Copying Scriptures
"I didn't want to tell anyone."
"And there wasn't anyone else I could tell."
The Young Scholar felt a little aggrieved on his own behalf.
"You were the ones who kept asking me to tell you..."
That was all he had said.
Woodcutter:...
"All right."
"This matter ends here."
"Little brother."
The woodcutter looked at the Young Scholar with a serious expression. "There's a limit to everything."
"Don't cross it."
The Young Scholar was slightly taken aback.
Then he nodded.
"...I understand."
He suddenly realized...
The person he used to be would never have been able to say such things.
No.
He would never have made such associations in the first place.
He...
Just how much had the Black Monster influenced him?
The Young Scholar lowered his eyes.
Inside his wide sleeve, his five fingers clenched tightly.
"All right."
The woman forced a smile. "Let's not stand around here anymore."
"Let's go home."
That night, the Young Scholar sat by the window all night.
He deeply understood what the Master had meant by holding fast to one's true nature...
It was terrifying...
He was gradually becoming unlike himself...
Yet he had been completely unaware of it.
In the days that followed, the woodcutter strictly kept his promise.
He did not ask the Young Scholar any more questions.
Nor did he take the Young Scholar anywhere else or let him meet anyone.
He did have one suggestion.
He hoped his little brother could copy one Buddhist scripture every day.
It was a matter for discussion.
If his little brother was unwilling...
Well.
During the agreed-upon period, he would accept his little brother's refusal.
But after that period...
He felt that, as the elder brother, he would still force his little brother