bayedsolid Chapter 285: Past Events (Part )
Chapter 285: Past Events (Part )
Note: This chapter is two chapters in one
"Teacher, why does that monk know all these things?"
Walking back from the point where the two worlds merged, as he moved his feet, Natsume Takashi saw the trees in the forest gradually returning to their normal height.
Forty meters, thirty meters, twenty meters, five meters... The warm and humid air in the air was covered by the biting cold north wind again, and the lush and green leaves began to wither.
Summer fast-forwards to winter.
Such a temperature difference would make him feel a little uncomfortable even though he was wearing thick winter clothes.
"That's what their temple does." Madara shook his fat belly and felt hungry again, so he raised his head and said unceremoniously, "Natsu-ne, I'm hungry. I want to eat the steamed buns from Nanatsujiya."
"Teacher." Natsume Takashi slightly emphasized his tone, frowned slightly, and said helplessly, "When we are talking about serious things, can you please stop thinking about food all the time?"
“When we were walking, Auntie Tazi almost thought there was an earthquake!”
"Hurry up and pay tribute to me." The lucky cat jumped and said, "How can I have the energy to tell you a story if I am not full, or do you not want to know?"
He sighed helplessly again and took out some pastries from his pocket. "I don't have any steamed buns. Can I give you this?"
"It's just okay." Madara jumped up and snatched the cherry blossom-shaped snack from his hand, muttering, "It's not as delicious as steamed buns."
Natsume Takashi: “….”
"That was a long time ago." Madara said, "I met a monk who gave me a booklet about the fusion of worlds."
"Since thousands of years ago, the heritage of their temple has been to study how to merge the two worlds into their original form before they collide." It said, "But it is a very difficult task."
"You know that most Buddhist temples allow intermarriage, right?"
"Yeah." Natsume Takashi nodded and replied, "I know that."
"But they can't." Madara explained, "All the monks in that temple will be cursed by the world, and generally will not live past the age of forty. If they get married, they will pass the disaster to their wives and children."
"The guy I met was an accident," Madara continued. "He loved drinking and gambling, and he actually lived to be forty-one!"
“It turns out that drinking is a pleasant and long-lived thing!”
Natsume Takashi: “.......Teacher, can you stop talking nonsense?” How can living to forty-one be called a long life.
There are also people who always come home drunk and act crazy everywhere. How can they be happy in that way!
"Humph." Ban shook his head in disdain and said loudly, "A little brat like you won't understand."
Natsume Takashi:......My fist has hardened.
"Anyway," Madara said, "that guy was an accident. He boasted to me that he had found a way to completely fuse, and he just needed to find the right person."
Natsume Takashi was stunned and quickly asked: "So he found it?"
"Of course not." The lucky cat said confidently, "If it has been found, what did you just see? Was it an illusion?"
"That was all many years ago. He's probably dead now."
"Then what's the drinking and betting thing about?" Natsume Takashi took out the celadon bottle from his arms, shook it, and heard a crisp collision sound, "What's inside it?"
"How would I know what it is?" The lucky cat jumped up, took away another piece of cake, and said contentedly, "I bet him that he could never finish ten bottles of sake, but he said he could finish a hundred bottles."
"But the eighth bottle didn't work." Ban said disdainfully, "You have nothing to pledge, so just give me this thing."
"He said he would keep it for me and redeem it later."
"and then?"
"And then there was nothing else." Madara said, "That guy still owes me ten bottles of wine."
I got it inexplicably by this method. Will it really work...?
"So, if we go to that temple, we can find the person who is trying to integrate the worlds?"
"Maybe." The tail bounced as it moved. "They are professionals anyway."
The sky is gradually getting brighter. After crossing the hill and walking along the mottled shadows of the trees, we will reach a winding path.
Standing at the entrance to the trail, Natsume Takashi could see the temple in the distance, hidden under dense greenery.
A straight beam of light shone through the woods onto the ground. A blue-black butterfly landed on his shoulder, fluttering its wings slightly, then flapping its wings twice and flew away.
"Is that it?" he asked.
"Yes." Ban replied, "The name... seems to be in Wuzhu Temple, it sounds terrible."
The path was long and covered with thorns and vines on both sides, so he had to pick up the cat and move forward carefully.
However, before he arrived, Natsume Takashi saw a familiar person standing in front of him.
She had shoulder-length black hair and stood in the middle of the wide-open door. The early morning light shone through, outlining a vague silhouette.
The facial features are unrecognizable, the expression is unclear, and there is not even a specific body shape. It seems as if he is about to return to heaven from the earth in the next second.
But he recognized who it was almost at first sight.
After Natsume Takashi subconsciously quickened his pace, he held the cat and shouted to her loudly: "Sister Lily!"
Why is it her? Why is she here... Is it Lily who is willing to sacrifice her life and soul to merge the world?
His mind went blank.
*
There are ghosts!
There is a ghost, there is a ghost, there is a ghost!
I screamed and grabbed my friend's sleeve, then jumped back three meters in an instant, picking up a stick on the ground and pointing it at the empty courtyard.
The facilities inside are so simple that it is almost unrecognizable as a temple.
Outside the square corridor are rows of yellow bamboos, in the center is a big tree, under the tree is a square stone table.
There are carved patterns on the tabletop, in the shape of a chess board, with a red and a black chess piece placed on top.
The Red side's king has been forced into a corner.
One of the knights was captured, and the chariots, horses, and cannons were all in the enemy camp and there was no time for them to get back. The black pieces were already surrounded, and the situation was precarious, almost a dead end.
Judging from the dried leaves that fell on it, it can be seen that this is an unfinished game that was played a long time ago.
There were two spiders crawling on the simple mahogany pillars, weaving webs.
The cold wind blew gently through the ends of my hair, bringing a chill. I touched my neck and got goose bumps.
“Ahem… It’s not a ghost.”
A monk wearing a cassock and with white eyebrows emerged from behind the door, holding a Buddhist rosary in his hand. He walked out while fiddling with it and explained, "Dear donor, I am a human being."
"I was so scared." My friend let go of my hand, let out a long breath, and said, "How come he walks without making any sound?"
Emmm.......How do I know? Maybe he has practiced Shaolin Kung Fu? Anyway, it's great that he is not a ghost.
"I am the abbot of this temple." He put his hands together and bowed to me. "My Buddhist name is Kong Jing."
"Nice to meet you, Master." I nodded randomly and bowed to him symbolically, then took my friend's hand and was about to turn around and leave, "Goodbye, Master."
"Wait, benefactor." The old monk stretched out a hand to stop me and asked, "Don't you want to know why you are here?"
"Because the navigation on my phone gave me the wrong direction." I honestly took out my phone and opened the page to show him, "Look, I was originally going to Sensoji Temple."
Although it is a bit heartbreaking to say this, there are probably no tourists willing to visit this dilapidated temple behind him.
I just took a quick glance and there wasn't even a Buddha statue. Why on earth is it called a temple?
"No." Kong Jing shook his head and said, "You came here because of the guidance of fate and the destiny between you and me."
"Lily." My friend suddenly came over and pulled me to the wall. After glancing at him, he whispered, "I'll bet you 10,000 yuan that what he's going to say next is that you're haunted by evil spirits, and you'll keep having bad luck and then have a bloody disaster. You need to spend 100 yuan to buy him blessed incense and candles to get rid of the bad luck, and then you can turn your bad luck around and have good fortune."
"Oh! Or, he will say that he can read your face and tell you that you are destined to be very rich, but there is a villain in the way. You need to pay him to see through the mystery and find this person for you, and then stay away from him completely."
I turned to look at her and asked in surprise, "How do you know so much?"
"Hehe." She raised her chin, put on a rather proud look, waved her hands complacently and said, "Of course. As long as people are fooled two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine times, they will naturally be familiar with these routines."
I:"........."
It seems that you have been tricked into gaining experience.
".......But, a normal person will not be fooled a second time if they are fooled once." You have done this eight or nine times, are you sure you don't have a problem with your brain?
"Oh, that's not the point!" She squeezed over and touched my shoulder, saying angrily, "Are you going to gamble or not?"
"That is to say, if he doesn't use the above two sets of words, you will give me 10,000 yuan, right?" I narrowed my eyes, rubbed my chin and asked, "Are you sure?"
"It's confirmed." She said confidently, "I'm very good at judging people."
People who are very accurate have been deceived so many times, I don't hesitate to say anything bad to you.
"You mean fate?" I turned around, stared at Kong Jing sharply and asked, "What kind of fate do you mean?"
"You probably don't remember." The old monk smiled kindly, "When I was a child, I held you in my arms."
The more you talk, the more outrageous it is. Why don't you just say he is my real grandfather?
Friend: “…This is the first time I’ve seen a template like this.”
I spread my palm in front of her, but she pushed me away angrily: "Wait a little longer, maybe the real purpose will be revealed later."
"Are you sure we've met before?" I asked, crossing my arms. "Excuse me, Master, how old are you?"
"Eighty-three."
"Case solved!" my friend jumped up and shouted, "Maybe he has Alzheimer's disease."
"I mistook you for someone else," she said. "I'm going to give you 10,000 yuan now. Damn it, how could he not play tricks on us!"
I looked at her sideways. She called me juvenile dementia and called others Alzheimer's. The double standard was too obvious.
"That chess game." He pointed to the center of the courtyard and said, "It's the one you left behind."
"Do you want to finish downloading it?" Although I am always pestered by some inexplicable weirdos, my attitude suddenly became much better after I realized that he was not trying to sell me something, but was an old man who was sick and alone in the temple.
So he quickly waved his hands and shook his head, and patiently replied: "You may have made a mistake. I am not the person you are looking for."
"No." The old monk's eyes were calm. He smiled and shook his head, and replied, "It's you I'm looking for."
"I even know your name," he said. "Your name is—"
"Sister Lily!"
Before Kong Jing could finish his words, I heard Natsume's voice.
He ran over from the path behind me, holding in his hands the big white cat that had always been with him.
"Natsume." I looked at him in surprise, "Why are you here!"
The time agreed with him and his uncle was clearly eight o'clock in the morning, and there were still two minutes before Sensō-ji Temple opened. Why did he come here so early?
And what about my uncle? I didn't see him either.
Natsume was about a hundred or two hundred meters away from me, running very fast.
Perhaps because he hadn't done strenuous exercise in a long time, and he was running with such a fat cat in his arms, he was a little out of breath and had to lean on the wall with one hand to adjust his breathing.
"Sister Lily..." Natsume's eyes were complicated, as if he had never expected to meet me here. He asked, "Why are you here?"
"It's like this." My friend explained, "We came here early in the morning to line up. Every year around Christmas, Sensō-ji Temple is very popular. If you don't get up early, you won't be able to get an amulet."
"Yes, yes." I nodded in agreement, "And because I got up too early, I walked all the way and accidentally walked here."
"......." Natsume paused and said to me with a smile, "So that's how it is."
The big fat cat suddenly jumped off Natsume's hand and walked to the old monk in three or two steps.
"It's you." Kong Jing squatted down, poked its paw gently with his hand, and said, "After so many years, I didn't recognize you at first sight. I'm so embarrassed."
The fat cat slapped his claws away in disgust.
Natsume stared at the monk in front of him, as if wondering why he said such a thing.
I pulled him aside and lowered my voice, "Natsume, this old man must be sick. He just mistook me for someone else, and now he probably mistook your cat for another cat."
"...So that's how it is." He lowered his eyes and repeated in a low voice, "So that's how it is."