The three of them looked at the temple gate with admiration.
It took a while for Xiaolan to react, "But I didn't feel anything."
"Me too," Qin Yin helped first, "but I usually don't feel anything. Wen Ling, what do you think?"
Wen Ling shook his head, "No."
"None of the three of us felt it," Qin Yin said, "Why, Taoist Master, is it because your skills are deeper?"
Judging from his expression, the Taoist priest was quite surprised by this result. He closed his eyes and pondered for a while, with a faint smile on his face.
The boys came back. They packed their bags, straightened their posture, and walked towards this lively temple.
The temple was also a bustling scene, with crowds of people and chatter. If they hadn't occasionally seen flying incense ash in the air, they would hardly know whether they were in a temple or a market.
"Oh my god," Qin Yin held Xiaolan's arm tightly, fearing that she would be lost in the crowd, "Didn't you say that Buddhism is pure? It's too lively here."
Entering the vermilion gate, you can see a wide small square. The square is covered with gray mud bricks, and a huge copper tripod stands in the center. A few wisps of green smoke drift out from the tripod, flickering toward the sky.
Fly away.
At the end of the square is a majestic hall. The door of the hall is open, and people are flowing back and forth. There is no sense of the solemnity that a temple should have.
"I discovered a problem," Luo Jiutian said as he walked, "Why can't I hear the sound of chanting sutras in this temple?"
Only then did everyone realize that almost all of the chaotic sounds around them came from passers-by, and there was actually no sound of chanting.
"The noise is too loud and must have been covered up," Qin Yin said, "Maybe you can hear it if you walk further inside."
"Baomu, can you hear the sound of chanting sutras?" Luo Jiutian turned around and asked.
Baomu shook his head, "I didn't hear it either."
"If Bao Mu didn't hear it, then it means there is none," Luo Jiutian said, "What's going on in a temple but not chanting sutras?"
"Isn't it some heresy..."
"Go in and have a look."
The Taoist priest interrupted everyone's speculation, followed the flow of people, and led them towards the main hall.
When they entered the main hall, they were even more surprised by everything inside.
In the main hall, there are no incense stands, no candles, no bells and drums, and not even a Buddha statue for worship.
There was only a huge wooden box inside. The wooden box was about half a person's height. It was carved with exquisite patterns. There was a slender gap in the wooden box. People kept putting things into the wooden box along the gap.
.
Xiaolan raised her eyes and took a look. It turned out that most of the people who walked into the hall were holding a piece of folded white paper. Those people walked to the wooden box and put the white paper into the wooden box. Some people threw the white paper into the wooden box.
After that, they left quickly and neatly. Some people stayed by the wooden box for a while, lowered their heads, closed their eyes, clasped their hands and started chanting.
Qin Yin stopped an aunt who had just put in the blank paper and was about to leave, and asked, "Auntie, what did you put in?"
The aunt looked at the group of them curiously and said, "Aren't you guys from the bridge?"
"Uh...yes, we are outsiders."
"We heard that Qiaomei Temple is very spiritual, so we came here to pray," Luo Jiutian said, "Auntie, we don't understand the rules here. Why is this Qiaomei Temple different from other temples?"
"Of course it's different," the aunt pulled them aside and introduced with a bit of pride, "Other temples are fake, only Qiaomei Temple is real."
Everyone looked at each other in shock.
"What do you mean?"
"Those gods and Buddhas worshiped in other temples are all feudal superstitions," the aunt waved her hand, spittle almost spitting out, "Qiaomo Temple is different, Qiaomo Temple responds to requests."
A temple that responds to requests?
"How do you respond to requests?"
"Is it so difficult to understand?" Auntie's eyes looked like she was looking at an idiot, "As long as you make a wish here, your wish will come true."
Auntie's simple words frightened them all.
"Can it all be achieved?..." Baomu couldn't laugh or cry, "This... this is unlikely..."
"What's impossible? Look, so many people come to fulfill their wishes. If it doesn't come true, what else will we have?"
"Ah, you are here to fulfill your wish," Xiaolan pointed to the wooden box, "So you put that piece of white paper in there to fulfill your wish?"
"Yes, that's the Ksitigarbha Sutra that I copied for two nights."
"Ksitigarbha Sutra..." Luo Jiutian was completely confused, "Isn't the sutra used to pray for blessings? This is the first time I heard that sutras are copied to fulfill wishes."
"Auntie, can I ask you what wish you made?"
Xiaolan's tone was very polite, and her face had a fragile expression of aggrieved "It's okay if you don't want to say it, but I will be very sad."
"It doesn't matter, I can say it, it's a happy event, there's nothing I can't say about it," the aunt happily shared her happy event, "I made a wish, hoping that my son would find a good partner, and sure enough, he will marry her by the end of the year.
I brought that good girl back haha..."
Most of the curiosity in everyone's hearts disappeared immediately.
"What does this have to do with the temple? Auntie, your son has found a good partner because your son is good..." Qin Yin complained.
"What a heck, that brat, if his mother hadn't made a wish for him here, would he have found such a good girlfriend? Just dream... I still think that brat of mine is not worthy of his daughter..."
Everyone did not listen to the aunt's accusation against her own son and left in despair.
"I thought it was something special, but it turned out to be something about metaphysics and probability," Qin Yin muttered, "There is a road over there, and there are other halls inside. I think we should just go in."
"This shouldn't be the kind of place where people show off and cheat," the Taoist priest said.
"How do you know?"
"After all, so many people come to fulfill their wishes," Luo Jiutian said, "There must be some people who make normal wishes."
"And from what the aunt just said, it seems like there is no money here," Xiaolan said, "Just like the hotel proprietress, you can make a wish for free. If there is no money, it wouldn't be considered a lie."
"But I still want to copy scriptures."
"Then what's the use of the scriptures they want others to copy? They can't exchange them for money."
"I know!" Qin Yin suddenly raised his arm, "This place must be able to absorb other people's spiritual energy through the Buddhist scriptures copied by others. What a conspiracy!"
"We don't have that kind of technology," the Taoist priest said, rejecting Qin Yin's imagination. "The scriptures copied by hand can only serve as a blessing."
"Why is that? Why don't you express your opinion?"
"It's actually very simple," the Taoist priest said. "This temple is doing one thing, which is to pray for someone by fulfilling other people's wishes and collecting everyone's wishes."