White Bone Monkey King

Chang County.

At Man Mo Temple.

As the annual Qingming Temple Fair approaches, the atmosphere around Man Mo Temple begins to become lively.

Lanterns.

Dragon lantern.

Phoenix lantern.

The bright red silk.

The shops around Man Mo Temple have all hung up calligraphy and paintings early. These calligraphy and paintings are all written with congratulations to Wen and Wu. The shopkeeper has already happily welcomed a foreign tourist who came to visit the vicinity of Man Mo Temple.

Although there is still half a month before the Qingming Temple Fair.

But the streets are already bustling with people, and the flow never stops.

The well-known foreign tourists, young ladies, scholars, businessmen’s families, and landowners’ family members who came early in advance appeared near the Man Mo Temple to pay their respects to the Man Mo Temple in advance and feel the lively and popular atmosphere before the festival.

The origin of Wenwu Temple in Chang County is recorded in the county annals——

Changxian County is close to the Yinyi River with developed waterways. Boats come and go on the Yinyi River every day, and the sails are like weaving, making it lively and prosperous.

This gives the people of Chang County an opportunity to communicate with the outside world at high speed.

Therefore, if people from the surrounding counties take part in the imperial examination or military examination, in order to save travel time and money, they will basically choose to take the waterway of Chang County. So slowly, the Wenwu Temple was built in Chang County.

This Wenwu Temple has brought a lot of incense and prosperity to Chang County during the previous imperial examinations and martial arts examinations.

But this Man Mo Temple is also strange.

Do not worship the two saints, civil and military.

Instead, a thousand-year-old sacred tree "Qingqian Liu" was enshrined.

People write their wishes and names on bamboo plaques tied with red silk ropes, and then throw them on the sacred tree. The higher they are thrown, the higher they are hung, which means "good luck shines high", "phoenix perches in the phoenix tree", "Rising higher and higher".

Even more, since ten years ago, the green money willow had a magical effect overnight, and the bronze fruit turned into a brilliant golden copper coin fruit. In addition to praying for civil and military blessings, the sacred tree also has an additional one that can "attract the God of Wealth to the door and attract wealth." rumor. As a result, even those merchants, rich businessmen, and people from poor families began to come in droves to take part in the excitement.

In this way, the Qingming Temple Fair reached its peak in ten years.

However, because the sacred tree is so precious and may be damaged by others, the Man Mo Temple is not usually open to the public, leaving only a few people responsible for daily cleaning.

Therefore, Man Mo Temple will only be open on the day of the Qingming Temple Fair.

In such a strict situation, even the government officials sent by the local government in Chang County to patrol and maintain security due to the approaching temple fair could not enter the Wenwu Temple.

No one knows what is going on in Man Mo Temple?

And all of this started ten years ago after the thousand-year-old green money willow sacred tree underwent a magical change overnight. It is said that once there are more people, it is easy for some unscrupulous people to mix in and destroy the sacred tree.

The simpler the personnel in the temple are, the less mistakes will be made.

It has only been a few years since Magistrate Zhang took office. Ten years ago, Magistrate Zhang was not the magistrate of Chang County. I wonder why the previous magistrate agreed to this? But ten years later, things have changed and people have changed, and I can’t figure out the reason. In short, this strange rule was passed down like this, year after year, for ten years.

Man Mo Temple will not be open to the public until the day of the Qingming Temple Fair.

Even if the arrester comes and County Magistrate Zhang comes, he can't get in.

In order not to disgrace the previous county magistrate, County Magistrate Zhang allowed this rule to be passed down.

Therefore, the government officials who could not enter the temple were all guarding the houses in the four directions closest to the Man Mo Temple.

It was sunny and daytime at this time.

Around the Man Mo Temple, white servants with the sun above their heads patrolled by from time to time.

Laoyoutiao's squad leader and government servants were lazily hiding in private houses, enjoying Mingqian tea, and were called to be responsible for spying in the dark.

suddenly.

A group of people wearing government official uniforms appeared outside a private house as soon as they entered the compound.

The leader was a muscular man with a beard riding a maroon horse. His temperament was obviously different from those of ordinary government servants.

Soon after, a government servant hurried into the compound and approached a shift leader.

After the yamen officer whispered a few words, the squad leader nodded knowing that he already knew, and then came outside a room.

"I'm reporting to Capt. Zheng that Capt. Zhao has arrived and wants to take turns handing over duties to Capt. Zheng."

The defense work of Man Mo Temple is a rotation between several major arrests every few days.

Today, it happened to be the turn of Zhao Yangping, one of the three chief catchers in Chang County, to take charge of the shift.

"Captain Zheng?"

"Captain Zheng?"

…

However, the class leader kept shouting softly several times, but there was still no movement in the room.

The squad leader seemed to have become accustomed to it and didn't notice anything unusual. Seeing that he didn't get a response from Captain Zheng after shouting several times, he returned the same way.

The squad leader returned to the lobby and reported to a person sitting drinking tea: "Back to Capt. Zhao, I just went to inform Capt. Zheng that you are here, Capt. Zhao, just because Capt. Zheng It just so happens that I am in retreat at this time. I haven’t responded yet. I would like to ask Zhao Captou to sit for a while longer. Generally speaking, Zheng Captou’s retreat will be a bit long. He usually stays in retreat until nightfall and then comes out to have a few mouthfuls of food and then continues to retreat. Practice.”

This Capt. Zhao is the muscular man with beard who rode the maroon horse earlier.

"Oh? Is Mr. Zheng always like this in the past few days?"

"Yes, Capt. Zhao." The squad leader nodded and bowed politely.

"It doesn't matter. Just wait a little longer. You can report the recent defense situation to me in advance."

…

Sunset and moonrise.

Time flies.

Falling into Changxian County under the sinking night, a burly man fell to the ground silently, walking alone with no footsteps on the cold and quiet streets after the curfew.

After walking for some distance, we met several night watchmen holding torches.

As soon as the local heroes saw each other's facial features clearly, they all put down their weapons and saluted respectfully: "Zheng Captou!"

When these local warriors watched Zheng Cat head go away and felt that they could not hear their own voices, they started discussing in private.

"Isn't Mr. Zheng over there at the Man Mo Temple? Why is he walking alone on the street?"

"You forgot, today is the day of changing the defense at Wen Mo Temple. In the next few days, Capt. Zhao will be responsible for guarding Wen Mo Temple."

"Hey, have you seen Mr. Zheng's face..."

"Don't talk about this matter behind your back. Be careful not to offend Mr. Zheng, who will give our brothers some shoes to wear in the future. The matter of the three major chiefs is not something that you and I, Jie Xiangyong, can discuss."

"Yes, yes, let's not discuss this matter. Have you noticed that Mr. Zheng seems to have no sound when he walks?"

"What's the matter? Chief Zheng is one of the top three arresters in our Chang County. Maybe he has made a breakthrough in his cultivation recently and his strength has improved greatly. Okay, let's go, let's continue patrolling the night. What should I do? I find that it is a bit chilly tonight, as if there is always a cold air blowing on the back of my neck..."