Day and night tour

Chapter 89 Dreams in the Book
Ignoring the guests' surprised looks, Zhou Xuan walked to the sixth table and continued lecturing.

"This gentleman is not following the rules." Huang Jiu was a little annoyed. It was his mother's birthday and the guests were watching. If he behaved like this, wouldn't it be a disgrace to the Huang family?

"What are the rules? If we were talking about rules, we yellow-skinned people shouldn't be preaching Buddhism here."

After Lady Lotus scolded her son, she said, "Look how happy those youngsters are. They can be happy. The storyteller is a good gentleman. Listen carefully."

"Yeah!" Huang Jiu nodded.

"Speaking of the White-Eyebrowed Hero Xu Liang, he is really smart. He has developed a set of boxing techniques called Eight Steps to Chase the Toad, which works every time he performs it... Take this first move for example, which makes Li Tieguai fall down the ladder to heaven."

The little yellow-skinned kids were listening with fascination, when suddenly, they heard the sound of a wake-up stick "clicking".

Suddenly, they were no longer at a banquet, but inside a Taoist temple. There was a plaque at the entrance with three large characters on it - Jiuhe Palace!

The episode of storytelling told by Zhou Xuan was about the martial arts competition between Xu Liang and the three great masters of the northern frontier in the Jiuhe Palace.

"Snapped!"

Zhou Xuan's wake-up stick rang again, and he used the storyteller's four incense sticks method - it was like a dream.

The little yellow-skinned people saw an old Taoist priest suddenly appear in Jiuhe Palace, along with a young man with white eyebrows and a white robe, who was carrying a big sword on his back. The edge of the sword had holes and nine iron rings strung on it.

"White-browed Xu Liang."

The little yellow-skinned boys were all very excited. They got down from the table and went to "Xu Liang".

"Snapped!"

The wake-up stick hits three times and the scene changes again.

In the Jiuhe Palace, Xu Liang descended from the sky, stretched out his right leg and stepped on the old Taoist's head, and the large golden ring knife behind him made a clanging sound.

"Sister, it's a large gold ring knife!"

"Xu Liang is so handsome."

"This light body movement when falling down the ladder is so elegant."

The little yellow-skinned guys transformed into Xu Liang's followers, dancing with excitement in Zhou Xuansheng's dream.

Zhou Xuan was also happy to see this. He still remembered that when he watched his first 3D movie, a butterfly flew out from the screen and flew in front of him. He was so excited that he screamed and reached out to catch it.

The purest joy.

"Snapped!"

The wake-up stick struck four times, and the dream dissipated.

Zhou Xuan returned to the stage and continued telling stories. The little yellow-skinned kids looked at him with admiration and worship. What a great storyteller he was, who could tell interesting stories and present the characters in the stories in the form of dreams.

Although it was only a few short scenes, it satisfied the little yellow-skinned people's strong desire to meet the White-browed Hero.

"Good sir, good sir, I want to celebrate my birthday. I will take out half of my wealth and ask you to read a book again."

"Your half of the family wealth is like nothing... But, your brother can lend you money to hire a teacher to teach you."

Zhou Xuan was speechless. Well, he hadn’t finished reading this show yet and the tickets for the next one were already sold.

If we say that the little yellow-skinned boys' attitude towards Zhou Xuan is the children's simple pursuit of happiness.

Lady Lotus was simply shocked by Zhou Xuan.

The range of Zhou Xuan's dream was only ten meters in radius. When he had the dream at the sixth table, the dream could not cover the Lotus Goddess in the corner.

The queen saw her great-grandsons suddenly become excited, then roared and called out "Xu Liang" to the air. She thought they were possessed, but she soon realized that it was the storyteller's trick of "creating a dream out of the blue".

She smiled and said to Huang Jiu: "This storyteller is interesting. He even uses tricks to tell stories..."

Before she finished speaking, she saw her great-grandchildren shouting "Li Tieguai fell down the ladder to heaven" again, which meant that the scene in the dream had changed.

"It can change the scene in the dream, I'm afraid it's the storyteller's four incense sticks - like a dream?!"

Lady Lotus was no longer lying down, but half sitting up, which was a sign of respect for Zhou Xuan's level of religious faith.

In her heart, Zhou Xuan had already been here for at least four incense sticks, maybe even more.

"I'm afraid it's hard to find a young Four-Incense Storyteller in the four prefectures."

Before three incense sticks, the storyteller's fighting power was extremely weak. In addition, in order to accumulate incense, he had to hone his storytelling skills first, so it was extremely difficult to advance to a higher level.

Without extraordinary talent, opportunity and character, it is impossible to climb up, let alone being so young.

"Son, you are not thoughtful enough and the gift you prepared is too insignificant." Lady Lianhua reminded Huang Jiu.

“……”Huang Jiu.

"Remove the pearls and replace them with a white jade sachet." Lady Lotus gave the instructions.

"Isn't that gift too generous?" Huang Jiu was a little reluctant.

“No, I am lucky that the storyteller who burns four incense sticks is telling me a story to celebrate my birthday. This young gentleman is also willing to lower himself and disregard the storyteller’s rules just to make his great-grandchildren happy. This is his gift!
They are polite first, and we return the favor later, and that’s how courtesy works.” Lady Lotus said.

Huang Jiu finally understood what she meant and said, "Mother is right. It is my son who has a short-sighted vision."

"Go ahead. Although I don't really like what you're saying, I'll listen to it carefully."

Lady Lotus continued to listen to the story. Zhou Xuan finished telling the story of "The White-Eyebrowed Hero" that he had prepared. With the bang of a wake-up stick on the table, the audience cheered. However, the atmosphere among the guests in the courtyard was not as enthusiastic as that of the Zhou family troupe.

The excitement you experience will naturally be different if you listen from the beginning or start listening to a section in the middle.

But the little yellow-skinned kids at the sixth table all stood on their stools and cheered and applauded. They were much more excited than when they were listening to the story in Zhou's class.

Seeing how excited they were, Zhou Xuan knew that this show of "White Eyebrow Hero" was already a success.
What remains is the book about Lady Lotus.

Zhou Xuan reached out, smoothed the tablecloth on the table, unfolded his folding fan, and said with a smile: "It is said that storytelling and singing operas persuade people, and the three roads are in the middle. Good and evil will be rewarded in the end, and the right way in the world is vicissitudes!

I have just told a lively story, but don’t underestimate it because it is lively. The chivalry and righteousness in it are also what we aspire to and what we want to do.

But today, when I perform a book in the Lotus Temple, it is not enough to just talk about chivalry. I, Zhou Xuan, do not understand Buddhism or Taoism. I will tell you a short book about Buddha based on the stories in my heart and the words in my mouth. It is called "Water Buddha".

Hearing that it was related to Buddha, Lady Lotus sat up straighter. With her body shape, it was extremely strenuous for her to sit so straight. Huang Jiu stuffed four porcelain pillows behind his mother's waist, which made her feel much more comfortable.

“In the southwest, there is a regional custom that villages are built near water, and the roads leading out of the village are naturally built near water as well.

One day, a giant fish monster carried a little girl on its back and tried to take her to the water's edge, but was discovered by the villagers.

At the same time, they also saw two corpses of villagers whose bodies were torn into bloody gourds floating on the water, and they thought that the fish monster must want to eat children!
They first used a harpoon to scare away the fish monster, rescued the little girl, and then organized more villagers to chase and beat the fish monster.

The villagers were brave and several fishing boats surrounded the fish monster, which was beaten all over and had a lucky escape. "

Zhou Xuan clapped his wake-up stick, waved his folding fan, and lowered Yun Zhaiyue's voice, as if telling a sad story: "In fact, this fish monster was wronged. The two villagers who were bitten to death by him were not villagers, but kidnappers who came into the village by water to sell children.

The little girl was the one who was abducted. The fish demon was a man who would “help those in need when seeing injustice”, so he took the first step and rescued the little girl!”

When the storytelling reached this point, Lady Lotus was already feeling sad. She felt that the fish monster in the story was just as pitiful as herself, who had been beaten for saving drought victims.

Her feeling was correct, they were indeed similar. After all, it was a story that Zhou Xuan tailored for him.

In the Zhou family, Zhou Xuan heard about the experience of Lady Lianhua - she always helped the victims during the century-long drought, but because of her ugly appearance, she was misunderstood by the villagers and was driven from Mingjiang Prefecture to Pingshui Prefecture, and then from Pingshui Prefecture to Guangyuan Prefecture...

He then naturally thought of the Sha Monk section in "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons", which was the fish monster that appeared at the beginning of the movie!

The fish monster in the movie was originally a good young man who rescued a child by the river, but was mistaken for a human trafficker by the villagers and beaten to death. His body was also thrown into the river to feed the fish. The young man was full of resentment and turned into a fish monster to harm people!
Zhou Xuan modified this story to make it fit Lady Lianhua as much as possible, so that she had the feeling of "being a fellow wanderer in this world".

When he saw that the empress looked sad, he knew that the deal was almost done.

The following book is a natural progression.

Zhou Xuan first told two other stories about fish monsters saving people but being chased and beaten, which earned enough sad tears from Lady Lotus.

At this point, the book is coming to an end.

"The fish demon always saves people and is always misunderstood. One day, a high monk from the East takes him in as a disciple and wants to lead him into the right path of Buddhism..."

Zhou Xuan was about to continue talking when he found that Lady Lotus's expression was calm. She showed no joy nor sadness. It seemed that the end of the monk accepting the fish demon into Buddhism did not please her.
What went wrong?

Zhou Xuan looked at the face again and saw that there was a look of ignorance on Lady Lotus's face, which was completely different from the wise and clear-sightedness of a serious monk.

He released his perception to the extreme and looked at the face again. This time the face had changed. The face of Lady Lotus had the aura of Buddha, but her expression was still confused.

"What does it mean that she is ignorant but has Buddha nature? Maybe she herself doesn't know why she has the Buddha name?"

How come he has saved so many people, and why is he named Buddha? How can he not know it?
Zhou Xuan looked at the ugly tumors all over her body and the tumors in the hands of some guests with doubts...

He figured it out - why was Goddess Lotus able to save so many disaster victims back then?

It is estimated that she relied on the tumors on her body, and she cut out the tumors and fed them to the victims as food, which helped them survive the famine.

But these tumors on her body were probably caused by Lady Lotus' congenital deformity.

The person who was born with deformities and used the tumor caused by his deformities as food for the victims became a thorn in the heart of Lady Lotus.

Perhaps she felt that this was not the Buddha's bright means, and that she was not worthy of the current name of Buddha.

Or maybe, she felt that she was born with defects and could not compare to the beautiful Buddha in the temple. Out of inferiority complex, she felt that she did not deserve the name of Buddha.

Anyway, no matter how you guess, it’s correct to know that the Queen feels that she does not deserve the name of Buddha.

The ending of Zhou Xuan's original book Liangzi was about the monk leading the fish-like monster to obtain the true scriptures. Now he changed the Liangzi on the spot.

"The monk took the fish demon in as his disciple. The master and his disciple boarded a boat and sailed west. On the boat, the fish demon asked the monk: 'Master, I am a demon, how can I be worthy of the name of Buddha?'

The monk said calmly: "A demon is not worthy of becoming a Buddha?"

The fish demon asked again: "The demon looks scary, and doesn't have the appearance of a great monk."

The monk stretched out two fingers, dipped them into ink, and blackened his face. He asked, "Xiao Yu'er, do you think my appearance is scary? Does that mean I am not worthy of becoming a Buddha?"

The fish demon shook his head and said, "My methods are despicable. I can only bite like a beast."

"Methods are just means, they are not despicable. The only thing to consider is whether the means can subdue the devil!"

The fish demon attained enlightenment overnight, and from then on, he became a water Buddha..."

Zhou Xuan clapped the wooden stick to wake him up, and Shui Fo's storytelling came to an end. Everyone in the audience fell silent.

——Silence does not mean that they disagree with Zhou Xuan’s lectures, but that they are all believers of the Lotus Goddess and recite Buddhist scriptures on weekdays. Now, after listening to the story of "Water Buddha", they seem to have realized something in their hearts, so they remained silent.

Not only the guests were silent, but Lady Lotus was also silent.

(End of this chapter)