The food in the Taoist temple was mostly wild vegetables, with potatoes and sweet potatoes as staples.
There were basically no seasonings for these foods, only some salt.
Eating like this occasionally was fine, but it made me sigh when I thought about how these three Taoists ate like this all year round.
After lunch, I chatted with Yunhe's master in the main hall. I had intended to say a few polite words, but after only a few sentences, I realized that his master's condition was unusually serious.
He would forget what I had just said by the next sentence, and the question he asked most often was: "Who are you?"
I must have answered this question five or six times, and finally, I gave up on asking him about Old Chen.
After Yunhe's master went for a nap at noon, Yunhe and I sat in the main hall. I asked him what Old Chen did during his years at the Taoist temple, besides researching in his room every day.
Yunhe said, "He often went up the mountain alone to collect herbs. Many of the medicinal herbs we use now were collected by Professor Chen from the mountain."
"Anything else? Don't you guys chat on a daily basis?"
Yunhe smiled and said, "Professor Chen is a man of few words. I barely hear him speak a few words all year round."
Hearing this, I felt a bit helpless. I asked Yunhe, "Why is your Mandarin so good?"
"My master taught me since I was young," he said with a smile.
"Oh? Your master speaks Mandarin? Who did he learn it from?"
Yunhe stood up and took a radio from a drawer of the offering table. It looked like it was out of power. "We used to listen to the radio."
I looked at the radio. It was a very old model, and I had one like it at home when I was a child.
Yunhe said that the radio was broken. The last time he went down the mountain to get it repaired, they said it couldn't be fixed, and they hadn't listened to the radio since.
I asked him why he didn't buy a new one. He smiled and said, "Life on the mountain is hard, and we don't have much money. I only go down the mountain once a year. Each time I go down, I just take some herbs to sell. The money from selling herbs is just enough to buy some cloth and salt."
I couldn't imagine such a life. I asked Yunhe if he had ever thought of living outside.
He said, "I used to, but not anymore."
"Why?"
"My master is old and needs care. After he passes on, I still have to take care of my junior uncle."
"What about you? What will happen when you get old?"
He gave a wry smile and said, "Actually, there's another reason for me to go down the mountain every year, which is to find abandoned children and bring them up the mountain to raise them... but it's hard to find abandoned infants now."
"Did your master tell you to do this?" I asked.
He nodded, "Yes..."
"I think it would be much better for your master and you if you could live in the city or in another Taoist temple," I suggested.
Yunhe shook his head. "We can't leave here."
"Why?"
"Because someone must remain at Xiaoqing Temple."
I couldn't quite understand. This place was called a Taoist temple, but it was just a few mud houses. Was there any reason to stubbornly stay here?
Through our conversation, I found that Yunhe's speech was far from ordinary. Not only did he speak fluent Mandarin, but he was also literate and had read many books.
Furthermore, what was even more incredible was that he knew martial arts.
During the few days I was researching Old Chen's notes at the Taoist temple, I accidentally saw Yunhe practicing martial arts on a clearing in the back mountain. I knew nothing about these things and couldn't tell what he was practicing at all.
However, when I saw him lean lightly and knock all the snow off a tree, I was so shocked that I couldn't speak.
I don't know how to describe it. He just leaned lightly and casually, and the tree, as thick as my body, trembled violently, and then all the snow on it fell off.
I asked Song Bing about it. He was also very surprised after listening. He said that was called "internal force" (an jin). When he was in the army, their company commander came from a martial arts family and knew some internal force, but it was too difficult to achieve that level.
From that day on, I paid more and more attention to Yunhe. The more I observed him, the more I felt that he was an extraordinary person.
"Lord Xiang, they say that reclusive masters are found in deep mountains, and that's really true. This morning I also saw that Daoist Yunhe practicing. He's so amazing! He can leap more than two meters high!" Fatty said with sparkling eyes. "Do you think he knows qinggong?"
I smiled wryly and shook my head, "How would I know? Why don't you ask him?"
"I did. He said he had been practicing like this since he was young, and his master taught him. He also asked if I wanted to learn. Can I, with all this fat on me, become like that?" Fatty said.
"In a place like this, there are such powerful Taoists. What era do you think the person who first came here to establish this Taoist temple was from? And what was his purpose in establishing it here?" I muttered to myself.
Everyone looked at each other, and no one could answer.
At this moment, a thought flashed through my mind!
Could the string of numbers left in Chen Shang's notebook be a year?
Thinking of this possibility, I quickly looked for Old Chen's research papers. I soon found a paper with a year that matched the number in the notebook.
The title of this paper was "Research on the Structure of Chinese Imperial Tombs." In this paper, at the very beginning, a term was mentioned, and upon seeing this term, I instantly understood!
Tomb Keeper!
In ancient times, tomb keepers were also called "living dead." Their job was to guard the tombs to prevent theft.
In ancient times, many imperial tombs had tomb keepers. Tomb keepers were often a family or a village.
After receiving the order, they would move their entire families to the vicinity of the mausoleum and begin to live there year-round.
In other words, the founder of Xiaoqing Temple was a tomb keeper?
If that's the case, it makes sense.
So, Chen Shang's purpose in coming here was to find the mausoleum here?
It's very possible!
If he went to such great lengths to stay here and search for the mausoleum, does that mean there are clues about the Sui Hou Pearl inside?
The more I thought about it, the more excited I became!
Now that I had finally deciphered the meaning of the numbers in Chen Shang's notebook, the next step was to verify whether my idea was correct.
I quickly went to find Yunhe and directly asked him if he was a tomb keeper.
I wasn't here to tomb rob, nor was I interested in tomb robbing, so I didn't hide anything.
When he heard my question, Yunhe was stunned for a moment, then asked, "What is a tomb keeper?"
I stared at him. I saw that his eyes were filled with confusion, and it didn't seem like he was pretending. This immediately made me wonder, was my guess wrong?