Volume 1: Wild Beasts, Changes Begin Chapter 48: The Tiger and Wolf King in Honganji Temple
In the western part of Qingyu County, the Honganji Temple is built on the mountain, and there is a small hill next to it to the west.
At the back of the temple, where the guest rooms are located, the courtyard wall was originally built on only three sides, leaving the west side empty. The hill close to the ground was carved into a cliff, which just acted like the fourth wall, blocking the gap on the west side.
The east, south and north walls are towering, and this cliff is more than two zhang (7 or 8 meters) high. No one can easily climb over it. If you want to jump down from the boundary between the hillside and the cliff, you will probably fall half to death.
The monks in the temple set up several layers of rattan nets to prevent tourists from falling down from here, and there are young monks on duty here day and night. If a thief falls down from here, it will be difficult for him to continue stealing.
In fact, some people say that this approach is really unnecessary. It would be better to just build another high wall here, higher than the cliff, to block the hillside and solve the problem once and for all.
However, the monk believed in Feng Shui very much and would rather put in more effort than change the layout left by the previous builders.
Recently, there have been a few more guests in the guest rooms here, one of whom seems to be an old man who is much older than the abbot, so there is one more young monk guarding the place, who is specifically responsible for decocting medicine for the old man.
In the intervals between decocting the medicine, the two little monks could also chat with each other. The young men's voices, which controlled the volume, were accompanied by the occasional coughs coming from the guest rooms in the row next door.
Yue Tianen, with gray hair and beard, was lying on the bed. He looked thinner than when he first came to the temple a while ago. His eye sockets were slightly sunken. He said in a hoarse voice that only old people can use: "Yiren, it's enough for me to have these young monks to help take care of things here. You and Youzhi can go back today."
Gongsun Yiren was preparing an ointment that would be swallowed with the boiled medicine. Hearing this, she said, "There's nothing going on at home, so I'll stay here for a few more days. If grandpa is still worried, I'll tell Youzhi to go back first."
"What's the point of him going back? Can he point out the deficiencies in the training of those people?" Yue Tianen shook his hand and said, "There is no need to say more about this matter. In fact, my illness is not a big deal. If it weren't for Lingmiao's face, I don't think I would even need that little monk. Can't I do this myself?"
He sat up from the bed, cleared his throat, suppressed the urge to cough again, reached out to take the bowl of ointment, and said, "I'll mix it myself . You go out and see if the medicine is ready."
Gongsun Yiren handed him the chopsticks and said, "Then I'll let Youzhi stay here. After lunch, I'll go back first."
"Okay, okay, that's it." Yue Tianen waved his hand impatiently and started stirring the contents of the bowl with chopsticks.
Gongsun Yiren pushed the door open and went out, then closed it again.
Yue Tianen's stirring movements gradually slowed down, and his mind was filled with mixed thoughts.
He had few relatives in his life. His family members died of illnesses one after another when he was young, and he gradually lost contact with his relatives. When he was about 60 years old, he had a daughter, but his wife died of dystocia during childbirth. His daughter and son-in-law also died young and left him forever, leaving only his granddaughter and grandson by his side.
After the brother and sister finally grew up, Yue Tianen himself got this disease.
This time, it seems that he will leave first.
Yue Tianen lowered his head and could see the beard on his chest. He fell silent.
A blue-headed fly flew in from somewhere, circled in the air, and was illuminated by the morning sunlight coming through the window. It slowly fell towards the quilt covering Yue Tianen.
Yue Tianen stared at the fly with his old and lifeless eyes. He let it land on the quilt and then crawl up his beard, which he used to take great care of.
Suddenly there was a roar from a distance.
Huow~Roar~~~
The sound of the tiger's roar was accompanied by a gust of wind blowing through Honganji Temple, and the windows of the guest rooms made a slight vibration sound in the wind.
The two little monks in the yard looked up blankly and listened to the sound that seemed to come from the sky. After the wind blew away, they came back to their senses. The little monk in charge of guarding the cliff smacked his lips and said, "Such a loud noise, it must be a big tiger. I hope it won't come towards us."
"How can it be such a coincidence?"
The monk who was decocting the medicine shook his head at first. After a while, he seemed to feel a little scared, so he made up an excuse and said, "I heard that tigers go to places that smell of blood. We never kill animals in our temple, so how could a tiger run to our place instead of going to places where chickens and sheep are slaughtered?"
The guarding monk nodded repeatedly, and it seemed as if he wanted to use this reason to convince himself.
"Young Master, how long will it take to boil the medicine?" Gongsun Yiren walked over from the guest room.
The young monk opened the medicine jar, fanned away the hot air, and looked at the remaining water inside. He said, "About another half a quarter of an hour."
Gongsun Yiren nodded, and suddenly his eyebrows moved. His body was like a monkey swinging in the air holding on to a vine. He took a light and swift step to cover a distance of five or six meters. He stretched out his hand and stepped forward. The whole person swayed there like a shadow, and then flew back.
The little monk who was guarding the cliff was also caught by her and moved away from the cliff together.
Before the two little monks could react, there was a sound of something heavy falling to the ground suddenly coming from the layers of vine nets at the bottom of the cliff.
Then, the big net that was strong enough to catch three or four grown men was torn apart all at once.
A huge monster with yellow and white body suddenly broke in here.
The two little monks' faces turned pale and they were about to scream out, but Gongsun Yi grabbed the back of their necks with one hand each. The two monks fainted immediately and were unable to scream out.
If there is a ferocious beast in front, a scream will inevitably provoke the beast to pounce with all its might.
Gongsun Yiren silently put the two monks on the ground, bent their legs, leaned their upper body forward, put their left hand on their waist, put their right hand under their left palm, and stared at the tiger.
The tiger had just jumped down from a small hill in the west, a height of seven or eight meters, but landed unharmed. It just lowered its four legs slightly to offset the impact of landing.
At this time, its head was facing the direction of the guest room, and its long tail was sweeping behind it, touching the cliff. The height of its shoulders plus the length of its tail almost reached half the height of the cliff.
Gongsun Yiren's stature was relatively tall among women, but in front of the tiger, she was like a fragile little baby who would be torn into pieces at the slightest touch.
However, this tiger, which was smarter than its peers, sensed a strange feeling from the tiny prey it had encountered by chance.
It's like facing the hard rocks in the mountains that have many edges and corners, have gone through countless wind and frost, and are still sharp and rugged, and will be scratched and bleed if touched.
This feeling made the tiger not to launch a rash attack, but to circle around in the courtyard.
Even when facing this extremely rare big tiger, Gongsun Yiren's expression was as calm as a piece of jade. However, when she saw the tiger gradually approaching the guest room, there was suddenly a complex expression in her eyes.
There seemed to be a hint of worry, but more of a sense of ease, or even a little bit of... teasing?
The young monk who was in charge of decocting the medicine had a stronger physique. He opened his eyes in a daze and saw a strange scene.
The sun was in the east, and the guest room faced south. The window facing west was in shadow , but suddenly two balls of scarlet light were reflected.
Something huge and silent seemed to rise up and approach the window from inside the room.
The scarlet light and shadow fell on the windows, becoming more and more intense.
It is so thick that it seems to be burning fire, and so bright that it seems to be dripping blood.
The window seemed to have been burned through by the red light, allowing the little monk to see directly the picture inside the window -
An old face with disheveled hair and beard!
The tiger with its back to the window and facing Gongsun Yiren had its fur standing on end, just like a frightened kitten. It turned around at lightning speed and let out an earth-shaking roar.
Ouch!!!!!!!
Buzz~ The little monk fainted again due to the tiger's roar.
At that moment, although his consciousness had clearly sunk into darkness, the old face with two red lights in the eyes still lingered in his mind.
