The bear child of the Red Chamber, Jia Cong

Wanshou Temple is adjacent to Wengshan Park, with magnificent halls and quiet courtyards. It has been a royal temple since the previous dynasty.The monks devote themselves to practicing, not asking about world affairs, not caring about incense money.Even so, there are still people who firmly believe in the psychic spirit of this temple, and they have worked tirelessly to donate merit.The first and fifteenth day of each month is the day for believers to worship the Buddha, and the temples and temples are busier than usual.On the first day of February, a benefactor came from other places to offer incense.

This man was over 40 years old, wearing crow blue arrow sleeves, with a palm-sized silver abacus hanging from his waist, he looked like a merchant.Nai smiled and bowed his hands with the monk who came out to greet him: "Hi, little master." The monk returned the salute with palms together.Shangjia looked at him and said, "Isn't it Little Master Huijing?"

Monk Huijing said with a smile: "Yes. I have poor eyesight, I didn't recognize the benefactor, and I hope to forgive my sin."

The merchant said: "It's no wonder that the little master doesn't recognize me. I never went to the back, but I met a respected teacher a few years ago." Nai said, "So, now it's the little master who greets guests outside? Where is the master?"

Huijing said: "Yes. I heard that Uncle Dao is now in the Sutra Library." The merchant nodded and said nothing, his expression seemed to be more peaceful, and he did not tell Huijing who he was.

The man began to pay homage to the Buddha from the Hall of Heavenly Kings, and he glanced secretly at the monks he saw along the way.After worshiping Sakyamuni in the main hall, he turned to the side hall, where a monk recorded merit books.The merchant asked with a smile: "Why did you hear that Master is here? Is it because of Master?"

Monk Wen Xin glanced at him, folded his palms together and said, "Because Master and Uncle occasionally catches a cold, he is recuperating in the back."

Shangjia frowned: "Oh. It's not warm yet, masters, you need to pay more attention to your body." Wen Xin hurriedly stood up and thanked him.The merchant said that he would donate merit, and upon hearing the letter, he opened the merit book.The merchant said, "None of the donations I made in the past years were written into this merit book, does Master know?"

Wen Xin was stunned: "Uncle Master never told this poor monk."

The merchant thought for a moment and said, "Forget it, that's it." Then he took out 30 taels of silver and donated his merit.Thank you for hearing the letter.After the merchant donated his merits, he took a look outside and asked, "Master Wenxin, why do I look at the faces of many students in your temple, and I haven't seen them in the early years?"

Wen Dao said: "Recently, the government is renovating the Tianqi Temple, and there is a lot of construction work to be done. Many brothers and uncles from over there have been arranged to come to our temple for a while."

"I see." The merchant nodded and turned to leave.

He had just left when a monk slipped in from the door and asked Wen Xin: "Senior brother, who is this person?"

Wen Dao said, "The poor monk doesn't recognize him."

"But he knows you."

Hearing the letter, he said: "The poor monk doesn't know how he recognizes the poor monk, and the poor monk doesn't recognize him."

The monk said "Yes" and left, and went straight to the abbot's courtyard.Liu Xiaoqi was lying lazily on the desk in the wing room.The monk came in and called out "Qi Ye", and replied to the merchant's words and deeds after entering the temple just now.Liu Xiaoqi thought for a while and asked, "Is anyone following him?"

"Yes." The monk said, "I saw that he was very alert, so I sent an old hand."

Liu Xiaoqi nodded and said: "Re-examined the old monk's house." He thought for a while, "Check every strange and unexpected place." The monk agreed to go out.Liu Xiaoqi picked up the teapot and put it down again, stood up and said, "I'll go with you."

The two of them came to Yin's residence.Liao Yin is not a supervisor in the temple, but an ordinary old monk in charge of merit books.The monk rummaged through it first.Liu Xiaoqi stood in the room with his hands behind his back and looked around for a while, seeing the monk flipping through the scriptures on the desk, he said: "I have flipped through those last time. Since there is another merit book, I don't think I will look through it every day. , it should be hidden in a place that does not move much on weekdays."

Then he moved his eyes to the monk's bed.Because the house is not big and there are not many things.One case, one chair, one cabinet, one bed.Usually the most difficult place to turn is the bed.Liu Xiaoqi lifted the blanket.The temple of the emperor's family is rich, and the monk's bed is made of chicken wing wood, but the bed board is made of ordinary elm wood.Nai picked up a bed board and looked at it.The monk looked back, and suddenly said: "This bed beam is a little thicker than ordinary bed beams."

Liu Xiaoqi immediately said: "Really?"

The monk said: "A few years ago I was a carpenter in the state of Jin, and I learned the craft of carpentry." There's no point in being so rough."

The two looked at each other, the monk checked the bed beam in his hand, and Liu Xiaoqi removed the other bed beam to check.These two are veterans, first look at the tongue and groove.The monk saw it at a glance: a small square of wood was stuffed into the tenon and groove of the bed beam in his hand, as if the master carpenter dug deep when digging the tenon and groove, so a piece of leftover material was used as a pad.Then he extended the tenon and groove to Liu Xiaoqi.

Liu Xiaoqi took a look at the bed beam, took out a pair of large tweezers from his bosom, held his breath and concentrated on picking out a small piece of wood.I saw a deep groove behind the wooden block.Liu Xiaoqi stretched the tweezers in, and immediately picked up a small object.It was a small roll of thin silk, tied with string outside.Tear off the knot and spread out the thin silk, there are indeed three words "Book of Merit and Virtue" on it.Then he looked at the monk and smiled.

That night, Jia Cong and Liu Xiaoqi came to the prison of the Ministry of Justice to visit the old monk Chen who presided over the Wanshou Temple.Liaochen sat cross-legged in the cell, meditating, and only opened his eyes when he heard someone calling him.

Jia Cong smiled and said, "What did Xiao Wang say?" Nai Yang raised the fine silk merit book in Yang's hand.

It was dusty.After a long time, he shook his head and said, "Heaven will destroy my Situ family."

"Don't push everything to the sky, the sky is innocent." Jia Cong said, "Everything is man-made."

It turned out that Jia Cong returned to the abbot's courtyard together with Liao Chen and Liu Xiaoqi after visiting the History Compilation Department of the Cangjing Building that day, clasped his fists and said solemnly, "Master, I'm sorry. I still have to arrest the monk of your temple tonight. "The only way to get rid of the dust is to chant the Buddha.Jia Cong explained, "Using the method of disclosing one secret to cover up another secret is a method I often use myself. Another secret errand in your temple is obviously more important, and it is impossible for the master to tell me. Don't worry about it, the master will not Forced you to say, our people will naturally have the ability to find it."

Liaochen said: "The small temple really has no other errands."

Jia Cong said with a smile: "Master is a monk. A monk lives in a temple for a long time, so he doesn't notice some things. In fact, the flaw is quite obvious."

Liu Xiaoqi asked from behind: "What's the flaw, I didn't see it!"

Jia Cong pointed to the glass clear oil lamp on the desk: "This one."

Both Liu Xiaoqi and Liaochen were at a loss.Liaochen said: "This is just an ordinary oil lamp." Liu Xiaoqi picked up the lamp and looked at it.

Jia Cong gave him a blank look: "Don't look, the lamp is an ordinary lamp."

"Then you say this is a flaw." Liu Xiaoqi also gave him a blank look.

Jia Cong said: "I said this is a flaw, because this thing was only brought to the capital last summer to be fully listed. Do you understand?"

"No."

"I really have no imagination!" Jia Cong twitched his lips and explained, "Glass has existed since ancient times. However, the glass industry in our dynasty has been lost for a long time due to ancient prescriptions, and it has been unable to mass-produce fully transparent glass. Until your regent and I The great pirate Yang Heng was sent to Venice, and a group of glass craftsmen were kidnapped. After years of industrial improvement, they were ready for mass production. In order to avoid publicity, Taiwan’s government seldom did business with transparent glass in the early years. Until last year, The products from Chengtianfu No. [-] Glass Factory were sent to the capital, and they were out of stock in the blink of an eye. This glass clear oil lamp is one of them." He paused.

Liu Xiaoqi urged: "Don't be too tight."

Jia Cong went on to say: "The glass oil lamps in their house are very expensive, but the lotus bud-shaped one on the master's case is even more expensive. There is also the magnolia-shaped one in Master Wenkong's house, he actually has four or five! Just now we In the Sutra Library, I saw these two kinds of glass oil lamps on the desks of the masters who wrote history. From this, we can see that the masters are very generous in spending money, and they are still generous after I, the regent, came to Beijing. I have never, and I do not intend to give you any special funds." He smiled and said, "Where do you get so much money? Is it just because of the little incense in your merit book?" Liao Chen's face suddenly changed.

Liu Xiaoqi said "Oh", "They have other income."

"And it is a large and stable income." Jia Cong said, "I will never feel short of money. I can tell with my toes, since grandpa gave your temple such an important job, and this job is It was completed independently of the imperial court, how can it not give you enough financial support? If you also have to live off the money from the treasury, who knows if you will follow the emperor's order to write history like historians? And these Since the money can be used by all the masters to buy a large number of expensive latest glass oil lamps, it must be a lot. Do you need so much money to write history? No need. Your temple must be more than the Royal Yangshengtang and the editorial department of contemporary history These two functions. There are others. For example..." He smiled and said, "When the world is in chaos, secretly choose the right one, and give him money and talents."

Liu Xiaoqi whistled: "You are really thoughtful."

Jia Cong said: "Grandfather is a very meticulous person. Now that you think that there will be unworthy descendants usurping history in the future, how can you not think of the decline of the dynasty? If we say that the Yanshan bandits are the successors of King Yan, and the Taoists of Huashan are the successors of the Supreme Emperor. , then the Wanshou Temple must have clues to the Grandpa's successor." He then looked at the old monk Chen and said earnestly, "I really can't turn a blind eye to such an important matter. I am wronged all the masters. First go to the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice for a while, and I will have people shave their heads overnight and pretend to be a monk in your monastery, and tomorrow everything will be as usual."

Liu Xiaoqi smiled beside him and said: "The reason for asking people to pretend to be monks from your monastery is to fear that if someone comes to contact you, the monastery will be closed and the others will be frightened."

Jia Cong said: "I believe that not all temples in your temple work carefully. There must be many masters who don't know anything. We will closely unite all the forces that can be united."

After a long while, Liaochen sighed and put his palms together and said, "Everything has its fate."

I thought it would take some time to catch fish, but after seven or eight days, the merchants from other places took the bait.

The merit book in the monk's bed beam records that eighteen families donate merit to Wanshou Temple every three years, and there are nine families who donate a huge amount every time.Therefore, excluding those listed in the merit book outside the monastery, they can still get six tranches of incense money every year, three of which are large, no wonder the monks are so rich.One of the households was headed by Wu Tianzuo.

A few days later, the brothers who followed the foreign merchant sent a telegram back to Beijing: the man is Wu Rui, a great scholar in Cangzhou, his father is Wu Tianzuo, the dean of Cangzhou Donghai Academy, and his uncle is Wu Tianyou, the father of Wu Guifei.

When they received the telegram, Jia Cong and Liu Xiaoqi were chatting in the abbot courtyard of Wanshou Temple, so they looked at each other and smiled.Liu Xiaoqi said: "This Donghai Academy is not in order to reserve literary talents for the new emperor."

"Reserve talents for the imperial court, and release them to assist the emperor in troubled times." Jia Cong said, "Schools are actually the most terrifying place. God knows what they teach students, and who knows where they are sent to when they teach people."

Liu Xiaoqi said: "There is no need to worry about them right now. Even if they have great abilities, why don't they try to find a wise master?"

Jia Cong stretched his waist, "It's up to you anyway."

Liu Xiaoqi stared at the telegram for a while, and said, "Wu Rui's news is very timely. Count the days, if someone leaves Beijing to report to Cangzhou after our action at Wanshou Temple, he will rush over from there. You have to be a fast horse to go back and forth, so you can catch up with the first day of February."

Jia Cong glanced at him: "Isn't this obvious?"

Liu Xiaoqi knocked on the desk: "Say it quickly!"

Jia Cong stood up and said, "I'm going to go for a stroll at the Wengshan Park, will you go?"

Liu Xiaoqi kicked him: "Will you die if you don't tell me?"

"I said, your brain has degenerated or something." Jia Cong straightened his hat, "I won't tell you." Liu Xiaoqi kicked him again and stood up.

The two then went out of the mountain gate, and walked around Wengshan Park, trusting the horses to let the reins.After running away for about two sticks of incense, Jia Cong pointed at a small house by the lake with his whip and said, "That house is elegantly built, and used to harass the master for tea?"

Liu Xiaoqi snorted, urged the horse over without saying a word, jumped straight from the horse to the door of the house, and raised his hand to knock on the door.

Not long after, the wooden door creaked open.A scholar in his twenties stood at the door with a haggard face, looked at Liu Xiaoqi and cupped his hands and asked, "Dare to ask why this brother knocked on my door?"

Jia Cong also arrived at this moment, jumped off the horse, smiled and cupped his hands: "Brother Qiu, hello."

This person was Na Qiusheng whom Jia Cong met at the gate of Wanshou Temple on the day of Lantern Festival.Qiu Sheng squinted at Jia Cong for a moment, slightly startled, and cupped his hands and said, "So it's Brother Zhou. Why did Brother Zhou come here?"

"Come to Brother Qiu." Jia Cong casually threw the reins to the soldiers, "I want to ask Brother Qiu about something."

"What's the matter?"

"On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, it was the Lantern Festival. There was a young scholar who went to the temple to meet a monk instead of going to see the lanterns with his lover or reunite with his family. What was the reason for that? Could it be that the scholar went to chant poems with the monk every day? Pinwen, help someone to check if he is in good health? Is he in a good mood? The scholar’s ​​uncle is Imperial Physician Han. Imperial Physician Han has two older sisters who are married in Beijing, and one of them is surnamed Qiu. Although he is only a sixth-rank official However, the family is well-off and harmonious. The eldest son of this family does not live at home for some reason, but lives alone in a small house by the Wengshan Bo. " Jia Cong said with a smile, "This Mr. Qiu worships a Mr. Niu is the teacher. Mr. Niu was also a second-class Jinshi. Because he was too weak to be an official, he only taught a few students at home. By the way, this Mr. Niu is from Cangzhou, and he once studied at Donghai Academy. Qiu Brother, Wansheng checked right."