Yang Ling shifted his gaze and saw a middle-aged man wearing a soft hat on his head and a wide-sleeved official robe standing next to the fair and jade-like young master. This person was fair and clean and had a graceful temperament. His appearance was seventy percent similar to that of the young master. Presumably, they were father and son. It was just that this middle-aged scholar's stature was a bit plump. The weather in early February of spring was still very cold, but there were actually faint traces of sweat on his delicate skin.
"This …" Yang Ling was a bit embarrassed. Whether this sentence really came from a Buddhist scripture or not, he had no idea. Once he heard this young scholar recite several Buddhist scriptures that he had never heard of in one breath, he knew that the other was a true scholar. Moreover, he had studied Buddhist studies very well. How could he dare to answer carelessly? He could only laugh dryly and say, "Uh … this, hehe, I like to read but I don't seek to understand. I really can't think of which scripture did this allusion come from."
The young scholar's jet-black eyes turned and suddenly he smiled slyly and said, "I understand now. This brother was actually making it up to make his wife happy. You are indeed quick-witted. Admirable, admirable."
The middle-aged man next to him chuckled and said, "My son, don't talk nonsense." Although he scolded his son, he was still smiling. It was obvious that he doted on his son very much. Between his brows, he had the expression of a loving father.
The young scholar was unconvinced and said, "That's right. Jiejie, does your husband often talk nonsense to make you happy?"
Han Youniang blushed and lightly spat at him. Her face was flushed red, but she sweetly looked back at Yang Ling. Her tender and sweet feelings could no longer be concealed. The young man clapped his hands and said with a smile, "Between heaven and earth, the moon and the spring breeze, the painted bridge and the smoke of the willow tree. Beauty is beauty, but how can it compare to a woman's eyebrows like the mountains in spring and eyes like the autumn water when she is in love? When Jiejie looked at her husband, her smile was so sweet and beautiful. But I see that your husband is handsome and talented, he must be someone who knows how to coax people. You have to keep a close eye on him, don't let him fool around with other women. "
Han Youniang snorted and was about to open her mouth to refute when she suddenly thought of Ma Lian 'er. That beautiful woman made her heart palpitate. But she willingly followed Yang Ling and willingly became his concubine. Perhaps her husband really knew how to coax people and coaxed her into giving her heart to him. Thinking this, she could not help but glanced at Yang Ling.
The middle-aged scholar chuckled and patted his son's head. He said angrily, "Nonsense!" As he spoke, he cupped his hands towards Yang Ling and said with a smile, "Young master, my son is mischievous, please forgive him."
Yang Ling hurriedly said, "I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare. Your son is intelligent and quick-witted, and is extremely knowledgeable. He is like an unpolished jade, and will definitely become a scholar in the future."
When the young scholar heard this, he had a faint smile on his face and his expression was a little strange. Yang Ling saw that this middle-aged man did not know his name and did not want to chat with him, so he said, "I want to go to the temple with my wife to burn incense, please excuse me."
The middle-aged scholar smiled and said, "It's fine, Young Master, please go ahead."
Yang Ling pulled Young-niang along the corridor and had just taken a few steps when the young master suddenly shouted from behind, "Hey, brother, you still haven't told me, why did you look back at me more than 500 times in your previous life?"
Yang Ling turned around and smiled, "Well … there are only two kinds of people who can make me look back. One is a peerless beauty, and the other is a scoundrel who owes money and doesn't return it. I just don't know which kind of person you are, little brother." He laughed and pulled Young-niang away.
The little scholar patted his small gold-lined fan and seriously weighed the pros and cons for a long time. "This … peerless beauty? Something was wrong. A scoundrel who owes money … that doesn't seem right either. Aiya, this kid is playing with me. "
The little scholar came back to his senses. Grunting angrily, he started to chase after him. The middle-aged scholar was too late to stop him; he could only helplessly shake his head with a smile. He gently waved his hand, and more than a dozen men, who looked like tourists, appeared from the surrounding corridor and quietly followed the little scholar.
The middle-aged scholar slowly followed behind. An old servant dressed like a family member rushed up to help him and said softly, "Master, it's getting late, let's go back."
The middle-aged scholar smiled and said, "Hehe, this child usually doesn't even have a playmate. It's rare that someone will quarrel with him, let him play a little longer."
The old servant nodded and bowed as he helped the slightly fat middle-aged man into the Vajra Hall. Suddenly there was a commotion coming from the direction of the Heavenly King Hall. The middle-aged scholar's expression tightened and he quickly quickened his steps. He said anxiously, "Quickly go and see, what happened?"
Passing through the hall, they saw a few Tibetan monks standing on the platform in front of the Heavenly King Hall. At the bottom of the steps stood five people in long robes and one was lying on the ground. Both sides were arguing.
The little scholar, Yang Ling and Young-niang stood together and stretched their necks to watch the commotion. Six or seven strong men stood around them. They looked like tourists, but they seemed to be protecting them in the middle.
A few Tibetan monks on the steps were shouting and yelling, while a few thin and tall men in long robes below the stage were also gesticulating and arguing loudly with an even stranger voice. They looked extremely angry.
Yang Ling saw the Tibetan monks on the platform and knew that he had entered the wrong temple today. He also saw the men in long robes standing next to the bronze tripod below the steps. They had high noses and deep eye sockets. They were all Europeans and Americans. He could not help but feel even more strange. The two groups of foreigners quarreled for a long time. A tall Westerner at the bottom of the steps suddenly stepped out from the crowd. His face was red and he shouted, "Under the heavens, all land belongs to the King. The land belongs to the King. You're driving us away, you're being unreasonable! "
The young master and his father looked at each other and could not help but laugh. The Tibetan monk on the platform also angrily said in Chinese, "It's not that we … don't want to take you in. You Western monks have bad intentions. You brought sick people here, it's contagious."
The foreigners below the platform shook their heads and said, "No, no, no. His illness is not a plague. It's not contagious." The people on both sides argued with each other in stammering Chinese. Yang Ling and the others who were standing next to them could vaguely understand what was going on.
It turned out that there was a foreigner here, a missionary from Franco (Spain and Portugal), who had been in the Great Ming Dynasty for three years. A few days ago, he had succeeded in recruiting their first follower in the Great Ming Dynasty, a beggar who was suffering from an incurable disease, festering all over his body, and was dying. He brought the beggar back to the Huguo Temple, where he was lodging, as if he had found a treasure. While taking care of the beggar, he taught him Catholic doctrine. The foreign monks were worried that the patient's disease would be contagious. After several unsuccessful negotiations, they drove them out.
Yang Ling saw that the person these foreign missionaries were helping was a Han, and even though they had the selfish intention of developing their followers, it could be considered a good deed. Yang Ling stepped forward and tried to reason with them, but the foreign monks were completely unreasonable, refusing to mention the benevolence of Buddhism.
The young scholar whispered a few words to his father. He waved his hand to summon an attendant and whispered a few orders. The attendant rushed to the platform and said a few words to a Lama in charge. When the Lama in charge heard that the kind-hearted man wanted to donate three thousand taels of silver as incense money, he immediately beamed with joy and readily agreed to their request to take in the Western missionaries.
Naturally, it was not a problem to arrange a small independent courtyard for them in this large temple. Today, they made a big fuss over a minor issue, wanting to drive away these Westerners. Actually, in the eyes of the Han people, although they were eccentric, but in their eyes, these blonde and blue-eyed Western monks were uncivilized barbarians, cannibals.
Now that the missionaries had a place to stay, they could not restrain their joy. One after another, they went forward to thank the kind-hearted man and the righteous Yang Ling. Then they went to their residence to get their boxes and bedding and moved them to the backyard. The tallest foreigner seemed to be the leader of this group of missionaries. He kept using very broken Chinese to thank Yang Ling and the young scholar.
Yang Ling was very curious about these missionaries. In his impression, the Western missionaries who came to China in the early days were relatively civilized and upright. It was indeed because of their fanatical religious beliefs that they spared no effort to preach in the East, so he politely chatted with them for a while.
These missionaries were ordered by the Holy See to preach in the East, but they ran into a wall everywhere. Until now, very few people were willing to pay attention to them. At this time, when Yang Ling took the initiative to talk to them, the missionary was very excited and immediately took the initiative to introduce his situation.
It turned out that this missionary was called Shasco. He and a dozen other missionaries were ordered by the Franco Jesuit Church to preach in the East. Initially, they went to India, but the promotion of their doctrine was not very ideal. Several missionaries were killed by the indigenous people because they did not share the same doctrine as the local people.
Later, they heard that there was a more powerful and civilized country in the East, so they left India and came to the Ming Dynasty by sea. As a result, when the fleet arrived in Malacca, they were detained by the local indigenous army. Later, they bribed the guards and smuggled to Japan through the local merchants. Leaving a few missionaries behind, the remaining five people took a boat to land in Jiangzhe and came to Ming Destiny.
However, it was obviously difficult to promote the gospel of God in the Han people's area. For the common people, a god who broke the bones of men to create women was not as powerful as Goddess Nuwa who made people out of clay. Moreover, this Western god did not allow the poor man and woman to understand propriety and shame, and let them wander naked in the orchard all day long. This kind of half-baked god was obviously not as attractive as the kind Buddha and the evil Taishang Laojun.
Therefore, these five missionaries mingled in the Jiangzhe area for more than two years and did not develop a single believer. In desperation, they came to the capital, hoping to be summoned by the emperor of Ming Destiny so that they could have a chance to preach the doctrine in Ming Destiny.
In order to be more easily accepted by the Han people, they now wore long robes and studied the Four Books and Five Classics. In order to cater to the concept of the Chinese people, they even redrew the world map they brought with them and changed China to the middle position. It could be said that they had put in a lot of effort. Unfortunately, when the officials of the Ministry of Rites heard that they were not representing a small foreign country to meet the emissaries of the Celestial Empire, they drove them out. Until now, they had not seen the emperor and were almost beggars.
The little scholar listened with interest and could not help but interrupt, "Where is your country? How big is it?"
Shasta stammered, "It's very, very far in the west, and it takes a very, very long journey by ship. Our country used to be very, very small, not even as big as Jiangzhe Province. But twenty years ago, the Queen of Castile married the King of Aragon, and our two countries merged. Our country is much, much bigger than Jiangzhe Province now."
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
