act14mini

Hmm... Venerable Elder, may I help myself to the fruit on this table?

I have eaten nothing today. I am both hungry and thirsty after my arduous trek down the mountain.

Surely thou hast the compassion in thy heart to spare a piece of fruit?

Did you hear what I just said?

Ahhh... This bit of dried fruit is soft and chewy, sweet and sour. It even bears a faint fragrance of the branch. Truly delectable.

More than thy words alone, I have heard other such utterances these past few days.

If thou wouldst see these things concealed, then thou shouldst toss them in the cellar, as with dried fruit, such that thou needst not visit this temple.

But of course, they would emerge at the slightest hint of the breeze, sooner or later.

So, my knowledge of the matter makes no difference.

That investigator girl... Does she already know?

I think I know why you're here now...

Ahh...

You must be the one who helped Xiaoping and Xiao'an turn on the camcorder too. You've found me both times I came to this temple.

Could your arrival here... be a warning from the ancestors...?

I've grown too old. Too addled, too slow to realize...

I was simply wandering the lands of Great Yan when I happened to stop here, and was thus delayed for a few days.

Even had I not arrived, someone else would've come, and some other incident would've taken place.

At first I assumed, all these years, I had never done anything for Moushan. What had I done to deserve my title?

But in the end...

Man has no business doing Heaven's work. We only end up hurting others, and ourselves.

Two lives, wasted. How am I ever to answer for them?

Thy machinations were never particularly thorough in the first place. Rather sloppy, actually.

But I must wonder, why dost thou repent for insufficiently thorough planning?

I just... was thinking, what if you had come to Moushan sooner?

If I had met you before, maybe I wouldn't have found all these wild thoughts in my head. Maybe none of this would've happened.

*sigh*... Did I not just say that I arrived but by chance? My presence here is not such a significant thing.

Besides, is there a man whose heart truly harbors no evil?

Shouldn't a monk shun evil and uphold virtue? Wouldn't it ruin your practice to harbor evil in your heart?

Dost thou believe that having such thoughts ruins one's practice?

Before leaving Dusk's scroll, I happened upon a version of myself that had become a gambler.

That me could not resist the temptation of dice and chips, pawning her ceremonial mokugyo, selling her possessions, giving in to unrestrained debauchery, getting friends and companions involved, and carrying out all sorts of unconscionable acts.

Before she left the temple, the head priest called out for her to stop, and they each took a stick in hand and enjoyed a most excellent duel.

From the beginning of the crescent moon's ascent to the dawning of the sun in the east, the monk never understood why the head priest struggled with each move, as if fighting for survival rather than sport.

She had already forgotten the result of that duel.

Only occasionally, in a trance, would she remember her stick hovering above the priest's head. In that moment, did she think to complete the downward strike?

To harbor evil thoughts is hardly unexpected. Logical, even.

Shifu...

Not only in the painted scroll, but also in the realm of dreams.

Once, when I was famished, I happened upon a pregnant she-beast. The first thought that crossed my mind was, 'tis fatter than the he-beast.

I was also wrongfully imprisoned, once. I was bound in a way that made it difficult to escape, my hand nearly pressed against the naginata behind me.

And yet, the woman you see before you is the same nonetheless.

I recall this sutra that the head priest recited: 'That which hungers and thirsts shall also know worldly desire.' Since it is inevitable, what is so wrong about harboring such thoughts within your heart? They are nothing more than thoughts.

Nothing more... than thoughts?

Also, though I do not recall exactly when or where it happened, I once had the privilege of meeting a swordsmith.

The swordsmith was a strange man, determined to seek the strongest and sharpest blade in the land, and at the same time was purely kind-hearted and strove to never kill again.

He built a hut in the mountains, and I accompanied him for a full three months. I watched the furnace's flames spring to life and go out, time and time again. I saw billets forged, then melted, melted, then forged.

At long last he produced a blade, shaped like the floating clouds, glistening in all its brilliance, yet lacking a sharpened edge.

It was dull?

He said: sharpen not the blade, and thou shalt not fear for harming another.

But alas, to harm another depends not on the blade, but on oneself.

You're... quite a forthcoming individual.

But not everyone can see or think as clearly as you. Not everyone can restrain their thoughts and prevent them from turning into actions, no matter the time or place.

On the contrary, I believe it is because these thoughts are difficult to restrain, releasing them causes great calamity.

It is like unto ringing the bell and chanting daily. After years and years, one naturally feels the temptation to grow slothful. But to strike the bell even one fewer time would render all previous effort meaningless.

How many kowtowed to Heaven for a single drop of rain, only to provoke a mudslide?

Evil thought and evil deed differ by only one word, yet the difference in consequences could hardly be greater. This indeed began with thy thoughts, but the moment they became reality, they had left thy control.

Now that everything has been set into motion, how canst thou seeketh to explain it all away by claiming thou thought naught of them?

Xiaoshi, it's true that I'm helping them... But I'm also helping us.

We've lived in Moushan for so many years, we're a part of the village.

Dad, I know how you used to wander the wilderness, hunting and selling game just to eke out a living. I know how hard it was. You wanted shelter from the wind and rain.

You were finally able to settle down in Moushan, and using the money you scraped together year after year, you were able to buy a few plots of land and make your home.

You can't bear to leave the land, or your house. After all, you owe everything to this place, so no matter what happens, you're willing to take things in stride.

When Mom ran off, they bullied us for being the only family outside the Zhou Clan, and when they insisted on moving the rundown temple onto your land, you agreed to it.

And now, when they're trying to take my name and turn me into a dead man, you've given in again.

If there's another disaster or whatever in the future and they come for our land, our house, and our lives, are you just gonna go along with that too?

Your life is what you make for yourself. It's not something other people give to you.

I know...

But, if you head down right now and turn the entire village in to the investigator, how do you think it's going to turn out?

Forget about me. I don't even have that many years left in me. But you're only fifteen. How are you going to be able to stay here?

Why do we need to stay here in the first place?

Push comes to shove, we leave Moushan, get out of the mountains, and settle down in a nomadic city.

Doesn't matter if there's no land to farm. There are plenty of opportunities in the cities. I can take on all kinds of jobs. I could learn kung fu and become as strong as Master Qiu. I'll earn lots of money and help you get better.

Believe it or not, I've been traveling all around these past three years. I've been everywhere, seen everything.

You really do take after your mother.

Back then, everyone in the village wanted to safeguard the land reclaimed by the excavators, and pray to Heaven to put food on the table...

Your mother was the only one who wanted to get out of the mountains. She wanted to go to Yumen, to Shangshu, to Lungmen... to 'experience a different life' in a nomadic city that we had never even heard of.

Your mother married me because I was a hunter who traveled all over the place.

It wasn't until I bought this land with my life savings and after you were born that I was chained to this place like an old burdenbeast... Only then did she realize, I didn't come here just to rest my feet.

The day that salesman coaxed her away, I chased you into the wilderness, just in time to bring you back.

That woman passed away a few years ago.

She sent a letter. It took a great many months for it to reach my hands.

The only thing in the envelope was a sum of money. Compensation for her death, left to Xiaoshi.

She followed the salesman to a city to try to make a living, but went back to the wilderness after just six months or so.

I don't know what happened after that. The message had been handed off to five or six different Messengers, and the details had become blurry. But when I held that pitifully thin envelope, it wasn't hard to guess.

We handed the money over to the village, in the end, and they used it to repair the temple Xiaoshi blew up.

My boy, if it was easier to survive in a city than here in Moushan, you wouldn't be here today.

Over the past three years, have you even learned enough to let you to live a dignified life, let alone enjoy a grand career? If so... can you tell me why Miss Qiu brought you back here?

I...

It's not that I can't bear to part with the land or this house.

I planned it all out. When the compensation money came through, I was gonna use it to go looking for you. And then, Moushan would've been my home no more.

But, you came back! Miss Qiu brought you back home!

When you walked back into the village, I decided. No matter what, I couldn't let you leave again.

I wasn't born here, I've seen what it's like out there... But, is that life any better than the one here in this mountain village?

In this world, there are many ways to live, but not everyone has the privilege of choosing theirs.

All I want is for you to be able to live your life in peace.

It's already hard enough to live a peaceful, ordinary life.

If by 'living my life in peace' you mean spend the rest of my life with nothing, not even my own name, I don't want any of that!

A name is a small price to pay for food, money, and security for the rest of our lives...

I can't accept it, dad––

I'm not some weed growing in a crevice on this mountain. I'm not an animal that roams the vast wilderness.