worth learning from."
"...Who told you that?" This is slandering God, and it is okay to tell on others.
Zhou Du looked calm: "It's the thirteenth book in the sixth row of the second bookcase on the left hand side of the kindergarten library entrance. I recommend you to take a look."
“…”
The next day, when Li Yang returned to the kindergarten, he went to the library first and actually found a book - "Two or Three Stories about Lovers in Heaven". It was placed very high, obviously because they didn't want the kids to get it.
I turned the pages and read the romantic history of many gods. I finally turned to the section about Lingfeng God, but there was no writing by Emperor Beiyuan, but the love and hatred between Lingfeng God and Qiqu Lingying Tianjun.
Even if Zhou Du remembered it wrong, this kind of thing is obviously fabricated, so how can he believe it?
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