dragon pen

Hui Hai is dead.

In a sense, he also died in the arms of Shi Kong, a junior brother—this was the first time Shi Kong witnessed human death. When it happened in front of him, he was still terrified.

That night, he didn't know how he carried Hui Hai's body back to Anle Temple. Normally, if he was asked to pick up two buckets of water, he would shake one and a half buckets away—but he just gritted his teeth and lifted Hui Hai's body from behind. Shan carried his back all the way up the mountain, except that Hui Hai was taller than him and dragged his feet on the ground, Shi Kong didn't let his body suffer any more friction.

Later, Shi Hai thought about it, he could do this, and the grief seemed too abstract if he said it in one go, in fact, it should be because the Hui Hai at this time has gone far away from the lively and troublesome appearance in his memory— - The skin is pale and bloodless, the bruises under the eyes seem to have not slept well for several days, the cheeks are slightly sunken, and the whole person is almost out of shape.

"Come here, come here, master, senior brother Shi Yuan—"

The cry of the little monk disturbed the Anle Temple in the early morning.

From the monk's room, clusters of orange candles were lit, and the sleepy monks in their inner clothes rubbed their eyes and sat up from the bed, thinking carefully to distinguish that this was the cry of their little brother Shikong——

So they fell asleep and woke up for most of the time. They looked at each other, and at first thought that the child had some nightmare in the middle of the night and was frightened... But thinking about it carefully, the crying seemed too hysterical.

At this moment, Shi Yuan locked himself in his room and copied the scriptures for the night before, when he heard Shi Kong's cry, the brush in his hand trembled, and the last stroke of the word "Buddha" was dragged far away——

out of its original shape.

"..."

Lowering his eyes and putting down his pen, Shi Yuan opened the door, and saw Shi Kong standing in front of the big tripod censer in the courtyard. At this moment, the normally handsome young monk looked extremely embarrassed—his body was soaked with sweat. Or something else, with crying all over his face, snot and tears mixed into his mouth, and on his back...

It is also carrying a lifeless person with its head hanging down steadily.

Probably because his legs dragged all the way back, one of Hui Hai's shoes was missing, and his clean white socks were covered with dirty dirt and moss; The red mark on Taoism seems to be tightly wound by something; the strangest thing is that the crotch of his monk's robe is wet, but it doesn't seem to be caused by incontinence...

"Shikong? Brother Huihai?"

The monks gathered around one after another, and they were shocked to see that Hui Hai was clearly dead——

That night, what shocked An Le Temple was not just Shi Kong's nightmare.

When the abbot of Anle Temple arrived, Hui Hai's body had already been put down from Shi Kong's back, and a senior brother found a white sheet and covered him to cover up the mess and scars on his body. Abbot Hai lifted a corner of the bed sheet and took a look. He stared at Hui Hai's sleeping face for a long time, then he closed his eyes slightly, and only sighed——

"Amitabha."

At that moment, everyone only thought that Master had aged a lot in an instant.

Anle Temple presided over the Dharma name Yuanhai. He took apart the two characters in the Dharma name and presented them to his two favorite disciples respectively. One was Shi Yuan who was the most respected by everyone and had the deepest Zen heart; the other was Hui Hai, who was always punished by him, who seemed to be unable to support the wall with mud, was always jumping up and down... They all said that Hui Hai was brought back from outside when Master was young. , but fortunately, Yuanhai happened to pass by and rescued these children one by one when he was traveling in the clouds, but he only brought Huihai back to Anle Temple.

Master treats Hui Hai as if he treats his own son.

Now that Huihai died unexpectedly, he is deeply saddened—although the monks pay attention to the purity of the six senses and forget the karma and evil fate of the mundane world, but the gathering of these people in Anle Temple is probably an indescribable "fate" in itself.

"Senior Brother Hui Hai, what's wrong?"

"No one knows, Shi Kong, where did you find Senior Brother Hui Hai?"

"Looking at the tide in this body, I'm afraid it's by the mountain spring in the back mountain... It's midnight, what is Huihai doing there?"

"Senior Brother Huihai seems to be entangled by something..."

At this time, all the monks in Anle Temple hurriedly moved Huihai away. Everyone's attention was on Huihai, and they forgot about the situation of their little brother for a moment—I don't know when he stopped crying. When did he become quiet? The little monk stood there blankly, without a sound, as quiet as if he had lost his breath.

He didn't cry anymore.

He just watched without blinking his seniors gradually moving Huihai away. At this time, his eyes accidentally glanced at Huihai's dirty white socks exposed outside the quilt. He paused, turned around and was about to go out... …

"Where?"

Only Shi Yuan grabbed Shi Kong's hand.

"Shoes, I'm going to look for shoes for Senior Brother Huihai." Shi Kong turned his head and glanced at Shi Yuan as if his eyes were empty, "It is said that there are dogs on the road to Huangquan, and the road is also bumpy. Without shoes, Senior Brother Huihai will suffer on the road."

The little monk answered Shi Yuan's words as if he was muttering to himself. He spoke seriously, but the light was lost in his normally bright black pupils.

"It's not yet dawn," Shi Yuan said, "I'm going to go after dawn, and senior brother will accompany you there."

"What does it have to do with whether it's morning or not? Shoe, I'm going to find that shoe—"

Shi Kong just repeated it thoughtfully, he was about to break away from Shi Yuan's hand, but Shi Yuan refused to let go, Shi Kong struggled with him but failed, but at this moment he came back to his senses, he blinked and saw Shi Yuan: "Brother, do you know something?"

"No."

"Then why don't you let me go?"

"I can't see the road clearly at night. Senior brother is afraid that you will fall down the mountain. Hui Hai is already sad enough. Senior brother doesn't want to feel sad because of another person."

"..." Shi Kong stopped talking. He stared at Shi Yuan for a while. After a long time, his black pupils suddenly lit up and finally fell silent. He shook his head and stepped back slightly. This time he broke free and released Shi Yuan. Yuan's hand, "But brother, I can't see the 'sad' you said in your eyes."

Shi Yuan paused for a moment, and then he just said indifferently: "You are still young and don't understand anything. When you grow up, the senior brother will tell you these things."

"Forget it, I don't want to hear it either."

Shi Kong raised his hand to wipe his nose and tears, took one last look at Shi Yuan, then turned around and left without looking back in the direction of the back mountain. There was no trace, and the shoe that Huihai dropped was placed upright at the place where Huihai fell.

This shoe should have been lost halfway up the mountain.

It should be that when he was carrying Hui Hai, the dragon man walked behind him for a while, and picked up the shoes... As for how far he followed him, Shi Kong found that he didn't know at all——

Shi Kong stepped forward, picked up Huihai's shoes and held them in his arms like a baby, only then did he realize that there was a note under the shoes, writing "There are monsters in the temple, take care of yourself" horoscope'...

Shi Kong held the note for a long time, then crumpled it up, tore it up and threw it into the spring——

Demon?Shi Kong looked at the boulder washed by the spring and thought, aren't you a demon?

……

Yuan Hai also personally recited sutras for three days and three nights in front of the Buddhist hall, and began to arrange for the funeral. Hui Hai's body did not stay too long until the so-called first seven days before it was cremated hastily - before the cremation, it was Master Yuan Hai who purified himself After changing into clean clothes, Hui Hai lay down on the shelf made of dead branches, with a peaceful face as if asleep.

His whole body was covered tightly, and even his neck was wrapped with a bandage, so no one probably knew the hideous horror of the deep purple strangle marks that were hidden under the bandage and appeared not long ago...

But no one knows, but Shi Kong knows.

Standing by the blazing fire, at that moment he only felt chills all over——

Witnessing that scene was a coincidence.

Speaking of these days, he suffers from insomnia every night, and he is in a trance during the day, plus the original temple is dull and peaceful, so he can only rely on Huihai's nonsense to add a little bit of vitality, but now Huihai is dead—and it is because of him death——the entire Anle Temple was so quiet during the day that it seemed that someone had cast a silencing spell, but at night, it was more like a lonely grave.

Shikong can't fall asleep every night, and when he sleeps lightly, he is always awakened by nightmares. In the dream, when he crossed the sea of ​​wisdom by the river, he hadn't swallowed his last breath. He just cried and watched with his sunken eyes. Shi Kong, chanting some words——

My prayer beads...

I'm so dirty.

Let me wash in the spring water.

That thing is uncomfortable, take it out, Shi Kong, you take that thing out for me, otherwise I can't go on the road with peace of mind.

Shikong, don't go under the acacia tree.

……

At this point, Shi Kong was awakened from the nightmare——

He didn't know if these dreams meant that Huihai couldn't say anything to him with a peaceful mind, and he wanted to understand what was going on, but since Huihai's body was brought back by him, he was never able to visit him even At a glance, he had no choice but to inquire about Brother Hui Hai's prayer beads——

However, everyone was ambiguous, but their utterances were surprisingly consistent: they didn't see Brother Hui Hai's prayer beads.

But on the night of the accident, Huihai kept vigil, so it is impossible that he did not bring his Buddhist beads with him...

Shi Kong became suspicious.

So the next day, he pulled himself together and walked out of his room. Everyone was relieved to see that he no longer locked himself up, and let him walk around... Shi Kong came all the way to the The last time Ye saw Brother Hui Hai's Buddhist hall, looking at the half-opened Buddhist hall door, vaguely remembered the scene where he hid by the wall that night and watched Hui Hai push the door open and walk out, his eyes turned red——

If I had known that day, I would have stepped forward to talk to him, regardless of whether he was punished or not, and let senior brother Hui Hai hold his ear to the master to complain, maybe he would not have to die.

Shi Kong was filled with remorse, his feet were numb and he walked around. When he came back to his senses, he realized that, like a ghost, he had unknowingly come under the acacia tree...

On weekdays, this tree is probably full of faithful men and women. However, due to Huihai’s incident, Anle Temple was closed recently. At this time, there was no one under the tree. He almost fell, he held onto the trunk to stabilize, and then suddenly remembered: By the way, Senior Brother Hui Hai also mentioned this tree in his dream.

Shi Kong squinted slightly to look at his feet, picked it up and found that it was a scattered Buddhist beads——

Shi Kong's heart sank.

Put the beads near the tip of the nose.In addition to smelling the sandalwood's own woody fragrance, there is also a slight fishy smell that is about to be covered by the smell of mud and dew... Shi Kong frowned slightly, hesitated for a while, and decided to show the master the beads. Turning around and walking towards the meditation room——

Asking along the way, a senior brother told him that Yuan Hai was busy washing Hui Hai's body and changing clothes, and that he was about to be buried in a few days. At this time, Shi Kong still felt strange. A hasty burial?

With such doubts, he approached the room where Yuan Hai washed Hui Hai's body, but for some reason he didn't bother him, thinking of Hui Hai's words in the recent nightmare, he sneaked on the window and looked into the room——

Then he saw a scene that he will never forget.

At this moment, Hui Hai lying on the bed was probably about to wash himself off. He was naked, so Shi Kong could see that his body, neck, and thighs were covered with purple and black bruises at a glance. Scars, all over the body, it can be said that only above the head is intact!

This seems to be a trace of being entangled and bound by something, and it is definitely not done by humans.

Shi Kong almost screamed, he could only bite his fist tightly, staring down with wide eyes——

He saw Yuanhai put a basin on the ground, helped Huihai up again, let the stiff body stand up, and then shook it with difficulty—what was shocking was that there was only a soft "click" sound, and a The Buddha beads fell from Hui Hai's crotch, with a little dripping, and a little milky white liquid mixed in the transparency...

The bead fell into the basin, and the sound made Shi Kong's eyelids twitch.My heart froze suddenly.

One.

two.

Three.

four...

Countless Buddhist beads fell one after another, and the flowing liquid wet Hui Hai's crotch. Finally, when Hui Hai's slightly raised belly was flattened by the beads, Yuan Hai put down Hui Hai, who had been in a mess for a long time. , took a piece of clean gauze and wiped off the filth for him...

After that is cleaning.

After washing, Yuanhai wrapped Huihai's body layer by layer with gauze to cover those blue bruises.

——Finally, putting on a clean monk robe, Hui Hai became the peaceful appearance lying in front of everyone.

"..."

Shikong watched the flames gradually swallow Huihai, his fingernails got stuck in his palm and he bled, but he didn't know it. He only knew that some monsters entered Anle Temple and humiliated Huihai to death in a cruel way...

The sky-burning flames were reflected in his pupils. At this moment, he no longer believed that there was such a thing as a so-called monster in this world——

Demons are originally demons, and they should be exterminated!