"Yes, they forgot for a while, and the memory disappeared without a trace, like a film clip that had been cut off, leaving them with endless speculation and disorganized sorting."

  The distant rolling thick smoke indicates that the place they want to go is now a sea of fire. Zha Wenbin found that the two handwriting were from the same person, but he also understood that the person who left the note was not Lao Dao.

  There is a Chinese saying that goes "judge a person by their handwriting". The character of an old swordsman like him would normally be reflected in his writing, with a hint of arrogance. However, the two letters written on sheepskin paper revealed a carefree spirit that refused to be bound by worldly conventions. Every stroke of the pen was filled with genuine emotions and a hint of longing. Just this level of cultivation alone is something that ordinary people cannot achieve.

  "This must have been pointed out by a superior man, perhaps something really happened in the past, but we forgot. Since we chose to forget, let's just forget it. Our lives shouldn't be entangled with these rights and wrongs anyway. Old Wang should be gone, so let's just continue living well. Zhe Luo, take us down the mountain." As he spoke, Cha Wenbin slung his backpack over his shoulder, turned around to take one last look at the distant place shrouded in flames and thick smoke, and suddenly a thought flashed through his mind: I've been there before!

  Things were simple and not many, except for those things passed down by the masters, everything else was gone, but there was still a kettle on the ground, the lid was open, Zha Wenbin picked it up casually to pour a mouthful and throw it away, but surprisingly found that inside there was actually a golden tadpole swimming around.

  "Who did this, Chaozi, was it one of your pranks?" Zhang Wenbin shouted to the crowd.

  Everyone gathered around and took a look. Wow, it's really fresh! There isn't even a river for miles around, who would put a tadpole inside?

  "Where am I supposed to get this thing from? Hey, you say it's so cold here, why doesn't the water in your thermos freeze?" Chao Zi reacted quickly, he always thought of things that others couldn't think of.

  When he asked, it was indeed the case. This place is extremely cold, with snow all year round. A jug of dead water is placed outside in the icy sky and snowy ground. Not to mention that the water will freeze, even a frog would be frozen to death, let alone tadpoles.

  Zha Wenbin took a closer look, and on the toad's big head, there should be a few white threads, its back shining golden yellow, but it also had a small blemish, making it not so smooth. The first thought in his heart was: Could this be a little three-legged toad?

  "Zha Wenbin said excitedly: "Chaozi, come and get some dry rations, not too much, just make a little powder and sprinkle it in for a try."

  Chao Zi rummaged through his backpack and found a package of cookies from the very bottom, took out a small piece and threw it into the pot, and this little tadpole really ate it in one bite!

  "It's quite interesting, so easy to raise, why don't we just take it back and keep it as a pet?"

  In this way, the tadpole which could only eat dry food since it was small was taken back.

  I really don't know where this tadpole came from, but I heard that Chaozi's uncle brought it back from a very far place, so Wenbin's uncle treasured it. When I was young, I was quite mischievous and often messed up Wenbin's room, but he never scolded me. The only time he would immediately turn around and hit me was when I went to tease this little tadpole.

  It's been a while since this matter passed, and the superiors also sent people to find Cha Wenbin for investigation. The survivors of that operation were all filed, they took away the sheepskin paper left by "Lao Dao", and the remaining Ruyi book was hidden by Cha Wenbin.

  That little tadpole grew very slowly, eating almost anything, moss, rice or a drop of milk in the water, it was easy to raise, but after several months, it was still a tadpole, showing no signs of growing up. The little guy was left at Zha Wenbin's home, and the matter of the flower pot was also settled afterwards, anyway, they all returned to their hometown and started their lives again.

  At that time, I was still very young. However, since the General Temple passed away, my body has not been well. I often went to the hospital every other day, but it didn't seem to work. That winter, I got whooping cough. The elderly people all said that if this child continued to cough like this, he would be ruined in the future. Drips were hung and injections were given, but there was no improvement.

  Later, my mother used folk remedies, such as stewing papaya leaves in water and fishy-smelling grass in water, I drank them all, anyway, whatever others said was useful, my mother would find a way to get it for me.

  At that time, my grandfather was still there. I don't know where he got a folk remedy from, saying that we had to eat the gallbladder of a sparrow. There's a saying that everyone knows: "Sparrows may be small, but they have all five organs!"

  The sparrow was really only a little bigger, at that time my father went to catch the sparrow and then took out the gallbladder for me to eat. I've eaten quite a few strange things like this. All major hospitals are also frequent visitors, and doctors can't do anything about it. Taking medicine and injections, I cooperate with everything, but there's no one who can see that I'm getting better, either coughing or having a fever.

  At that time, my mother was also anxious and thought about whether she should go find someone to take a look. At the moment, Cha Wenbin and others had returned from Kunlun. For half a year, he almost closed his door tightly and stayed in his room all day without knowing what to do, except for occasional visits from some special people who could enter, while others couldn't find him because there was a fierce big man guarding his door like a door god. According to the villagers, this killer had a large dragon-shaped scar on his chest, which made him untouchable.

  My father personally went and had a closed-door meal twice. Later, when he was anxious, my mother took me to his house in person.

  My mother is a rural woman with a particularly loud voice, and when she shouts, half of the villagers can hear her. She stood at the door of Zhang Wenbin's house, shouting his name in a loud voice, and Zhang Wenbin finally heard it, came out to take a look, saw that it was us, and hurriedly had someone bring us into the house.

  My mom told him about my situation, and he first scolded the big mountain severely, then quickly took me into a room inside.

  The room was filled with the scent of sandalwood, and on the wall hung a portrait of the Three Pure Ones. In front of it stood an altar, upon which were offerings and incense sticks. On the floor were two meditation mats. In the center of the room sat a small eight-immortals table and a stool, upon which lay scattered thread-bound books, writing brushes, paper, inkstones, and other such items. Hanging on the wall was my most coveted Seven Stars Sword - every little boy loves to wield swords and dance with knives.

  What makes it even more interesting is that on the upper right corner of the table, there was a small goldfish tank. This thing was a rare item at that time, made of jade, and it's said that it was brought back by Cha Wenbin when he went to the provincial city to trade antiques with his son.

  I was still very young and not tall enough, so when Zhang Wenbin went to burn incense for Sanqing, I would sneak onto his stool. One glance at the fish tank showed that it wasn't some precious fish inside, but a golden tadpole. I thought it was fun, so I poked my finger in to tease it. The thing was very agile and I couldn't poke it no matter what, so I decided to use my hand to grab it instead.

  "Xiao Yi, what are you doing! Quickly take your hand out!" Behind me came the severe voice of Cha Wenbin, I was startled and almost knocked over the Ming dynasty jade fish tank with a slap.

  It's possible that in my impression, Cha Wenbin rarely loses his temper, especially with me, but that time, I saw his very stern gaze, and I had no choice but to lower my head and wait for criticism.

  Unexpectedly, Zhang Wenbin didn't blame me much after seeing the tadpoles in the jar. Instead, he told me to go kneel on the couch and offer incense to the Three Purities on the wall.

  At that time, I referred to this type of image as "Bodhisattva guy", and asked: "Who is this Bodhisattva guy?"

  Zha Wenbin patted my head and laughed: "This is not a Bodhisattva, this is the Three Pure Ones of Heaven, you quickly pay your respects."

  I followed Cha Wenbin's instructions, and after kowtowing, he took the incense from my hand and inserted it into the holder. Then, he carried me to that small stool and asked: "Recently, have you gone anywhere to fool around?"

  I shook my head, actually I was very mischievous since childhood, the more adults didn't let me go to a place, the more I liked to go, such as hiding in the tomb mountain, digging bird nests in the willow forest, and wearing a plastic bag on rainy days. I knew that if any of these things were said, I would be beaten when I went back, so I refused to say anything.

  Cha Wenbin still looked at me and smiled: "Go ahead, I promise not to tell your mom."

  If you want to go somewhere to have fun, the only place is the old ancestral hall at the village entrance. This ancestral hall was the mansion of our local landlord before liberation, and after liberation it became a collective property of the village. Some down-and-out households also temporarily lived there for a while, but without exception, they would rather sleep on the street than go back to avoid wind and rain after staying there for a few nights, saying that the place is haunted by ghosts.

  That ancestral hall is not far from the elementary school where I studied, just a 500-meter walk. At that time, I hadn't started school yet, but my older male cousins often took me to play in that area around the school, which included that old ancestral hall.

  The children's curiosity is innate, and I don't know where they heard that there are ghosts there, so it became an adventure holy land in the eyes of those guys, and I naturally followed them.

  On Sundays, we often went there to play, actually just a group of kids scaring themselves in the temple. For example, older kids would lead us into an open room and then make a cautious appearance, suddenly shouting: "Oh my god, there's a ghost! Run away!", those older kids would scatter immediately, each one shouting and yelling as if they had really seen a ghost, while I was usually the last one to run out because I was the smallest.

  It was just such a seemingly dull game, in those years, we played with great relish.

  But some of the doors were locked with those old-fashioned copper door locks, and the doors were tightly closed. The windows were pasted with many years' worth of yellowed old newspapers, layer upon layer.

  A large temple, we all went in to play, the scattered straw on the ground proves that this was once a farmer's warehouse, now it is a paradise for mice and our heaven.

  The buildings in the ancestral hall have a distinct Qing dynasty flavor, with intricate carvings on the doors and windows. Many of the small black tiles were smashed by naughty kids like us using stones, but through this desolation, it can still be seen that the owner of this ancestral hall was quite prosperous back then.

  And I, in that temple, have indeed seen some unusual things, so I told Cha Wenbin about it...

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