Chapter 22: The Divine Lottery of Guanyin

  The vegetarian meal at Cuīyún ān was not eaten. But when they arrived at Cuīyún Mountain, the Buddhist tea could not be tasted. During this period, the Léi Jiāng County "Revolutionary Committee" prohibited Cuīyún ān from conducting religious activities on the grounds of "spreading feudal superstition", and changed it to "Hóng Xīng Tea Farm People's Commune". As a result, Shīfù and a group of nuns were all transformed into "People's Commune members" overnight.

  Unable to become a Zen master, she became a tea farmer. The abbess was also at peace with this. She put down the Buddhist scriptures and began studying the Tea Classics. She led the nuns in transforming the barren mountain behind the temple into a tea garden, fully utilizing the unique geography and climate of Cuifeng Mountain. They introduced high-quality tea tree varieties, extended the picking time through meticulous cultivation, reformed the tea-making process, increased tea production, and improved tea quality. As a result, "Cuifeng Buddha's Hand" tea, originally only used within Cuifeng Temple, was selected by Leijiang County as a "famous, special, and excellent" product for the 1979 National Commodities Fair, where it won a silver award, becoming a renowned brand both inside and outside the province.

  The little nun brought up several tea bowls, lifted the tea lid, and saw that the clean white jade-like tea bowl was filled with Buddha tea brewed with mountain spring water. The soup was green and moist, the tea fragrance overflowed, and the tea buds stood in the water like a Buddha's hand. Although it was last year's old tea, after tasting it, it still had a rich and refreshing taste, with a sweet aftertaste.

  After finishing tea, it was already the time for the noon class at Cuifeng An. "Ten thousand sounds are all silent, only the sound of the bell remains." On the quiet Cuifeng Mountain, the soft and gentle chanting voices of the Bhikkhuni accompanied by the bell, sounded clear and sonorous.

  Just as Yu Xin-yuan was about to leave the Cuiyun An, he suddenly heard someone chanting Buddhist scriptures: "Amitabha Buddha, a few donors, please draw a divination slip! The Guanyin divine lottery is very effective."

  As soon as he heard the voice, he looked out and saw a fortune-telling stall at the door. An old nun sat on a cushion, her eyes slightly closed, her hands fiddling with sandalwood Buddhist beads, and she seemed to be muttering to herself. In front of the cushion was placed a divination tube and a merit box. He was about to politely decline when Jianjun hastily stepped forward: "Captain, let's draw a divination slip and see if the case will be solved smoothly?"

  After finishing, Jian Jun put his hands together in a Buddhist gesture, imitating the old nun's manner. He closed his eyes and muttered to himself for a while before picking up the bamboo tube and shaking it. Suddenly, one of the bamboo slips fell to the ground with a "ding".

  The old nun took the bamboo slip, looked at it and said: "Donor, this is a lower sign of the 39th sign. The inscription says: 'News from afar is hard to think about, don't worry too much; if you grind a stone into a mirror, you will know that your efforts are in vain'."

  "What does this mean?"

  The old nun said, "Polishing a brick into a mirror is an anecdote of Zen Buddhism. It's said that there was a monk who thought he had gained some insight, so he went to the vicinity of an old Zen master's dojo and sat down. He entered what he thought was a state of enlightenment as soon as he sat down. The old Zen master silently found a stone and polished it beside the monk every day for several days."

  A monk who was meditating asked the old master, "Master, what is the use of grinding a stone?" The old master replied, "I want to grind it into a mirror." The meditating monk said, "How can a stone be ground into a mirror?" The master retorted, "How can sitting in meditation lead to enlightenment?" Upon hearing this, the monk immediately paid homage and suddenly attained understanding.

  Jianjun listened to these profound Zen principles, seeming to understand but not quite, and was about to ask again when Guoqing stepped forward and said: "Since it's a low-ranking sign, what's the point of asking more questions? Your luck is really bad, let me go ask for another sign."

  As the law prescribes. The National Day will be handed over to Lao Ni. Lao Ni looked at it and said: "Congratulations to this donor. This is an 86 sign, which is a superior sign. The signed text says: 'In the spring, flowers bloom in front of the sunny platform, and thousands of miles of cars come to make precious money; if you get three levels of Yu Men, it's like a thunder on flat ground.' Donor, this sign is as desired, everything is auspicious."

  Guoqing happily winked at Jianjun. Jianjun was unhappy: "Seeking the same thing, one is auspicious and the other is unlucky, what's going on?" He turned his head to Xinyuan and said, "Captain, you also come to draw a lottery, three games two wins".

  Yu Xinfang didn't quite believe them. But thinking of the Spring Festival, two young people following him busy, didn't want to spoil their fun, so he walked over and handed an old nun a bamboo slip from the tube.

  The old nun took a look and said: "Donor, you drew the 24th sign, which belongs to the lower sign. 'No theory, no family, water-like foolish people like fallen flowers; if you ask about kindness, you must get strength, only then will you see things clearly.' Donor, if you want peace, remember not to speak ill of others and be honest and upright in your heart!"

  "Master, we all asked the same question, how can there be such different results?"

  "Amithaba! As there is a cause, there is an effect. With an effect, there is a cause. The old nun cannot reveal the heavenly secret!"

  The army is still in the clouds, and he wants to ask again, but Yu Xinlan stops him. He once heard Lu Sihao say that "Zen machine" means, today, what Lao Ni said might be "Zen machine", let's slowly understand it later.

  Yu Xin put some loose change in the merit box beside her, took the three yellow papers with divination results given by Old Nun, and walked out of Cuiyun An.

  After leaving the police station, Yu Xin ordered: "Jianjun, take the broken object and the incense stick from the criminal investigation box to the forensic identification department of the county public security bureau for technical appraisal. Be sure to extract fingerprints; Guoqing, you take an incense stick and investigate its source within the whole county, so as to determine the scope of suspects."

  Two days later, Jianjun returned with the inspection report: The blood type on the pillowcase and the blood type on the dismembered object were consistent, which can prove that the pillowcase was the wrapping of the dismembered object; After comparison with Yamada Jiro's own blood type, it was fully matched; The pillowcase was a brand new high-grade pure cotton product, belonging to a high-end hotel, with the words "Lei Jiang County Committee Reception House" in relief on it, which was a customized product from Yijiang City Towel Factory for Lei Jiang County Committee Reception House; The material of the incense stick was Xiangfei bamboo, but no fingerprints could be extracted from the incense stick, the dismembered object and the pillowcase, obviously, someone had deliberately made fingerprint hiding treatment.

  Jian Jun was somewhat disappointed that he didn't get any more useful information. However, Yu Xin Yuan was very satisfied: "At least this shows one thing - the person who went to Cuicui An obviously doesn't want others to follow these clues and track him down, it's highly likely that he is the murderer; moreover, this person has a strong anti-detection consciousness, which reinforces our prediction that this person has a certain level of cultural refinement, greatly narrowing down the target range."

  However, there was a significant gain on National Day: after checking all the shops in Leijiang one by one, it was finally confirmed that the incense stick found in Cuifeng An was a brand called "Plum Blossom" sold by a cultural goods store. There is only one such store in Leijiang, with no branches elsewhere.

  He secretly rejoiced in his heart, and now the scope of investigation has narrowed down a lot!