Chapter 53: Chopped Chili Fish Head (Part 4)
After Jing Yi was once again meticulously and thoroughly shaved bald, the Old Abbot stroked his new disciple’s smooth head and revealed a smile of fulfilled merit on his face.
“Shenjing.”
“Shenjing?”
“Shenjing, ah…”
The abbot called out several times before Jing Yi suddenly snapped back to reality. He lowered his head, placed his palms together, and resignedly called out, “Master.”
“Shenjing,” the abbot repeated this Dharma name, which sounded as if it had been acquired through alms-seeking, with clear and precise pronunciation before leisurely continuing, “Although your arrival was sudden, it is still a matter of fate… Now that you have entered the Buddhist order, you must abide by its precepts.” As he spoke, the abbot gave Jing Yi a deep look. “Do you know what the Buddhist precepts are?”
Jing Yi nodded without hesitation.
Other monks might not know, but the abbot should be aware—he had come to carry out a task for Prince An, not to sincerely cultivate. As long as he avoided meat, stayed away from women, and refrained from making noise or causing disturbances, he figured the abbot wouldn’t bother with him.
“Rest assured, Master.” Jing Yi blinked his eyelashes, spreading an exceedingly obedient smile. “I’ve heard the temple is currently handling a certain matter. Is there anything I can do to help?”
What Jing Yi meant by “matter” referred to tasks that would allow him to get close to Wang Tuo but didn’t require much knowledge of Buddhist teachings—things like serving tea, pouring water, or delivering meals would suffice.
The abbot furrowed his gentle brows and glanced toward Shenxiu, who had been standing beside him all along. “You will follow Shenxiu’s arrangements.”
Standing next to the abbot, Shenxiu smiled with an even more compassionate expression.
“Yes, Master.”
Shenxiu led Jing Yi to a monastic room. It wasn’t the kind of dormitory ordinary novice monks lived in, with only one endless communal bed stretching as far as the eye could see. This one had a living area and a bedroom—clean, simple, and elegant—more like accommodations for special devotees or the temple’s managing monks.
Jing Yi felt somewhat overwhelmed by the favor. “Is it really appropriate for me to stay here…?”
Shenxiu gently scanned the room and nodded. “I think so too.”
“…”
“However,” Shenxiu added with a smile, “this is Master’s intention. Since you’re new here, you might face some adjustments. Staying with me for a while will make it easier to look after each other.”
Jing Yi was taken aback. “With you?”
“This is my room. The bedroom is inside.” As he spoke, the corners of Shenxiu’s lips lifted further, his smile growing even more amiable. “Neither of us is overweight, so that bed is more than enough for both of us.”
For both of them…
Both?!
Jing Yi’s jaw nearly hit the floor, his fox-like eyes widening into perfect circles.
Shenxiu kindly and politely added, “I prefer sleeping on the outer side. How about you?”
Jing Yi’s expression was as complicated as his mood.
He really wanted to tell Shenxiu that he was a married man and that his wife didn’t like any living creature getting too close to him. But a sidelong glance at the gray monastic robes he had just changed into made him swallow those words. He let out a resigned sigh. “I prefer sleeping on the floor.”
Shenxiu raised an eyebrow slightly. “My bed isn’t uncomfortable to sleep on.”
Jing Yi struggled to produce the obedient smile befitting a junior disciple. “Then your floor probably isn’t too bad either, hehe…”Shenxiu's handsome brows furrowed slightly as he let out a soft sigh with an indescribable faint smile, murmuring to himself, "Could it be that all members of the Jing family grew up sleeping on the ground..."
All members...
Of the Jing family?
Jing Yi was momentarily stunned. Before he could fully process this, he saw Shenxiu smooth his brow and give him a deep look, his voice lowering slightly, "You're here on business, aren't you?"
Jing Yi was somewhat taken aback.
Given Prince An's cautious nature and the abbot's reaction by the well earlier, likely only the abbot knew he hadn't genuinely become a monk. As for his true purpose, even the abbot probably didn't know.
To be honest, the abbot's reason for accepting him as a disciple was rather... blunt and simplistic.
And Shenxiu didn't seem like a crude person at all.
After a moment of surprise, Jing Yi nodded lightly, "Yes."
"What business?"
"A Buddhist ritual." Watching Shenxiu's slightly dazed expression, Jing Yi sighed deeply with a bitter smile, though his tone remained casual. "An old acquaintance passed away—somewhat unjustly. My abilities aren't enough to seek justice for her personally, so I thought I'd perform the rites myself."
Shenxiu studied Jing Yi for a moment without comment, merely chanting "Amitabha" before saying, "Tomorrow's ritual requires forty-nine monks to each copy the 'Earth Store Sutra' forty-nine times. Since you have the intention to help the deceased, you might try participating."
Copying sutras essentially meant writing—that wasn't difficult. But Jing Yi detected something more complicated in Shenxiu's words. "Try?"
"This ritual is being held by the Goryeo prince for an elderly benefactor who recently died by striking a coffin in the temple. The prince will personally select the scribes, and the criteria are quite strict..." Shenxiu paused, giving Jing Yi an indescribably complex look. "You might qualify."
Seeing Shenxiu's confident expression, Jing Yi suspected that his incident of copying "Biographies of Exemplary Women" in Sanskrit might have spread throughout the capital.
Jing Yi felt this matter required careful consideration.
"Um... I woke up late this morning and missed both breakfast and lunch. Could I eat first before going?"
"No." Shenxiu answered without hesitation, smiling kindly. "Monastic rules forbid eating after noon. Didn't you know?"
This was one rule Jing Yi genuinely didn't know.
"No eating after noon?" Jing Yi widened his eyes, staring at Shenxiu as if he'd seen a ghost. "No food after noon?"
"Amitabha, indeed you have spiritual roots, junior brother."
"..."
With a bitter expression and an empty stomach, Jing Yi went to meet Wang Tuo, only to discover the real challenge was yet to come.
Before even seeing Wang Tuo, Jing Yi was scrubbed and fumigated like some ritual instrument for what felt like ages. By the time he finally met Wang Tuo, the sun was nearly setting.
Jing Yi had seen many Goryeo envoys at the palace before—regardless of age, they were all thin and small, wrapped in loose robes that didn't fit properly. At first glance, one always felt like finding something to feed them.
He once heard Jing Qian gritting his teeth at home, saying that Goryeo did have more robust-looking officials, but sending such frail-looking ones always precisely tugged at the Emperor's soft heartstrings. Without even asking, rewards would naturally follow.
Looking at Wang Tuo's appearance, Jing Yi silently chanted "Amitabha" for the people of Goryeo.Just how great a calamity has befallen Goryeo this year, that they would send a prince who looks like this...
While Jing Yi was still feeling charitable, he saw this young man—a full head shorter than him and withered thin—frowning as he carefully examined Jing Yi from head to toe, then asked in stiff, unclear Chinese, "Are you a cowardly person?"
The corner of Jing Yi's mouth twitched, wiping away all his charitable thoughts. "Cowardly person?"
He admitted he was somewhat cowardly, but no matter how cowardly he was, he had never shown it to this person. For Wang Tuo to suddenly ask such a question...
Could it be that "cowardice" was one of the necessary qualities for a scripture copier?
Seeing Jing Yi momentarily speechless, Wang Tuo extended his thin finger and pointed at Jing Yi's bald head. "I mean monk."
"...Does the benefactor mean, monastic person?"
"That's what I said."
Jing Yi originally intended to confidently deny it, but facing Wang Tuo's gaunt, sunken face, he ultimately only managed to utter, "Amitabha."
The King of Goryeo has truly spared no expense in educating his son...
Wang Tuo pursed his lips, somewhat displeased. "Are you the disciple of the Divine Beast?"
Jing Yi choked, his forehead darkening.
"...Divine Beast?"
"That one, tall, fair-skinned, the most..." Wang Tuo paused, stared at Jing Yi's face for a moment, pressed his pale lips together, and amended, "Aside from you, the most beautiful cowardly person."
Jing Yi gritted his teeth, his forehead dark, before suddenly realizing. "Does the benefactor mean... Shenxiu?"
"Is there a difference?"
Jing Yi shook his head sincerely. "No."
Wang Tuo looked somewhat suspiciously at the inexplicable joy that had appeared on Jing Yi's face and asked again, "Are you his disciple?"
Jing Yi shook his head, smiling as he raised his palm in greeting. "I am his junior fellow disciple, my religious name is Shen Jing."
Wang Tuo immediately clasped his hands together and said respectfully, "Master Snake Spirit."
"..."
Jing Yi suddenly missed Leng Yue very much.
If his wife were here, she'd probably have a way to stretch out this person's tongue and straighten it.
After Wang Tuo finished his greeting, he brought Jing Yi to a desk by the window, had Jing Yi sit in the chair behind the desk, and sat cross-legged on the floor cushion beside the desk himself. "I have a few questions to test you. I'll ask, you write."
Jing Yi mustered his courage to pick up the brush and nodded weakly.
"Your religious name, birth date, height, weight, chest size, waist size, hip size, and child's size."
"..."
Jing Yi's hand trembled, a bean-sized ink drop falling onto the paper with a "plop," the page darkening along with his complexion.
Jing Yi turned to look at Wang Tuo, who remained sitting straight-backed after saying this, and forced a regretful expression onto his face, enunciating each word clearly, "This humble monk has no children."
Wang Tuo frowned, raised his hand, and pointed under the desk. "You're lying, I saw it."
"...!"
Jing Yi hurriedly looked down, so flustered he nearly lost his balance and rolled under the desk. When his gaze fell on his own feet in monastic shoes, he froze, his whole body stiffening.
"This humble monk presumes to ask... is the benefactor's Chinese teacher from Shu Province?"
Wang Tuo was stunned, his originally narrow eyes widening to the size of lychee pits as if he had suffered some inhuman fright, his voice even sounding somewhat faint. "How did you know?"Could Jing Yi say his wet nurse was from Shu Zhou?
Of course not.
Jing Yi humbly bowed his head and pressed his palms together, solemnly chanting a Buddhist invocation before lightly stating, "This humble monk attained enlightenment through contemplation."
Wang Tuo's gaze toward Jing Yi instantly transformed as if he were witnessing a Bodhisattva descending to earth.
Under Wang Tuo's rapt attention, Jing Yi calmly replaced the paper and meticulously transcribed everything Wang Tuo had just asked. After finishing, he turned to the still wide-eyed Wang Tuo and inquired, "Benefactor, what else would you like written?"
Wang Tuo stared blankly at Jing Yi for a long moment before rattling off a series of questions completely unrelated to scripture copying. He even requested Jing Yi to compose an essay on porcelain appreciation and another on the understanding and evaluation of the late Porcelain King Zhang Laowu of the capital.
By the time Jing Yi finished these two essays, night had fully fallen. The room was illuminated only by a single dim oil lamp on his desk. The nearby window was half-open, allowing cool night breezes to gently drift in, making the lamplight flicker and dance.
Jing Yi breathed a sigh of relief as if completing a meritorious deed. Just as he set down his brush, the window suddenly swung wide open. A gust of wind carried the rich aroma of food, and in an instant, a food container appeared on the table while a person materialized beside him.
Before Jing Yi could gather his wits, the newcomer cupped his face and kissed him into speechlessness.
After a stormy kiss lasting nearly half an incense stick's time, Leng Yue finally noticed—through Jing Yi's nearly frantic gesturing—that there was someone sitting cross-legged on the floor by the table.
Startled, Leng Yue hastily broke the kiss and released her hold.
The person was too short, seated too low, and barely any light fell upon him. He remained silently seated there, which was why Leng Yue—who had been secretly watching Jing Yi write from outside the window for almost half an hour—had failed to notice his presence.
The boy hadn't shaved his head, appearing just over ten years old. He was emaciated to the bone, draped in a loose, plain robe, sitting dazedly in the shadows with a thoroughly frightened expression. He looked utterly pitiful, softening Leng Yue's heart, which had been pounding from the shock.
Leng Yue opened the food container, took out a steaming bun, and walked over to Wang Tuo. She crouched down, pressed the bun into Wang Tuo's sweaty palm, and gave him an exceptionally warm smile before turning to ask Jing Yi, "Whose child is this?"
Jing Yi and Wang Tuo locked eyes for a long moment. Finally, Jing Yi silently recited "May Buddha have mercy" in his heart and sighed in resignation.
"The Goryeo royal family's..."
OpenNovel