Serious Case Tracking

Chapter 6 Sparrow Temple
After leaving Wei Dongsheng's house, Meng Shaohui suddenly felt much quieter. If it wasn't for the incident, I believe Sparrow Village would be a good place to keep in good health.

Except for the mahjong factory, there is no industrial production in the village. In addition, some vegetables and fruits grown by the villagers are self-sufficient, and refreshing green can be seen everywhere. Outside of a truck, there are no extra motor vehicles, so that there is less exhaust gas pollution from motor vehicle exhaust, which makes the air in the village extraordinarily fresh, occasionally mixed with the smell of food wafting from the villagers' kitchen, which is quite refreshing. There is a very comfortable feeling.

Under the guidance of Zhao Tietou, Meng Shaohui found the sparrow temple that Wei Dongsheng mentioned earlier at the foot of a mountain to the north of the village.

If it weren't for the words "Temple of Sparrow" engraved on the faded plaque hanging directly above the gate, I really can't see any temple features here, there is no resplendent decoration, and there is no incense. Some of the scenes are just overgrown with weeds and ivy covered with dilapidated walls. It is more appropriate to say that this is a dilapidated earthen house than a temple.

The Sparrow Temple is composed of three simple parts. Entering the gate, the first thing you see is a yard of about seventy to eighty square meters. There is a copper incense burner in the middle, but there is no incense inside, almost covered with yellow The leaves are filled.Facing the courtyard is a large hall. In the hall is a stone sculpture of unknown person. It is not high, about 1.5 meters. There is nothing on the worship table in front of the statue. The original black paint has been lost. How many layers of ash "painted" became off-white.There is a study room on the left and right sides of the courtyard, but these two study rooms are obviously cleaned frequently, and the inside is extraordinarily tidy and clean. According to Zhao Tietou, there are all Buddhist scriptures inside, but almost no one in the village reads them, only Wei Qiuyuan often reads them. Come here to tidy up the hygiene and study the Buddhist scriptures.

"I would like to ask, which 'sparrow god' is enshrined in this hall?"

After walking around in the Sparrow Temple and getting a general understanding of the situation, Meng Shaohui focused on the statues in the main hall.This statue is carved from a piece of gray-white ordinary stone. The figure is vividly carved, with a slightly fat round face, thick eyebrows and big eyes, a high nose bridge, and slightly raised corners of the mouth. It seems to be a smile that is not a smile. An open folding fan is placed across the chest, the palm of the right hand is facing up, and the "hair" in a mahjong tile stands on the palm, giving people a sense of humor.

"The villagers all call him the 'Sparrow God'. There are many opinions about who this statue is, but no one knows who it is. We only know that this Sparrow Temple existed when Sparrow Village existed. .” Zhao Tietou said with a smile, “But it’s very likely to be Zheng He.”

"Zheng He? You mean Zheng He who went to the West?" Meng Shaohui asked in surprise.

"Yes, because it is said that Zheng He made seven voyages to the West and formed the largest fleet in the world at that time, with tens of thousands of soldiers. Leading to depression and even illness. Zheng He was very anxious seeing this situation, worried that the consequences would be unimaginable in the long run, so he wanted to make an entertainment tool for soldiers to relieve boredom, and it would be best if many people could participate Yes. After thinking hard, Zheng He used the moso bamboo on the boat to make bamboo plaques with local materials, engraved with characters and patterns, so that they could be placed on the square table for dinner for four people to entertain at the same time. As for the design of the characters and patterns, in order to make The soldiers liked it, and Zheng He also took great pains. For example, "Zhong" represents the land of the Central Plains. In addition, the king always prefers red, so he painted the word "Zhong" in red, and the name of his voyage is to do business, so he engraved it. The word "fa" gives people a feeling of getting rich, and the amount of wealth is "[-]" to "[-]", and the soldiers on board eat round pancakes that are baked every day, so there is " One cake' to 'nine cakes', and occasionally the soldiers would catch some fish in calm weather in order to improve their food, and there were 'one' to 'nine cakes', and then 'white board' referred to the vast sea, and 'dong' , 'South', 'West' and 'North' refer to the wind direction, plus four flowers 'Spring Peach', 'Autumn Chrysanthemum', 'Xia He' and 'Winter Plum' represent the four seasons of the year. It was invented, but at that time it was not called mahjong, but bamboo tiles. Later, the soldiers reported to Zheng He that the bamboo tiles were very fun, and when they played, they would become numb and fascinated. Not only did they forget their homesickness, but sometimes I even forgot to eat the rice, but the name of the bamboo card is not very nice, so I want to ask Zheng He to give me another name. Zheng He thinks that since the bamboo card can paralyze the spirit of the soldiers, he should simply call it "Mahjong". .”

"I see."

Meng Shaohui suddenly realized that this was the first time he had ever heard about the origin of mahjong. Although he entertained occasionally, he never delved into it.

"This is just a story about the history of Mahjong. There are many other stories about the history of Mahjong. It's just that people in the village seem to be more convinced of this story. These are also what my grandfather said back then, so people in the village think this statue is Zheng He." Zhao Tietou explained.

"Then Wei Qiuyuan is from outside the village, does he know about these things?" Meng Shaohui asked.

"I know. Although he is an outsider from the village, he has been in the village for so many years, so he must know it. What's more, this ruined temple does not enshrine any gods. No one in the village has ever come to worship. Only he often comes here to see those gods. Buddhist scriptures."

"Then why he came, do you know?"

"Of course it's because of the village's secret 'the birds return to their nests'! The villagers moved all the way from outside the village in order to find the secret of "birds returning to their nests", but unfortunately, after searching all the contents, they did not find any clues. No one will pay attention to it anymore! The occasional mention is just a chat after dinner, and I will not deliberately look for it at all. Until the village head Wei came, but I have never heard that he found anything." Zhao Tietou clapped his hands Tan, said, "Actually, I remember hearing this from my grandfather when I was a child. He said that because of this secret, many people from outside the village went to the village just to find this "bird's nest". But after searching for a long time, no one found it. In the end, this trend of treasure hunting gradually faded as everyone's search failed. It's just a rumor made by the villagers based on rumors."

"Also, if there is such a thing hidden in the village, and there is a poem as a clue, it is impossible for no one to find it for such a long time."

Although Meng Shaohui agreed with Zhao Tietou on the surface, he was thinking to himself: "If 'Birds Returning to the Nest' is really just a simple poem, then Wei Qiuyuan gave his four children a one-year time limit to search for it. What is the purpose of not being able to inherit the inheritance? Is it really just a simple worry that the inheritance will not be given to them, and they will cause trouble, so they deliberately make things difficult for them? But if Wei Qiuyuan has already found the "Bird Homing" What is the secret? And why is there a one-year time limit for the four children to find it?"

Afterwards, Meng Shaohui came to the study on the left side of the courtyard. It was indeed much cleaner than the courtyard and the main hall, only a thin layer of dust fell on the bookshelves. Perhaps Wei Qiuyuan hadn't been here for a while!

The Buddhist scriptures here have obviously been placed for some years. The pages of almost all the books have turned yellow, and some have even been eaten by moths. Although the books are very old, there are many kinds, and they are all neatly arranged in different categories. There are scriptures such as "Great Prajna Sutra", "Lotus Sutra", "Bodhisattva Sutra", "Shoushurangama Sutra" and so on. These Buddhist scriptures are very strange to Meng Shaohui, and some of them have not even listened to them. Said.

"Because the verse of "Birds Returning to the Nest" mentioned the Buddhist scriptures from the West, all the Buddhist scriptures that the villagers found back then were the scriptures brought back by the monks from the West. There are almost 600 volumes, thousands of volumes!" Zhao Tietou Said.

"Thousands of volumes? That's really more than a year. If you can read all these scriptures, even if you don't have seven or eighty years old, you may already be able to escape into Buddhism." Meng Shaohui joked.

"No, in the early years most of the people who searched for 'Birds Homing' were gamblers. Only a very few of them were really looking for treasures. In the end, a large number of gamblers didn't become monks after studying these Buddhist scriptures for several years. That is why I quit gambling and became a layman. Although I can't find the 'Birds Returning to the Nest', it is a good thing to finally let some people change their ways, after all, gambling is really harmful!" Zhao Tietou said.

What Zhao Tietou said is indeed very reasonable. During the years when Meng Shaohui was a policeman, he encountered countless cases of gamblers breaking the law for money. This kind of thing is indeed harmful to people, and it is still harmful to others and ourselves.

(End of this chapter)