Maoshan!
It is a famous Taoist mountain in Jiangsu Province, China, the birthplace of the Taoist Shangqing sect, known as the "Shangqing Sect Altar" by Taoists, and has the reputation of "the first blessed land, the eighth cave heaven"!
Because the mountain is tortuous and resembles the word "already", it is called Juqu Mountain, and Taoists call it "Juqu's Jinling, which is a blessing for cultivating true feelings and a spiritual ruin for becoming a god."
In the Western Han Dynasty, the three brothers of the Mao family in Xianyang, Shaanxi, Mao Ying, Mao Gu, and Mao Zhong came to Juqu Mountain to practice Taoism and do good deeds, benefiting the world.
During the Tang and Song dynasties, Maoshan Taoism reached its heyday, with more than 300 and 5,000 Taoist buildings of various sizes such as palaces, temples, halls, and temples between the mountains and mountains, peaks and valleys, and thousands of Taoist priests.
However, in the 80s of the 20th century, after experiencing the catastrophe of that decade, Maoshan appeared to be somewhat decayed.
At the foot of the mountain near the boundary of the golden altar, there are several small villages around, the larger ones are only a hundred or ten households, and the smaller villages are even only a dozen households.
When the children in these villages reach school age, they have to walk five or six miles to the town's school.
In this era, boarding is not popular, and you have to rush home obediently after school, but fortunately, there are no large beasts near Maoshan, and you are used to running on the road, but you don't expect any accidents.
"Brother Ye, we have a holiday tomorrow, should we celebrate tonight? Can you go to Li Erzi's corn field to steal corn to eat?"
On a mountain path, three or four half-grown boys in their early nineties and early teens were carrying schoolbags with patches on their backs, with a pair of small eyes dripping along the road.
When it came to eating, except for the little boy walking in the middle, the other little guys had shining eyes and couldn't help but swallow saliva in their stomachs.
Although the chief designer had already shouted the slogan of reform and opening up at this time, a city on the southern coast was also undergoing large-scale construction.
But in this remote mountain village, children who are at the age of "half-grown and old-fashioned, eating poor old men" talk the most in their spare time every day, except for playing, the most talked about is eating.
Ye Tian, who was walking among several people, heard the little fat man's words, and said: "What kind of corn do you eat, come to my house to eat fish at night, as well as crabs and eels......"
When it comes to family background, Ye Tian's family is an outsider, and it can be said that they are the poorest of these families, but Ye Tian's father always tries his best to supplement his son's nutrition, and there is no meat to eat, and this fish has never been cut off.
Hearing that there was fish to eat, the saliva of several little guys suddenly flowed out, the craftsmanship of Uncle Ye's grilled fish is top-notch, even the fish soup boiled in white water can also make people drink endless aftertaste.
"Brother Ye, you caught the eel, you are so powerful, I can't catch it all the time."
A little fat man looked at Ye Tian with envy, he could look like a scale at the age of eight or nine, which was definitely the result of stuffing something he could eat into his mouth.
This eel fishing is a technical job, the tools are simple, just use a bicycle strip, sharpen one end, bend it into a hook, and bend the other end into a circle.
If there is an eel eating the hook, push it in so that all the hooks enter the mouth, and turn the angle, pull it out of the hole, and hold the neck of the eel with your other hand in time to bring out the fish hole.
It's easy to say, but it is extremely difficult to master the heat, Ye Tian can become the child king of several villages around here, in addition to beating all the opponents of the same age, the skill of catching eels with one hand is not even comparable to many adults.
"Look at what you are greedy for, what is there to eat with eels, crabs are delicious, this month happens to be the season to eat crabs......"
Maoshan is located in the water town of Jiangnan, with streams at the foot of the mountain, but people don't seem to be very interested in crabs, few people catch them to eat, but people catch eels and catch fish everywhere, in this era of scarcity of materials, people are also trying to improve their lives.
Ye Tian curled his lips, waved his fist, looked at several partners around him with threatening eyes, and said: "No one is allowed to tell my dad what Yu Qingya cried about today, otherwise ......"
"Brother Ye, don't worry, we won't say it......"
The little fat man had a flattering expression, leaned close to Ye Tian, and asked: "Brother Ye, you put the mirror on the top of your feet, can you see clearly whether she is in her skirt?"
"Of course I saw it clearly, but...... She found it at a glance......"
Ye Tian said with a sullen face, this little girl's film was too unfunny, and she cried and ran to tell the teacher that she had taken the double hundred exam this year, and she did not get the certificate of the three good students.
However, it seems that after five years of elementary school, Ye Tian has a perfect score in every exam, but he has never gone home to get a certificate.
"Brother Ye, why don't you ...... Let's have dinner, let's go see the second son and his wife take a bath, shall we? I know that the second fool is going to the reservoir to lower the fishing net ......"
The little fat man's eyes rolled and he came up with a bad idea, not that these children developed early, but they were too bored in this remote mountain village, leaving these boys with nowhere to vent their energy.
"Cheng, but you guys should be careful, don't recruit me out if you get caught......"
Ye Tian nodded, this is not the first time they have done this, it is said that since the day Ye Tian was five years old when Li Zhenzi got married, he got under the bed of the new house, and the next day he went to learn from the villagers.
Of course, Ye Tian didn't understand what the "hum hum" meant, and he still hadn't figured it out.
A few little guys were talking, and they had already seen the village not far away, and immediately quickened their pace and ran towards the entrance of the village.
As the name suggests, except for Ye Tian and his son, all the rest of the people in this village have the surname Li.
Li Zhuang is not very big, there are only 23 households in total, from the beginning of the village to the end of the village, you can run back and forth in a few minutes.
On the exterior wall of the bluestone house in the village, there are still words left that say, "To fight for private repairs" and "Carry out the proletarian revolution to the end!" and other lime painted words.
"Fat Dun, Erdan, you guys go home and say just come over......" When he walked to the head of the village, Ye Tian stopped, and his house was at the entrance of the village.
Ye Tianjia was originally an ancestral hall in the village, but in those ten years, the ancestral tablets were smashed by those fanatical red generals who were looking for "breaking feudal superstitions" all day long, and the ancestral hall became the residence of educated youths in the countryside.
However, with the return of the educated youths, the ancestral hall where more than ten people originally lived now only Ye Tian and his son, and the huge place was a little dilapidated.
"Dad, I'm back, I took the double hundred exam again this year......"
Ye Tian shouted loudly as soon as he entered the courtyard gate, different from the Jiangnan dialect he spoke with his friends just now, Ye Tian was speaking authentic Mandarin at the moment, which seemed to have a Beijing dialect.
"Stinky boy, why are you so loud, are you doing something bad again?"
As the saying goes, knowing a son is like a father, after hearing Ye Tian's voice, the middle-aged man in the yard stood up straight and laughed and scolded, he had to be taught by the teacher several times a year, of course he understood his son's ability to cause trouble.
Ye Tian's appearance is six points similar to his father's, but compared to Ye Dongping's resolute face, Ye Tian's face shape is slightly weaker.
When Ye Tian was young, people from the village outside always praised Ye Tian for being so beautiful, so that when Ye Tian was five years old, he climbed Maoshan alone, saying that he wanted to learn from a teacher and become a man.
If it weren't for the monk in Maoshan, after watching "Shaolin Temple" played by the screening team, it is estimated that Ye Tian would have dared to shave his hair and become a monk.
"No, Dad, I'll help you kill the eel......"
Ye Tian threw his schoolbag aside, took a wooden board from the door with a smile, and nailed a nail to the top of the board.
Putting the wooden board on the ground, Ye Tian reached out and grabbed a yellow eel from the basin next to him, skillfully nailed it to the wooden board, and conjured a knife out of nowhere in his right hand, and with a light stroke, he cut open the belly of the yellow eel.
After copying it in the water, Ye Tian's right hand quickly flashed a few times on the wooden board, and with a flick of his hand, a yellow eel weighing more than one pound fell one by one into the enamel jar prepared next to him.
After Ye Tian cleaned up the eel, the lard in Ye Dongping's pot was also boiled, and after adding some chopped green onion peppers, the eel slices were poured into the pot, and with the sound of "snorting", a fragrance filled the yard.
Not long after, a large enamel jar stir-fried eel slices, a braised fish plus a bowl of fish head soup, were placed on the table, and there were also home-grown vegetables.
Although there are only three dishes, the amount is very large, the fish alone weighs six or seven pounds, plus three pounds of eel slices, enough for five or six people.
"It's so fragrant, Lao Ye, I bought some rice wine when I came back from town, let's have a few glasses together......"
With a burst of laughter, a person of the same age as Ye Dongping walked in, behind him, followed by a few fat boys, but one by one they shrank back and winked at Ye Tian.
"Teacher Yu......"
After seeing the visitor, Ye Tian immediately became much more honest, stood up and called out to the teacher in an orderly manner, the visitor was not only his class teacher, but also Yu Qingya's father, who knows if he came to complain today?
Yu Haoran glanced at Ye Tian, who was pretending to be honest, and laughed and scolded: "Stinky boy, studying is good, but it's too naughty, moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor must be developed in an all-round way......"
Looking at his student, Yu Haoran couldn't laugh or cry, Ye Tian's academic performance was not to mention, let alone the primary school in the town, and he could be one of the best in the county, but if he didn't study well, his mind was on playing all day long.
However, the teacher always prefers students with good academic performance, although he is strict in his mouth, but he still likes it in his heart, and after calling his parents several times, Yu Haoran became friends with Ye Dongping.
Like Ye Dongping, Yu Haoran is also a foreign educated youth, but because he found a partner locally, he did not return to Shanghai, and has been teaching in primary schools from 78 to now.
Seeing Yu Haoran's expression, Ye Dongping said with a smile: "Teacher Yu, is this kid in trouble again? If you don't go to the house for three days, you will treat yourself as your own child, don't be lenient when teaching a lesson......"
"How can it be, Dad, I'm hungry, let's eat......"
Ye Tian glanced at the teacher with a guilty conscience, but he also knew that since the head teacher and his old man became friends, he hadn't made many small reports, and it seemed that he could hide again today.
"Eat, eat, come, Lao Ye, let's take a ...... first."
Sure enough, Yu Haoran didn't mention what happened at school, and after a few little guys gathered around the table, he picked up a glass full of wine and touched Ye Dongping.
"This wine...... It's tasteless, it's still strong enough for Erguotou......" Ye Dongping drank a glass of wine, shook his head, as if he thought of something, and his eyes were slightly gloomy.
Yu Haoran put down his wine glass and said, "Lao Ye, I happen to have something to tell you......"
The adults drank and chatted, but a few little guys were not idle, chopsticks flew, first they put a piece of fish in their mouths, then buried a piece of eel in the bowl, and finally their eyes were still fixed on the next target, all of them were like little wolf cubs.
"Dad, Teacher Yu, we are full......" After three to five minutes, the dishes on the table were swept away, Ye Tian patted his stomach and stood up, his eyes looking at the door.
"Stinky boy, one can eat more than the other......"
Looking at the empty bowl on the table, Ye Dongping smiled and scolded, stood up and said: "Let's all go out to play, Teacher Yu, I'll fry some peanuts again, and you will talk about it slowly......"
……
Although no one has installed a TV in Lizhuang yet, the nights in the countryside in summer are still relatively lively, with people who have eaten dinner and come out to enjoy the shade and chat, as well as the frogs and insects in the fields, all of which add a bit of vitality to this small village.
"Brother Ye, show me ......"
Under the window of a small courtyard, three little heads were squeezing into the house, and through the moonlight outside the window, they could vaguely see the white body in the room with the lights off.
Although they are not old enough to cause changes in a certain part of their body, they are good capital to brag to their school classmates, so as long as a few little guys catch their second son and are not at home, they are always happy to do this activity.
"Little rabbit, are you looking for death?"
Just when Ye Tian and the others were whispering about the black mole on the buttocks of the second stunned daughter-in-law, whether it was on the left or right, there was a sudden explosion at the door of the yard.
"Damn, Fat Dun, didn't you say that the second stunned man would come back in the middle of the night? I knew I was taking a hexagram by myself......"
Ye Tian knew the temper of the second son, if he was caught, the whole village who was designated to shout knew that he didn't think that if he helped the second son get married, he would be treated differently.
Seeing that the second fool blocked the yards, several little guys suddenly dispersed and ran to both sides, and the walls of this countryside were only more than a meter high, and even the little fat mound could be climbed over.
Just as Ye Tian ran to the edge of the wall, there was a cry of pain from Fat Dun behind him, and when he looked back, he was twisted by the second stunner and grinned.
"This idiot......"
Ye Tian muttered a sentence, but his movements did not slow down at all, and after his right hand propped up on the earthen wall about the same height as himself, his figure jumped up and turned out dexterously.
"Alas, let's go to the master's place today......"
He didn't want to be beaten on the first day of the holiday, and it was not too late to go home after his father's anger subsided.
When he was five years old, he dared to drill into the old forest on the mountain, but he went up the wrong mountain, and by chance he met an old Taoist priest who claimed to be surnamed Li in a dilapidated and dilapidated Taoist temple, and he fooled him into worshiping the master.
Ye Tian didn't know how old Daoist Li was, but the old Taoist priest often said that when Commander Chen Yi was fighting guerrillas in Maoshan, he called him an uncle.
When Ye Tian was young, he didn't know who Commander Chen was, but after going to school, after learning about Chen Yi's origins, he often laughed at the old Taoist priest bragging, and the old Taoist priest was not angry, just smiled and said nothing.
Although the old guy was a bit nagging, forcing him to memorize books such as "The Method of Lingyi Physiognomy" and "Water Mirror Collection" all day long, he really had a good kung fu.
It took almost an hour to get from Lizhuang to the Taoist temple on the mountain, and halfway through, it suddenly rained heavily in the sky.
"Master, master, I'm here......" Ye Tian got into the Taoist temple from the rain curtain.
This Taoist temple is not very big, except for the main hall at the entrance, there are only two side rooms in the back, due to disrepair, the gate is already dilapidated, it was split by the old guy as firewood last year, but it saved Ye Tian from knocking on the door.
"Master, where are the people?"
Ye Tianqian walked around the back room of the front hall, but found that the old Taoist priest was not in the Taoist temple, scratched his head and walked back to the main hall, bowing to a statue enshrined in the middle of the hall.
Unlike the Taoist temple on the main peak of Maoshan, which enshrines the Three Qings, the statue in this Taoist temple is an ordinary Taoist statue.
The Taoist priest on the offering table was dressed in linen clothes, his hair was tied up in a bun, his left hand was placed on his chest, but his right hand was raised above his head, holding a palm-sized clay compass, and the whole shape looked quite strange.
According to the old Taoist priest, this is their ancestor in lineage, although they do not accept the incense of the world, they must worship sincerely.
"With such heavy rain, nothing will happen to the old guy, right?"
Suddenly there was a thunderclap, and the entire Taoist temple seemed to shake, Ye Tian looked back and looked outside, and couldn't help but worry about the old Taoist priest.
"Huh? What sound?"
Just as Ye Tian was looking outside, he suddenly heard a "quack" sound behind him, and when he looked back, he found that the clay sculpture had fallen straight in his direction.
"Ancestor, I am disrespectful without you......"
When Ye Tian looked up, the statue of the Taoist priest in sackcloth was already pressing towards him like a hill, Ye Tian hurriedly stepped back, because of his short stature, he was able to avoid the head of the ancestor.
But before Ye Tian was glad that he escaped by himself, he suddenly felt a sharp pain on the top of his head, but it was the right hand that the statue raised above his head just hit Ye Tian's little head.
Although it was a clay sculpture hand, the strength should not be underestimated, and the blood on the top of Ye Tian's head suddenly flowed down from this slap, only to feel that his eyes darkened, and the whole person fainted.
And the clay sculpture more than two meters high, after falling from the offering platform, was also torn apart and scattered all over the ground, I wonder if this ancestor in sackcloth would have calculated that he had this disaster a thousand years ago?
The head is the most densely populated place in the human body, even if it usually scratches some skin, it will bleed continuously, Ye Tian's small body fell to the ground, and after a while, the blood stained the ground around him red.
Under the rainstorm outside, it became more and more anxious, lightning was raging in the sky, and the dilapidated Taoist temple was crumbling in this storm, as if it could collapse at any time.
(End of this chapter)