Besides, you have said nothing, you have always been instructed to look after them, to see if they are lying or not, do they have any problems, right? This old Gong's words, let me abruptly silent, without going out.
Lao Gong took a deep breath at the woman with a smiling look, intricate inscriptions appearing on his face, overlapping and complex.
The woman's body twisted violently, then dissipated. A jade pendant lay quietly on the ground, stained with blood, this was her refuge.
Lao Gong picked up the jade Buddha, gave it a kiss, hung it around his neck and gently caressed it.
"Good wife, good wife, don't be afraid, don't be afraid. Lao Gong is here, no one can take you away." Lao Gong said in a soft voice.
He shook his head forcefully and suddenly said: "No, no. As the saying goes, 'man dies, light goes out'. Your man is something that happened during your lifetime. When you die, he dies, and when he is taken away, it has nothing to do with you. It's none of my business either. Just follow me, Lao Gong, and be safe."
The moment he finished speaking, Lao Gong looked at me again and then disappeared.
I sat back beside the bed, held my breath, focused my mind, and entered a meditative state, maintaining the rhythm of my breathing.
Until the next morning when the steady knocking sound of the door reached my ears, I got up to open the door. Ma Wang's child was a bit scared and ran away. The woman was bringing food to the table.
She then turned her head back, joined her hands together, and greeted me.
I returned the greeting.
At this moment, a chaotic sound of footsteps suddenly came from the courtyard, along with heavy panting.
I glanced over and saw Ma Wang. He looked very disheveled, with quite a bit of soot on his face and many of his hair burned.
The child ran over and grabbed the hem of Ma Wang's clothes, looking very scared.
The woman also hurriedly went out, looking worried.
It wasn't just Ma Wang, but also a group of people behind him. None of them were any different from crawling out of a blaze.
The group of them moved towards the house this way, with their gazes all focused on me without exception.
I walked to the door of the house. After Ma Wang and the others bowed their hands, he introduced me to a man in his mid-fifties behind him. He was tall, had a square face, slightly gray hair, and a stern face, with sharp eyes that shone.
"Master, he is our village head, Kangbu." Ma Wang paused slightly and continued: "The Sanba family that lied were sentenced to be stripped of everything the village gave them. They were not allowed to use the pasture, not allowed to kill cattle and sheep, there would be no sutra chanted for them. The village head told them to repent. As a result, they burned their own house and even burned the houses of others. They fled from the village."
Village Head Kangbu took the opportunity to speak, his voice deep and sonorous: "They do not admit to having made a mistake. They say it was an accident. Whether it's an accident or not, the Master's judgment will be without fault. They are stubborn and unyielding, and they will be preyed upon by the wolf pack on the grasslands."
Fortunately, Ma Wang didn't speak in Tibetan, otherwise the village head wouldn't have spoken in Mongolian either, and I would have been clueless again.
But their words made me very uncomfortable.
Did I give a judgment?
It's completely different. I only told Ma Wang that they might be lying and to ask them more questions and not let anything go wrong. How did it get twisted into me sentencing people in their mouths?
"Fortunately, Master has arrived. Otherwise, the Sanba family would have been a toxic tumor in Cuo Bai Village. They would have extorted and hurt more people, destroyed the village's simplicity, and eroded Master Aigong's trust." Kangbu spoke again.
My brows were tightly knit, and a dark cloud lingered in my heart, making me feel exceptionally uncomfortable.
What Ma Wang did was not very careful. A suggestion that he conveyed became a decision.
The family was forced to set fire to the village and flee.
"Bring them back. I didn't sentence them; I raised concerns." My voice was low.
"Master Aigong doesn't allow me to interfere with the troubles and hardships. But can I be responsible for creating them because of my interference?"
"Yes, some of the younger villagers have gone around the surrounding area to search for them. They can't run too far. After burning so many houses, they should take responsibility. Harming others also needs a conclusion. They can't just leave." Kangbu said.
Ma Wang nodded repeatedly.
For a moment, I didn't know what to say to them to make them better.
How can these people be even more stubborn?
After that, Kangbu and the others took their leave and departed.
Ma Wang invited me to eat something first, and he went to change into a clean set of clothes before coming out.
The taste of the Tibetan flour was quite ordinary. As I ate, I thought of Master Aigong's human oil and swallowed it hard, still feeling sick to my stomach.
Ma Wang sat in front of me, his demeanor still devout.
The woman and the child left the house, letting the child play in the courtyard while she tidied up the mess in the yard.
"I'm not sure if they really lied. Have you asked them carefully?" I finally spoke to Ma Wang.
When there are many people, it's not good to be too direct and strict, as this would make Ma Wang a target for everyone's criticism.
That's why, the village head Kangbu doesn't understand my words, so I put it off for now and can only explain to Ma Wang and let him think of a solution himself.
"I've told the village head that you suspect he's lying. There are many respected elders in the village who agree with you. They all believe that what you say is correct. That family always has yaks hit by cars on the road and demands a lot of compensation, again and again. The coincidences are too much, how can it still be coincidences?" Ma Wang explained to me.
"Moreover, the Sanba family insists that they did not push the deceased. It was that person who had a conflict with them and then fell and hit his head. But you are right; how could a stranger in a foreign land deliberately cause trouble with ten or more local people?"
"Even if we take one step back, the village head Kangbu just asked them to repent. They can slowly explain everything. Why did they burn down other people's houses? It's because they are heartless and scared of being punished."
Ma Wang's words were completely reasonable and logical.
If it weren't for the appearance of that woman last night, I would have believed them.
However, there is definitely sabotage from the Lu family!
They took advantage of the locals and created a corpse ghost. The woman was also their prey.
The Sanba family had just become the blade in their hands.
"All in all, let's just find them first." I put down the Tibetan flour, I couldn't eat it anymore, instead, I picked up a piece of sesame stick.
But upon taking a quick look, the sesame stick in my hand turned out to be a blood-soaked bone.
My eyes shot, and I recited the Purification Sutra silently in my mouth, there was no blood anywhere.
The illusion is impossible, someone is using some means in the dark to target me!
That the Sanba family has become like this is directly related to my reminder to Ma Wang. This has inadvertently undermined the Lu family's exploitation of them. Therefore, the Lu family still has their eyes on me and has taken action against me?
I was thinking about it just then, there was a sound of stomping, a horse suddenly stopped at the gate of Ma Wang's yard. A teenager, about 18 or 19 years old, shouted a long string of words in our direction.
Ma Wang's face turned pale, and he leaped to his feet!
"A corpse, at the White River outside the village." Ma Wang looked very anxious and nervous. After speaking with me, he hurriedly ran out of the yard.
