I haven't had a good sleep for several days, and I wish I could install a gear shifter in my world, especially to slow down the five minutes of getting up by 50 times. Yesterday morning, I went to climb the mountain and burn incense with Brother Long, Su Miebao, Yu Baoyu, and Sebas sauce. Climbing mountains is tiring work, but fortunately, with many people talking, time passed relatively quickly, and before we knew it, we reached the summit.
Upon entering the Zanghai Temple, each person was given six sticks of incense, which was quite convenient as there was no need to buy them separately from outside stalls. Usually, one would be persuaded to buy expensive candles or various types of incense, such as wisdom incense, wish-fulfilling incense, academic success incense, wealth-attracting incense, etc., leading to an empty wallet.
There were some fun moments on the way up the mountain too. Brother Long's shoelaces fell off N times because of his cute shoes. I used to suffer from this issue, but now I've learned my lesson. Yesterday, I wore shoes with zippers. When we were looking for the Jian Gate, we discovered something I had never known before—there were several caves near the Jian Gate where people burned incense. These caves even had names! The ones we found were named after Tieguai Li, He Xiangu, and Lü Dongbin... On the Ancestor Mountain, we ate a bowl of Xun oil noodles. It was the first time I spent my own money to buy it. My father once bought a bit of Xun oil, which was quite expensive. At first, I was reluctant to use it, so I only put a little in every meal. Later, I found that the taste was just so-so, so I poured the whole thing into the bowl at once.
In the afternoon, I played mahjong with Xiaowei, BeiBei, MinMing. Maybe I was too focused on blessing my friends and family while burning incense and forgot to pray for my own luck in mahjong. I lost like a pile of crap, unlike my former glory days when I was the top player in Changshu. Today, during the YOUNG reunion, after dinner, I played mahjong again with BOSS, MM, and E. Initially, I regained some of my former glory and won so much that I couldn't close my mouth. But after going to the bathroom and "losing" the divine water, my luck vanished instantly, and I lost like a dog. In the end, I managed to turn things around with a desperate self-drawn hand, otherwise, my reputation as the top player in Changshu would have been ruined.
Speaking of which, I realized how superstitious I am. Regarding burning incense, although I don't know how to choose a good day, I haven't missed doing it annually since my college entrance exam success. I go at least once or twice a year to feel satisfied. As for mahjong, if you treat it purely with mathematical probability and statistics, maybe the chances of winning would be slightly higher, but the fun would be less. In my eyes, luck still plays a significant role in this game. That's why people often talk about hand luck and tile luck. I also believe in certain curses. Whenever I drew a good tile and blurted out the word "good," someone else (not me) would definitely win. It was almost infallible. Unfortunately, I couldn't help myself from saying it unconsciously, leading to predictable results. The most frustrating thing was not being able to find a spell that would make me win whenever I said it. How nice it would be if such a spell existed!
Let me post a few photos taken during the mountain climbing trip.
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