"Tofu."

The plain white hands hung in the clean water in the wooden basin to wash, wiped it with silk, and moved it to the tofu half a foot square.

"Also known as paste and soybeans. They are said to be good and smooth as paste. Take soybeans and grind them into powder with stone mills, boil them into slurry, filter them with gauze, then boil them repeatedly, add gypsum powder and mix them, put them in a box, and press them with stones. After one hour, open the box and make them into paste."

Jade hand picked up the bamboo knife, slashed everything, cut the palm-sized side, and put it into a wooden plate.

"It's simple to say, but if you want to do it well, you have to do every step to the extreme. For example, why is this good?" The slender fingers flipped, and a needle was added to the tip of the finger. He lifted it to a foot high and loosened it. The silver needle fell and inserted it steadily into the tofu.

"The crystal white and tender are not broken when exposed to needles."

The bamboo knife is like the wind, and every move and every meal is very charming. After a while, the tofu is carved into a white jade lotus.

Before stopping, he stirred another small bowl, mashed a real lotus flower, poured it into honey, and then poured the juice on the tip of the tofu lotus petals. In this way, the tofu lotus also showed a realistic pink color.

Take a few more lotus leaves and cut them into the plate.

Heat the remaining lotus honey, add mung bean powder, and pinch a dragonfly.

Finally, carefully put the sugar mud dragonfly on the tofu lotus.

A plate of "dragonfly falls into lotus" is presented vividly in the wooden plate.

The owner of the hand washed his hands again, wiped them dry with silk, lifted the wooden plate, and walked towards the soft collapse beside him. On the couch, he closed his eyes and sat cross-legged with white eyebrows and thin body, and a Taoist nun who was about 40 years old.

The Taoist nun looked at the plate of delicacy with a look of relief, bowed to the old monk and said, "I am so stupid to show off my plan. I respectfully ask Master Wu Toothless to comment."

The old monk opened his eyes only then—

I saw the woman cooking smile at him.

The elegant white jade tofu lotus is also overshadowed by her smile.

Wuya looked at her quietly for a while, reached out and picked up the chopsticks and picked up the tofu and put it in her mouth.

The middle-aged Taoist nun couldn't help asking, "How about asking the master, is it feasible?"

When Wuya swallowed the tofu slowly and looked up at the woman cooking, he became more emotional: "This plate of tofu has a shape, color, fragrance, and taste, but it is not soul-stirring."

The smile on the woman's face disappeared.

"It's okay to entertain ordinary people like this. I want to offer it to Mr. He, but it's not enough." Master Wuya coughed gently, closed his robe, and sighed, "Forget it, I'll do it myself."

The woman stared at him with a little unwilling voice: "Master, what is the soul?"

"The soul of vegetarian food is 'purity'. People with impure hearts do not have good food."

"How can the master see that my heart is not pure?"

Toothless eyes were full of compassion, looking at her, it was like looking at a broken peerless porcelain. After a moment, she smiled and lowered her eyelids and stopped talking.

The woman seemed to be very thirsty. After a while, she kicked the whole plate of tofu on the tray, which was destroyed.

The middle-aged Taoist nun said in surprise: "Qiu Jiang, don't be rude!"

Qiu Jiang stared at Wuya. When she smiled, her eyebrows and eyes were lively, and she was dazzling. But once she didn't laugh, her appearance was not good, and she felt a lifeless aura, just like a clumsy puppet.

"I'll practice again," she said hunchedly, then turned and left.

***

The next moment, Qiu Jiang walked out of the kitchen, and the mountain wind blew over, blowing her moon-white monk's clothes and long hair, like the flowing wind returning to the snow.

The little monk tied outside the door saw her as if he saw a ghost and said, "You, what's wrong with my master? You witch, let me go! My master is a monk who is enlightened. If you are so disrespectful to Gods and Buddhas, you will be punished!"

Qiu Jiang smiled at him and knocked his bald head with the bamboo knife in his hand: "If you want to save your master, you have to listen to me."

The little monk was so sad and angry that he said, "The little monk swears to never obey!"

"Then I cut the old monk's hand and let the so-called No. vegetarian food in the world disappear." Qiu Jiang acted as if she was about to turn back to the house.

The little monk hurriedly called her: "What the hell do you want to do?"

"It's very simple, just one thing - I will do the Xinshizhai on the first day of June."

The little monk was stunned at first, and then thought of something, and opened his eyes wide in fear: "You, you...what do you want to do to He Gong?!"

Qiu Jiang's eyes were flowing, and she was wearing a monk's robe. She was wearing a charming look of Zhangtai Pingkang. In the eyes of the little monk, she was a living Modern Ga, chanting the Brahma Mantra to confuse Ananda.

"Amitabha, you have committed evil!"

***

On the first day of June, the wind is bright and sunny.

On this day of every year, Feng Xiaoya would go to Yuanmu Temple in Lanting Mountain to visit Buddha.

This famous He Gong of Yan State was probably born with a serious illness and saw through life and death. Therefore, on the one hand, he was unrestrained and romantic, married ten wives and enjoyed his life and life. On the other hand, he advocated self-cultivation and made friends with many eminent monks and scholars.

There are two temples on Lanting Mountain, one temple and one temple, both of which are famous as Yuanmu, and they entertain men and women. Located in the suburbs of Beijing, the dignitaries, nobles, wealthy businessmen and scholars always go out for a walk. Over time, they will create a landscape.

There is a wine house at the foot of the mountain called "Return Xi".

The owner is a couple, with the surname Qiu.

A passerby asked, "You know that there are temples on the mountain, and most passers-by go to burn incense. When you meet the Bodhisattva, you must be sincere. How could you stop and drink?"

The Qiu couple smiled and replied: "It is because there is no wine or meat in this place. Therefore, there are too many people selling wine and tea."

Not to mention, it was true. At the beginning, everyone didn't go, and slowly, the business of Jiulu improved. In the end, all the tea shops around the neighbor were squeezed away.

It turned out that after everyone worshipped the Bodhisattva and went down the mountain, they felt that they could relax, so they went to the wine house to drink a few cups; some pilgrims on the mountain were greedy for wine and went down the mountain to buy it secretly; and there were even those who had no taboos, drink what should be drunk and worship what should be worshipped.

Qiu and his wife said: "Those who come to burn incense and worship Buddha all have some desires for Bodhisattvas. Often, such people are prone to greed for cups."

In addition, their wine is indeed brewed well, and in a blink of an eye, it has become a golden sign. Many people will deliberately drive to taste it even if they don’t worship the Bodhisattva.

Qiu's couple had a daughter who was said to have been weak and sick since childhood and was fostered in a temple. Qiu Jiang occasionally went down the mountain and was seen. She was only said to be pale and thin, and her appearance was not good.

And this year, at the 1st of the lunar month of the third year of Huazhen, when Feng Xiaoya's carriage passed by the Qiu couple's wine house, he heard a commotion and shouting in front of him, so he lifted the curtain and took a look.

He has always been lazy and will never move without doing it himself. This time, he lifted the curtain of the car by a silence.

The morning light in early summer was still hazy, but the raging fire was burning, which almost made the entire sky red.

Feng Xiaoya frowned and asked the driver who was catching the bus: "What's going on?"

There were two coachmen, all wearing gray clothes, and they were not very good-looking. One was named Meng Buli and the other was named Jiao Buqi.

Jiao Buqi got out of the car and asked, and came back to report: "The Qiu family's wine house caught fire somehow. Everyone is putting out the fire."

Feng Xiaoya whined. Due to her physical reasons, he had rarely drunk wine. Although he had heard of this wine house for a long time, he never took any further steps. Now he saw it caught fire, and he didn't care. He ordered: "Continue to go up the mountain."

Meng Buli and Jiao Buqi drove the carriage away. When they walked far away, they could hear the sound of the house collapsed behind them. Jiao Buqi said, "I don't know how many strong wines are hidden in the wine house, which makes it so tragic. It seems that they can't be extinguished without a single hour."

Meng Buli turned his head frequently and looked back, nodded with great interest, and nodded.

"I don't know if the boss and the boss lady escaped. I hope they will burn things but not people!"

"Um."

"But it's a pity to burn things. The wine in their house is really good. If you burn it, you will probably lose all of it..."

"Um."

"Maybe it is the punishment of the Bodhisattva. It is not good to open a shop at the foot of the mountain. It is not wine or meat. I don't know how many practitioners have harmed..."

Meng Buli quickly shook his head nervously at him: "Absurd, Bodhisattva, disrespect."

Jiao Buqi laughed: "Yes, yes, yes, yes, ate people with short mouths, and after eating the Bodhisattva's food, you should no longer talk about the Bodhisattva's affairs."

Feng Xiaoya in the car suddenly coughed. The two looked at each other and smiled and accelerated.

In fact, they were not wrong. The purpose of Feng Xiaoya's trip was not to practice Zen and talk about Buddha. The reason why he went to Yuanmu Temple on June 1st every year was to eat vegetarian food.

There is a monk named Wuya in Yuanmu Temple. Although Wuya is toothless, he has a good cooking skills and can be said to be a master of vegetarian food. However, he likes to travel around and only returns to Yan State for a few days a year, and only wants to cook on the first day of the New Year. Therefore, Feng Xiaoya made a special trip to Lanting Mountain on this day.

Outsiders didn't know that he thought he was going to burn incense, and they even said that the young master of the prime minister's family was devoted to the Buddha.

When the carriage arrived in front of Yuanmu Temple, a handsome monk was waiting with a lantern. When he saw him, he quickly led him into the backyard and said as he walked: "Hong He Gong has worked hard all the way, something happened here..."

"What's wrong?"

The little monk stammered: "My master...is sick, he is sick, and he can't get up."

"What disease?"

The little monk shook his head: "I don't know... He said that it will be better if you take a few days off. But Mr. He doesn't have to worry. Your vegetarian meal has been promised a long time ago and you can't let you go for nothing, so I invited someone else to do it..."

Before he finished speaking, Feng Xiaoya said, "Stop. Turn around and go down the mountain."

The little monk was shocked: "What's wrong with Mr. He?"

Feng Xiaoya's slightly arrogant voice came from the carriage: "I came just for Master Toothless's vegetarian food. Others are not worthy of letting me come here to eat with such a hardship."

The little monk was very embarrassed and wanted to stop him, but he didn't dare to stop him.

Meng Buli and Jiao Buqi have always done what the master ordered immediately, and immediately turned the wheels and walked back.

As soon as I walked a few steps, a strange fragrance came from the air.

The fragrance dissipates faintly, but it can be smelled truly.

Jiao Buqi couldn't help but stop his driving hand, sniffed and said, "It smells so good!"
To be continued...