Xuanyuan Jue

Chapter 141 The Empty Village (1)
The fallen leaves gather and disperse, and the jackdaws perch and startle again.As soon as the morning bell rang to open the Dongzhi Gate, several riders from Shuntian Mansion galloped into the city.

"His grandma's," Lu Ban tightened his head on the rein and slowed down the horse. "It can be regarded as coming back!"

Seeing that all kinds of meals had been set up at the morning stall by the roadside, a yamen servant shrugged his nose. "The meat buns over there just came out of the cage, and they smell really delicious. Boss, how many of them should we go down and eat?"

When the yamen servant shouted, the others responded one after another, and even the steed under his crotch stopped, snorting loudly.

"That's a good idea! I drove halfway in the dark, and my stomach is already flat!"

"The only one who knows how to eat!" Lu Ban scolded with a smile, and swung the horse's head. "Forget it, for the sake of our trip being safe and sound, I'll invite another guest. Hey, are two drawers enough?"

All the yamen servants smiled, "You know the appetite of the brothers best, why don't you add more?"

"These bastards!" Lu Ban headed to the bun shop, took out a handful of big buns and threw them on the desk. "Come to the third drawer!"

"Okay!" The shopkeeper agreed, and then opened the cage to set the chopsticks.

"Don't be in a hurry to work on them," Lu Ban said again, "wrap me two first!"

The servants were stunned, "Boss, aren't you eating here?"

"No!" Lu Ban took the wrapped bun and put it in his arms. "I'll go to inspector Feng to have a look. Don't dawdle, go back to the Yamen immediately after eating!"

Lu Ban put his head down and clamped his horse's belly.The horse neighed and galloped away.

After a while, the Feng family's house appeared in front of my eyes.After Lu Bantou dismounted from his horse and tied him up, he took out a bun and gnawed on it, knocking on the door.

When Feng Quan poked his head out, Lu Bantou had already stuffed two buns into his stomach. "Yo? It's Master Lu."

"Yeah," Lu Ban wiped his head with grease, "is Feng Xunjian here?"

"Yes, please come inside." Feng Quan said, letting Lu Bantou into the courtyard.

Lu Ban's head was not polite, he raised his foot and rushed to the hall. "Feng Xunjian! Feng Xunjian!"

Hearing the voice of Lu Bantou, Feng Shen couldn't help being taken aback. "Lu Bantou? Didn't you go to Pinggu? Why did you come back in only two days?"

"Hahaha", Lu Bantou laughed loudly, "It was a false alarm!"

"False alarm?" Feng Shen wondered, "Isn't it a plague?"

"No!" Lu Ban smacked his head and smacked his lips, "I'll tell you more about it later, I was a little choked up just now, I beg you for a cup of tea."

"The team leader will wait a moment." Feng Shen hurriedly made tea and served it.

Lu Bantou took a sip and asked again: "By the way, what about the man? He should have woken up long ago, right?"

"Alas..." Feng Shen let out a long sigh, "I was just about to tell the team leader that... the day the team leader left for Pinggu, he had died."

"Dead!?" Lu Ban shook his head and hands, and the tea in his cup overflowed. "How did you die?"

Lu Bantou was straightforward by nature, so Feng Shen naturally didn't dare to confess his doubts, he hesitated for a moment, and then replied: "The injury is serious and he died."

Lu Ban put the cup of tea away, with a sad expression on his face. "I saved it with great difficulty... How can I say that I will die when I die..."

Feng Shen said apologetically, "It's because I didn't supervise well enough, and I was entrusted by the supervisor."

"What did Feng Xunjian say? It can't be your fault!" Lu Bantou hurriedly said, "Hey, if you die, you can die! You can only blame him for his own bad luck. Tell me, even the imperial physician was sent to him Well, why can't I save my life..."

Feng Shen said with emotion: "One drink and one peck, could it be pre-determined. All karma is karmic, hard to reverse..."

Lu Bantou nodded half-understood, and asked again: "Inspector Feng, where is the man's body now? I'll call some brothers over later, and carry him out to bury him."

"You don't have to worry about the squad leader," Feng Shen said, "King Su has already sent someone to transport him to the funeral tomb for burial."

Lu Ban nodded "Oh" and bowed his head in silence.

After being silent for a while, Feng Shen said, "Boss, what's going on in Pinggu?"

"Look at my memory," Lu Ban said, "it's like this. When my brothers and I first arrived there, there was nothing unusual in Pinggu County. So we went from town to town, and finally came to a place called Liujiadian. , I noticed something was wrong. In this Liu’s shop, many villages have set up plague shelters.”

"Plague shelter?" Feng Shen asked, "Didn't it mean it wasn't a plague?"

"Don't worry," Lu Ban said, "I'll tell you slowly. At the beginning, we saw the people in the plague shelter shaking as if they were shaking, so we thought it was an epidemic. We were going back to Beijing to report At that time, he was stopped by several big monks who came suddenly."

Feng Shenqi asked: "Stopped by a monk?"

"That's right," Lu Ban said again. "At that time, the group of big monks stood in front of the horses, chanting Amitabha Buddha all the time. I was annoyed by their chanting, so I ordered them to disperse. But before the brothers did anything , the first monk came out. Seeing that they were finally willing to talk, I was not in a hurry to chase them away."

Feng Shen asked, "What did the monks say?"

Lu Ban said: "They said that they came this time, one is to save the villagers, and the other is to protect us from disasters."

"Prevent disaster?" Feng Shen was taken aback, "Prevent what disaster?"

"Prison disaster!" Lu Ban nodded, "Thinking about it, I'm a little scared. It's also thanks to that group of monks who stopped me. Otherwise, my brothers and I would already be in prison!"

Feng Shen was even more puzzled, "Boss, the more I listen, the more confused I become."

"That's right," Lu Ban said, "that group of great monks has already seen that it is not a plague. If we go back to Beijing to report the epidemic in a daze, wouldn't it be a false report of the epidemic? If we want to be investigated, we will be charged with serious crimes!" "

Feng Shen frowned and said, "Of course it's not an epidemic, so what is it?"

"The calamity!" Lu Ban said, "According to the monks, because the villagers of Liujiadian value Taoism and despise Zen, the local Buddhism is not prosperous, and the Buddha blames it. This is the calamity."

"Absurd," Feng Shen shook his head with a wry smile, "Buddhism emphasizes compassion. Even if there are gods, they will not offend the common people because of their sect. Boss, don't you believe their nonsense? Bar?"

"Hey," Lu Ban smiled awkwardly, "I didn't believe it at first...but later I found out that those monks do have some supernatural powers."

Lu Bantou believed in ghosts.For this point, Feng Shen has long been aware of it. "That group of monks is probably playing tricks, and the head of the squad is probably bewitched again."

"Absolutely not this time!" Lu Ban nodded, "I have suffered a lot like this before, how can I not have a long memory? I asked them at that time, why do they say that the villagers were robbed instead of plagued?"

Feng Shen asked, "How did they answer?"

Lu Ban said: "The group of monks said that their abbot had a glimpse of the sky while meditating, and he calculated that Liu's shop would suffer a catastrophe. The old abbot couldn't bear the suffering of the villagers, and would rather sacrifice half his life to resolve this situation. It was an innocent disaster. They followed the order of their teacher and came to rescue the common people."

Feng Shen smiled helplessly, "What happened next?"

Lu Bantou said again: "Then they went into the shed and got busy. My brothers and I were worried, so we all went in to have a look. The group of monks first burned incense and paper, then took out wooden fish to bang bang bang, and then I just chanted scriptures around the ground, and I didn’t know what I was chanting, anyway, it was like a curse, and my mind was buzzing..."

Feng Shen sighed, "These are all common tricks."

"More than that!" Lu Ban nodded, "After reading the scriptures, the monks took out some big bamboo tubes from the bag. Those bamboo tubes were filled with 'holy water', which was said to be made by their abbot with rootless water, and it was specially used to ward off disasters." .”

Feng Shen said: "Next, will they sprinkle a handful of incense ash in the 'holy water' and feed it to those sick people?"

"Hey, it's good," Lu Ban said, "but I didn't spread incense ash. Anyway, that group of monks fed them from shed to house. In less than half a day, some people could get up on their own! I and The brothers were still worried, so they simply waited another day in Liu's shop. As a result, the next morning, almost all the plague shelters were alive and kicking!"

Feng Shen was amazed, "Is it really cured?"

"Then can it be false?" Lu Ban nodded, "We all see it as true!"

"This is a bit strange," Feng Shen paused, and said to himself, "Could it be that those monks really have spells?"

"I think it is!" Lu Ban pulled his collar and showed a small mahogany talisman. "Before I left, they even gave me a talisman. Look, it's been opened!"

Feng Shen only glanced at it, then smiled lightly. "It's really good, the head of the team can just wear it. Oh, by the way, does the head of the team know which temple those monks come from?"

"It's from the Cliff Temple," Lu Ban carefully tucked the peach charms in his head, and said, "When they went back, my brothers and I also gave them away. But when they were sent to the foot of the mountain, the great monk wouldn't let them go up the mountain Well, I said I was afraid of disturbing Abbot Qingxiu..."

Before Lu Ban could finish his sentence, muskmelon came running from outside the hall. "Brother Feng, I'm waiting for you to go over to have breakfast... Hey? Lu Bantou, why are you here? Do you want to eat something with us?"

"No," Lu Ban waved his head, "I ate it when I came here."

"All right," Xianggua nodded, "Brother Feng, shall we go?"

"Don't be busy yet," Feng Shen asked Lu Ban again, "So, the temple is on the mountain?"

"That's right," Lu Ban said, "That mountain is not far from Liu's shop, and it has a strange name, what is it called 'Yaji Mountain'."

Feng Shen's heart trembled, "What mountain?"

"Yaji Mountain," Lu Ban pointed at the melon, "there are two prominent peaks on the mountain. From a distance, they look exactly like the two buns on her head!"

"Same as me?" Cantaloupe touched the top of her head and grinned happily, "That mountain is really good at dressing up."

"Yaji Mountain, Yaji Mountain." Feng Shen repeated it several times in his mouth, and moved his fingers a few times.

(End of this chapter)