Word-savvy, explore the copy

Although Zhuang Cai was proficient in writing, he got some information. But other than confirming that this is an animal society, there is currently no important information.

So I just briefly chatted with the two about the terrain here.

Then he asked Wu Nian about the area where the monks rested, and went to that side.

Everyone began to exchange and cross paths to start the second half of the search, and agreed to gather here again before dusk for another round of communication.

Zhuang Cai came to the courtyard where he was resting, which was full of life.

Directly to the nearest courtyard, Zhuang Cai walked in and took a look.

A courtyard with houses on both sides of the main entrance.

I walked in and took a look. If I counted the beds, there were about 8 people living in this yard.

They all belong to the kind of little monks, like handyman servants.

Zhuang Cai rummaged around inside and found tables belonging to everyone, and even paper, pen and ink.

There are also scriptures that have not been copied.

What he copied was the "Don't Eat Sutra" that Zhuang Cai had seen in the pagoda before.

However, some of them have become annotations that I have seen before.

Obviously there have been some changes, and it should be called "Don't Eat the New Sutra"

Everyone has their own booklet. Zhuang Cai flipped through it and found that they were all diaries.

Everyone has one, and it's obviously mandatory.

However, most of these diaries contain trivial details of life and insights from Buddhist scriptures.

Take a look.

These young monks are all young, and most of them have been in the temple for less than 4 years.

I left the courtyard and looked around.

Walking further in, you can tell their status in the courtyard through some differences in the size of the courtyard and the number of people.

For example, in the courtyard where Zhuang Cai is now, the room is divided into four rooms, and each person has his or her own independent room.

The people here are those who hold some positions in the temple.

In the room, there are also many scriptures and books used for work records.

There are several diaries alone.

It's enough to show how long they have been in this temple.

According to Wu Nian, his amulet was found from one of the houses in a courtyard of this level.

When Zhuang Cai came in, the first thing he did was to start looking through these people's diaries.

Look to see if there's anything worth noting, especially the latest diary entries.

"April 16, the thirty-first year of Emperor Hu Wu: Recently, I have heard of missing people, and more and more pilgrims come to the temple to worship.

My Buddha is compassionate and wishes to protect all living beings in peace.

…

On the third day of June in the thirty-first year of Emperor Hu Wu's reign: The first senior brother had an argument with the host again. I wonder what happened to the first senior brother recently.

The sixth day of the sixth lunar month in the 31st year of Emperor Hu Wu’s reign: Stop eating today, I’m so hungry.

On the seventh day of the sixth lunar month in the thirty-first year of Emperor Hu Wu: Today I saw a fellow monk eating meat. Please turn a blind eye, but I want to eat it too.

It's been very popular recently, thanks to the host. In a few days, I’m going to go shopping again at the foot of the mountain.

…

On August 1, the 31st year of Emperor Hu Wu's reign, I returned from shopping and suddenly heard bad news. The first senior brother passed away the day before yesterday, but the senior brother was only over 31 years old and had no illness or disaster. Why did he suddenly pass away?

Gan Er, August 2, the 31st year of Emperor Hu Wu: Based on the achievements of the first senior brother, it is reasonable to cast a Buddha statue in the Buddhist pagoda. However, the host declined, puzzled.

The fifth day of September in the thirty-first year of Emperor Hu Wu: Since the death of the senior brother, the night surveillance of the courtyard by the senior brother and the monks has become more and more strict.

…

The sixth day of January in the thirty-second year of Emperor Hu Wu: Who should I listen to? What should I do? My Buddha is compassionate, why should I go? "

interesting.

According to the calendar written on it, something went wrong with this temple in the past two years.

January 6, 1932 was the last entry in the diary.

How long is it now?

If there is nothing wrong with the record book in the big store, today should be around January 11, 2032.

The monk who was responsible for purchasing some external supplies seemed to know something in the end.

And it’s very confusing.

There was a conflict between the chief and the host, and then the chief senior brother died.

According to his understanding of the text, the meaning of the first seat should be the successor of the host, whose status in the entire temple is already considered top.

There are many diaries on it, which shows that there were great conflicts at that time, and noisy things happened from time to time.

When he died, he happened to be sent out to purchase.

When he came back, the words above also showed that he had doubts.

Zhuang Cai rummaged around the room again and found nothing important.

However, this room has not been occupied for a few days. Compared with the fact that no diary was written after a few days, perhaps something happened to the owner of this diary.

Then he started searching in other rooms in the courtyard.

The people living in other rooms in this courtyard seem to be civil servants just like this monk.

They are all secretary-type positions.

The first thing now is to find the courtyard where the presiding officer and the supervisor are located. It would be even better if we could find the courtyard where the first senior brother once lived.

With the target in mind, Zhuang Cai began to search more carefully.

He first found the host's courtyard because it was the largest and most conspicuous.

However, after searching in various houses in the yard, he didn't find anything strange.

In the host's wing, in addition to beds, tables, chairs, bookcases and other places, there is also a birdcage, and there is no flaw among the various books.

Even the host has a diary-like booklet full of trivial matters.

There are also some insights and the like.

It can only be seen that the host seems to be quite busy recently.

"No, the handwriting is different?" Zhuang Cai said, looking at the diary in his hand.

He is proficient in words and very sensitive to words. The diary handwriting at the front and the handwriting at the end of the oldest book are wrong.

This abbot should have stayed in the temple for many years, but the total number of these diaries is only about 5 years.

Interesting to see more clues.

Zhuang Cai then found the room of the dead first senior brother.

You could see that someone had cleaned the room, and everything was neatly placed, as if no one had ever lived there.

But we can still find clues through some scripture annotations in the study. Knowing that this should be the room used by the first senior brother.

But it's also very clean, everything has been tidied away.

"But this person doesn't seem to like the new "Don't Eat Sutra" very much." Zhuang Cai couldn't help but read.

There are two old and new scriptures in his study. There are many criticisms in the annotations of the revised scriptures.

It is a reflection and praise for the old version of the scriptures.

Is it because of this conflict?

Inconsistencies in ideas and the like.

Zhuang Cai couldn't help but shook his head. It didn't look like it, because it was unlikely that he would kill someone for this reason.

Moreover, there must be a big problem in this temple. Zhuang Cai is more inclined to believe that the first senior brother discovered something terrible and was subsequently killed.

"Master Pingzui...what's the weird name?"

Zhuang Cai couldn't help but talk.

Through these scriptures with certain annotations, he found that the first senior brother respected this master very much, and this master was in the temple.

He is a Xitang elder.

But this elder should be dead, and he must have been dead for a long time.

Because Zhuang Cai had already seen his name and Buddha statue in the refuge pagoda at the back.

The Buddha statues on the first and second floors of the pagoda are all statues of deceased monks whose ashes were smelted and reshaped and placed on top.

To be honest, he didn't quite understand this kind of funeral.

Later, through some annotations, he roughly knew that some of the annotated scriptures of Master Pingzui were placed in the back, in an area in the pagoda.

With the target in mind first, Zhuang started to search faster in other rooms.

Soon he saw a very important entry in the diary of one of them.

"The first senior brother is dead. He doesn't deserve to die. He doesn't deserve to die."

This indicates that this person's room must have this thing.

Soon Zhuang Cai found it.

Two new yellow charms.

One that I have seen before, like the one folded together now, "Protection and Exorcism".

The other one is tucked into the book, and it says: "Qian Kun Suppresses Demons".

And through some diaries, it was determined that this was not something a monk would use.