abcnovels
Chapter 375
Chapter 375
Chapter 375
Chapter 375 The Revelation Master Lennox Left Her
“Master Lennox!” Cecelia bowed and straightened up, and saw Master Lennox gesturing for her to sit down at the table. After sitting down, Cecelia asked curiously, “Master Lennox, how could you have guessed that I would come to you?” “Your grandmother must have told you about Longevity Temple when you were a child, right?” “Yes! When I was a child, I thought she was telling a story. Today, when I saw the sign for Longevity Temple on the road, it suddenly occurred to me. It turns out that Longevity Temple really exists.” Master Lennox nodded. “If you want to know about your grandmother’s family, you will inevitably inquire about it from many sources. When you come to Longevity Temple and see your grandmother’s name, you will also want to know more. If you are smart, you will definitely come to me.” Master Lennox seemed to have seen through everything and predicted Cecelia’s purpose here with uncanny accuracy. Nothing could hide from him. Cecelia was modest and respectful. “Yes, Master Lennox, my grandmother passed away a long time ago, leaving many mysteries unsolved. I came to Porema to find out what happened back then. But many clues have been lost. Master Lennox, do you know what happened to the Songo family back then? Could you tell me a little about it?” Master Lennox looked calm and serene. He waved her to calm down. “Don’t worry, let me tell you a story.” Cecelia nodded and listened carefully. Master Lennox began to tell the story, “Legend has it that there was a blacksmith who made a living by forging iron and casting swords for generations. Because he was good at casting swords, he was loved by the king and was granted wealth. The skills of a blacksmith should have been passed down from man to man and from family members to family members. But it happened that this blacksmith only had one daughter. In order to pass down
the skills, he adopted a child. He wanted to pass down all the skills to his foster son, but he found that his foster son was not honest, while his live-in son-in-law was honest and diligent, and was very creative, so the blacksmith made an exception and wanted to pass on his skills to the son-in-law. As a result, his foster son became jealous and killed him. After the blacksmith died, his foster son killed his son-in-law, seized his property, and even didn’t let his daughter go. Unfortunately, the blacksmith’s daughter was pregnant with her husband’s child at that time. In order to protect the child, she had to endure the humiliation and give herself to the murderer of her father. Several months later, the blacksmith’s daughter gave birth to a daughter. After her daughter grew up and mastered her skills, the blacksmith’s daughter died depressed. On her deathbed, she told her daughter all about the past and urged her to stay away from that cruel and evil man…” The story came to an abrupt end, and Master Lennox didn’t continue. “What happened next, Master Lennox?” Cecelia turned her face and looked at Master Lennox, only to find him still sitting cross-legged, with his eyes closed and his head slightly lowered, as if he were asleep. “Master Lennox!” Cecelia got up and came over to check carefully, only to find that Master Lennox was already dead. Cecelia was shocked and shouted out of the door, “Help! Help!” The young monk, who brought her here just now, rushed into the meditation room. “Lady, what happened?” “Master Lennox, he… he…” Cecelia let him come and see for himself. The young monk came over to check Master Lennox’s pulse and breathing, and was shocked, “Our abbot has passed away!” “I’m sorry, I didn’t expect Master Lennox to suddenly pass away…” Cecelia looked at the serene old monk with mixed emotions and felt extremely sorry. It seemed that Master Lennox had waited for her for a long time, but after telling her this story, he passed away. Why was it so sudden? “Don’t blame yourself, lady. Our abbot is old and it’s normal for him to pass away.”
The young monk comforted her and ran out of the door to call the others in the temple. The news of their abbot’s passing soon spread throughout the temple, and all the monks rushed to the meditation room. Most of them sat outside the meditation room chanting sutras, while some began to organize the funeral arrangements for their abbot in an orderly manner. According to the temple rules, they held a jar-sealing ceremony for Master Lennox, which meant sealing his body in a jar. After three years, they would hold a jar-opening ceremony. If Master Lennox’s body did not decompose, it would become a Buddhist relic, commonly known as a “flesh-body bodhisattva”. And the temple would build him a sculpture with gold plated on his body. Cecelia, Remington, and Adam stayed at Longevity Temple to participate in the sealing ceremony and witness the process of Master Lennox’s passing and being sealed in the vat. When they arrived at the foot of the mountain, it was already late in the afternoon. In the dusk, the sunset glow was magnificent, but it revealed a bit of desolation. Cecelia was somewhat depressed because of the passing of Master Lennox, and she remained silent. “Let it go. Master Lennox died peacefully because of his old age. It has nothing to do with you,” Remington comforted her. “I always feel that if I didn’t come to find him, he might not have passed away.” Thinking of Master Lennox saying that he had waited for her for a long time, she was really upset. Remington hugged her in his arms and patted her back to comfort her. “Let it go, Cece. Master Lennox is a highly cultivated monk, and his passing is also a kind of inheritance. Although he is dead, his spirit will live forever.” Cecelia nodded. Remington asked, “He said he waited for you for a long time. Did he say anything to you?” “Yes, he told me a story, but I feel like he’s not finished yet.” Cecelia told Remington and Adam the story she had heard about the blacksmith. After hearing this, Remington pondered for a moment and speculated, “Is Master Lennox trying to use this story to metaphorize the past of the Songo family?”
Adam, who was driving the car, suddenly interjected, “Is he using the smithy as a metaphor for the Songo Dyehouse?” “Who is that blacksmith? Is he an ancestor of the Songo family…” Before Remington finished speaking, Cecelia exclaimed, “I figured it out! Master Lennox was indeed using the story of the blacksmith to tell me what happened to the Songo family in the past. The blacksmith may be my grandmother’s grandfather. We are separated by several generations. If he told me directly, it would definitely sound a little confusing, so he used the blacksmith’s story to tell the Songo family’s past, and I could understand it.” Cecelia pulled up the genealogy of the Songo family from her phone. “Look! Here is the current genealogy of the Songo family. Going back one generation, Edmond has a son and a daughter. His son is Jackson, and his daughter is Jessie. Jessie’s husband is Vernon, and they have a daughter, Cassie. Jackson’s son is Alfred. Alfred and my grandmother, Cassie, are cousins. “If our guess is right, then we have to think about the first question! Edmond has a son. So why did he pass on the Songo Dyehouse to his daughter Jessie?” Remington answered, “Because the rule of the Songo Dyehouse is to pass on the skills to the daughter, not the son. Only when there is no daughter will the skills be passed on to the son.” Cecelia shook her head. “I think this is just a rumor from the outside world, and it doesn’t conform to the normal inheritance system. The second question is why does Jessie and Vernon’s daughter Cassie not have the surname Dawn, but the surname Songo?” “Is it because the Songo family’s special inheritance method is to only pass on the skills to the daughter, so the daughter has to keep the surname Songo?” Remington speculated. “But Master Lennox said that the skills of a blacksmith should have been passed down from man to man and from family members to family members. The Songo Dyehouse should also follow this inheritance method. Only when there is no son to inherit, can it be passed down to a daughter! Cassie took her mother’s surname, which also shows that Vernon, my grandmother’s father, was a son-in-law of the Songo family! From this, it can be inferred that Edmond is very likely to have no son!”
Cecelia’s thoughts became clearer. “The third question is, if Edmond is the blacksmith, Jessie is the daughter of the blacksmith, and Vernon is the live-in son-in-law of the blacksmith, who is the foster son of the blacksmith?”