Hibiskus als Gemälde

Kapitel 43

"The higher-ups said that these two kids are definitely hiding somewhere on the south bank of the Yellow River. As long as they get the message, they will definitely come," said Team Leader Zhang, though he himself wasn't very confident.

In the crowd, a one-eyed Taoist priest glanced over inadvertently.

Team leader Zhang felt a chill run down his spine. The Taoist priest's gaze seemed to carry a hint of mockery. This person was no ordinary individual, so he became wary.

At this moment, an elderly dwarf appeared in the crowd. He had a large head, fair and delicate skin, short limbs, and was wearing a dark blue Zhongshan suit, which caught his attention.

Since the night the body of Master Yidu was discovered missing under the ginkgo tree at Fengling Temple, the leader had a premonition that another group of people were hiding in Hedong, also heading towards "Fenghou Mausoleum". He ordered Song Diweng to be on guard and expand the search area. After giving the instructions, he and Lou Yi hurriedly returned to the capital.

After discussing with Secretary Qin, Song Diweng sent a notice for assistance to the public security departments in the neighboring Yellow River and Wei River basins of Shaanxi Province through the county public security bureau. Sure enough, the news came back quickly: Tongguan Foya Temple was scheduled to hold a memorial service for Master Yidu of Fengling Temple on the 16th day of the third lunar month, the birthday of Bodhisattva Cundi. Many devout men and women would go to Foya Temple on Songguo Mountain in Tongguan to worship.

"Master Yidu?" Song Diweng looked at the situation report in his hand and sneered inwardly. Hmph, the secret has finally been exposed. Who stole Yidu's body? We'll find out once we go to Tongguan.

"Could it be that the monks of Foya Temple secretly dug up and transported Master Yidu away?" Secretary Qin speculated.

“No,” Song Diweng categorically denied. “Buddhists would definitely hold a chanting ceremony when exhuming a corpse; they would never do it secretly. Besides, how would they know that the body was buried under the ginkgo tree?”

Secretary Qin nodded in agreement: "Then who could have done it?"

Song Diweng chuckled and said, "Wouldn't it be clear as soon as you attend the Dharma assembly at Tongguan?"

"How can we, the local authorities in Ruicheng, cooperate?" Secretary Qin asked humbly.

"No need, Ziyun and I can go." Song Diweng, confident in his extraordinary skills, waved his hand and declined.

On the fifteenth day of the third lunar month, the first day of the Dharma assembly, he and Daoist Fei arrived in Tongguan County. After staying overnight, they followed the pilgrims to Buddha Head Mountain in Anle Township the next morning.

"Master, there seems to be something wrong with those people under that tree. They don't look like worshippers at all," Master Fei whispered.

Song Diweng had already noticed this and gently instructed, "Keep a close eye on them. Those people are strong and agile, unlike farmers. They might be the ones who stole Master Yidu. Their goal is naturally still to find 'Feng Houling'."

"Yes, Master." Master Fei glanced at the crowd again, then followed them into the temple.

Fotou Mountain belongs to the Qinling Mountains and has been known as a "famous scenic spot in Guannan" and "the second wonder of the Western Mountain" since ancient times. The mountaintop is often shrouded in white clouds. Climbing to the top of Fotou Mountain, one can see the Yellow and Wei Rivers flowing into the distance and the vast Qin River Plain in full view. It is a sacred Buddhist site in the border area of Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan provinces.

Looking at the bustling crowds and the rising smoke from the temple, Song Diweng pondered to himself, "Where is that cunning and treacherous Taoist priest Jia Shiming now?"

That night, Master Jia hadn't actually gone far. The sudden death of Master Yidu of Fengling Temple and the sudden appearance of the strange man Song Diweng in the capital all revolved around "Feng Houling". At this moment, how could the cunning Jia Shiming just leave?

He had already noticed that a small door behind the main hall was ajar, and outside the door was a large pine forest that stretched all the way to the Yellow River.

Master Jia stood on the bank of the Yellow River and saw a small fishing boat in the middle of the water. When the boat slowly glided into the reeds, he went up to ask it what was wrong.

"Fellow villager, have you been fishing on the Yellow River all night?" Master Jia asked.

"What's wrong?" The boatman, a middle-aged man, looked warily at the blind Taoist priest in black. Since the Yellow River thawed this year, the fishery administration has been cracking down hard on poaching Yellow River carp. He had been secretly setting his nets, and he was afraid of getting caught.

Master Jia smiled slightly and said, "Fellow villager, I am a blind monk and would like to ask you about two children."

"Children?" The boatman said in surprise, remembering the young monk and his sister who had crossed the river not long ago.

"Have you seen a little monk and a little girl?" Master Jia asked bluntly.

The boatman carefully examined the Taoist priest who had suddenly appeared on the banks of the Yellow River in the early morning and asked warily, "What's wrong with the child?"

Master Jia already understood, so he lied and said, "I am their uncle. I came here today to find the children. So, they didn't wait for me and have already crossed the river?"

The boatman nodded and replied, "The little monk's family member is sick, so they have already crossed the Yellow River."

"Can you carry me across the river?" Master Jia asked.

"No, I'm hauling in my nets," the boatman refused.

Master Jia chuckled and continued, "Did they say where their home is?"

The boatman thought, "This Taoist priest claims to be the child's uncle, yet he doesn't know where his sister lives?" So he coldly replied, "I don't know, they didn't say."

Master Jia pondered that the children had already crossed the river, and judging by their speed, their home couldn't be too far away. He could search for them later. Right now, he should go back to Fengling Temple and see what else Song Diweng had up his sleeve.

He took a long detour and returned to Fengling Temple, hiding in the dark woods outside the temple to quietly observe the movements inside. At dawn, Song Diweng and the others left Fengling Temple. After they had gone far away, Master Jia jumped down from the tree and quietly sneaked back into the temple.

He stood under the thousand-year-old ginkgo tree, his feet on the soft, fresh soil, and murmured, "Master Yidu, a great monk of his generation, I never thought he would end up like this. Alas, for the sake of us fellow monks, I will do a good deed."

Master Jia found a hoe, dug out Yidu's body again, hid it in the pine forest behind the hall, then filled the pit back in and quietly left Fengling Temple.

Late the next night, two strong-looking men drove a donkey cart carrying a coffin to the pine forest behind the Fengling Temple. They hastily laid Master Yidu to rest, then drove the donkey cart across the Yellow River at Fenglingdu and headed towards Tongguan Foya Temple.

Chapter Sixty-Two of the Main Text

Behind the Buddha Head Cliff of Dongsongguoshan in Tongguan is a black pine forest. Youliang, carrying Nizi on his back, walked out of the forest and sat down to rest on a large blue stone.

"Nizi, look at this mountain, it looks like a Buddha's head. That must be Buddha Head Cliff," Youliang said, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

Nizi nodded, squinted at the steep, axe-hewn cliff face, and gasped. How were they going to get up there...?

That night, just as Nizi dragged the unconscious Youliang out, the thatched house burned down and collapsed. Youliang's parents and the two masked men perished in the fire.

When Youliang woke up, it was already dawn. His house had long been burned to the ground, still emitting acrid smoke and charred fumes. Villagers from Aoli Village had rushed to help put out the fire. It wasn't until it was fully light that the township's special police officer arrived. The villagers then dug out the bodies of Youliang's parents from the rubble and ashes. In addition, they found two charred human bodies that had shrunk to the size of children.

"Who are these two people?" the villagers wondered.

Overwhelmed with grief, Youliang shook his head; he didn't know who the two people were.

“We’re here to steal things,” Nizi told them.

The Tongguan County Public Security Bureau's Criminal Investigation Team arrived at the scene, and the forensic doctor performed an autopsy on all the bodies. The final conclusion was that Youliang's parents died from stab wounds, and the dagger was still stuck in Youliang's mother's abdomen. The two unidentified bodies were completely burned to death, and their lungs and tracheas were filled with soot.

"Child, what did you see?" the detective asked Nizi.

“Two masked men killed people with knives and set houses on fire. I don’t know why they ended up on the fire…” Nizi replied.

"It was from the smoke. The two burglars who broke into the house were knocked unconscious by the thick smoke and perished in the fire," the criminal investigation captain said with certainty.

"Then how come these two children are alright?" someone asked.

"Children are short, and the hot smoke rises, so they were able to breathe in some oxygen and escaped unharmed in time. It's really fortunate," the criminal police captain explained.

Only Nizi knew the truth: those two masked men weren't thieves at all; they were after her, undoubtedly for the Guo family's "secret." Nizi didn't say anything. She didn't know who was good or trustworthy. Since her grandfather's death, a series of strange events had planted a seed of suspicion in her young mind, making her distrust everyone in the world.

She only regretted her kind and loving parents, who were like grandfathers to her, and the martial arts manual "The Five Forms of Bodhidharma" that had been passed down to her by Master Yidu and was burned in the fire.

But Nizi was unaware that, thanks to Yang Gong and the Old Ancestor, she possessed extraordinary talents. The meridians, energy flow, and techniques depicted in those secret manuals were already deeply imprinted in her mind. The "Five Forms of Bodhidharma" was completely different from ordinary martial arts training. It was a martial art that Bodhidharma had comprehended after meditating facing a wall for nine years. Therefore, it could only be realized after reaching the ultimate state of meditation and stillness, and could not be mastered through arduous practice day and night.

In the following days, the villagers helped Youliang bury his parents. Youliang refused the kind people's offer to adopt him and Nizi, saying that he was almost thirteen years old and should take on the responsibility of taking care of Nizi and supporting them.

After nightfall yesterday, Youliang secretly took Nizi and slipped out of Aoli Village, heading west overnight towards Tongguan.

Tongguan Pass ranks second among the ten famous passes in the Central Plains. It has a long history and rich culture. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao established Tongguan Pass in the first year of Jian'an (196 AD) to prevent the chaos in Guanzhong. At the same time, he abandoned Hangu Pass, saying that its strategic position was "to guard the nine provinces, and even birds cannot cross it".

During the Tang Dynasty, the great poet Cui Hao wrote in his poem "Inscription on Tongguan Tower":

The traveler encountered rain that had cleared, and rested his horse at the ferry tower.

The mountains are majestic in the Guanzhong Plain, and the pass guards the entire country.

The river flows from Sichuan to Shaanxi, meandering around Huayin.

As I climb to this vantage point at dusk, a thousand miles of wind and smoke evoke a sense of melancholy...

At the foot of Dongsongguo Mountain in Tongguan, Youliang held Nizi's hand as the two struggled to climb up the back of Fotouya Cliff. Fortunately, there was a narrow crevice that meandered to the top of the mountain, too narrow for adults to pass through, but small children could squeeze through sideways.

After an unknown amount of time, the two, covered in dust and dirt, finally climbed to the top of Buddha Head Cliff. Before them stood a blue brick wall with a small, ajar door—this was the backyard of Buddha Cliff Temple. Anyone with a conscience knows that most temples have back doors, convenient for the monks who work in the fields to transport firewood, rice, and vegetables in and out.

Today, a Dharma assembly is being held, and the kitchen is bustling with activity as the monks prepare the vegetarian lunch.

"Hey, are you new here? Come help me wash the vegetables, I'm so busy." A kitchen monk saw Youliang's bald head and mistook him for a newly entered monk who had not yet been ordained.

Seeing that they were indeed very busy, she and Nizi helped pick and wash the vegetables. When they had a little free time, she asked the monk who worked at the fire, "Master, do you know where Master Yidu is?"

"Is that the monk from Fengling Temple in Hedong, Shanxi?" asked the monk Huogong.

"Yes," Youliang quickly replied.

"Today we will cremate him," the monk sighed.

“Criminalization?” Although Youliang had heard about the peddler monk Yidu, he still didn’t understand.

“Criminalization is the same as ’cremation,’” an old monk who walked in through the door said. “It is called ‘shavishabido’, which means cremation after the death of a bhikkhu.”

"Is Master Yidu really dead?" Youliang asked softly, overcome with grief.

"You know Brother Yidu?" the old monk asked in surprise.

“I… I am a disciple of Master Yidu, and I have been at Fengling Temple for several years…” Youliang said, sobbing.

The old monk was startled. He looked around and finally his gaze fell on Nizi's hand... He saw the brass thimble.

“Children, come with me,” the old monk said.

The old monk led Youliang and Nizi through the back hall passageway to a small room in the corner of the temple. This room was where the bodies of monks were laid to rest after they passed away, similar to a hospital morgue.

On a simple wooden bed, lay the deceased Master Yidu, his face serene, wearing a brand-new yellow kasaya.

Youliang cried out and threw himself into his master's arms, bursting into tears. Nizi was also in tears, standing there in a daze.

"Child, where did you get this copper thimble?" The old monk looked at Nizi with kindness.

“It was left to me by my grandfather,” Nizi said, sobbing.

"Your grandfather is..." The old monk raised his eyebrows and asked with considerable surprise.

“I live with my grandfather in Fenglingdu. His name is Guo Zichang,” Nizi replied.

"Ah..." The old monk was shocked upon hearing this.

"So, Guo Zichang has passed away..." the old monk said quietly.

"Mmm." Nizi's eyes were filled with tears.

The old monk remained silent for a long time before speaking: "My Dharma name is Weidu, and I am the junior brother of Master Yidu. What is your name?"

“Guo Ni,” Ni Zi replied. She felt that the old monk was kind and approachable, just like Master Yidu, and was a trustworthy person.

"Alright, child, tell me, how did your grandfather and Senior Brother Yidu die?" the old monk Weidu asked softly.

“Grandpa died of illness, and Master Yidu was shot by bad guys…” Nizi told the old monk.

“No wonder. With Senior Brother Yidu’s martial arts skills, there should be few people in the world who can hurt him. Who is the bad guy?” the old monk Weidu pondered.

“He’s an old Taoist priest, surnamed Fei,” Nizi said, recalling the scene when Master Fei broke into Fengling Temple, and added, “He’s now a one-eyed man.”

"The one-eyed man surnamed Fei?" The old monk Weidu thought for a moment, then shook his head, and finally asked, "Child, where are you staying now?"

“We were originally hiding at Youliang’s house,” Nizi said, pointing to Youliang’s red and swollen eyes beside her. “A couple of nights ago, two bad guys wearing masks came and killed Youliang’s parents and set the house on fire.”

"Amitabha... How did you escape?" the old monk asked with pity.