Chapter One A Wooden Box

  The autumn wind whispers, a solitary ancient temple, a mottled vermilion gate creaks open slowly, and a small nun emerges from the empty doorway, hurrying towards another large red house with an open door. Soon after the little nun enters, an old nun comes out of the red house, striding swiftly like the wind towards the vermilion gate that had just opened, brushes her sleeve and slips inside, then turns around, pulls the gate shut again.

  As the vermilion temple gate creaked shut, time froze on September 26, 2012. The abbot of Qingfeng Temple in Wutaishan went to visit his master, Yan Shi Shifu, and when she opened the door, more than two hours had passed.

  The old abbess threw down more than a hundred nun disciples and scriptures, delaying a heavy lesson for a long time. This abnormal phenomenon made the nuns feel that Abbess Shi was about to go to the Pure Land to enjoy blessings.

  As the creaking sound of "creak, creak, creak..." came from the gate, the abbot walked out, and indeed there was an extra object in his arms, making everyone's wishes come true.

  "Amitabha Buddha, Amitabha Buddha, Amitabha Buddha..."

  Over a hundred nuns' chanting in unison was almost synchronized, but still difficult to merge into a cohesive rhythm, and even seemed somewhat chaotic, like sunlight scattered on the willow trees.

  The wooden box held in her arms shone brightly under the autumn sun, radiating a light similar to that of its owner. The venerable nun had a high reputation and had once emitted an unattainable brilliant light on Mount Wutai, a sacred site of Buddhism. As soon as this wooden box, which was inseparable from the nun, appeared, it indicated that the nun had gone to a very faraway place.

  When the old nun saw the wooden box, she immediately rushed to the bell tower. She wanted to use the temple's bell to bid farewell to her master's master. The light emanating from the wooden box in her master's arms chased after the old nun, as if not wanting the bell to announce that Master Yanshi had passed away.

  The abbot looked at the back of the nun striking the bell, and couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness. His legs naturally came to a stop. It wasn't until the sound of the bell rang out that he slowly began to move again, walking slowly towards the scripture hall. The wooden box was placed in the scripture hall under the care of a pair of trembling hands and a heart that skipped a beat, amidst the silent prayers of over a hundred nuns, it was gently laid down in the place where Master Yan Shi had once lectured on the scriptures.

  "Master, you can rest assured and go." The abbot dusted off his knees, kowtowed three times to the wooden box, then slowly got up and sat down on the ground with his legs crossed. He clasped his palms together and placed them between his mouth and nose, closing his eyes and moving his lips silently, performing a ritual to help the deceased nun attain liberation.

  At the time of chanting sutras, the abbot was rarely seen to be somewhat absent-minded. After a young nun informed her that something was amiss, she hastily went to visit her master and found the 92-year-old recluse, just like Yan Sheng in "The Scholars", pointing to his bed with his hand and slightly moving.

  The abbot knew that the master had a small wooden box under his bed, so he asked tentatively: "Are you going to take it out, Master?"

  Although already in his seventies and eighties, the abbot is forever a careful child before the face of adversity, speaking softly and gently like clear water. He worries that the master will not hear him, but he also does not dare to speak loudly.

  The hermit seemed to have heard, his thin face remained still, but his snow-white eyebrows relaxed slightly, and his turbid eyes flashed with a faint light, his dry fingers finally withdrew.

  Before, due to the arrangement of Zhuo Shi, the little nun who was responsible for taking care of the old nun, because she didn't understand the old woman's meaning, kept pointing her finger at the kang below, which made the old woman, who couldn't speak anymore, suffer from being misunderstood all along. Not only were her eyebrows tightly locked, but also tears of grievance welled up in her eyes. It was just that her suffering couldn't be effectively displayed on her face, and the tears were so shallow that they seemed like a thin membrane at the corner of her eye, making it impossible for people to notice.

  The nun pointed her hand back at her own head, and the abbot found another key under the master's pillow according to her direction. This was the only key that the master had not handed over after handing over the class, and the abbot knew that it opened the small red wooden box he had just taken out from under the master's bed.

  "Open the box?" The master made an opening motion with his key and carefully observed the old man's changing eyes.

  The abbess shook her head. Although the old man had only slightly moved, the abbot still felt that she was shaking her head, and from the old man's suddenly furrowed white eyebrows, he confirmed that she did not allow him to move this wooden box.

  It's been more than half a century since the master's wooden box was known. The abbot clearly remembers that this wooden box is mysteriously related to the burning of the crow's nest on the tall and straight oil pine in front of the temple. At that time, she had just shaved her hair as a nun, and now the world-weary Master Tai 30 hangs zero, the temple abbot is the former leader of the Wutai Mountain Anti-Japanese Nun Team Yang Pai Feng, with the Buddhist name Qing Zheng Shifu.

  That crow's nest was burned, and the tall oil pine also withered like a robbery, the green needles gradually turned yellow and fell off, until they were bare and barren without any signs of revival. Qingzheng Shitai ordered people to cut it down as firewood, and then took the material to make this wooden box.

  Temples, like people, have their own secrets, more or less. The difference is that the temple's secrets are not stored in the abbot's heart, but are placed in a wooden box and locked up, to be passed on to the next abbot at the time of his passing. If the new abbot does not open it, how many secrets are inside the wooden box, big or small, will remain a forever secret.

  When Yan Shi received the small wooden box from Qing Zheng Shifu, she didn't intend to open it. However, later on, China launched a "**" campaign, and Qingfeng Temple became a key target for destroying the "Four Olds". One day, a group of young people wearing red armbands suddenly rushed in, causing chaos and destruction. The leader forced Yan Shi Shifu to hand over the temple's treasure. Yan Shi Shifu didn't know what the treasure was, so she asked the red armband to enlighten her. It wasn't until they told her that Yan Shi Shifu realized, but it also made her tremble with fear.

  When the nun opened the wooden box with a trembling hand, her heart started racing, which was the second time since she became a Buddhist. The first time was on a Mid-Autumn Festival evening in 1954, when she had a dream about that damned Kui, saying that her father's debt to his daughter had been mostly repaid and it was time for him to leave. Moreover, Yang Wushi from De Gou, who had died many years ago, also forbade him from staying any longer. Despite the eternal knot in her heart, after all, it was a matter between father and daughter, and she still hoped he would see himself off.

  The nun clearly remembered that according to the hint of this dream, she walked to the front of the temple and under a tall oil pine tree, looked up and saw that among the dense branches, there was indeed a crow's nest. Dry twigs were crossed and disorderly on the branches of the oil pine, and the crow's home was so simple.

  Since there is a nest, there should be crows; since there are crows, there should be crowing sounds. Having shaved my head and become a nun for so many years, how come I've never heard the sound of crows calling?

  The nun was puzzled when a red light suddenly flashed across the sky, and a huge fire dragon rushed towards her. This strange phenomenon made the nun pause, feeling an intense heat, she looked up to see that the crow's nest on the tree had caught fire.

  The red sleeve cover urged tightly, and finally, the nun opened the wooden box. Inside, except for a piece of paper, there was nothing else.

  "Damn it, this is also a treasure of the town temple!"

  The disappointment of the red sleeve was precisely the despair of the nun, she really wanted to take down this paper that might involve her own life, but for a temple's abbot, such a loss of composure was not only unbecoming, but utterly absurd.

  "On September 21, 1954, the fire burned the Crow's Nest, what about the Qingfeng Temple? ... On September 26, 2012, a wooden box and a bubble of urine gave birth to a mischievous divine crow, first making trouble at Pingxingguan, then making trouble at Diaoyu Island..."

  After saying this, Hong Zhaosu tore the paper into pieces and scattered them like a fairy scattering flowers, then kicked the wooden box with one foot and walked away muttering to herself.

  "What a mess of things, and they're supposed to be temple treasures."

  Hongxiu's sleeve was still talking and turned her head to stare at Yanshi Shitai, who was bending down to pick up the wooden box.

  After that, the temple didn't have many secrets to put in this wooden box, and it was not suitable for a kicked wooden box to hold the temple's secrets. It became the personal item of Yan Shi Shifu, accompanying her until now.

  The abbess got the answer from the expression of Yan Shi Shifu, and hurried to the Buddhist hall. She still had more than half of the scriptures left to recite. But as soon as she left her master, she was called back again.

  The nun suddenly spoke up after being bedridden for a whole year, the abbot was overjoyed and hastily returned to her bedside, hoping she would say another sentence to confirm that he hadn't misheard.

  "Master, are you calling me?" the abbot asked with his head bowed and ear pressed against him, feeling the old man nodding from the friction between his skin and that of the nun.

  "Master, do you have anything to say? I'm listening." The abbot felt that the old master must have some last words to leave behind, so he continued to lean his ear closer to the old man's mouth, but was instead gently pinched by the old man's hand.

  The abbot had no choice but to squat down on the spot, quietly guarding in front of the bed of the old nun, waiting for the old man's summons. Two hours later, the old man finally spoke up, and let her hear clearly, and was greatly surprised!

  The nun's disjointed words, pieced together by the abbot, were roughly this: She is not Chinese, and there are no rare treasures in this wooden box. Her life story is more complicated than the intricate carvings on this temple, and she hopes the abbot will not look down on her master...

  The abbot's face changed with surprise and hastily said: "Master, is it that you don't trust your disciple?"

  However, Master Huan Shi did not hear her disciple's words, for she had already closed her eyes that would never open again.

  When handling the aftermath of the cook's death, he had once considered opening the wooden box, but after hesitating repeatedly, he resolutely decided to dispel the evil thought and put it in his master's tomb, letting the old man take away her own secrets forever.

  It was unclear who had leaked the news, or if someone had already noticed the wooden box at the cemetery that day. The grave of Yan Shi Shifu was robbed that night, and when the thief dug up the worthless wooden box, a golden light suddenly flashed, followed by a dazzling seven-colored beam of light that emerged from the gold light, slowly rising into the air before disappearing into the vast sky.

  "It's issued!" Although the tomb raider warned himself not to make a sound, his extreme joy was like a surging wave, and these two words burst out of his throat.

  "The old master is furious!" Since he couldn't hold it in, the grave robber let out a loud shout, shaking the branches of the nearby cypress and cedar trees. The dust and debris on his gaunt body were blown away by the wind, and the fragrance of pine wafted through the air above the Qingfeng Temple.

  The tomb of the nun who loathed the world was located on a green hillside to the left of Qingfeng Temple, less than 100 meters away from where the abbot lived. The thief's shout woke her up. The abbot hastily got out of bed and rushed out of the temple, hurrying to the nun's grave, where the thieves were examining the wooden box under the moonlight.

  It seems that the grave robber was looking for a place to start, and before long, he really started. Every time he pried, it seemed as if he had stabbed into the body of the deceased.

  When he was thinking about whether to take action, his master's repeated warnings echoed in his ears: "Everything has its own destiny, you can't stand it, but you can't stop it."

  It can't be stopped, and the secret of Yan Shi Shifu is no longer kept. The abbot has some thoughts about taking action.

  At the moment of hesitation, the wooden box creaked open with a "creak", and a stack of paper appeared before his eyes. The thief grabbed the paper and threw it away, but found nothing else in the empty box, he was extremely disappointed and furious, unbuttoned his pants, reached inside, pulled out **aiming at the empty wooden box**