Chapter 17: It’s Well Cooked, But Let’s Not Cook It Again

“Amitabha!”

In the monastic cells of the Precious Flower Temple, Master Yuanhui withdrew his hand after feeling her pulse and pressed his palms together. His usually compassionate face showed a trace of pain and helplessness.

On the bed, Liu Yun lay pale against the headboard.

It was already the season for light clothing, yet she was covered with two thick winter quilts. Despite this, her body beneath the quilts was as cold as ice.

She was trying hard to control herself, but fine tremors could still be seen. The atmosphere in the room was oppressively heavy. Ruixue, holding her breath and bowing her head, unconsciously clenched her hands.

“Master, please speak frankly.”

Liu Yun looked at the abbot before her with half-closed eyes, as if all the light in the room was concentrated in that small space of her pupils.

Perhaps she had long prepared for the worst regarding her own body. Her tone carried a worn-out air beyond her years. But it was a heavy, age-worn acceptance beyond the fear of death. It was not sorrowful. In fact, compared to the others, she seemed the least affected by her own melancholy.

Master Yuanhui sighed again. “The poison has penetrated deep into the bone marrow. My medical skills are shallow. I fear I can do nothing.”

Upon hearing this, Ruixue looked up in shock, her eyes wide with disbelief fixed on Yuanhui, then helplessly toward Liu Yun. Within a few seconds, her eyes were rimmed with red.

But Liu Yun’s expression did not waver at all. She nodded calmly to show she understood. Then she asked, “But can you tell me why I fainted so suddenly just now?”

“Amitabha. I have examined Your Grace’s pulse. Your qi and blood are severely depleted, yin and yang are imbalanced, and the five viscera are weakened. This is the result of many years of mental strain and, recently, excessive exertion. The reason Your Grace’s senses suddenly failed and your limbs grew weak was a temporary disturbance of your heart-mind, causing a counterflow of qi and blood.”

“When qi and blood flow backward, the righteous qi has no path to follow, which also allows the evil qi to run rampant in your body. This caused the Ice Poison, which should have flared on the fifteenth, to show its symptoms early.”

“Master!” Ruixue asked urgently, “Will this poison henceforth flare on the ninth of every month? Or will it become irregular? Or…”

Dong, dong, dong.

A knock at the door interrupted Ruixue’s question. A palace maid’s respectful voice came from outside. “Your Grace, the medicine has been decocted.”

Ruixue took a deep breath. After adjusting her voice, she replied, “Coming.”

The palace maid outside held a tray with a bowl of black, bitter medicinal broth. Beside the bowl was a covered soup pot.

“What is this?”

The maid replied, “Miss Shen asked this servant to bring it. She said it was a specially cooked dumpling soup with noodles, to apologize to Your Grace.”

A flash of disgust and resistance appeared in Ruixue’s eyes. But the maid didn’t see it. Seeing Ruixue take the entire tray, she added, “Miss Shen is waiting outside the courtyard right now. May I ask if Your Grace will receive her?”

Ruixue suppressed a breath of impatience. “Wait while I report to Her Grace.”

~~~

Shen Yuezhuang and A Sang were standing guard at the entrance to the courtyard. When they saw the maid who had delivered the message come out, the tension between Shen Yuezhuang’s brows eased.

“How is the Empress Dowager?”

The young maid cast a timid glance at A Sang, then lowered her head to reply. “Miss Shen, Her Grace caught a chill a few days ago. She fainted just now from standing too long in the sun. She is much better now. Please do not worry.”

“A chill?”

Fainting just from a chill?

Half believing, half doubting, Shen Yuezhuang started to walk inside.

“I’ll go see her.”

But the maid raised her hand to block her. “Her Grace also said that Miss Shen’s behavior is improper and your mind is restless. A temple is a place of purity and tranquility.”

After emphasizing the phrase “purity and tranquility,” the maid continued, “Although it’s not as convenient as the Thunder Peak Pagoda for imprisoning people, it can still teach Miss Shen to cultivate your character. So Miss Shen is asked to copy the Lotus Sutra once, to calm your heart.”

Shen Yuezhuang: “……”

“Copying scriptures again?”

“Yes.” The maid nodded. “You cannot leave the temple gates until you have finished.”

This was unmistakably “Liu Yun’s tone”!

Shen Yuezhuang clenched her fists. There was still a slight graze on her palm from hitting the wall.

She persisted stubbornly. “What about the soup I sent? She drinks my soup and still punishes me?”

It had been an accident just now. If Liu Yun hadn’t been pulling on her shoulder, she might not have fallen at all. Now, she was magnanimously putting aside the past, cooking with her own hands to apologize. Why was this woman so relentless?!

This time, the young maid seemed a bit hesitant. “Well… Her Grace said, ‘This worn-out wonton soup is well cooked, but she’d better not make it again. I don’t want to eat wontons with broken skins.’”

Shen Yuezhuang: “……”

She hated people with no sense of boundaries. They didn’t even leave her any dignity.

Shen Yuezhuang was punished by the person with no sense of boundaries to copy scriptures. And, as if afraid she would run away, that person had deliberately assigned two maids to stand guard outside her room.

It lasted a full day and night.

The following morning, the sky outside the window was a hazy blue-green.

The maids at Shen Yuezhuang’s door had disappeared at some point. A Sang, returning from martial arts practice, saw the empty doorway, stepped forward, and knocked.

The knock woke Shen Yuezhuang. Blinking sleepily, she thought it was the maids urging her to copy scriptures. She muttered a few words and turned over to go back to sleep.

Hearing the movement inside, A Sang pushed the door open directly and stuck her head in.

“Miss Shen?”

The cell wasn’t large, but it held a huge desk and chair. Shen Yuezhuang wasn’t sleeping on the bed. She had folded herself up in the chair and was sleeping soundly.

The pale blue light outside, like mist or smoke, fell upon the face of the sleeping girl. A Sang stepped around the desk and poked Shen Yuezhuang’s head.

“Miss Shen?”

No matter how sleepy she was, the poking woke her. She opened her eyes to see A Sang’s enlarged face right in front of her.

Shen Yuezhuang let out a ya and flipped over in surprise, smashing her forehead into the leg of the desk with a thump. That woke her up for good.

“What are you doing?!”

Shen Yuezhuang was angry. “You don’t even let people sleep in the early morning!”

A Sang crouched down to her eye level. Her eyes were bright. “The maids guarding the door are gone.”

“So what if they’re gone?” Shen Yuezhuang held her forehead and lay back on the armrest of the chair. “If she won’t let me out, there’ll be another wave after this wave.”

“This is the time to sneak away!” There was excitement in A Sang’s voice. “I found a fun place in the temple this morning. I came specially to get you. Let’s go together!”

Shen Yuezhuang’s ears perked up. She opened her eyes and looked at A Sang, thinking for a moment.

“…Alright.”

Shen Yuezhuang sat up. The legs that had been hanging over the other armrest were a bit numb. She wiggled her toes and revealed a pair of pink, bare feet beneath the hem of her skirt.

Tiptoeing, she padded barefoot around the desk and stepped into a pair of embroidered shoes that had been placed directly facing it.

A Sang was confused. “Why are your shoes off here?”

Shen Yuezhuang replied matter-of-factly, “At night, ghosts follow the direction of the shoe tips to find their way.”

A Sang’s face showed even more astonishment. “Why would you want to show ghosts the way?”

Shen Yuezhuang patted the thick stack of sutras on the desk. “Obviously, I want him to copy the sutras for me!”

“Summoning ghosts in a temple…” A Sang’s expression was complicated. “And making the ghosts copy the sutras themselves? Is that them achieving their own salvation?”

Shen Yuezhuang had already put on her shoes. Her morning grumpiness had dissipated because of the “fun place” A Sang had mentioned.

She smiled, her tone positive and uplifting.

“Even as a ghost, you have to earn your own keep!”

~~~

Half an hour later, Shen Yuezhuang and A Sang were standing in a quiet, secluded courtyard. In front of them was a lush, leafy Bodhi tree.

The tree was hung with prayer ribbons and wooden plaques. When the wind blew, the red ribbons fluttered, and the wooden plaques swayed gently. It was a beautiful sight.

This time, it was Shen Yuezhuang who looked at the expectant A Sang with a complicated expression.

“Are you a monkey?”

“Huh?” A Sang turned around. “No.”

“Then why do you think a tree is fun?”

A Sang stepped forward half a pace and pointed at the wooden plaques at the base of the tree, and the box full of red ribbons and wooden plaques beside it.

“Prayer plaques. Fifteen for one act of merit.”

She bowed her head, looking embarrassed. “I have no money.”

Shen Yuezhuang: “……”

Well, this is fun.

“What a coincidence. I don’t have any money either.”

A Sang, who had seen Shen Yuezhuang throw around a fortune, didn’t believe her for a second. She just stared at Shen Yuezhuang with pitiful eyes. Shen Yuezhuang, feeling her skin crawl, could only sigh and pull up her sleeves. “Fine, get two.”

“Miss Shen, I only need one.”

Shen Yuezhuang nodded. “Since I’m here, I might as well write one too.”

A Sang quickly fetched two plaques. Shen Yuezhuang walked to the stone table, ground the ink, picked up the brush, looked around, and found a piece of bluestone.

[Two prayer plaques self-taken. Bill to the Second Young Master of Yongding Marquis Manor.]

After writing this, she returned. A Sang handed the two plaques to her. “Miss Shen, I don’t know how to write. Could you write one for me?”

“Just write: Pei Shangyu, peace and blessings.”

Shen Yuezhuang glanced at A Sang, wrote it down, and handed it back.

“Here. Throw this up into the tree. As long as it doesn’t fall, your wish will come true.”

Shen Yuezhuang gave it to A Sang and picked up her own.

She didn’t have anything to wish for herself. But she suddenly remembered Liu Yun’s unconscious state yesterday.

It had been quite frightening.

Shen Yuezhuang wrote Liu Yun on the plaque. While waiting for the ink to dry, she looked up casually and saw A Sang easily hopping onto a branch.

She went over to look. A Sang had found the thickest branch and was hanging her plaque on it, quickly tying a string of knots with the red ribbon.

Shen Yuezhuang sucked in a cold breath. “A Sang, you’re good at extortion. Are you even trying to swindle the gods?”

A Sang, half-hidden among the red ribbons and green leaves, replied, “My mistress says that man’s determination will overcome heaven’s decree.”

Shen Yuezhuang paused, then gave a thumbs up. “What a great case of ‘I alone am the master of my fate’!”

She walked back to the stone table, turned over the dried plaque, and called out to A Sang, “Don’t come down yet! I’ll hang this one up after I finish writing it!”

A Sang answered with a full-throated “Yes!” But a still somewhat weak voice from outside the courtyard reached Shen Yuezhuang’s ears first.

“With that chicken scratch writing of yours, I’m afraid even the gods wouldn’t recognize it!”

Shen Yuezhuang paused. She saw Liu Yun, supported by Ruixue, entering the courtyard from outside.

She was wearing a dark blue cloak. Her face and lips were still pale. She was helped to a stone seat, and she naturally reached out for the brush and plaque in Shen Yuezhuang’s hand.

“Let me do it. Do you want to write ‘Congratulations and Get Rich,’ or ‘Live a Long and Happy Life’?”

Her tone was natural, with a hint of teasing, as if the previous argument and confinement had never happened.

Shen Yuezhuang had long been used to her fickleness, now hot, now cold. She didn’t find it strange. But she sidestepped to avoid Liu Yun’s reaching hand.

“No need. I can write it myself!”

Liu Yun’s faint, almost imperceptible smile froze immediately. Ruixue’s tone immediately turned hostile. “Miss Shen, Master Yuanhui said Her Grace needs to keep her heart calm. Yesterday, it was a flare of fire in her heart that caused…”

“Ruixue!”

Liu Yun snapped at her. Shen Yuezhuang was still unhappy.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t see Ruixue’s repeated hostility toward her. It was just that she had been in a good mood before and hadn’t wanted to bother. Today, these few words had made her unhappy. She immediately sneered, “If she needs to keep her heart calm, tell that to your mistress. Her heart isn’t growing in my chest. Why are you yelling at me? Or are you people in the palace simply a higher class of person, allowed to boss around anyone you want?”

This was indeed rude. Ruixue immediately bowed her head. “I wouldn’t dare.”

“Don’t. I’m the one who doesn’t dare. Your palace folk have such airs, who am I to criticize you?”

Having said that, Shen Yuezhuang’s irritation only increased. She just wanted to finish writing quickly and get it over with. So she dipped her brush and made a long horizontal stroke on the plaque.

Liu Yun could immediately tell that this was not the first stroke of the character Shen. She lightly held her fingertips. “The front of the prayer plaque is for the name. The back is for the wish. You’re writing on the front. First write your name.”

Shen Yuezhuang hadn’t known that the plaque had a front and back. Hearing this, she had no choice but to change what she was about to write—which was [Peace]—into [Shen Yuezhuang].

But now both sides had names. What was this supposed to be?

She could only hope that before the ink dried, Liu Yun would take her annoying maid and leave. Then she could write [Three prayer plaques self-taken].

But Liu Yun seemed to have taken root. She stared unblinkingly at Shen Yuezhuang’s plaque.

Shen Yuezhuang’s tone was stiff. “Is Her Grace very free?”

Liu Yun’s expression remained unchanged. “I was just discussing sutras with the abbot in the Buddhist hall. On my way back, I thought of calling you over to discuss some serious matters. It seems I’ve run into you by chance here.”

She finally looked up and met Shen Yuezhuang’s eyes. “How about you finish writing, and we can go back together?”

Then she tapped the stone table with her folded fingers. “The ink is dry. You can turn it over now.”