Kam

When he was about to go to bed at night, the old man asked Ah Jian a question.

"Little thing, will you follow me?"

Ah Jian thought for a while, then asked him, "Can I take Feilian with me?"

"No," said the old man, "he will die if he leaves here."

Ah Jian was stunned for a moment, then asked in a trembling voice: Why?

"He's too anxious. Although swallowing the fairy's orb can turn him into a human immediately, not only can he not leave the orb, but he can never leave this mountain. Once he leaves here, he will die."

It was very quiet in the small house for a while.After a long time, the old man's voice sounded again: "Do you know why he is in such a hurry to become a human?"

Ah Jian's voice was still trembling: "I don't know."

"A few years ago when he was a little magpie, a little boy saved it. You know that little boy, you can see him every day when you look at yourself in the pond. The little boy took him in. The little magpie, after all its wounds healed up, put it back into the mountain. A few years later, the little boy went to the temple to fulfill his wish, but he fell down the mountain and died.” The old man suddenly smiled and reached out to touch A Jian’s Head, comforting with compassion and love, "Don't be afraid, the old man lied to you, little thing. He is not dead, the magpie found the body of the little boy, exhausted all his cultivation, and put his soul in a car just passing by on the white mink."

"...Is it me?" Ah Jian asked, "But I can't remember anything..."

"Yeah, you can't remember anything. Although you can't remember anything, you still continue to raise your magpie in a decent way." The old man laughed and looked up at the beams, "It's so fun, A white mink, when he is full, he will pick fruit and put it at the entrance of the cave, waiting for the magpies to eat. You are so interesting."

Ah Jian, who couldn't remember anything, felt very sad.

"Does it like to eat?"

He was a little relieved when he got an affirmative answer.

The old man painted quietly in the temple on weekdays, and went out to watch the white sables and magpies play in his spare time.One day he was still packing up his pen and ink, but when he opened the back door, he saw a white marten lying at the door covered in blood, and a magpie stood beside it, trembling.

Seeing the old man come out, Magpie bowed his head and pushed the white mink in front of him with difficulty.White Sable was unconscious, with a deep arrow wound on his shoulder.The old man couldn't bear it anymore, so he took the white sable back to the temple and carefully treated it.

The magpie looks at it every day, and stops between the branches and leaves of the bodhi tree, standing silently, standing as a shadow.

Then one day, a young boy walked out of the room. He was dressed in clean white clothes and had thick black hair tied up casually behind his head.The magpie was so frightened that it almost fell from the tree. It quickly jumped off a few branches and stopped not far from the boy.

Then it heard the old man ask the young man, "Do you know who you are?"

"I don't know." The boy asked back, "Who are you?"

"Just call me Master." The old man said.

The magpie called a few times on the branch.

The old man looked up and saw it, smiled at it, then lowered his head and asked the boy, "Little thing, do you know what it's called?"

"I don't know." The boy looked blank, "Is it a bird? What kind of bird?"

"It's your bird." The old man teased him, "You don't want it anymore?"

The boy replied honestly: "I'm sorry, I don't know what bird you are talking about."

The magpie fell silent.It quietly watched the young man help the old man carry water, and watched the young man sit on the stone table with his chin resting, yawning occasionally, and watching the old man draw most of the time.And it stood in the sun and the shade, and it was a little cold.

After that, it finally waited until the immortals from the Nine Heavens descended to the world.While they were playing and bathing in the lake, he stole a precious orb at the risk of losing his soul.

"He should miss you very much." The old man said, "Suddenly increased the cultivation base of thousands of years. If it can't survive the difficulty of transforming, it will die immediately."

Ah Jian's fingers were twisted together, placed, twisted together again.He suddenly wanted to say a lot to Feilian, but he didn't know where to start.

"Master, I can't go with you." A Jian said, "I want to practice with Fei."

"That doesn't work either." The old man was still smiling, "If you leave me, you will die too."

The Bodhisattva drawn by his pen can actually walk out of the wall to talk and dance. Of course, Ah Jian will not think that his master is an ordinary person.But at first hearing this sentence, he was still a little scared.

"I will protect you, so you will always be A Jian in human form, and you don't have to turn back into a dying white mink." The old man said seriously, "Do you understand, little thing? Now you completely rely on my strength to live..."

The door of the room was knocked open suddenly, and Fei Lian rushed in angrily.

"Huh? Don't eavesdrop?" The old man smiled.

Fei Lian ignored him, and handed A Jian a red bead: "Eat it. Don't rely on this old man."

Ah Jian grabbed his hand, tongue-tied, and didn't say anything for a long time, but carefully gathered his fingers together and held them tightly in his palm: "I don't want to eat."

He knew that this bead was related to Fei Lian's life and death, so he absolutely couldn't eat it.

"You have saved me twice, you don't have to..."

Feilian was furious, and interrupted him: "Eat as soon as I tell you! Just save me later!"

"That's not how it works!" Ah Jian was also angry.

"I didn't count that way either!" Fei Lian roared.

The two hummed angrily, you glared at me, I glared at you.The bead hangs between the two, and the brilliance flows.

The old man reached out and grabbed the beads, and took out the small knife he used to peel fruit from his pocket.The blade was rusty, and he blew, and it was as clean as new.

"You let him eat, he lets you eat, no one will eat, why don't you share?" He put the blade on the bead, "If it's only half of each person, Ah Jian can only survive as a white sable, Fei Lian You can maintain your human form for only half a day, is that okay?"

In this way, a year has passed.

The courtyard is usually not very lively. Occasionally, a big monk from outside comes to give lectures, and other monks in the temple let him live in the small courtyard.Every great monk will be surprised when he sees the paintings on the four walls when he enters the courtyard, and then he puts his hands together and asks "who painted it" after a few prostrations.None of the monks in the temple could tell who painted it. All they knew was that this deserted small courtyard was suddenly full of brilliance one night. Bodhisattva and Yunyan are as vivid as if they could come out of the moonlight.

However, there was no one in the yard, only a white marten and a magpie, leaning against the linden tree, sound asleep.

Later, the monks came more often, and became familiar with the white sable and magpie, and they would tell a mysterious story when they were asked.Visitors or monks from other places also find it interesting to see that the ermine and magpie are never afraid of people, and they snuggle together to sleep soundly during the day.The magpie's wings cover the ermine's head, as if shielding it from the sun; the ermine bends into a ball, holding the magpie in its arms, as if shielding it from the wind and warming it.

Everyone should fold their palms together, look at the Bodhisattva on the wall and at the two little beasts, and silently recite a sentence of compassion from heaven and earth.

And so, a few more years passed.

Ah Jian and Fei Lian have been waiting for the fairies who came down to take a bath to come down and wash again.In the past few years, Fei Lian has become extremely proficient at stealing small objects, and no one can match him.Before leaving, the old man told them mysteriously: "When you see the immortal, steal another bead, and you two will eat it separately, that's all."

Ajian asked: Steal?

"Discuss, I'm talking about discussing." The old man emphasized, turned around and turned into a cloud of fog, not knowing which temple he was going to.

The white mink wants to eat meat, so Fei Lian has also developed hunting skills. Every day when he transforms into a human form, he puts a white mink on his shoulder, takes a homemade bow and arrow and shoots it everywhere, frightening the animals in the mountains.And when he recovered to become a magpie, he no longer dared to be so domineering, and could only sleep obediently next to Ah Jian.

"Will the fairies come again?" Ah Jian looked up at the moon that had just risen and asked.

Fei Lian was sitting by the pond cutting bamboo to make a hunting trap, and nodded: "It will come one day. Isn't this pond...not that...does it have immortal energy?"

Ah Jian didn't understand that they were all immortals, so why bothered to go down to the world to take a bath with immortal energy.He sighed, thinking of the scene he saw at that time, he yearned a little: "Fairies are so beautiful."

There was silence by the pond.Fei Lian threw the bamboo branch, strode over to pick it up, and glared at him: "Who looks good?! Which looks good!"

Ah Jian quickly stuck out his tongue and licked his nose: "You look the best."

This trick has always worked, Fei Lian is not so angry anymore.

"You are not allowed to say that others are good-looking." Fei Lian pinched its ears, "and you are not allowed to say that others are good-looking."

A Jian thought it was funny.Feilian's temper became more and more strange, but he didn't hate it at all.

"Where can anyone be better than you?" He kissed Fei Lian's cheek.

Behind them, clouds of seven colors slowly emerged from the dark blue sky, descending towards the pond.