Jian An Kee

prelude

"Knock, knock, knock..."

It was not yet dawn at Maoshi in this season, and some bastard who didn't know where came from unhurriedly knocked on the mountain gate.The small Taoist temple only enters the courtyard for the second time, and it is impossible to pretend not to hear it.If you don't open the door again, the audience will be cursing...

Struggling to get up, I muttered some complaining words, and I pulled my cloth shoes across the damp patio to the gate, and asked:

"Who is it outside?"

"I."

I was startled, and quickly took off the latch, and the damp mist of early winter poured in, confusing my vision, and I could hardly see the figure of the person coming.Until the man walked in the door and smiled at me: "Guanglan."

"Sir." I bowed deeply, "Why are you here in such a cold day?"

The man I call Mr. has an indescribably handsome face, with light fur and a gentle belt, without shoes, as if he is not contaminated by the fireworks of the world, and his smile carries a deep meaning that ordinary people can't understand.

"Go and bid farewell to the temple master, your time is up." He flicked his sleeves and turned his back to look at the cloud-shrouded mountain top.

I had no choice but to promise softly.

There was no one in the master's room, so I hesitated for a moment, and touched the teapot where the old man made tea every morning. Woolen cloth?

I was thinking about going to the vegetable garden to look for him, when I glanced at a roll of small letters on the only seat in the room. When I opened it, I saw four strong characters "I'll do it for myself", and there were some long-winded instructions underneath. .

On the seat was the set of ivory counting chips that I had been thinking about for half a month.

What a prophet who knows me and who understands me!I laughed dumbfounded, went back to the room to tidy up a little, rolled up a few scriptures and miscellaneous things that I had been reading for a long time, went out and kowtowed in the direction of the master bedroom, and walked down the long steps outside the mountain gate. It's too vulgar.

When I came to the temple half a year ago, I heard that the temple master has a weird temper and doesn't like strangers. The life of a bachelor in his seventies and eighties must be miserable!Because of the close relationship between my husband and him, his only young apprentice died of illness a few years ago, and there were no handymen in the temple, this great fairy reluctantly accepted my little girl to water the flowers and boil water for him, and catch cockroaches part-time.

Mr. was waiting for me at the end of the path, as always, his snow-white robe was not stained by the mud on the ground (it's really puzzling).He smiled calmly and said to me: "Do you still remember Asu?"

Of course I remember that Asu was the little donkey who brought me to the White Horse Cave (Note 1), and today my husband brought him here again.When I greeted Asu, it snorted a few times, kicked its black and cute little hooves on the ground, and swept its tail back and forth.

"Asu's temper has grown." I said to my husband. He didn't answer my words. Instead, he looked at me carefully and said in an inexplicably sad tone: "You have grown taller and fatter."

I blushed and murmured, "Is there..."

The husband just smiled and motioned for me to ride on the little donkey. He broke a dry reed on the side of the road with one hand, and led Asu with the other hand, and walked slowly.

I was a little dazed, everything seemed to be the same as when I came to Baima Cave half a year ago. Although the scenery on the road has changed, but the people are still those two people, and the surrounding atmosphere has not changed at all.

Mr. is singing.My husband likes to sing. His songs don't have a fixed melody, they are free and easy, like the tide coming from a sunny beach, or a breeze blowing through a bamboo forest. In the floating light and shadow, only the end of the melody remains in my ears. .

During the gap between the two songs, I couldn't help asking: "What is this song about? I seem to hear the missing between relatives, and I seem to hear the sadness."

The gentleman stopped, and the well-behaved Asu also stopped.The gentleman let go of Asu's rein, and picked up a reed flower stuck to his cuff with his fingers: "Missing is a kind of sadness. Guanglan, we are here."

On a small river, the ferryman is the same as the ferryman in any book, wearing a black coir raincoat, standing silently in the cold wind of early winter.

The three people and a handsome little donkey crossed the other side of the river together. My husband handed the ferryman three copper coins. When it comes to tens of thousands of dollars per dendrobium, is the price in Xiangyang still so cheap?"

"We're just passing by," the gentleman folded the stalk of reed into a circle and threw it into the water casually. "Passing through other people's lives, sometimes the price is not expensive, and sometimes, it's different."

……

Whenever Mr. wears a white robe, there will be some god-like virtues running out of him.

The distance between Longzhong and Baimadongguan is not far, and we arrived home before noon.Speaking of such a short distance, I have never had the idea of ​​going home once in half a year. The reason is that I have never regarded my husband's home as my own.I know I can't, I'm a wandering soul that shouldn't exist in this world, coming from another time and space.I'll never really belong here.

Even with this thought in mind, when I saw those familiar thatched huts from a distance, I still couldn't help being excited and absent-minded.Mr. Cai Wuer, a five-year-old book boy, had heard that I was coming back today, and I heard his laughter from a mile away: "Sister Alan, Sister Alan!"

He happily ran across the small stone bridge and came to me, raised his head, his eyes sparkled: "Sister Alan, you are back."

I laughed and jumped off Asu's back, hugged Wu'er, and rubbed the tip of his nose affectionately: "I'm back."

Even though I don't belong to this place, I still love it.

Note 1: Baima Cave is located in the south of Nanzhang County, Xiangyang, with the Man River in front and Yuxi Mountain in the back.There is a cave between the knife-cut stone walls. It is said that a white horse often enters and exits the cave, which was called "White Horse Cave" in ancient times.