Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 26: Something Happened to Xia Ling
The statue of the Earth God is not large, about twenty centimeters tall and ten centimeters wide. Due to severe rust, its appearance is no longer clear; it can only be recognized as a short, plump old man. With a long beard and a chubby body, he supports himself with a bent cane. Without guessing, I know it must be the Land God.
The Land God has various titles including Land God, Great Uncle, Fude Zhengshen, Fude Laoye, Earth God, Land God, Fude Gong, Earth God, Landlord, Tudi Ye, Fude, Earth God, Tudi, Earth God, Earth Deity, City God, and others. He belongs to the most basic level of deities.
In folk beliefs, the Land God varies from place to place and has term limits. Even a virtuous person who dies may be appointed as a Land God by the deity. For example, in Pu Songling's "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio," there is a ghost named Wang Liulang who drowned in a river. He had a compassionate heart and could not bear to let a woman holding a baby be used as a substitute; thus, he was appointed as the Land God of Wuzhen in Shandong by the Jade Emperor.
In folk beliefs, deities often have clear origins, but the origins of the Land God are numerous and varied. Here are two examples.
One story goes that during the Zhou Dynasty, there was an official named Zhang Fude who was born on February 2nd in the second year of Zhou Wuwang. He was intelligent and filial from a young age. At thirty-six years old, he became the chief tax officer in the court. He was honest and diligent in his duties and loved the people. He passed away in the third year of Zhou Mu Wang at the age of one hundred and two. A poor family built a stone house surrounded by four large stones to worship him. Soon after, they became wealthy, and the people believed in his divine protection. They pooled resources to build a temple and created a golden statue for worship, honoring him as Fude Zhengshen. Therefore, businessmen often worship him to seek business development.
Another story tells of a servant named Zhang Fude (or Zhang Mingde) during the Zhou Dynasty. When his master went far away for official duties, he left behind his young daughter. Zhang Mingde took her to find her father but encountered wind and snow along the way. He took off his clothes to protect his master and froze to death on the journey. Before he died, nine characters appeared in the sky: "Southern Heavenly Gate Great Immortal Fude Zhengshen," which became his title for loyalty. The high official built a temple to honor him out of respect for his loyalty. Zhou Wuwang was moved and said: "Such loyalty can be called great officials," hence why the Earth God is depicted wearing a Chancellor's hat.
Land Temples are generally simple due to their low status among deities and grassroots beliefs. Many are rudimentary structures built under trees or by roadsides using two stones for walls and one stone for a roof; this is commonly referred to as "rock" type Land Temple.
Although the Earth God does not hold high status among deities, he governs the household registration of deceased individuals in villages under the City God’s jurisdiction; thus he is an administrative deity of the Underworld. In many Han regions' customs, every person has their own "temple king land"—the corresponding Land Temple—similar to one's hometown; when someone passes away, Taoists perform rituals (known as Daoist ceremonies) at their respective Land Temple for offerings. Alternatively, relatives of recently deceased individuals go to the Land God's temple to report the deceased's name and birth details to seek guidance from the Land God for their loved ones' journey into the afterlife. In summary, all deities are not to be offended.
Returning to the main point, Xia Ling examined the statue of the Earth God from various angles before announcing that this bronze statue should be from the late Qing Dynasty and could definitely be worth fifty or sixty thousand if sold.
Upon hearing this, everyone cheered excitedly. Then one classmate asked about that small incense burner.
At this moment, Xia Ling picked up the Azure Blue Incense Burner for inspection and wrinkled her nose before saying it was also from the late Qing Dynasty but was made by common folk; its market price would only be around a thousand or so.
Everyone was thrilled and suggested that they should gather again in a few days; they could become rich tycoons together—what do you think?
Everyone cheered in agreement and began shouting about what they would eat once they exchanged their finds for money and which big restaurant they would go to. Some even suggested organizing a trip together—essentially planning for food and fun.
Subsequently, classmates mentioned that since Xia Ling was majoring in archaeology and discovered these items herself, others might get cheated if they sold them; they decided that Xia Ling should handle it since everyone who saw it would share in it.
Xia Ling was also very excited and readily agreed; clearly now she had become the center of attention among her classmates.
Watching everyone having fun, I didn't want to lose my mind with them, so I turned and walked out of the woods. Xia Ling's words were truly hurtful; they left me feeling utterly humiliated, especially in front of these classmates.
Lin Xiaoqi had been standing outside quietly watching everyone. When she saw me turning to leave the woods, she hurriedly followed me. I glanced back; everyone was still enjoying themselves, looking at the two items in Xia Ling's hands as if a pile of cash was laid out before them. One by one, they began planning for the joyful days ahead.
Lin Xiaoqi followed me without saying a word, perhaps because she noticed my bad mood, and we slowly walked out of the woods together.
We returned to the side of the Small River. Lin Xiaoqi picked up a skewer from the barbecue grill and handed it to me, saying, "What's wrong? Are you sad? Here, do you want to eat? It's really delicious."
I took the skewer and forced a smile, saying I was fine.
Lin Xiaoqi replied, "You say you're fine, but you look like a bitter melon. However, Xia Ling's words were indeed hurtful. You don't need to think too much about it; after all, you have me, this beautiful girl, accompanying you." She giggled.
I smiled and said, "I knew from graduation that there would be no chance between us, especially after seeing her again last night; she's changed. But we've been friends for several years. When I saw her trying to disturb the Land Temple, I was worried about them getting into trouble, so I went to stop her. Who knew she would take my good intentions... sigh!"
Lin Xiaoqi nodded and said she understood I was worried about them getting into trouble. "But will they really get into trouble by messing with that thing?"
I sighed and thought for a moment before telling her that deities should not be offended. Moreover, this is a shrine in such a remote area; I don't even know if there are still deities at the Land God Shrine. If there aren't any deities left, then it's fine. But if there are still deities present, then they might really face retribution.
After hearing my words, Lin Xiaoqi couldn't help but worry, "They won't really get into trouble, will they?"
I shook my head and forced a smile. Who knows? In any case, I've done my best. If something does happen to them, they can only blame themselves for their actions. As the saying goes: "Heaven's misdeeds can be survived; self-inflicted misdeeds cannot." In modern terms, it means if you don't act recklessly, you won't get hurt.
But just then, a large group of classmates suddenly rushed out of the woods in panic; some girls were even crying with tears streaming down their faces.
Seeing this scene made my heart sink; I thought to myself that something must have gone wrong already.
Sure enough, the first boy who ran out shouted at me that Xia Ling was in trouble—she suddenly collapsed on the ground and couldn't get up! What should we do now? It's terrifying!
I immediately asked him what happened. Weren't they all together? How did things go wrong?
At this point, the boy calmed down a bit and explained what had happened.
It turned out that after we left, they soon followed us out while chatting and laughing. But for some reason, an old madman suddenly chased after them from behind, demanding that they leave something behind before leaving.
Everyone thought that the old man might be hungry because he looked like a beggar. So, a girl took some cookies out of her bag and offered them to the old man, but he refused, insisting that they had stolen something from his house.
However, no one had ever been in anyone else's house, especially since there were no homes in this desolate area, let alone someone stealing things from a house. Thus, everyone thought the old man was just a crazy old man, and someone suggested they should ignore him and leave quickly.
But just as they had not run more than a few dozen meters, one of them, Xia Ling, suddenly "thudded" to her knees on the ground. At first, the classmates thought she had fallen, so they went over to help her up, but they found that they couldn't lift Xia Ling at all.
At that moment, another boy rushed over to help, thinking Xia Ling had twisted her ankle. However, this boy also couldn't lift her; it was as if her knees were glued to the ground, and no matter how hard they pulled, they couldn't get her up.
Now everyone was panicking and asking Xia Ling what was wrong and why she couldn't get up. But Xia Ling didn't respond at all; she just had a strange grin on her face and was laughing coldly.
When they looked back at the old man who had chased them earlier, he had already disappeared. However, Xia Ling's appearance was terrifying enough, and since no one could lift her no matter what they did, one girl suggested that maybe Xia Ling had come into contact with something dirty.
This scared everyone terribly, and they all screamed and ran away. Of course, upon hearing rumors of ghosts, everyone fled in a panic without caring about their friendships; those girls who ran slowly were naturally terrified and crying.
After hearing their account of the situation, I could roughly guess what had happened. This was most likely caused by the bronze statue incident; Xia Ling might have been targeted by the Earth God!
At this point, one classmate suggested calling the police or dialing 120 for help.
I said there was no point in calling the police; I had warned you all before not to touch anything in the Land Temple, but you didn't listen and even made a fuss about it!
After venting my anger, I decided not to care about them anymore and hurriedly dashed into the woods...
Comment 0 Comment Count