Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1957 Gifts from Fellow Villagers
After a bowl of mutton soup with rice, everyone calmed down and the shop became buzzing and full of joy again.

The kids even started to act as judges, choosing the most beautiful among their friends. Zhou Zhi quickly went over to guide them, saying that when judging whether a person is beautiful, one should not only look at the appearance, but also the soul, such as personality, knowledge, cultivation, etc.

However, Ziqi and Aguo were not quite convinced. Although Brother Elbow said so, why are there so many beautiful girls around you?

The Zhou family's educational style is not to do to others what you do not want others to do to you. Of course, you cannot ask your children to do what you cannot do yourself. Although Zhou Zhi really believes from the bottom of his heart that the soul is more important than appearance, the women he interacts with really make him unable to provide evidence to prove this point. As a result, he had to return home in shame with the bowl in his hand.

The older girls here were already laughing so hard that they were falling down. Ziqi and Aguo's words, "Brother Elbow is surrounded by beautiful girls," made everyone very happy.

How could a child lie?
Wu Renzhong also laughed and scolded: "You deserve it! Calling you dad is so annoying!"

Zhou Zhi looked at the girls, then looked at Ziqi Aguo, who was chosen as the champion and looked very proud: "Forget it, I won't talk to you vested interests!"

It was already around eight or nine in the evening when we got back to the grain station. Fortunately, the children were familiar with the way home, so they were not afraid of any bad guys in this area, so we let them go home on their own.

However, there were some arrangements and instructions, and it was not until he returned to the grain station that Zhou Zhi realized the importance of the Yi New Year gift.

During this one day when he was away, many villagers came to give gifts to Zhou Zhi. The gifts for Zhou Zhi were piled outside Zhou Zhi's big study. Similarly, there was also a pile of gifts outside Wu Renzhong's room.

The gifts included noodles, white sugar, brown sugar, and eggs. Probably because they knew that the grain station had its own small brewery and that Zhou Zhi and Wu Renzhong were the subject of ridicule in the village for their drinking capacity, fewer people brought corn wine.

When many villagers saw Zhou Zhi paying money to buy dried ferns, bamboo shoots and mushrooms from everyone, they thought he liked these, so they sent quite a few of them. These were the best ones that they kept for themselves to eat, which made Zhou Zhi feel mixed emotions for a moment.

The Yi people value friendship and loyalty. In the past, they were too poor to give out gifts, but this year the situation has improved a little, and now they have piled up some old gifts in front of their house.

Seeing Zhou Zhi's touched face, Jilie Abi smiled and patted his shoulder: "There are many chickens and ducks behind the house, all raised by the villagers. I have written down the gift list for you and Renzhong."

"The villagers are so thoughtful. I never thought that we would have a share." Zhou Zhi said.

Chi Xueli was very happy: "Does that mean I have to return the favor? I heard from Xiao Miao that she encountered many interesting things when she went on home visits with you. I will go with you then!"

"Take me with you when you return the gift!" Wu Renzhong felt a little overwhelmed when he looked at the pile of brown sugar and white sugar. He definitely couldn't eat so much by himself.

Many people come to Zhou Zhi's house to give gifts during festivals. The general practice is to stagger the return gifts. Except for the closest relatives, gifts from Family A will basically go to Family B, and gifts from Family B will go to Family A.

However, it was not appropriate to deal with the things sent by the villagers in this way. Zhou Zhi felt that he should accept all these things and then replace them with practical external items such as washbasins and kettles and return them to the villagers.

Wu Renzhong cannot be relied upon to fulfill these expectations. For example, if one asks his fellow villagers whether they need a thermos bottle or an aluminum kettle more, Wu Renzhong may feel that there is no difference.

In fact, there is a big difference. The villagers all have fire pits at home, and they don’t need to spend money on water and firewood, so thermos bottles are useless. Now the glass inner shells will break if touched, so they are useless.

The villagers needed an aluminum kettle that could be used to fetch water and put it on the fire pit to keep it boiling at any time. It was durable and long-lasting. So they said, "Let me take care of it. You can just go with us when the time comes. We'll split the bill when we come back."

"What should we do with all these things?" Wu Renzhong rolled his eyes and tried to negotiate with Zhou Zhi: "How about I give them all to you to pay off the debt?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he gave Shama Ricong a nudge on the spine.

"Leave it to the kids." Zhou Zhi said, "These schools can use them."

"Oh, yes!" Wu Renzhong sighed with some embarrassment: "We can save it for the kids to drink sweet soybean milk, make bitter buckwheat cakes, and fried egg noodles!"

The next day, taking advantage of the festive atmosphere of the New Year, Zhou Zhi took everyone to Lingshan Temple.

The largest temple in Liangshan Prefecture is naturally Guangfu Temple, located on the outskirts of the city, on the Lu Mountain by the Qionghai Lake. However, although Guangfu Temple is large, it is not as important as Lingshan Temple in Mianping in the minds of the people of Liangshan Prefecture.

Lingshan Temple is located in the deep mountains and old forests on the western foot of Xiaoxiangling Mountain in the east of Mianping County. It is named after the towering mountain behind it called Lingshan.

Because Lingshan Temple once produced a great monk, the living Buddha Yang Zushi, the photo that all taxi drivers in Liangshan Prefecture now hang on the rearview mirror rack is the portrait of this great monk.

Patriarch Yang's secular name was Yang Xuexin, his Dharma name was Wuzhen, his Buddhist name was Pudu, and he was from Longyang County, Changde Prefecture, HUN Province. In the 47th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty, he traveled to Mianning and heard that Dengtai Mountain was the place where the ancient Buddha Dipankara practiced. "So he took a stick to see it, and went to the top of the mountain. Sure enough, the scenic spot still existed, and the old site was still there."

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Patriarch Yang built a thatched house by the water of Qinglongtan, continued to practice, and planned to build a temple. At that time, he had about a hundred disciples from Mianning. Lingshan Temple was built around the 59th year of Qianlong's reign. The county magistrate Xin Dacheng named the temple "Xi Ling", and the people called it "Lingshan Temple".

Patriarch Yang lived in Mianning for 22 years, and practiced in Lingshan Temple for nine years after its completion. He passed away in February of the ninth year of Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty.

According to folk legends, Patriarch Yang disappeared in the middle of the night after giving instructions for his funeral. Later, his disciples searched everywhere and found him at the top of Lingshan Mountain, but he was standing upright on the edge of a cliff, silent.

No matter how silent it was, his disciples followed his instructions and moved his remains into the niche. Seven days later, his disciples opened the niche and saw that his face was glowing red, as if he were alive.

Before his death, Patriarch Yang instructed that if his body did not decay within seven days, it could be moved to a Buddhist temple and worshipped for a long time, so that it would completely dry out and no longer decay.

What happened was indeed so. After the news spread, Lingshan Temple became famous and Patriarch Yang was revered as the "Buddha in the Flesh". For a time, the temple was extremely popular and countless believers came from thousands of miles away just to worship before the Buddha and receive his blessing.

"The flesh-and-blood statue of Patriarch Yang was well preserved in the niche until liberation. During several major ceremonies each year, the monks in the temple would open the niche for believers to pay their respects." Zhou Zhi introduced this miraculous event to everyone: "Later, during a special period, the temple declined. Two thieves thought they could steal the temple treasures and sell them for money, so they actually stole Patriarch Yang's flesh-and-blood body. They were not caught until they got to the foot of the mountain."

"Everyone thought that Patriarch Yang's body was a nuisance, so they cremated it and buried it in a pagoda instead."

"But this does not affect the fact that Lingshan Temple is still one of the most important temples in Liangshan Prefecture."