At the hospital entrance, Yuan Ye was sitting on the steps with a few empty wine bottles at his feet, his head buried, lost in thought.
He moved slightly and kicked the wine bottle, which rolled far away. He followed it with his eyes, but there was no light in them.
A car stopped in front of him. Xiao Jing jumped out of the car and ran to him and said, “Young Master! I went to the alley where the murderer was lost. Guess what I found? There was a manhole cover in the alley. The pin of the manhole cover was broken by someone. I opened the manhole cover and took a look. Hey! Inside is a military storage room built some time ago! The murderer must have been hiding inside that at the time.”
Xiao Jing was very excited to find the clue. “I even asked the workers, and they said they had covered the manhole covers from the night of the accident until the early hours of the next morning. When I inquired about the timing, they mentioned they began their work after the fireworks were set off. That means the manhole covers were already down when we were chasing the murderer. I just couldn’t figure out how he broke the plug. He didn’t carry a hammer with him, did he?”
He spoke excitedly, and when he finished, he noticed that Yuan Ye was unhappy, so he asked hurriedly, “What’s wrong, Young Master? You… you drank? Don’t be unhappy, we will definitely catch the murderer!”
“Xiao Jing…” Yuan Ye patted his hands, looking very tired. “Who the murderer is… is not important anymore.”
“Don’t be discouraged, Young Master.”
“Don’t call me Young Master, I’m not a Young Master anymore…”
“Young Master…” Xiao Jing felt like crying because of what he said.
Yuan Ye shook his head, trying to sober up, but he felt even more confused.
“How’s the mansion?”
“Everything that needs to be taken has been taken, it’s just that the mansion… will be sold next month. However, Master still has some valuable antiques hidden in the small storehouse behind the Buddhist temple. I have packed up Young Master, Madam, Master, and the Old Madam’s things. We have to find a new place to live.”
Hearing this, Yuan Ye raised his head and said seriously, “Sell all those antiques and donate them all. Don’t keep a single cent!”
Xiao Jing reached out and touched Yuan Ye’s forehead: “Young Master, are you crazy? This is all we have left! If we donate it all, what are you going to do?”
“If I tell you to donate, just donate!” Yuan Ye said firmly, without any hesitation, “You don’t understand, the money is not clean.”
“But… but… ai… I understand.”
Xiao Jing also sat on the steps with his head down, like a puppy being scolded by his owner.
It’s hard to imagine what tomorrow will be like.
Yuan Ye reached out and touched his head, as if to comfort him. Looking at Xiao Jing’s tender face, he asked, “Xiao Jing, your father has been gone for eight or nine years already, right?”
Xiao Jing’s father was a local thug who often extorted money from people. He bullied many innocent people during his lifetime. One day, he drank too much and was hacked to death.
Therefore, when Xiao Jing was a child, he was pointed at by other children of the same age and was called a little thug. He was often bullied and got into fights.
“Yeah, I almost forgot what he looked like already.”
“Have you ever blamed him? Blame him for doing evil, blame him for getting you into trouble?”
Yuan Ye’s eyes were red, and his fingertips were trembling as he asked these questions.
Xiao Jing thought about it and shook his head: “Even if he is not nice to others, but he has never been mean to me. He is my father, no matter how bad he is, I will never abandon him.”
After saying this, he smiled, his whole face brighter than the sun.
It was a very simple truth, very simple words. Even if your family commits many mistakes, you can’t give up this relationship.
As Yuan Ye watched, it seemed as if the haze that had been accumulating in his heart was blown away by the breeze, and the sunlight shone directly into his eyes. It was so warm that tears came out.
Men don’t shed tears easily, but they do when they are sad.
He wiped his tears away as if nothing had happened, stood up, straightened his collar, and tried to be more energetic.
He said to Xiao Jing, “You stay here and watch over for me. I’m going to go somewhere.”
“Young Master, I’ll go with you.” Xiao Jing was worried that Yuan Ye’s condition might get worse.
Yuan Ye wore his usual calm smile and said, “Don’t worry. What I plan to do is something only I should handle on my own.”
——————
In the Faxi Temple, an incense burner holds three incense sticks, surrounded by nine red candles, with several passages of the mantra for rebirth being chanted.
Xu Hang kowtowed in front of the spirit and sat for a whole day before getting up to drink tea in Master Changling’s meditation room.
Chang Ling said, “You haven’t been here for a long time already.”
Xu Hang replied, “Busy.”
The tea he brewed today is Zhengshan Xiaozhong, which has a sweet and profound aroma that cleanses one’s mind.
“Every time I see you, you seem to have a lighter burden on your shoulders, but the sadness between your eyes remains.” Chang Ling felt that today’s tea was not as good as yesterday’s. “Today, I feel that you are in a bad mood and drinking tea without knowing its taste.”
Xu Hang simply stopped drinking tea: “I’m fine, I just feel a little summer fatigue. I don’t fall down that easily.”
Chang Ling simply gave him a glass of water instead: “Though I don’t know exactly what it is, I can’t help but worry—once you’ve done everything you set out to do, will there be anything left in this world for you to hold on to?”
After listening to this, Xu Hang lowered his eyes and said, “Maybe you can give me a meditation room, and I can shave my head and become a monk?”
Chang Ling chuckled, “Then I don’t have enough tea to share.”
When brewing for the third time, Xu Hang caught a glimpse of the couch where Chang Ling was sitting. There was a straw mat pillow with a long strand of hair hooked on the edge.
The hair is black and shiny, and one can imagine how proud the owner is of this beautiful hair. It must have meant that they slept here for the hair to remain on the pillow.
But this is… a temple, and the monks in the temple have no hair.
He looked at it for a while, then looked at the teapot and suddenly asked, “Speaking of tea… although I haven’t been here for a long time, why did you change to black tea? I remember there is still a lot of raw Pu’er tea.”
Chang Ling did not shy away from saying, “Even though you didn’t come, there were other donors who came, and we finished the drink after a while.”
Xu Hang stared at Chang Ling for a while, which made Chang Ling very confused: “What’s wrong?”
“You did not become a monk voluntarily but were born in the temple. I am very curious, if you have the opportunity to step into the secular world, will you grow your hair and return to secular life, or will you keep your Buddhist heart?”
Chang Ling clasped his hands together and said, “Since I was born here, it is my fate. I should serve Buddha for the rest of my life.”
His expression and tone remained unwavering.
After leaving the temple, Xu Hang saw the young monk sweeping the floor and waved his hand to call him to the side to ask him some questions.
“Recently, has there been a woman in black who has been visiting your master frequently?”
The young monk held the broom and widened his eyes: “Is Mr. Xu a fortune teller? You even know this?”
Seeing that he had guessed correctly, Xu Hang asked again, “Why did she stay in your master’s meditation room?”
“She would occasionally get drunk and fall down at the temple gate. Although drunk people were not allowed to enter the temple, but Master was afraid that she would have a convulsion and endanger her life, so he had to let her sleep in his meditation room and take care of her all night. Although he tried to persuade the female donor afterwards, she would do the same thing again next time.”
Hearing this, Xu Hang was already laughing in his heart.
