Chapter 25: Facing

  I was just about to apologize and say I forgot to take a photo, but Pengpeng put his phone in front of me for me to see. In the dimly lit environment, I stared at the screen and was stunned.

  This is the photo of PongPong and the wall-facing monk, I remember it clearly that the monk was facing the wall with his back to us, but in this photo, it clearly shows a desiccated corpse of a monk, with both hands clasped together facing the camera, the contours of his face still visible, only without the terrifying dryness.

  "Peng Peng, were you certain he was facing the wall at that time?"

  "Of course, I also saw his hand and the shadow of his nose. When you shone your flashlight on him from the front, it was a round occipital bone, although some hair had grown out."

  After a person dies, their hair and nails will continue to grow under the nourishment of the remaining nutrients in the body. This is already an acknowledged fact. It's not surprising that this bald monk still has hair growing, but what's astonishing is that he actually turned around and gave us a frontal close-up shot under our six watching eyes. This old monk's cultivation is still not thorough, his six senses are not yet pure, and even after death, he still wants to strike a pose.

  "This photo is a bit weird, are you going to delete it?"

  "No way, this precious footage is hard to come by, I have to keep it."

  "Aren't you afraid?"

  "What's the fear, anyway? He has already turned to ashes. Perhaps he wanted to leave behind a face after death, so that people would still remember his appearance. Poor man, Anida Buddha."

  Peng Peng indeed has some wisdom, but now is not the time to discuss this. The main thing is the coffin, other things can be said after we get out. I feel more and more that the road here is full of danger, I don't know if our next stop will be heaven or hell?

  After several turns, we arrived at the fifth floor of this mausoleum or whatever it was.

  Let's briefly recall that the copper monk statue is on the first floor, the Tathagata Chamber which is reached by elevator and where the old monk took pictures is on the second floor, the three large gates are on the third floor, the strange stepping path is a passageway connecting the third and fourth floors (or so I thought), the ghost head of the Western Pure Land's Three Saints is on the fourth floor, and what we're facing now is the fifth floor.

  One grain of sand, one world; one flower, one Buddha land. On this journey, I haven't encountered the perilous landscapes described in books. Instead, with each step forward, I've received a new round of spiritual baptism. Perhaps as we face these challenges, our hearts are slowly maturing. After all, these difficulties are right in front of us, unlike the turbulent undercurrents in society that can take your life at any moment, leaving you no time to think or find solutions.

  "Hey, brother-in-law, what are you thinking about?" Pengpeng nudged me.

  It's strange, why did I suddenly space out? My mind keeps thinking about all sorts of things. I shook my head and looked at the watch that I hadn't seen in a long time. Since coming in, I had completely forgotten about the time. Pengpeng's grandfather is still waiting for us, but there's no news. Will he alert the police? If the government gets involved, it'll be a big deal.

  "Darling, it's already 5 o'clock, I don't know if it's 5 o'clock in the morning or 5 o'clock in the afternoon of the next day."

  "Stupid, looking at your phone."

  It's really stupid, I forgot that my phone has a calendar. I took out my phone but it was out of power. Pengpeng also took out his phone, and surprisingly, it was also out of power. This is impossible! We were just looking at photos earlier, how could two phones run out of power at the same time?

  "Haha, I have a spare battery." Pengpeng immediately replaced it with a new one.

  "No way! I just charged it and haven't even used it yet, how can it be out of battery already?"

  I looked at my watch again, and indeed, the second hand, minute hand, and hour hand were all stuck in one place, not moving at all. It turned out that time had stopped long ago, and we didn't know how long we'd been trapped in this darkness without feeling a bit sleepy, probably because everything was keeping our brains running non-stop, making us forget about fatigue. Only when I was walking aimlessly on the stairs did I yawn, opening my mouth wide. From the time I started spacing out, my body should have already reached its limit. Looking at Pengpeng, his eyes were filled with red blood vessels, and he should also be on the verge of falling asleep. I decided that when we reach the fifth floor, we must rest and get a good night's sleep.