Chapter 48 - 47: Rest assured, they don’t know you
Wei Xueqing walked inside with familiarity, reaching out in front of four clay statues on the left side of the second row, picking up the incense from the incense burner and lighting it on the eternal lamp on the left.
She knelt down, placed the incense at her brow, and closed her eyes, praying devoutly.
Yang Chen watched from the side, deep in thought.
After finishing her prayer, Wei Xueqing inserted the incense into the burner, knelt down, and looked up at the statue, calling out emotionally, "Mom, I..."
Halfway through her words, Wei Xueqing turned to look at Yang Chen, her expression turning cold, and said icily, "Please leave!"
Yang Chen nodded and retreated without saying much.
As he suspected, the clay statue was of Wei Xueqing’s mother.
Ningjing Daoist Temple had a peculiar tradition where after pious men and women passed away, they could accumulate merits by having clay statues made in their image and placed in the temple for worshippers to pay respect.
After twenty years, when enough merit was accumulated, the family could fund a gold body statue.
After the gold statue was created, the clay statue could be moved out from the clay statue shop to the gold body shop.
It was said that the incense offerings there were more fervent and effective, and many would come to worship there, some even having a gold statue created to take home for worship.