Chapter 0021: Southern Yunnan Temple
Without having time to think, I slapped the statue with one hand and leaped to the left.
This statue has two arms. The right hand holds a Buddha's finger, suspended high in the air, while the left hand is placed at the waist with the palm flat.
The place where I jumped over was where my left hand was raised.
Before I could stand firmly, I heard a scream and something fell rapidly from above. I wrapped my legs around one of the statue's fingers and reached out to grab the person by the collar.
At this moment, a strong wind blew overhead and a huge shadow pressed down.
There was a burst of screams on the ground, followed by a loud bang that made people's eardrums buzz.
After he calmed down a little, he found that the head of the statue was broken at the neck and rolled to the ground from a high altitude.
I grabbed the clothes of the man named Meng and we both hid in the Buddha's hand and luckily escaped the disaster.
I saw that the man surnamed Meng had a pale face and his eyes were wide open. I was probably scared out of his wits.
When they reached the ground, everyone was still frightened. Fortunately, Liu Feihe below reacted quickly and no casualties were caused.
"I, Meng Dazhi, owe you a life!" The man surnamed Meng said to me with his neck stiff, then stopped talking with a dark face.
It wasn't until now that I figured out this guy's full name, but the fact that he could say this in such a humble tone did make me look at him with new eyes.
Master He Jiu's face turned pale. He looked at the head of the statue that suddenly fell and muttered to himself: "How could it be... How could it be like this..."
It was obviously a big impact on him.
At this moment, Ah Biao suddenly ran over with a long and narrow mahogany box, "Master Jiu, I found this on the ground!"
He Jiuye took the box, looked at it over and over for a while , frowned and said, "I've never seen it before."
He Jintang interrupted anxiously, "Maybe it fell from above? Open it and take a look!"
What he said made sense, but the box was locked and there was no key. In the end, A Biao used a knife to open it, and saw a folded piece of yellowed rice paper inside.
When Master He Jiu opened it, he exclaimed, "Ah!" "This is a handwritten letter from my great-grandfather!"
This letter is quite long, but it records exactly what happened to He Donglai in southern Yunnan that year.
When He Donglai failed in his assassination attempt, he was sent to a place called Canggou Village in southern Yunnan.
Southern Yunnan is mountainous, and the environment in many places is extremely harsh and rarely visited. Moreover, over the past hundred years, many small villages have disappeared due to wars and changing circumstances.
I searched for a long time on my phone, but couldn't find a place called Canggou Village.
However, according to the description in He Dong's letter, this village should be located at the foot of Wuliang Mountain in Yunling, close to the Lancang River.
At that time, it was a time of war and chaos, with warlords everywhere and life was difficult everywhere. Places like Canggou Village, although with a harsh environment, could be considered a paradise.
It’s a pity that He Donglai seemed to have bad luck. As soon as he arrived in Canggou Village, bandits started to appear near the village.
On this day, a group of bandits broke into the village, burning, killing and looting. He Donglai escaped with a few surviving villagers and fled into the back mountain.
It was not known whether the bandits were blinded by rage or because there were two beautiful girls among the fleeing villagers, but they kept chasing them into the mountains.
He Donglai and others were so panicked that they could only hide away when they saw Lin.
These mountains were vast and boundless with dense forests, so they soon lost their way. Moreover, after nightfall, a thick pink fog rose in the mountains.
When he saw this, He Jintang couldn't help but ask: "There is also fog of this color, did the ancestor remember it wrongly?"
Only after being glared at by Mr. He Jiu did he shut up.
Continue reading below.
He Donglai and the others were already dizzy, and now covered by the fog, they had no idea where they were.
However, what was strange was that the group of bandits who were chasing them in somehow bumped into them by coincidence.
He Donglai and his companions had no choice but to flee desperately. On the way, the two girls fell behind and were captured alive by the bandits. It was easy to imagine what would happen to them.
He Donglai was already seriously ill and had a lame leg, but the reason he was able to run so far was mainly due to his intelligence and cleverness honed through years of enduring humiliation.
After the villagers were hacked to death one by one, he was the only one who escaped by hiding under a pile of dead leaves.
He waited until the bandits had passed before he crawled out and prepared to find a way out.
But it was not easy to get out. He was tired and hungry, so he found a place to sleep for most of the night. Then he got up and walked in one direction. When it was almost dawn, he suddenly bumped into something and fell to the ground.
When he looked up, he saw a dilapidated temple vaguely appearing in the fog. He had just bumped into the pillar in front of the temple.
He ran into the temple in ecstasy, but there was no one in the temple. It was in a dilapidated state, with only a headless Buddha statue enshrined in the middle .
He Donglai's heart sank all of a sudden. This must be a temple that had been abandoned for who knows how many years.
But soon, he discovered a strange situation.
This temple looked extremely dilapidated, but there was little dust on the broken altar and collapsed pillars.
He touched it with his hand and found it was clean.
This is extremely unreasonable!
Moreover, the temperature in southern Yunnan is already relatively high, and given the season, it should have been quite hot and humid. However, ever since he entered the temple, he shivered several times, shaking all over, and even the breath he exhaled was white.
He Donglai came from a wealthy family and was well-informed, but he had never heard of such a strange situation. He was already a dying man, so instead of feeling scared, he became very curious.
He looked around the entire temple and found that the terrain outside the temple was surprisingly flat. However, because it was shrouded in fog, he could not see the entire picture and could only guess that it might be a valley.
What is particularly strange is that not only is there no grass in this area, but it is also extremely quiet, which means that even snakes, insects, rats and ants are extinct.
He Donglai became suspicious and ran back to the temple to see the headless Buddha statue.
He discovered that this statue of Bodhisattva was actually made of clay, but the carving was extremely delicate and lifelike. Moreover, the temple was in such a dilapidated state, but the clay statue was surprisingly well preserved except for the missing head.
There is nothing else to see.
He Donglai sat down dejectedly, thinking of the annihilation of the He family and his own fate. He couldn't help feeling sad. Seeing a cushion on the ground, he knelt down, kowtowed several times to the headless Buddha, and burst into tears.
After he vented for a while, he looked up and inadvertently saw some words under the feet of the Bodhisattva.
He Donglai crawled over and saw a line of small words engraved on the base: "Make offerings to me and you will be blessed with peace and happiness."
At this moment, there was a sudden burst of shouting and laughter outside the temple. It turned out that the group of bandits had somehow bumped into here.
He Donglai was both terrified and desperate. He cried and laughed for a while, then knelt down and kowtowed to the Headless Buddha, praying to the Buddha for protection. He was willing to worship him forever as long as he could get through the difficulties!
As the footsteps behind him grew louder and louder, He Donglai became so frightened that he kowtowed harder and harder, and soon he fainted.
