Chapter 16 Xiangweng Temple ② - The legendary place where she received incense offerings. ... Lan Shuyin almost trembled as she stepped out of the car. Only when the night wind blew did she realize that a thin layer of sweat had seeped onto her back.
Fortunately, the absurdity of the "stepmother's" affair was not exposed—if Boss Wei had known, he would never have been so calm.
But sometimes, her mouth really can be quite dishonest.
When Boss Wei said "so many years of friendship" in that emotionless voice, she suddenly had a brain fart and inexplicably replied:
"It wasn't many years... at most two years, and we met less than ten times."
The atmosphere immediately turned cold.
Recalling the silent scene they had just witnessed, Lan Shuyin silently nibbled lightly at the tongue that was not properly sealed.
Honestly, they say the wrong thing when they should be careful, and try to be clever when they should be timid.
Fortunately, Mr. Wei didn't say anything in the end and let her out of the car.
As soon as she left the oppressive SUV, Lan Shuyin quickly grabbed a shared bicycle and rode off without looking back.
Anyway, my place is less than a kilometer from Neon Night, so cycling is perfect and saves me from being stopped again.
The cool evening breeze brushed past her ears, gradually dispelling the restlessness in her heart.
As she rode, Lan Shuyin suddenly realized what was going on.
Was Mr. Wei jealous, judging from his attitude and tone?
She was amused by her own sudden thought, and couldn't help but curl the corners of her mouth, sighing with bittersweet joy, "My irresistible charm!"
Just as she was starting to relax, as she approached her apartment and waited at a red light, Lan Shuyin inadvertently noticed—
A lone figure sat on a bench illuminated by streetlights.
It wouldn't be strange if someone stopped to rest on the street, but what was strange was that it was a little girl wearing a slightly worn red jacket with an unusually glaring color, and tightly hugging a dirty brown plush bear.
She lowered her head, her thin shoulders trembling slightly, immersed in silent weeping.
This scene instantly struck Lan Shuyin's memory—it was exactly the same as what she had seen in the hospital corridor that day!
Almost instantly, Lan Shuyin's hair stood on end, and her heart clenched.
Reason screamed at her, urging her to look away and leave immediately.
But another voice suddenly pierced my mind—this kind of thing, if it's not thoroughly investigated, it's like a thorn stuck in your heart, making you suspicious of everything you see in the future, and that's when things are truly over.
Lan Shuyin pursed her lips tightly, struggled internally for a moment, and finally gritted her teeth, parked her bicycle on the side of the road, and walked step by step toward the little girl.
She took a deep breath and slowly approached the bench.
The surrounding night breeze seemed to slowly stop, and the distant traffic and sounds of people became indistinct, as if they were isolated in another world.
She stopped in front of the girl, trying to keep her tone calm, "Little girl, why are you sitting here all alone?"
Upon hearing her voice, the little girl's lowered head twitched slightly, and her sobbing abruptly stopped.
Then, he slowly raised his head.
In that instant, Lan Shuyin seemed to catch a glimpse of an extremely exquisite face, a fleeting glimpse that was breathtakingly beautiful.
However, before she could get a good look, the figure faded and disappeared before her eyes like wisps of smoke blown away by the wind, eventually turning into a few wisps of thin gray mist that silently blended into the cold night, as if it had never existed.
Lan Shuyin stood frozen in place, her heart filled with turbulent emotions.
What terrified her was not the other person's supernatural disappearance, but the fleeting glimpse of their eyes—those eyes gave her a strange, chilling familiarity.
It's so similar... to the eyes she gazes into the mirror a million times every day—
Her own eyes.
Unable to calm her emotions for a long time, the first thing Lan Shuyin did after returning to her apartment was to turn on her computer and open her email.
The soft glow of the screen illuminated her face. She took a deep breath, her fingertips landing on the keyboard, decisively typing out a line of text:
[Okay, I'll accept the task. Please send me the details and requirements.]
...
The journey to Xiangweng Temple was far more difficult than Lan Shuyin had anticipated.
First, it was a three-hour flight, and we arrived in the capital of Sichuan Province in the evening.
Without time to rest, they hurriedly boarded a green train, which rattled and swayed all night, finally arriving in Ganli—a desolate and dilapidated small county town—the next morning.
But that's not all.
They had to squeeze onto a rusty minibus that looked like it might fall apart at any moment. Inside the minibus, there were not only people, but also chickens and ducks clucking in cages, and piglets tied up with hemp ropes—these small animals were also "passengers."
The car bounced wildly on the rugged, winding dirt road, with dust constantly seeping in through the gaps in the windows.
Lan Shuyin had already put on her mask and handed one to Xuan Bingbing, who was teasing the chicks in the cage with her fingers. "I haven't seen you exercise before, but your stamina is not bad."
"Do you think my nickname 'Iron Barbie' is just for show?" Xuan Bingbing proudly stretched out her arm, showing off her not-so-obvious biceps, then slumped back into her seat and sighed, "But this is too much of a hassle. You're really making money through blood and sweat!"
The day after deciding to go to Xiangweng Temple, Lan Shuyin told Li Yang and Xuan Bingbing about it.
Of course, he didn't tell the whole story. He only said that he had taken on a video advertising job, and then rounded down the amount of payment to zero, saying that 100,000 was 10,000.
After all, she knew Li Yang too well.
If I told him the truth, given my friend's cautious nature, he would definitely think that an exorbitant price implies enormous risks. A figure of ten thousand is much more reasonable; it's neither like working for nothing, nor is it alarmingly high.
Initially, Li Yang did not try to dissuade him.
However, upon hearing the name "Xiangweng Temple," she, usually so gentle, became unusually insistent and determined to go there together.
“How can you go to a place like that? Altitude sickness is no joke!” Lan Shuyin strongly objected.
Li Yang said, "I'll stay in the county town and I absolutely won't go into the mountains with you. It's such a far place, and I really can't bear to leave you there alone. It's been many years since I've been out and about, so I'll just take this opportunity to get some fresh air."
Having said that, Lan Shuyin could find no reason to object.
When the bus came to a shaky stop at the end of the road, the rest of the journey would have to be covered by local motorcycles.
They hired a dark-skinned, bright-eyed local lad and rode on his weathered motorcycle, bumping along the gravel-strewn dirt road deep into Xiangweng Mountain.
Amidst the roar of the engine, the young man, speaking in heavily accented Mandarin, turned his head and asked loudly, "Xiangweng Temple, are you going there?"
After receiving an affirmative answer, he nodded and began to talk to himself.
The young man said that in his grandfather's generation, many people traveled over mountains and valleys just to make a pilgrimage there.
"In that temple, there is a living deity enshrined, a real one!"
The young man freed one rough hand and pointed to the distant mountains shrouded in mist, his tone carrying a distant reverence.
“The old rule is to open the tower gate once every sixty years, a cycle of sixty years. At that time, the foot of the mountain was densely packed with tents, all of them people who came from afar, just to see the golden body of the true god with their own eyes.”
However, more than fifty years ago, the day before the pagoda was supposed to be opened, the abbot inside suddenly ran away.
After that, rumors began to spread that Xiangweng Temple was actually a "yin temple" and that it was not dedicated to any god, but to "ghosts".
At this point, the young man curled his lip, looking completely unconvinced, and said, "Outsiders get scared when they hear about this and don't dare to come. But we locals don't care about that! A temple is a temple, and a god is a god. A god that can bless us with good weather and safe livestock is a good god, our guardian god!"
As the motorcycle rolled over a steep slope, several figures dressed in traditional cotton-padded jackets suddenly appeared on the mountain road ahead. Facing the wind and sand, they bowed with the utmost devotion, taking one step and then another.
The young man honked his horn and carefully walked around them. "Those are from nearby counties. They're here to pilgrimage around the mountain after the festival."
"We can only leave you here. We won't go the rest of the way; you'll have to walk."
After the young man left, Lan Shuyin checked her phone.
Actually, this place, which is called Xiangweng Mountain, is just a mountain valley whose name cannot be found on the map.
From this point on, all modern means of transportation lose their meaning.
Before me lay only a winding ancient path that rose into the clouds, the tracks left by countless pilgrims.
"Look, guys! Xiangweng Temple is just ahead!"
Lan Shuyin pointed the camera at the faintly visible outline of a building in the distance, lowered her voice, and deliberately created a sense of mystery, "They say this is a 'ghost temple,' inside which is enshrined an extremely eerie flesh statue, and people with heavy yin energy can even see 'ghostly figures'... Let's go and find out today!"
She smoothly finished reciting the script she had prepared, then clipped the action camera to her collar, waved to Xuan Bingbing, and said, "Let's go."
The road up the mountain wasn't actually that steep, but the thin air of the plateau still made it hard to breathe, as if an invisible stone was pressing on my chest.
After walking for a while, Lan Shuyin raised her hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead, tilted her head back and gulped down most of a bottle of water, then handed the bottle to Xuan Bingbing.
Only then did she notice that, apart from her slightly rapid breathing, Xuan Bingbing's face was completely dry.
Just as he was about to make a joke, Xuan Bingbing spoke first, "By the way, do you believe it?"
"Believe in what?" Lan Shuyin turned her head to the side.
"What I read online...that temples with dark atmospheres are prone to being haunted."
Thinking that she was frightened by her words, Lan Shuyin couldn't help but smile. "What are you afraid of? If there really are any ghosts or gods, I'll be the first to kneel down and beg them to have mercy and not bother you."
Xuan Bingbing rolled her eyes at her, but still seemed thoughtful. "Many people say that the reason why Yin Temple is so effective is because it accepts all comers. Whether it's a human's wish or a ghost's wish, it accepts them all. Wishes are easy to come true, but they also often attract unclean things."
"So effective that the temple is now abandoned and the incense has stopped burning?" Lan Shuyin raised an eyebrow and smiled, her tone slightly teasing.
This rebuttal was quite cunning. Xuan Bingbing was stunned for a moment, then couldn't help but curl the corners of her mouth into a smile.
After walking along the mountain road for a while, Xiangweng Temple finally came into view—it lies quietly on a natural platform below the cliff, as if it had grown from the rocks since ancient times.
Unlike the typical red walls and golden tiles of temples, it resembles a gray-white stone palace coexisting with the cliff. The massive platform is built up layer by layer along the mountainside, showing signs of age but still retaining its imposing presence.
The upturned eaves and corners are now mottled and faded, and the only remaining fragments of prayer flags flutter forlornly in the mountain wind.
However, even though time has eroded its beauty and the temple has lost some of its splendor, it still exudes a solemn and magnificent aura, and one can still vaguely see the ingenuity and piety of the people who built it.
Surprisingly, there were people inside Xiangweng Temple.
The spacious courtyard was clean and tidy, without a trace of dilapidation or neglect.
Two simply dressed local volunteers were calmly sweeping up fallen leaves.
Hearing the footsteps approaching, the two volunteers looked up and saw two unfamiliar young women. They didn't show much surprise, but silently pointed to the sandalwood incense placed next to the huge incense burner.
Then, one of them raised two fingers and gestured in their direction before lowering his head again and continuing to work attentively.
"Are they... insulting us?"
Xuan Bingbing was a little confused and subconsciously imitated the gesture. "Is he still trying to be cute? But that expression is too calm, it's kind of creepy..."
A note from the author:
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