The peach blossoms in the temple bloomed and fell, failed and bloomed again.
I just sat quietly in front of the bluestone steps.
The three hundred and sixty-one steps on the back hill of Xiangguo Temple were originally used to temper the minds of novice monks, but now they are long abandoned, with dead grass as tall as a person on both sides. From spring to autumn, from summer to winter, the grass seems to be the same. Even the crickets caressing the grass blades seem to have never moved.
Everyone knows that there are countless vegetation in the world, and life and death are unpredictable. I have been waiting here for so many years. People at the foot of the mountain have left one after another and died one after another. However, the scenery on this mountain is always so lonely and desolate, as if frozen in the ice of a cold pond that has not melted for thousands of years. I think no one except me knows how prosperous Zhongnan Mountain was in the past.
Peach blossoms are blooming, orchids are growing wildly, households are closed under idle clouds, spring light is everywhere, and the sound of bells and chimes is endless; the Buddha's light and Sanskrit sounds in the temple attract people from all over the world...
Since Abbot Huaigu passed away, fewer and fewer people come from the mountain. They said that the four seasons here are unpredictable, the mountains are full of weeds, and foxes hiss and snakes are scurrying. After the abbot left, he must have taken away the compassion and vitality of the mountain. The Buddha's light here has dispersed and no longer protects the Zhongnan Mountain where the vegetation once flourished.
Gradually, people moved away. Only a poor old man was left, guarding the foggy Zhongnan alone. He always said that there was an immortal in Zhongnan Mountain, dressed in red, who had saved his life, and he wanted to stay here to repay his kindness. The world is really in a state of vicissitudes. The child Linyi saved back then has grown old, but he is still missing.
Perhaps, after time passes, there will be a lonely Zhongnan left in the world, who will still remember him and still have his frivolous back.
I lay quietly on the bluestone, and the bone-chilling coldness soaked into my ridiculous memories, as if the past was just an illusion, and the memories were nothing more than illusions. Suddenly, a peach blossom floating from nowhere broke into my sight, spinning lightly in the wind a few times, and fell to my lapel. I wanted to pick it up, but was powerless. Just like back then, I couldn't catch the slippery figure, and it fell ruthlessly.
Maybe, maybe, I can go see you.
It is said that before the demon dies, he will experience a short life again. Maybe I can see you again. I am lucky in three lifetimes.