Tianjin, starting with unorthodox methods to achieve immortality

The air inside the temple was very stuffy.

Three porters squatted against the east wall, lined up in a row, shoulder to shoulder.

The one with the square face is called Sun Gui, the one with the round face is called Liu Mancang, and the one with the long, thin face is called Zhou Dayou.

The three men were all from Liujiawan in Linhe County. They went to Jinshi to deliver goods together. After delivering the goods, they walked back with empty carrying poles when they encountered this rain.

Sun Gui was the leader of the three.

He squatted on the outermost side, holding a pipe in his hand.

The cigarette was wet and wouldn't light no matter what I did. I tried striking several matches, but the flames were smothered by the dampness in the tobacco as soon as they touched the cigarette.

"Fuck your mother."

Sun Gui threw the crumpled cigarette butt on the ground, looked up at the rain outside the temple gate, and said, "This rain is probably going to last until dark."

Liu Mancang didn't reply, but just lowered his head and fiddled with the straw sandals on his feet.

The straw sandals were soaked in water, and the straw ropes on the soles had swelled up. He tried to tighten the laces, but the straw ropes were so wet that they became slippery the tighter he tried to tighten them, and he couldn't tie them securely.

"Why tighten it?" Zhou Dayou leaned over from the side and glanced at it. "Wait until the rain stops and walk back. Your shoes will be dry halfway there."

"When will this rain stop?" Liu Mancang asked, his voice tinged with frustration. "The sky looks off; it's leaden gray and very heavy. I'm afraid it's going to be cloudy for a while."

The three of them fell silent.

The temple fell silent, with only the sound of rain remaining.

Sun Gui listened for a while, but something still felt off.

He frowned, said nothing, and turned his gaze away from the temple entrance, scanning the inside of the temple.

The old man and the child are still there at the base of the west wall.

The old man sat leaning against the wall, his felt hat pulled low, the brim almost covering his eyes.

The child nestled in his arms, his face buried in the old man's padded jacket, with only his fuzzy head visible.

Sun Gui glanced at it twice, then looked away.

At the other end of the east wall, about five or six steps away from the three of them, the young man who drove the rickshaw sat against the wall.

He only knew that it was something only foreigners could afford, and there were only a handful of them in the entire Linhe County.

People who can afford that kind of car are either rich or powerful.

That young man hasn't said a single word since he entered the temple, which is quite strange.

Sun Gui withdrew his gaze and glanced again at the rain outside the temple gate.

The rain shows no sign of stopping.

"Damn it," he stood up, stomping his numb feet, "this rain isn't going to stop."

Liu Mancang looked up at him. "Then what do we do?"

"What should we do?" Sun Gui looked around the temple. "Let's spend the night here."

As he said this, his gaze fell on the mountain god statue in the very center.

The mountain god statue is very old.

The features on the statue's face are very blurry, but you can see that the mouth is slightly open, as if it is saying something, or as if something is frozen in place as it is about to come out of the mouth.

Sun Gui stared at the statue for a while, then suddenly said, "Mancang, look at the statue's face, isn't it a little crooked?"

Liu Mancang followed his gaze for a few moments, "Crooked? Where is it crooked? Aren't all mountain god statues the same?"

"I can't quite put my finger on it," Sun Gui shook his head, "I just feel... it's not quite right."

Zhou Dayou also looked up and said, "Brother Gui, did you catch a cold from the rain? The statue looks fine to me, just like when I passed by last time."

"Passed by last time?" Sun Gui turned to look at him. "When did you pass by here?"

"The autumn before last," Zhou Dayou said, "I went to Jinshi with Zhao, a carpenter from the next village, to buy timber, and we stopped at this temple. The temple looked the same back then, it hasn't changed."

Sun Gui didn't say anything more, but his gaze lingered on the statue for a few more moments.

The facial features are misaligned.

The two eyes are not on the same line; the left eye is half an inch higher than the right eye.

The nose is not in the exact center of the face; it's slightly to the right.

The mouth is roughly in the middle, but the curve of the corners of the mouth is wrong; the left side is higher than the right, making it look like a smile or a grin.

Sun Gui shuddered. When he entered the temple, the first thing he saw was not the statue of a god.

Regardless of the temple, the first thing people see when they enter is the statue of the deity in the very center; it's human instinct.

But when he entered the mountain god temple, the first thing he saw was the old man at the foot of the west wall.

I only saw the statues later.

Just like in this temple, what attracts his attention the most is not the statues of gods.

What is that?

Sun Gui suppressed the thought and didn't dwell on it.

He squatted back against the wall, took the kettle off his belt, unscrewed the cap, and took a sip.

The kettle contained loose-packed baijiu (a type of Chinese liquor), which was extremely spicy, burning from his throat all the way to his stomach, making him grimace.

"Brother Gui," Liu Mancang leaned closer, "I'm hungry."

"Why are you calling me if you're hungry? I'm not the Kitchen God."

Sun Gui handed him the water bottle, "Take a sip, it'll help you feel better."

Liu Mancang took it and gulped down a large mouthful, choking and coughing, his eyes turning red.

Zhou Dayou, who was watching from the side, suddenly said, "How about... we build a fire?"

The three of them fell silent at the same time.

make a fire.

Yes, it's raining so hard, and it's cold. The temple is so gloomy, why not light a fire?

But there aren't many things that can be burned in the temple.

The three men rummaged through their belongings and found only a change of clothes and dry rations; there was nothing to burn.

Sun Gui's gaze fell on the offering table in front of the statue.

The altar is large, an old-fashioned long table made of elm wood. The tabletop is two inches thick, and the four legs are square columns with mortise and tenon joints, making it look very sturdy.

On the table were several broken bowls and a pile of incense ash left over from who-knows-when. The ash was black and looked like clumps of mud.

"That table..." Sun Gui started to say, but didn't finish.

Liu Mancang followed his gaze and said, "Brother Gui, that's an offering table."

"I know it's an offering table."

"We can't burn offerings on the altar, can we?" Liu Mancang lowered his voice. "That's for offering to the Bodhisattva."

"This is a mountain god temple."

Zhou Dayou chimed in from the side, "They're worshipping the mountain god, not a bodhisattva."

"You can't burn it!" Liu Mancang exclaimed anxiously. "The mountain god is a god too. If you burn down someone's dining table, do you think the mountain god will be happy?"

Sun Gui didn't say anything, but stood up and walked to the offering table, reaching out to touch the surface.

The dust on the table was thick; pressing your finger on it left a mark.

But the wood underneath is good, very dry, and makes a crisp "thump-thump" sound when you tap it.

"This table is just sitting there anyway." Sun Gui turned around and looked at Liu Mancang. "Nobody comes to this temple all year round. What's the point of having an offering table here? Besides, it's not like we're not spending money."

He took out a few coins from his pocket and placed them on his face.

"Mountain God, may I borrow your table for a moment? This few coins are for your incense offering; please don't mind."

After he finished speaking, without waiting for Liu Mancang's agreement, he grabbed the edge of the offering table with both hands and lifted it up forcefully.

The broken bowls and incense ash on the offering table crashed to the ground with a loud "crash." Several broken bowls shattered into pieces, and incense ash scattered everywhere, creating a hazy, gray mess.

The three people squatted down around the offering table and worked for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, dismantling a complete offering table into a pile of planks and wooden blocks.

"This one is good, it will burn for a long time."

Sun Gui weighed the largest piece of tabletop in his hand and took out a matchbox from his pocket.

The wood chips were dry and would ignite at the slightest touch.

The flames licked the edge of the wood, first emitting a wisp of blue smoke, then the fire slowly grew larger, turning into a small pile.

The orange-red flames flickered in the dim temple, casting alternating light and shadow on the surrounding walls.

The temperature inside the temple has warmed up a bit.

"It's much warmer now."

Liu Mancang crouched down on the other side of the fire, "Brother Gui, you're the one with the best ideas."

Stop flattering me.

Sun Gui took out two dry biscuits from his bundle, skewered them with a thin stick, and roasted them by the fire. "Take out your dry rations too, roast them before you eat, how can you swallow something cold and hard?"

Liu Mancang and Zhou Dayou also took out their dried biscuits and each found a wooden stick to place by the fire.

The flatbread was made of mixed grain flour, so hard it could crack walnuts. When roasted over a fire, the surface slowly turned a golden brown, and the aroma of the flour was released by the heat, mingling with the smoke from the burning firewood and spreading throughout the temple.

Sun Gui took a bite of the hot, baked flatbread. It was crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Although it was still quite coarse, it was much easier to swallow than when it was cold.

"What do you think?" Liu Mancang said, a biscuit in his mouth, looking towards the altar. "Should we call those two students over to warm themselves by the fire? They look rather pitiful."

Sun Gui glanced at the two students who had been standing there.

A boy and a girl, around seventeen or eighteen years old, were wearing the uniforms of a provincial school: dark blue Zhongshan suits and dark blue skirts. After being soaked by the rain, they clung to their bodies, revealing the outlines of their shoulders and backs.

Both of them had bluish lips and their faces were as white as paper.

The female student's teeth were chattering, and the "clattering" sound could be heard several steps away.

"Go ahead and call," Sun Gui said. "We're all in a hurry, it's just a matter of lending a hand."

Liu Mancang stood up and walked over to the two students. "Hey, come and warm yourself by the fire. It's freezing over there."

The two students exchanged a glance.

The male student stood up first, took two steps toward Sun Gui and the others, and then looked back at the female student.

The female student hesitated for a moment, then picked up the wicker box and followed the male student.

"Thank you, big brother." The male student's voice was a little tight, but still steady. "We...we're wet, and we're afraid we'll put out your fire."

"It can't be put out." Liu Mancang waved his hand. "The fire's raging. Come and sit down."

The two students found a clean spot near the fire and sat down.

The firelight shone on their faces, revealing that their skin was white from being soaked in rainwater, and the female student's eyes were red, as if she had been crying.

"Have you eaten?" Sun Gui handed over a piece of the pancake he had baked.

The male student hesitated for a moment before taking the pancake, breaking it in half, and handing the larger half to the female student.

"Are you from Linhe County?" Sun Gui asked.

"Um."

The student swallowed a bite of bread, nodded, and said, "My name is Wu Wenbin. I live in Nanjie, Linhe County. School has been closed for the past few days, and I want to go back to my hometown."

"You've gone the wrong way," Sun Gui said. "Linhe County is to the east, but you've gone west."

"We know." Wu Wenbin gave a wry smile. "We originally planned to walk to the town ahead to find a car, but we didn't expect the rain to be so heavy. We saw a temple by the roadside and came in."

The firelight shone on everyone's faces, and their shadows swayed on the wall behind them, as if something was crawling and sticking to the wall.

The old man held his grandson, his cloudy eyes suddenly opened, and he was quietly looking in their direction.

Sun Gui glanced at him, feeling a little uneasy under his gaze.

"Fully booked." He lowered his voice. "Look at that old man over there, hasn't he moved at all?"

Liu Mancang followed his gaze and looked over. "I didn't notice...it doesn't seem to have been touched."

"It's been at least an hour and a half since we entered the temple," Sun Gui said, lowering his voice even further. "That old man has just been sitting there the whole time, without moving an inch. Have you ever seen a man in his sixties who can sit in the same position for over an hour without changing his posture?"

Liu Mancang's expression changed slightly.

"And that child," Sun Gui continued, "such a tiny child, nestled in the old man's arms for over an hour, neither crying nor making a sound, have you ever seen a child like that?"

Neither of them spoke.

The wood in the fire crackled and sparks flew out, startling Liu Mancang so much that his shoulders jerked.

"Brother Gui, don't scare me," Liu Mancang's voice was a little weak, "He's probably just asleep."

"Asleep?"

Sun Gui snorted, "Have you ever seen anyone sleep for over an hour without moving a finger? Besides, with such bright light, even a normal person would turn over in their sleep, right?"

Zhou Dayou, who was listening nearby, suddenly interjected, "Brother Gui, now that you mention it, something comes to mind."

"What is it?"

"When I passed by here with Zhao the carpenter two years ago..." Zhou Dayou said in a low voice, "Zhao the carpenter said to me that it's best not to go into this mountain god temple to rest."

Why?

"He didn't say," Zhou Dayou shook his head. "He only said that there was something eerie about this temple. I didn't take it seriously at the time, thinking he was just going through his old phase, being suspicious of everything. But now that I think about it..."

He didn't go on.

Sun Gui was silent for a while, then stuffed the pancake in his hand into his mouth in a few bites, chewed it a few times and swallowed it, not caring whether he choked or not.

Then I unscrewed the kettle lid and poured half of the remaining baijiu down in one go.

As the alcohol took effect, his face flushed a little, and his eyes hardened.

"What's there to be afraid of?" He slammed the kettle on the ground. "There are three of us, and we have the carrying pole in our hands. Even if there's something unclean, what can it do to us? Besides, there are other people here, it's not just us."

As he spoke, he glanced at the young man at the base of the east wall.

The young man opened his eyes at some point, I don't know.

He didn't look at the fire, nor at anyone else.

He was looking at the statue of a god.

Sun Gui followed his gaze.

The idol was illuminated by the firelight, half of it bright and half dark...