Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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Recently, Yang City had been full of news. In the middle of summer, many places in the province had encountered a rare drought. It had not rained for a long time, and the Yang reservoir had gradually dried up. It was no longer able to provide normal water supply, and rotational water supply cuts had been implemented in different areas to combat this. As the drought intensified, the lives of citizens had been affected to varying degrees.
Especially when Xie Lingya went out, he could hear a lot of complaints. He lived in a densely populated commercial area. The vegetable market behind him, the pedestrian street merchants next to him, and even the nearby communities were all worried about the water supply cutoff.
Xie Lingya was alone. Fortunately, he didn’t have to bother with storing water. The old well in the Temple had not dried up. The water from the well was warm in winter and cool in summer. When he was a child, his uncle used the well water to store watermelons.
When he woke up in the morning, the water supply was cut off again, so Xie Lingya slowly went to fetch water from the well to wash up, when he heard a knock on the door.
When he opened the door, he saw that it was the college student from last time. Xie Lingya remembered that his surname was He, and he opened the door enthusiastically: “…Hey, classmate He, morning, would you like to come and offer incense?”
He Zun was sweating, and he clasped his hands and bowed, “Thank you, thank you, teacher.”
He respected Xie Lingya even more now, but he didn’t understand the rules in this area, so he bowed to him in a nondescript manner and called Xie Lingya teacher.
Xie Lingya looked at his unlucky look and said, “Why, you haven’t seen a ghost again, have you?”
He Zun: “…”
“Hahaha, come in and talk.” Xie Lingya brought He Zun in and poured him a glass of water first. This was well water that had been boiled, put in a container and chilled.
He Zun felt a little refreshed by the cold well water. So, he first praised it: “Wow, this water tastes really good. It’s cold and seems to be sweet.”
Then, He Zun told about his experience of encountering ghosts again, and looked at Xie Lingya in special awe. He felt that Teacher Xie must be being modest when he claimed to be a newbie!
Xie Lingya wanted to ask more questions when he heard that his talisman was useful, but when he saw He Zun’s adoring eyes, he felt embarrassed again, so he drank water to hide his feelings.
He Zun added pitifully: “I thought it would be fine if I changed the route, but after I went back, I heard that a worker at the construction site slipped and fell to his death there some time ago! I will never dare to go to that area again!”
The construction site was sandwiched between the two roads, no wonder.
“You are not the one who is to blame for his death. But don’t talk about ghosts and gods at night. Who can you blame if they hear it?”
Another point was that maybe He Zun’s luck had been relatively low recently, otherwise many people passed by that place every day, so why did only he happen to see them?
He Zun shuddered, rubbed his goosebumps and said, “Stop talking, the remaining talisman has been taken away by my roommates. Teacher Xie, can I ask for a few more talismans?”
Xie Lingya didn’t know that his talisman was really useful. After practicing, he stuffed them in randomly, so he rummaged through the bag and found the only intact one left for He Zun.
He Zun thought it was not easy for Xie Lingya to draw talismans and did not dare to ask for more. He thanked him profusely and said sheepishly: “I haven’t given out my pocket money yet… ahem, but my roommates have made an appointment to come together to pay homage to the spiritual official later.”
“Okay, you are all welcome.” Xie Lingya wouldn’t mind more people coming to offer incense. He wanted to tell He Zun that he would give him a commission for every person he brought in. But he held it in as he wanted to act as if his was a serious Taoist temple.
He Zun burned incense in the hall as usual, and then said that he had taken leave and had to go back to class.
Xie Lingya stopped He Zun and pointed at the water cup he had finished drinking: “Hey, by the way, Classmate He, this water… do you really think it tastes good?”
He Zun immediately said: “It’s true, it tastes much better than the mineral water I just bought on the way. It’s definitely not a psychological effect!”
….
Sun Fuyang was the owner of a newspaper shop. Yes, it was the news shop that rented the facade of Baoyang Temple. His family also lived nearby. Not only had the weather been hot recently, it had also not rained, but the water supply was being cut off all the time, which had put the whole family in a bad mood.
Sun Fuyang hadn’t taken a shower in three days, and his body smelled like sweat. There was nothing he could do. The water he received when the water came was impossible for the whole family to live and take a bath with, and it was all given first to the children. His family used to boil water for drinking, but now they had to buy bottled water, which made the frugal Sun Fuyang very unhappy.
At this time, the movement next to him caught Sun Fuyang’s attention. He looked around and saw that Baoyang Temple, which had been closed for several months, had finally opened its doors, and the new owner was holding a roll of paper in his hand.
Sun Fuyang had been renting and opening a shop here for several years, and he was very familiar with the situation inside. Baoyang Temple used to have only one Taoist priest, Taoist Wang, all year round, and the incense was very deserted. A few months ago, Taoist Wang seemed to have fallen ill. When he saw him, however, he seemed to be in good spirits, so he didn’t take it seriously. But when he turned around, he heard that he had passed away.
This Taoist temple was handed over to Taoist Master Wang’s nephew, the young man Xie Lingya who was now opening the door.
Sun Fuyang had talked with Xie Lingya, and he knew that he was busy these days with Taoist Wang’s death and taking care of some chores accumulated in the Taoist temple. Because there was only one person, he couldn’t take care of too much immediately, so he never opened the door.
Now it seemed that he was probably done with all those things. Sun Fuyang thought in his heart, he didn’t know what Xie Lingya would do in the future. After buying this place, would he become a monk himself, or would he recruit Taoist priests? Seeing as this young man looked good and had gone to college, he should be…
At this time, Xie Lingya had already opened the paper in his hand and posted it against the door. On the red paper were several square calligraphy characters: Free well water. When he was a child, he studied calligraphy with Wang Yuji for a period of time. Because he couldn’t sit still and didn’t learn well, he could only write correctly.
Sun Fuyang suddenly remembered that there seemed to be an old well in Baoyang Temple. Now that the weather was so hot and water was cut off everywhere, it would be a good thing for Xiao Xie to open the door to fetch water for everyone, and maybe bring some incense.
Even Sun Fuyang himself was thinking about bringing a bucket of water back so he could take a shower, since his home was not far away anyway.
Xie Lingya seemed to know what Sun Fuyang was thinking. He came over to say hello to Sun Fuyang, explained his intention to open the door to fetch water, and asked Sun Fuyang to fetch water by himself if he needed it.
Of course Sun Fuyang agreed and made a phone call to ask his family to bring containers to fill the water.
He had been here for so long, and he only knew about the old well, but he had never seen the water in the well. He even thought that the well was abandoned.
Sun Fuyang’s wife brought two cleaned oil drums and filled them with water. Sun Fuyang took a look and saw that the water in the well was not only transparent and clear, but also cool, and a thin layer of water mist had condensed on the walls of the oil drums. When he reached out and touched it, he felt a cooling sensation.
Sun Fuyang’s wife said: “It’s very cool in the temple, especially by the well. I asked Xiao Xie, the water is still drinkable, just boil it, but you should take a shower first with these two buckets.”
Sun Fuyang kept nodding, he could finally take a shower.
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