Back to 1978

Chapter 100: The Hermit (5K)

On the 26th day of the twelfth lunar month, just after seven o'clock, Yang Liming went to Xie's house to dig out Xie Hushan, but he came back empty-handed. After asking his grandmother, he learned that the guy had gone to the Yaowang Temple.

When he arrived at the Medicine King Temple on his bicycle, Xie Hushan and the young Taoist Shen Mo were packing up their things, preparing to visit the young Taoist's two senior brothers.

The two senior brothers of the young Taoist priest knew how to use traditional methods to build kilns and burn green bricks. The walls of the Jade Emperor Temple were broken before, and the Taoist priests burned bricks themselves to repair them.

"It's all spread over Yakou. It's said that you want Taozi's father to be the accountant of the production team. Taozi's father can't even read. What do you think? Can you pay attention to your image? Secretary Han of the brigade just told me that since you have won honors for the brigade and the commune and you are old enough, the brigade party branch wants to recruit you into the party." Yang Limin held the brake and scolded Xie Hushan depressedly without getting out of the car:
"Besides, what have you done in the brigade? The rumors about you at Yakou have spread to Zhongping these past two days. Once the gossip spreads, how can the brigade still consider you? This little rumor has put your pre-party assessment on hold!"

Yang Liming felt that Xie Hushan was a guy who could sometimes cooperate with him very well, but at other times he was like a class enemy, with ideas that were contrary to his own.

I have told him countless times that if Xie Hushan wants to do something, he must tell him in advance, otherwise he will be in a passive position when he finds out.

But this guy was like a deaf person. Secretary Han and the Zhongping Party Branch were originally discussing the issue of recruiting outstanding young people from the brigade to join the Party. Xie Hushan's resume was impeccable. His honors, abilities and even family background all met the requirements. It was originally a foregone conclusion.

As a result, a piece of news somehow got out from Yakou, and even Secretary Yin of Zhongping Commune heard about it. It was said that the son-in-law of Zhongping could be called the villain Nan Batian in the movie. In Yakou Brigade, whoever he told to do would do whatever he wanted. He could even make his father-in-law, who couldn't even use an abacus, work as an accountant, and put the collective money into his own pocket.

How could this matter proceed? Even Secretary Han, who was stubborn and protective of his son, understood that this rumor was enough to prevent Xie Hushan from joining the party for nearly a year.

"I beg you, Lao Yang, please let me go. People like me who join the party are... Anyway, I look like a member of the masses, but I can't guarantee that I can strictly demand myself as a party member. Besides, if I really join the organization, if I'm not careful, my story will be easily forgotten!"

While helping the young Taoist Shen Mo hold the flour bag, Xie Hushan looked up at Yang Liming and said with a smile.

Yang Limin was angry and said, "Stop talking nonsense. What's going on with the accounting thing? Does it have anything to do with you?"

"Taozi's father has little to do. If someone else were to be the accountant, dealing with the people in the brick kiln in Zhongping every day, he would be even more nervous. Besides, other members of Yakou are also afraid to work in the brick kiln. If Taozi's father is there to act as an accountant and timekeeper, it would be a relief for them." Xie Hushan said while shaking his bag of noodles.

"Besides, their crappy production team only has a work point worth 20 cents a day, so it doesn't matter if they have an accountant or not. I gave them 500 yuan, which is equivalent to half a month's work points of more than 100 members in their team. What? Are you afraid that I will falsify the accounts?"

"I think it's a waste of time to falsify the accounts. I'd rather have the Taoist priest give Accountant Zhao a few needles while I take over the financial power of Team Three."

Accountant Zhao just walked out of the team headquarters, looked at Xie Hushan, turned around and wanted to go back into the house, hesitated for a moment, and looked at Xie Hushan:
"Hu San'er, you just said that you wanted to ask me for money for the sideline group, right?"

"Uncle, it's all misunderstanding..." Xie Hushan showed a simple and sincere smile.

Accountant Lao Deng Zhao went back to his room, picked up his leather bag, rushed out, got on his bicycle, and sang an exciting and powerful song: "We are walking on the road..."

After the bicycle disappeared around the corner, the Taoist priest Shen Mo said to Xie Hushan:
"I can't possibly help you stab him."

"Tell me earlier next time. Don't wait until he runs away before telling me. What's the point of telling me?" Xie Hushan rubbed his face.
"I was counting on him to pay for our round-trip tickets. Now he's gone. What do you have..."

Shen Mo looked at Xie Hushan with an open gaze. Xie Hushan took the initiative to swallow his words, but in the end he couldn't help but complained to Shen Mo:

"Next time you make dolls and draw Der for people, charge some money. After all, you are a religious person, a person who humiliates the gods. The only difference between you and beggars is that beggars openly tell others that they are beggars, but you hypocritically use the word "begging" to get food and drink. You didn't even believe in gods when you were eating braised pig offal, but when you had no food to eat and went from house to house to get food, you told old ladies that you were a monk."

The young Taoist didn't take it to heart. He let Xie Hushan say whatever he wanted. Anyway, they had already agreed that they would go to his house for dinner on New Year's Day this year.

"Have you received your salary?" Seeing Accountant Zhao running away and the young Taoist having no money, Xie Hushan looked at Yang Liming for help and asked.

Yang Limin said frankly: "I sent it to my mother and my girlfriend, and I deposited the rest in the commune cafeteria to exchange for meal tickets, just in case you borrow money."

Xie Hushan sighed, lowered his head, took out a stack of banknotes from his pocket and counted them:

"It's too difficult to get some public funds from Ma Laowu. This is the money I spent a lot of effort to intercept for myself. I gave Taozi an extra ten yuan on the pretext of rewarding her for reporting and exposing the truth. Then Taozi returned seven yuan to me, just in case you didn't lend me the money."

Yang Limin said to Xie Hushan: "How do we solve the accounting problem?"

Xie Hushan angrily scolded: "I have to withhold ten dollars and also withhold the hard-earned money of my sideline group. How do you think we can solve this problem? Taozi has been so good to me. Can I repay her by sending my father-in-law to prison for falsifying accounts?"

"I said it doesn't matter who is the accountant. I'm just afraid that the people who work there will be afraid of the people in Zhongping. With my father-in-law around, they won't be afraid. If they are afraid, they will know to tell others if something happens. If I arrange someone who doesn't know me and something really goes wrong, will that person dare to talk to me? He won't have to go home and hide his wife to prevent me from getting mad."

"Anyway, you always have your own twisted ideas. There's no hope for you to join the party in the short term. The rumor has a very bad influence. In addition to the accounting issue, there are many other issues involving work style and gender issues. I'm embarrassed to mention them. If the commune leaders didn't know that you're not that kind of person, you would have been taken away to be interrogated by Special Envoy Feng." Yang Limin said. He looked at the two small bags of grain that Shen Mo was sorting and asked curiously:
"It looks like you're going out? You're going out when the New Year is almost here?"

Xie Hushan nodded and explained to Yang Limin:

"Before the New Year, I went with the Taoist priest to visit his two senior brothers. We were hoping to ask them to help teach our team how to build a kiln and burn bricks. This kind of work must be taught on the spot. How to control the temperature and the space inside the kiln. It would be too time-consuming and wasteful to just tell them a few words and let them try to figure it out on their own."

After sending away Yang Liming, who was furious because of the rumors that prevented him from joining the organization, Xie Hushan and Shen Mo took the team's truck to the county town early in the morning, then took a bus from the county's long-distance bus station to the nearest stop on the West Mountain to the Jade Emperor Temple in Baishigou, and then walked nine miles along the mountain road carrying two small bags of this year's newly harvested grain. Finally, at around three o'clock in the afternoon, they arrived at the Jade Emperor Temple where Shen Mo's two senior brothers were practicing.

The Jade Emperor Temple is in the valley. The so-called valley means that there are mountains on all sides. The bluestone road that the two of them were walking carefully on was all carved out by the old Taoists themselves over the years. As Xie Hushan walked on the path, he kept thinking about a question, that is, why did Shen Mo's master and the masters have the heart to build a small shabby temple in such a remote and sparsely populated place to practice.

There is no beautiful scenery around, and it has nothing to do with this paradise. There are only mountains and trees, and no one within miles.

They said that the Taoists were tomb robbers and used the temple to hide their tracks? Xie Hushan didn't believe it either. Who would bury the dead in such a shabby place? Even though he didn't know much about Feng Shui, he could tell that this place was not suitable for burying ancestors.

The terrain is high on all sides and low in the middle. Burying the ancestors here is no different from burying them directly in a well or a fish pond. It is equivalent to giving the ancestors a bath in rainwater every summer.

"Fourth Senior Brother!" Shen Mo finally finished the last section of the bluestone path and stood at the gate of the Jade Emperor Temple, shouting with a bag of black noodles on his back.

The door of the small temple in front of him, which was about the same size as the Medicine King Temple, opened. A Taoist priest named Luo Chengxing, who looked to be in his sixties but was actually less than fifty years old, with a beard on his face and wearing a patched black coarse cloth robe, walked out quickly to greet the junior brother he had picked up and raised with his own hands:

"It's almost New Year's Day, why are you here?"

"Master Luo." Xie Hushan greeted him from the side.

He was no stranger to Shen Mo's two senior brothers. When he and Shen Mo were children, the two Taoist priests lived in the Yaowang Temple, but they moved back later.

"Xiao Hu San'er, you've grown so tall?" Luo Chengxing laughed, holding Shen Mo's bag of flour in one hand, and took over Xie Hushan's bag of corn residue, and walked towards the temple with one hand in the other. Luo Chengxing didn't look like an old Taoist at all, without the slightest bit of immortal temperament, more like a strong old farmer.

Shen Mo put his hands on his knees, panting as he looked at his fourth senior brother who picked up the dry food he and Xie Hushan had brought, and walked into the temple gate with ease. His tone was filled with willfulness and dissatisfaction towards the elders who doted on him:

"I just don't understand. What's wrong with the Medicine King Temple? Why do you and Fifth Brother have to live in a place like this? There are mountains all around. Our temple is built in a pit. When it rains, it's like living in a well. This is not the Dragon King Temple."

"Come in quickly, come in quickly, come in and have a rest." Taoist Master Chengxing had already put all the dry food in, and walked out, warmly inviting the two to enter the temple.

The layout of the Jade Emperor Temple is not much different from that of the Medicine King Temple. The main hall houses more than a dozen half-human-height clay statues of gods printed out of wooden molds. There are two side rooms on the left and right of the main hall. In the front yard, a simple shack is built with wood, plastic cloth and straw mats. Inside is a crude and simple stove for boiling water and cooking.

Next to the shack, there were a few pieces of unchopped wood. It was obvious that Luo Chengxing had just been chopping wood.

This place seemed to be much worse than the environment in Yakou Brigade. Xie Hushan felt that no one could live here unless they really wanted to practice hard. The nearest house was several miles away, and wolves howling could be heard at night. The two brothers were the only ones left to depend on each other.

"Fourth senior brother, I want to ask you a question. Why can't you and Fifth senior brother come live with me in the Yaowang Temple? This place is like a well when it rains. Other places close the mountain once a year when there is heavy snow, but your temple is different. It is closed twice a year, when it rains or when it snows. People who come to visit you two will be taken away by wolves if you are not careful." Shen Mo entered the ear room where Fourth senior brother lived and said while sitting on the edge of the kang.

Luo Chengxing came in with a kettle that had lost its original color and poured water for the two of them, saying:
"I lack water in my five elements. I am happy to soak in water. Is that ok? If the mountain is closed, then just close it. I am a cultivator. Why would I go wandering outside the mountain if I have nothing to do?"

"Where is the fifth senior brother? Is he going to the mountain to repair the road again?" Shen Mo asked the fourth senior brother who was helping the two of them pour hot water to ward off the cold.

Luo Chengxing handed a bowl of water to Xie Hushan first, and said to Shen Mo: "Your fifth brother has been gone for more than a month."

"Ah!" Shen Mo said nervously, "He's been dead for more than a month?"

Xie Hushan was also shocked. Senior Brother Shen Mo's fifth name was Hu Chengyan. He remembered that Master Hu had inherited the true teachings from their master Taoist Chen and his acupuncture skills were outstanding. When Luo Chengxing said that Hu Chengyan was gone, Xie Hushan also thought he had passed away.

Luo Chengxing poured a second bowl of water and placed it next to Shen Mo. Then he squatted against the wall with his hands in his pockets, and said with a laugh:

"What are you dying for? The country seemed to have held some plenary session last year, yes, the Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee. Not long after it ended, the cadres from the army's forest farm came with a few people to express their condolences. They asked us what the country was doing now. I didn't understand it either. Anyway, they wanted one of us to follow them and go to a temple to take charge of work. We didn't know how to do that, but they insisted on letting us go. The army leaders also persuaded us not to worry, saying that they would help send us there. Only one person would be enough, and one could stay here. That's it. Your fifth brother is gone."

"You've been talking for so long, which temple did Fifth Brother go to?" Shen Mo stared at Luo Chengxing and asked.

Luo Chengxing squatted, looking up at his junior fellow apprentice, his face showing a joy that came from the bottom of his heart:

"How would I know? I didn't ask. Just go wherever the country tells you to go. It doesn't matter where a cultivator goes."

"No... I..." Shen Mo was so anxious that sweat broke out on his forehead. He only had these two brothers who were like family members to him. How could one of them be lost just like that? Was he so relieved that he was taken away by the country? At least ask!

Shen Mo started to lecture his fourth senior brother in rapid succession:
"Fifth Senior Brother is a living person, but you didn't even ask where he was going? He didn't tell you? He's been gone for over a month and he hasn't sent any word back?"

"We all follow our roots. When our master said he was going to travel and visit friends, he left a message saying he was going to the south. The south is so vast, how could I find him? But at least I know that I will look for him one day, and I will look for him in the south!"

"Why is it that you and Fifth Senior Brother are even more weird? You didn't even ask Fifth Senior Brother where he was going? If he gets lost, where can we find him?"

Luo Chengxing chuckled: "Why ask that? I won't ask. What if I ask and they let me go? They wanted to let me go, but I didn't want to go. Then I asked him again, but he didn't want to go either. He said he left, and I don't even have anyone to fetch water for the fields."

"Later, the cadres and soldiers of the army's forest farm persuaded him, saying that they would help me fetch water every few days. The people who came also said that they would help me find two more apprentices. In addition, I coaxed and persuaded him, saying that the master could not be left with only three apprentices, none of whom were doing real work. The sixth apprentice brother was a complete slacker who could do nothing, so he could definitely not be relied on. We could only choose one of us to go out and preach."

Hearing his senior brother calling him a complete glutton, Shen Mo did not even bother to refute him, but only asked, "And then Senior Brother Five left?"

"Later we had a competition, he lost, and he went." Luo Chengxing nodded.

Shen Mo was stunned for a moment: "What are you two competing in? You are no match for Brother Five in acupuncture, right?"

"What's the point of comparing acupuncture? It's about comparing work. He can't do needlework. If I leave, his clothes will be torn and I won't be able to sew them. But after he leaves and I'm left, I can sew them myself. Then he will leave with others. As for what they said about finding two apprentices for me, they haven't come yet. I don't think I can find any either. Who would be willing to come to a place like this and suffer?" Luo Chengxing said to Shen Mo.

Xie Hushan was stunned as he listened to this. My goodness, these Taoist masters in this group are so ambitious. They let their master and fellow disciples go wherever they want and they don’t care about anything. They are not willing to move. Is this place so good?
Shen Mo stared at Luo Chengxing: "Then what are you doing here every day by yourself?"

"Build roads?" Luo Chengxing said, "Build roads in winter, plant trees and clear wasteland in spring, transplant saplings and plant medicinal herbs in summer, and harvest medicinal herbs and grain in autumn. What else can I do?"

"Why are you building roads and planting trees? Why don't you just build your own grave?" Shen Mo's eyes turned red with anxiety. Like Xie Hushan, he couldn't understand the attitude of his master and fellow brothers. He asked in a voice that was almost a roar:

"Fifth Senior Brother is gone, and you don't have any disciples. You are almost fifty years old. Why don't you just follow me back to the Medicine King Temple to meditate and practice Taoism? Don't repair that broken road! What if one day you are carrying rocks on the mountain and you fall to your death? There is no one for miles, and no one will know if you die. Besides, who would take this road to this remote mountain area if you die?"

Seeing that his junior fellow apprentice was angry, Cheng Xing smiled on his wrinkled and weathered face, pointed at him and said to Xie Hushan:
"You say, he can be considered an old Taoist? He keeps saying "die, die" all day long. When I picked you up, I advised Master to find a family to adopt you. At that time, I told Master that this kid is a bit of a fool. He sucks on my fingers as if he wants milk to come out. And the way he drinks milk and the appetite he has don't seem like someone who can be an old Taoist. He eats a lot."

"Am I wrong? What are you going to do if you fall to death? You are the only one within miles!" Shen Mo glared at his fourth senior brother with anger on his face.

Although he is called his senior brother, he is actually almost like a father. The master is more like a grandfather. After all, when he was first picked up, the fourth senior brother was only in his twenties and he raised him together with the master.

Luo Chengxing smiled openly: "I can't explain it to you, a fake Taoist priest. Meditation and cultivation are self-cultivation, and building roads and planting trees are mind-cultivation. The end of self-cultivation is nothing more than mending this skin so that it can be worn as long as possible like these old clothes of mine."

"You always think that when the body is gone, the person is dead. But what is underneath the body? It is the heart. What we cultivate is the heart. There is no need to be afraid of losing the body. As long as the trees planted on this mountain can still provide shelter for birds and animals, and the bluestone paths built on this mountain can still provide convenience for others, how can I be considered dead? You don't understand!"

Xie Hushan's heart was slightly shocked. He had never been exposed to religion, and he did not think that Luo Chengxing, whom he had known since childhood, was a hermit. However, this Taoist priest, who had spent most of his life planting trees and building roads in the mountains and was not like an experienced Taoist priest, just said these two bright and sunny words, which gave him a feeling of a loud bell ringing in his ears, making him feel suddenly enlightened.

Obviously, the old Taoist still had no aura and was squatting by the wall with his hands in his pockets, looking up and laughing at Shen Mo and him, but Xie Hushan always felt that after saying these words, Luo Chengxing was more like standing on a towering green mountain, surrounded by lush pines and cypresses, and he was standing on the top of the mountain laughing at the two vulgar people standing at the foot of the mountain.

Fortunately, this aura of a master that Xie Hushan was in awe of only lasted for a moment. After asking Xie Hushan and Shen Mo about their purpose, Luo Chengxing asked with his hands in his pockets, "It's okay for me to help teach you how to build a kiln and burn bricks. Will I get food?"

"Food is provided." Xie Hushan said.

When he heard that the meal was provided, Luo Chengxing had no other questions. However, Xie Hushan slowly squatted down, looked at Luo Chengxing straight in the eye, and asked carefully:
"I want to ask, Master Luo, you and Taoist Chen donated several hundred acres of forest farm to the army. Can we help prune the trees now?"

(End of this chapter)