Chapter 87 Secret Teaching 2
◎A hairless mouse? ◎
After walking through the winding corridors with carved railings and jade bricks, the pagoda is right in front of you.
The tower is surrounded by brick walls with flower railings and the door faces east. There is a small niche on the top level facing east, with a Buddha statue inside. Each floor has a waist eaves, the corners are all raised, and there are small wind chimes tied below, swaying in the wind.
Yan Yue felt that being here, the feeling of weirdness was even stronger. She walked around the pagoda and couldn't see anything wrong, so she asked the monk, "Why is this pagoda built with five floors?"
The foreign monk said, "The five plates of Arhats represent the five Arhats in the east, south, west, north and center."
Yan Yue had only heard of the Eighteen Arhats, and pointed at the horns and asked, "What do the six horns mean?"
The foreign monk patiently explained: "It symbolizes the six realms of reincarnation."
Yan Yue agreed, "I know that. In the underworld here, there is also the concept of the six realms of reincarnation."
The foreign monk smiled slightly and continued walking forward. After leaving the lake, we passed a rockery made of Taihu stones, then walked along the blue brick path through a garden and came to several courtyards scattered in an orderly manner.
Yan Yue saw her carriage parked outside a moon gate and two foreign monks were preparing to move her things.
"No need to bother." Yan Yue stepped forward to stop him and said to the foreign monk who had led her here, "I'm going to live here, right?"
After getting a positive answer, Yan Yue took out two bags and said, "These two bags contain my clothes and supplies. Just help me take these two bags in. Don't touch the rest, otherwise I'll have to go through more trouble when I leave."
The monk looked at her in surprise, but finally said nothing and just nodded.
Yan Yue then said, "You have a stable, right? You can put the carriage in the yard, but you can't keep the horses in the yard."
The foreign monk nodded again and said to the two men, "Do as the donor says."
The two men cleaned the room, made the bed, removed the horse harness, and took the horse away.
Yan Yue saw that the house was fully equipped, even the tea-making utensils and tea leaves were ready, which was very convenient.
The foreign monk also said politely: "If you need anything else, please come to me."
This foreign monk was very easy to talk to, so Yan Yue asked, "Can I go for a walk around?"
The foreign monk paused and said, "You can walk around the temple, as long as you don't go out."
Yan Yue asked again: "So you guys provide meals based on time, right?"
The foreign monk said, "Of course. The meal will be served promptly at noon and early evening, and someone will bring it to you at that time."
When Yan Yue heard that there was no breakfast, she asked, "You only eat two meals a day?"
The foreign monk was speechless for a moment before he said, "Breakfast is also available, at the beginning of the morning."
After the foreign monk left, Yan Yue touched the brand new bedding and pillow and thought for a long time. What evil did the King Su want to exorcise by inviting her? With such a magnificent temple and so many monks, what evil can't be exorcised? Why does she have to use a half-baked charlatan like her?
She was a little worried. Su Wang was a man who killed people without blinking an eye. He must have done something terrible. Even if she helped her exorcise the evil spirit, he would still be silenced, right?
When she thought of this, she could no longer stay there, so she went out of the yard and wandered around, trying to find out if there was any possibility of escape.
After walking around the temple for a long time, she finally understood why the foreign monks dared to let her move around freely.
Every ten feet along the towering palace wall, there was a guard armed with a crossbow and a sword. The door she entered through was not the main entrance. There were more than thirty guards in front of the most magnificent main entrance. There were also more than a dozen guards at the back door through which the carriage came in.
The possibility of breaking out is almost zero. If you climb over the wall, you will probably be shot into a hedgehog before you even reach the top.
Yan Yue didn’t understand, isn’t this a temple? Are these guards here to watch the monks for fear that they might run away?
Then I thought again, it makes sense that they were afraid that the monks would run away. Wasn't she also kidnapped? Judging from King Su's style of doing things, these foreign monks might have been captured and forced to chant scriptures and pray for him.
Tsk tsk tsk…
What's wrong with this person's brain?
He believes in Buddhism, yet he dares to hold so many monks hostage here; he believes in evil spirits, yet he dares to kidnap her, the "Heavenly Master". He was not afraid that the monks would not pray for him but instead chant scriptures to curse him; nor was he afraid that she, the heavenly master, would not exorcise evil spirits properly and instead attract some ghosts to harass him!
Since he couldn't run away anyway, Yan Yue simply wanted to see what kind of trouble this King Su had gotten himself into. She made up her mind that once she figured out the situation, she would add fuel to the fire and make his troubles even bigger!
It was already noon when a foreign monk brought us a meat dish, a vegetable dish, a rice and a soup.
Yan Yue asked in surprise: "Can monks from your foreign land eat meat?"
The foreign monk just looked at her in surprise, and left without saying a word.
After finishing her meal, Yan Yue lay on the bed for a while out of boredom, her eyes fixed on the wall of the guest house.
The walls all around are hung with colorful paintings, with various Buddha statues and Bodhisattvas painted on them, and even the windows are covered with them. She looked around and found that most of them were Buddhist stories, incorporating landscapes, animals, and local customs. She wondered how long it would take to create such a complex painting.
Bored, she held up the black umbrella and talked to Zhou Lin, but Zhou Lin did not respond.
She closed the doors and windows again, took down the bed curtains, and covered them with clothes and quilts. When she felt it was dark enough, she tried to call Zhou Lin again.
But Zhou Lin didn't react at all, so she had to give up and thought about waiting until dark!
Maybe it was because Changning had been entertaining too well recently. Every meal included both large and small meats, cold dishes, vegetarian dishes, stews, and desserts. Although there was meat at noon, Yan Yue ate it all up. She was not hungry, but she just didn't feel satisfied.
Since there was nothing to do, Yan Yue strolled to the kitchen, thinking that maybe there would be some snacks there.
It turned out that she was overthinking it. Perhaps the monks didn't have a strong appetite and didn't have anything to eat. Yan Yue started chatting with the monk in the kitchen, but the monk was like a mute and refused to say a word.
Yan Yue pestered for a long time but failed to get any words out of him, so he just asked for food. The foreign monk remained silent and just handed her two white steamed buns.
Yan Yue was unhappy: "I can't even swallow this dry stuff!" What kind of food should be eaten when exorcising the evil spirits in Prince Jing's Mansion? Why should we eat this when exorcising Prince Su's mansion?
The foreign monk hesitated for a moment, took out a lump of pickled cabbage from a jar, washed it with clean water, cut it into thin strips, put it on a plate and handed it to her.
Yan Yue took the plate with the hand that was holding the steamed bun, and covered her waist with the other hand. She said with a smile, "Ouch, my stomach hurts a little. I'll leave first. Thank you!" Then she left quickly.
She went straight to the garden and looked around to see that there was no one around. Then she carefully opened her hands that were covering her stomach, and inside were three eggs that she had stolen while the foreign monk was cutting pickles.
"Hehe, this Heavenly Master will never mistreat his own stomach!"
Suddenly, there was a rustling sound beside her ears, and Yan Yue was startled: "Who?"
The sound stopped and then started again. The noise didn't sound like that of a human, but more like the faint sound of a small mouse digging a hole.
The temple was extremely quiet. Even with such a tiny sound, Yan Yue was able to find the source of the sound through careful identification - it was right under the stacked Taihu stones.
Yan Yue was curious, so she picked up a thick branch and used it as a tool to dig up some soil.
The rustling sound was more obvious, but it seemed to come from the inside of the Taihu stone, which was extremely strange.
What kind of monster grows out of stone?
Yan Yue had never seen it before, and her curiosity was aroused, so she didn't even bother to eat. I happened to be strolling around and saw some gardening tools piled up in the corner, so I found a handy shovel and continued digging.
Finally she discovered that the sound was not coming from inside the Taihu stone, but from a stone box one foot square. Because there was a stack of Taihu stone rockery on the stone box, so at first glance, it sounded like the sound was coming from the stone.
Yan Yue naturally couldn't move the Taihu stone rockery, but she still thought of a way. She dug a hole in the side, loosened the soil around the stone box, and then hollowed out the bottom of the stone box, and then pulled the stone box out from the side.
The stone box was engraved with dense scriptures, apparently to suppress some evil. Yan Yue was very hesitant and felt that she should not open the box, but then she changed her mind and thought that since she was alone now, this evil thing might be of help to her.
It's fitting, isn't it, that the evil creature faces off against Su Wang, a wicked man who takes human lives lightly?
So she patted the stone box and said, "Listen to what's inside. I'm not the one suppressing you. I'm imprisoned here just like you. I can let you out, but you have to promise not to hurt me. If you agree, knock three times."
There were three slight noises coming from inside.
Yan Yue was worried and added, "If you break your promise and harm me, you will be struck by lightning, die a miserable death, and fall into the eighteen levels of hell, where you will never be able to be reborn! If you agree, knock three more times."
After a moment, a voice came from inside, and Yan Yuexin said that this meant they disagreed! Just when I was about to bury it back, I heard two more faint sounds.
What the hell is this thing? The knocking sound is accompanied by heavy breathing!
Yan Yue moved a corner of the stone box lid, but saw nothing. She only smelled a strong smell of blood.
She bravely opened the lid completely, and saw a dying...hairless mouse?
The mouse was so thin that it was just skin and bones, and it was almost unrecognizable as a mouse. Its short little front paws were bright red, and its tail was extremely short. It was curled up in a corner of the stone box, breathing in but not out.
The bottom of the stone box was covered with pine needles, and the surrounding stone walls were dark brown. Yan Yue touched it with her hand and smelled the dark brown powder stuck on her fingers, then she realized that it was clearly the blood scratched by the little mouse with its claws!
Buried alive? This is too cruel!
Yan Yue couldn't bear it any longer and took out the palm-sized mouse. She found that there were several short pine needles stuck in the little guy's body.
"You little guy, you are too miserable..."
Yan Yue wanted to pull out the pine needles from its body, but after two attempts she failed and the little thing actually squeaked! She looked closely and found that this thing didn't seem to be inserted into the body, but grew out!
"Oh my god! Are you, a hedgehog?"
It turns out that the "pine needles" at the bottom of the stone box are all thorns that fell from its body!
What kind of heinous crime could a little hedgehog commit that he would be suppressed here alive and suffer such torture!
Before he understood the facts clearly, Yan Yue blamed the fault on the evil King Su. She quickly covered the stone box and stuffed it back under the rockery, buried the soil back in and compacted it, then collected some fallen leaves and dead grass from somewhere else and covered it on top.
Only then did he put the hedgehog in his arms and carefully carried it back to the room.
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